U.S. energy policy is in dire need of a course correction. Our nation grapples with growing energy demands and challenges, and a second Trump administration faces the daunting task of undoing an array of harmful regulations and ill-conceived decisions enacted by its predecessor. Since some of these policies won’t be quickly unraveled, the work to undo them must begin without delay.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration finalized a power plant rule requiring current coal-fired plants and new gas-fired plants to control 90% of their carbon emissions through a process called carbon capture sequestration (CCS). This technology has not been “adequately demonstrated,” a potential violation of section 111 of the Clean Air Act. In fact, CCS has failed to sufficiently perform.

These impossible standards will force numerous plants to close and make it difficult for new ones to open, leaving millions in the dark, literally. A so-called transition to intermittent wind and solar (the ultimate objective) has led to shortages and skyrocketing electricity rates for areas with ambitious renewable energy goals. This rule needs to go.

Additionally, the electric vehicle (EV) mandate—EPA and NHTSA edicts—will result in EVs comprising roughly two-thirds of all new car sales by 2032. Sales have yet to hit 10%. Only popular among certain demographics, the EV is failing to garner excitement from most motorists due to high price tags, limited range, lack of charging infrastructure, and reliability issues. Consumer surveys report that only 18% of U.S. adults are “likely” to purchase one as their next car; 63% are “unlikely or very unlikely.” Nearly half of EV owners will probably switch back to internal combustion.

EVs are piling up on car lots and manufacturers are sustaining substantial losses; Ford reported losing $132,000 per vehicle during this year’s first quarter. Over 4,000 dealers signed letters begging the administration to tap the brakes.

Consumer choice is paramount and should not be denied or influenced by government officials. The EV rule needs to be eliminated.

Another destructive EPA rule involves the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Traditionally reviewed every five years, the newly ushered in EPA unprecedently initiated an additional NAAQS review merely 33 days after the December 2020 one was completed and the numbers deemed perfectly adequate. The new PM2.5 standard was lowered by more than 25%.

The estimated potential loss of $270 billion in GDP and roughly 2.9 million jobs or job equivalents per year poses a serious threat to the manufacturing industry and U.S. economy. With the strictest standards in the world, companies may move overseas to less stringent environments; new investments will be deterred. This EPA action should never have taken place and must be rescinded.

In January the Biden administration stunned the energy industry by placing a pause on pending and future liquified natural gas (LNG) export projects. The politically motivated decision has only served to hurt our European allies who were forced to turn to adversarial actors like Russia for natural gas. Contrary to claims that LNG harms the environment, studies demonstrate it can reduce emissions by 40-50% by replacing dirtier forms of energy, like coal.

After becoming the No.1 LNG exporter last year, we are positioned to supply cleaner fuel all over the world and weaken Russia’s control. This mandate must be undone.

Biden leased 95% fewer acres for oil and gas in fiscal year 2023 than Trump’s highest figure in 2019, representing the lowest ever in U.S. history. Despite the drop, companies managed to produce more oil and natural gas. Estimates, however, indicate this decision will result in $33.5 billion loss in GDP by the end of Biden’s term; we could have produced so much more.

Fossil fuels have and will continue to serve 82% of our energy needs. That has not changed in the past several decades nor will it change in the coming ones. It is imperative we unleash the possibilities to meet surging demands by recommitting to oil and gas leases on public lands. Becoming a net exporter of oil was a monumental achievement in 2019; we need to keep that standing. Energy security is national security.

The use of wind and solar should be relegated to a minor portion of the overall energy portfolio. Having the lowest capacity factors of all energy forms and causing grid instability where widely adopted as a replacement for fossil fuels or nuclear, they are not meant to be a primary energy source. Nor should they be receiving massive handouts, which will require gutting the subsidy-rich Inflation Reduction Act. Our European friends have learned the hard way the folly of such a strategy. Their prioritization must end.

An unwillingness to mine and process critical minerals, used for countless technologies and energy projects, on our soil needs reexamination. China currently dominates the supply chains, keeping every other nation at their mercy. Tapping into our own vast supplies would not only enhance national security but would benefit the environment due to superior standards here. We should open our lands to more exploration.

Energy is the lifeblood of the economy and consumers deserve to have it be abundant, reliable, and affordable. With energy demand on the rise, this can only be accomplished through pragmatic and sensible solutions that maximize energy output and focus on a true all-of-the-above strategy. The disastrous Biden policies that have shackled our supplies and crippled economic prosperity must be eradicated. A course correction come January will be most welcome.

Kristen Walker is a policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.theamericanconsumer.org or follow us on Twitter @ConsumerPal

Topline: Many Congressmembers opposed the General Services Administration’s renovation of the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, Virginia when it began in 2010. A $51 million price estimate seemed excessive for an office building that cost only $14 million to build in the first place.

When the project was completed in 2014 at a final cost of $80 million, it had run through “a mix of mind-bogglingly bad (and allegedly illegal) bid management, cost overruns and all-around poor planning,” according to The Roanoker magazine.

Federal workers told Congress the construction had not improved their working conditions and had actually made the building less safe, even after spending what’s the equivalent of $106.4 million in 2024 dollars.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Key facts: The 14-story Poff Federal Building, built in 1972, houses office space for the General Services Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, law enforcement space for the U.S. Marshals and courtrooms for a federal district court.

Both Democrats and Republicans criticized the GSA’s plan to renovate the space.

Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb were unhappy that 400 VA employees would need to be temporarily relocated while the department was already backlogged with work.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte claimed the GSA was “whitewashing” the numbers: the project was found to be profitable only after he declared it a “boondoggle.”

“It’s a slap in the face of the taxpayers,” Goodlatte told The Roanoker.

It didn’t take long for fiscal problems to arise, resulting in a Congressional hearing in 2011.

Jennifer Smith, representing the U.S. district court, told Congress the GSA only visited the building once per month for oversight of the hired construction companies. She said that led to unsafe working conditions and employees spying on government staff to steal security codes.

Collapsing bricks and flooding during construction meant another $15 million was needed. Smith said the GSA knew the water infrastructure was faulty but prioritized repainting bathrooms instead.

When construction ended in 2014, Judge Glen Conrad told The Roanoker his courtroom was less safe than it was before.

The bulletproof door to his chamber had been replaced by glass. Security cameras were blocked by new walls. The jury’s chamber was next to a lobby filled with witnesses and others who might wish them harm.

Critical quote: “For me, the most bothersome and disturbing reality is that five years from the announcement of the Poff Stimulus Project, and after expenditure of millions of dollars, the user functionality in the court portion of the building has not been enhanced whatsoever, in any way, shape, or form,” Judge Conrad said.

Summary: With billions of dollars in needed repairs in other buildings, the federal government has no resources to waste on unnecessary construction.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

Trump returns to the White House. The GOP has majorities in the Senate and House. Now what?

It’s time to make America great again. To fix what “they” broke. To flip the narrative, so that government works for us – not the other way around. Yet, where to begin?

Inflation. Cleaning-up the Justice Department – including directives targeting parents attending school board meetings, “pro-lifers,” and Catholics who like Latin Mass. The hostages held by Hamas, and Israel’s fight with Hamas and other terror groups. Men playing women’s sports. The Ukrainian-Russian war. Securing the border and doing something about our many million illegal immigrants. Closing down the failed Department of Education. Unleashing American energy – oil, natural gas, and nuclear. Holding higher education accountable. Protecting American farmland from the Chinese. Dealing with the insanity of the United Nations. Rebuilding our military and refocusing it on national security. Stopping “climate crisis” madness. Making America healthy. Fighting anti-Semitism. Combating violent crime in our cities.

The Biden/Harris administration and its counterparts in many cities and states leave behind a mess. They have misused and abused the powers of government.

For those more focused on governing than campaigning, the bigger thrill is not Election Night celebrations but undoing harmful policies and enacting good ones. Now the heavy lifting starts.

A smart, effective roadmap has to be a marriage of MAGA and conservative political priorities with “kitchen-table” issues. In short, prioritize the legislative agenda around the coalition that helped Republicans win Pennsylvania and other swing states.

With a narrow House majority and the inevitable Chuck Schumer-led filibusters in the Senate, this kind of focus will be critical to pushing issues over the finish line. Plus, these policies – and the legislators supporting them – must withstand the inevitable resistance from special interests and the legacy media, many already beginning their assault against the Trump agenda. All the more reason to maintain the diverse but fragile coalition that prevailed on November 5.

Trying to do everything at once, however, will drain resources and confuse the public, leaving Republicans vulnerable to obstruction from Democrats and their allies. Unifying priorities, effective messages, and well-executed legislative plans are essential to making progress and improving the lives of Americans. Success will offer opportunities to grow public support – and to accomplish even more. And yes, to win future elections, too.

What unites MAGA, conservative Republicans, first-time voters in rural Pennsylvania, and black and Hispanic voters in Philadelphia, Reading, and elsewhere who supported Trump for the first time? The “kitchen-table issues” that the GOP talked about. The practical things that matter to those of us focused on reality, rather than trying to advance an ideology or seek “revenge.”

Priority one must be fighting inflation – making life more affordable. As Ronald Reagan explained: “Inflation is the cruelest tax.” It eats away at every paycheck, every week, every day.

This will take time, but the reversal begins with a few vital steps. Start by clawing back the unspent billions allocated for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (how Orwellian a name!).

Next, the United States must be energy-independent. This lowers the cost of everything. Permits for drilling must be approved so that American oil and natural gas can be unleashed to lower prices, raise our quality of life, and improve national security. Additionally, the holds on oil and gas leases must be lifted. Lastly, we should allow Pennsylvanians – and our friends in Ohio and West Virginia – to sell liquified natural gas to our European allies. We will make money and create jobs, while helping Germany, France, Poland and others get out from under Vladimir Putin’s thumb.

Be prepared to implement as many of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s DOGE recommendations as possible. We must not only stop the growth and reduce the power of the federal government; we must also eliminate wasteful spending, regulations, and even whole agencies that make it harder for businesses to operate.

Next, secure our borders and address the illegal immigration crisis. Most of these people are being entirely subsidized by taxpayers. Start with the known criminals, then move on to those who have no jobs or host family here. We need to restore our borders and respect for the law – and stop encouraging people to sneak in, live for free, and falsely claim “amnesty.”

Next, peace. Work to get our hostages home and to stabilize the firefights around the world that drain our resources, divert our energies, and pull American service members into wars. Support Israel in its effort to rescue the hostages and eliminate terrorists, their masterminds, and their funders. Work to bring the Ukraine-Russia war to an end.

Make life more affordable and strengthen our economy. Secure our border and protect Americans and those respecting the rule of law. Strengthen our resolve with allies, support our military, and build peace through strength.

These are the goals and promises that unified the Trump coalition and won the election. From here, they can move on to other worthy and important goals – everything from school choice to tax reform, from the mess at the UN to protecting American farmland and rooting out the waste and inefficiencies of our bureaucracies and agencies.

But first, focus on kitchen-table issues that unite voters. Show voters that you’ve listened. Prove that you share their priorities. Gain their trust, grow the cause, and go on from there. It’s an approach that makes sense not just politically but more importantly, for the good of the nation.

California has lost over 6,000 fast food restaurant jobs since September 2023 due to the state’s recent law increasing fast food minimum wages, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI).

Since the law’s passage in September 2023, the state’s privately-owned fast food restaurants have lost 6,166 jobs through June, according to the report. Prior research shows some California restaurants began bracing for the minimum wage increase before the law took effect by taking measures such as downsizing staff, reducing scheduled hours or raising menu prices, according to the EPI.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1228 into law in September 2023. The law increased the minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees so that they must be paid at least $20 per hour beginning in April, and also established a Fast Food Council.

Several California fast food chains announced business changes ahead of the bill being implemented, including laying off delivery drivers and signaling that menu price hikes may occur, according to California-based outlet KTLA. As of July, the state had a total of 750,500 fast food jobs, the most in state history, according to an August press release from Newsom’s office.

Newsom claimed that there have been several positive impacts from the policy, including job growth and improved working conditions, in a September op-ed published by Fox News. Despite Newsom touting his state’s fast food jobs growth in the op-ed, seasonally adjusted federal employment data contradicted his claims and showed that overall employment in the state’s fast food industry is down since the start of the year, according to The Center Square.

“The OpEd in Fox News today by the governor is disappointing because it paints a very misleading picture about what’s going on on the ground,” Rebekah Paxton, director of research and state coalitions at the EPI, told The Center Square in a September interview. “Instead of touting these numbers that most economists would say don’t accurately measure the situation, it would behoove Governor Newsom to talk to the workers and talk to the operators who are losing their jobs and losing their livelihoods as a result of this policy.”

“This is a bogus industry group that’s funded by corporate restaurant chains to protect their profits,” a spokesperson for Newsom said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This summer, fast food jobs peaked at numbers never seen before, and now multiple independent research studies are backing up the data. What’s good for workers is good for business.”

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Employees at the United Auto Workers, the sixth-largest union in America, have gone on strike against the union this week in Manhattan, but you wouldn’t know it from the legacy media’s silence.

UAW Staff United, which represents hundreds of employees across 34 locals, announced its strike Monday, and Thursday marks the fourth day of picketing in New York City.

According to UAW Staff United (USU), the strike comes “in response to the bad-faith bargaining committed by the UAW throughout our negotiation process and the retaliatory termination of a union leader.”

UAW hires temporary organizers, who work on three-month contracts renewable for up to three years. USU is demanding “job security through stable staffing and just cause protections for these workers—which together would constitute an end to an exploitive, tiered system of employment for USU staff.” Specific demands include severance payments, two months’ notice of layoffs, and sick days.

“We want to make sure that this job is not only sustainable, but also sets up staff to better support our campaigns,” Rita Akincillar, a spokeswoman for the USU, said in a statement Monday. “Management’s insistence on being able to lay us off on a whim shows gross disregard for our needs and the needs of the UAW rank and file.”

The USU also claims that UAW leadership “has decided to cut off all striking workers’ pay.”

The USU posted photos of the striking workers.

UAW staffer (and USU member) Molly Ragan wrote on X that “UAW pulled a classic corporate boss move and cut all striking workers’ pay yesterday.”

“It’s strike day 2, and we are angry and determined to make this place better for staff organizers and the members we organize alongside,” she added. “Cut our pay, cut our health care, we are not going away.”

The USU targeted the offices of labor lawyers who represent the UAW.

The legacy media appear not to have covered the strike in downtown Manhattan. The pro-union outlet Payday Report covered the strike and condemned “so many labor journalists” for ignoring the story.

As The Washington Times reported in September, UAW Staff United accused the UAW of stalling contract negotiations and illegally terminating the contract of a labor organizer.

UAW Staff United launched in March after the election of UAW President Shawn Fain, who ran as a reform candidate following a series of corruption scandals.

An independent UAW monitor is investigating Fain on accusations that he participated in retaliation against other labor leaders this year. Fain welcomed the investigation and claimed that he is “committed to serving the membership and running a democratic union.”

The “retaliatory termination of a union leader” refers to temporary organizer Alex Chan, who was terminated at the end of September. According to the USU, the firing marks the first time a temporary organizer has been terminated before the end of a three-year term.

USU claims the UAW terminated Chan in retaliation for her part in forming the union last year.

“Terminating me doesn’t just hurt me as an individual; it hurts the union drives and thousands of union members that I’m supporting & organizing with,” Chan wrote on X. “UAW needs to afford its staff the same basic rights, just cause, and job security as the UAW workers that we fight for.”

As the Left has consciously embraced unions, many left-leaning nonprofits have unionized, notably including groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Staff at the SPLC unionized after a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal at the nonprofit in 2019. When the SPLC reorganized earlier this year, the union accused the organization of union-busting.

Neither the USU nor the UAW responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst unveiled a scathing report on the effects of telework on the federal government Thursday, citing multiple instances of abuse and failures stemming from the widespread use of the practice.

President-elect Donald Trump named Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as co-chairs of DOGE on Nov. 12. Ernst’s 60-page report covered findings from Ernst’s investigations into telework since she sent an August 2023 letter to 24 government agencies seeking a review of the issues involved with telecommuting and was released at the meeting that Musk and Ramaswamy attended.

“If federal employees can’t be found at their desks, exactly where are they?” the report asked earlier, before noting the effects of the absences from the office.

Ernst called out multiple high-ranking Biden administration officials for being away from the office, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and revealed performance issues in agencies like the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

“Federal employees are on the beach and in bubble baths but not in office buildings,” Ernst told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Even members of President Biden’s cabinet claimed to be on the clock while being out of office and unreachable. Unlike Biden’s bureaucrats, I am about to be very busy making Washington work for taxpayers.”

Ernst previously raised concerns about the vacancy rate at federal office buildings, noting that the Transportation Department has used less than 15% of its office space in its Washington, D.C., headquarters complex. In the report, Ernst described how the shift to telework delayed the response to a complaint about conditions at a baby formula factory that led to a recall after the contaminated formula killed nine children.

“The whistleblower complaint detailing safety concerns at an infant formula plant was delivered to the FDA in October 2021,” the report says. But ‘mailroom staffing issues due to COVID-19,’ namely employees working remotely, ‘prevented the hardcopies from reaching FDA senior leaders’ until February, when the plant was then shut down.”

Naysayers to @DOGE are probably eating the pork out of the trough.

But @elonmusk, @vivekgramaswamy, and I are going to trim the fat and #makeemsqueal! pic.twitter.com/ID1KHCzrvn

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 28, 2024

“A backlog of food facility inspections caused by COVID-19 era policies is currently being reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG). The findings are expected to be released in 2025,” the report adds. “Thousands of pharmaceutical plants that manufacture antibiotics, cancer therapies, and other medicines have also not been inspected since prior to the pandemic. The Associated Press reports the FDA ‘began using video and other online tools to evaluate plants remotely during COVID-19, although those aren’t equivalent to physical inspections.’ And even with remote inspections, almost 40 percent fewer inspections are being conducted now than before the pandemic.”

The Ernst report described issues telework created involving locality pay, an adjustment to the basic pay of civilian employees in the federal government intended to make sure that federal employees have comparable compensation to private-sector counterparts in a given area of the country. The report noted that as many as 68% of employees were receiving incorrect locality pay.

“A number of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees have also been busted fraudulently collecting Washington, D.C. locality pay while living elsewhere,” the report states. “One senior USAID employee lived in Florida for the duration of her employment but used an office supply store in Virginia for work-related correspondences to deceptively collect D.C. locality pay. Despite being required to report to the USAID office in Washington, D.C. twice every pay period, she was permitted to violate the telework agreement by her supervisor.”

The report also detailed how an employee of the Department of Housing and Urban Development was arrested for driving under the influence while supposedly being on the clock and how a Social Security Administration employee was launching a home-inspection business on government time.

The report also noted issues with largely vacant office buildings stemming from the widespread authorization for telework that extended to as many as 90% of employees, depending on the agency. The report said that in addition to wasting taxpayer dollars, the vacant building created an unsafe environment.

“The [Public Buildings Reform Board] adds, ‘In addition to high costs, other problems with low utilization rates include environmental and health impacts,” the report states. “The per person carbon emissions from heating and cooling nearly empty buildings, not to mention energy costs, are indefensible. Severely underutilized buildings can also pose health risks to their occupants as GSA recently discovered with Legionella outbreaks in many of its buildings when water stagnated in their plumbing systems from underutilization.’”

“Legionella is a bacterium that can cause Legionnaires’ Disease, a severe form of pneumonia with a 33 percent mortality rate in pediatric cases, and up to 80 percent mortality rate in at-risk adults,” the report continues. “While most healthy people exposed to the bacteria don’t get sick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes, ‘there’s no known safe level or type of Legionella.’”

Ernst wrote the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), urging the agency to take emergency action in an August 28 letter sent to EPA Administrator Michael Regan about contaminants that built up in the drinking water of federal buildings left unoccupied by a shift to remote work.

Ernst introduced the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems (SHOW UP) Act, in September 2023 as part of a package of legislation to rein in the “administrative state.”

The Trump-Vance Transition Team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Since the early days of his campaign, President Donald Trump has pledged to impose wide-ranging tariffs on many imported goods, including a 10 percent or higher tax on imports from other countries. This decision has made waves, drawn criticism, and largely dominated the trade policy debate in recent months – understandable, given the far-reaching implications of such a drastic change in policy. Nevertheless, President Trump’s tariffs are far from the only trade policy issue deserving of attention by the new administration. As we look ahead to January, any trade reform effort considered by President Trump and his advisors should also include overdue changes to a little-known agency responsible for implementing our country’s trade agenda: the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Congress has given the executive branch wide authority to set trade policy. The ITC’s role is less widely understood. Due to Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the ITC maintains the ability to institute “unfair import investigations,” a tool ostensibly designed to protect American companies from intellectual property infringement violations stemming from foreign competitors.

If an infringed product is imported into the United States, the ITC has one remedy – an Exclusion Order – that completely ban the product in question from the U.S. market.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the ITC has become the forum of choice for opportunistic patent assertion entities (PAEs). Also known as patent trolls, PAEs are companies that purchase portfolios of patents with the sole purpose of using them as the basis for infringement litigation. While the threshold for injunctions in federal courts are much higher, patent trolls flock to the ITC thanks to its unique ability to issue relief via ITC Exclusion Orders.

When an Exclusion Order is issued, the ITC is supposed to investigate and determine whether banning the imported product in question will negatively affect the public. In the past, a wide range of stakeholders, from Hispanic interest groups to rural community advocates, have called on the ITC to issue public interest exemptions and ensure consumers’ access to critical products is not impeded. Unfortunately, the ITC rarely conducts a thorough public interest review before taking action. In fact, it’s been nearly forty years since it last used a public interest exemption to decline issuing an Exclusion Order.

Fortunately, there are bipartisan efforts in Congress to address these deficiencies in how the ITC considers such cases. Last year, Representatives David Schweikert (AZ-01) and Don Beyer (VA-08) introduced the Advancing America’s Interests Act (AAIA) to stop patent abuse at the ITC and reaffirm its public interest standard.

The AAIA would also strengthen an important feature of the the Tariff Act – the “domestic industry” standard – that would prohibit a U.S. company from being used as a plaintiff unless they voluntarily join a complaint requesting the ITC’s relief. As part of the Tariff Act of 1930, a complainant at the ITC needs to demonstrate that it contributes to the industry in the U.S. related to whatever patent rights it is alleging have been infringed. Yet in an oft-used loophole, the patent holder can satisfy this requirement by stating it licenses its patents to other companies even if those companies did not join the complaint.

This creates a “domestic industry by subpoena” problem where a patent troll claims it has met the domestic industry requirement by involving an otherwise unwilling and uninterested licensee in the investigation. The AAIA would prohibit this practice unless the licensed entity in question ‘joins’ the complaint.

Tariffs policy and protectionism figured prominently in the presidential campaign, and there is no doubt these issues will remain salient during the second Trump administration. But trade policy is more than simply a function of tariffs. Congress should act and pass legislation to return the ITC to its original mission. The constant threat of patent troll litigation is a drag on many U.S. companies and pulls resources away from developing the new technologies necessary to grow our economy and out-innovate the world.

As policymakers look forward to what should be included in a new administration’s trade agenda, fixing the ITC should be at the top of the list.

The Biden administration moved on Thanksgiving eve to bar future coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, one of America’s most coal-rich regions, according to multiple reports.

The Powder River Basin, a region that spans parts of Montana and Wyoming, accounted for about 43% of U.S. coal in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The administration made its move to formally end coal leasing in the area and roll back previous approvals for development plans on Wednesday as Americans prepared to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, according to E&E News.

“The decision is to make no federal coal available for future leasing,” Todd Yeager, the field manager for the Buffalo office of the Bureau of Land Management, wrote in a filing announcing the move, according to E&E News. Yeager added that the decision will take about 48 billion short tons of coal off the table for mining and development.

John Podesta, CCP Official To Discuss Climate Cooperation Amid Chinese Coal Bingehttps://t.co/WDONRqihv2

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 29, 2024

The Trump administration, set to officially assume power in January 2025, is likely to walk back Wednesday’s moves when they get the chance to do so, according to The Hill. The Biden administration signaled that it could be moving to end coal leasing in the Powder River Basin in May when it released its proposals.

Republican Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso slammed the administration’s choice to end future coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, according to The Hill.

“After the American people issued a stunning rebuke to President Biden, he continues to punish Wyoming communities,” said Barrasso. “I will work with President Trump and his team to reverse this and other midnight regulations.”

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Elon Musk took to social media Wednesday to demand the shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Musk is spearheading President-elect Donald Trump’s initiative to reduce the size of the federal government. In a post on X, previously known as Twitter, Musk said that the CFPB should be dismantled and claimed that the regulatory agency overseeing potential future payment operations for Musk’s X platform is redundant.

Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024

While Trump has advocated for reduced financial industry regulations throughout his campaign, he has not specifically demanded the closure of the CFPB, Politico reported. Although Trump has distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which advises shutting down the CFPB, his administration is expected to curb the agency’s regulatory scope and soften enforcement against corporations, as previously seen during his first term.

The Supreme Court turned down a lawsuit in May that might have led to the shutdown of the CFPB. The justices, in a 7-2 decision, declared it legal for the CFPB to get its money directly from the Federal Reserve rather than through Congress, disappointing the business groups that challenged this funding method.

This controversy surfaced shortly after the CFPB enacted a rule to broaden its oversight over major tech firms offering payment and digital wallet services, potentially affecting X, which is venturing into the payments realm, Politico said. Musk has expressed his ambition for X to evolve into an “everything app,” including financial transactions.

“We’re rapidly transforming the company from what it was, Twitter 1.0, to the everything app,” Musk said during an internal X meeting in Oct. 2023.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

I love writing about American-based companies with which I’ve had a positive, personal experience. Blade + Blue is one such company.

Almost everything Blade + Blue makes is made in the USA (very few items are not). This U.S.-owned company offers American-made apparel of all types, including super high-quality shorts, casual t-shirts, button-down casual dress short-and long-sleeved shirts, tanks, vests, henleys, jackets, boxers, trunks, briefs, sweatshirts, and joggers. If you see an item that does not say “Made in the USA” in the description, like the baseball caps, you can assume they are not made in America.

Full disclosure: You will likely find that Blade + Blue’s apparel will cost more than most imported apparel. But guess what? The quality of Blade + Blue apparel will easily beat less-expensive imports in quality and longevity. For example, I have an acquaintance (let’s call him Jim) with whom I am still discussing the advantages of American-made products. My friend Jim gets it – he really does (mostly) – but still, he would rather buy imported shorts at places like Banana Republic, where everything in the store is imported, because it costs less.

Still, Jim is back at Banana Republic once again buying more imported shorts to replace the ones he bought around the same time I purchased my Blade + Blue shorts. And it’s not because Jim’s shorts are wearing out to the point they have holes in them – they just look old and tired. Meanwhile, my Blade + Blue shorts still display vibrant colors in like-new condition. As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”

Another famous saying is, “Don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish.” It would be foolish to order four or five pairs of imported Banana Republic shorts (or shirts or other apparel) over a few years and have to make several trips back to the store and spend the same money you could have spent on higher-quality Blade + Blue shorts.

Blade + Blue apparel looks much better from the beginning than lesser-quality imports, especially in the long term.

“Made in USA” is much more than a slogan. It’s literally about millions of jobs for our fellow Americans that pay well enough for those workers to reinvest back into the U.S. economy through their consumer purchases.

It’s also about maintaining our high standard of living in this country. Workers in China don’t pay taxes to America. Only American workers pay taxes to America to support the things “We, The People” have demanded from the use of their tax dollars. These “things” include funding our national defense, Social Security, our military and national defense (against known adversaries like China), Medicare, fire & police protection, and infrastructure like roads, parks & bridges, etc.

I have ordered several Blade + Blue products, including shorts, shirts, briefs, boxers, and sweatpants. And I already know that I will order more in the future. Not only am I thrilled with the quality of the products, but I’m also happy that I know I’m keeping jobs, profits, and tax revenue within the borders of my beloved country.

Blade + Blue is frequently adding new and different products to its website. I signed up for the Blade + Blue newsletter for the latest deals and offers. I also signed up for Blade + Blue’s Birthday Club to receive a special discount code to use to celebrate my special day.

Blade + Blue frequently has sales of 15%-25% off, and they are sure to have more of those sales as Christmas approaches, so be on the lookout for discounts off the usual prices.

For me, knowing that I’m wearing apparel made by my fellow Americans and supporting jobs here at home adds to that special feeling I get during the holidays. And those American workers who make products for
Blade + Blue also get a good feeling during the holidays, knowing that their U.S. jobs are secure, and they can use those wages to buy gifts for their families and loved ones as well.

About Roger Simmermaker

Roger Simmermaker has written multiple books on buying American and trade policy since 1996, and has been a frequent guest on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and MSNBC. Roger has also been quoted or featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BusinessWeek, and The New York Times, among many other publications.

The Biden-Harris administration announced a multi-billion dollar loan for electric vehicle (EV) maker Rivian Monday as the company continues to hemorrhage cash.

Rivian lost $1.1 billion and saw its revenue fall nearly $500 million in the third quarter of 2024 as a slackening of consumer demand for EVs hampered the industry’s growth. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has agreed to a conditional commitment to loan the automaker roughly $6.6 billion to help finance the construction of its manufacturing facility in Georgia, according to a press release from the DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO).

“This loan will help create thousands of new American jobs and further strengthen U.S. leadership in EV manufacturing and technology,” RJ Scaringe, Rivian founder and CEO, wrote in a press release Monday. “A robust ecosystem of U.S. companies developing and manufacturing EVs is critical for the U.S. to maintain its long-term leadership in transportation.”

Big news for Rivian: a conditional $6.6 billion DOE loan could supercharge production of the R2 and R3 at a new Georgia plant, creating thousands of jobs. Learn more about what this means for Rivian: https://t.co/KJ8NGlZL0f pic.twitter.com/EVjvRHIYAw

— RivianTrackr (@RivianTrackr) November 26, 2024

The Georgia factory will augment Rivian’s factory in Normal, Illinois, and will produce sport utility vehicles that sell for roughly $45,000, significantly less than the company’s current fleet of consumer vehicles which start at around $70,000.

“This loan would enable Rivian to more aggressively scale our U.S. manufacturing footprint for our competitively priced R2 and R3 vehicles that emphasize both capability and affordability,” Scaringe said in the release.

The financing agreement is part of outgoing President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which has deployed nearly $700 billion in taxpayer dollars to infrastructure, semiconductor and green energy projects. Many of the White House subsidies have gone to the EV industry specifically, including a $7,500 federal tax credit for certain EV purchases and $12 billion in taxpayer funds for car manufacturers to retrofit their plants for EV production.

Despite the subsidies, the EV industry has seen a slackening of consumer demand, with sales growing just 31% in the first half of 2024 — far less than the 71% increase in the first half of 2022. Meanwhile, a June poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute found 46% of respondents were unlikely or very unlikely to purchase an EV compared with just 21% of respondents who said they were “very” or “extremely” likely to make the change.

“Even after throwing money at EVs hand over fist, basically paying people tax dollars to drive these cars off the lots, you have a dire spiral of (1) not enough demand to support the number of cars being produced, and (2) the people you paid to buy them now wanting to go back to what they had before,” O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance for Consumers and the former solicitor general of Arizona, previously told the DCNF.

Rivian and the DOE did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal has detailed how local governments in China are withholding wages from government-paid employees and pensioners in a desperate bid to save cash.

According to the report, dozens of medical staff in the city of Shanwei, located in southeast China, protested by occupying a hall within a public hospital in October over unpaid wages and bonuses. Retired city employees of Yichun, in the northeast of China, also gathered to protest pensions that had not been paid out for months.

The growing debt of local governments is stretching into the trillions, which the WSJ notes is largely “borrowed off the books,” as China’s shadow banking, which are loans outside of traditional banking, continues to swell.

Currently, China’s debt officially sits at just under $10 trillion. When factoring in shadow banking, the true debt reaches over $30 trillion.

The report further notes social media has been putting on a spotlight on months-long wage arrears, and it suggests cities are “strapped for cash” and drowning in debt, while recent cash injections via stimulus to local governments by the Chinese Communist Party, have only just “scratched the surface.”

Authorities are now cutting medical benefits and attempting to find unpaid taxes to bolster their budgets, but the ongoing impact will eventually affect China’s private business sector, employers of civil servants, contractors, and could lead to China’s economic growth grinding to a halt.

China’s Local Governments Hold Back Wages in Desperate Scrape for Cash—Beijing’s recent attempt to address the trillions in hidden debt held by local governments only scratches the surface@hannahmiao_ @RebeccaYFeng @TByGraceZhu https://t.co/mW4QWzCPythttps://t.co/mW4QWzCPyt

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) November 29, 2024

Employees of Shanghai-based Guoli True Leather Company protested this week after not receiving wages for months.
.

China’s economic slowdown is worsening the situation on ground. Employees of Shanghai Guoli True Leather Company protesting to Demand Wages.
Many Chinese companies are unable to pay salaries & meet expenses due to economic woes, unsustainable debts & dwindling domestic sales. pic.twitter.com/LCYPJbGF4z

— Padma Namgail (@PadmaNamgail14) November 23, 2024

However, wage issues are not a new issue in China. In 2023, employees of state-owned companies said they hadn’t been paid for over 45 months, while pensioners said their promised benefits and medical insurance payments had been reduced.

“We haven’t been paid for 45 months.”
“We demand our wages, we want to work. Hundreds of employees demand our wages.”
In front of the Jilin Grain Group Co., Ltd., employees are protesting with banners. How have these people been able to survive without receiving their wages for… pic.twitter.com/8RGfNmfjcG

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferzeng97) September 18, 2023

#Guangzhou retirees protesting in front of the Social Security Bureau as their pensions and medical insurance payments were reduced.
Local governments in #China are having financial problems now. I talked about this here: https://t.co/P6HHpAxLPP pic.twitter.com/p7DOKuXv2r

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferzeng97) January 14, 2023

Millions of Americans, maybe tens of millions, including many with first-hand encounters with the federal government’s powerful and feared Internal Revenue Service, were expressing glee this week with confirmation that the IRS, itself the issuer of tens of millions of “audit” notices, will soon be put under audit.

“I cannot be more ecstatic!” said one social media commenter.

Another added, “I sure hope they saved their receipts for the last 3,000 years.”

Gonna happen https://t.co/QvYyGKvr2n

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024

The word came from Elon Musk, one of the chiefs of the new plan by President-elect Donald Trump to clean up the government, tackle the “Deep State” agendas and expenses, cut costs, reduce waste and more.

“Gonna happen,” Musk responded to a comment that, “The IRS getting audited by the @DOGE.”

Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the bureau actually got a funding increase of some $80 billion in order to hire thousands more agents who could dispatch “audit” notices on Americans.

Another commenter noted, “Imagine being the one who contacts the IRS to let them know they need to bring all their receipts because they’re being audited. I’d pay big money to have that job.”

Another said the audits should extend to individual IRS workers, after reports in just recent days that hundreds of revenue agents owe millions in past-due taxes.

It was the Gateway Pundit that explained the IRS already has “audits” from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, but those likely look only at whether the agency follows its own protocols.

“In fact, the Biden administration has overseen an aggressive expansion of the agency and its harassment of working Americans,” the report said. “Back in May, the agency demanded a further $20 billion from Congress in order to hire another 14,000 more employees as part of an effort to better ‘serve taxpayers.’

“Their pleas came under two years Congress passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which included a staggering $80 billion windfall for the agency to expand its operations and hire tens of thousands of agents.”

DOGE already has been given lists suggesting some $2 trillion in savings that could be made for American taxpayers.

Several anti-Israel groups are planning to interrupt holiday travel and Black Friday shopping in a series of protests aimed toward “global escalation.”

A coalition of groups has planned over 50 events taking place from Nov. 27-29 in major cities across the U.S., Europe and Australia with the intention of disrupting “business as usual,” according to the coalition’s website titled “global escalation.” The action list includes coordinated strikes, protests and boycotts.

“From Wednesday 27th to Friday 29th November, the Global Escalation will bring together people and movements around the world to step up the collective resistance by going on strike, refusing to shop and by taking direct action,” the website’s “call to action” reads. “It will be the first of a series of blows that will force change.”

Some events intend to prevent shoppers from purchasing from vendors the group declares are “complicit in genocide” in hopes of  “depressing the economy during the whole holiday season,” the website states. Other events call for workers and students to stage walkouts and strike “in solidarity with Palestinians” and protest of “Israeli weapons’ industries.”

“The forces of global capital and institutions of western power have thrown their entire weight in the service of the Israeli war machine, getting away with levels of brutality that none of us have witnessed before,” Global Escalation’s website states. “New precedents of colonial violence are being established, along with new ways of retaliating against anyone fighting the injustices that plague our world.”

A car caravan in South Carolina on Nov. 29 plans to interrupt traffic and clog “the central arteries of Charleston,” the event description says.

New York City, Boise, Idaho, Denver, Colorado, Omaha, Nebraska and several cities across California are some of the areas expected to be hit by protests, according to the website. There are also events planned in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Japan, Canada and Italy, among others.

Anti-Israel protesters have led a multitude of disruptions since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 2023 attack on Israel, blocking traffic on more than one occasion in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. Demonstrations on college campuses across the country have ended in hundreds of arrests after countless violent and destructive scenes unfolded.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The climate change agenda has become the latest way for foreign countries to loot the United States for billions of dollars. Supposedly, climate change caused by carbon emissions in developed countries is bringing about natural disasters in poorer countries, such as floods and droughts, but these have been occurring since long before the use of oil.

COP29, which was the 29th annual climate conference of the United Nations, recently wrapped up in Azerbaijan with a shocking resentment by recipients of a mammoth new $300 billion annual handout promised to them by Western nations by 2035. This far exceeds prior pledges, but the ungrateful recipients of this handout are howling in protest that it is not enough for them.

Last year then-climate czar John Kerry said we would not agree to pay climate reparations, but he’s left office and the Biden administration just told the world that we would pay billions of dollars. Playing semantics, liberals say that when these payments are voluntary then it is called a “loss and damage fund,” while if the obligation is mandatory it is called “reparations.”

If voluntary, President Trump can decline to pay them. After all, India is ranked as the worst overall polluter in the world while it also has trade barriers impeding American-made farm products, and we certainly should not pay those who refuse our goods.

The New York Times complains about the “climate change” that’s coming to the White House on this issue, as Trump has pledged to withdraw the United States from liberal foreign agreements like the Paris Agreement. “Drill, baby, drill” is Trump’s exhortation to his nominee for the Department of Interior, Gov. Doug Burgum, to open up vast federal lands to the extraction of oil.

Under Burgum’s leadership and that of his predecessors as governor of North Dakota, it has become the second-largest oil producer in the United States after Texas. This has brought prosperity, many well-paying jobs and population growth to the barren land that lacks the natural beauty and warm weather of California.

Colder-than-usual temperatures will grip the northern United States beginning on Thanksgiving and worsening into next week. The expected low temperature for the traditional NFL Thanksgiving Green Bay Packers game is a frigid 20 degrees Fahrenheit, possibly with snow.

This is bad news for the star Hawaiian quarterback of the Miami Dolphins, who is 0-7 in cold games. Despite the predictions of Al Gore and other liberals of devastating global warming that was going to ruin the world, cold weather continues to be a bigger problem than warm weather.

Recall how Biden and Harris offered only $750 for each household ravaged by Hurricane Helene, which is barely enough to pay for a month’s grocery and fuel expenses. Just as when we end up on the hook for most of the handouts promised by NATO officials, Democrats will have us paying victims of hurricanes in every country except our own.

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, candidly called oil and gas a “gift from God.” China, which is the biggest carbon emitter on our planet, is still defined by the U.N. as merely a “developing” country that thereby has no obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or contribute payments to poor countries.

Military emissions continue to be exempt from the reporting, despite that many bombs, fighter planes, tanks, aircraft carriers, and more than a half-million military buildings are among the biggest emitters. The environmentalists who clamor for cutbacks are silent on harm caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.

In retaliation for Biden approving the use by Ukraine of launching American missiles into Russia, Putin has responded by firing its new hypersonic “Oreshnik” missile that travels too fast to intercept. These fly at 8,000 miles per hour and can travel up to 3,400 miles, easily reaching all of Europe and even our West Coast.

A far greater risk to climate change is posed by the increasing likelihood of World War III breaking out. On Monday, speaking at an event for the European Policy Centre think tank, Dutch admiral and NATO Military Committee Chair Rob Bauer warned businesses around the world to bring their production back home so that they are not beholden to foreign governments.

Bauer declared, as quoted in the New York Post, “Businesses need to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly. Because while it may be the military who wins battles, it’s the economies that win wars.”

But wait, doesn’t this advice go against the globalist mantra that pushed the United States to send manufacturing jobs offshore in recent decades? If world war breaks out, China and Mexico could order a halt to their manufacturing of cellphones, automobiles and other products for American consumers, crippling our economy.

One thing Hollywood is very good at is scaring the bejesus out of Americans – even when they’re merely spreading false fears.

A famous movie in 1979 called “The China Syndrome” chronicled a nuclear power accident that could kill tens of thousands of Americans with radiation poisoning. The title came from a spooky fairy-tale scenario in which the nuclear material would melt the earth right through to its core and then all the way down to China. Despite causing few deaths, the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania that year further panicked Americans about the safety of nuclear plants.

The damage to the industry was done and nearly fatal. For nearly four decades the nuclear industry failed to permit any more new nuclear plants.

That was yesterday. The time is right for a nuclear renaissance. The incoming administration, from President-elect Donald J. Trump on down, is pro-American energy independence. Nuclear power has to be part of the equation.

We need to get back to building new plants so that we have the electric power capacity for the next generation of artificial intelligence and other uses that will tax the grid beyond what it can provide. AI will use three to four times as much energy as the internet, so demand is going to spike and we will be at risk of brownouts.

Jack Spencer – an energy policy expert at the Heritage Foundation – has just published a fabulous policy manifesto, “Nuclear Revolution: Powering the Next Generation,” on how we unleash (we love that word) a nuclear power renaissance in America.

Spencer shows conclusively that “obstructive regulations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and anti-nuclear scare tactics from the left are what has inhibited this industry for decades.” It’s as if Jane Fonda (remember her in “The China Syndrome”?) were running our energy policy.

Today we get a little less than 20% of our electric power from decades-old nuclear plants that are now being retired. If we don’t build new ones, we will lose ground on our energy production at the very time we need much more capacity.

The federal government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on wind and solar subsidies – but these are still niche energy sources that are NOT scalable to meet our $25 trillion industrial economy’s needs. Former Vice President Al Gore and the climate change environmental groups should be all in on nuclear as a clean energy source with very minimal greenhouse gases.

If we double our nuclear power capacity over the next decade or so and allow more natural gas and oil drilling here at home, we can regain our energy-dominant position. OPEC would be a toothless tiger, and the Russian war machine could be defunded.

Small reactors that can serve towns of 50,000 to 100,000 people can minimize risks of major plant accidents that could put Americans in danger.

It’s all so logical. It puts America first.

We don’t need Fonda dictating our energy policy any longer.

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa sent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-chairs Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy a letter Monday with ideas for cuts that could save the federal government over $2 trillion.

Trump named Musk and Ramaswamy as co-chairs of DOGE on Nov. 12. In the seven-page letter, Ernst’s suggestions ranged from addressing unused space in buildings to uncommitted spending for COVID relief, with the proposed cuts totaling over $2 trillion.

Ernst has focused on government waste since her election to the United States Senate in 2014, with a recent focus on the effects of telework and remote work on federal agencies.

“When faced with proposals to trim the fat from Washington’s budget, members of Congress from both parties act like Goldilocks,” Ernst wrote. “It’s too little or too big, always too hard, and never just right. But the real ‘make-believe’ of this fairy tale is that it’s impossible to reduce Washington’s budget without causing pain. Most Americans aren’t even benefiting in any meaningful way from hundreds of billions of dollars being wasted.”

“While you’re seeking ‘super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries’ for ‘unglamorous cost-cutting,’ all that’s really needed is a little common sense. If you can’t find waste in Washington, there can only be one reason: you didn’t look,” Ernst continued.

Billion dollar boondoggles, tele-“working” bureaucrats, and vacant buildings.

Let’s stop this waste! @doge @elonmusk @vivekgramaswamy pic.twitter.com/GDXmOBGGkL

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 24, 2024

Three rail projects in California with a combined price tag of over $135 billion, $213 million in unemployment payments to millionaires, $31 million in pay to government employees with no assigned duties and $10 billion in inaccurate Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program payments are among the programs Ernst listed as potential cuts. Ernst also said there was over $1.6 trillion in uncommitted COVID relief spending.

Ernst announced Friday she would lead a Senate DOGE caucus to work alongside Musk and Ramaswamy, while Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was named as chair of a House Oversight Committee subpanel called the Delivering on Government Efficiency panel.

“I have a simple message to the bureaucrats who haven’t shown up for work in years and the government contractors and grantees collecting millions to study how fast a shrimp runs on a treadmill – buckle up because accountability is coming,” Ernst said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “My decade-long mission to make Washington squeal has created an exhaustive list of more than $2 trillion worth of waste, fraud, and abuse that I will work with DOGE to cut. We are going to break down the nonsense that has taken over Washington and put in its place a government that actually works for the people.”

Ernst previously questioned USAID over an employee who improperly received “locality pay” for the Washington, D.C. area despite living in Florida, and requested a staff briefing after a second instance of improper locality pay involving another USAID employee living in North Carolina was reported.

In an August 2023 letter requesting a review of the issues involved with telecommuting sent to 24 government agencies, Ernst cited a media account of a VA employee who attended a staff meeting while taking a bubble bath.

Ernst wrote the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), urging the agency to take emergency action in an August 28 letter sent to EPA Administrator Michael Regan about contaminants that built up in the drinking water of federal buildings left unoccupied by a shift to remote work.

Ernst introduced the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems (SHOW UP) Act, in September 2023 as part of a package of legislation to rein in the “administrative state.”

“This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I will be providing many more recommendations soon,” Ernst wrote. “My team and I are ready to help you make some prime cuts.”

The Trump-Vance transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

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President-elect Donald Trump announced Monday evening one of the first major actions he will take on his first day in office: “Charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States” due to their “ridiculous Open Borders.”

“As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“Right now a Caravan coming from Mexico, composed of thousands of people, seems to be unstoppable in its quest to come through our currently Open Border. On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders.

“This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!

“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”

Trump did not limit his attention to Mexico and Canada, but turned his concern to China.

“I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail,” he explained.

“Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our Country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before.

“Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Is the news we hear every day actually broadcasting messages from God? The answer is an absolute yes! Find out how!

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