Policy Soup stir the pot ALPHA

The Trump administration has now admitted in its own court filings that it terminated nearly 300 energy grants “based solely” on the political identity of the recipient’s state, whether it voted for Kamala Harris and had two Democratic senators.

Commentary: Here are all the ways that Trump has tried to kill U.S. science research

They punished American scientists for their zip codes and then lied to Congress about it. We will not forget this. www.latimes.com/business/sto...

Partisan political filters and the search for "DEI" have resulted in billions of dollars in canceled scientific research grants

He told a similar story to the Science Committee in June. His attorneys, under oath and under court order, said the opposite. Twice before, federal judges ordered these grants restored after the Department made the same confession.

The Department conceded it did not rely on “programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction, or performance-based factors.” Grants in red states doing identical work were left untouched. This is not a one-time slip by Wright, who told CNN last October the decisions were “all based on facts.”

In a July court filing, the Department of Energy admitted that 283 grants were canceled “solely” based on whether the recipient sat in a state that voted for Kamala Harris and elected two Democratic senators.

He looked me in the eye and called it “a timing question, not a decision question.” He said “the decisions were nonpolitical.” That was not true. And now his own lawyers have admitted it.

On April 17, I sat across from Energy Secretary Chris Wright in an Appropriations hearing and asked a simple question about why his grant terminations landed almost entirely in blue states.

This is your daily reminder that Trump and Republicans are spending billions of your tax dollars on an unauthorized war in Iran and Stephen Miller’s ICE agenda while gutting Medicaid, slashing SNAP, and driving up your health care costs.

Reposted byMike Levin

In an Appropriations Committee hearing earlier this year, I questioned Energy Secretary Chris Wright about the billions his department canceled in clean energy grants. He looked me in the eye and told me the decisions were made on the merits and had nothing to do with politics. That was a lie.

Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him (Gift Article)

You cannot withhold funds Congress appropriated as a weapon to punish states for how they voted. It is an abuse of power, plain and simple, and the people who lied to Congress about it need to answer for it. I am not letting this go. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.

Every version was false, and now his own attorneys have said so in writing. This is illegal.

Politics, and nothing else. The Energy Department’s own lawyers conceded not one of those grants was cut for any programmatic, statutory, or performance reason. Wright said the same thing under oath to the Senate and the Science Committee.

Reposted byMike Levin

Mike Levin@mikelevin.orgJul 20(source)

This is really bad. The New York Times reports that FBI managers were told the bureau will stop investigating violent confrontations involving immigration agents, handing those cases instead to an arm of ICE. In other words, letting the agency investigate itself.

These families deserve transparency and guidance they can trust. I will keep pressing until they have it. ktla.com/news/califor...

I want to be clear about what we know and what we don’t. A cluster of cases is not proof of a cause. That is exactly why we need a rigorous, independent investigation, so these families get real answers rather than speculation.

That is why I wrote to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin requesting an immediate investigation into potential environmental causes and an assessment of whether other children are at risk. We expect a formal response soon.