Luke Vargas

Meanwhile, a Senate standoff over funding for the Department of Homeland Security is intensifying, with lawmakers warning that it's unlikely they'll reach a deal in just over a week.

Democrats like Illinois' Dick Durbin are demanding stricter oversight.

While Republicans have signaled openness to some ideas, they've rejected others and introduced their own demands, such as an end to so-called sanctuary cities.

Here's Missouri's Josh Hawley.

Should talks fail, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he'd consider another stopgap funding bill for DHS, possibly for the rest of the fiscal year.

But Democrats have said they're unlikely to provide the votes for any extension unless negotiations make real progress.

And the Trump administration is moving to strip civil service protections from some 50,000 federal workers whose work focuses on executing the administration's policies.

The reclassification would make it easier to fire career officials in senior positions, with the Office of Personnel Management saying it aims to prevent officials from, quote, sabotage or trying to find ways to thwart the objectives of the administration.

Labor unions and advocacy groups warn that the new rules are a pretext to the government ousting workers whose political views aren't in line with the president.

Can anyone stop the decline in American manufacturing?

Successive U.S.

presidents have tried to bring back a manufacturing golden age, but as the journal's David Uberti reports, employment indicators continue to point in the opposite direction.

Dave, great to chat again.

What are we seeing in the data?

You spoke to a number of manufacturers for this story.

I'm curious where the disconnect here is between industrial policy and sort of outcomes.

What are the roadblocks folks are contending with?

All right.

So those are some of the challenges, Dave, on the ground.

And yet I suspect if we look big picture, we might get some clearer answers about why it's proving so difficult to bring back a golden age of American manufacturing.