UNBIASED Politics
UNBIASED Politics (2/24/25): 'List 5 Things' Email to Federal Employees, TPS Status Shortened for Haitians, AP News Sues Trump, New ICE Memo Targets Unaccompanied Children, and More.
24 Feb 2025
Get the facts, without the spin. UNBIASED offers a clear, impartial recap of US news, including politics, elections, legal news, and more. Hosted by lawyer Jordan Berman, each episode provides a recap of current political events plus breakdowns of complex concepts—like constitutional rights, recent Supreme Court rulings, and new legislation—in an easy-to-understand way. No personal opinions, just the facts you need to stay informed on the daily news that matters. If you miss how journalism used to be, you're in the right place. In today's episode: Senate Passes Version of Budget Resolution (0:10) Trump Administration Shortens Temporary Protected Status for Haitian Migrants (3:00) Republican Lawmakers Introduce Resolution to Block Bank Overdraft Fee Rule from Taking Effect (6:44) Roughly 6,000 IRS Employees Terminated Amid Federal Layoffs (9:53) Trump Weighs Merging USPS with Commerce Dept. (11:50) DOJ Investigates UnitedHealthCare for Fraud (15:00) Office of Personnel Management Sends 'List 5 Things' Email to Federal Employees (17:14) The Associated Press Sues Trump Administration Over Access to Oval Office (22:30) New ICE Memo Asks ICE Agents to Find Unaccompanied Children Migrants (25:30) Trump Picks Dan Bongino as Deputy Director of FBI; Who Is He? (30:20) Quick Hitters: NYC Congestion Pricing Plan Numbers Are In, Apple Announces Record US Spend Commitment, Tent Shelters Won't Be Used at Guantanamo, National Parks Revise Operations Amid Layoffs, Judge Rules Immigration Enforcement Cannot Take Place at Certain Places of Worship (31:49) Critical Thinking Segment (34:56) Listen/Watch this episode AD-FREE on Patreon. Watch this episode on YouTube. Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok. All sources for this episode can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased Politics. Today is Monday, February 24th. Let's talk about some news. So let's start with some news from the end of last week and then we'll work our way to some news from today. At the end of last week, the Senate passed their own budget resolution.
And as we discussed last week, the House has already passed their own budget resolution. So I want to talk about the differences between the two, but I also want to quickly remind you what a budget resolution is and talk about what we can expect from here. Keep in mind the budget process is a two-step process.
First, a budget resolution, which is what we're talking about here, a budget resolution is a non-binding blueprint. that essentially outlines the fiscal goals of Congress but does not have the force of law. To get to the second step in the process, which does have the force of law and is known as a reconciliation bill, an identical budget resolution must be adopted by both the House and Senate.
The reconciliation bill is what will ultimately guide Congress in appropriating funds for each department of the government, but we're not there yet. We're still on step one, the budget resolution. And as of right now, the Senate and the House have two different resolutions, so they'll need to reconcile their differences in order to get to step two. But let's talk about what those differences are.
As a refresher, the House resolution is much more expansive and expensive. It proposes $2 trillion in cuts to mandatory spending over the next 10 years, $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, and a $4 trillion increase to the national debt limit. None of those amounts are included in the Senate budget resolution.
The Senate is pushing a more narrow budget resolution focused on increasing spending for immigration, national security, and domestic energy production, and outlines a broader deficit reduction strategy than the House. As for Trump's tax cuts, those are not included in the Senate's resolution. The Senate says it'll deal with that down the road in separate legislation.
So again, because the resolutions passed by the House and Senate do differ, the next step is for both parties chambers to reconcile those differences to produce a unified resolution. This process typically involves a conference committee, which is a group of appointed members from both the House and the Senate who negotiate to resolve disparities between the two versions.
Once an agreement is reached, that's when the new agreed upon budget resolution is presented to both chambers for their approval. And if that passes both chambers, that is when the reconciliation process can begin and Congress can start enacting tax and spending laws that meet their agreed upon fiscal goals.
Moving on, last week, the Trump administration announced it'll be canceling temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians that were granted the status under the Biden administration.
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