Good evening. The Senate on Wednesday evening voted down a bipartisan resolution to block further military strikes against Iran by requiring congressional approval for any U.S. hostilities there. The measure failed by a margin of 47 to 53. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman joined Republicans in voting no. Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican to vote yes. The House is expected to take up another war powers resolution tomorrow. That vote is also expected to fail.
Noem Policy Has Delayed Over 1,000 FEMA Contracts, Grants and Awards: Dem Report
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's policy of personally approving every DHS expenditure of more than $100,000 has delayed more than 1,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency contracts, grants or disaster assistance awards, according to a new report from Senate Democrats.
Noem issued a widely questioned directive in June 2025 that said that any grant or contract award that topped $100,000 would require her sign-off. The contracting process involves other steps, too. "Before the contracts reach Noem, they must be approved by a series of political appointees, who each sign or initial a checklist sometimes referred to internally as a routing sheet," ProPublica reports.
The new report from Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee is based on an analysis of 1,062 spending requests from June to early September of last year using data from an internal DHS tracker created in response to Noem's policy. It found that 1,034 contracts, grants or disaster assistance awards had been delayed or left pending as of September 8, 2025. The data was provided to the committee by whistleblowers.
The report says that Noem's order "has created extraordinary bureaucratic gridlock, significant operational challenges, and has hampered critical missions, including disaster response. The real-world impacts of the new approval directive are extensive and have delayed support to survivors, including those of the fatal July 2025 flash floods in Texas and Hurricane Helene."
The report adds that Noem had verbally authorized about 13% of all requests, with the average request taking three weeks to approve. It also charges that Noem's directive violates a law enacted after Hurricane Katrina by "significantly and substantially" reducing FEMA's "missions, authorities, responsibilities."
The senators behind the report called on Noem to immediately rescind her directive.
"Secretary Noem's policy of personally approving certain contracts is putting the safety of communities in need at risk," said Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security committee. "When disaster strikes, communities need critical assistance from FEMA as quickly as possible. These delays created by Secretary Noem's directive are not only failing to make government more efficient, they are causing serious harm. The policy must end immediately."
The Democratic report is not the first to cite a backlog at DHS due to Noem's policy. But Noem and DHS have defended the policy as successful in preventing waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money. DHS claimed last September that Noem's review process had saved taxpayers about $50 million a day since she took office.
A DHS spokesperson also disputed the findings of the Senate Democrats' report. "Contrary to claims in the forthcoming report, there are no systemic delays. There is no evidence of a three-week average wait for aid decisions," the spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. "In fact, Secretary Noem's review process was specifically designed to break through bureaucratic red tape and expedite funding requests that had previously languished for years under prior administrations."
Global Tariff Rate Rising to 15%, Bessent Says
The United States is raising its global tariff rate to 15% this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday. The rate increase comes as the Trump administration scrambles to rebuild the punishing tariff regime that was restricted by the Supreme Court two weeks ago.
In an interview with CNBC, Bessent said the increase in the global tariff rate from the current 10% to 15% would help reestablish an overall tariff structure similar to the one in place before the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on trading partners around the world required authorization from Congress.
"It's my strong belief that the tariff rates will be back to their old rate within five months," Bessent said.
The replacement tariffs are being imposed under a different legal authority, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Those come with a 150-day limit, however, at which point Congress would need to approve them.
Bessent said that during the next 150 days, the administration will work to impose tariffs under a different set of legal authorities. Those authorities have survived "more than 4,000 legal challenges," Bessent said. "They are more slow moving, but they are more robust."
Trump Formally Nominates Kevin Warsh as Fed Chair
President Trump on Wednesday officially nominated financier Kevin Warsh to join the Federal Reserve, sending nominations to the Senate for Warsh to serve a four-year term as chair of the central bank, as well as a 14-year term on its Board of Governors.
Trump announced his pick for the position of Fed chair a month ago, ending weeks of speculation about who would succeed current Fed chief Jerome Powell when his term runs out in May. Trump has clashed publicly with Powell over Fed policy as he has pushed the central bank to comply with his demands for lower interest rates.
Warsh previously served as a member of the Fed board from 2006 to 2011, developing a reputation as an inflation hawk who favored tight monetary conditions. He has notably softened that stance recently as Trump has called for looser conditions via lower interest rates, and he is expected to be a more dovish chair than the outgoing Powell, at least to start.
One potential hurdle for Warsh as he seeks to win the support of the Senate is Trump's ongoing battle with Powell, which now includes a criminal investigation into the chairman's involvement with an over-budget renovation project at the Fed headquarters in Washington. Many Trump critics see the investigation as a blatantly political maneuver designed to intimidate Powell, and Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who is not seeking reelection in 2026, has announced that he will block Warsh's nomination until the federal investigation is dropped.
Fiscal News Roundup
- Senate Republicans Vote Down Legislation to Halt Iran War in Congress' First Vote on the Conflict – Associated Press
- War With Iran Has 'Only Just Begun,' Hegseth Says – Politico
- Trump 'Actively Considering' U.S. Role in Postwar Iran – Wall Street Journal
- Cracks Appear in Trump's MAGA Base as Leading Figures Criticize the Iran War – Associated Press
- Johnson: Congress Will Pass Iran War Funding When 'Appropriate' – Politico
- US Use of Costly Weapons Against Iran Tests Limits of Inventory – Bloomberg
- Bessent Says Global Tariffs Will Rise to 15 Percent This Week – New York Times
- Judge Orders US to Stop Calculating IEEPA Tariffs for Importers – Bloomberg
- Trump Administration Widens Its Anti-Fraud Efforts With a Medicaid Probe in New York – Associated Press
- Gov. Tim Walz Tells a House Panel the Trump Immigration Crackdown Hampered Minnesota's Fraud Fight – Associated Press
- Republican Tax Writer Rips IRS CEO as Unprepared for Hearing – Politico
- Noem Says DHS Has Funds for One More Paycheck for Coast Guard Amid Shutdown – CBS News
- Noem Review Delayed Disaster Aid by Weeks, Senate Report Finds – New York Times
- Internal DHS Watchdog: Noem Is Obstructing Our Work – Politico
- Kristi Noem Misled Congress About Top Aide's Role in DHS Contracts – ProPublica
Views and Analysis
- Trump Is Playing a Dangerous Game With Iran – Peter W. Klein, New York Times
- Trump's Iran Challenge Is at Home – Karl R. Rove, Wall Street Journal
- The Idea That Trump Was Antiwar Was Always Delusional – Michelle Goldberg, New York Times
- The US Has Enough Missiles for This War But Not the Next One – Thomas Black, Bloomberg
- China's Defense Budget Is Bigger Than You Think – Karishma Vaswani, Bloomberg
- Free Trade Trumped Tariffs in 2025 – Washington Post Editorial Board
- The Labor Market Is Finally Stabilizing, but There's a Catch – Courtenay Brown, Axios
- The New SNAP Food Restrictions Aren't Just Confusing - They're Illegal – Tyson-Lord Gray, The Hill
- NASA Fired Its Economists. It Desperately Needs to Bring Them Back – Mary Guenther, The Hill
- Don't Let Congress Abuse Policy to Give Away Public Lands – Ryan Gellert, The Hill
- The Fantasy of a Comfy Retirement Has Always Been a Mirage – Jessica Grose, New York Times