As July 4 approaches, MDOT offers guidelines on how to get to the beach with least traffic. But somehow the holiday is haunted by the threat posed by Congress (with Trump behind them like a Simon Legree, flogging those who stray from the coffle) as it approaches the biggest transfer of wealth from the working class to the already-rich in the history of the United States. Trump's "biggest ever" mantra is not limited to the recently dropped mega-bombs; the limited damage done to Iran's nuclear program ranks as nothing compared to the long-term damage to Americans' well-being brought on by Trump's high-velocity assault on the rights and constitutional protections previously afforded to us. As shown below, Republicans (opponents of bureaucracy) nevertheless "have turned paperwork into one of the bill’s crucial policy-making tools" to knock "people who are legitimate and qualified for Medicaid" off the rolls, enabling the big tax bonus for billionaires. Is it good to be the king? It is, apparently, if GOP members of Congress can be convinced that that's what you are.

HERE IN MARYLAND

Going to the Beach? MDOT Offers Best Times for Crossing Bay Bridge: Many Marylanders will want to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on the way to beaches in Maryland, Delaware or New Jersey. MDOT is offering a chart of the best estimated times to cross in order to beat the worst traffic.

Law And Order, Part III: The DOJ is suing the entire Maryland federal district court bench over its order requiring an automatic two-day stay in cases centered around habeas corpus, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney reports. The new suit comes after the chief of Maryland’s federal district court formally barred the Trump administration from deporting migrants detained by ICE who have filed for a legal review under habeas corpus.  Last week’s Wednesday POLITICO Playbook ALSO NYT coverage and 'Authoritarianism 101': Observers Decry DOJ's Lawsuit Against Maryland Federal Bench "It's hard not to see this challenge as further escalation by the administration of its opposition to courts that have sought to check illegal government conduct," said one lawyer and director at the Brennan Center for Justice. Common Dreams

UMD, Other Universities Sue Defense Dept. Over Research Cuts -- The University of Maryland filed a lawsuit last week against the U.S. Department of Defense and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to combat the federal government’s efforts to slash research funding. This university filed the suit along with more than a dozen other research universities and related organizations. The Defense Department has said it intends to implement a 15 percent indirect cost rate cap on financial assistance to higher education institutions. The lawsuit states this university has a predetermined indirect cost rate of 56 percent for the 2026 fiscal year.  The Diamondback (student newspaper)

State Revives Marc Expansion Plan, Despite Fiscal Woes: Maryland is reviving plans to expand MARC, its regional rail service, into Delaware and Virginia and add more trains every hour, even as the state struggles to fund its current transit system. WaPo

Two Years Later, Just Where Is the Red Line Heading? Two years after Gov. Wes Moore revived the Red Line, Baltimore’s proposed east-west light rail feels mired in uncertainty. In June 2023, Moore reversed former Gov. Larry Hogan’s 2015 decision to cancel the roughly 14-mile transit project. Then, a year ago, Moore rejected bus rapid transit in favor of light rail for the line stretching from Woodlawn to Bayview, vowing to “walk every step of the way” with the community until trains were running. The next project milestone was expected to have been announced by the end of 2024. Baltimore Banner.

Households Will Have to Wait A Bit Longer For Energy Rebates: Maryland households will have to wait just a little bit longer for a promised rebate on their energy bills amid the summer heat. While legislative leaders had said they expected the first payments in July, the Maryland Public Service Commission said Friday that the first round of rebates to all residential energy customers is expected in August or September. A second round is anticipated in either January or February. Total payments are expected to average about $80 per household for the year. Maryland Matters.

What Laws Go into Effect On July 1? Dozens of bills passed by Maryland lawmakers earlier this year will become law come July 1. From an antibias training requirement to taxes on precious metals here are some that may affect you. Baltimore Banner.

Supremes Give Mo Co Parents Opt-Out Of LGBTQ2+ Books: The U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory Friday to Montgomery County parents who object, for religious reasons, to the school system’s use of LGBTQ+-themed books in classrooms, saying parents should be allowed to opt their children out of such classes. [Activists nationwide are expected to follow this opening.] Maryland Matters.

Felon Won't Be Deported, To Be Freed To Testify Against Abrego Garcia: The Trump administration has agreed to release from prison a three-time felon who drunkenly fired shots in a Texas community and spare him from deportation in exchange for his cooperation in the federal prosecution of Kilmar Abrego García of Maryland, according to a review of court records and official testimony. WaPo

Abrego Garcia's Attorneys Ask Judge To Delay His Release Because Deportation Might Loom: Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge in Tennessee on Friday to delay his release from jail because of “contradictory statements” by President Donald Trump’s administration over whether or not he’ll be deported upon release. Associated Press.

USGS Faces Big Cuts, Endangering Chesapeake Science --  Budget Proposal From  Trump Administration Takes  Axe To Ecosystem Research: Vital research into threats to the Chesapeake Bay from invasive blue catfish, PFAS contamination, climate change and land use is on the chopping block as the Trump administration aims to decimate if not eliminate ecological studies done by the U.S. Geological Survey. In its proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 released May 30, the White House has called for a 90% cut in funding for ecological research, laboratories and personnel at the USGS. Bay Journal

THE OTHER 49

ICYMI: Gun Suicides In US Reached Record High In 2023 -- A new report analyzing federal mortality data found that suicides involving firearms made up 58% of all gun deaths in 2023 — the latest year with available data. In total, 27,300 people died by gun suicide in 2023, according to the report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions and the Johns Hopkins Center for Suicide Prevention. It found that rural, less populated states recorded the highest gun suicide rates. Stateline Daily.

GUN POLITICS: The Oregon legislature has approved a bill banning bump stocks, Glock switches and other rapid-fire activators that allow firearms to fire more rapidly. Bump stocks have been banned in 17 other states, and Glock switches are now illegal in more than two dozen states. (Oregonian) via Pluribus

OPEN RECORDS (and guns, again): The Texas Supreme Court has ruled two of the state's most powerful leaders do not have to release years of emails related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and communications with gun lobbyists after the 2022 Uvalde shooting, The Texas Tribune reports. The Texas Supreme Court sided with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, narrowing the public’s legal options to challenge Texas officials. Stateline Daily

AUTOMOBILES: New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) has signed a budget bill that will end required vehicle inspections and emissions testing. Current law requires annual inspections that cost $50 per year. (WMUR) via Pluribus

FL: Environmental groups sue to stop immigration detention center [“Alligator Alcatraz”] from operating in the Florida Everglades | Florida Phoenix via Stateline Daily

GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

DOGE Blast Violates Border: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum last week threatened legal action over falling debris and contamination from billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket launches across the border in the United States. Mexico's government was studying which international laws were being violated in order to file "the necessary lawsuits" because "there is indeed contamination," Sheinbaum told her morning news conference. [The US recently raised the cap on SpaceX launches from 5 to 25 a year despite the opposition of environmental groups]. More here at NYT

Looking over your shoulder at who might be looking over your shoulder? How does our surveillance state compare with, say, China’s ? What can we expect? Two views: Julia Angwin ‘This Is What We Were Always Scared of’: DOGE Is Building a Surveillance State and Megan Stack “Can We See Our Future In China’s Cameras?”

SATURDAY NIGHT’S ALL RIGHT FOR FIGHTING (as the Senate was about to vote on the BBB) A group of 17 GOP governors sent a pleading letter to Thune and Johnson, urging the duo to remove a 10-year moratorium on enforcing state and local AI laws from the bill, POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna reports, noting that it amounts to the biggest show of Republican resistance to the provision so far. POLITICO Playbook

The GOP’s underhanded strategy: So, where are the savings [in the BBB]? In the red tape, as NYT’s Margot Sanger-Katz and Emily Badger report: “Instead of explicitly reducing benefits, Republicans would make them harder to get and to keep. The effect, analysts say, is the same, with millions fewer Americans receiving assistance. By including dozens of changes to dates, deadlines, document requirements and rules, Republicans have turned paperwork into one of the bill’s crucial policy-making tools, yielding hundreds of billions of dollars in savings to help offset their signature tax cuts.” (POLITICO Playbook, Sunday)

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And here is Megan E’s latest on the circus that is Congress trying to pass a bill – just one bill – that ordinarily would be about a dozen appropriations bills but is jammed together in a “flood-the-zone” fashion to slip in truly fascist impositions of inequality without a possibility of delay by filibuster. [insertions in brackets are locally added]

Megan E is federal affairs director for our national affiliate, People’s Action. Here’s her take:

###Hello, People’s Action!

The Senate is in vote-a-rama on the Big Ugly bill. The House is scheduled to vote as soon as Wednesday at 9 a.m. Keep driving calls to both Houses! 

Senator Thom Tillis announced that he won’t run for reelection next year after announcing his opposition to the budget reconciliation bill due to the massive cuts to Medicaid in the bill, specifically that 663,000 NC residents would be kicked off their health care. Trump took to “Truth Social” calling for people to primary Tillis. Yesterday, Tillis announced that he would not run for reelection next year, in a statement that mourns “independent thinking” and bipartisanship.  Congratulations to Down Home NC for organizing to create the conditions in NC where Tillis believes that it was politically unviable to take Medicaid away from so many people. His resignation likely makes the NC Senate seat the most competitive Senate race in next year’s elections. 

Tillis gave a fiery speech on the Senate floor yesterday, saying: “It is inescapable this bill will betray the promise Donald Trump made,” Tillis said. “I’m telling the president that you have been misinformed. You supporting the Senate mark [see “paperwork” above] will hurt people who are eligible and qualified for Medicaid.”

>>Democrats have delayed the process by forcing clerks to read the entire bill aloud on the Senate floor on Sunday. The Senate started the process of vote-a-rama this morning where Democrats are offering a slew of amendments to the budget reconciliation bill to force Republicans to record tough votes on amendments. Here is a list of amendments Democrats are offering if you’re curious. The Senate will not vote on all of them. Leadership will prioritize some for voting. [so watch which ones they dodge]

This [Monday] morning they have been debating and voting on whether the budget chair has the authority to set the cost of the budget at what’s called “a current policy baseline” that doesn’t count the cost of all the tax cuts they are extending. The latest Congressional Budget Office analysis predicts that the One Big Ugly Bill will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit (a $4.5 trillion decrease in revenues and a $1.2 trillion decrease in spending through 2034). Republicans plan to say that the bill doesn’t “cost” anything because they exclude the cost of their tax extensions and only count new spending which is offset by Medicaid and SNAP cuts. Republicans will probably be able to use their “official score” but that doesn’t change the fact that the bill will add several trillion dollars to the deficit. [David Dayen in American Prospect notes “Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) confirmed over the weekend that if the Senate used the baseline of current law that it has used most commonly—meaning that an extension of a tax cut or spending item actually costs money relative to what the law previously said—then the Senate bill would increase the deficit by more than what the budget resolution accounted for, and deficits would also increase outside of the ten-year budget window. This would violate the rules of budget reconciliation and would mean that the bill would have to be reworked.”

Here is a list of Byrd Bath victories (what’s been taken out) from Senate Democrats. 

Here is an overview of votarama from Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office. 

Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) will offer an amendment to tie eligibility for the wind and solar tax credits to the start of a project’s construction, not its completion.

SCOTUS FOLLOWS THE TRUMP LINE

The Supreme Court wrapped this term last week with a ruling that gives more power to the executive branch in ruling that lower courts can’t issue nationwide injunctions in individual cases. The court was ruling on the birthright citizenship executive order, but did not rule on whether the order is unconstitutional. That question is still being litigated in lower courts and the vast majority of scholars agree that it’s unconstitutional. The rationale for nationwide injunctions is to temporarily block policies that could cause immediate harm to people when policies are more likely than not to be found to be illegal. The conservative majority will allow the executive branch to implement illegal orders unless a state or a class action lawsuit representing everyone affected by a particular policy seeks a nation-wide order. Immigrants rights groups immediately filed a class action lawsuit. The problem is the Supreme Court has made it much harder to get class certification granted for such lawsuits. 

>>The Court also issued a decision saying that parents [in Montgomery County] have the right to “opt” their children out of their “classes in which material, like schoolbooks with LGBTQ characters, violate their religious beliefs.” [see “HERE IN MARYLAND, above – activists across the country are expected to seize the opening].

In solidarity, 

Megan