Today’s notice: Democrats mull their options after Trump’s D.C. takeover. The newest people running for Senate. The politics of homeless encampments. The White House’s Smithsonian fact-check team. And: A deep dive into FEMA and flood maps.
THE LATEST
Everything is local. The White House briefing Tuesday sounded like the 11 o’clock news. Karoline Leavitt detailed 23 arrests Monday night on the streets of D.C. but did not specify how many of them were made by federal agents. “This is only the beginning,” Leavitt said.
Everyone has their D.C. story. Republicans are fully selling Washington as a crime-riddled city they’re scared to live in. Rep. Tim Burchett told CNN that crime in the District is in part why he sleeps in his office. (FWIW, he told NOTUS in February it was more about getting to meetings early.)
Does this become Congress’ next fight? Democrats have loudly decried Trump’s D.C. move. But as of now, top party leaders don’t appear willing to take drastic measures, like holding up must-pass government funding bills, to try to stop it, NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson reports.
It’s “possible,” Rep. Glenn Ivey told Riley. “But, I mean, there’s so many things that would be in that conversation.”
One lawmaker pushing Democrats to be aggressive: Rep. Suhas Subramanyam. “I think this should be a bigger issue that the Democratic Party talks about,” he said.
What’s next for the city: AG Pam Bondi posted on X that she met with Mayor Muriel Bowser to discuss the District’s police department, with few further details. Leavitt announced there would be a crackdown on D.C.’s homeless residents; they would be given the option to leave encampments for shelters or clinics and “if they refuse they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time,” she told reporters.
Open Tabs: Trump rebukes Goldman CEO over bank’s tariff research (Reuters); Trump’s Pick to Run BLS Wants to Kill Monthly Jobs Report (NOTUS); Sierra Club fires Ben Jealous (Inside Climate News); DeSantis picks Jay Collins for Florida Lt. Gov. (AP)
From the campaign trail
The Senate map fills out. Former Sen. Sherrod Brown is planning to run in Ohio again, the Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported, giving Democrats another top recruit. Brown is not expected to face a serious primary, NOTUS’ Alex Roarty writes.
Iowa: The same can’t be said for state Rep. Josh Turek, who on Tuesday joined an expanding Democratic primary field. As NOTUS recently reported, some Democratic Senate strategists say there’s the possibility of an upset win in the state.
Alabama: The Republican primary field is the one expanding here. Sen. Tommy Tuberville is running for governor. Rep. Barry Moore — touted as the first elected to back Trump’s White House bid in 2015 when he was a state legislator — on Tuesday announced on Fox News his bid for the open seat. (Moore famously missed his chance to vote in the 2016 primary.)
THE BIG ONE
Is FEMA going to fix the flood maps? “The agency right now is in a period of uncertainty as to what the future looks like,” David Maurstad, a career official at FEMA who was in charge of the National Flood Insurance Program until his departure in July, told NOTUS’ Anna Kramer.
“It’s certainly not an environment where people are going to necessarily be bold,” Maurstad said.
Wisconsin declared a state of emergency as flash floods have shuttered roads in the Midwest. Texas is still reeling from the deadly floods in Hill Country.
The problem: Federal flood maps are outdated and not designed to give a good assessment of flood risk. For years the government has known this and has been trying to address the issue.
Trump’s upheaval at FEMA has stymied progress: DHS disbanded the Technical Mapping Advisory Council that was working on addressing old flood maps. The group’s 2024 report was nearly completed during the Biden administration but still hasn’t been published.
The focus on cost cutting has left flood zone reform in limbo.
“This is a group of seasoned, professional people,” Glenn Heistand, an engineer who was a TMAC member until it was disbanded, told Anna. “They don’t have an axe to grind, there’s not a political issue.”
NEW ON NOTUS
Smithsonian’s MAGA rewrite: Top White House officials will be reviewing exhibits and other programing to ensure they “celebrate American exceptionalism” and are not “divisive or partisan narratives,” according to a letter the administration sent Lonnie Bunch, the Smithsonian Institution’s secretary. Running the review: OMB Director Russ Vought, Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley and Trump special assistant Lindsey Halligan.
Homeless encampment politics: Longtime critics of Gavin Newsom’s efforts to combat encampments tell NOTUS’ Samuel Larreal that Trump’s plan feels familiar. “The core of these efforts are exactly the same,” Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco, told Sam.
Newsom’s take: “Donald Trump is using federalized law enforcement as his private police force to arbitrarily rouse homeless people without providing any support or services,” spox Tara Gallegos said. “This will not only create fear and infringe on people’s rights but is unlikely to be successful.”
Tuition benefits for the undocumented: Oklahoma officials have agreed to void a state law providing in-state tuition prices for anyone who had applied for permanent residency in the state, and specifically bar those benefits from undocumented immigrants. The change comes after the state’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, worked with the DOJ to resolve a lawsuit filed earlier this month over the policy. A number of states have faced similar lawsuits, but Democratic governors and AGs are so far fighting the cases, NOTUS’ Em Luetkemeyer reports.
More: Appeals Court Rules DOGE Can Access Sensitive Data at Federal Agencies, by Em Luetkemeyer
Trump’s Crime Crackdown Threats Skip Over Cities in Red States, by Tinashe Chingarande
Texas AG Ken Paxton Asks Judge to Jail Beto O’Rourke, by Nuha Dolby
NOT US
- Who gets Kennedy Center Honors under Trump? George Strait, Kiss, Michael Crawford being eyed. By Travis M. Andrews for The Washington Post
- Kari Lake’s Attempt to Deport Her Own Employees, by Toluse Olorunnipa for The Atlantic
- DOJ’s Mizelle Said to Push His Groomsman for White Collar Post, by Ben Penn for Bloomberg
- Lutnick tells federal statisticians that independence is ‘nonsense,’ by Eric Katz for Government Executive
Correction: This article has been updated to accurately reflect the year of David Maurstad’s departure from the National Flood Insurance Program. He left July 2024.
Thank you for reading! If you like this edition of the NOTUS newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please subscribe — it’s free! Have a tip? Email us at tips@notus.org. And as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our newsletter at newsletters@notus.org.