State lawmakers began debate Wednesday on a proposal to allow people to carry concealed guns in Nebraska without a permit.

Currently, 25 other states have so-called constitutional carry laws that allow people to carry concealed guns without a permit.

Sen. Tom Brewer, of Gordon, who introduced the bill, opened debate by noting it would not usurp current requirements for federal background checks to buy guns or stop businesses from banning guns in their establishments.

‘A person in Nebraska should not have to pay money to the government to exercise their constitutional right,’ Brewer said.

Nebraska already allows gun owners to carry firearms in public view, as long as they don’t have a criminal record that bars them from possessing one and aren’t in a place where guns are prohibited. To legally conceal the gun, Nebraskans are required to submit to a Nebraska State Patrol background check, get fingerprinted and take a gun safety course at their own expense.

Opponents have vowed to fight passage of the bill and were expected to use procedural moves to delay a vote on it.

A similar bill in Nebraska failed last year to overcome a filibuster led by opponents.

Wisconsin lawmakers were set to take public comments Wednesday on a Republican-authored bill that would force the state’s embattled parole commission to abide by open meetings laws and post its decisions online.

The Assembly Committee on State Affairs was scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposal. The committee wasn’t expected to vote on the bill but the forum offered stakeholders a chance to sound off on commission shortcomings.

Republicans have spent months criticizing the commission after it decided in May 2022 to parole convicted murderer Douglas Balsewicz after he served 25 years of his 80-year sentence. Balsewicz, now 55, had fatally stabbed his wife, Johanna Balsewicz, in West Allis in 1997.

The commission’s chair, John Tate, one of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ appointees, approved the decision, leaving Johanna Balsewicz’s family outraged. A slate of Republicans who were running for governor at the time demanded Evers intervene.

The governor doesn’t have the power to unilaterally rescind paroles. But in the face of blistering GOP criticism and with the November election just months away, Evers met with Johanna Balsewicz’s family and afterward asked Tate to rescind Douglas Balsewicz’s parole. Evers said at the time that the family didn’t get an adequate chance to respond.

Tate complied and resigned weeks later, again at Evers’ request. He said in his resignation letter that no parole decision pleases everyone but he did his best to be fair. Evers picked former Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach to replace him in January.

The bill from Republican state Rep. John Spiros and Sen. Van Wanggaard would apply Wisconsin’s open meetings laws to the commission — right now the commission is exempt — and require the commission to post notice of all its meetings on the state Department of Corrections website.

The Department of Corrections would be required to post online any guidance documents the commission uses when making parole decisions. The agency also would have to post the names of any individuals granted or denied parole as well as those returned to prison for parole violations along with monthly and annual totals.

The Wisconsin Newspaper Association and the Wisconsin Professional Police Association have registered in favor of the bill, according to Wisconsin Ethics Commission records. No groups have registered in opposition.

Spokespeople for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu didn’t immediately return messages inquiring about the bill’s prospects.

Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback responded to a request for comment by pointing to two sentences in the governor’s budget proposal that call for ‘clarifying the responsibilities’ of the commission to notify crime victims’ families when a convict applies for parole and is released on parole.

The budget language does not elaborate and Cudaback didn’t respond to a follow-up message seeking more details.

EXCLUSIVE: The White House said Wednesday that pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s move to cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 for patients is ‘the ultimate proof point’ for why Republicans should stop trying to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act.

Eli Lilly announced the move to cap costs for patients Wednesday and said it is effective immediately, following the enactment of the legislation, which caps the out-of-pocket costs for patients enrolled in Medicare at $35 per monthly insulin prescription.

The company is also pledging to cut the price of its most commonly prescribed insulin by 70%.

‘Today’s breakthrough for American families is the ultimate proof point for why Republicans need to stop seeking repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act,’ White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital on Wednesday afternoon.

‘In light of this news, will they now commit to not repealing the Inflation Reduction Act?’ Bates asked of Republicans.

‘President Biden’s plan to build an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out is delivering relief in real-time from crushingly high drug prices,’ he continued. ‘But congressional Republicans want to reverse this progress so that rich special interests can gain a windfall at the expense of everyone else.’

Pointing to Eli Lilly’s move, Bates said that ‘even drug manufacturers are going further than congressional Republicans are with respect to lower insulin costs.’

‘What the GOP needs to reverse is their support for higher drug costs and the biggest cut to Medicare benefits in decades,’ Bates said. ‘Why would you stand in the way of more announcements that put life-saving medicines in reach of families?’

The White House is referring to new GOP-sponsored legislation rolled out in the House last month by Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, which would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

‘Last Congress, President Biden and his House Democrat colleagues shoved through countless spending measures to further their woke ‘green agenda,’ including the ‘Inflation Reduction Act,” said Ogles. ‘Instead of creating any positive change for Americans facing record-breaking economic challenges, Leftists opted to increase federal spending and the deficit — by at least $110 billion dollars through 2031 — in order to advance their personal political agendas.’

Ogles’ office said his bill would ‘repeal these outrageous spending measures and put the money back where it belongs — in the pockets of hardworking taxpayers.’

Multiple analyses determined last year that the Inflation Reduction Act was not expected to reduce inflation. The Congressional Budget Office said the bill will have ‘a negligible effect’ on inflation in 2022, and in 2023 its impact would range between reducing inflation by 0.1% and increasing it by 0.1%, despite language in the bill capping some prescription drugs.

The White House was also referring to the fact that Republicans voted against the bill last Congress, and some, during the midterm election cycle, said they would work to repeal the legislation should they win the majority in the House.

But a senior Senate GOP aide told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that ‘Democrats will continue to use anything to try to distract Americans suffering through record inflation.’

And despite the White House touting the Inflation Reduction Act and the president’s economic policy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been pointing to the persistent inflation facing Americans.

‘The Democrats’ inflation is not just driving up the prices for groceries and essentials that families pay themselves at the checkout counter; it’s also baked into the costs families pay indirectly through service providers from plumbers to contractors to medical providers and beyond,’ McConnell, R-Ky., said this week. ‘In every corner of the economy, workers and businesses are still having to hunker down against the ongoing consequences of Democrats’ reckless mistakes.’

‘What an odd time, then, for the Biden Administration to declare victory over a problem it helped create,’ he added. ‘The White House press secretary declared earlier this month that ‘The President’s economic plan is indeed working.’’

Inflation rose 6.4% in January. The Labor Department reported that the Consumer Price Index, a broad measure of the price of everyday goods that includes gasoline, groceries and rents, rose 0.5% on the month in January after a surprise decline of 0.1% in December.

Inflation is still running above 6% or higher, but that’s down from the 9.1% seen in June, which marked the highest inflation rate in almost 41 years.

As for the White House’s claim that GOP lawmakers are seeking to cut Medicare benefits, both McConnell and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., have repeatedly said sunsetting Social Security and Medicare is not on the table for congressional Republicans.

EXCLUSIVE: A pair of Indiana Republican lawmakers demanded answers from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the shipments of hazardous materials from East Palestine, Ohio, to other Midwestern states.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Indiana Republicans Sen. Mike Braun and Rep. Jim Baird expressed concern about the ongoing process of transporting the materials, contaminated from the early February train derailment in eastern Ohio, to specialized facilities in Michigan and their home state.

‘I am opposed to the transfer of hazardous materials from the East Palestine train derailment into Indiana,’ Braun said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘The Biden EPA and Transportation Department have mishandled this disaster from day one. Any material from this disaster being transferred to Indiana overseen by this Biden EPA is seriously concerning. Hoosiers’ safety is my top priority.’

Braun and Baird also noted in their letter that the EPA has appeared to listen to Democratic lawmakers while ignoring Republicans weighing in on the issue. 

For example, on Feb. 25 — one day after state and federal officials announced they would transport hazardous materials collected in East Palestine to a facility in Michigan — the EPA abruptly halted the shipments. The decision to suddenly pause the shipments came a mere 30 minutes after Democratic Michigan Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Debbie Dingell held a press conference demanding the Biden administration stop sending toxic materials to their state.

‘They told us there were five trucks that came today from Ohio that they have 99 percent water and one percent the vinyl chloride. And that going forward all of it is on pause and another site is likely to be found,’ Dingell said.

‘No one deserves this in their backyard,’ added Tlaib, according to local outlet MLive.

Braun and Baird stated that they were concerned the EPA’s decision was ultimately made ‘in response to objections from elected officials in Michigan’ and not as a safety consideration.

Two days after pausing hazardous shipments, the EPA announced it had selected two facilities — located in Grafton, Ohio and Roachdale, Indiana — to house the materials from East Palestine. While the agency said it would notify local officials before moving forward with the shipments, the Republican lawmakers said such officials have suggested the opposite.

‘This does not appear to have been the case in Indiana,’ Braun and Baird wrote. ‘In fact, in his statement on February 28, Governor of Indiana Eric Holcomb explained that he learned about the decision to transport contaminated materials to Roachdale ‘third-hand.’’

‘Governor Holcomb has also noted his continued objection to the decision and concerns with the ‘lack of communication’ between EPA and Indiana elected officials,’ they continued. 

They concluded, saying they were certain officials at the Roachdale facility would be able to handle the materials, but adding that they have ‘heard from Hoosiers who share our concerns about how EPA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and Norfolk Southern have handled the cleanup following the East Palestine derailment.’

‘Specifically, our constituents have requested increased oversight because they share our concerns about the decision to transport contaminated materials to the Roachdale, Indiana facility,’ the lawmakers wrote before firing off multiple questions to the EPA administrator.

On Feb. 3, about 50 cars on a Norfolk Southern Railroad train carrying vinyl chloride, a dangerous colorless gas, derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, a small community that is located along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.

The company opted to release the gas from the derailed cars, releasing potentially deadly fumes and other dangerous chemicals into the air, to prevent a disastrous explosion. Local residents were told to evacuate the area during the release, but were assured it was safe to return on Feb. 9.

The EPA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: The director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office Wednesday briefed a group of House Republicans in a closed-door meeting on the dire situation the United States is in regarding its $31.4 trillion debt, sources told Fox News Digital.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest group within the GOP conference, invited CBO Director Phillip Swagel to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss the national debt as Republicans and Democrats remain at an impasse over raising the debt ceiling. 

‘The CBO made it clear that the level of growth necessary to balance the budget without cutting spending is impossible,’ a GOP aide told Fox News Digital.

They said Swagel told the lawmakers, ‘We cannot grow ourselves out of this.’

Another source in the room confirmed that Swagel shared dire warnings about the U.S. economy if serious fiscal cutbacks to fix the deficit are not imposed.

RSC Chairman Rep. Kevin Hern told Fox News Digital after the meeting that Swagel ‘painted a dark picture for us.

‘But this wasn’t news to anyone who’s paid attention to our spending problem,’ Hern said. ‘The CBO is a nonpartisan entity, and they recognize the severity of our current situation.’

Republicans have called for spending cuts to offset an increase to the U.S. debt limit, while Democrats counter that raising the level is an obligation of the federal government that should be dealt with separately from other matters.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress last month that the government is using ‘extraordinary measures’ after hitting the $31.4 trillion debt limit in January, and that those funds would run out in early June.

But the CBO announced last week that the window for exhausting the measures is actually between July and September.

Swagel told Republicans at Wednesday’s meeting that he expects to have a narrower timeline by late April or early May.

Rep. Ben Cline, charged with leading the RSC’s budget task force, accused Democrats of point-blank refusing to negotiate on spending cuts – despite the left’s insistence that they don’t want to couple such conversations with the debt limit.

‘These kinds of briefings are incredibly important to fully understand the seriousness of our nation’s fiscal trajectory,’ Cline told Fox News Digital. ‘It is totally irresponsible for President Biden and the Democrats to refuse to negotiate any limitations on federal spending. We need to come together, tighten the purse strings, and balance the budget – just like families across America have to do every day.’

But Hern suggested that Republicans aren’t all on the same page regarding the national debt, either.

‘We need everyone, not just fiscal conservatives, to pay attention to the debt crisis and come to terms with reality. There are some really hard conversations that need to be had, both internally in the GOP and with our colleagues across the aisle,’ he said.

The first GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital said it was clear Medicare and Social Security ‘are going insolvent’ whether President Biden ‘likes it or not, and insolvency would trigger massive cuts.’

Biden and Democrats have accused the GOP of wanting to cut those programs in order to bring down spending – a claim that spurred outrage among Republicans.

But the CBO’s economic forecast released last week projected that Social Security will be insolvent in 2032, while the Medicare Hospital Trust Fund will likely be insolvent in 2033 – endangering the benefits programs’ cashflow by 20 to 25%.

It also suggested that economic growth will be far weaker in 2023, and that ‘output growth comes to a halt in early 2023 in response to the sharp rise in interest rates’ by the Federal Reserve.

‘The only way forward is to cut spending,’ the GOP aide said they took away from the meeting. ‘There is no way to dig ourselves out of this debt crisis without cutting spending.’

CBO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

A former Philadelphia council member convicted along with a prominent labor leader in a federal public corruption case has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Bobby Henon, a former union electrician who was elected to the city council in 2011, got a no-show job from the union to ensure he did its bidding. Also convicted was John Dougherty, longtime business manager of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

At Wednesday’s sentencing, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl called Henon a good man ‘convicted of doing a bad thing,’ The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The judge said the case ‘exposed the dirty underbelly of how Philadelphia politics works.’

Henon was convicted in November 2021 of 10 counts including conspiracy, bribery, and honest services mail and wire fraud.

He choked back tears Wednesday as he told the judge he never viewed his paycheck as a bribe and tried his best to help everyone in Philadelphia, ‘especially those who were vulnerable and those in need’ — but ‘by putting the interest of my union first, I failed you.’

Henon was fined $50,000 and ordered to hand over $207,000, which is how much he received from Dougherty and Local 98, the newspaper reported.

He was ordered to report to prison April 17. After completing his term, he will spend three years on supervised release. He earlier vowed to appeal the conviction, saying council members are permitted outside jobs and it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that he and Dougherty agreed on a lot of issues.

Prosecutors sought the eight- to 10-year sentence recommended by federal sentencing guidelines. The defense sought to spare their client prison time. Defense attorney Brian McMonagle said the case wasn’t about bribery but ‘blind loyalty,’ especially loyalty to the labor leader.

Dougherty — known widely by his nickname ‘Johnny Doc’ — had been a major force in Pennsylvania politics, steering millions in union campaign contributions to candidates for political office, including his brother, who was elected as a state Supreme Court justice in 2015.

Dougherty’s lawyers contended he exerted no undue influence. He has yet to be sentenced in the case, and faces another federal trial in an embezzlement case.

A Republican-proposed overhaul of how Ohio oversees K-12 education and decision-making on academic standards, model curricula and school district ratings cleared the state Senate on Wednesday with a vote along party lines.

Oversight of the state’s education department would shift to a director appointed by the governor, instead of the State Board of Education and the superintendent it elects. The bill would also rename the Ohio Department of Education as the Department of Education and Workforce, and transfer many of the state school board’s powers to the department’s new director.

That director, as well as the deputy directors for the newly created divisions of Primary and Secondary Education and Career Technical Education, would also have to be OK’d by the state Senate.

Wednesday’s vote was 26-7, with all Republicans supporting the measure and all Democrats opposing.

This proposal isn’t new. A similar bill failed to get enough votes in the final days of the GOP-led Legislature’s last session after other proposals were tacked on last-minute, including banning transgender girls from playing girls sports and creating protections for unvaccinated K-12 kids. That combined proposal was opposed by Democrats and got mixed reviews from Republicans.

Sen. Bill Reineke, of Tiffin, said in previous testimony that the bill has multiple goals, including to ensure accountability and transparency within Ohio’s education structure, as well as help address the state’s workforce needs by making students more aware of career pathways other than a four-year-degree.

Supporters of the bill, including Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, applaud it as a way to revamp a failing, disorganized system, which they say is bogged down with political infighting among school board members and has been too slow to address issues such as the decline in student achievement during the pandemic, transportation shortages and chronic student absenteeism.

Opponents of the measure, including current school board members and the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said giving more control to the governor’s office would result in partisan oversight over the state’s education, not more accountability.

The bill now goes to the state House for consideration.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on Wednesday pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland to explain his thinking behind a controversial 2021 memorandum directing the Justice Department to investigate violent threats to school personnel. 

The questioning came during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ‘Oversight of the Department of Justice’ hearing. 

‘Didn’t you understand the chilling effect that it would have [on] parents when you issued your directive? When you directed your criminal and counterterrorism divisions to investigate parents who were angry at school boards and administrators during COVID?’ Kennedy asked. 

Garland pushed back, saying his directive clarified that parents’ First Amendment rights were protected. The attorney general distinguished between those who threatened school board members with violence, and those who merely complained to their school board. 

‘And [the directive] came in the context of a whole series of other kinds of violent threats and violence against other public officials,’ Garland said. 

Angry parents, lashing out at school board meetings across the country, captured headlines for much of 2021. Many were fed up with COVID-19 restrictions and their detrimental impacts on their child’s education. 

The National School Boards Association sent President Biden a letter in September 2021 equating the actions of some parents as ‘a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.’ 

Less than a week later, Garland wrote a one-page memo to the FBI, offices for U.S. attorneys, and the DOJ’s Criminal Division to notify officials that the agency would ‘use its authority and resources to identify threats at school board meetings against faculty, and ‘prosecute them when appropriate.’ The word ‘parent’ was never mentioned in the document. 

‘What did you think was going to happen?’ Kennedy asked Garland on Wednesday. 

The Louisiana Republican challenged Garland’s assertion that the memo was intended to prevent threats of violence and not investigate ‘angry parents.’  

‘This is about the third I’m being asked about the same memorandum. And each time I’ve said, and I hope that the senators would go ahead and advise their constituents in the same way that this is not what we do,’ Garland said. ‘We are not in any way trying to interfere with parents making complaints about the education of their children.’ 

Last September, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit from Virginia and Michigan parents who sued Garland over the memo. Trump-appointed Judge Dabney Friedrich wrote, ‘the policy does not label anyone a domestic terrorist, as the plaintiffs suggest.’ 

Fox News’ David Spunt and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday avoided a question on Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s re-election loss and appeared to blame Republicans in Congress for the surge in crime rates across the country.

During the daily White House press briefing, Jean-Pierre said she was ‘going to withhold commenting’ on the race after being asked by a reporter about concerns over crime rates leading to Lightfoot’s loss. 

Jean-Pierre went on to accuse Republicans of taking steps she suggested contributed to rising crime.

‘So let me just first speak to the mayor’s race. What the president is committed to working with whomever the people in Chicago or the people on the ground, whichever, if it’s a city or state, whomever they choose to represent them,’ Jean-Pierre said. ‘So that is the case and will continue to be the case. And so I’m going to withhold commenting on any specific race.’ 

She touted what she said were President Biden’s accomplishments on addressing rising crime, including calling for the recruitment of more police officers and the call to ban ‘assault weapons’ but accused Republicans of doing ‘the opposite’ despite being sharp critics of Democrats’ crime policies.

‘When you think about the COPS program, which is something that the president put forward, they have wanted to defund that, to take that away. And if you think about that, that leads to defunding the police,’ Jean-Pierre said. ‘Just recently, they called on defunding the FBI. And you think about the border security funding. They want to take that away as well.’ 

Crime became a central theme in the Chicago race as rates skyrocketed around the city, leading to low approval ratings for Lightfoot.

Voting results showed Lightfoot in a distant third place following Tuesday’s election, meaning she failed to make the April 4 runoff between her top two opponents.