Today’s notice: RFK Jr. said there’s a government social media post about the measles outbreak, but we couldn’t find it. Democrats go a different way on the latest immigration bill. The unelected bureaucrats at DOGE are annoying Republicans. But first: When the headlines leave you behind.
Living in the Flooded Zone
The USAID story feels like old news at this point, but it’s really not. And those at the center of that story tell us that living in a world of upheaval that is no longer headline-worthy is a strange thing to contend with.
We spoke to Kelly Ryan, president of the Jesuit Refugee Service, one of the many NGOs that had its previously approved funding frozen under the USAID stop-work order. JRS didn’t sue, its employees didn’t march in the streets. When Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a waiver for humanitarian aid disbursements, the group filed the paperwork and waited. And waited.
Eventually they had to shut down a program that helped keep refugees who make their way to Colombia stay there rather than trekking to the U.S. southern border, which is strange because it seems like a program Donald Trump’s administration would want to keep funding. Ryan remains willing to support reforms in foreign aid, but doesn’t think cutting off funding is the way to do it. Meanwhile, the headlines are moving fast and it’s hard to get anyone’s attention.
“There’s a lot of misinformation about what USAID did, and certainly there’s areas of USAID which should definitely be improved,” Ryan said. “But this wholesale attack on foreign assistance is deeply troubling.”
Pete Marocco, the State Department’s new point man on foreign aid, told stakeholders recently the “wholesale” freeze was the point: “When you don’t cut off the money, people don’t give you honest answers that you need to determine whether or not a program can continue,” he said.
This dynamic plays out in the domestic zone, too. NOTUS’ Violet Jira reports on Congress trying to have a say on DOGE cuts at the Department of Education, but the cuts are happening so fast members cannot keep up.
“I have been critical of the cuts that have been made because they include cutting some research on what helps children learn better, which would be very helpful for educators to have,” Sen. Susan Collins told Violet. “It’s one thing if Elon Musk and his assistants are pointing out areas that they think should be reviewed, but I do not believe they should have the authority to make decisions.”
—Evan McMorris-Santoro | Read Evan’s story. | Read Violet’s story.
The Unelected Bureaucrats Are Coming From Inside the House
The apparent delay in disbursing foreign aid has annoyed even some Republicans, who are starting to blame the people politicians love to blame: federal employees. A challenge, NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt writes, is that these federal employees are from DOGE, aka the Federal Employee Finders. Reports that Musk’s band stopped federal aid payments approved for disbursement by Secretary Rubio created an awkward situation for some lawmakers Haley talked to.
“I have problems with that. I have problems that they have access to that,” DOGE subcommittee member Rep. Tim Burchett told her. “If it was a mistake, I get it. But if it wasn’t, they need to be fired.” Who DOGEs the DOGE?
Front Page
- Politicians Under Criminal Investigation Are Using Trump’s Playbook: Politicians are testing how far President Trump’s “weaponization” argument will go for them.
- Republicans Don’t Like Birthright Citizenship — But They Aren’t Likely to Change It: “We got to get through all this stuff first,” Rep. Chip Roy said.
- Byron Donalds’ Run for Governor Will Test Ron DeSantis’ Influence: DeSantis is “going to try to frame this as continuing his legacy,” one Florida consultant told NOTUS.
Democrats Take Aim at New Immigration Bill
After Democrats sat out the fight against the Laken Riley Act, NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz reports that they are whipping against an effort to defund sanctuary cities.
The bill, titled the No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act, is sponsored by Republican front liner Rep. Nick LaLota. Immigration was a winning issue for Republicans like LaLota in 2024, and some vulnerable Democrats have since sided with Republicans on immigration crackdowns. This bill, Democrats told NOTUS, is different.
“It is politicizing our law enforcement, and that is not good for any citizen,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark said.
They’re Playing the Parliamentarian’s Walk-On Music Again
There comes a time in every Congress’ life when it must cross the Senate parliamentarian, and a roiling battle over climate policy means now might be the time. NOTUS’ Anna Kramer reports that Republicans are pushing a “precedent-breaking” interpretation of the Congressional Review Act to roll back the EPA waiver long granted to California so it can set its own vehicle-emissions rules.
The “moves could put particular pressure on the Senate’s parliamentarian, who dictates whether the body is following its own rules,” Anna reports.
RFK’s HHS Is Handling This Measles Outbreak in a New Way
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has so far not issued national guidance around the horrifying measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, which typically would be “the kind of thing that would get [the CDC] to do a Health Alert,” a former agency official tells NOTUS’ Margaret Manto. One child in Texas has died from the disease.
State and local officials are interfacing with CDC as normal, she writes, but the agency hasn’t posted about the outbreak on social media. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a White House cabinet meeting Wednesday that HHS “put out a post on it yesterday.” Margaret reports that “it was not immediately clear what post Kennedy was referring to.”
When the Vote Gets You a Death Threat
Being a potential budget resolution holdout can be an actually scary position for a member of Congress. Rep. Burchett read to NOTUS a death threat he received Tuesday, which he attributed to his initial opposition to legislation Trump wants to see passed. (Burchett eventually supported the budget framework after talking to Trump, but called it just a “starting point.”)
“If you yield to that, I may as well go home,” he said of the threat. “Seriously, I’m not being overdramatic. But that’s the truth.”
Burchett isn’t sweating the threat nor is he worried about a Trump-backed primary challenge. “I don’t give a rip,” he said of a possible opponent. But he was quick to add that no one — not the president or House leadership — has threatened him with one yet.
—Emily Kennard
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- Groups helping LGBTQ+ victims of violence could face a catastrophic loss of federal funding by Mel Leonor Barclay and Jasmine Mithani at The 19th
- DOGE Gains Access to Confidential Records on Housing Discrimination, Medical Details — Even Domestic Violence by Jesse Coburn at ProPublica
- Birth rates are crashing around the world. Should we be worried? By Gideon Lewis-Kraus at The New Yorker
Be Social
We’d watch.
a season of white lotus about a mid-level bureaucrat who takes a long-awaited vacation to a resort in mexico only to discover that she’s been named the acting administrator of an agency that is wreaking havoc on the federal government
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) February 26, 2025
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