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Source: Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals and the Conservatives are running neck-and-neck in voter support, a new Leger online poll suggests.

The poll of Canadians’ voting intentions has both parties sitting at 37 per cent.

It shows a drop of six points for the Conservatives and a seven per cent jump for Liberals since Feb. 24, while the NDP is down two per cent to 11 per cent.

Leger surveyed 1,548 Canadians between March 7 and March 10 — which means the poll wrapped up just after Liberals picked Mark Carney as the new party leader and prime minister-designate.

Because the poll was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.

The Liberals have rebounded in the polls after lagging behind the Conservatives for nearly two years.

But Canadians are still hungry for change — the poll suggests more than half of all Canadians, 53 per cent, want a change of government in the next election.

Andrew Enns, Leger executive vice-president for central Canada, said the movement in voting intentions and the “cross-current of issues that Canadians are grappling with” are unprecedented.

He said U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats to make Canada the 51st state have captured the attention of Canadians.

“It’s triggered a lot of emotions, anger, frustration, disappointment, shock, and so that, I believe, is having an impact on changing perceptions because of this change in U.S. relations,” he said. “It’s changed a bit in terms of what we’re asking of our political leadership now in the country.”

The emergence of Carney, a former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, has given Canadians a new political option to evaluate.

“Obviously, given the economic situation, he’s an interesting character,” Enns said.

At the same time, he said, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s departure has “also loosened up some voting tendencies that we had seen locked in for quite a period of time.”

The Conservatives also have been thrown off their message track, Enns said. Carney’s promise to scrap consumer carbon pricing has made Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s “axe the tax” mantra seem less relevant to many.

Enns predicted that as Canada heads into an election, which could be called within days, there will be more swings in voting tendencies.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2024.

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press

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NEW YORK (AP) — The White House complained Tuesday that Columbia University is refusing to help federal agents find people being sought as part of the government’s effort to deport participants in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, as the administration continued to punish the school by yanking federal research dollars.

Immigration enforcement agents on Saturday arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident and Palestinian activist who played a prominent part in protests at Columbia last year. He is now facing possible deportation.

President Donald Trump has vowed additional arrests. In a briefing with reporters in Washington, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said federal authorities have been “using intelligence” to identify other people involved in campus demonstrations critical of Israel that the administration considered to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas.”

She said Columbia had been given names and was refusing to help the Department of Homeland Security “to identify those individuals on campus.”

“As the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going to tolerate that,” Leavitt said.

A Columbia spokesperson didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

Last week, the Trump administration announced it was pulling $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia, accusing the school of failing to stop antisemitism on campus. As part of those cuts, the National Institutes of Health late Monday it was cutting more than $250 million in funding, which included more than 400 grants.

X. Edward Guo, director of Columbia’s Bone Bioengineering Laboratory, posted a screenshot on X of an email he received notifying him that one of his NIH awards had been canceled. “We understand this may be shocking news,” the email reads.

The university was wracked last spring by large demonstrations by students calling for an end to Israeli military action in Gaza and a recognition of Palestinians’ human rights and territorial claims. The university ultimately called in police to dismantle a protest encampment and end a student takeover of an administration building.

Khalil, 30, had been a spokesperson for the protesters. He hasn’t been charged with any crimes, but Leavitt said the administration had moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a non-citizen if the government “has reasonable ground to believe” the person’s presence could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

As of Tuesday, Khalil was being held at an immigration detention center in Louisiana.

Civil rights groups and Khalil’s attorneys say the government is unconstitutionally using its immigration-control powers to stop him from speaking out. A federal judge set a hearing for Wednesday and ordered the government not to deport him in the meantime.

Trump, a Republican, has suggested that some protesters support Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251. Israel responded with bombardment and other military offensives that have left over 48,000 Palestinians dead in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Israel says more than 17,000 were militants.

Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the first “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport students the president described as engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”

Immigration agents also tried to arrest another international student at Columbia, but they weren’t allowed into an apartment where she was, according to a union representing the student.

Khalil, who finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December, and protest leaders have said they are anti-war, not antisemitic. They note that some Jewish students and groups have joined the demonstrations. A Columbia disciplinary body recently told Khalil it was investigating whether he violated a new harassment policy by calling a school official “genocidal.”

Leavitt didn’t detail specific wrongdoing by Khalil. But she said he had organized protests that disrupted classes, harassed Jewish students and “distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, fliers with the logo of Hamas.”

Born in Syria, Khalil is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing. It didn’t address his citizenship but said his relatives have been displaced anew amid Syria’s civil war and are now in other countries.

Khalil is married to a U.S. citizen, who is expecting their first child.

“For everyone reading this, I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby,” his wife, who has not been publicly identified, wrote in a statement provided by his lawyers. “I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world.”

The Associated Press

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British Columbia’s health minister says “now is the time” for American doctors and nurses to move to the province as it fast tracks recognition of their credentials during an escalating trade war between Canada and the United States.

Josie Osborne says the “chaos” happening south of the border is an opportunity for B.C. to attract skilled health-care workers interested in moving to Canada.

She says the province is working with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC on a direct process to enable U.S.-trained doctors to become fully licensed in B.C. without the need for further assessment, examination or training.

A statement from Osborne’s ministry says the changes are expected in the next few months, following consultations on proposed bylaw changes.

The province is similarly working with the BC College of Nurses and Midwives to make it faster and easier for American registered nurses to work in B.C.

Osborne says B.C. is also ramping up its efforts to recruit the U.S. health workers, including a targeted campaign in Washington, Oregon and California this spring.

“Whether it’s because their federal government is withdrawing from the World Health Organization, cutting public services or attacking reproductive rights, health professionals in the U.S. have a good reason to be alarmed,” she said Tuesday.

“This provides an opportunity for B.C. to send a clear message to doctors and nurses who are working in the U.S. Now is the time to come to British Columbia. We will welcome you to our beautiful province where together, we can strengthen public health care … and build healthy communities,” Osborne told a news conference.

There are 1,001 new family doctors in B.C. since the launch of the current physician payment model in 2023, and the number of nurse practitioners has almost tripled since 2018, including 128 new nurse practitioners registered last year.

The province says about 675,000 people have been matched with a family doctor or nurse practitioner since the launch of its primary care strategy in 2018, including a record number of 250,000 people attached to a primary care provider last year.

About 400,000 B.C. residents are still waiting to be matched with a family doctor through the province’s Health Connect Registry, Osborne said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2025.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada, a retaliation that prompted the provincial government of Ontario to suspend its planned surcharges on electricity sold to the United States.

Tuesday’s escalation and retreat in the ongoing trade war between the United States and Canada only compounded the rising sense of uncertainty in terms of how Trump’s tariff hikes affect the economies of both countries. His spate of tax increases on imports and plans for more have roiled the stock market and stirred up recession risks.

Trump said on social media that the increase of the tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday is a response to the 25% price hike that Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States.

“I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Tuesday afternoon that U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called him and Ford agreed to remove the surcharge. He said he was confident that the U.S. president would also stand down on his own plans for 50% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

“He has to bounce it off the president but I’m pretty confident he will pull back,” Ford said on Trump’s steel and aluminum tariff threat. “By no means are we just going to roll over. What we are going to do is have a constructive conversation.”

Trump told reporters that he’s looking at returning the steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada to 25% and would “probably” do so.

Asked if the United States could face a recession, Trump said, “I don’t see it.”

After a brutal stock market selloff on Monday and further jitters Tuesday, Trump faces increased pressure to show he has a solid plan to grow the economy. So far the president is doubling down on tariffs and can point to Tuesday’s drama as evidence that taxes on imports are a valuable negotiating tool, even if they can generate turmoil in the stock market.

Trump suggested Tuesday that tariffs were critical for changing the U.S. economy, regardless of stock market gyrations.

The U.S. president has given a variety of explanations for his antagonism of Canada. He has said that his separate 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada, some of which are suspended for a month, are about fentanyl smuggling and voicing objections to Canada putting high taxes on dairy imports that penalize U.S. farmers. He also continued to call for Canada to become part of the United States as a solution, which has infuriated Canadian leaders.

“The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump posted Tuesday. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.”

Tensions between the United States and Canada

Incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will keep tariffs in place until Americans show respect and commit to free trade after Trump threatened historic financial devastation for his country.

Carney, who will be sworn in as Justin Trudeau’s replacement in coming days, said Trump’s latest tariffs are an attack on Canadian workers, families and businesses.

“My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade,” Carney said in a statement.

Canadian officials are planning retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s specific steel and aluminum tariffs. Those are expected to be announced Wednesday.

Carney was referring to an initial $30 billion Canadian (US$21 billion) worth of retaliatory tariffs that have been applied on items like American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles and certain pulp and paper products.

Trump also has targeted Mexico with 25% tariffs because of his dissatisfaction over drug trafficking and illegal immigration, though he suspended the taxes on imports that are compliant with the 2020 USMCA trade pact for one month.

Asked if Mexico feared it could face the same 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as Canada, President Claudia Sheinbaum, said “No, we are respectful.”

Trump was set to deliver a Tuesday afternoon address to the Business Roundtable, a trade association of CEOs that during the 2024 campaign he wooed with the promise of lower corporate tax rates for domestic manufacturers. But his tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, with plans for more to possibly come on Europe, Brazil, South Korea, pharmaceutical drugs, copper, lumber and computer chips — would amount to a massive tax hike.

The stock market’s vote of no confidence over the past two weeks puts the president in a bind between his enthusiasm for taxing imports and his brand as a politician who understands business based on his own experiences in real estate, media and marketing.

Worries about a recession are growing

The investment bank Goldman Sachs revised down its growth forecast for this year to 1.7% from 2.2% previously. It modestly increased its recession probability to 20% “because the White House has the option to pull back policy changes if downside risks begin to look more serious.”

Trump has tried to assure the public that his tariffs would cause a bit of a “transition” to the economy, with the taxes prodding more companies to begin the years-long process of relocating factories to the United States to avoid the tariffs. But he set off alarms in an interview broadcast on Sunday in which he didn’t rule out a possible recession.

The stock market slide continues

The promise of great things ahead did not eliminate anxiety, with the S&P 500 stock index tumbling 2.7% on Monday in an unmistakable Trump slump that has erased the market gains that greeted his victory in November 2024. The S&P 500 index fell roughly 0.2% in Tuesday afternoon trading, paring earlier losses after Ontario backed down on electricity surcharges.

Trump has long relied on the stock market as an economic and political gauge to follow, only to look past it as he remains determined so far to impose tariffs. When he won the election last year, he proclaimed that he wanted his term to be considered to have started Nov. 6, 2024 on Election Day, rather than his Jan. 20, 2025 inauguration, so that he could be credited for post-election stock market gains.

Trump also repeatedly warned of an economic freefall if he lost the election.

“If I don’t win you will have a 1929 style depression. Enjoy it,” Trump said at an August rally in Pennsylvania.

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Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report from Mexico City. Gillies reported from Toronto.

Josh Boak, Rob Gillies And Michelle Price, The Associated Press







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WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senior federal judges, both appointed by Republican presidents, spoke out Tuesday against threats of violence and impeachment against their colleagues in the judiciary.

“Threats against judges are threats against constitutional government. Everyone should be taking this seriously,” said Judge Richard Sullivan, whom President Donald Trump appointed to the federal appeals court in New York.

Billionaire Elon Musk and other Trump allies have railed at judges who have blocked parts of Trump’s agenda, threatening impeachment and launching personal attacks. The Federal Judges Association, the largest such organization, issued a rare public statement decrying “irresponsible rhetoric shrouded in disinformation” that could undermine public confidence in the judiciary.

Sullivan joined Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the federal appeals court based in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a call with reporters following a meeting of the Judicial Conference, the judiciary’s governing body.

Security for judges in courthouses and their homes was part of the discussion in the closed-door meeting, Sullivan and Sutton said.

“We allocate disappointment to half the people that come before us. Criticism is no surprise as part of the job. But I do think when it gets to the level of a threat, it really is about attacking judicial independence. And that’s just not good for the system or the country,” said Sutton, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush.

Both judges stressed that threats have been rising for years and neither mentioned Musk or Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts also devoted his year-end report to efforts to undermine judicial independence through intimidation, disinformation and the prospect of public officials defying court orders.

Congress is not giving judges as much as they say they need for security, the judges said. Funding has been “flat” for the past two years, Sullivan said.

“Which means we’re not even keeping up with inflation in an environment that is always changing and challenging,” he said.

On impeachment talk, Sullivan said that parties to lawsuits get multiple cracks at the system, from the trial court to the Supreme Court.

“Impeachment is not, it shouldn’t be a short-circuiting of that process. And so it is concerning if impeachment is used in a way that is designed to do just that,” he said.

Mark Sherman, The Associated Press

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The shifting of safe sport onto the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and the shuttering of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner is underway.

The CCES is the country’s doping watchdog and monitor of manipulation around sports betting.

As of April 1, the centre will also be in charge of managing and investigating complaints and reports of abuse and maltreatment in sport.

That task was previously handled by the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC), which was established in June 2022 with $16 million in federal funding for three years of operations.

What was OSIC’s Abuse Free Sport program is now the Canadian Safe Sport Program, which CCES safe sport executive director Signy Arnason says will be more responsive and trauma-informed.

“We’ve brought on board, alongside my actually close to 25 years of experience working at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, others who have massive experience working on the front lines of a reporting mechanism,” Arnason.

“All of the people that have joined this team actually don’t have a background in sport. They have a background in maltreatment.”

The CCES takes on administering the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport, as well as the public registry of people banned from sport or provisionally sanctioned.

Timelines for investigating complaints and communicating progress to those involved will improve, Arnason said.

“You had people that were lost within the system and had no idea where they were at,” she said. “Individuals can read our rules. They can see our flow chart. We will be communicating with them.”

The transition is happening before the Future of Sport in Canada Commission has issued a report from cross-country consultations that concluded in January. One of the commission’s mandates is to make sport safer.

The CCES also faces the same jurisdictional limitations as OSIC in that only sports bodies that receive federal funding fall under its umbrella, which can leave provincial and territorial and club sports exposed.

“We have a desire to grow this and be able to offer it at all levels of sport, but we’re not there yet,” said CCES chief executive officer and president Jeremy Luke.

“This is something we’ve raised with the Future of Sport in Canada Commission, which we’ve now met with three times, to emphasize the need to figure out the jurisdictional alignment between the provinces and the federal government, and how this initiative can extend beyond the national level, where we’re starting at right now.

“And this is where we think the Future of Sport in Canada Commission could really assist in this area of work. While we’ve drafted a set of rules, they are only rules. We are pushing for legislative changes so that the organization can be based in legislation, so that we can have a mandate that enables us to share information with other law enforcement agencies or government regulatory bodies, and perhaps provide the ability to conduct investigations with more authority.”

One of the reasons former Canadian sports minister Carla Qualtrough cited for the switch announced a year ago was to make the process more independent.

While the CCES receives federal government money, the government has no authority over selection or election of its board.

But the CCES is also not subject to the Access to Information Act, which means the public can’t request information from it.

“Broadly speaking, there are concerns, first of all, around transparency because this is a private entity,” said Athletes Empowered director and former gymnast Amelia Cline.

“As far as we can tell, they’re not going to be subject to FOI requests. There’s no obvious body that’s going to be overseeing the process independently. There are no clear mechanisms for accountability for the CCES if the process goes wrong.”

Arnason says appeals of CCES decisions can be made to the Sports Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC).

Cline prefers that the entire process be removed from the sports environment and given to Health Canada or the Department of Justice.

“Abuse is abuse no matter the context,” Cline said. “There’s so much incestuousness within the sport system of too many people working in various different capacities. We’re OK with it being in another government department, but not under sport.”

Former alpine skier Allison Forsyth, who is a safe sport officer for Canada Soccer and founder of Generation Safe, believes the process can be better under the CCES if cases are handled with efficiency.

“They’re actually taking my feedback as a survivor, someone who’s worked and advocated in the space for six years,” Forsyth said.

“My main points of feedback are you need to be trauma-informed when you process complaints. Meaning, they took and have taken in my experience, way too long to process. These are real human beings who are still in the environment for lower-level cases.

“It puts both the complainant and the respondent and anyone else in that environment in a very challenging, if not trauma-inducing, experience when these cases take way too long to execute.”

How effective will the CCES be at stamping out abuse in sport? Arnason pleads for patience.

“A year from now, let’s talk about this because it’s very difficult to ask people who have been damaged through a system to just flip a switch and say ‘it’s a different organization, therefore now trust us.’ It doesn’t work that way. We understand people are going to be skeptical,” she said.

“No one is promising out of the gate this is pure perfection, and find me a model that is, but we have a massive commitment to hearing from the community and to move this forward in the right direction, to substantially make a difference on maltreatment within sport.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2025.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press


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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump shopped for a new Tesla on the White House driveway on Tuesday, selecting a shiny red sedan to show his support for Elon Musk ‘s electric vehicle company as it faces blowback because of his work to advance the president’s political agenda and downsize the federal government.

“Wow,” Trump said as he eased his way into the drivers seat of a Model S. “That’s beautiful.”

Musk got in on the passenger side and joked about “giving the Secret Service a heart attack” as they talked about how to start a vehicle that can reach 60 miles per hour in a few seconds.

Trump told reporters that he would write a check for the car, which retails for roughly $80,000, and leave it at the White House so his staff can drive it. The president also said he hopes his purchase will boost Tesla’s fortunes.

“It’s a great product,” he said. Referring to Musk, Trump said “we have to celebrate him.”

It was the latest — and most unusual — example of how Trump has demonstrated loyalty to Musk, who spent heavily on his comeback campaign last year and has been a key figure in his second administration. Musk is leading Trump’s efforts to overhaul federal agencies and reduce the workforce.

The Republican president announced on social media early Tuesday that he was going to buy a new Tesla as “a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”

Musk continues to run Tesla — as well as the social media platform X and the rocket manufacturer SpaceX — while also serving as Trump’s adviser.

“Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump wrote. “But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for.”

Others have also rallied to Musk’s defense. Alex Jones, a prominent conspiracy theorist, said that he bought a customized version of a Cybertruck that he’ll give away to a customer of his online store next month.

In addition to Tesla’s struggles, Musk has faced other challenges too. He said X was targeted by a “massive cyberattack” that disrupted the social media platform on Monday, and the last two test launches of his Starship rocket ended in explosions.

Tesla has faced sagging sales and declining stock prices as Musk devotes his time to overhauling and downsizing the federal government as an adviser to the president.

The White House did not immediately elaborate on Trump’s plans for buying a Tesla, such as how the purchase would be handled or where the car would be kept.

Presidents almost never drive for security reasons. Joe Biden got behind the wheel of an electric truck while promoting domestic manufacturing, and Barack Obama took a spin with Jerry Seinfeld in the White House driveway for a comedy show.

But regardless of the practicality of Trump’s purchase, his overnight announcement about buying a Tesla represented another step in how the president has blurred lines between private and public interests.

During his first term, top adviser Kellyanne Conway urged people to show their support for Trump’s daughter Ivanka by purchasing her retail products.

“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” she said. “I’m going to give it a free commercial here.”

Trump’s wealth and business savvy is core to his political appeal. The president promoted his products while running for office last year, and he attached his name to a cryptocurrency meme coin that launched shortly before he took office.

However, it’s rare to see Trump use his own money to support an ally, no matter how important they are.

Musk is the world’s richest person, with billions of dollars in government contracts. He’s also exerting sweeping influence over Trump’s administration through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and traveling frequently with the president.

During an interview with the Fox Business Network on Monday, host Larry Kudlow asked Musk “how are you running your other businesses” while also advising Trump.

“With great difficulty,” he said.

“But there’s no turning back, you say?” Kudlow responded.

“I’m just here trying to make government more efficient, eliminate waste and fraud,” Musk said.

Tesla has recently faced protests and vandalism. Police are investigating gunshots fired at a dealership in Oregon, and fire officials are examining a blaze that destroyed four Cybertrucks at a Tesla lot in Seattle.

At times, the White House has needed to play cleanup for Musk, who had never worked in public service before and has admitted that he’ll make mistakes along the way.

For example, Musk presented inflated estimates of fraud in government benefits like Social Security on Monday, leading Democrats to argue that he was planning cuts to the popular programs.

“Most of the federal spending is entitlements,” Musk said in the interview. “That’s the big one to eliminate.”

The next morning, a White House account on X criticized news organizations as “lying hacks” and told Democrats to “spare us the fake outrage” about reducing benefits.

“He was clearly talking about the WASTE in the programs,” the White House posted.

Chris Megerian, The Associated Press










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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans, particularly those in Congress, have been overwhelmingly supportive of broad cuts across the federal government at the hands of Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency. But some have had words of caution.

Facing blowback from constituents fearful of job reductions, some Republicans have begun voicing public concerns about Musk — one of President Trump’s most influential advisers — and the swift spending slashes he’s made in an effort to downsize the federal workforce.

With more reductions anticipated, here is a look at what some of those Republican members of Congress have had to say about the reductions in the federal civilian workforce, 80% of which is located outside Washington, D.C., and in their states and districts:

Rep. Bill Huizenga, Michigan

“I will fully admit, I think Elon Musk has tweeted first and thought second sometimes,” Huizenga said last week during a virtual meeting with constituents.

“He has plunged ahead without necessarily knowing and understanding what he legally has to do or what he is going to be doing.”

Rep. Mike Bost, Illinois

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning a reorganization that includes cutting over 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency that provides health care and other services for millions of veterans, according to an internal memo obtained March 5 by The Associated Press.

Bost, who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said following that reporting that he had “questions about the impact these reductions and discussions could have on the delivery of services, especially following the implementation of the PACT Act” and would work “to ultimately put veterans back at the core of VA’s mission.”

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, Wisconsin

Saying that he found Musk “highly receptive” when the two spoke last week, Van Orden said in a news release that the billionaire had “assured” him that “DOGE will be more refined in their recommendations to ensure our vets and farmers are not hurt in the process of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending.”

Van Orden said he shared with Musk what he had heard from constituents, urging him to look at veterans and farmers “with a different lens.”

Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, Virginia

Virginia’s 2nd District, which Kiggans represents, is home to Virginia Beach and its large U.S. Navy presence. It has the highest concentration of civilian federal workers, at 8.1%, of all congressional districts represented by Republicans. Earlier this month, Kiggans wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, asking him to limit layoffs for veterans. She expressed concern that eliminating waste could mean unintentional harm for a key GOP constituency.

“We all understand the overarching goal, where we’re going to: again, downsizing, cutting spending. But how are we getting there? And I think there’s just some places to provide a gentle reminder along the way that, please look out for our veterans,” Kiggans said.

Rep. Don Bacon, Nebraska

Bacon, who represents a swing district, has said the administration should be more careful in how it carries out its cuts, likening his desire to the need to “measure twice and cut once.”

Last month, as the Agriculture Department scrambled to rehire several workers who were involved in the government’s response to the ongoing bird flu outbreak that has devastated egg and poultry farms over the past three years, Bacon commended Trump for “fulfilling his promise to shed light on waste, fraud, and abuse in government” but told AP that “downsizing decisions must be narrowly tailored to preserve critical missions.”

Rep. Mike Simpson, Idaho

Simpson has warned that national parks could be impaired by cutbacks at the start of summer hiring in preparation for the onslaught of visitors.

“We need to have a conversation with DOGE and the administration about exactly what they’ve done here,” Simpson, a seasoned lawmaker who sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee, said last month. “It’s a concern to all of us.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina

In reaction to the VA cuts memo, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee said he was displeased that the VA had not given lawmakers an advance notification of the changes, saying it was “political malpractice not to consult Congress.”

“Maybe you’ve got a good reason to do it,” Graham said last week, leaving a lunch with Musk. “But we don’t need to be reading memos in the paper about a 20% cut at the VA.”

Sen. Katie Britt, Alabama

Last month, Britt put out a statement calling for a “targeted approach” in ensuring that proposed caps on the National Institutes of Health don’t hit what she called “life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions,” including her state’s beloved University of Alabama.

“While the administration works to achieve this goal at NIH, a smart, targeted approach is needed,” Britt said.

Sen. Jerry Moran, Kansas

Moran has expressed concern that food from heartland farmers would spoil rather than be sent around the world as the U.S. Agency for International Development shutters.

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Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is starting another round of job cuts — this one more than 1,000 — at the nation’s weather, ocean and fisheries agency, four people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday began plans to lay off 10% of its current workforce, people inside and outside the agency said, with some of them requesting anonymity due to fear of retribution. The numbers were presented to NOAA employees and managers were asked to submit names of positions for layoffs to agency headquarters, which will then go to NOAA’s parent agency, the Department of Commerce, on Wednesday, the people said.

Three former senior NOAA officials — two former political appointees from the Biden administration — who speak regularly with managers at their old agency used the same number for upcoming job cuts: 1,029, 10% of the current 10,290. They talked to multiple people still in NOAA and a current agency worker detailed the cuts that a manager explained to employees.

While most people know about NOAA and its daily weather forecasts, the agency also monitors and warns about hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and tsunamis, manages the country’s fisheries, runs marine sanctuaries, provides navigation information to ships and observes changes in the climate and oceans. The agency also plays a role in warning about avalanches and space weather that could damage the electrical grid. It helps respond to disasters, including oil spills.

The new cuts come after earlier rounds of Trump administration firings and encouraged retirements at NOAA, plus the elimination of nearly all new employees last month. After this upcoming round of cuts, NOAA will have eliminated about one out of four jobs since President Donald Trump took office in January.

“This is not government efficiency,” said former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. “It is the first steps toward eradication. There is no way to make these kinds of cuts without removing or strongly compromising mission capabilities.”

The cuts are being ordered without specific guidance from the Trump administration on how or where, which makes it even worse, Spinrad said.

NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen said the agency’s policy is not to discuss internal personnel matters, but said NOAA will “continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission.”

NOAA has already stopped releasing some weather balloons that gather crucial observations for forecasts in two locations — Albany, New York, and Gray, Maine — because of lack of staffing, the agency said last week.

This is all happening as severe storm system is forecast to move through the central and southern parts of the nation late this week in a multi-day outburst with strong tornadoes, hail and damaging winds expected.

Weather forecasts will worsen and “people are going to start seeing this very quickly,” warned former NOAA chief scientist Craig McLean. It will also limit how much commercial fishermen will be able to catch, he said.

On top of all the job losses, cuts in research grants to universities will also make it harder for the U.S. to keep improving its weather forecasts and better monitor what’s happening to the planet, McLean said.

“People are silently watching the United States decline as a technological leader,” McLean said. “America got to the moon, but our weather forecasts won’t be the greatest.”

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s version of the Elon Musk-led effort charged with making government run more efficiently struck a more collegial, bipartisan tone in its first meeting Tuesday, taking input from Democrats and hearing testimony from a broad array of government leaders.

Wisconsin is one of several states that have sought to mimic the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, run by billionaire Musk at the federal level. Others that have created similar groups include Florida, Oklahoma, Iowa, Missouri, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana and New Hampshire.

The Wisconsin Assembly’s GOAT committee, which stands for Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency, is much more constrained in its mandate and powers than DOGE, which has broad authority given to it by President Donald Trump.

The Wisconsin committee was created by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, but three of its nine members are Democrats. There is no counterpart in the state Senate, which means any of its recommendations may face difficulty clearing both houses of the Legislature.

And the committee can’t unilaterally fire state workers or slash government spending. Broad actions like that require action by the full Legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, in addition to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Evers has broken records for vetoing Republican-sponsored bills, making it highly unlikely he would go along with anything significant the GOAT committee may recommend.

Still, as a committee of the Legislature, it was able to solicit testimony Tuesday from numerous agency heads in Evers’ administration at its first meeting Tuesday. University of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman and Bob Atwell, the founder of Nicolet National Bank, also testified.

Republican Rep. Amanda Nedweski, chair of the committee, said the goal was to address “strong demand from the public” about what is happening with telework, state office use, whether public workers are being held accountable, what cybersecurity is in place and whether there is a cost savings.

Nedweski even cut off fellow Republican and committee vice chair Rep. Shae Sortwell when he began asking questions of a state education department official about spending related to DEI.

“We’re going to stay on topic today,” Nedweski said.

Sortwell sent numerous requests seeking information to the state’s largest cities and all 72 counties related to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in local governments across the state before the committee met, drawing criticism from Democratic members of the committee. Wisconsin Watch was the first to report on Sortwell’s efforts.

Vos, the Assembly speaker who created the GOAT committee, has said that its goal was to root out waste, fraud and abuse in state government. He attributed Sortwell’s inquiries to information gathering related to that goal.

DOGE claims credit for saving more than $100 billion at the federal level through mass firings, cancellations of contracts and grants, office closures and other cuts that have paralyzed entire agencies. Many of those claimed savings have turned out to be overstated or unproven.

DOGE’s work during the early stages of the Trump administration has drawn nearly two dozen lawsuits. Judges have raised questions in several cases about DOGE’s sweeping cost-cutting efforts, conducted with little public information about its staffing and operations.

Scott Bauer, The Associated Press

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