New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is remaining silent days after lawmakers sent a bill to her desk that would begin the process of the Empire State considering reparations as a way to make amends for slavery.

The state legislature passed a bill last week that would create a commission to study the effects of slavery and racial discrimination in New York and make recommendations for potential reparations, such as restitution payments from the government. The commission’s recommendations would be non-binding, meaning the legislature would decide whether to take them up for a vote.

However, Hochul needs to sign the bill into law in order to establish the commission. The governor hasn’t commented publicly on the reparations legislation and didn’t respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment seeking her thoughts and plans on the matter. She is reportedly reviewing the bill.

According to the legislation, Hochul and legislative leaders from the state Senate and Assembly would each appoint three qualified members to the nine-member commission, which beyond slavery would also address lingering economic, political and educational disparities experienced by Black people in New York state. 

‘We want to make sure we are looking at slavery and its legacies,’ said state Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, a Democrat, before the floor debate. ‘This is about beginning the process of healing our communities. There still is generational trauma that people are experiencing. This is just one step forward.’

The commission would be required to deliver a report within one year after its first meeting. 

Meanwhile, the New York City Council is considering new legislation introduced last week that would implement more localized reparations in what proponents say is aimed at ‘rectifying’ historical ‘injustices.’

At the state level, if Hochul signs the bill into law, New York would be the second state to establish a reparations commission, following in California’s footstep.

California’s reparations task force, created by state legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, formally approved last month its final recommendations to the California Legislature, which will decide whether to enact the measures and send them to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. The wide-ranging proposals include large-scale payments to qualifying Black residents as well as policy changes that would affect housing, health care, education and several other areas.

Critics argue it doesn’t make sense for people who never owned slaves to pay reparations to people who never were slaves as a way to make amends for slavery, claiming measures such as restitution payments won’t ultimately address the problem. 

However, Democratic state Sen. James Sanders, who sponsored the New York bill, said the entire country most atone for slavery, arguing its impacts are still felt today.

‘America’s original sin must be resolved,’ Sanders told the New York Daily News. ‘What lingers from that period has to be dealt with, and thus reparations. We are talking about a more perfect union.’

Beyond the morality and effectiveness of reparations, critics also say they’re unaffordable.

Hochul and New York state lawmakers recently approved the state’s mammoth budget of $229 billion. According to a new budget projection, New York’s expenses will outpace revenues by $9.1 billion next year and $13.9 billion the following year.

It’s unclear how much a New York reparations plan would cost. In California, the reparations task force has called for initial ‘down payments’ of up to $1.2 million for qualifying Black Californians while they wait for the purported full amount of money lost due to slavery and subsequent racism to be calculated. Estimates have put the total cost of such calculations at about $800 billion, nearly triple California’s total annual state budget of roughly $300 billion. 

Last month, Newsom announced that the state’s budget deficit has grown to nearly $32 billion, which is about $10 billion more than he anticipated in January when he offered his first budget proposal.

Both New York and California have experienced massive exoduses in recent years, with large numbers of residents moving to other states. More than 10,000 New Yorkers, for example, moved to Florida in the first quarter of this year, continuing a trend from the COVID pandemic. 

The Empire State also lost a staggering $24.5 billion in state-adjusted gross income in 2021 as residents fled to low-tax states, according to IRS data.  The data also detailed how California saw the most significant amount of outward migration in 2021, with at least 32,000 taxpayers taking an estimated $29 billion to other states.

Hundreds of tribal members including leaders and students visited the Nevada state Capitol in April to plead for new school funding.Gov. Joe Lombardo signed a bill Tuesday to fund the replacement of the Owyhee Combined School along the Nevada-Idaho border.The crumbling tribal school on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation sits adjacent to toxic hydrocarbon plumes, which is linked to the reservation’s string of cancer deaths.

A crumbling tribal school that was the subject of widespread community outcry is set to be replaced after Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed into law funding for a new facility on Tuesday.

Flanked by tribal leaders and dozens of students who traveled to the state Capitol from a reservation in a remote swath of northern Nevada, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed the legislation that funds both a new school and opens new mechanisms for tribal and rural school funding across the state.

‘I’m so proud of the youth for making these long trips, meeting with legislators and making this a true learning experience,’ said Brian Mason, chairman of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation.

The public Owyhee Combined School on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation hosts 330 students from pre-K through 12th grade along the Nevada-Idaho border. The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes on the reservation have about 2,000 members, nearly all of whom have attended the school built in 1953.

Hundreds of tribal members visited the Nevada Legislature in April, where they pleaded for new school funding.

They described a bat colony living in the ceiling, where drippings ebb into the home economics room. Stray bullet holes have remained in the front glass windows years after they appeared. The school is a stone’s throw from a highway, where passersby sometimes use the school bathroom as if it’s a rest stop.

Perhaps most hazardous is the school’s location, which sits adjacent to toxic hydrocarbon plumes that lie under the town. Tribal doctors are preparing a study in relation to a noticeable string of cancer deaths.

‘Our current facility, designed and built at a time of the policy of ‘kill the Indian and save the man,’ no longer serves us,’ said Vice Principal Lynn Manning-John at the bill signing. ‘For our future of our tribe, and for us as individuals, this new school promises hope.’

The new school will take about three years to build, Lombardo said.

Sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno, the bill allocates $64.5 million for a new Owyhee Combined School and also creates other funding mechanisms for other tribal and rural schools. Rural Elko County, which has jurisdiction over the Owyhee school, has just over a year to decide whether to pay an additional property tax for or divert part of its revenues for a school district capital fund.

The bill gives other rural counties’ board of commissioners the option to raise property taxes to help fund capital projects for schools on tribal land. It also creates an account of $25 million for capital projects for schools and another $25 million specifically for schools on tribal land.

One school that could benefit from the bill is Schurz Elementary School, on the Walker River Reservation in rural Mineral County. Walker River Paiute Tribe Chairwoman Andrea Martinez originally advocated for the bill when it only included the funding for the Owyhee School, but became more involved when it was widened to include more rural and tribal schools.

‘For our culture, we think about the next seven generations. And the people that put in the work to do this, that’s where their mindset is,’ Martinez said. ‘It makes me happy to see that’s where our mindset is now, instead of trying to just survive the systemic injustices we’ve been facing.’

Teresa Melendez, a tribal lobbyist and organizer who worked on the bill, said some tribal leaders and principals are considering a feasibility study to create a new tribal school district for a more cohesive funding and curriculum plan across Nevada’s four reservation-based schools. They would hope to have it done before the next legislative session in 2025.

‘These schools have been neglected for decades,’ Melendez said. ‘But it’s not just the facilities. We need solutions regarding the teacher shortage, the teacher housing issue, culturally insensitive and inaccurate curriculum. There’s a host of Indian education issues that we need to tackle.’

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FIRST ON FOX: A top Republican congressman introduced a resolution Tuesday to require Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to disclose her meetings with a wide variety of non-governmental organizations.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., who chairs the House Financial Services Committee’s oversight subcommittee, would force the Department of Energy to make public Granholm’s meetings with groups tied to the Chinese Communist Party that have argued for bans on any energy type or have applied for federal funding. Huizenga introduced the resolution as an amendment to the Save Our Gas Stoves Act.

‘The American People deserve to know if the Biden administration’s energy policy decisions are being influenced by entities with ties to the CCP,’ Huizenga told Fox News Digital in a statement.

‘My transparency amendment shines a light on the elevated access given by this White House to any groups pushing China-backed, anti-energy, America-last policies,’ he added. 

The Michigan lawmaker’s bill comes in response to a Fox News Digital report in February that Granholm met in June 2021 with Jules Kortenhorst, the CEO at the time of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a lead group pushing gas stove bans. Granholm’s calendar listed Kortenhorst as the only participant and didn’t include the agenda for the meeting, which lasted for approximately an hour.

Over the past two years, the federal government has awarded RMI millions of dollars in federal funding for various green energy projects.

RMI has also collaborated with the Chinese government to study transitioning away from traditional fossil fuels, and the group’s only office outside the U.S. is located in Beijing, China’s capital city. RMI is a member of the China Clean Transportation Partnership, a green group with significant ties to the Chinese government. 

The group worked with the National Development and Reform Commission, a Chinese government entity, to create a roadmap for ‘China’s revolution in energy consumption and production to 2050.’

‘From the start, the Biden administration has not been honest with the American people about its desire to ban gas stoves,’ Huizenga told Fox News Digital in February.

‘Now, as we learn more, I remain deeply concerned that the Biden administration has granted elevated access to an entity with Chinese ties in pursuit of a radical energy agenda that will raise costs on American families and small businesses,’ he added. ‘These actions cannot go unchecked, and the American people deserve honest answers.’

Huizenga’s latest resolution is part of a broader effort by Republicans to push back against the Biden administration’s attempts to regulate gas stoves. In January, a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission floated a gas stove ban and, a month later, the Department of Energy proposed standards that would prohibit 50% of current gas stove models.

The Save Our Gas Stoves Act introduced by Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., would block the Department of Energy from enacting tougher conservation standards on stoves. 

That legislation and the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, which would bar federal dollars from going toward regulatory efforts to ban gas stoves, are expected to soon receive floor votes.

Separately, in January, Huizenga and Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., introduced the Stop Trying to Obsessively Vilify Energy Act, which would prohibit federal agencies from banning gas stoves or other gas-powered appliances.

GOP Congressman Jim Banks mixed it up with HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra over transgender ideology in a hearing Tuesday and told Fox News Digital that the interaction was an attempt by the Biden administration to ‘wiggle out’ of defending ‘evil’ policies it’s pushing. 

‘The Biden administration wants to force states like Indiana to greenlight harmful and irreversible transition procedures on minors, and if you resist by protecting your family from their radical gender ideology, they want to kidnap your child,’ Rep. Banks told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday following an exchange with Becerra during a House Committee on Education & the Workforce hearing. 

‘It’s indefensible, which is why Secretary Becerra tried so hard to wriggle out of answering for his evil policies.’

Banks was referring to an exchange where he questioned why Becerra would support a law in his state that prevents 18-20 year olds from having a hunting rifle but at the same time supports children much younger being allowed to undergo gender reassignments.

‘I’m just curious, why do you think that 18-20 year olds can’t be trusted with a firearm,’ Banks asked Becerra about the move in California while he was attorney general to ban 18-20 year olds from owning handguns, rifles, and shotguns. 

‘For us here at HHS, gun violence is a healthcare crisis in this country and we have to do everything we can,’ Becerra responded. ‘I’m proud that my state has tried to take measures that would try to keep individuals,  especially assault weapons, for purposes that never should have been deployed in a civilian society.’

Banks pressed Becerra again asking ‘what was it about that age’ of 18-20 that worried California enough to limit gun rights and tried to push Becerra to answer whether he believed an 18-year-old should be allowed to own a hunting rifle.

After not providing a direct answer with a response that Banks described as an ‘interesting way to dodge the question’, he compared Becerra’s support of children being allowed to undergo gender transition procedures to his perceived opposition to 18-20 year olds owning guns.

‘I just want to ask this question, why do you think that children much much younger than 18 years old, 9, 10, 11 year-olds, are mature enough to make a decision to have a sex reassignment surgery,’ Banks asked. 

‘Then you believed that an 18-year-old shouldn’t be allowed to own a hunting rifle, today you believe a 9, 10, 11-year-old should be able to change their sex and have an irreversible surgery to do that, help us explain the logic.’

Becerra responded to the Indiana Republican and said, ‘Congressman I would appreciate it if you let me characterize what I believe and we could have a good conversation rather than you characterize what I believe. What I would say to you is with regard to gun violence I do believe it is important we take action to protect our communities and our neighborhoods.’

Banks then jumped in and said, ‘I don’t think you want to explain it because you realize how crazy it is and that’s why you’re dodging the question.’

‘That’s not the case,’ Becerra said back to Banks before the congressman moved on to a question about a report from HHS earlier this spring ‘claiming that gender affirmation including social transition, including changing one’s gender pronoun name or appearance, is appropriate and beneficial for gender minority children and adolescents.’

Banks said that the report recommends ‘cutting off’ funds from states that ‘stigmatize transgender children.’

‘Mr. Secretary, does this mean that HHS is seriously threatening to withhold hospital grants from states like my own if they refuse to go along with surgeries or puberty blockers for kids?’ Banks asked.

‘We’re going to protect the rights of any American to get the healthcare they’re entitled to and if someone tries to stop them from that that’s a violation of the law,’ Becerra responded at which point Banks pressed him again and Becerra responded with a similar statement.

‘So that’s a yes,’ Banks said, before asking Becerra whether he supports school lunch funding being pulled from a state like Arizona that ‘refuse to comply with your definition of gender identity?’

Becerra declined to answer directly saying that his personal definition is not the one being implemented but rather the rights of Americans in the law. 

‘It’s pretty clear what you believe the report says so and Madam Chair I hope today that the history books look back and realize just how crazy the politics of this administration are,’ Banks said. ‘Mr. Secretary your photo with the president is going to be in those history books as history will not look back fondly on those policies.’

The Biden administration’s HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Wisconsin Republicans appear poised to cut funding for the University of Wisconsin system.The vote follows intense debate over the school system’s spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.‘I hope we have the ability to eliminate that spending. The university should have already chosen to redirect it to something that is more productive and more broadly supported,’ Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said.

Republican state lawmakers were poised Tuesday to cut funding for University of Wisconsin campuses as the GOP-controlled Legislature and school officials continue to clash over efforts to promote diversity and inclusion.

The vote comes just days after Republicans refused to fund the university’s top building project priority — a new engineering facility on the flagship Madison campus.

Tensions between Republicans who control the Legislature and the state’s university system are nothing new. But the fight this year centers on issues of free speech and UW’s work to advance diversity and racial equity.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the state’s top Republican, said ahead of a meeting of the budget-writing committee on Tuesday that he wants it to cut all funding the university system would use for diversity initiatives. He estimated the cuts would total $32 million.

‘I hope we have the ability to eliminate that spending. The university should have already chosen to redirect it to something that is more productive and more broadly supported,’ Vos told The Associated Press.

UW spokesperson Mark Pitsch said salaries for current system employees specifically tasked with working on diversity, equity and inclusion amount to roughly $15.6 million annually. That number does not include funding for diversity events or other initiatives.

Vos has previously called campus diversity offices a waste of taxpayer money and said they further racial divides. Meanwhile, UW System President Jay Rothman hired a new chief diversity officer with an annual salary of $225,000 who began work on Monday. He did not publicize the hiring at a UW Board of Regents meeting earlier this month.

‘I want the university to grow and succeed, but if they are obsessed with spending all the scarce dollars that they have on programs that are clearly divisive and offer little public good, I don’t know why we’d want to support that,’ Vos said.

The fight reflects a broader cultural battle playing out across the nation over college diversity initiatives. Republican lawmakers this year have proposed more than 30 bills in 12 states to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, an Associated Press analysis found in April.

Democratic Sen. Kelda Roys, whose district includes the UW-Madison campus, called Vos petty and criticized the push to eliminate diversity initiatives.

‘You’d be hard pressed to find a major organization in this country that isn’t doing something to help them achieve equity and inclusion,’ Roys said. ‘The UW is the economic engine of the state. Making any cuts to the UW, especially politically motivated ones, is just going to harm every person in this state.’

UW regents asked the Legislature in September for a total spending increase of nearly $436 million in state money over the next two years, citing low revenue from a decadelong tuition freeze and rising costs due to inflation. Vos said the budget committee plans to reject that request, which was about $130 million higher than even Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wanted for UW.

Factoring in the expected budget cuts, Tuesday’s vote could leave the UW System nearly half a billion dollars short of what school officials say they need.

The fallout could land on the backs of students as UW leaders look to fill gaps in funding.

Rothman proposed tuition and fees hikes ranging from 3% to 5.4% for undergraduates across the 13 colleges in the UW System after Evers proposed giving UW $130 million less than it wanted.

Republicans have largely ignored Evers’ proposals, scrapping more than 500 of the governor’s budget items last month including proposals for a cabinet-level chief equity officer, 18 equity officers in state agencies and a state-funded diversity, equity and inclusion conference.

The Legislature is expected to complete its budget plan by the end of June, at which point Evers can make adjustments using partial vetoes or send it back to lawmakers for revisions.

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Republican lawmakers hammered President Biden after transgender activists went topless at the White House’s Pride Month event on Saturday.

Several GOP lawmakers blasted the president after transgender activist Rose Montoya and other attendees partially disrobed on the White House lawn.

Montoya, a transgender woman, was then banned from the White House after the incident, with the Biden administration condemning the lewd incident as ‘inappropriate and disrespectful.’

Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert called the act ‘disgraceful’ in a Tuesday phone call with Fox News Digital.

‘Unfortunately, my news feeds have been filled with images of the man’s silicones on the White House lawn, which is very disgraceful,’ Boebert said.

Boebert torched Biden, saying he ‘has sold out our country for far less in the past’ and that she does not believe that the incident ‘surprises many people.’

‘He would much rather be eating cookie dough ice cream somewhere in the basement of the White House than actually securing our southern border or focusing on the needs of everyday Americans to just be able to afford their groceries and not pay $10 for a pound of grapes,’ Boebert said.

‘So I don’t think it’s surprising that he’s continuing on this social justice, virtue signaling path that he has been on, but it is disgraceful when the sitting president of the United States fails to do his job to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed and upheld in our from our Constitution,’ the lawmaker continued.

‘So, this is where we’re at with Joe,’ Boebert added.

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz told Fox News Digital, ‘Joe Biden claimed he would ‘restore honor and decency to the White House.’’

‘He’s failing miserably,’ Cruz said. ‘It used to be appropriate to wear a suit and tie to the White House, but now apparently you don’t even have to wear a shirt.’

‘Add this to the list of ways Biden has degraded the prestige and decorum of the office of the President of the United States,’ Cruz added.

Texas GOP Rep. Pete Sessions told Fox News Digital, ‘President Biden claimed that he wanted to restore ‘honor and decency to the White House” when he became president.

‘Instead, his Administration has encouraged the erosion of common decency from day one — this individual’s behavior at the White House is a direct result of failed leadership and the persistent promotion of deviancy,’ Sessions said.

‘While a statement of condemnation is an appropriate first step, this President must demonstrate a course correction to the American people by ending his attack on biology and common sense,’ he continued.

Montoya, a TikTok influencer, originally posted the video from Saturday’s event. It shows Montoya and another unnamed transgender activist, a biological female, baring their breasts on the South Lawn with the White House in view behind them.

Montoya also captured an interaction with Biden himself in the video. The influencer can be seen smiling next to the president and saying, ‘It’s an honor, Mr. President. Trans rights are human rights.’

A White House spokesperson condemned Montoya and other transgender activists’ behavior on Tuesday, saying that they have been banned from future White House events.

‘This behavior is inappropriate and disrespectful for any event at the White House. It is not reflective of the event we hosted to celebrate LGBTQI+ families or the other hundreds of guests who were in attendance. Individuals in the video will not be invited to future events,’ the statement read.

Biden is then seen holding the camera in an attempt to take a selfie with Montoya and other attendees, but the camera was set to video mode.

The video caused widespread outcry on social media, with many users saying Montoya and the group had disgraced the White House.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed reporting.

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges related to his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate – with his appearance at a federal courthouse in downtown Miami bringing out supporters and opponents in their droves.

The 2024 frontrunner turned himself into the federal court on Tuesday, where he was booked on the charges and pleaded not guilty.

The indictment, unsealed last week, accused Trump of failing to comply with demands to return classified documents, including plans for a retaliatory attack on an unnamed foreign power. Other documents include defense and weapon capabilities of the U.S. and details of the U.S. nuclear program.

‘The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,’ the indictment said.

It also accused him of storing the documents in a bathroom and other places at the residence, and of showing off the documents to visitors. In one instance, he is said to have told individuals of a document, ‘as president, I could have declassified it,’ and, ‘Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.’

Trump has dismissed the charges as a ‘political hit job’ against him by the Biden Department of Justice, and on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to the charges. This is the first time in United States history that a former president has faced federal criminal charges.

While he did not speak in court, he did commentate on his social media platform Truth Social.

‘Thank you Miami. Such a warm welcome on such a SAD DAY for our Country!’ he said after the appearance.

‘The targeting prosecution of a leading political opponent is the type of thing you see in dictatorships like Cuba and Venezuela,’ Trump lawyer Alina Habba said earlier in the day. ‘It is commonplace there for rival candidates to be prosecuted, persecuted and put into jail.’

Trump’s motorcade made its way to the courthouse on Tuesday afternoon from the Doral golf club, where supporters and opponents wielding signs and dressed in costumes had already gathered.

On his departure, one protester was dragged away after he ran in front of the motorcade.

Trump briefly stopped off at Café Versailles, where he bought food and where supporters prayed over him and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ ahead of his birthday on Wednesday. 

The former president was released under several conditions – including that he appear in court for future hearings. Trump did not have to surrender his passport and does not have any restrictions on his travel. The former president could face decades in federal prison if convicted on all 37 federal counts stemming from Smith’s probe.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.