Nebraska’s newly minted Gov. Jim Pillen proposed Tuesday to vastly increase K-12 public education funding using money from the state’s huge cash reserve. It’s a plan that even those typically critical of Republican education reform efforts say holds promise.

The plan, spread over measures to be introduced by at least three lawmakers, proposes to increase education funding by $2.5 billion through 2030 while still cutting property taxes.

Pillen said the money would be in addition to current state aid funding to schools. Currently, Nebraska’s public schools are funded largely through local property taxes. The state provides equalization funding to schools to cover funding gaps in those districts with low tax revenues, high enrollment and/or large numbers of disadvantaged students.

NEBRASKA SWEARS IN JIM PILLEN AS ITS 41ST GOVERNOR

Pillen held a news conference Tuesday with Republican lawmakers to unveil a plan that would provide $1,500 for each student, primarily those in the 180 school districts that either don’t receive state equalization funding or receive less than $1,500 per student. Districts that receive more than $1,500 per student in state aid would not see that funding reduced.

‘No district will receive less aid than what they have today,’ Pillen said.

The plan would put up $1 billion in the first year, then $250 million each of the following six years, said Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, who plans to introduce the funding portion of the package. Another portion of the package would lower property taxes by limiting year-over-year tax-collection increases. It would enact a cap of a 3% increase in revenue per year.

‘This provides dollar-for-dollar property tax relief,’ Clements said.

Sen. Tom Briese of Albion, who introduced the revenue cap Tuesday, said the cap has built-in flexibility for those districts that have a need to raise more revenue in a year than the cap allows. They can do that with a supermajority vote of the school board or voters, he said. The cap does not apply to proposed school bond issues, which are adopted or rejected at the ballot box.

The package would also provide millions in additional funding to teach special education students.

‘Nebraska is nearly last in the country in education funding by the state,’ Briese said. ‘This package can chip away at that dynamic.’

Briese said proponents expect to be able to maintain the increased funding beyond 2030, but he did not detail how.

Nebraska ended the fiscal year in mid-2022 with a nearly $1 billion cash reserve, and fiscal forecasters predict a balance of $2.3 billion by this summer. Much of that additional revenue was garnered through federal pandemic recovery funding and boosts from rising inflation.

Pillen campaigned, in part, on changing Nebraska’s school-funding formula to a per-student basis, often repeating his mantra of ‘leave no child behind.’

Critics had thumped a plan that would have dumped equalization funding in favor of educational savings accounts — which have been proposed in at least a dozen other states this year — saying it could cost Nebraska’s largest districts up to $270 million.

But the plan announced Tuesday by Pillen was received with cautious optimism by those who usually find themselves squaring off against Republican-led education funding proposals.

Tim Royers, president of the Millard Education Association, spoke Tuesday for the Nebraska State Education Association, the union representing about 28,000 of the state’s public school teachers.

‘We think there’s a lot of promise in this,’ Royers said. ‘For a long time, there’s been a lack of state-level investment in our kids, and now we have a $2.5 billion proposal to do just that. That’s exactly what we wanted to hear.’

OpenSky Policy Institute, a Nebraska tax policy think tank that has long been critical of tax-cutting proposals, said it wants to study the plan to better gauge its long-term sustainability and affect on schools. But OpenSky executive director Rebecca Firestone offered rare praise for the effort.

‘We have long noted that the best way to address property taxes in Nebraska is to increase the share of state support for public K-12 education,’ she said.

Democrat Josh Shapiro took the oath of office Tuesday to become the 48th governor of Pennsylvania, placing his hand on a stack of three Jewish Bibles at an inaugural ceremony outside the state Capitol to cap his blowout win in November’s election.

Shapiro, 49, takes over in the nation’s fifth-most populous state with more experience in state government than any of his recent predecessors, including six years as Pennsylvania’s elected attorney general and seven as a state lawmaker.

Chief Justice Debra Todd administered the oath on a stage erected behind the ornate Capitol in Harrisburg, with U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman, ex-governors, members of Congress and several thousand others bundled against the cold winter day.

‘I am humbled to stand before you today as Pennsylvania’s 48th governor,’ Shapiro said at the start of his 23-minute speech with his wife and four children nearby. ‘Along the winding road that has led to this moment, I have been grounded in my faith and family.’

Shapiro succeeds term-limited Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, and is the first governor of Pennsylvania since 1966 to be elected to succeed a member of his own party.

On stage with Shapiro were just over a dozen people he invited — including survivors of child sexual abuse, parents of children killed by gun violence and the widows of two state troopers killed in the line of duty — who aides say symbolize his work as attorney general and his bipartisan policy aims as governor.

‘Your stories, your courage have stayed with me,’ Shapiro said, addressing them. ‘And, they will motivate me every day as I serve as your governor.’

Shapiro did not spell out specific policy aims in his speech. But he emphasized themes that he has developed before and after the election: that voters are embracing democracy and tolerance, rejecting extremism and hate, and asking their leaders to protect their rights and make progress on important quality-of-life issues.

‘Now is the time to join together behind the unifying strength of three simple truths that have sustained our nation over the past two-and-a-half centuries: that above all else, beyond any momentary political differences, we value our freedom, we cherish our democracy and we love this country,’ Shapiro said.

An hours before the inaugural ceremony, Shapiro’s friends and supporters, political elite and many who will work in the new administration packed into the Senate chamber to witness the swearing-in of Democrat Austin Davis, 33, as Pennsylvania’s first Black lieutenant governor.

Shapiro takes the reins of a sprawling state government — it employs roughly 80,000 employees and handles more than $100 billion a year in state and federal money — that has billions in reserve and a stronger-than-usual economy for the slow-growing state.

But he also is moving across the street from the attorney general’s office to the executive suite in the Capitol even as the House of Representatives is paralyzed by a partisan fight for control and Republican lawmakers are aiming to remove some executive branch leeway to enact regulations.

Shapiro himself has preached bipartisanship, emphasizing his support from independents and Republicans in the election when he rolled up a powerhouse 15 percentage-point victory over the far-right Republican nominee, state Sen. Doug Mastriano.

For at least the next two years, every new law under Shapiro must have a GOP stamp of approval, considering the six-seat Republican majority in the state Senate.

To that end, Shapiro has tried to avoid radioactive political issues, staked out the middle on various entrenched policy fights and hired several Republicans for his Cabinet.

The Senate’s ranking Republican, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, said Shapiro’s speech sounded ‘pretty bipartisan.’

‘I think that’s very important because that’s how we’re going to govern with the Republican Senate and the Democratic House and governor,’ Ward said.

Shapiro will sign ethics orders for his administration later this week, aides say, and will speak to a joint session of the Legislature when he presents his first budget plan March 7.

Shapiro also resigned Tuesday as attorney general, leaving in control his top deputy of six years, Michelle Henry, 54, a career prosecutor from Bucks County whom Shapiro plans to nominate to fill the last two years of his term.

Shapiro, a devout Jew, chose a stack of three Jewish Bibles on which to take his oath, making religious tolerance a prominent part of the event, with members of several faiths delivering an invocation beforehand.

One was a family Bible; the second was from the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh where a gunman in 2018 killed 11 worshippers in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history; and the third was an Army-issued tome carried by Herman Hershman of Philadelphia on D-Day in 1944.

The inauguration culminated in a sold-out, $50-per-ticket bash at Rock Lititz Studios in Lititz where hundreds watched performances by rappers Wiz Khalifa and Meek Mill, singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson and indie rock band Mt. Joy.

The event space was draped in shades of red and blue lights and decor before Shapiro — introduced by Mill — emerged later in the evening with the new lieutenant governor. Shouting over the crowd, he called it a night to celebrate Pennsylvania, ‘a place where we believe in opportunity, a place where we believe in real freedom.’

‘And folks, we can’t wait to get to work for you tomorrow,’ Shapiro said. ‘Let’s keep going, everybody.’

A bill allowing police to charge a bigger fine for people driving slow in the left lane of interstates and other multilane highways is one of the first to be taken up at the South Carolina Statehouse in 2023.

A Senate subcommittee Tuesday approved increasing the fine from $25 to up to $100 and giving most of the increased amount to the state Highway Patrol. The full Senate Transportation Committee is scheduled to take up the bill Wednesday.

Lawmakers passed the so-called ‘slowpoke’ bill in 2021. Over roughly a year, state troopers wrote nearly 500 tickets. It requires drivers in the left lane to move over if a car comes up behind them and the right lane is clear.

The fine is not a criminal penalty and doesn’t get reported to a driving record.

The senators on the subcommittee said they noticed compliance when the law was first passed, but slower drivers have started to creep back into the left lane, necessitating a tougher penalty.

‘Would the committee entertain a motion to make this retroactive — to this morning — maybe a blue Camry?’ joked Republican state Sen. Wes Climer who has about a 70 mile (113 kilometer) commute from Rock Hill to the Statehouse on Interstate 77.

Democrats want answers from the White House regarding stashes of classified documents improperly held by President Biden since the Obama administration, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of California said.

Porter, speaking with reporters after a town hall event Tuesday, was asked about her role in the House Oversight Committee and the ongoing investigation into Biden’s illicit storage of classified documents at his private residence, inside his garage, and in the office of his think tank.

‘So I definitely think that we want to get answers from the White House,’ Porter said. 

Porter, however, wouldn’t say if she will sign on to a request from Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer for records related to the classified documents.

‘I don’t know if that document request – I have not reviewed the line by line of the request that Chairman [James] Comer made – but I definitely think we want answers. Classified documents belong in classified settings, and I think you heard me say oversight is not a partisan thing. Good oversight means you’re willing to hold any rule breaker to account.’

Comer, a Kentucky Republican, sent a letter Sunday to White House chief of staff Ron Klain requesting more documents and communications related to the discoveries of multiple Obama-era classified documents in several locations at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. 

Porter went on to say there has been ‘much broader abuse of classified information’ by former President Donald Trump.

‘I don’t have all the facts about President Biden’s classified information,’ Porter continued. ‘We don’t have all the facts, sadly, because of obstruction yet about President Trump’s much broader abuse of classified information. But we should be asking for answers in a respectful way, and we should be expecting to get honest ones.’

Biden again ignored reporters’ questions on Tuesday as they tried to get him to address the classified documents from his time as vice president that were recently found at his Delaware home and the Penn Biden Center.

Biden had a meeting with Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and after the two leaders delivered brief remarks, reporters began hurling questions at the president. They were all met with silence.

The same thing happened three times last week. First, Biden refused to answer questions about the documents on Monday, Jan. 9. 

Then the following day, Jan. 10, the president did not acknowledge questions after his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.

Kevin McCarthy has added more Republicans who initially opposed his bid to become speaker to two high-profile committees in the House: Oversight and Judiciary.

Fox News confirmed McCarthy, R-Calif., placed House Freedom Caucus holdout Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Scott Perry, R-Pa., Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and freshman Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., on the Oversight Committee.

Firebrand Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., – who were stripped of their assignments in 2021 over controversial statements – will also have seats on that committee.

In addition, Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, will all continue serving on the Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

The first House Judiciary hearing of the 118th Congress will be border related and is likely to happen at the end of January or beginning of February, according to a congressional source.

Gaetz and Boebert led the ‘Never McCarthy’ opposition to his bid for the top leadership position.

‘I am not going to support Kevin McCarthy,’ Boebert said during the speakership election. ‘If I am the last person standing, which I don’t believe I will be, I will not…’

Gaetz referred to McCarthy as a ‘desperate guy’ and insisted that he is willing to vote ‘all night, all week, all month’ against him. McCarthy secured the speaker’s gavel when Gaetz, Boebert and other GOP opponents finally voted ‘present,’ which reduced the minimum number of votes McCarthy needed to win a majority.

Last week, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and freshman Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles were both appointed to the House Financial Services Committee. That committee is chaired by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who helped McCarthy negotiate his successful campaign to become House speaker.

‘As a career financial services professional with more than two decades in this industry, I am honored to have the privilege of serving on the House Financial Services Committee this Congress,’ Donalds said in a statement.

Other holdouts, Reps. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., and Michael Cloud, R-Texas, both received spots on the House Appropriations Committee, which Republicans hope to use to put limits on federal spending in the new Congress.

A fifth member of the House Freedom Caucus, South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, was already on the House Financial Services Committee and will remain on it in the new Congress.

Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie and Kelly Phares contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A group of 11 Texas GOP lawmakers called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to ‘pivot’ how he is handling the massive uptick in illegal border crossings along the U.S. southern border.

The border state lawmakers — led by freshman Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas — noted that there has been a record level of illegal immigration during the Biden administration and under Mayorkas’ leadership, arguing it unfairly burdens Texas in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary first obtained by Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 

‘While you live in Washington, D.C., far from the chaos the Biden Administration has created, border states suffer. Our cities are overburdened, flooded with illegal drugs, and inundated with crime,’ Luttrell and the other Republicans wrote in the letter. ‘We are deeply concerned you care more about furthering the Biden Administration’s liberal agenda than the safety and security of the people of the United States and our border.’

‘The Department of Homeland Security states the purpose of the Secretary is to ‘secure and manage our borders.’ You have failed to do this job. Additionally, you have shown a complete ineptitude or unwillingness to fix the problems your policies have created,’ they continued.

The lawmakers added that by ‘willfully failing to maintain border security,’ Mayorkas has violated the Secure Fence Act of 2006, a federal law that requires the DHS secretary to secure the nation’s international land and maritime borders.

According to multiple Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources, the number of migrant encounters in December surpassed 250,000 for the first time on record. The figure came in higher than the previous 2022 peak of 241,136 encounters which was recorded in May. That is in addition to more than 70,000 ‘gotaways’ at the border in December alone. FY 2022 as a whole saw nearly 600,000 getaways – illegal immigrants who slipped past Border Patrol agents.

The administration has pointed to ‘root causes’ like poverty, corruption and even climate change for fueling what it says is a hemisphere-wide crisis. It has sought to expand legal pathways for asylum which it says exacerbated the crisis when they were shut during the Trump administration. Mayorkas recently acknowledged that the migrant numbers were overwhelming, and renewed calls on Congress to pass a sweeping immigration reform bill – which has been rejected by Republicans for its inclusion of a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.

‘There’s no question that the number of encounters that we are experiencing at the border is straining our system,’ Mayorkas said in an interview this month, as he called the immigration system ‘fundamentally broken.’

‘No one disagrees with that. We just can’t seem to agree upon the solution. And a solution is long, long overdue,’ he said. 

Republicans have zeroed in on the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis, particularly as they have taken control of the House. Republican leadership has pledged to investigate the administration’s handling of the crisis, and even suggested impeaching Mayorkas – with Rep. Pat Fallon introducing articles of impeachment last week. 

 In their letter, the Texas lawmakers argued that the DHS should reinstate measures introduced under the Trump administration and bolster funding for law enforcement agencies tasked with securing the border.

‘To get serious about securing our Southern border, we must pivot how we handle it,’ the lawmakers continued in their letter to Mayorkas. ‘We must reimplement President Trump’s border policies that led to the most secure border in 30 years. We must give our border patrol and customs agents the funding they need. We must update our decades-old immigration laws so that our laws incentives legal immigration and disincentives illegal immigration.’

‘We are a country of Law and Order, not lawlessness,’ they wrote. ‘Therefore, we call on your to do what the position of Secretary of Homeland Security entails and begin putting the safety of the United States and its people ahead of your own misguided liberal policies.’

Overall, there were a whopping 2.3 million migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border throughout FY 2022, CBP data showed. By comparison, there were a total of 458,000 encounters in FY 2020 and more than 1.7 million in FY 2021 as migrants surged to the border.

‘Texas is facing the worst border crisis we’ve ever seen, as our border is being flooded with chaos, crime, and drugs that are overburdening our state and border patrol agents,’ Luttrell told Fox News Digital. 

‘Secretary Mayorkas has refused to take the border crisis seriously, and the irresponsible and dangerous border policies of this Administration have undoubtedly left the United States vulnerable,’ he added. ‘We will hold this Administration accountable and restore our national security.’

In addition to Luttrell, Reps. Kay Granger, Michael Burgess, Brian Babin, Dan Crenshaw, Lance Gooden, Ronny Jackson, Pete Sessions, Nathaniel Moran, Keith Self and Beth Van Duyne signed the letter Wednesday.

The DHS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A significant number of Michigan Republican lawmakers are reportedly urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president in 2024 – setting up a confrontation with the only declared candidate in the race: former President Donald Trump.

In December, the group of 18 state House Republicans sent a letter to DeSantis encouraging him to run for president, according to Politico. The letter was reportedly hand-delivered to the governor by Republican floor leader Rep. Bryan Posthumus. It called DeSantis ‘uniquely and exceptionally qualified to provide the leadership and competence that is, unfortunately, missing’ from President Biden, Politico reported.

The signers reportedly state they ‘stand ready and willing to help [DeSantis] win Michigan in 2024.’ Together, they represent about a quarter of the state House Republican caucus. 

Zach Rudat, a spokesman for Posthumus, told Politico the floor leader ‘flew to Florida and met with the governor and a staff member to discuss the presidential election’ in December.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Posthumus for additional information. DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  

Michigan is a prized target for Republicans and was key to Trump’s victory in 2016. He won the state’s Republican presidential primary that year and went on to defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election, becoming the first Republican to win the state since 1988.

DeSantis has not publicly said he is running for president, but his political stock is rising after winning re-election by a landslide 19-point margin last year. Already popular among Republicans for rejecting COVID-19 pandemic-related mandates and shut-downs, he has won fans among conservatives with hard-line opposition to critical race theory and teaching sexual orientation and gender identity concepts in elementary schools, and confrontations with the Biden administration on immigration. 

FEDERAL JUDGE HANDS DESANTIS ADMIN WIN OVER ‘STOP WOKE ACT’ 

Prominent Republicans, including mega GOP donor Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, have called for DeSantis to run for president. Not coincidentally, other prospective 2024 candidates have tested lines of attack against the Florida governor, with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s spokesman Ian Fury criticizing DeSantis’ record on abortion recently, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu taking a swipe at how he’s pressured private businesses who adopt ‘woke’ positions on cultural issues in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Then of course, there is Trump, who launched unprovoked attacks on DeSantis last November, labeling him ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ and calling him an ‘average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations,’ all the while boasting that DeSantis’ margin of victory in the midterm election was not as big as Trump’s win in Florida during the 2020 presidential election. Those attacks came as many pundits and commentators observed that Trump-backed candidates underperformed in the midterms, in contrast to DeSantis’ huge win. 

While DeSantis has downplayed 2024 speculation and refrained from responding to attacks, he is set to release an autobiography this year and has spent nearly $90,000 on ads nationwide or that were targeted toward early voting states, according to spending tracker FWIW. His second inaugural address called Florida the ‘promised land of sanity’ and the place where ‘woke goes to die,’ and many observers thought it sounded like a presidential campaign speech.  

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer is calling for a deeper look into the Penn Biden Center after Obama-era classified documents were found inside a closet at the think tank.

Comer is shifting his sights away from the documents found in President Biden’s Wilmington garage after White House lawyers claimed no visitor log exists for the residence. The Republican is now requesting that the University of Pennsylvania, PBC’s parent, provide a detailed list of anyone who had access to the think tank’s Washington, D.C. offices.

Comer sent a letter to UPenn President Mary Elizabeth Magill on Wednesday. In addition to personnel logs, the letter–obtained by Punchbowl News–seeks information about foreign influence on the PBC, particularly donations from China.

‘The Committee has learned UPenn received tens of millions of dollars from anonymous Chinese sources, with a marked uptick in donations when then-former Vice President Biden was announced as leading the Penn Biden Center initiative,’ Comer wrote.

‘Not only were these donations made while President Biden explored a potential run for president and launched his campaign, but also as his family and associates pursued lucrative financial projects with partners in China,’ the letter continued. ‘The American people deserve to know whether the Chinese Communist Party, through Chinese companies, influenced potential Biden Administration policies with large, anonymous donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center.’

Comer’s letter ultimately requests all documents relating to donations from China, including a list of Chinese donors. It also seeks a list of all PBC employees, all individuals who had key card access to the think tank’s offices, and a visitor log of everyone who met with Biden at the PBC offices.

White House lawyers have so far found three batches of misplaced classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president, one at the PBC’s offices and two more inside the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden’s lawyers uncovered the first batch of classified documents in November and said they immediately handed over the documents to the National Archives. Since then, searches uncovered two more stashes inside the garage of Biden’s home in Wilmington.

The trove of mishandled documents led Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate the matter last week, tapping former U.S. attorney Robert Hur.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams called on the appointment of a ‘national czar’ tasked with handling the influx of migrants across the southern border – even though that’s the same role Vice President Kamala Harris was tapped to fulfill nearly two years ago by the White House. 

Hosting a question-and-answer session with reporters at City Hall Tuesday, Adams discussed a ‘decompression strategy,’ which he explained would involve arranging or building spaces to move the approximately 40,000 asylum seekers who’ve arrived in the Big Apple from the southern border to suburban localities or other cities in upstate New York with more space to accommodate them. 

‘How do you not overburden one city? How do you spread out this obligation, this national obligation that we have? El Paso is a beautiful city,’ Adams said, referring to his visit to Texas last week to see the border crisis firsthand. ‘Visually, it’s a beautiful place. The city was overrun. It was unbelievable how we undermined the foundation of that city as they’re grappling like many of us are with real problems.’

‘And so there must be a national czar,’ Adams continued, seemingly unaware Harris supposedly has that job. ‘I think it should be done through FEMA. We should treat this the same way we treat any major disaster or major crisis. That should be coordinating with the Border Patrol, coordinating with our cities, our states, to make sure that we as a country absorb this national issue. And that’s what I learned when I was on the ground there. The lack of coordination is really causing this to be hit by certain cities.’

In March 2021, President Joe Biden tapped Harris to lead the White House effort to tackle the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and address the root causes of the problem with Central American nations. Since then, Harris has received criticism from Republicans for only visiting the border once. Biden did so just this month for the first time since becoming commander-in-chief two years ago. 

Despite arguing the federal government’s inaction on mitigating the migrant crisis is ‘destabilizing’ American cities, Adams said he would not reevaluate New York City’s sanctuary status. 

‘No, that’s not on the agenda at all,’ Adams said. ‘And I think of, as we celebrated the birth of Jesus, he was faced with a no more room, but there was a place that was found. And that’s what we are doing. We have no more room, but we are still finding spaces and accommodating. And we are going to continue to do that. That is our law, that is our obligation. And that is what’s morally right.’ 

Adams thanked Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for advocating for some $800 million in federal funding to help address the influx of migrants into New York City, while also contending that ‘even with the infusion of money, it’s not going to solve the problem’ unless there’s proper coordination and communication. 

Adams estimated that the migrant crisis will cost New York City at least $1 billion this fiscal year alone. 

The mayor further argued the rate as which New York City was receiving migrants is not sustainable to properly house them, describing how 3,000 people arrived in one week alone. 

‘What the federal government should do is to coordinate this problem,’ Adams said. ‘This is a federal issue. This is a national issue. El Paso should not have gone through that. Chicago, when I speak to Mayor Lightfoot, she’s placing people in the basement of her libraries. Houston, Washington. Washington is already dealing with their own housing crisis, where people have to live in tents.’

‘This is wrong, this is wrong. And for the federal government, and that is on both sides of the aisle, to not acknowledge that we are destabilizing our cities, I’m not going to remain silent on that,’ the mayor added. ‘This is wrong for the cities of America to take this on.’

Adams has traded public barbs in recent days with City Comptroller Brad Lander, who criticized the mayor’s decision to visit El Paso and accused Adams of ‘reinforcing a harmful narrative that new immigrants themselves are a problem.’ Asked about Lander Tuesday, Adams said, ‘He should be concerned about our fiscal stability, and his answer to it is, ‘Raise taxes on rich people to pay for migrant asylum seekers.’ You’re the comptroller. You should be concerned about the financial hit our city is seeing, and he should be writing letters with me and going to D.C.’ 

‘When I see someone tells me I should not go to El Paso to see this problem and to talk with the mayor there so that we can work together, I just don’t understand the logic of it,’ Adams added. ‘We have a crisis in our city that’s going to impact our entire lives. No one is saying, ‘And let’s leave people out of the city.’ For him to say that, it’s just a political commentary. We got to fix this problem.’ 

GOP Rep. George Santos, N.Y., claims allegations he used a fake animal charity to scam a disabled veteran by raising money for their dog’s cancer treatment, only to keep the funds himself, are not true.

Santos said he has no knowledge of the purported scheme involving a charity he claimed to have founded.

‘Fake. No clue who this is,’ Santos told Semafor.

U.S. Navy veteran Richard Osthoff told Patch.com that he came into contact with an animal charity called ‘Friends of Pets United’ after he learned it would cost $3,000 for surgery for his service dog, a pit bull mix named Sapphire who had developed a life-threatening stomach tumor.

A veterinary technician had told him they knew someone who ran the charity that could help raise money. Osthoff was informed that the charity was run by Anthony Devolder, an alias Santos allegedly used for years before entering politics in 2020.

Osthoff and another veteran, retired police Sgt. Michael Boll, who tried to intervene to help Osthoff in 2016, claimed a GoFundMe page that raised the necessary funds for the dog’s surgery was shut down by Santos and that the now-congressman then disappeared with the money.

Santos allegedly claimed the dog’s disease was untreatable after consulting with an affiliated veterinarian and that the money would instead go to his charity. Osthoff had urged to allow him to take the funds to other clinics, and Santos allegedly stopped responding.

Text messages allegedly sent between Osthoff and Santos that were obtained by Patch.com reveal the rejected request to take the funds elsewhere.

The dog died on Jan. 15, 2017, but Osthoff could not afford the euthanasia and cremation because he had been out of work with a broken leg for more than a year. Osthoff said he had to panhandle to find the money to euthanize and cremate Sapphire.

A ‘Friends of Pets United’ charity Santos said he founded was not listed as a charity in official records, according to The New York Times, which also reported that the beneficiary of a 2017 fundraiser linked to the group said they did not receive the money.

This comes after reports exposed Santos for lying about parts of his background during his 2022 campaign, in which he defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman. Santos had fabricated, among other things, his work, education history and connections to an alleged Ponzi scheme.

Santos has been called on to resign by some Republican and Democratic members of Congress and numerous New York State Republicans. He said he would resign if the 142,000 people who voted for him asked him to.

On Tuesday, Santos was named to two committees — Small Business and Science, Space, and Technology — by House Republican leadership.