What to know today
- The House tonight adopted a Republican budget resolution that would help advance much of President Donald Trump's agenda. The measure faced firm Democratic opposition and one GOP defection.
- Trump is facing pushback from Democratic as well as Republican lawmakers over his efforts, along with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, to lay off federal employees and cut government waste.
- Nearly two dozen DOGE employees resigned en masse, saying in a letter made public today that they refused to use their technical expertise to "compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services."
- Some Republicans are also criticizing Trump over the direction of talks to end the war in Ukraine after the United States opposed a United Nations resolution yesterday that called for Russia's withdrawal from the country's internationally recognized borders.
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Board that protects federal workers pauses the terminations of 6 probationary employees
The Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent federal board that exists to protect federal workers in employment disputes, paused the terminations of six probationary federal workers tonight in various agencies and departments across the executive branch for 45 days while the Office of Special Counsel further investigates their complaints of unlawful termination, according to a news release and a filing obtained by NBC News.
The pause is, in part, a result of special counsel Hampton Dellinger’s recommendation to the Merit Systems Protection Board after he said he had found that “[f]iring probationary employees without individualized cause appears contrary to a reasonable reading of the law, particularly the provisions establishing rules for reductions in force.”
A redacted filing obtained by NBC News pertains to one of the six federal workers.
“Particularly considering the deference that must be afforded to OSC at this initial stage, I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each of the six agencies engaged in a prohibited personnel practice,” says the order, signed by the clerk of the board.
“Considering the deference that should be afforded to OSC in the context of an initial stay request and the assertions made in the instant stay request, I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the above-captioned agency terminated the relator during the relator’s probationary period in violation of 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(12),” the order continues, citing a section of the U.S. Code pertaining to prohibited personnel practices.
Probationary workers are typically employees who have been in their positions for less than a year. The label also can apply to veteran government workers who have recently been promoted to new roles.
House Democrat travels from Colorado to D.C. with 4-week-old son to vote against GOP budget blueprint
Reps. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., and Kevin Mullin, D-Calif., told reporters tonight why they showed up for tonight’s budget resolution vote in spite of challenges that included caring for a newborn and a discharge from the hospital after surgery.
Pettersen, who had her newborn son at tonight’s vote, said she knew her opposition to the Republican measure “could make the difference.”
“However hard it was, I wasn’t going to let their denial of my ability to vote by proxy get in the way,” Pettersen said after the 217-215 vote.
Pettersen added that she and her son, who is 4 weeks old, had traveled across the country for the vote. “We would prefer to be at home with our support system, but we were here to fight for all the kids in Colorado,” she said.
Mullin, who said he was released from the hospital yesterday after knee surgery and a blood clot, told NBC News he came to vote against the Republican resolution because it was “one of the most important [votes] to take,” even after he spent the last 10 days in the hospital and continued to fight an infection.
"I wanted to be here for this vote today,” Mullin said. “This is a centerpiece of the Trump agenda, and I wanted to get my vote on the record."
Mullin, who is a member of the Energy Committee, also called out a "draconian budget proposal" in the resolution to make over $800 billion in Medicaid cuts, which his committee will be overseeing.
Rep. Byron Donalds announces run for Florida governor on heels of Trump endorsement
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., announced tonight that he is running for governor of Florida next year.
"After a lot of prayer, a lot of thought with my family and my friends, I’m here to announce my candidacy to be the next governor of the great state of Florida," Donalds told Sean Hannity tonight on Fox News.
Donalds recently told donors of his intention to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is term-limited.
Trump endorsed Daniels last week, saying on Truth Social: “Byron Donalds would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida and, should he decide to run, will have my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!”
Though no major candidate has formally filed for 2026, NBC News reported that the state’s first lady, Casey DeSantis, is considering a run. The governor talked up his wife as a potential candidate yesterday, telling reporters in Tampa that she has “intestinal fortitude and the dedication to conservative principles.”
“I won by the biggest margin that any Republican’s ever won a governor’s race here in Florida. She would do better than me,” Ron DeSantis said.
Asked about a potential run by Donalds, DeSantis said he would prefer to see Donalds enact Trump’s agenda in Washington.
“You got a guy like Byron — he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the left over these last years. He’s just not been a part of it,” DeSantis said.
Donalds seemed to address DeSantis' comments tonight, calling him a "great governor" and later adding: "I have a long history in the conservative movement, and I have one of the strongest conservative records, both in the State House and up here in Congress, that proves that I will not let you down."
USAID to give workers 15 minutes to pack up desks, warns not to bring brass knuckles or other weapons
The U.S. Agency for International Development is giving employees 15 minutes to pack up their desks Thursday and Friday, according to an email sent to an employee who shared it on the condition of anonymity.
Employees seeking to collect their belongings will be asked to do so in strict windows of time after having reviewed an exhaustive list of restrictions and rules for doing so. They also will be required to undergo magnetometer and X-ray screening, and they will be escorted to their desks to pack up their belongings. Staff members must bring their own boxes, bags and tape for packing up their desks, the email says, and follow all record-preservation laws while doing so.
The email concludes with a lengthy list of items the employees are warned not to bring, including guns, realistic replicas of guns, cattle prods, axes, hatchets, bows and arrows, drills, knives, sabers, swords, daggers, utility knives, billy clubs, brass knuckles, crowbars, nunchucks, ski poles, fireworks, flares, gunpowder, grenades, gas torches, pool chlorine, bleach, pepper spray and helium balloons. The items, the email acknowledges, have always been banned from passing through security screening posts at the agency's headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington.
DOGE has a new ‘acting administrator,’ but Elon Musk is still in charge
As recently as last Wednesday, Trump made it clear: Elon Musk is in charge of DOGE.
“I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge,” Trump said in a speech to the Future Investment Initiative Institute in Miami Beach, Florida, according to video and the White House’s transcript. “Thank you, Elon, for doing it.”
Musk has done nothing to shake that idea. Musk helped coin the name of the office in September, before Trump won a second term, and Trump named him to the job a week after the election. Republican lawmakers have praised Musk’s performance at DOGE. Musk posts about DOGE daily on X, where he issues commands to the federal workforce on Trump’s behalf.
But this afternoon, the White House revealed that a little-known official, Amy Gleason, now holds the title of acting DOGE administrator — a job that implies she heads up the agency. The White House didn’t say when Gleason was appointed, but the decision appeared rushed; she was scheduled to be on vacation Tuesday in Mexico, The New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.
Trump helped flip House GOP budget holdouts in last-minute scramble
Trump helped flip some of the last-minute Republican holdouts on the House GOP’s budget blueprint, according to House Majority Leader Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., who called Trump "an incredible ally" throughout the process.
“Trump helped us with a number of members," Scalise told reporters.
He declined to identify specific members who had spoken with Trump but said Trump was "talking to anybody that we asked that really needed to clarify things."
Some of the holdouts who initially said they were “noes” but ended up voting to adopt the resolution, include Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Warren Davidson of Ohio.
Burchett said that there was "no quid pro quo" but that Trump had "assured me that he would work towards cuts and, and he’s never lied to me."
As House Republican leaders worked furiously to flip their votes while the resolution hung in the balance, leadership briefly pulled the measure from consideration and took the holdouts into a private room off the House floor for further conversations. Republican leaders then put the resolution back on the floor for a vote.
“We weren’t ready yet, so we went on to the third bill, and then still had to make sure we were there before we made the decision to call everybody back and then bring up the budget,” Scalise said.
House narrowly adopts budget plan to advance Trump’s agenda, a big win for Speaker Johnson
Speaker Mike Johnson muscled a multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint through the House by the narrowest of margins tonight — a crucial step for Republicans as they embark on advancing Trump’s legislative agenda.
The vote was 217-215, with Republicans casting all of the votes in favor of the budget resolution. Just one Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, joined all Democrats in voting against it.
The vote came after a dramatic day of arm-twisting in the House, with Johnson, R-La., hosting multiple meetings in his office to win over GOP holdouts and Trump personally calling many of the same people.
GAO head says its auditors have met with DOGE staff at Treasury
The head of the Government Accountability Office told members of Congress today that the watchdog’s auditors have met with Department of Government Efficiency staffers at the Treasury Department as part of three ongoing DOGE projects that congressional Democrats have asked GAO to audit.
As a congressional agency, GAO audits every federal entity. Members of Congress typically ask it to audit programs such as DOGE.
The Democrats' requests include reviews of DOGE’s interactions with federal government payment systems and the IT systems for three government agencies, as well as a review of FEMA data and payment systems.
House poised to vote tonight on a Republican budget resolution
The House is scheduled to vote tonight on a Republican budget blueprint that seeks to reduce taxes by up to $4.5 trillion and aims to cut federal spending by $2 trillion.
The measure needs a simple majority to pass. Some conservative Republicans have threatened to torpedo the vote.
With one Democratic absence — Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona — and all GOP members in attendance, Republicans cannot afford more than one defection if they want to adopt the resolution this evening.
Trump signs executive order suspending security clearances at law firm that helped with Jack Smith's probes
Trump signed an executive order today directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and other agency heads to suspend any active security clearances held by a law firm that assisted former special counsel Jack Smith in his investigations of Trump.
The order targets the Washington-based law firm Covington & Burling LLP, naming a firm partner and “all members, partners, and employees” who assisted Smith, “pending a review and determination of their roles and responsibilities, if any, in the weaponization of the judicial process.”
The order also directed the Office of Management and Budget to issue a memo asking all agencies to review federal contracts with the law firm.
Smith resigned from his role at the Justice Department before Trump’s inauguration last month. His prosecutions of Trump were upended after the 2024 election by the Justice Department’s long-standing policy not to prosecute sitting presidents. Trump has called Smith “deranged,” arguing that the investigations were politically motivated “witch hunts” and that Democrats “weaponized” the justice system.
The Trump administration last month fired Justice Department officials who worked on Smith’s investigations of Trump.