Today\u2019s notice: What will Congress do if the White House requests funds for the war with Iran? Massive turnout for Democrats continues. Blue states sue over climate policy. Is the truth out there a month after Trump said he\u2019d release data on UFOs? And: The MAGA census makeover.<\/p>\n
THE LATEST<\/p>\n
Congress may finally be asked. It appears the White House wants Congress to weigh in on the war with Iran for the first time, to the tune of a $200 billion supplemental package to pay for ongoing combat operations.<\/p>\n
What will Republicans do about this? The war is relatively popular with MAGA, according to recent public polling from Puck<\/a>, even as the general public remains skeptical. But a majority party that had basically sat back and let Donald Trump do his war seemed caught off guard by the possibility of being a part of it, NOTUS\u2019 Hamed Ahmadi reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was twice what I thought it was going to be,\u201d Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said of the White House\u2019s request. Hawkish Republicans seem ready to go, but plenty of GOP lawmakers have said they\u2019d have questions before cutting a check.<\/p>\n Will Democrats fracture? The party has been remarkably unified since outrage over immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota pushed intraparty fights largely out of view. The lack of congressional involvement in the war so far has left that unity untested, though there were indications<\/a> a couple weeks back that some Democrats might support a formal funding request.<\/p>\n The war story has changed since then. What was advertised as a \u201clittle excursion<\/a>\u201d now has rumors<\/a> of additional deployments, including ground troops.<\/p>\n Will Democrats unite in opposition to more funding? \u201cI think we will. We have to. This is a catastrophe,\u201d Sen. Peter Welch told Emily. \u201cIf the president asks us for $200 billion, he\u2019s got to make a decision, and that is: end the war or escalate. And it\u2019s time to end the war.\u201d<\/p>\n FWIW: Trump said yesterday, \u201cI\u2019m not putting troops anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Open tabs: ICE officers are taking DNA samples from protesters they\u2019ve arrested<\/a> (NPR); Father of service member killed in Iran war said he never told Hegseth to \u2018finish\u2019 the job<\/a> (NBC); White House eyes Friday rollout for AI framework<\/a> (Axios); FBI Braces for Blowback in Joe Kent Investigation<\/a> (NOTUS)<\/p>\n From the campaign trail<\/p>\n Democrats really, really want to vote: In Tuesday\u2019s Illinois primaries, the Democratic Senate race saw a nearly 50% increase in participation compared to the last midterm election in 2022. The 8th Congressional District saw a 63% increase and the 9th District saw a 71% increase. While NOTUS\u2019 Alex Roarty notes<\/a> that comparisons between cycles aren\u2019t perfect, after seeing huge turnout increases in races across the country, Democrats say something is clearly happening.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a strong likelihood of a rage turnout this year,\u201d Democratic strategist Aviva Bowen, who worked on some House primaries in Illinois this cycle, said.<\/p>\n Democrats have their knives out for Pennsylvania\u2019s Scott Perry. They say 2026 could provide the perfect opportunity to finally oust the Republican congressman and former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, who this cycle is running in a more competitive district thanks to redistricting. Democrats plan to nominate Janelle Stelson, a former local news anchor who ran against Perry in 2024, NOTUS\u2019 Avani Kalra reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPerry has never been a top fundraiser,\u201d Christopher Nicholas, a Republican consultant in Pennsylvania who is not working on Perry\u2019s race, told Avani. \u201cStelson is kind of the hot candidate du jour again, having come so close last time. But she has to battle the sophomore slump that you find with candidates who run again.\u201d<\/p>\n From the courts<\/p>\n Legal remedy: A group of blue states sued the Trump administration<\/a> yesterday after it rolled back the Obama-era finding that greenhouse gas emissions are harmful to public health. It\u2019s just the latest in a slew of cases brought against the Environmental Protection Agency over the decision.<\/p>\n \u201cClimate change is real, and it\u2019s already affecting our residents and our economy,\u201d Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, who led the lawsuit, said in a statement. \u201cWhen the federal government abandons the law and the science, everyday people suffer the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n From \u2026 out there<\/p>\n Remember Trump\u2019s post<\/a> promising to release the government\u2019s files on alien life? That was a month ago now. Though the administration on Wednesday registered<\/a> the domain \u201caliens.gov<\/a>,\u201d it\u2019s unclear how much movement has been made.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve not heard any progress at all,\u201d Sen. Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told Emily. He was one of several lawmakers who said they hadn\u2019t heard anything since Trump\u2019s social media post.<\/p>\n Rep. Eric Burlison, one of a few alien aficionados on the House Oversight Committee, said that he planned to \u201cget a little bit more loud about it\u201d if there\u2019s no movement over the next few months.<\/p>\n \u201cStay tuned!\u201d White House spox Anna Kelly wrote in response to questions about the administration\u2019s progress, adding an alien emoji for effect.<\/p>\n THE BIG ONE<\/p>\n How will a MAGAfied U.S. census change how we understand America? There are legal fights to be had, but changes already in motion mean the 2030 census is poised to be very different from those that came before it, NOTUS\u2019 Shifra Dayak reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Changes to field testing, reducing the number of locations that run test surveys and only offering those surveys in English likely mean worse undercounting of populations that struggle in census taking, experts say. Those include Native Americans, immigrants and \u201ccomplex\u201d households, which include college students and multigenerational families.<\/p>\n Being counted in the census means resources and political power. There are more than 300 federal government programs that rely at least partly on census data in deciding how to distribute money across the country and where and how to structure certain programs, Shifra writes.<\/p>\n The biggest change is the most controversial. The Trump administration does not want to count undocumented residents in the census, which would lead to huge reductions in federal resources sent to states with high populations of undocumented people. This debate will likely end in the courts.<\/p>\n NEW ON NOTUS<\/p>\n Education Department drawdown: The agency is working to offload its more than $1.7 million student-loan-debt portfolio to the Treasury, it announced yesterday. It\u2019s the boldest step yet in Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon\u2019s plan to dismantle the department, NOTUS\u2019 Adora Brown reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n NOT US<\/p>\n Thank you for reading! If you liked this edition of the NOTUS newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please subscribe<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s free! Have a tip? Email us at tips@notus.org<\/a>. And as always, we\u2019d love to hear your thoughts at newsletters@notus.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s notice: What will Congress do if the White House requests funds for the war with Iran? 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