Free Republic

WASHINGTON – Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) today issued a subpoena to Governor Tim Walz’s administration to hold it accountable in what has been called the “largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation.” Subpoenas were also issued to the Biden-Harris administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Office of Inspector General (OIG). In 2022, a U.S. attorney charged 70 individuals associated with Minnesota-based Feeding Our Future (FOF) for their alleged roles in defrauding the USDA of over $250 million in taxpayer funds—money intended to feed hungry children. To date, five individuals have been convicted of...

FIRST ON FOX – A recent hire at the nuclear security wing of the Department of Energy has previously called for disarmament policies – which reduce or eliminate nuclear weapons – arguing that advancing "queer theory" was essential to that agenda as well as important to America's national security. The Biden-Harris administration announced Sneha Nair had been appointed as special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration in February 2024. Nair believes in eradicating purported "White supremacy" in the nuclear field as well as "queering nuclear weapons" as part of a diversity, equity and inclusion push she believes is essential...

A nuclear policy expert appointed to the Department of Energy under the Biden administration in February 2024 previously co-authored an article entitled "queering nuclear weapons" which argued "queer theory" should be used to inform American nuclear policy. Sneha Nair works as a special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining the safety and security of America's extensive arsenal of nuclear weapons. On Wednesday Beijing said it was "seriously concerned" after President Biden updated America's Nuclear Employment Guidance to focus on the threat from China, according to The New York Times. Nair co-authored a piece titled...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — New federal court rulings are narrowing the Biden administration’s enforcement of a rule for protecting LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and allowing critics to limit it even further school by school. A federal judge in Missouri blocked enforcement of the rule in six additional states, bringing the total to 21. The decision Wednesday from Senior U.S. District Judge Rodney Sipple, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, applies in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. It comes just a week before the rule is to take effect.... The various federal judges’ rulings block the rule...

CenterPoint’s project would have used the money “to fund high wind and flood mitigation projects.” President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy rejected Houston’s request to strengthen its energy grid in 2023. Houston entered day five of power outages after Hurricane Beryl. Maybe, just maybe, stop concentrating on your fantasy green energy: CenterPoint Energy sought the money from a new $10.5 billion Department of Energy program that is helping utilities, states and local agencies protect the electric grid from the growing threats of extreme weather and climate change. “I don’t understand how the grant application could be rejected,” University of Houston...

Each time the Department of Energy (DOE) finalized regulations targeting popular home appliances—including stoves, clothes washers, refrigerators, and water heaters—over the last several months, the agency included a similar line in the announcement: The new rules were crafted with the help of recommendations from a "wide range of stakeholders." According to the DOE, the stakeholders included industry partners and consumer advocacy organizations. A Washington Free Beacon review, however, shows 7 out of the 10 stakeholders whose recommendations DOE consulted are climate activist groups or left-leaning consumer groups. Those groups collectively boast substantial financial backing from grantmaking nonprofits that regularly funnel...

@LeadingReport BREAKING: Former President Trump says he will get rid of the Department of Education if elected president. “We’ll have a tiny group to make sure everyone is teaching English, math, etc. Department of Education goes.”

A group of six Republican state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Department of Education on Tuesday over what they said were “radical and illegal” changes to Title IX rules.The lawsuit, led by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.In their legal filing, the GOP attorneys general argued that the department overstepped its authority when rolling out new updates to Title IX rules that expanded protections to students by incorporating gender identity into the legal text.They further claimed the changes...

The Biden administration's Department of Energy announced Monday that it would distribute $6 billion in grant funds to a number of climate projects, according to a department press release. The funds will be dispersed to 33 projects across the country as part of Biden's "Investing in America Agenda." The grant program aims to "decarbonize energy-intensive industries, reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions, support good-paying union jobs, revitalize industrial communities, and strengthen the nation's manufacturing competitiveness." Only projects that demonstrate a commitment to an "equitable and inclusive clean energy future" by "develop[ing] and ultimately implement[ing] a comprehensive Community Benefits Plan" are eligible....

The Biden administration finalized regulations for residential clothes washers and dryers on Thursday. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it is locking in the “energy efficiency” regulations for residential clothes washers and dryers, marking the latest development in the Biden administration’s wide effort to shape markets to decidedly favor more energy efficient appliances in the coming years. The agency stated that the rules will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and save consumers money on their water and electricity bills over the course of many years. “For decades, DOE’s appliance standards actions for clothes washers and dryers have provided loads of...

The Department of Education (DOE) released a “toolkit” laying out its plans to use taxpayer funds to turn out young voters who are likely to vote blue. The Biden administration has sought to use federal agencies — and their federal dollars — to conduct a “get-out-the-vote” scheme that appears designed to boost the president’s chances of reelection. Biden signed Executive Order 14019 within weeks of taking office. The order, as President of the Foundation for Government Accountability Tarren Bragdon explained in a 2022 column for The Federalist, “directs all federal agencies to do what they can to increase voter registration...

President Joe Biden’s climate change-obsessed Department of Energy (DOE) was wrong when it reversed Trump-era rules making dishwashers and laundry machines more efficient for Americans, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday. A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the agency acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it repealed laundry machine and dishwasher rules designed to cut down on wash times. The order, penned by Judge Andrew Oldham, also notes that “it is unclear that the DOE has any statutory authority to regulate water use in dishwashers and clothes washers.”

2023 was an unusually bad year for appliance regulations, and future years won’t be much better unless Congress finds a way to stop the nonsense. It all started last January when Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), announced an investigation into the safety of natural gas stoves and boasted that a ban on them was "a real possibility." That sparked a powerful consumer backlash, followed up by strong denials from the Biden administration that any such ban was in the works. But CPSC has still gone ahead with its inquiry, and in February, team...

An investigation has been launched into the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) after Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration was found to have sent billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money to a fraudulent solar company. Biden’s DOE recently gave a $3 billion award to a solar energy company that has been accused of scamming vulnerable customers. Republican leaders in the House and Senate are probing the DOE over the move. The investigations are being led by House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY). In a letter to DOE...

I couldn't help but notice this rather interesting diagram.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona hosted a meeting this month with an anti-Israel activist who has praised Hamas and Hezbollah and called for violence against Israel. Cardona on Nov. 15 met with 13 activists—including Palestine Legal advocacy manager Lina Assi—to address the "extremely disturbing pattern of hate and threats of violence in schools and college campuses" following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Assi has called Iran and its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, "crucial and important" in "resisting imperialism" in the Middle East. As a student activist, she led a crowd in a chant of "Viva, viva Intifada," a call for violent...

Ronnie Reagan is spinning in his grave right now, I tell you. Today, Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was giving a talk in support of the Department of Education's priorities and here is how he ended his speech: I think it was President Reagan said, "We're from the government, we're here to help!"

President Biden invoked a Cold War-era law in a surprising move Friday to pour taxpayer funds into domestic manufacturing of electric heat pumps, an alternative to gas-powered residential furnaces. In a joint announcement with the White House, the Department of Energy (DOE) said the federal government would award a "historic" $169 million for nine projects across 15 sites nationwide in an effort to accelerate electric heat pump manufacturing. The significant level of funding was made possible after Biden utilized the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA) to increase domestic production of green energy technologies. Under the actions announced Friday, the DOE...

The nation's largest Christian university says it's fighting a $37.7 million fine brought by the federal government over allegations that it lied to students about the cost of its programs. Grand Canyon University, which enrolls more than 100,000 students mostly in online programs, said it's filing an appeal with the U.S. Education Department on Thursday. If it fails, the Phoenix-based school said it's prepared to file a federal lawsuit. In a 40-minute speech, university President Brian Mueller called the fine “ridiculous” and questioned whether the school is being targeted because of its faith affiliation. He noted that the nation's second-largest...

Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday afternoon attended a hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida on whether Judge Cannon will agree to postpone the classified documents trial currently scheduled for May 2024. Judge Cannon signaled she may postpone Trump’s trial. She also admonished one of Jack Smith’s prosecutors, according to Julie Kelly who attended Wednesday’s hearing. Trump’s lawyers dropped bombshell revelations during the hearing on Wednesday, according to reporter Julie Kelly. Julie Kelly attended the hearing in person on Wednesday. According to Kelly, Trump’s lawyers revealed: Trump’s lawyers told Judge Cannon they discovered a June 2023 letter asking DOE to remove Trump’s ACTIVE...