A Texas-based airline has signed a long-term agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration Control and Enforcement agency to carry out deportation flights.
Beginning in May, Avelo Airlines, which is headquartered in Houston, shared with Fox News Digital that they will have three planes flying out of Mesa Gateway Airport (AZA), in Arizona to “support the department’s deportation efforts.”
A spokesperson for the airline said the planes will include three 737-800s and that the domestic and international flights will begin on May 12.
“We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic. After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come,” Avelo Airlines Founder and CEO Andrew Levy said in a statement.
The airline said it will also open a base at AZA with Avelo pilots, flight attendants and aircraft technicians, as well as appropriate local leaders.
“We expect to begin hiring locally for these positions immediately. Current Avelo Crewmembers (employees) will have the first option to transfer to our new AZA base,” the airline said.
The airline posted a job description for flight attendants interested in flying on the deportation flights, stating that they were searching for “energetic, highly motivated” flight attendants who will support deportation efforts.
“This opportunity is for a charter program for the Department of Homeland Security. Flights will be both domestic and international trips to support DHS’s deportation efforts,” the listing reads.
Pay starts at $28 per hour, according to the listing.
Fox News Digital reached out to ICE and Homeland Security but didn’t immediately hear back.
The Trump administration has deported more than 100,000 illegal migrants in the 11 weeks since President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Jan. 20, according to a New York Post report citing a Department of Homeland Security official.
Both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol officials have made around 113,000 arrests and carried out “north of” 100,000 deportations, the New York Post reported.
“He’s doing what he was voted in to do. Point blank!” an ICE source told the outlet.
Border czar Tom Homan has vowed to deport criminal illegal migrants, particularly those who pose national security threats, although it’s not known how many of those deported had committed crimes while in the U.S.
The deportations come as the Trump administration has simultaneously reduced the number of illegal border crossers to record lows.
The latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers show that during March, the southwest border saw the lowest number of crossings ever, with just 7,180 recorded.
Trump has faced scrutiny over the migrant deportation flights as a federal judge has claimed that these flights may have violated a federal court order.
At issue is whether the administration knowingly violated U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s emergency order, which temporarily blocked the deportations and required that any individuals removed under a centuries-old law be “immediately” returned to U.S. soil. Flights carrying migrants, including those deported under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, still landed in El Salvador that same night.
Boasberg, who issued the emergency orders at the center of the controversial and complex case, has said he intends to find out whether the administration knowingly violated them, and who, if anyone, should be held accountable.
The Alien Enemies Act, passed in 1798, has been used only three times in American history – during the War of 1812 and the two world wars – making its modern application by the Trump administration a rare legal maneuver.
Trump officials have argued invoking the law is necessary to expel dangerous individuals, including alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang, who were flown to El Salvador under the administration’s new deportation policy.
Fox News’ Michael Dorgan, Breanne Deppisch, and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
The Colorado Democratic House majority pushed through a slate of controversial gender and abortion bills on Sunday, curtailing floor debate in what Republican lawmakers called an “unprecedented” tactic.
“It should alarm every American that Colorado’s Majority used a Sunday — a day typically reserved for family and prayer — to force through four of the most extreme bills of the session,” Republican House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese told Fox News Digital on Monday.
Pugliese said while “weekend work” is a “tactic the majority uses to punish the minority,” it was especially “unprecedented” this time because of the highly controversial nature of the bills.
“There was no filibuster, no delay — just a determined effort to shut down discussion on legislation that directly affects parental rights, public safety, and the use of taxpayer dollars,” she said.
The bills that were passed include SB25-183, which requires taxpayers to fund abortion services; HB25-1309, mandating insurers cover transgender procedures regardless of age; HB25-1312, which imposes state-mandated gender policies on schools and considers it “coercive control” in child custody cases when a parent does not affirm a child’s gender identity; and SB25-129, which prohibits cooperation with out-of-state investigations on transgender procedures and abortion services.
According to state House Majority Democrat Leader Monica Duran, the four bills were debated on the floor for more than 12 hours last week.
“The minority offered dozens of amendments in that time,” Duran told Fox News Digital. “Ultimately, Coloradans elected significant Democratic majorities with clear mandates, and with only 120 days in session, we will use every day we need to do the people’s work.”
“Yesterday that included passing legislation to implement voter-approved Amendment 79, which protects abortion rights and passed with nearly 62% of the vote last November.”
Other Democrats in the legislature, who authored the passage of the bills, see them as a way to shield the Centennial State from the Trump administration’s policies.
“It’s time to fight back against out-of-state interference and Trump administration threats to restrict abortion and health care for LGBTQ+ Coloradans,” Democratic state Rep. Karen McCormick, D-Longmont, sponsor of SB25-129, said in a statement.
Democrat Rep. Lorena Garcia, sponsor of SB5-183, also said, “Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle abortion access or restrict funding altogether, Coloradans believe it’s your constitutional right to access the reproductive health care you need.”
“This bill will expand access to life-saving reproductive health care, including abortion,” Garcia said in a statement.
The bills now head to the Democratic-dominated state Senate for consideration.
A Texas man who threatened to “open fire” on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents if they came to his neighborhood was charged Monday in federal court.
Robert Wilson King, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in McKinney, Texas, after he made disturbing threats online on March 29, Homeland Security Investigations said last week. On Monday, King appeared in federal court where he was charged with transmitting interstate threats.
A judge ordered him held pending a Wednesday detention hearing.
King, 35, posted a series of threats on Facebook targeting ICE agents and making disparaging remarks about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, authorities said.
In the first, King shared a PBS NewsHour article and wrote: “I truly hope, and I mean this with all my heart, that Kristi Noem meets a horrible and agonizing demise I hope she is tried in a war criminal court with the rest of the Nazis when this is all over and I hope she is ripped apart in a gulag. Nothing less for a Nazi scum. This is America now a Nazi fascist state. Disgusting.”
He then wrote a second post where he threatened to target immigration agents.
“If I see ICE agents in my neighborhood, I am opening fire. It’s time to stop being p****** and put the second amendment to work,” King said. “ICE are not real cops, they are a secret police force with no real legal authority. Kill them.”
“Just wanna double down on what I said the other day: if ICE comes to your neighborhood, f****** shoot them and kill them. No mercy for the Gestapo,” he wrote, federal prosecutors said.
Noem previously issued a stern warning after a similar threat was made by someone on TikTok.
“If you threaten or attempt to harm a law enforcement officer we will find you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law,” she wrote in a March 30 post on X.
A group of universities, many of which receive significant federal funding, could soon rebel against President Donald Trump’s executive orders clamping down on progressive initiatives in public education, if campus activists have their way.
Members of a Rutgers University advisory board recently passed a resolution for establishing a “Mutual Defense Compact” to pool legal and policy resources of the member institutions within the Big Ten Academic Alliance in opposition to the Trump administration’s orders. The resolution calls on Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway to spearhead the effort and to “take a leading role in convening a summit of Big Ten academic and legal leadership to initiate the implementation of this Compact.”
One professor who spoke with Fox News Digital quipped in response that “the left has discovered free speech.”
“These are the same people who had who would punish other members of the university community for using the wrong pronouns for so-called microaggressions,” Dr. Kevin Jon Williams, a cardiovascular sciences professor at Temple University, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“They banned conservative speakers and engage in violence to stop conservative speakers from coming to campus, they would rescind offers to prospective applicants who had been accepted based on someone finding something they had done maybe when they were 11 or 12 years old,” Williams said. “I mean, they were totally vicious and totally against any sort of freedom of expression.”
Williams was one of the professors the measure – formally titled the Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact for the Universities of the Big Ten Academic Alliance in Defense of Academic Freedom, Institutional Integrity, and the Research Enterprise – was initially sent to before it was passed by the Rutgers University Senate.
The resolution states that “recent and escalating politically motivated actions by governmental bodies pose a significant threat to the foundational principles of American higher education, including the autonomy of university governance, the integrity of scientific research, and the protection of free speech,” and as such, the “Trump administration and aligned political actors have signaled a willingness to target individual institutions with legal, financial, and political incursion designed to undermine their public mission, silence dissenting voices, and/or exert improper control over academic inquiry.”
The defense-compact resolution was drafted by the Big Ten Academic Alliance, an organization composed of more than a dozen universities of the Big Ten Conference, which includes both public and private institutions. Originally known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the alliance was established to foster research collaboration and shared resources.
“I don’t think they’re hypocrites, I think they’re liars,” Williams added. “I think what they’re doing is they’re hiding behind the cloak of free speech, which they do not believe in, to try to maintain their control over the university environment. It’s a ploy. It’s a strategy, and we should not take them seriously when they say that they’re interested in free speech, because they demonstrated that they are most certainly opposed to free speech.”
Under the proposal, participating universities would contribute to a shared defense fund to provide immediate support for what they determine are legal and political infringements. It’s unclear which universities in the Big Ten may support the resolution.
The resolution will also “be transmitted to the leadership of all Big Ten universities and their respective governing boards and shared governance bodies,” while the president of Rutgers University “take a leading role in convening a summit of Big Ten academic and legal leadership to initiate the implementation of this Compact.”
“This is a remarkably politically partisan document,” said Williams, who is also a fellow for the conservative Do No Harm medical advocacy group. “This is a broad brush condemnation of the Trump administration. Now, for sure, by free speech, they absolutely have the right to do that, but if they do that, they cease being nonpartisan, and I would bring their tax-exempt status into question.”
Many Big Ten universities have historically received federal grants for research from agencies like the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
The resolution comes at a time when the Trump administration has taken a critical look at universities receiving federal funding. In March, the administration revoked $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, citing concerns over antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. This action was part of a broader initiative scrutinizing elite universities for alleged civil rights violations, particularly toward Jewish students.
The administration has also shifted its focus to eliminating universities’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to align with Trump’s executive orders while also banning biological males from women’s sports. The Department of Education announced investigations into over 50 colleges for alleged racial discrimination, challenging race-based admissions and scholarships in February.
Trump also signed an executive order significantly reducing the size of the Department of Education in March. While the department’s operations are scaled back, it retains control over critical functions such as Title I funding, Pell grants, student loans and special education funding.
FIRST ON FOX: An email sent to New Jersey State Police staff revealed that officers were asked not to comply with federal arrest warrants, bringing attention to the state’s “sanctuary” policies.
The email sent on March 24 was made public by Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, who said he does not fault the head of the department, Col. Patrick Callahan, but the state’s policies that are in place, as well as Democratic leaders.
“The fact that my campaign received this email is evidence that brave and courageous law enforcement officers throughout New Jersey are angry about being handcuffed by liberal Democrat policies in Trenton, making our communities less safe,” Ciattarelli said in a statement.
“The blame goes to Governor Murphy, Attorney General Platkin, and the Democrat legislature for mandating absurd policies like the Immigrant Trust Directive,” the Republican continued.
“We will be partners with the Trump Administration in fixing our immigration system and restore law and order,” he said if elected governor in November, as Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy will be termed out of office after serving two terms.
The email from Callahan, which was obtained from the Ciattarelli campaign and reviewed by Fox News Digital, said his team is not legally permitted to follow “Outstanding Administrative Warrants of Removal from the United States,” as 27,000 “hits” were recently added to the National Crime Information Center.
“Taking law enforcement action by arresting a subject based solely on an ‘Outstanding Administrative Warrant’ would violate the Attorney General’s Immigration Trust Directive,” the email states. The email, which was sent out to police personnel, “operational dispatch units” and “public safety telecommunicators,” also noted that NJSP employees cannot reach out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement through the phone number given.
The directive from the Attorney General’s Office says authorities in New Jersey, at any level of government besides federal, can help federal law enforcement “when the sole purpose of that assistance is to enforce federal civil immigration law.”
In the state governor’s race, many of the Democratic candidates’ views differ from the Trump administration’s illegal immigration policies.
During a recent debate, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Rep. Josh Gottheimer disagreed on the Laken Riley Act, federal bipartisan legislation signed by President Donald Trump that expands the crimes that could get somebody into custody of the Department of Homeland Security.
“The Laken Riley Act served to undermine the authority of the attorney general here in New Jersey,” Fulop said at the time. “It is a very dangerous piece of legislation as it relates to autonomy of the governor and the attorney general here, and it should not have been supported.”
Last month, Murphy suggested he had a migrant living with him and it was unclear if the person was in the country legally.
“Tammy [Murphy] and I were talking about – I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to. And we said, you know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage,” the Democratic governor told Blue Wave New Jersey.
“And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her,” he continued.
Attorney General Matt Platkin explained his perspective on the directive in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Our number one priority is keeping New Jerseyans safe. The Immigrant Trust Directive ensures that New Jersey police officers spend their time tackling pressing public safety issues like violent crime, gun violence, and drug trafficking, while also ensuring that victims of crime and witnesses can safely come forward to police and report crime regardless of their immigration status,” he stated. “Under the Immigrant Trust Directive, state and local law enforcement have and will continue to work with federal authorities to remove violent criminals from this country. Plain and simple, there is no ‘sanctuary’ for criminals in New Jersey.”
“The directive was drafted and is enforced with the support and cooperation of law enforcement leaders. The Office of the Attorney General, the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey, and the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, together, recentlyreleased guidance for law enforcement on the Immigrant Trust Directive and its importance,” the attorney general continued.
Murphy’s office and DHS did not comment in time for publication.
The Department of Homeland Security is “unapologetic” about using lie-detector tests on staffers as it aims to snuff out “leakers” who feed internal agency information to the public, Fox News Digital learned.
“Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is unapologetic about its efforts to root out leakers that undermine national security,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS’ assistant secretary for public affairs, told Fox News Digital Monday. “We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment or status as a career civil servant – we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”
McLaughlin’s response follows Politico’s Friday reporting that the department had administered a lie detector test in March to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Chief Cameron Hamilton following a meeting between DHS and an advisor to President Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski.
The test ultimately cleared Hamilton, according to the outlet, as officials worked to determine if information from the meeting had been leaked. The meeting reportedly focused on Trump administration efforts to “eliminate” FEMA – an agency Trump repeatedly has railed against for not doing its job in effectively aiding citizens during disasters.
The use of polygraph tests at intelligence and national security agencies is not new, with the FBI, CIA and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all using polygraph tests as part of background and security checks for potential agents or investigators, respective agency websites show.
The FBI reported that in addition to a long history of using polygraph machines to screen potential hires, the bureau has increasingly used lie-detector tests on staffers who handle sensitive information since 2001, when the FBI arrested one of its own, former agent Robert Hanssen, for spying for Russia.
The Pentagon additionally announced in March that it was launching an investigation into alleged leaks of information concerning national security, which could include polygraph tests for employees in the Defense Department, Fox Digital previously reported.
DHS had previously vowed it would use polygraph tests to weed out staffers who leaked information on immigration raids, citing that the department is a “national security agency.”
“The Department of Homeland Security is a national security agency,” McLaughlin posted to X in response to a message from February that DHS planned to polygraph staffers who may have leaked information. “We can, should, and will polygraph personnel.”
Secretary Kristi Noem issued an internal directive in February explaining polygraphs administered by DHS must include a question about unauthorized communication with media outlets and nonprofits, according to a report by Bloomberg Government.
Border czar Tom Homan speculated in February that an internal leak tipped off illegal immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Colorado and California. The leaked intel allegedly allowed Tren de Aragua gang members to evade arrest at the time.
The department already uses polygraph exams during the hiring process of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and agents in order to determine “suitability for employment” and “in support of internal and counterintelligence investigations,” according to the agency’s website.
“The federal government uses the polygraph exam to understand an applicants’ past behavior, personal connections and personal integrity,” DHS said on a web page explaining why it administers polygraph exams to CBP applicants. “Almost every Border Patrol Agent, Customs and Border Protection Officer, and Air and Marine Operations Agent who has joined CBP has taken, and passed, a Polygraph Exam.”
Looking for inspiration for your meal planning? Bite of Fox has everything you need to get you started, from recipe ideas to where to get ingredients. It even has suggestions on the perfect cookware to execute your kitchen masterpieces.
These five standout Bite of Fox recipes are the most popular and trending. The list includes classics like the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. This quick and easy recipe is served on a buttery, toasted Kaiser roll and wrapped in aluminum foil for an on-the-go breakfast. Or try your hand at the ultimate comfort food: cheesy chicken lasagna casserole, which marries a classic lasagna with Alfredo sauce to make your taste buds explode.
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Looking to breathe new life into a classic Lasagna? This Cheesy Chicken Lasagna Casserole recipe incorporates rotisserie chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and creamy alfredo sauce for a scrumptious, rich alternative you’ll love. This recipe is decadent and a great option for a weeknight comfort meal the family will enjoy. Follow the step-by-step instructions and get the ingredients you need at Bite of Fox. Use the HexClad eight-quart hybrid pot with a lid to make the heavy cream-based Alfredo filling. And cook your chicken in the Hexclad’s 12-inch hybrid frying pan.
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Try this delicious miso chicken Buddha bowl to add a healthy meal to your rotation. This recipe flavors chicken thighs with a miso-based marinade and pickled vegetables. Serve the chicken over sushi rice and top with a rainbow of pickled Daikon radishes and carrots. It is also served with edamame, shitake mushrooms and kimchi. The HexClad mixing bowl is perfect for making the pickled vegetables in this recipe. And cook up your chicken thighs in Hexclad’s 10-inch hybrid frying pan.
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Cooking can be fun and a great way to bring your family together. Find inspiration for your recipes and the ingredients you need on Bite of Fox. Make sure you are ready to create kitchen masterpieces with the right tools. Here are four kitchen essentials to help you get started:
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Fun note: This graphic is from 2018 and the first Trump Trade war. It’s almost like this could have been predicted.
Look, I know I’m not a business genius or investment banker, so naturally I was shocked to learn that businesses have a hard time doing long-term capital planning when they are unsure of what the policy landscape will be months from now, let alone years from now. This is a massive problem with the Trump Tariffs. Business Writer Derek Thomson points to the underlying conflicting strategies and goals that the President and other administration surrogates and whispers have expressed:
Nobody knows what’s going on.
You’ve prominent Trumpsplainers saying the goal of the tariffs is to raise trillions in revenue and move us off income taxes.
You’ve got folks who seem super plugged into the Trump-tech alliance like Palmer saying no no no, the goal is the… https://t.co/Fo3omknjhT
So, are these short-term tariffs intended to get other countries to remove tariffs on our goods, or are these long-term strategies to generate revenue and force companies to reshore manufacturing? I realize some galaxy brains will respond, “If the Trump administration clearly telegraphs what they want, then foreign governments can figure out ways to sabotage that strategy.” See for example:
Sometimes the best strategy in a negotiation is convincing the other side that you are crazy.
Beyond demonstrating the type of zero-sum thinking that has led us to this mess, this perspective also misses out on the fact that many domestic organizations need to know the short and long-term goals to do their own planning.
Setting the issue of tariffs on raw manufacturing materials (or the average American consumer’s willingness to pay more for American-made products that cost more than their low-cost import competitors), reshoring manufacturing is not a quick or cheap investment for companies (especially in industries with narrow profit margins).
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime will completely transform America’s economic relationship with the rest of the world, all in the name of revitalizing domestic manufacturing.
And yet, many businesses won’t be rushing to shift their supply chains to U.S. shores.
For all the detail in Trump’s Wednesday announcement, his endgame is still shrouded in confusion. That’s lethal for long-term investment, making confident planning all but impossible.
“If you want stuff being put in the ground, you have to tell people the price, and the price needs to be fully inclusive of the tariff risk,” one former administration official in Trump’s first term, granted anonymity to speak freely, told me.
[…]
I’ve asked multiple corporate executives in recent weeks whether companies are likely to start investing in manufacturing in the United States in response to Trump’s policies, and the message has basically been: That’s an unanswerable question right now. Because making those decisions requires understanding the relative costs of doing it versus not doing it, and Trump is far too unpredictable to allow for that kind of calculation.
If the markets bloodbath gets much worse, will Trump back off? How much will tariffs change over the next three-plus years? And tariff policy could change drastically under a new president in 2028. Might companies just wait it out rather than making a long-term commitment of resources and hoping for the best?
[…]
The administration argues that it is “setting the stage for long-term economic growth,” as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put it to Fox News on Wednesday. “We are putting ourselves back onto a sound trajectory.”
In the meantime, the domestic manufacturing sector is shrinking amid corporate paralysis.
“Manufacturers are putting these decisions on hold,” said Jay Timmons, head of the National Association of Manufacturers, in a CNBC interview ahead of the tariff announcement. “They’re waiting to see whether they should invest and hire. And that’s not good for the economy.”
Anyone with manufacturing experience (I have from my first gig within Kodak’s Digital) or bare imagination can understand precisely why an unstable market is not a great time to make significant changes to where materials are sourced and where manufacturing happens. That said, in the interests of evenhandedness, if someone has links to content from reputable business or economics sites (no Zero Hedge does note count, and further it looks like even they may be buying into the woke mind virus TDS that these tariffs are a bad idea) please add them in the comments.
EXCLUSIVE: House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., said he would oppose the Senate’s version of sweeping legislation to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda if it was voted on in his chamber this week.
“At this point, I would vote against it,” Harris told Fox News Digital in an interview on Monday morning.
He’s also calling for the House and Senate to get to work on their own versions of the plan, after the latter passed an amended version of the former’s legislation in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Maryland Republican, who leads the House GOP’s most conservative group, is the highest-ranking GOP lawmaker to come out against the legislation so far.
It comes as other fiscal hawks voice concerns about the Senate’s version of the legislation – specifically, that it mandates at least $4 billion in spending cuts, compared to $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in the House.
“I mean, if the Senate actually is able to deliver on meaningful deficit reduction, we could just pass the Senate amendments to the House budget resolution,” Harris said.
“But again, I’m not willing to do that until I see what the deficit reduction, the actual deficit reduction that the Senate has in mind, is.”
Congressional Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation that Trump has dubbed “one big, beautiful bill” to advance his agenda on border security, defense, energy, and taxes.
They can pass such a measure via the budget reconciliation process. Traditionally used when one party controls all three branches of government, reconciliation lowers the Senate’s threshold for passage of certain fiscal measures from 60 votes to 51.
As a result, it’s been used to pass broad policy changes in one or two massive pieces of legislation.
The House’s framework passed in late February, and included some new funding for defense and border security, along with $4.5 trillion for extending Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and implementing newer Trump proposals like no taxes on tipped wages.
The framework also called for between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion in spending cuts, dependent on how much Trump’s tax policies would add to the national deficit – something that was key to winning support from deficit hawks.
It also raised the debt limit, something Trump has specifically asked Republicans to deal with, by $4 trillion. The Senate’s version would raise the debt limit by $5 trillion.
In a letter to House GOP colleagues on Sunday, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said lawmakers would vote on the Senate’s amended version this week.
But Johnson insisted that the Senate’s passage of its framework simply allows the House to begin working on its version of the bill passed in February – and that it does not impede their process in any way.
“The Senate amendment as passed makes NO CHANGES to the House reconciliation instructions that we voted for just weeks ago. Although the Senate chose to take a different approach on its instructions, the amended resolution in NO WAY prevents us from achieving our goals in the final reconciliation bill,” the letter said.
“We have and will continue to make it clear in all discussions with the Senate and the White House that—in order to secure House passage—the final reconciliation bill must include historic spending reductions while protecting essential programs.”
Johnson’s office pointed back to the letter when reached for comment on Monday.
Passing a reconciliation framework, which merely outlines top-line spending figures, allows Congress to move on to the next step of actually crafting policy to accompany those top-lines.
But conservatives like Harris have countered that they see no need to vote on the Senate’s version of the bill to begin work in the House.
“They just think that we have to keep the train moving forward. But again, if we just begin to craft the actual reconciliation packages, that keeps the train moving forward as well,” Harris said.
He left the door open to supporting the Senate’s work, despite ruling out support for its immediate offering.
“I still think that we should just ask the Senate to begin crafting their reconciliation bill, and then if they deliver on their promise of deficit reduction, then I’m fine with their budget resolution,” Harris said.
Archaeologists recently made a colossal discovery: They found an ancient Roman mass grave, dating back to the first-century A.D., underneath a soccer field in Vienna.
The necropolis was found by construction crews working in the Vienna neighborhood of Simmering last October. The discovery was unknown to the world until the Vienna Museum announced it on Apr. 2.
The 129 bodies, which were likely a mix of Roman soldiers and Germanic tribesmen, were found in total. Dislocated bones were also found at the site, meaning that as many as 150 victims’ remains were found, the Associated Press reported.
“Within the context of Roman acts of war, there are no comparable finds of fighters,” excavation leader said Michaela Binder, as the Vienna Museum shared.
“There are huge battlefields in Germany where weapons were found.”
Experts have also been able to identify head, pelvis and torso injuries from the bones.
“They have various different battle wounds, which rules out execution. It is truly a battlefield,” Vienna archaeologist Kristina Adler-Wölfl said, as the AP reported.
“There are wounds from swords, lances; wounds from blunt trauma.”
Archaeologists used carbon-14 dating to determine the age of the bones while also consulting the artifacts, which included armor and helmet cheek protectors.
“The most likely theory at the moment is that this is connected to the Danube campaigns of Emperor Domitian — that’s 86 to 96 A.D.,” Adler-Wölfl said.
Though one victim has been confirmed as a Roman warrior so far, the examination of the bones will continue, the scientists said.
The archaeologists hope to paint a fuller picture of the soldiers and which sides each of them fought on.
The experts at the Vienna Museum shared a public presentation of the details last week.
