Posts by Newspaper Staff

Against all odds, U.S. House Republicans finally united around the Senate-revised “big, beautiful bill” and passed it in a 218-214 vote Thursday afternoon, sending the multitrillion-dollar budget reconciliation package to the president’s desk.
The bill’s passage marks yet another herculean feat by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who not only persuaded – with President Donald Trump’s help – the most recalcitrant GOP holdouts to vote for the bill as is, but also passed it by a self-imposed July 4 deadline.
The $3.3 trillion megabill, formerly titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, hikes the debt ceiling by $5 trillion and implements the bulk of Trump’s tax, energy, border and defense agenda.
When Johnson barely passed the first version in the House last week, he promised fiscal hawks that the Senate would pair any additional tax cuts with dollar-for-dollar spending cuts. The House version extended most of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for the next 10 years while finding $1.7 trillion in offsets.
But Senate Republican leaders, itching to permanently extend the boosted maximum standard deduction and reduced cross-bracket tax rates, adopted a controversial accounting method to theoretically zero out the cost of codifying Trump’s tax policies.
That move and other changes, reported on by The Center Square, alienated multiple House Republicans and upset multiple delicate political compromises House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had made his constituents earlier.
Despite threats by many Republicans in the House to oppose the final bill when it returned to their chamber, Johnson decided to muscle the bill through the House Rules Committee and onto the floor Wednesday, where he and other GOP congressional leaders spent all night pushing hardliners to fold.
“I do so deeply desire to have just normal Congress, but it doesn’t happen anymore,” Johnson told reporters around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. “I don’t want to make history, but we’re forced into these situations.”
Ultimately, Johnson’s gamble paid off, garnering praise from his colleagues and condemnation from Democrats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the bill a “disgusting abomination” that will “have devastating consequences for everyday Americans” during his eight-hour long speech leading up to the final vote.
Among other things, the bill codifies the $15,000 maximum standard deduction, the 20% Qualified Business Income deduction, and the doubled child tax credit of $2,000, though both parents now need a Social Security number to claim it.
Key business tax credits would become permanent as well – full reimbursement for capital investments, an expanded deduction for corporation’s interest on debt, and streamlined deductions for companies’ research costs.
The bill also implements some temporary tax provisions that Trump promised during his campaign, such as creating a $6,000 deduction for eligible seniors and nixing taxes on tips and overtime. The Senate version requires seniors to have a Social Security number to claim the deduction, as well as caps deductions for tips at $25,000 and deductions for overtime at $12,500 for single filers.
To partially offset the bill’s cost and advance Trump’s goal to cut waste and fraud, the legislation would require able-bodied adults without dependents to fulfill work-related requirements to receive welfare benefits and cap the Medicaid provider tax at 3.5% – down from the current 6% rate – by 2030.
It also cracks down on states with high SNAP payment error rates and hikes states’ share of the program’s administrative cost by 2027.
Costly solar and wind subsidies from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act will have slightly faster phaseouts than originally intended, saving about $517 billion over the next 10 years. The savings are less than fiscal hawks wanted, but a substantial enough spending decrease to eventually get them on board.
“The One, Big, Beautiful Bill is for the people who don’t have lobbyists in this town,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., told lawmakers early Thursday morning. “It’s about restoring sanity in a town that’s lost it, cutting waste and reining in reckless spending. It demands that if you’re able to work, you should. It stops asking working families to foot the bill for Washington’s bad decisions.”
The White House has scheduled a bill signing ceremony Friday.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to take up two cases in its next term on laws banning transgender women from participating in girls and women’s sports, based on biological sex.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. The cases come out of Idaho and West Virginia, respectively, where individual athletes filed suit in the states alleging discrimination on the basis of sex.
In Idaho, the 2020 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act placed a categorical ban on participation of transgender women and girls from competing in women’s and girls sports across all ages and levels of competition. The act also allowed any student to “dispute” the sex of any student participating in female athletics and required that athlete to undergo medical procedures to verify sex.
Lindsay Hecox, a transgender athlete, sued the state and an Idaho district court enjoined the order on the basis of sex discrimination. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s judgment and prevented the Idaho law from going into effect.
In West Virginia, the Save Women’s Sports Act prevented biological males from competing in girls and womens sports across the state. Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 13-year-old transgender girl, challenged the law.
Pepper-Jackson said she identified as transgender since third grade and was taking puberty-blocking medication. The law prevented Pepper-Jackson from participating on the cross-country team.
The West Virginia district court decided the case did not discriminate on the basis of sex and the state’s law was constitutional. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision.
The Supreme Court took up the West Virginia case in 2023 and decided to vacate the circuit court’s decision, sending it back to the lower court.
In each case, the state governments filed petitions to the Supreme Court and were granted a hearing.
Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president at the advocacy group Defending Education, celebrated the court’s decision to take up each case.
“To those of us who have been advocating for common sense athletic policies separating boys and girls based on notions of fairness, safety, equality, and the black letter text of Title IX – we are, today, breathing a sigh of relief,” Perry said.
“It appears the grownups are finally in the room, and the Court is likely to – based on its recent jurisprudence – overturn the decisions of the 4th and 9th Circuits striking down women’s sports protection laws,” she added.
The court’s next term will begin in October. Arguments are likely to be heard in the fall with a decision coming out in spring 2026.
‘We look forward to continuing to vigorously defend the cause of educational equality in the coming months until all women and girls can reclaim their rightful spots on athletic fields across the nation,” Perry said

Six university systems across the nation established a new accreditor focused on academic excellence, with a medical group seeing it as a sign that accreditors’ “stranglehold” on public education may be nearing its end.
Do No Harm medical director Dr. Kurt Miceli told The Center Square that “the creation of the Commission for Public Higher Education marks a promising step forward for public postsecondary education.”
The new accreditor – the Commission for Public Higher Education – “will create a first-of-its-kind accreditation model for public higher education institutions that will offer high-quality, efficient services prioritizing academic excellence, student outcomes and achievement,” according to a news release.
The six systems making up the commission are the State University System of Florida, the University System of Georgia, the University of North Carolina System, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee System, and Texas A&M University System.
According to the joint statement for the commission obtained by The Center Square via communications with the State University System of Florida, a few of the commission’s principles include reducing bureaucracy, ensuring accountability to the states of its member institutions, and remaining recognized by the Department of Education “for the purposes of Title IV participation by its accredited institutions.”
Medical group Do No Harm is pleased with the establishment of a new accreditor, seeing the action as a sign “accreditors’ stranglehold on public education may be breaking,” according to a news release.
Do No Harm is a group of medical professionals committed to keeping identity politics out of the medical field, including medical education, according to its website.
In their position of power over the schools they accredit, accreditors are able to – as Do No Harm puts it – “inject political agendas into universities’ policies” if they please. Do No Harm is especially concerned with this issue of political agenda as it pertains to medical education.
“Medical education could likewise stand to gain from this same spirit of innovation,” Miceli said.
Miceli said “accreditors wield considerable power in shaping higher education, particularly within healthcare.”
“They’ve unfortunately misused this influence to push political agendas through university policies that have proven both divisive and discriminatory,” Miceli said.
“In the landscape of medical education, some of these DEI standards have recently been rolled back by two of the main medical education accreditors,” Miceli said. “Yet, more needs to be done to ensure and maintain an unwavering focus on excellence and outcomes.”
When asked how the newly formed commission can be kept from enforcing political agendas as other accreditors have done, Miceli told The Center Square that “one of the most effective ways of ensuring accountability is by fostering competition.”
“President Trump underscored this in his Executive Order on Reforming Accreditation, instructing the Secretary of Education to recognize new accrediting agencies as a means of promoting competition,” Miceli said.
“Additional accreditors create greater choice for institutions,” Miceli said.
“And with no single accrediting agency holding monopoly power, all accreditors are naturally compelled by market forces to better serve the genuine needs of higher education – focusing on academic rigor and quality outcomes over political agendas,” Miceli said.
When reached for comment, the University System of Georgia told The Center Square: “The University System of Georgia (USG) is working with neighboring higher education systems on a new accreditation approach that keeps academic and institutional rigor front and center.”
“While this effort expands accreditation options, USG institutions and programs remain accredited by SACSCOC and other accrediting bodies,” USG’s statement said. “We’re grateful to the federal administration for its support and look forward to how this collaboration opens the door to future opportunities by strengthening and innovating higher education oversight.”
The University of North Carolina System, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee System, and Texas A&M University System have not yet responded to The Center Square’s requests for comment.