Connecticut’s Democratic Legislature is expected to vote Monday on a two-year, $51.1 billion state budget containing a historic income tax cut.If signed into law by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, the budget would take effect July 1.‘Of course we’re going to say it never goes far enough because Connecticut is a very unaffordable state,’ Republican House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said of the tax cut. ‘But it makes an effort. It’s recognizing the middle class needs relief.’

Connecticut lawmakers were expected Monday to pass a two-year, $51.1 billion state budget that includes a historic cut to the state’s personal income tax, possibly on a bipartisan vote.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives was on track to vote sometime in the evening. The Senate, also controlled by Democrats, will have to pass the bill before the General Assembly adjourns at midnight on Wednesday.

First proposed by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, the planned tax reduction is predicted to benefit approximately 1.1 million of the state’s 1.7 million tax filers by permanently lowering marginal rates for the first time since 1996. It’s being billed as the largest reduction since the tax was first implemented in 1991.

‘Today, Connecticut’s fiscal health is stronger than it’s been in decades,’ Lamont said when he first called for cutting the rates. ‘Considering the state’s strong financial position, it is time to provide tax relief for Connecticut’s residents.’

Republican House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora welcomed the tax cut, even though the GOP had wanted more tax relief, including for the business community.

‘Of course we’re going to say it never goes far enough because Connecticut is a very unaffordable state,’ he said. ‘But it makes an effort. It’s recognizing the middle class needs relief.’

The two-year tax-and-spending package also boosts state aid for local school districts; funds the ‘baby bonds’ program that sets aside up to $3,200 for low-income infants; increases rates for ambulance services; expands an anti-gun violence program to two more cities; increases pay for inmates; and includes additional funding for nonprofit social service agencies and state colleges and universities, even though advocates contend it’s not enough considering the state’s resources.

‘Look, do I wish we could have spent a couple $100 million more? Yes, I do. I think that’s where our caucus was. We thought there were ways to do it. … But it didn’t happen,’ said Democratic House Speaker Matthew Ritter, who contends he’s still happy with the package. There was a disagreement between legislative Democrats and Lamont over whether to spend approximately $200 million above and beyond the state’s cap on spending.

Last week, state Comptroller Sean Scanlon projected the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, will end with a $1.6 billion budget surplus, an increase of $16.1 million from May.

‘A 2.5 percent increase is insufficient and the state has the ability to do more for hundreds of community nonprofits and the 500,000 people they serve,’ said Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of CT Community Nonprofit Alliance, which represents agencies that provide services ranging from mental health and substance abuse treatment to homeless shelters and prison reentry programs. He said the budget will make it more difficult to hire workers, force programs to close and create longer waiting lists for services.

There’s also disappointment over how much is set aside for the state’s new early voting program, which is expected to affect general elections, primaries and special elections held on or after Jan. 1, 2024. Democratic Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said the budget plan ‘shortchanges’ voters and funds ‘roughly half of the bare minimum that municipalities need’ to successfully implement the program. She vowed to continue to seek additional funding next fiscal year.

Candelora predicted a lot of Monday’s debate will focus on non-budgetary language included the budget bill. He gave the example of a provision concerning federally qualified health centers that he said might violate federal law.

‘It sounds technical, but the reality is that there’s a push to pass a law that’s against federal law, and that’s dangerous,’ he said.

The new budget, if signed ultimately into law by Lamont, will take effect on July 1.

<!–>

–>

A group of 11 House Republicans is sounding the alarm on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s potential conflicts of interest related to an action she took last week restricting oil and gas drilling.

The Republicans, led by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., wrote to Haaland and top Interior Department ethics official Heather Gottry, expressing concern about how her and her family’s past activism may have influenced the action. On Friday, Haaland finalized a ban on fossil fuel leasing within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico.

‘Under the standards of ethical conduct, federal government officials are required to recuse from particular matters involving specific parties where ‘a person with whom he has a covered relationship is or represents a party to such matter,’ unless authorized by the agency to participate,’ the Republican lawmakers wrote.

‘Furthermore, a federal government official is barred from using their position for the private gain of family members or nonprofit organizations,’ the letter continued.

The letter noted that Haaland has been involved with the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA), a New Mexico-based environmental and cultural group that has advocated against new leasing near Chaco Canyon. PAA Executive Director Julia Bernal boasted in 2021 that she met personally with Haaland, whom she referenced as ‘Auntie Deb,’ about the group’s broad opposition to oil and gas leasing.

Haaland’s daughter Somah has also worked for PAA and even lobbied on behalf of the group against new leasing near Chaco Canyon during a trip late last year to Washington, D.C. 

‘Prior to joining the Biden Administration as Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Secretary Haaland was evidently involved with the Pueblo Action Alliance, a New Mexico based environmental and social justice organization that frequently engages in advocacy, protests, and lobbying throughout the United States,’ the letter stated. 

‘PAA and its leaders advocate for the dismantling of America’s economic and political system and believe America is irredeemable because there is no ‘opportunity to reform a system that isn’t founded on good morals or values,’’ it added. ‘PAA’s work includes efforts to restrict domestic oil and gas production.’

In addition, the letter cited Haaland’s latest ethics filing, which showed her husband Skip Sayre does consulting work for the Laguna Development Corp., a firm that is affiliated with the Laguna Pueblo, an Indigenous tribe. Like the PAA, the tribe has advocated in favor of a buffer zone around Chaco Canyon where new leasing would be banned.

‘One of Congress’s most essential duties is overseeing federal agencies and the cabinet secretaries who lead them,’ Westerman told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘Recently, we’ve discovered concerning ties between Secretary Haaland and the radical environmental and social justice advocacy group Pueblo Action Alliance, as well as other potential conflicts of interests from her household she is required by law to disclose.’ 

‘These alliances raise ethical concerns about Secretary Haaland’s conflict of interest over specific activities like her recent decision to further restrict domestic oil and natural gas production at a site in New Mexico,’ he added. ‘The committee is calling on Secretary Haaland to shed light on these ties between her family and this extremist group so we can determine the potentially unethical way these types of decisions are being made throughout the federal bureaucracy.’

The Republicans’ letter concluded by listing a series of related questions about Haaland’s ethics obligations and communications with PAA.

Meanwhile, in April, government watchdog organization Protect the Public’s Trust filed two federal lawsuits against the Department of the Interior, alleging the agency and its subagency Bureau of Land Management have stonewalled information requests demanding communications involving Somah Haaland.

PAA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Interior Department declined to comment.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday denied the Biden administration’s request for a stay on an order blocking the implementation of a controversial policy that saw thousands of migrants released into the U.S. without a court date in the short time it was in place.

A federal judge had blocked the administration’s ‘parole with conditions’ policy in May, a day after it was implemented amid a surge in migration to historic highs just ahead of the end of Title 42 expulsions on May 11. The administration has said that nearly 9,000 migrants were released in the time the policy was in place.

The judge found that the policy, which saw migrants released into the U.S. without court dates and told to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement within 60 days, was materially identical to a separate policy that paroled migrants into the U.S. while enrolling them into alternatives to detention (ATD) programs. The judge had blocked that policy in March in response to a lawsuit from Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who also filed the May challenge.

The administration, which called the block of the policy ‘sabotage,’ filed a motion to stay the orders blocking both the ‘parole + ATD policy’ and the ‘parole with conditions’ policy. Lawyers for the administration said that the orders blocking the policies will ‘undermine the Executive Branch’s constitutional and statutory authority to implement its immigration priorities and secure the border.’

The administration had also argued that blocking the ability to release migrants will lead to the overcrowding of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities and threaten the health, safety and security of Border Patrol agents and migrants – with downstream effects on public safety and national security.

‘The fact remains that when overcrowding has occurred in Border Patrol facilities, Republican and Democratic Administrations alike have used this parole authority to protect the safety and security of migrants and the workforce,’ a CBP statement said last month.

The three-judge appeals court panel denied the motion, arguing that the warnings ‘ring somewhat hollow on this record, considering the department’s track record of overstating similar threats in the underlying proceedings’ and pointed to prior claims made by the administration of disastrous consequences if releases were blocked.

‘Given this record, we take DHS’s latest claims of impending disaster if it is not allowed to use either of the challenged policies with some skepticism,’ the judges wrote. The judges also noted a recent drop in encounters at the border since the Title 42 order ended on May 11.

The denial marks another win for Moody, who secured first a temporary restraining order and then the preliminary injunction against the policy.

‘The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to disturb an injunction Florida obtained against a Biden policy allowing the mass release of illegal immigrants into the country,’ Moody said in a statement. ‘Protecting our border is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of our President and Florida will not allow Joe Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to continue putting American lives at risk in clear violation of Federal Law.’

Moody last week expanded the challenge to include migrants being released with court dates (Notices to Appear) after DHS said it had streamlined a policy that released migrants with NTAs on their own recognizance. Should that policy be blocked, it could result in most migrants not being allowed into the U.S. and a significant increase in detention.

Meanwhile, the administration is also facing legal challenges from both GOP-led states and civil rights groups targeting its asylum rule, which in theory bars most migrants from claiming asylum if they have entered illegally and failed to claim asylum in a prior country.

GOP-led states have called the rule a ‘smoke screen’ while left-wing groups have argued it unlawfully bars migrants from claiming asylum. The administration has defended the policy, saying it is designed to encourage migrants to use lawful pathways and enter via ports of entry.

DHS officials said last week that, amid a 70% drop in encounters at the border, ‘[W]e’ve also seen how the consequences we are delivering as part of our comprehensive effort to manage flows at the border are working.’

President Biden spent Sunday afternoon golfing with his younger brother James Biden as House Republicans ramp up their investigation into the Biden family’s foreign business deals, including those conducted by James ‘Jim’ Biden and first son Hunter Biden, who is under federal investigation.

Photos Sunday showed Biden, 80, driving a golf cart with James, 73, in the passenger seat on the golf course at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.

The Republican National Committee tweeted a video of the golf trip Sunday, describing the younger Biden as a ‘key player’ in the Biden family business ‘scandal.’

In 2017, James and Hunter, along with John Robinson ‘Rob’ Walker, James Gilliar and Tony Bobulinski, entered a joint-venture called Sinohawk Holdings, which was meant to be a partnership with now-bankrupt energy firm CEFC China Energy Company Limited, a Chinese Communist Party-backed company. 

The venture eventually failed, but Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and House Oversight Committee Republicans said they obtained records by subpoenaing Bank of America that revealed James, Hunter and Hallie Biden received lucrative payments from a bank account belonging to Walker and his company Robinson Walker LLC.

Comer said Walker received $3 million from State Energy HK Limited, a CEFC-affiliated Chinese company, and in turn, he paid out more than $1 million to Hunter, James and Hallie, the widow of President Biden’s son Beau who was romantically involved with Hunter. Walker hasn’t responded to multiple previous Fox News Digital inquiries about what the payments were for.

In February, Comer sent James a request for records to determine whether members of the Biden family leveraged Biden’s position as vice president to sell access to foreign entities.

‘The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating President Biden’s connections to certain international and domestic business transactions and practices, including family members who peddled influence to generate millions of dollars for the Biden family,’ the committee wrote in a letter to James. 

‘The Committee has reviewed documents implicating you as a central figure in these transactions,’ the letter read. ‘Evidence shows you communicated with Hunter Biden and others regarding relevant companies, investments, and payments. The Committee requests documents and communications related to our investigation of President Biden’s involvement in his family’s financial conduct.’

During the 2020 campaign, Fox News approached Biden’s brother outside a residence in the Eastern Shore of Maryland about claims that Biden had knowledge about the family’s overseas business dealings when he was vice president.

‘I don’t want to comment about anything,’ Biden’s brother said at the time.

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about Biden’s golf outing.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed reporting.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign began the week by taking aim at former President Donald Trump over his decision not to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

A video the DeSantis campaign released Monday showed multiple clips from Trump’s days on his reality show, ‘The Apprentice,’ which the former president hosted from 2004 to 2015, and included scenes of him using his signature phrase, ‘You’re fired!’ whenever a contestant was removed from the program.

It compared those clips of him firing multiple contestants, in which it labeled Trump, ‘Reality TV Trump,’ to clips of him repeatedly defending his decision not to fire Fauci, in which he was labeled, ‘Real Life Trump.’

‘Today I walk in, and I hear I’m going to fire him. I’m not firing him. I think he’s a wonderful guy,’ one clip showed Trump saying during a briefing at the White House, referencing Fauci.

‘Should you have fired Fauci?’ another clip showed a member of the media asking, and Trump responding, ‘So, a lot of people ask me that question, and I did it right. Because if you do fire him, you’re going to have a firestorm on the left again.’

One clip showed Trump being asked why he felt ‘unable’ to fire Fauci, and was followed by the former president responding he was ‘not allowed to’ before abruptly cutting to another clip. The clip was too short to provide the full context of Trump’s answer.

‘Every time he goes on television there’s always a bomb. But there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him,’ Trump said in another clip, referencing Fauci who was frequently criticized for the information related to the pandemic he would share on cable news networks that, often times, appeared to conflict with previously shared information.

‘Frankly, you can’t win that one. If I would have done it, I would have taken heat,’ Trump added in the clip.

This isn’t the first time DeSantis has taken aim at Trump over the work Fauci did as part of his administration. Last month, he said while appearing as a podcast guest that Trump ‘destroyed millions of people’s lives’ by turning the country over to Fauci after the pandemic’s onset.

When reached for comment, Trump’s campaign pointed Fox News Digital to a video it posted last week showing that DeSantis hasn’t always been a Fauci critic. The video included clips of DeSantis from early in the pandemic praising Fauci as ‘doing a good job.’

Fauci remained in his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the remainder of the Trump administration, and continued working into the Biden administration before also serving as the Chief Medical Advisor to the President and retiring at the end of 2022.

A state school board in Oklahoma voted Monday to approve what would be the first publicly funded religious school in the nation, despite a warning from the state’s attorney general that the decision was unconstitutional.

The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 to approve the application by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma to establish the St. Isodore of Seville Virtual Charter School. The online public charter school would be open to students across the state in kindergarten through grade 12.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond had warned the board that such a decision clearly violated the Oklahoma Constitution.

‘The approval of any publicly funded religious school is contrary to Oklahoma law and not in the best interest of taxpayers,’ Drummond said in a statement shortly after the board’s vote. ‘It’s extremely disappointing that board members violated their oath in order to fund religious schools with our tax dollars. In doing so, these members have exposed themselves and the state to potential legal action that could be costly.’

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma said in the ‘vision and purpose of the organization’ section of its application that: ‘The Catholic school participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out.’

Brett Farley, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, said: ‘We are elated that the board agreed with our argument and application for the nation’s first religious charter school.’

Americans United for Separation of Church and State denounced the board’s approval.

‘It’s hard to think of a clearer violation of the religious freedom of Oklahoma taxpayers and public-school families than the state establishing the nation’s first religious public charter school,’ the group’s president and CEO Rachel Laser said in a statement. ‘This is a sea change for American democracy. Americans United will work with our Oklahoma and national partners to take all possible legal action to fight this decision and defend the separation of church and state that’s promised in both the Oklahoma and U.S. Constitutions.’

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who earlier this year signed a bill that would give parents in the state a tax incentive to send their children to private schools, including religious schools, praised the board’s vote.

‘This is a win for religious liberty and education freedom in our great state, and I am encouraged by these efforts to give parents more options when it comes to their child’s education,’ Stitt said in a statement.

<!–>

–>

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Tae D. Johnson will be retiring from federal law enforcement duties at the end of the month, after over 30 years of serving the country.

Johnson’s announcement comes less than a week after U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz announced he, too, had decided to retire.

‘After more than 30 years of dedicated service to our nation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Direct and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tae D. Johnson will retire from federal law enforcement at the end of the month,’ an ICE spokesperson said. ‘Throughout his career, he has been an integral part of the mission to investigate, apprehend, and remove criminals and immigration violators from the United States and dismantle terrorist and criminal organizations that exploit our borders and lawful immigration system, serving in his current role since January 2021.’

According to the ICE website, Johnson currently oversees the day-to-day operations of agency, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, leading about 20,000 employees consisting of 6,800 criminal investigators in Homeland Security Investigations and 6,000 officers in the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

Before leading the day-to-day, Johnson served in multiple roles in ERO, including Deputy Executive Associate Director. In the role, Johnson oversaw and direct the coordination of arresting and removing illegal aliens who posed a threat to communities and jeopardized the integrity of the nation’s immigration laws.

The outgoing director earned a bachelor’s degree from Salisbury University and kicked off his federal career in Salisbury, Maryland in 1992 with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as a co-op student trainee.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas issued a statement regarding Johnson’s retirement, saying he was grateful for his service to ICE, the department and the nation.

‘Mr. Johnson has been an integral member of ICE’s leadership team through multiple administration,’ the secretary said. ‘I have personally benefited from his frank assessments, solid judgment, and his deep expertise drawn from decades of experience. I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Tae for more than 31 years of dedicated service. The Department is grateful for his service and sacrifice, and that of his family who has served alongside him.’