Because we survived TrumpWorld's first 100 days doesn't mean we should let our defense slack off. This battle continues, but there are heartening signs that the courts are holding the Constitutional line and that other institutions (universities, law firms, maybe even the Dem opposition) are beginning to stand with the courts. Nevertheless, as we see from Megan E's meticulous roundup, Congressional GOP majorities are lining up to do TrumpWorld's dirty work. Some -- just a few -- are wavering and even showing shreds of decency in the face of overwhelming lawlessness. There are tools, as we see below, for reminding the GOP legislators they were elected to help, not hurt their constituents and bucking up the Dems who are showing some spine, too. Here in Maryland we might have to reach out to our friends and relatives in other states to help pressure the critical House and Senate members there, but you had been meaning to call them anyway, right?

It's News You Can Use

HERE IN MARYLAND

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen introduces legislation to force Trump to obey court orders: Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and three other senators introduced legislation on Thursday to force the Trump administration to report how it’s complying with court orders related to U.S. citizens or residents wrongfully deported to El Salvador. The report would require a statement on El Salvador’s human rights practices, ways the United States has promoted human rights in the Central American country and how the administration is protecting U.S. residents from being sent to El Salvador. The Diamondback (UMCP student newspaper)

 Focus blurs on nature conservation efforts in marginalized areas of Chesapeake region -- Leaders of land trusts say they aren’t turning away from their traditional goal: preserving vast, rural landscapes where real estate costs are relatively low and environmental benefits are high. But they are increasingly prioritizing land in underserved urban communities [like Baltimore’s Druid Hill] — places where a lack of green space is just one of many disparities. [However], the movement [to address resource inequality] finds itself facing challenges as the new Trump administration cancels support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs Bay Journal

Protesters flood Baltimore streets calling Trump’s second term “a nightmare”  -- About 1,000 people gathered as part of May Day actions organized nationwide to denounce assaults on immigrant justice, federal agencies, the social safety net, workers’ rights and much more. Baltimore Brew

Justice reform group calls for overhaul of Maryland home-detention policies -- As the use of electronic monitoring for pretrial supervision increases in jurisdictions across Maryland — with some locales saying they use it in as much as 91% of their cases — criminal justice advocates are calling for a uniform statewide system to replace the “patchwork system” they say is currently in place. According to a report by the Justice Policy Institute and the Abell Foundation released Monday, use of electronic home monitoring among Maryland jurisdictions has nearly doubled since 2017, and 20 out of 24 jurisdictions in Maryland have their own individual systems for electronic monitoring. Statewide data on the programs is sparse. Baltimore Sun

Summaries from Maryland Reporter:

S&P Downgrades Outlook Of State Transit Bonds Over Key Bridge Funding Uncertainty: A key bond rating agency has issued a negative outlook for outstanding revenue bonds issued by the Maryland Transportation Authority, amid uncertainty surrounding the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Standard & Poor’s reaffirmed the authority’s AA- bond rating, but in an April 25 report downgraded its outlook from stable to negative and warned of the potential for future changes. Maryland Matters.

Laws Against AI Deepfakes Come To The Forefront: At a rapid, ongoing pace, artificial intelligence’s ability to mimic voices, actions and appearances is becoming stronger and more convincing than ever. But the rate at which the machines are learning — and relearning — has far outpaced any legal process to contain them. With recent, real-world examples to consider, including fake robocalls of President Joe Biden dismissing voters and a phony MP3 of a Baltimore County principal, state and federal legislators are working to update the law and make AI “deepfakes” a defining factor in different crimes. Baltimore Sun.

 Federal Workers Seek New Jobs, But Market Is Saturated: In Maryland, about 1 in 10 workers is a federal employee, many of whom have been or could face layoffs and others who are looking for a new job. The problem is that the job market is now saturated with federal workers looking for jobs. A follow-up to earlier interviews with some of those workers. Baltimore Banner (may be paywalled)

Moore Urges Graduates To Find 'Middle Ground' On America: Gov. Wes Moore used a commencement speech Sunday at Lincoln University, an historically Black school in Pennsylvania attended by his grandfather, to urge the country’s young people to find a middle ground between raging against the country’s ugly chapters and blindly embracing American exceptionalism. WaPo

Tennessee Police Release Traffic Stop Video Of Abrego Garcia: Authorities in Tennessee have released video of a 2022 traffic stop involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland construction worker who’s become the face of U.S. immigration policy after his erroneous deportation to El Salvador. Posted by various news organizations, the body-camera footage shows a calm and friendly exchange between officers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol and Abrego Garcia. He was pulled over for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and said they’d been working in Missouri.  Associated Press.

What Trump Order Means For WYPR: President Donald Trump late Thursday signed an executive order to end federal funding for NPR and PBS “to the maximum extent allowed by law,” alleging left-wing bias in reporting from both public media organizations. The order also targets local public media stations that receive federal funds — such as WYPR and WTMD, which fall under parent company Baltimore Public Media. WYPR-FM.

Who Is Speaking at Maryland College's Graduations? Maryland college graduation season is right around the corner. This May, graduates will be sent off with words of wisdom from all manner of speakers. There are traditional types, like state leaders, barrier-breaking industry titans, a Paralympian and even a famous green puppet. Here’s a rundown of some notable commencement addresses announced so far. Baltimore Banner. (may be paywalled)

IN THE OTHER 49

Dirty data centers welcome in WVA -- West Virginia Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed into law a bill that aims to encourage data centers to locate in the state and generate their own power sources through microgrids, West Virginia Watch reports. The private grids could use the state’s “natural resources” to generate energy, including coal, the article says. The bill was subject to dozens of amendments, including changes to how taxes collected on data centers would be distributed, policies regarding how microgrids would operate and requirements for those microgrids, as well as other utilities. “  The bill allows any data centers that do locate [in WVA] to curtail local zoning ordinances and other regulatory processes and establishes a certified microgrid program, which means data centers can produce and use their own power without attaching to already existing utilities.”

State lawmakers launch group to spur ‘guaranteed income’ cash to residents -- More than 20  Democratic lawmakers from 17 states are launching Legislators for a Guaranteed Income to advocate for programs that provide direct, regular cash payments to lower-income residents to help alleviate poverty. They join a network of more than 245 mayors and county officials who have pursued dozens of basic income pilot projects across the country. Stateline Daily

GLOBAL/NATIONAL, THE FEDS

Paul Krugman, “MAGA’s War on Science” – Nobel economist Krugman relays the latest choke point – ending all grants existing or to be awarded by the National Science Foundation. “In the 21^st century, science isn’t some esoteric intellectual affair. It’s the foundation of social and economic progress. And no, we can’t expect the private sector to fill the gap left by loss of government support. Basic research is a public good: it generates real benefits, but those benefits can’t be monetized because everyone can make use of the knowledge gained. So government support is the only way to sustain science. And that support is being rapidly ended.”

The new civility on social media: “These judges ruled against Trump. Then their families came under attack,” by Reuters: There are “at least 11 federal judges whose families have faced threats of violence or harassment after they ruled against the new Trump administration … Amplified on X and other platforms by some of Trump’s most prominent allies, including Musk, [posts targeting judges’ family members] have been viewed more than 200 million times. [You can read this Reuters article by removing adblockers; this story is loaded with highly unpleasant language from the MAGA faithful]

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Here’s a TWO-PART dispatch from People’s Action federal affairs director Megan E, beginning with a message sent late last week:

Please note: I wrote an update on the delay of the markups of the tax, Medicaid and SNAP portions of the budget on Friday that I’ve included below this email in case you missed it. If you only have time to read one email [this earlier] one is more important (and it’s got better news than this email) than today’s email's laundry list of terrible things Republicans are doing.

NOTE LOCAL ACTION SOON People’s Action Institute will be participating in a 24 hour Medicaid vigil on the National Mall organized by Caring Across Generations starting on May 7th at 1pm and going until May 8th at 1pm. The whole event will be livestreamed. People’s Action Institute is sponsoring one hour from 7:00pm - 8:00pm on Wednesday. Progressive Maryland and PA Stands Up will be supporting. People's Action is Progressive Maryland's national affiliate organization

MEGAN'S FRIDAY MESSAGE Republicans have postponed the markups that they had scheduled for next week: the House Energy & Commerce Committee (Medicaid & health care cuts), the House Agriculture Committee (SNAP cuts) and the Ways and Means Committee (taxes). Our collective movement work putting pressure on Republicans over Medicaid and SNAP cuts seems to be working so keep up the good work! It’s a small victory. I’ll take it!

Republican in-fighting means delay which both delays harmful cuts and gives us more time to organize and control the narrative. 

Where things stand: Several Republicans in swing districts or with big Medicaid populations have been pushing back, but there seems to be growing Republican alignment around support for work requirements so folks should continue to push back on what messaging testing suggests we call “a work penalty.” From: Punchbowl News: “While Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) said many of his concerns have been resolved, Medicaid per capita caps remain as one outstanding problem. And Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) is sticking to his red line of only supporting $500 billion in Medicaid cuts. That number would include work requirements and eligibility checks, Bacon told reporters.”

From Politico: “Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) [district with the largest Medicaid population] who runs the centrist-oriented Republican Governance Group, is behind the effort. He has spent the last several weeks in near-constant communication with colleagues, which includes weekly meetings with the chairs of key ideological caucuses across the GOP conference and an ongoing text chat with nearly a dozen members.”

Many of the cuts they are looking at could impact people who have Medicaid due to expansion - so yes, this is a backdoor to repealing the ACA, which you may remember Republicans were obsessed with and failed to do in Trump 1.0. As one Republican told us, the per spending caps would target blue states that spend more on health care (they also tend to have higher labor costs) so Republicans in NY, NJ, CA & MI, WA should push back on that. 

The so-called “cost-sharing” proposals in either SNAP or Medicaid means that the states will be asked to pay more which is likely to result in people kicked off benefits as states face funding shortfalls from reduced federal funding across government programs. Some states have “trigger laws” for Medicaid expansion which would automatically end the expansion if the federal share of the cost sharing is reduced. The formula for expansion was created to incentivize states to expand Medicaid in the first place. 

Republicans also seem to be in disarray over tax policy. This is largely due to the math problem - it seems cutting taxes for the rich is not good for Republicans' other goal of reducing the deficit. Trump has been throwing out some populist ideas that would add to the deficit significantly (no tax on tips or social security). To find money, he did offer to let taxes go up on high income folks (!!!) and yesterday floated a progressive idea to link pharmaceutical prices that we pay to those of other nation’s (who pay less because their governments negotiate prescription drug prices). Orthodox Republicans didn’t like either of these options. For either to get through, Trump would have to expend significant political capital to counter corporate lobbying, which seems unlikely, given the ideological make-up of most Republican Senators.  The populists in the White House seem to like to throw around ideas but as of yet, there has been little teeth behind them. 

It’s escalation time! We encourage calls, petitions, story sharing in the form of op-eds, LTEs, videos & actions. Even if you think your target is not moveable, it is really important that their constituents know this is happening and how their Member of Congress votes on this issue.  Marylanders, please reach out to Progressive Maryland if you want support on any of it. See today's Weekly Memo.

Members on the committees we’re tracking or targeting and accountability: Marylanders, call your friends and relatives in these states and push the pushable ones to make these contacts.  

Energy & Commerce:  Gabe Evans, CO-8; Mariannette Miller Meeks IA-1; John James, MI-10; Tom Keane (NJ); Hudson (NC); Houchin (IN)

House Agriculture Committee (SNAP issues): Rick Crawford (AR-1); Randy Feenstra (IA-4); Rob Bresnahan (PA-8); Dan Newhouse (WA04); Derrick Van Orden (WI-3)

AND NOW THE (MORE RECENT) UNPLEASANT NEWS:

On Friday, President Trump released his proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget that proposes that Congress slash non-defense federal programs by more than $163 billion (the lowest level in the modern era) while keeping funding for the military flat. The 2026 fiscal year begins on October 1st, 2025 and Congress is already behind on the appropriations process. 

Several Republican Senators spoke out against the flatlining of the military budget. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), the Chair of the Appropriations Committee “publicly objected to the administration’s request to keep the military funded at about $893 billion, while criticizing Trump’s proposed cuts to biomedical research, education support programs for low-income households and subsidies to help the poorest Americans cover the cost of heating and cooling their homes.” Collins, who is up for reelection next year, will face quite the challenged in writing annual funding bills that will make Trump happy, get the required 7 Democratic Senators to vote for it to get around the filibuster and not harm her reelection prospects in a state with more registered Democrats than Republicans. 

Despite Trump’s campaign promises to lower costs for Americans, his budget proposes to: 

Eliminate LIHEAP (the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program ; slash discretionary funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development by more than 40 percent; cut $4.5 billion from K-12 education, $315 million from preschool; an additional $2.5 billion cut to IRS funding for tax enforcement (DOGE has already slashed upwards of 40% of IRS staff) letting rich lawyer-up folks dodge taxes; Environment $15 billion cuts to renewable energy,  $6 billion for EV chargers, $4.5 billion in USDA cuts includes conservation programs, Cuts funding to EPA by 55% including  eliminating the office of environmental justice and its grant programs entirely plus $2.5 billion from the clean drinking water state revolving loan fund AND more than $1 billion from our National Park Service AND ALSO

• Cuts funding to the National Science foundation by %56. (see Krugman post, above) 
• Shuttering USAID and the U.S. Institute of Peace
• Eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts
• And so on… 

Budget Reconciliation Markups began last week: 

The House Financial Services Committee passed its portion of the 10 year budget which would terminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB was created by Senator Elizabeth Warren (before she was Senator) in response to the 2010 financial crisis. Under the Biden administration, among other things the agency was responsible for erasing medical debt from credit reporting and went after junk fees pressing airlines and credit card companies to stop adding vague fees to our bills. 

The House Education and Workforce Committee passed its portion of the budget reconciliation bill, which would cut $330 billion from student loan programs, eliminating some of the existing student loan programs, lowering caps on federal borrowing and changing Pell grant requirements. 

 The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans passed their portion of the bill which would cut federal employees’ take-home pay, trim their pensions and shrink their job protections to reduce national deficits by more than $50 billion over 10 years. Notably, GOP Rep. Michael R. Turner of Ohio joined Democrats in voting against the bill, stating, “I don’t believe it represents Republican values or American values. I believe making changes to pension benefits in the middle of employment is wrong. Employee benefits are not a gift. They are earned.”

The House Armed Services Committee boosted the Pentagon’s budget by $150 billion over 10 years. “The Homeland Security Committee’s contributions to that bill would allocate $46.5 billion to complete the border wall and other improvements for the border barrier system; $5 billion for Customs and Border Protection facilities; and $6.1 billion to recruit and retain CBP employees, among other investments in homeland security programs.” 
House Judiciary Committee passed a proposal “to provide tens of billions of dollars for immigration authorities and establish a host of fees for applications through the legal immigration system. Those new charges include a minimum $1,000 fee for potential asylees and a minimum $3,500 fee for sponsors of undocumented children.” The bill would also grant Congress veto power over many agency regulations. Republicans universally voted against an amendment offered by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) on Wednesday that would have prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using federal funds to detain or deport US citizens.