Wisconsin Right Now

The U.S. Department of Defense is under scrutiny for refusing to release records about exactly how spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion helps with national security. The Center to Advance Security in America in May filed with the DOD a Freedom of Information Act Request, the legal pathway to obtain government documents. The FOIA sought to find out what DOD officials estimate is the real impact on national security of DEI spending, for which Congress approved $86.5 million in fiscal year 2023. However, James Fitzpatrick, an Army Veteran who leads CASA, told The Center Square that the DOD has confirmed it received the FOIA request but still has not released any documents more than 100 days later. “The Department of Defense has stated that diversity, equity, and inclusion is the American military’s greatest strength but has rarely detailed how,” reads the FOIA, which was obtained by The Center Square. “Given the recent hiring freeze on DEI related positions, it must follow

  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is doing something prominent New Mexico politicians have opposed for years: building more border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department is waiving 26 federal laws to finish a 20-mile stretch of wall in the Rio Grand Valley; it stopped construction there more than two years ago. In a six-page filing with the Federal Register, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the decision. “There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” he wrote, citing sections of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Border Patrol agents working in the Rio Grande Valley Sector apprehended over 245,000 foreign nationals illegally entering the country between points of entry from the start of the fiscal year

  The Department of Homeland Security has sparked controversy by adding to its Intelligence Board multiple members who signed on to the now-debunked 2020 letter saying the Hunter Biden laptop story was “Russian disinformation.” Now, House Republicans want answers, saying the new additions bring into question the federal group’s credibility and impartiality. “Your decision to appoint members to this group who have demonstrated political bias suggests misplaced priorities,” the letter said. House Committee on Homeland Security Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., and August Pfluger, R-Texas, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, sent the letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the appointees. The appointments in question include former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan, and former Associate Deputy Attorney General for the Department of Justice Tashina G

President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security " Disinformation Governance Board " has been put on hold after quickly falling into controversy, according to media reports. The Washington Post on Wednesday reported a pause for the board, which DHS head Alejandro Mayorkas announced at a Congressional hearing last month. Mayorkas told lawmakers the board would use federal law enforcement power to address disinformation. He gave examples of bad information given to migrants as well as Russian disinformation. "The goal is to bring the resources of (DHS) together to address this threat," he said before Congress in April. Soon after, videos emerged online showing the woman tapped to lead the board, Nina Jankowicz, making a series of controversial comments. News outlets reported her resignation Wednesday. Critics also raised concerns about how such a board could be used to silence free speech. Several lawmakers took issue with the board. U.S. Sen. Mar

“As if they don’t have enough issues to deal with, they now have an idea, and I honestly thought this was a belated April Fool’s joke, but they are actually going to create in the Department of Homeland Security a Bureau of Disinformation. It’s basically a Ministry of Truth” - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas continues to be on the defensive after announcing the creation of a new “misinformation and disinformation governance board” he first described at a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday said Florida flat out rejected the bureau, and U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, grilled Mayorkas about it in a Senate Appropriations hearing. But before their pushback, Mayorkas received widespread criticism from left- and right-leaning individuals and groups. On Sunday, he went on talk shows, and issued a fact sheet about the board on Monday justifying its purpose. DeSantis and Kennedy

The U.S. Department of Interior announced it is making only 20% of eligible acreage for oil and natural gas production available for leasing on federal lands to comply with a federal court order. In his first week in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters to be halted by the Interior Department. The agency was also tasked to review existing permits for fossil fuel development. The administration was sued and last June, a federal judge in Louisiana struck down the executive order. Issuing lease sales, the agency said, was “in compliance with an injunction from the Western District of Louisiana.” The sales would focus on the “highest and best use of America’s public lands, reflecting an 80 percent reduction from nominated acreage” and “reflects the balanced approach to energy development and management of our nation’s public lands,” the agency said in a news release. On Friday, the Bureau of Land M

The U.S. Department of Justice has appealed a federal judge’s ruling overturning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) mask mandate on planes, trains, and airports. In her ruling to overturn the mandate, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle called the CDC mandate “unlawful,” saying the Biden administration did not follow proper procedures and went beyond its authority in making the rule. "But the mandate exceeded the CDC's statutory authority, improperly invoked the good cause exception to notice and comment rulemaking, and failed to adequately explain its decisions," she wrote in her ruling. The Biden administration challenge comes after the CDC called on the DOJ to file the appeal. “To protect CDC’s public health authority beyond the ongoing assessment announced last week, CDC has asked DOJ to proceed with an appeal in Health Freedom Defense Fund, Inc., et al., v. Biden, et al,” the CDC said Wednesday. “It is CDC’s continuing assessment

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services is stonewalling requests for answers about COVID booster shots in the state. The Center Square has repeatedly reached out to DHS with questions about the number of COVID boosters administered, how booster shots are being counted, and whether people in Wisconsin will be considered “fully vaccinated” after two doses of the coronavirus vaccine, or if they will need a booster. Wisconsin DHS has not responded. DHS is silent about how many booster doses Wisconsin has received, how many booster doses doctors and nurses have administered, and how many booster doses the state hopes to deliver. Brett Healy, president of the MacIver Institute for Public Policy, which has tracked coronavirus and vaccine numbers in the state since the beginning of the outbreak, says DHS’s silence is telling. “Rather than be transparent and open with the public they claim to serve, DHS is, once again, refusing to answer some basic questions about a major policy cha

“With this TPD action, the Biden-Harris Administration has now approved approximately $8.7 billion in student loan discharges for roughly 455,000 borrowers” A federal student loan forgiveness program aimed at helping out public servants is getting an overhaul after media reports exposed major problems with the program. The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program will undergo an overhaul to make sure more public servants, including members of the military, receive taxpayers' funds to help them repay their debts. "This is an entire system who let down our men and women in uniform," said Seth Frotman, head of the Student Borrower Protection Program. The announcement comes just a few days after media reports, including a CBS “60 Minutes” investigation, showed that military members were frustrated with the program for its complex requirements and complicated approval process that prevented many from rec