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FDA holds public hearing on psychedelic drugs as Trump-driven push gathers pace

2026-09-14 16:23:12 / Reuters

Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, U.S., August 29, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/ Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Sept 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. FDA is holding ​a public hearing on Monday to gather feedback on the potential therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs, the latest step in ‌a months-long push by President Donald Trump’s administration to speed up development of the treatments for serious mental illnesses.

The hearing is part of a broader push launched in April, when Trump ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to focus on qualifying psychedelic drug programs for its priority-voucher program.

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The order also directed the FDA to work ​with the Drug Enforcement Administration on a pathway for some patients to obtain investigational treatments under a law, which allows certain seriously ​ill patients to seek experimental therapies, and to increase collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Since then, the ⁠FDA has issued priority vouchers to three companies developing psychedelic-based treatments, one for psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, another for psilocybin for major depressive disorder ​and a third for methylone for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The hearing focuses on practical issues that could shape how psychedelic therapies are tested and delivered, including ​provider training and credentials, patient screening and monitoring, access and reimbursement, clinic capacity and the collection of long-term safety data.

The FDA said it was not seeking views on individual drug applications, the scheduling of controlled substances or the legalization of psychedelics.

Doctors, veterans, pharmacists and therapists during the hearing urged the regulator to establish clear safety ​and access standards for psychedelic-assisted therapies.

Experts said any approved psychedelic treatment must include trained staff in the room during sessions, along with proper screening, ​follow-up care and community support.

Robert Barrow, CEO of Definium Therapeutics, which is developing an LSD-based therapy, told Reuters that the hearing offers “a nice opportunity for that ‌continuing public ⁠dialogue” among regulators, clinicians and patients.

He said regulators and industry should treat psychedelics “like it’s normal drug development, normal science, normal medicine,” rather than as an unusually novel category requiring special treatment.

Just days before the hearing, senior FDA officials, including Michael Davis, head of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine outlining a framework for developing and approving psychedelic drugs and saying the ​agency was “meeting this moment” on hard-to-treat ​conditions such as major depressive disorder ⁠and PTSD.

The American Psychiatric Association said it “appreciates the FDA’s public hearing and coordination with federal partners on the potential therapeutic use of psychedelics.”

“The FDA’s determination of safety and effectiveness… must remain the foundation for any future ​clinical use.”

Jefferies analysts said the framework suggested the FDA was willing to consider flexible trial designs to ​address challenges including “functional ⁠unblinding,” when a drug’s noticeable psychoactive effects reveal to participants which treatment they received.

The administration’s support has stirred fresh investor interest in the sector, with industry executives telling Reuters it could improve coordination between the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration and help reduce regulatory delays, even as researchers noted that approved ⁠treatments were ​still likely years away.

Continued alignment among regulators, clinicians and developers on a safe, supervised rollout ​should benefit AtaiBeckley , Compass Pathways (CMPS.O), Definium Therapeutics (DFTX.O), Helus Pharma (HELP.NLB), and GH Research (GHRS.O), analysts said.

Helus CEO Michael Halstead said “the science continues to advance, and continued thoughtful engagement among regulators, researchers ​and clinicians is critical to advancing these promising new treatments.”

Reporting by Kamal Choudhury and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Shilpi Majumdar

Donald Trump Jr.’s wife says Russian oligarch hosted post-wedding festivities as a “gift”

September 14, 2026 / 12:37 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — Bettina Anderson, the wife of the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., took to Instagram Monday to confirm that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev hosted some of their May post-wedding festivities on a private island in the Bahamas as “an extraordinarily generous wedding gift.”

Her post comes after ProPublica published a story Monday morning with the headline, “Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding was secretly bankrolled by Russian oligarch close to Putin.”

Anderson said the Russian businessman, whom she called “our dear friend,” hosted two nights of celebrations after their wedding. Kremlev is the secretary general of the International Boxing Federation and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She said the wedding itself was for family only. President Trump did not attend, citing his responsibilities in Washington.

“The weekend that followed had actually been planned well in advance as a fun weekend with friends,” she said. “It was never intended to be our wedding weekend. When our original wedding plans changed, we simply decided to get married before it and arrived at an already planned weekend as newlyweds. Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding. It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful.”

It’s not clear how they became acquainted with Kremlev. Anderson said in her post, “friendship doesn’t require a political motive.”

“We are fortunate to have wonderful friends from all over the world, and we will never be embarrassed or apologetic about being grateful for them,” she said, insisting there was “NO CONSPIRACY.”

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Forbes estimates Donald Trump Jr.’s net worth is approximately $300 million. CBS News has asked the Trump Organization why Trump Jr., its executive vice president, accepted the gift.

Kremlev’s press office told ProPublica in a statement that he and Trump Jr. “have a friendly relationship” and first met “a couple of years ago.” The statement said Kremlev “has never discussed political matters with any of his American friends and acquaintances.”

Joe Manchin says he supports Republican candidates in battleground Senate races in Maine and Michigan

2026-09-14 2:23 PM ET / CNN

By Patrick Svitek

Former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat-turned-independent, said Monday he supports two Republican Senate candidates running in battleground races in November.

During an appearance on CNBC, Manchin expressed support for former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running for an open seat in Michigan, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is seeking reelection. Both races are crucial to whether the GOP will retain control of the Senate.

“You lose the Susan Collinses of the Senate, you’re losing the soul of the Senate — basically, a person you can talk to, who wants to do the right thing all of the time,” Manchin said, adding that he would campaign with the senator.

Manchin, a longtime critic of extremes in both parties, served in the Senate from 2010-2025 and left the Democratic Party during his final months in office, arguing that the party’s brand had become “toxic.” He has remained involved in politics and launched a national effort in July to help elect more independents.

Joe Manchin discusses his memoir “Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense” at The 92nd Street Y in New York, on September15, 2025.

Andy Kropa/Invision/AP/File

Mike Rogers, left, and Sen. Susan Collins

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In the CNBC interview, Manchin praised Collins, Rogers and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who is not up for reelection until 2028, as “independent, free-thinking Republicans, not completely crazy right or completely crazy left.”

Manchin previously crossed party lines as a Democrat in the Senate to support Collins in her last reelection campaign.

As for Michigan, Manchin said he hasn’t made any endorsements but called Rogers a “personal friend” and expressed a preference for him as the show’s host asked about Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, an outspoken progressive.

“I do support Mike Rogers,” Manchin said. “I think Mike Rogers is a good person. I think he’ll do a great job.”

At the same time, Manchin said Rogers “has to” denounce President Donald Trump’s trade policies to win his race, something the candidate has not done. “We’ll have to see,” Manchin said.

In Maine, Collins faces Democrat Troy Jackson, the former state Senate president who replaced embattled nominee Graham Platner on the ballot, as she fights for a sixth term in a state that Trump has lost three times. She highlighted Manchin’s remarks on social media and in a news release and said she was “honored” to have his support.

“Joe is a dear friend and trusted colleague with whom I have always worked closely to solve problems and deliver results for the people of Maine and America,” Collins said.

In CNN polling released Wednesday, both the Maine and Michigan races were close, with no clear leader among likely voters.

Vance announces about 870,000 people suspected of defrauding COVID-era programs barred from future federal loans

2026-09-14T12:45:00-0400 / CBS News

Kansas City, Missouri— Vice President JD Vance announced Monday the Trump administration will suspend roughly 870,000 people suspected of defrauding pandemic-era small business programs from receiving future federal loans.

The vice president contended that borrowers who stole taxpayer money should no longer be eligible to receive loans from government-backed programs.

“If you screwed the American taxpayer, the federal government is now going to say you’re cut off, no more,” Vance told reporters. “You shouldn’t be applying anymore, and if you do apply, you’re no longer able to get those benefits.”

His remarks came as the Justice Department announced a slew of cases in a nationwide crackdown on fraud involving the COVID-19-era Paycheck Protection Program.

The department’s enforcement push, which ran from June 12 through Sept. 1 and was dubbed “Heartland fraud surge,” resulted in actions involving more than 160 defendants and approximately $245 million in intended losses to taxpayers. The operation was put into action more than five years after the government pushed emergency loans to businesses nationwide that were struggling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The initiative involved prosecutors from 44 U.S. Attorney’s Offices, along with more than 20 federal and state investigative partners.

SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the suspensions announced by the vice president are tied to an estimated $39 billion in suspected fraud from across 45 states and territories. Combined with earlier enforcement actions, Loeffler said the SBA has now suspended borrowers connected to roughly $49 billion in alleged fraud across all 50 states.

SBA has previously stated that all suspended borrowers are barred from future small-business and disaster loans and from programs including its 8(a) federal contracting program.

“Exposing these criminals is only the first step,” Loeffler said. “This summer, we referred $22 billion to the United States Treasury for collections.”

The SBA had previously announced that it had referred more than 560,000 suspected fraudulent borrowers, tied to roughly $22.2 billion in delinquent PPP and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan program loans, to the Treasury Department for collection.

While not criminal prosecutions, treasury collections are aimed at recovering outstanding debt owed to the federal government.

Attorney General Todd Blanche told CBS News in an interview Monday, “We have 500 prosecutors now in D.C. and around the country focused on this. We have prosecutors in all 93 U.S. attorneys’ offices now directly focused on this.”

Throughout the surge, federal prosecutors and investigators pressed felony charges against nearly 80 defendants in cases involving roughly $100 million in intended losses connected to Small Business Administration COVID-era programs, including the PPP and EIDL programs.

Another approximately 43 defendants pleaded guilty in SBA-related COVID fraud cases involving roughly $44 million in intended losses, while about 40 defendants were sentenced in cases involving nearly $100 million in intended losses.

In total, the summer enforcement activity targeted more than 160 criminal defendants and roughly $245 million in intended losses total, according to the Justice Department.

The cases involve a broad range of alleged schemes, including fabricated businesses, false payroll and revenue information, plus identity theft.

Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel appeared alongside federal and state law enforcement officials in Kansas City to announce the results of the operation.

The federal investigation targeted fraud in a program that stopped issuing new loans in 2021. Congress established the PPP or the Paycheck Protection Program in March 2020 to prevent businesses from collapsing as sweeping shutdowns and pandemic restrictions upset the economy. Backed by the Small Business Administration, banks and other lenders ultimately made roughly 11.8 million loans totaling about $800 billion. While loans could be forgiven, borrowers had to meet strict requirements, including using the money for payroll and other eligible expenses.

Still, government safeguards lagged behind an onslaught of applications, and since the creation of the program, government watchdogs discovered that major screening tools were not in place until after the approval of hundreds of billions of dollars. The SBA’s inspector general previously estimated that more than $200 billion distributed through PPP and a separate pandemic disaster-loan program show signs of fraud.

Why now?

The new operation calls into question why investigators are still uncovering massive alleged schemes involving loans issued years ago.

Blanche told CBS News that prosecutors now have the funding and the staff to take cases they previously might not have had resources to pursue: “What we’re saying now is, yes, you do. You do have the time. You do have the resources. You need to take that case and investigate it.”

Last month, the Justice Department created a National Fraud Detection Center designed to comb through data from agencies maintaining separate records.

A March 2025 Government Accountability Office report found that roughly two million of nearly three million pandemic-loan fraud referrals contained incomplete, incorrect or duplicative information, limiting investigators’ ability to act on them.

A central question for investigators is whether the remaining pandemic-fraud caseload consists largely of individuals who exploited unusually loose safeguards or whether investigators are still uncovering larger networks involving brokers, application preparers and others who allegedly helped multiple borrowers obtain money.

Fraud in the heartland

The operation includes the prosecution of Jamie Gray in the Western District of Missouri, charged with wire fraud and money laundering in an alleged scheme amounting to nearly $56 million in intended losses.

Gray submitted both PPP and EIDL applications claiming ownership of dozens of businesses that purportedly existed pre-pandemic. But prosecutors allege nearly all of the businesses were not operating before the programs’ eligibility deadline. Among others, Gray allegedly claimed to own, “Fur Lives Matter,” an existing Texas company that prosecutors say had no connection to Gray. The indictment alleges information about ownership, employees, revenue and business operations was entirely fabricated.

In a different case, a federal grand jury housed in the Northern District of Iowa indicted Adrian Rafael Pupo Perez and Helen Yaima Leyva Santiesteban with 47 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.

Prosecutors claim the defendants and more than 100 other individuals participated in a sweeping scheme involving approximately 470 fraudulent PPP applications submitted in the names of people across the country. The group allegedly sought more than $4.5 million in PPP funds, of which approximately $2.4 million had been disbursed. Both Pupo Perez and Leyva Santiesteban are on the run, according to the Justice Department.

The Western District of Missouri has led efforts to prosecute pandemic-relief cases this year, including defendants accused of fabricating payroll figures, submitting false tax documents and using PPP proceeds for personal expenses.

During a meeting with federal and state officials before the announcement, Deputy Attorney General Colin McDonald said altogether the U.S. has carried out over 1,200 major fraud actions over the last 160 days.

Weak safeguards

The wave of new charges raises old questions about safeguards — when Congress and the first Trump administration initially created the PPP program at the height of the economic emergency.

After the spring of 2020, federal watchdogs concluded that the SBA weakened or in some cases even delayed safeguards that could have been switched on to identify suspicious borrowers before the government issued any payments.

Expanded automated screening and reviews were only put in place in January 2021 — after more than $525 billion in PPP loans had already been approved — according to the Government Accountability Office.

Future fraud

In 2023, the SBA inspector general estimated that more than $200 billion in PPP and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds might have been funneled to potentially fraudulent actors, an estimate based solely on unearthed fraud indicators and data analytics.

Congress previously extended the statute of limitations for investigation into potential PPP and COVID-related fraud to 10 years, giving prosecutors until 2030 or 2031 to bring forward additional cases.

“Every one of these arrests, every one of these takedowns … we are saving money for the American people — real money, millions and millions and millions of dollars,” Blanche said in his interview with CBS News.

For a Trump administration that has discussed fraud frequently, Monday’s announcement is also intended to showcase a broader effort extending beyond PPP. Earlier this year, the Justice Department established a National Fraud Enforcement Division, and the White House announced a government-wide task force chaired by the vice president to go after fraud involving taxpayer-funded programs. McDonald told federal law enforcement gathered ahead of Monday’s press conference that the office has grown to 500 personnel since that announcement.

McDonald said the department will continue growing its fraud task force to meet the scale of fraud targeting federal programs.

“And we are growing even bigger. Why? Because the American people demand it,” McDonald told a room full of dozens of law enforcement officers and public officials. “They demand our best. They demand our resources. They demand that we take it personally when someone decides to steal from the United States of America, and we will not shrug our shoulders at such conduct.”

US senators weigh requiring AI giants to commit to preventing catastrophe

2026-09-14 17:08:04 / Reuters

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; Lisa Su, CEO and chair of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD); Michael Intrator, co-founder and CEO of CoreWeave; and Brad Smith, vice chair and president of the Microsoft Corporation, are seated to testify before a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing titled “Winning the AI Race: … Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tabRead more

• Companies

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate negotiators are debating legislation that would require AI companies to demonstrate they are taking reasonable precautions to keep their tools from causing harm, according to a Senate aide ​and a lobbyist familiar with the talks.

Alarm about the potential danger posed by AI grew last ‌week after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said he had resigned, in part because the “people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” AI-related stocks fell worldwide on Monday after leaders of some of the industry’s largest companies called for ​slowing the pace of the technology’s development.

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The senators are debating giving the U.S. commerce secretary the power to ​request proof that AI developers are taking reasonable steps to prevent harm, known as a “duty ⁠of care,” according to the Senate aide and lobbyist. The secretary would also have the power to deploy government ​auditors to test companies’ products themselves, they said. Reuters could not immediately determine what would qualify as “reasonable.”

The legislation is still being ​debated. Even if Congress approves the measure, it faces long odds of becoming law. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that existing authorities already provide adequate tools to regulate and prosecute tech companies, suggesting he wouldn’t sign a bill setting new rules for AI.

The proposal ​is being discussed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz and Senator Amy Klobuchar, the ​top Democrat involved in the negotiations. A spokesperson for Cruz did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

“There is a ‌way in ⁠which Congress can put guardrails around those types of more consequential threats without in any way harming our ability to stay ahead in the AI race,” Thune told reporters on Monday.

“I’m continuing to work toward a bipartisan agreement on legislation for government oversight of the greatest risks posed by AI models,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “That includes requiring developers to ​work with government experts to ​verify and test models ⁠to make sure AI is safe.”

Cruz’s Senate committee has oversight of the U.S. Commerce Department, the agency with in-house AI safety researchers. Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the ​Commerce Committee, has also weighed in on the legislation, sources say.

Reuters reported on Friday that negotiators ​are also ⁠debating involving federal courts if the U.S. government wants to block the release of certain AI models that it deems unsafe.

Companies would be able to challenge that decision in federal court, and the exact structure of how much power the U.S. government ⁠would have ​is still being discussed.

Part of the measure involving federal courts would also ​block states from enforcing their own laws governing certain risks posed by AI models, according to another lobbyist and a Senate aide.

The U.S. companies known ​for the most advanced AI models are Anthropic and OpenAI.

Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Nick Zieminski

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Inside House Republicans’ plan to end run Dem opposition and pass Trump-backed voter ID

September 14, 2026 12:41pm EDT / Fox News

Rep Bryan Steil says he hopes Congress can get election integrity measures done before the November midterms

By Elizabeth Elkind Fox News

GOP lawmaker reveals plan to bypass Democrats on Trump-backed election bill

Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil spoke with Fox News Digital about Republicans’ plan to pass key portions of the SAVE America Act via reconciliation.

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Congressional Republicans have a plan to pass key portions of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act before the end of this year.

The election integrity bill backed by President Donald Trump and fiercely opposed by Democrats has stalled in Congress, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has been reluctant to call it up for a vote, given that it’s all but assured to fail.

At least several Democrats would be needed to reach the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster. But left-wing lawmakers in the House and Senate have panned the legislation as an attempt to sow doubt in U.S. elections at best and voter suppression at worst.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is now pushing Republicans to pass the bill’s main mandates via the budget reconciliation process, which allows the party in power to pass sweeping fiscal policy without input from the minority due to its sidelining of the Senate filibuster. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., chairman of the Committee on House Administration, is tasked with overseeing how that part of the bill gets done.

TRUMP QUESTIONS THUNE’S LEADERSHIP AS SAVE AMERICA ACT STALLS

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., attend the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance ceremony in Emancipation Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

“I’d rather pass the SAVE America Act. But recognizing that the Senate might not be able to get that done with the 60-vote threshold, let’s leverage the parliamentary procedure, bring that threshold down to 50, and get some really commonsense reforms done,” Steil told Fox News Digital in an interview. “I’ve been having great conversations with my colleagues in the administration as well as the Senate.”

SENATE FACES ‘COME-TO-JESUS’ MOMENT ON TRUMP’S ELECTION PRIORITY UNDER GOP’S NEW PLAN

Steil told Fox News Digital that he hoped Congress could pass a reconciliation bill with SAVE America before the November midterm elections, but conceded “the clock is ticking down pretty quickly.”

The budget reconciliation process is a lengthy one, with Republicans having taken roughly half a year to use it to pass Trump’s signature One Big, Beautiful Bill Act last year. Both the House and Senate must pass budget “frameworks,” with instructions for relevant committees to enact policies that either spend or cut funding to a specified amount.

Those committees pass their portions, then send them back to the House and Senate budget committees to tie them together into one massive bill. Identical bills must pass the House and Senate before getting to Trump’s desk.

Steil’s panel, which has jurisdiction over federal election law, is aiming to include two portions of the original SAVE America Act: a proof of citizenship mandate for the voter registration process, and a nationwide photo ID rule to cast a ballot.

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., holds a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 10, 2025.(Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

READ THE DOCUMENTS: WHITE HOUSE RELEASES ELECTION INTEGRITY FILES AFTER TRUMP SPEECH

“The House can go as fast as the Senate. And so the frustration that I and others have is the Senate’s not moving as fast as we would like on this. I actually think there’s 50 votes in the Senate for some of these really commonsense provisions,” Steil said. “I’d like to be sooner rather than later, but I don’t control them.”

Where the process gets even trickier is when the Senate parliamentarian, who is appointed by Senate leadership to help interpret the chamber’s rules, goes through the reconciliation bill draft and weeds out what does not adhere to the process rules. That means anything that does not impact the federal government’s budget, tax policy, or the national debt is generally removed.

TOP TRUMP OFFICIAL MAKES NEW SAVE ACT CASE TO REPUBLICANS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Steil said portions of the SAVE America Act could arguably get through that filtration process by affecting funds going to states via the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), a 2002-era election reform law.

“We could free up those funds or enhance those funds for states to do those post-election audits, which is a really important part of election integrity. You can do the same in regards to photo ID,” he said, adding that making Real ID the standard could also effectively impact the citizenship mandate. “Effectively, when an individual gets REAL ID, they’re proving their citizenship.”

TRUMP INTERVENES AS HOUSE GOP REVOLT PUTS SAVE AMERICA ACT AT CENTER OF SPENDING SHOWDOWN

And the Trump administration is behind the push. Earlier this year, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought told Republicans at a lawmaker-only meeting that the White House backed using the reconciliation process for SAVE America and argued it was the best way forward to pass the GOP’s election reforms, multiple people in the room told Fox News Digital.

“The White House is engaged. We’ve had good conversations,” Steil told Fox News Digital.

The House passed its version of the reconciliation bill earlier this summer, a $95 billion budget aimed at replenishing the U.S. military and enhancing election security.

But in the Senate, Budget Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., unveiled his committee’s framework just before the chamber left for the August recess. It’s not clear when it will advance through his panel or get a vote.

GOP CIVIL WAR ERUPTS OVER TRUMP’S LATEST AGENDA PUSH AS KEY REPUBLICANS THREATEN TO SINK MEGABILL

Their legislation calls for up to $150 billion in spending — a significant difference.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., acknowledged that gap in an interview with Fox News Digital last month.

“I mean, the idea was, in keeping it skinny, is to move it quickly. And so the more you add to it, the more complex it gets, the more in the Senate — not to get too deep in the weeds — but procedurally, it involves more committees of jurisdiction in both bodies. And that’s where things start to get weighted down. So we’re very close to an election, the stakes are very high, the timing is short, and if you’re going to do election integrity measures, you need to do it, like, yesterday,” Johnson said. “We passed the SAVE America Act four times in the House. This is the last best effort to get it through the Senate, so I’m for doing it as quickly as possible.”

Steil said he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached.

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“I think, broadly, we’re aligned. I think obviously the total numbers are different,” he said. “I think everyone recognizes the importance of making sure that our men and women in uniform have the resources needed to not only defend themselves but to defend our country… And also that we have the resources needed to make sure that we’re protecting our election.”

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

EPA to eliminate limits on climate pollution from power plants

September 14, 2026 2:10 PM EDT / CBS News

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to repeal rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas, an action that Administrator Lee Zeldin has said would remove billions of dollars in costs for the industry and help “unleash” American energy.

The rule change, proposed last year, could be announced as soon as Monday, according to two people familiar with the proposal, and represents a fundamental shift from efforts by Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama to address climate change and clean up industrial pollution, often in low-income and majority Black or Hispanic communities.

The rule, which is expected to face immediate legal challenges, also could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, people familiar with the proposal said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the final rule had not yet been made public.

The EPA did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment.

The EPA said last year it would publish a finding that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution,” although the agency’s own data from 2023 showed that the power sector produced 31% of carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, the second-highest of all industries.

More than a dozen environmental and health groups have sued Zeldin and the EPA after rolling back fundamental steps taken by United States leaders to curb fossil fuel pollution for most of the last two decades.

Zeldin, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are hosting a G20 ministerial meeting on “energy abundance” in Houston, where the rule change is set to be announced. The site is both a nod to the important role the oil-rich state plays in the energy industry and a potential snub of European and other international allies in attendance who have pursued environmentally friendly policies that the Trump administration has moved to undo.

Republican President Trump called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” at a speech to the United Nations last year, and his administration withdrew the U.S — for the second time — from the 2015 Paris climate accord that sets voluntary goals to curb planet-warming emissions.

Mr. Trump has boasted of U.S. energy abundance even as the Iran war continues to disrupt global fuel markets and gas prices top $4.31 a gallon, up more than a dollar from a year ago.

The plan to make the power plant rule final was first reported by The New York Times.

The rollbacks are meant to fulfill Mr. Trump’s repeated pledge to “unleash American energy ” and make it easier for utilities to supply electricity for homes and businesses.

The power plant rule is among nearly three dozen environmental regulations that Zeldin targeted in early 2025 when he announced what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history.”

Zeldin said in proposing the new rules last year that they were meant to end the Biden and Obama administrations’ “war on so much of our U.S. domestic energy supply.”

Environmental and public health groups called the rollbacks dangerous and vowed to challenge the rules in court.

“Tearing down our national protections against climate pollution from power plants will have enormous costs for the health, safety and well-being of families across the country,” said Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. “Americans everywhere are already suffering from record-breaking heat, more dangerous floods and storms, and skyrocketing insurance costs.”

The EPA has a legal responsibility to protect the public from harmful pollution, Patton said, adding that “clean, affordable and reliable technologies are widely available to power our homes and businesses.”

Coal, gas and oil-fired power plants are responsible for about one-quarter of the nation’s total climate pollution, second only to the transportation sector. Pollution from power plants is one of the largest sources of climate-changing pollution in the world.

The rules targeted by Trump’s EPA could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination last year that included the agency’s own prior assessments and a wide range of other research.

Even a partial dismantling of the rules would mean more pollutants such as smog, mercury and lead — and especially more tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs and cause health problems, the AP analysis found. It would also mean higher emissions of greenhouse gases, driving Earth’s warming to deadlier levels.

Biden, a Democrat, had made fighting climate change a hallmark of his presidency. Coal-fired power plants would have been forced to capture smokestack emissions or shut down under a strict EPA rule issued in 2024. Those rules are now being upended.

In its proposal last year, the Trump EPA argued that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from fossil fuel-fired power plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or climate change and therefore do not meet a threshold under the Clean Air Act for regulatory action. Greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired plants “are a small and decreasing part of global emissions,″ the EPA said.

Zeldin, a Republican and former New York congressman, said Biden-era actions were designed to “suffocate our economy in order to protect the environment,” with the intent to regulate the coal industry “out of existence” and make it “disappear.”

The coal industry and groups representing coal-fired power plants have denounced the Biden rule as “overreach” by the EPA and urged its repeal. Lifting the rule will protect grid reliability and shield electricity consumers from higher costs at a time of surging demand from data centers, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, according to America’s Power, a trade organization for the U.S. coal fleet.

Republicans are squirming over Trump’s $5,000 check quid pro quo

2026-09-14T16:09:38.533Z / CNN

When President Donald Trump said he would give adult US citizens $5,000 each if they reelected Republican majorities in the 2026 midterm elections, Sen. Roger Marshall was one of the first lawmakers to tout the idea.

“Comment how you will spend your $5,000 Trump Dividend when Republicans win in November,” the Kansas Republican posted late Wednesday night on X.

By Saturday, though, Marshall sounded a much more skeptical note during a debate at the Kansas State Fair.

“I’m going to bring in all the information, and then make a decision,” said Marshall, who faces a surprisingly competitive reelection race. “But look, this is not the first time I’ve disagreed with President Trump, and it probably won’t be the last.”

It was like a slow-motion backflip — from apparent enthusiastic support, to undecided, to Marshall apparently distancing himself.

But it’s hardly the only example of Trump allies’ rhetorical gymnastics in recent days.

Sometimes it seems like Trump almost enjoys making allies squirm with proposals like this — and squirm they have.

Many Republicans are clearly uncomfortable with the idea of Trump unilaterally shelling out more than $1 trillion when the national debt just crossed $40 trillion, and doing so as part of a readily apparent quid pro quo. But it’s not fun to actually say that. So they’ve tried to dress it up.

On CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told host Jake Tapper that it was a “creative idea.” He signaled Congress would be needed, even though Trump has cast doubt on that.

Then Johnson put on his Trump translator cap — talking as if this very specific proposal was just Trump making a broader point.

“But I think what he was articulating there, Jake, is that he’s saying that, if you want more money in your pocket, you have to keep Republicans in charge,” Johnson said.

Also on Sunday, NBC’s Kristen Welker noted on “Meet the Press” that Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — who like Marshall is up for reelection — said that the checks “should not appear to be tied to election results.”

Johnson responded by citing “the Democrats who are making that claim.” But Welker noted three times that she was citing a Republican.

“Yes, I understand that. I understand,” Johnson said. “Sure, sure.”

(Indeed, Collins isn’t the only one raising that concern on the right. Some conservatives have even labeled the checks a bribe.)

GOP Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas also tried to tone down the bribe-y nature of the arrangement Thursday on Fox News.

“President Trump isn’t saying that, if we win, we’ll do this,” Fallon claimed. “He’s saying we’ll be in a position to do this because we’ll have the votes to do it.”

But Trump said explicitly that he would do it if Republicans won, without qualification and apparently without Congress. Then he added Sunday, “The $5,000 is gonna happen, 100%.”

New York Rep. Mike Lawler on ABC’s “This Week” strained on Sunday to avoid being pinned down on the issue. He said he supported “putting money back in the pockets of hard-working Americans,” but when pressed on the $5,000 checks, maintained that it was “not a yes-or-no” question.

“We certainly see in states like New York, they mail out refund checks all the time right before election time,” Lawler told CNN’s Kasie Hunt in another interview Thursday. “So, I don’t think it’s a new idea that’s been issued last night.”

But those refund checks Lawler was talking about weren’t being offered only if voters delivered a specific outcome — that’s the part that’s so problematic here.

But Fallon isn’t the only Trump ally to offer a novel take on that subject.

When Newsmax asked Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia if the plan was a bribe, he didn’t disagree but instead called it “an interesting plan.”

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld maintained that it wasn’t a bribe “because it’s not done in secret” and “it’s your money.”

Fellow Fox host Jesse Watters said it was “not a bribe; we’re calling it an enticement.” He also suggested the payments might never materialize — comparing it to a woman who “lowers her brassiere” to tease and flirt with a man she has no intention of getting romantic with.

When Watters asked Sen. Ted Cruz about the idea, the Texas Republican said he wanted to see it “structured as a tax refund” to incentivize work and not give it to people who aren’t working. But Trump made no such distinction in his proposal.

Similarly, Vice President JD Vance told Fox’s wealthy hosts late Wednesday night, “You guys don’t need it; this is for the American middle class.” But Trump said the money would go to “every adult citizen.”

Then Vance, like others, claimed the administration was just sharing all the wealth generated by tariffs.

“I don’t think it’s a controversial idea,” Vance said of an idea that even many Republicans have come to oppose. “It’s actually the president of the United States saying … if we continue to create wealth, that wealth is going to go back to the American people.”

But so far, the tariffs haven’t generated nearly enough money. Tariff revenue in 2025 was $264 billion, according to the Treasury Department. (The Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s tariffs and forced the government to refund them.) And the right-leaning think tank the Tax Foundation estimates it would take the tariffs nearly a decade to generate the $1 trillion-plus in revenue required to cover Trump’s proposal.

All of that’s to say nothing of the fact that the checks would likely exacerbate already persistent inflation — an issue many Trump allies say they care about.

Oh, and that setting this precedent — if Trump could make it pass legal muster — is something that a Democratic president could exploit to redistribute wealth.

In other words, there’s plenty for the GOP to hate about this proposal. So they just keep dancing around it and talking about it as if it’s something that it’s not.

Baby formula maker Abbott Labs to pay nearly $385 million to settle case over bacterial contamination at Michigan plant

September 14, 2026 / 2:43 PM EDT / CBS News

By

Baby formula maker Abbott Laboratories agreed to pay nearly $385 million to resolve a civil False Claims Act case with the Justice Department and some states stemming from a Cronobacter bacterial contamination at one of its plants in Michigan that manufactures powdered baby formula, the department announced on Monday.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to close a parallel criminal investigation, CBS News previously reported.

Federal prosecutors originally tried to pursue felony charges and had the support of Tysen Duva, the assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, but senior DOJ leadership would not allow the case to proceed.

A senior DOJ official told CBS News in February that the department felt that a civil False Claims Act resolution was “the best mechanism to achieve accountability, deterrence and protection of the public” in the matter.

The civil False Claims Act case alleged that the company caused government programs to purchase powdered infant formula alleged by the government to have been made “in an environment that put the products at unacceptable risk of microorganism contamination and significantly impacted the products’ reliability, quality, and safety.”

“No company should be gambling on the health and safety of our nation’s infants by allowing unsanitary conditions to persist at a facility manufacturing baby formula,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward in a statement.

The company said the settlement with the government “does not represent any finding of fault or liability,” according to a statement.

“As the government has previously indicated, it has closed its criminal investigation on this matter,” the company said, adding that tests conducted by government regulators of unopened formula products from the homes of the infants under investigation at the time of the 2022 recall were negative for Cronobacter sakazakii.

The decision to pursue a civil settlement with Abbott Labs and close the parallel criminal case marks one example in a string of corporate cases involving public health and safety under the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act that have been softened, dismissed or lost support from senior Justice Department leaders in recent months, CBS previously reported.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department allowed Alibaba to enter into a nonprosecution agreement and pay $600 million, even though prosecutors on the case believed they had evidence the company was liable for felonies by failing to prevent dangerous drugs, chemicals and pill presses from being sold to American customers over an eight-year period.

In July, California Senator Adam Schiff launched a congressional inquiry into the closure of the Abbott Labs criminal case.

“If prosecuting cases involving the risk of injuries or death to premature infants are not a priority enforcement matter, I have questions about what priorities the DOJ considers worthy of pursuing,” Schiff wrote in a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche.

In 2022, Abbott Laboratories recalled several of its popular powdered formula brands, including Similac, after consumers complained about infant illness related to products from Abbott Nutrition, in Sturgis, Michigan.

The Justice Department said the company had failed to take steps to fix roof leaks, resorting instead to “temporary solutions” that still left its products at risk for microorganism contamination.

The department also said that the company “intentionally did not test for bacterial growth to avoid obtaining positive test results showing contamination” and that in some cases where testing showed evidence of micro contamination, it failed to disclose those results to the Food and Drug Administration during inspections in 2019 and 2022.

Trump says US has tools to keep AI safe, concerns part of ‘sick conspiracy’

2026-09-14T14:06:46.213Z / Reuters

By Katharine Jackson and Courtney Rozen

September 14, 2026 2:06 PM UTC Updated 16 mins ago

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with travel executives in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Monday that the U.S. already has guardrails in place ​to regulate and prosecute AI companies, appearing to play down concerns expressed by ‌industry leaders over the weekend about misuse of artificial intelligence.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote on ​Truth Social, adding that China would benefit from the doubt being cast ​on artificial intelligence development.

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“We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over ⁠these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, ​and the only one that is happy about it is China.”

AI-related stocks fell sharply worldwide ​on Monday after leaders of some of the industry’s largest companies called for slowing the pace of the technology’s development.

The decline followed weeks of reports of AI agents acting against their operators’ instructions to ​access external systems, as well as the departure of prominent AI safety researchers who ​warned that the rapidly progressing technology could lead to extinction of the human race in the ‌not-too-distant future.

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On ⁠Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei outlined a three-step framework intended to pace development and create more time to manage its risks. The proposal was immediately endorsed by several other executives at major AI companies, including Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam ​Altman.

Trump said the tools ​intended to keep ⁠AI safe had already been used on Amodei.

“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who ​is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ — and we will ​continue to ⁠do so,” Trump said.

The Republican president has resisted stirring concerns about artificial intelligence and has largely embraced AI companies in his second term.

Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President ⁠Xi ​Jinping next week in Washington. Reuters previously reported that ​the two countries were planning a separate meeting in mid-September to discuss the risks of AI, led by ​lower-level government officials.

Reporting by Bhargav Acharya, Katharine Jackson; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Bill Berkrot

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