By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jennifer-shutt/">Jennifer Shutt</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">Shauneen Miranda</a>

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a spending package Wednesday evening that will reopen the government and end the longest shutdown in the nation’s history, once President Donald Trump signs the legislation into law.

The White House announced Trump will sign the bill in the Oval Office at 9:45 p.m. Eastern.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025285?Page=2" target="_blank">222-209 vote</a>&nbsp;marked the first time that chamber took up a bill since mid-September, when Republican leaders recessed after members approved a stopgap spending measure they knew couldn’t advance in the Senate.&nbsp;

That stalemate, centered around sharply rising health care costs, led to a 43-day shutdown that affected nearly every corner of the country through delayed funding for nutrition programs for millions of Americans, no pay for federal workers, flight delays tied to staffing shortages and much more.&nbsp;

But after nearly six weeks of failed procedural votes, seven centrist Senate Democrats and one independent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-advances-bill-end-record-breaking-government-shutdown" target="_blank">broke with party leaders</a>&nbsp;on Sunday to advance the reworked spending package and then voted to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-bipartisan-vote-passes-bill-end-record-breaking-shutdown-house-next" target="_blank">approve the legislation</a>&nbsp;Monday.&nbsp;

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said throughout the shutdown he was interested in a bipartisan path forward on health insurance costs after the shutdown ended, committed to hold a floor vote on a Democratic bill “no later than the second week in December.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said repeatedly throughout the funding lapse GOP lawmakers have ideas to improve the health care system. However, he didn’t detail any of those publicly and hasn’t committed to a floor vote.&nbsp;

House debate on the spending package that will reopen government was largely along party lines, though Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida voted against the bill.

Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state and Tom Suozzi of New York voted for passage.&nbsp;

Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., urged support for the legislation, saying “history reminds us that shutdowns never change the outcome.”&nbsp;

“Over the last 43 days the facts did not shift, the votes required did not shift, the path forward did not change,” Cole said. “The only thing that did move was the level of pain Democrats inflicted on the nation.”

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the spending panel, rejected the legislation and said it does nothing to address the rising cost of health care.&nbsp;

“More than 20 million Americans will have to pay double, even triple, their monthly insurance premium in just a matter of weeks,” DeLauro said. “And this bill leaves families without even a glimmer of hope that their costs might go down.”

The Senate significantly reworked the stopgap bill&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/chance-government-shutdown-rises-us-senate-fails-advance-spending-bill" target="_blank">the House originally passed</a>&nbsp;in mid-September into what is now a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5371/text?s=1&amp;r=1&amp;q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22HR+5371%22%7D" target="_blank">394-page package</a>, adding in three of the full-year government funding bills and changing the date of the stopgap measure to Jan. 30, among many other provisions. The original stopgap was set to last through Nov. 21.&nbsp;

The updated measure gives Congress a couple more months to work out agreement on the remaining nine appropriations bills that were supposed to become law before the start of the current fiscal year on Oct. 1.&nbsp;

Lawmakers could create a partial government shutdown if they’re unable to agree on approving the remaining appropriations bill before the new government funding deadline at the end of January.

Trump will turn his attention toward the rising cost of health care that Democrats highlighted during the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday briefing, though she didn’t put a firm timeline on when he’ll release any plans.

“Once the government reopens, the president, as he’s always maintained, is absolutely open to having conversations about health care,” Leavitt said. “And I think you’ll see the president putting forth some really good policy proposals that Democrats should take very seriously to fix, again, the system that they broke.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters following a closed-door meeting that Democrats will try to get the necessary signatures on a discharge petition to force a floor vote on legislation to extend tax credits for three years for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

The New York Democrat said the extension mirrors how long the enhanced tax credits were set to last initially in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.&nbsp;

Temporary health care subsidies were originally passed as part of the COVID-19-era American Rescue Plan in 2021 for two years. The Inflation Reduction Act, the signature climate policy bill from the Biden administration, then extended those health care subsidies for three years, expiring at the end of December 2025.&nbsp;

“The legislation that we will introduce in the context of a discharge petition will provide that level of certainty to working-class Americans who are on the verge of seeing their premiums, co-pays and deductibles skyrocket,” Jeffries said.&nbsp;

Democrats will need the support of at least a handful of Republicans in order to get the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill. The&nbsp;<a href="https://clerk.house.gov/DischargePetition/2025111210" target="_blank">discharge petition</a>&nbsp;was released mid-afternoon.

The spending package wraps in several different bills and provisions, such as the three full-year funding bills that cover the Agriculture Department, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Trump administration issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Senate-Amendment-to-H.R.-5371-SAP.pdf" target="_blank">Statement of Administration Policy</a>&nbsp;a few hours before the House voted, saying the administration strongly supports the bill, describing the measure as “a fiscally responsible package that provides the full-year funding necessary to support the Nation’s veterans, farmers, and rural communities.”

The package also “ends disruptions to programs the American people rely on and ensures the thousands of Federal employees who have been forced to work without a paycheck, such as air traffic controllers, will be promptly paid,” the administration added.&nbsp;

The Agriculture and Military Construction-VA spending bills include tens of billions of dollars in earmarks requested by lawmakers from both political parties, important to them as midterm elections loom in 2026.

‘Legislative self-dealing’ in Senate attacked

But not every Republican on Capitol Hill is happy with how the full-year bills turned out.&nbsp;

Speaker Johnson announced mid-afternoon that the House would take a separate vote later this month to remove language from the package that will allow senators to file suit against the federal government if their data is subpoenaed.

“We are putting this legislation on the fast track suspension calendar in the House for next week,” Johnson wrote in a social media post.&nbsp;

The provision, tucked into the full-year Legislative Branch spending bill, is retroactive to January 1, 2022, and would apply to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/combative-ag-pam-bondi-confronts-us-senate-judiciary-over-trump-crackdown" target="_blank">the eight senators who had their cell phone records subpoenaed</a>&nbsp;during a 2023 investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.&nbsp;

The FBI reportedly obtained data for cell phone use between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021, for Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.&nbsp;

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said during floor debate the bill “contains the single most corrupt provision for legislative self-dealing that anyone in this chamber today has ever voted on.”

“This provision is an affront to our taxpayers, to the rule of law, to everyone who believes that we in public office must be the servants of the people, not the masters of the people who get special legal rights and privileges and multi-million-dollar payoffs,” Raskin said.&nbsp;

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsg77xQWFM&amp;t=224s" target="_blank">told reporters</a>&nbsp;earlier in the day that he will “definitely” be filing a lawsuit after the new provision becomes law.&nbsp;

“And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” Graham said, later adding he wasn’t sure if he’d win such a case.

Dissatisfaction among GOP lawmakers with that provision was on full display on social media, where Florida’s Steube responded to Speaker Johnson’s post by writing that the “Senate will never take up your ‘standalone’ bill. This is precisely why you shouldn’t let the Senate jam the House.”

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/11/1762997095564.png" alt="A view of the House floor as the the result of the vote was announced Wednesday just before 7:30p.m. CST." />
                        <figcaption>A view of the House floor as the the result of the vote was announced Wednesday just before 7:30p.m. CST.</figcaption>
                    </figure><p>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jennifer-shutt/">Jennifer Shutt</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ariana-figueroa/">Ariana Figueroa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">Shauneen Miranda</a></p><p>WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a spending package Wednesday evening that will reopen the government and end the longest shutdown in the nation’s history, once President Donald Trump signs the legislation into law.</p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: U.S. House votes to end government shutdown, 222-209. <br><br>Goes now to the president. <a href="https://t.co/LPySa48qUZ">pic.twitter.com/LPySa48qUZ</a></p>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1988780269688541282?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><p>The White House announced Trump will sign the bill in the Oval Office at 9:45 p.m. Eastern.</p><p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025285?Page=2" target="_blank">222-209 vote</a>&nbsp;marked the first time that chamber took up a bill since mid-September, when Republican leaders recessed after members approved a stopgap spending measure they knew couldn’t advance in the Senate.&nbsp;</p><p>That stalemate, centered around sharply rising health care costs, led to a 43-day shutdown that affected nearly every corner of the country through delayed funding for nutrition programs for millions of Americans, no pay for federal workers, flight delays tied to staffing shortages and much more.&nbsp;</p><p>But after nearly six weeks of failed procedural votes, seven centrist Senate Democrats and one independent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-advances-bill-end-record-breaking-government-shutdown" target="_blank">broke with party leaders</a>&nbsp;on Sunday to advance the reworked spending package and then voted to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-bipartisan-vote-passes-bill-end-record-breaking-shutdown-house-next" target="_blank">approve the legislation</a>&nbsp;Monday.&nbsp;</p><p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said throughout the shutdown he was interested in a bipartisan path forward on health insurance costs after the shutdown ended, committed to hold a floor vote on a Democratic bill “no later than the second week in December.”</p><p>House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said repeatedly throughout the funding lapse GOP lawmakers have ideas to improve the health care system. However, he didn’t detail any of those publicly and hasn’t committed to a floor vote.&nbsp;</p><p>House debate on the spending package that will reopen government was largely along party lines, though Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida voted against the bill.</p><p>Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state and Tom Suozzi of New York voted for passage.&nbsp;</p><p>Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., urged support for the legislation, saying “history reminds us that shutdowns never change the outcome.”&nbsp;</p><p>“Over the last 43 days the facts did not shift, the votes required did not shift, the path forward did not change,” Cole said. “The only thing that did move was the level of pain Democrats inflicted on the nation.”</p><h2>Much higher premiums predicted&nbsp;</h2><p>Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the spending panel, rejected the legislation and said it does nothing to address the rising cost of health care.&nbsp;</p><p>“More than 20 million Americans will have to pay double, even triple, their monthly insurance premium in just a matter of weeks,” DeLauro said. “And this bill leaves families without even a glimmer of hope that their costs might go down.”</p><p>The Senate significantly reworked the stopgap bill&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/chance-government-shutdown-rises-us-senate-fails-advance-spending-bill" target="_blank">the House originally passed</a>&nbsp;in mid-September into what is now a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5371/text?s=1&amp;r=1&amp;q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22HR+5371%22%7D" target="_blank">394-page package</a>, adding in three of the full-year government funding bills and changing the date of the stopgap measure to Jan. 30, among many other provisions. The original stopgap was set to last through Nov. 21.&nbsp;</p><p>The updated measure gives Congress a couple more months to work out agreement on the remaining nine appropriations bills that were supposed to become law before the start of the current fiscal year on Oct. 1.&nbsp;</p><p>Lawmakers could create a partial government shutdown if they’re unable to agree on approving the remaining appropriations bill before the new government funding deadline at the end of January.</p><h2>Democratic discharge petition</h2><p>Trump will turn his attention toward the rising cost of health care that Democrats highlighted during the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday briefing, though she didn’t put a firm timeline on when he’ll release any plans.</p><p>“Once the government reopens, the president, as he’s always maintained, is absolutely open to having conversations about health care,” Leavitt said. “And I think you’ll see the president putting forth some really good policy proposals that Democrats should take very seriously to fix, again, the system that they broke.”</p><p>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters following a closed-door meeting that Democrats will try to get the necessary signatures on a discharge petition to force a floor vote on legislation to extend tax credits for three years for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.</p><p>The New York Democrat said the extension mirrors how long the enhanced tax credits were set to last initially in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.&nbsp;</p><p>Temporary health care subsidies were originally passed as part of the COVID-19-era American Rescue Plan in 2021 for two years. The Inflation Reduction Act, the signature climate policy bill from the Biden administration, then extended those health care subsidies for three years, expiring at the end of December 2025.&nbsp;</p><p>“The legislation that we will introduce in the context of a discharge petition will provide that level of certainty to working-class Americans who are on the verge of seeing their premiums, co-pays and deductibles skyrocket,” Jeffries said.&nbsp;</p><p>Democrats will need the support of at least a handful of Republicans in order to get the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill. The&nbsp;<a href="https://clerk.house.gov/DischargePetition/2025111210" target="_blank">discharge petition</a>&nbsp;was released mid-afternoon.</p><h2>What’s in the new bill</h2><p>The spending package wraps in several different bills and provisions, such as the three full-year funding bills that cover the Agriculture Department, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.</p><p>Included are:</p><ul>
                        <li>A stopgap spending bill that will keep the rest of the federal government running through Jan. 30;</li><li>$30 million for the U.S. Capitol Police to enhance protections for lawmakers, $30 million for the U.S. Marshals Service to bolster security for members of the judicial and executive branches, and $28 million for enhanced safety for Supreme Court justices;</li><li>Language requiring the Trump administration to reinstate the thousands of workers it sent layoff notices to during the shutdown and preventing officials from firing those workers through January;</li><li>Provisions mandating the Trump administration provide back pay to all federal workers, including those furloughed during the shutdown. Trump at one point during the shutdown had threatened to yank that back pay, though it is required by law.</li>
                    </ul><p>The Trump administration issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Senate-Amendment-to-H.R.-5371-SAP.pdf" target="_blank">Statement of Administration Policy</a>&nbsp;a few hours before the House voted, saying the administration strongly supports the bill, describing the measure as “a fiscally responsible package that provides the full-year funding necessary to support the Nation’s veterans, farmers, and rural communities.”</p><p>The package also “ends disruptions to programs the American people rely on and ensures the thousands of Federal employees who have been forced to work without a paycheck, such as air traffic controllers, will be promptly paid,” the administration added.&nbsp;</p><p>The Agriculture and Military Construction-VA spending bills include tens of billions of dollars in earmarks requested by lawmakers from both political parties, important to them as midterm elections loom in 2026.</p><h2>‘Legislative self-dealing’ in Senate attacked</h2><p>But not every Republican on Capitol Hill is happy with how the full-year bills turned out.&nbsp;</p><p>Speaker Johnson announced mid-afternoon that the House would take a separate vote later this month to remove language from the package that will allow senators to file suit against the federal government if their data is subpoenaed.</p><p>“We are putting this legislation on the fast track suspension calendar in the House for next week,” Johnson wrote in a social media post.&nbsp;</p><p>The provision, tucked into the full-year Legislative Branch spending bill, is retroactive to January 1, 2022, and would apply to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/combative-ag-pam-bondi-confronts-us-senate-judiciary-over-trump-crackdown" target="_blank">the eight senators who had their cell phone records subpoenaed</a>&nbsp;during a 2023 investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.&nbsp;</p><p>The FBI reportedly obtained data for cell phone use between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021, for Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.&nbsp;</p><p>Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said during floor debate the bill “contains the single most corrupt provision for legislative self-dealing that anyone in this chamber today has ever voted on.”</p><p>“This provision is an affront to our taxpayers, to the rule of law, to everyone who believes that we in public office must be the servants of the people, not the masters of the people who get special legal rights and privileges and multi-million-dollar payoffs,” Raskin said.&nbsp;</p><p>South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsg77xQWFM&amp;t=224s" target="_blank">told reporters</a>&nbsp;earlier in the day that he will “definitely” be filing a lawsuit after the new provision becomes law.&nbsp;</p><p>“And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” Graham said, later adding he wasn’t sure if he’d win such a case.</p><p>Dissatisfaction among GOP lawmakers with that provision was on full display on social media, where Florida’s Steube responded to Speaker Johnson’s post by writing that the “Senate will never take up your ‘standalone’ bill. This is precisely why you shouldn’t let the Senate jam the House.”</p>

Government to reopen after 43 days: House sends bill to Trump ending record shutdown

<i>By: Kevin Hardy | Nebraska Examiner</i>

A provision significantly limiting the sale of intoxicating hemp products made its way into legislation to reopen the federal government just a day before the Senate approved the bill. Its inclusion follows years of pressure from states and the marijuana industry.

While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. The products, from drinks to gummies, are sold in gas stations and smoke shops. Critics say some companies have exploited a legal loophole from 2018 to manufacture products that get people high — without the safety regulations and taxes facing the legal marijuana industry.

That’s led dozens of states to limit or ban certain intoxicating hemp products. Most states also have pushed for federal changes, though some farm states worry the pending federal bill — which the House is expected to vote on as soon as today —&nbsp;goes too far.

A bipartisan group of&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/briefs/new-hampshires-formella-and-38-other-state-ags-ask-congress-to-ban-hemp-thc-products/" target="_blank">39 state attorneys general</a>&nbsp;recently urged Congress to clarify the federal definition of hemp, arguing that the underregulated industry threatens public health and undermines law enforcement.

Texas lawmakers this year approved a&nbsp;<a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&amp;Bill=SB3" target="_blank">strict ban</a>&nbsp;on intoxicating hemp, but that measure was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/22/texas-thc-ban-bill-greg-abbott-veto-senate-bill-3/" target="_blank">vetoed</a>&nbsp;by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor raised constitutional concerns because federal law allowed the products, but he then issued an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/23/texas-minors-21-age-limit-thc-hemp/" target="_blank">executive order</a>&nbsp;increasing state agency regulations, including age restrictions.

This summer, Florida<a href="https://www.fdacs.gov/News-Events/Press-Releases/2025-Press-Releases/Commissioner-Wilton-Simpson-Provides-Update-on-Operation-Safe-Summer-Over-155-000-Illegal-Hemp-Packages-Removed-to-Date" target="_blank">&nbsp;regulators seized</a>&nbsp;tens of thousands of packages of hemp products that failed to meet new child protection standards, including child-resistant packaging, marketing restrictions and enhanced labeling rules. In Tallahassee, the state Senate&nbsp;<a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/04/09/bill-that-will-regulate-the-hemp-industry-passes-unanimously-in-florida-senate/" target="_blank">approved a ban</a>&nbsp;on hemp-derived THC products, including beverages, but that measure died in the state House. A similar effort last year was&nbsp;<a href="https://flgov.com/eog/sites/default/files/press/Senate_Transmittal_6.7.24.pdf" target="_blank">vetoed</a>&nbsp;by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said it would harm small businesses.

Last month, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom&nbsp;<a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB8" target="_blank">signed legislation</a>&nbsp;strengthening state enforcement of its ban on intoxicating hemp products. Similarly, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine declared an&nbsp;<a href="https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/09/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-issues-executive-order-banning-sale-of-intoxicating-hemp-products/" target="_blank">emergency</a>&nbsp;last month in an executive order banning intoxicating hemp products for 90 days while lawmakers debate potential legislation.

Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the primary psychoactive component of the cannabis plant. The 39 state attorneys general argue manufacturers are manipulating hemp to produce synthetic THC that can be more intoxicating than marijuana.

“In this way, legal, nonintoxicating hemp is used to make Frankenstein THC products that get adults high and harm and even kill children,” the attorneys general wrote.

Hemp-derived gummies and beverages are sold without consistent age restrictions or labeling regulations&nbsp;and oftentimes resemble candy. During his announcement, DeWine showcased brightly packaged intoxicating hemp products that resembled name-brand candy products.

“Certainly, it’s easy to see how a child will confuse this product with real candy and eat a few gummy bears and ingest enough THC to require hospitalization,” he said, according to the<a href="https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/09/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-issues-executive-order-banning-sale-of-intoxicating-hemp-products/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Ohio Capital Journal</a>.

Though it has faced mounting restrictions in the states, the hemp industry says the federal change poses an existential threat.

On Monday, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable said the legislation pending in Congress would wipe out 95% of the nation’s $28.4 billion hemp industry.

“The language will force patients, seniors and veterans who rely on hemp products to break federal criminal law to acquire them,” the trade group&nbsp;<a href="https://hempsupporter.com/news/%f0%9f%9a%a8critical-alert-hemp-banning-language-has-officially-been-added-to-the-legislation-to-open-the-government/" target="_blank">posted online</a>.

Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the organization, said the industry has been pushing for regulation rather than outright prohibition. He acknowledged the problem of bad actors, but said those can be addressed with strong regulations like those that exist in Kentucky and Minnesota.

“These are good examples of states that have put together robust regulations. But we need to see that at the federal level, and we’ve been supporting legislation to do that for the last seven years,” he told Stateline.

Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, said he included the hemp measure in the bill to close an unintended legal loophole and that the measure would still allow farmers to grow hemp for fiber, oil and drug trials.

But fellow Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said the move would “eradicate the hemp industry” and could override some state laws. Paul offered an amendment to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/hemp-growers-retailers-targeted-section-government-shutdown-legislation" target="_blank">remove the hemp provision but failed</a>.

Hemp derives from the same cannabis species as marijuana, but is legally defined by its lower levels of THC, the psychoactive component of the plant.

While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, Congress sanctioned hemp in the 2018 farm bill to allow an agricultural market for hemp-based textiles, animal feeds and human wellness products centered on cannabidiol, or CBD, products. The farm bill allowed cultivation of hemp plants with a THC concentration of 0.3% or lower by dry weight.

But that threshold has become essentially meaningless, said Katharine Neill Harris, a fellow in drug policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

That’s because manufacturers have found ways to convert legal hemp plants into potent forms of synthetic marijuana. Aside from the potential of creating very strong products, she said the process requires the addition of solvents and other ingredients that raise many safety questions.

“With marijuana products, you can get some very potent products,” she said. “But the psychoactive components to THC are naturally occurring. It naturally occurs in that natural amount. You’re not doing a whole bunch of manipulation to increase the potency of the product and adding ingredients.”

Harris has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/mapping-hemp-products-legal-status-across-us-states" target="_blank">tracked</a>&nbsp;the growing number of states regulating the industry: Six states and the District of Columbia now ban all consumable hemp products with any amount of THC. In 24 states, intoxicating hemp products are permitted, though 15 of those states allow only low-potency products.

But even states with strict regulations still must contend with legal online markets.

“There’s a big part of that activity that you can’t control as a state when something is federally legal, and so that’s one thing that they’re asking for is federal leadership on this issue,” she said. “I think there is a big demand for some sort of industry standards.”

If approved by Congress and signed by the president, as expected, the new hemp legislation will likely have uneven impacts across the states.

For example, the change likely won’t dramatically alter the legal landscape in&nbsp;<a href="https://alaskabeacon.com/2025/05/29/judge-alaska-limits-on-intoxicating-hemp-products-do-not-violate-the-u-s-constitution/" target="_blank">Alaska</a>, where the regulators have banned all intoxicating hemp products. Marijuana businesses complain those products are still being sold, despite the ban.

But in a state like Nebraska, where lawmakers have been&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/05/30/proposal-to-ban-most-thc-consumable-hemp-products-in-nebraska-delayed-until-at-least-2026/" target="_blank">unsuccessful</a>&nbsp;in limiting intoxicating hemp, the change could drastically alter both consumer access and business sales, depending on enforcement.

On Monday, Paul said the federal legislation would wipe away hemp regulations in many states, including Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine and Utah.

“The bill before us nullifies all these state laws,”<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/hemp-growers-retailers-targeted-section-government-shutdown-legislation" target="_blank">&nbsp;he said</a>.

The hemp industry has argued that a lot of the opposition to it stems from marijuana businesses looking to protect their own markets, noting that campaigns for restrictions are often more organized in states that have legalized marijuana.

<i>"Everybody is using hemp as a cover to basically sell intoxicating drugs."</i>

<b>– Andrew Mullins, president and executive director of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association</b>

But producers of intoxicating hemp are looking for market access without the associated safety regulations and tax structures states have created for marijuana, argued Chris Lindsey, the director of state advocacy and public policy at the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, an organization representing the legal marijuana industry.

“They want to have some kind of regulatory framework that’s somehow different than the one that states already have [for marijuana],” he said.

His organization&nbsp;<a href="https://atach.org/atach-thanks-senate-for-addressing-unregulated-synthetic-thc-products/" target="_blank">cheered</a>&nbsp;the Senate’s efforts “to address the dangerous proliferation of unregulated synthetic THC products.”

Lindsey said hemp-derived products can contain contaminants, including pesticides. Many hemp products can be sourced cheaply overseas, he said, and with lax oversight, there is no system to recall tainted products here.

“To me, that’s like running with knives,” he told Stateline.

The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association recently purchased hemp products from gas stations and smoke shops from across the state to test them in an effort to show they need more regulation.

In its “<a href="https://missourihemphoax.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Missouri-Hemp-Hoax-Report-Final-11.02.25.pdf" target="_blank">Missouri Hemp Hoax Report,</a>” the organization said independent testing found 53 of the 55 products purchased were actually intoxicating marijuana well above the legal limit of THC. Third-party lab results also showed some of the products contained pesticides and heavy metals.

Those results underscore that the products should face the same rules as legal marijuana does, said Andrew Mullins, president and executive director of the cannabis trade association. State law requires marijuana to be grown and manufactured in Missouri, mandates&nbsp;lab testing and allows for sales only at licensed dispensaries.

“In my mind, if it’s marijuana, which most of this is, then it should be regulated like marijuana,” Mullins said.

He said calling the unregulated products “hemp” is akin to someone selling whiskey and calling it corn: “Everybody is using hemp as a cover to basically sell intoxicating drugs.”

Mullins acknowledged the confusion among policymakers and law enforcement. But he said there are already laws — including those against trafficking marijuana without a license — that could help address the issue.

Catherine Hanaway, a Republican who was sworn in as Missouri’s new attorney general in September, has vowed action on unregulated hemp products, particularly THC beverages that are&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/27/thc-beverage-boom-faces-missouri-crackdown-amid-regulatory-concerns-safety-risks/" target="_blank">booming</a>&nbsp;in popularity.

“Our focus is on the health and safety of Missourians,” James Lawson, her deputy chief of staff, told the<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/27/thc-beverage-boom-faces-missouri-crackdown-amid-regulatory-concerns-safety-risks/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Missouri Independent</a>&nbsp;last month. “This is an unregulated industry that makes untested, unknown substances available to the public without any oversight, including children where we think it’s particularly detrimental.”

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:khardy@stateline.org">khardy@stateline.org</a>.

<p><i>By: Kevin Hardy | Nebraska Examiner</i></p><figure>
                        <img src="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/THC-hemp-products.jpg" alt="&nbsp;A bin of THC edible products from Virginia stores is displayed by the state attorney general. While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/ Virginia Mercury)" />
                        <figcaption>&nbsp;A bin of THC edible products from Virginia stores is displayed by the state attorney general. While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/ Virginia Mercury)</figcaption>
                    </figure><p>A provision significantly limiting the sale of intoxicating hemp products made its way into legislation to reopen the federal government just a day before the Senate approved the bill. Its inclusion follows years of pressure from states and the marijuana industry.</p><p>While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. The products, from drinks to gummies, are sold in gas stations and smoke shops. Critics say some companies have exploited a legal loophole from 2018 to manufacture products that get people high — without the safety regulations and taxes facing the legal marijuana industry.</p><p>That’s led dozens of states to limit or ban certain intoxicating hemp products. Most states also have pushed for federal changes, though some farm states worry the pending federal bill — which the House is expected to vote on as soon as today —&nbsp;goes too far.</p><p>A bipartisan group of&nbsp;<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/briefs/new-hampshires-formella-and-38-other-state-ags-ask-congress-to-ban-hemp-thc-products/" target="_blank">39 state attorneys general</a>&nbsp;recently urged Congress to clarify the federal definition of hemp, arguing that the underregulated industry threatens public health and undermines law enforcement.</p><p>Texas lawmakers this year approved a&nbsp;<a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/billlookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&amp;Bill=SB3" target="_blank">strict ban</a>&nbsp;on intoxicating hemp, but that measure was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/22/texas-thc-ban-bill-greg-abbott-veto-senate-bill-3/" target="_blank">vetoed</a>&nbsp;by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor raised constitutional concerns because federal law allowed the products, but he then issued an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/23/texas-minors-21-age-limit-thc-hemp/" target="_blank">executive order</a>&nbsp;increasing state agency regulations, including age restrictions.</p><p>This summer, Florida<a href="https://www.fdacs.gov/News-Events/Press-Releases/2025-Press-Releases/Commissioner-Wilton-Simpson-Provides-Update-on-Operation-Safe-Summer-Over-155-000-Illegal-Hemp-Packages-Removed-to-Date" target="_blank">&nbsp;regulators seized</a>&nbsp;tens of thousands of packages of hemp products that failed to meet new child protection standards, including child-resistant packaging, marketing restrictions and enhanced labeling rules. In Tallahassee, the state Senate&nbsp;<a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/04/09/bill-that-will-regulate-the-hemp-industry-passes-unanimously-in-florida-senate/" target="_blank">approved a ban</a>&nbsp;on hemp-derived THC products, including beverages, but that measure died in the state House. A similar effort last year was&nbsp;<a href="https://flgov.com/eog/sites/default/files/press/Senate_Transmittal_6.7.24.pdf" target="_blank">vetoed</a>&nbsp;by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said it would harm small businesses.</p><p>Last month, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom&nbsp;<a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB8" target="_blank">signed legislation</a>&nbsp;strengthening state enforcement of its ban on intoxicating hemp products. Similarly, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine declared an&nbsp;<a href="https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/09/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-issues-executive-order-banning-sale-of-intoxicating-hemp-products/" target="_blank">emergency</a>&nbsp;last month in an executive order banning intoxicating hemp products for 90 days while lawmakers debate potential legislation.</p><p>Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the primary psychoactive component of the cannabis plant. The 39 state attorneys general argue manufacturers are manipulating hemp to produce synthetic THC that can be more intoxicating than marijuana.</p><p>“In this way, legal, nonintoxicating hemp is used to make Frankenstein THC products that get adults high and harm and even kill children,” the attorneys general wrote.</p><p>Hemp-derived gummies and beverages are sold without consistent age restrictions or labeling regulations&nbsp;and oftentimes resemble candy. During his announcement, DeWine showcased brightly packaged intoxicating hemp products that resembled name-brand candy products.</p><p>“Certainly, it’s easy to see how a child will confuse this product with real candy and eat a few gummy bears and ingest enough THC to require hospitalization,” he said, according to the<a href="https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/09/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-issues-executive-order-banning-sale-of-intoxicating-hemp-products/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Ohio Capital Journal</a>.</p><p>Though it has faced mounting restrictions in the states, the hemp industry says the federal change poses an existential threat.</p><p>On Monday, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable said the legislation pending in Congress would wipe out 95% of the nation’s $28.4 billion hemp industry.</p><p>“The language will force patients, seniors and veterans who rely on hemp products to break federal criminal law to acquire them,” the trade group&nbsp;<a href="https://hempsupporter.com/news/%f0%9f%9a%a8critical-alert-hemp-banning-language-has-officially-been-added-to-the-legislation-to-open-the-government/" target="_blank">posted online</a>.</p><p>Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the organization, said the industry has been pushing for regulation rather than outright prohibition. He acknowledged the problem of bad actors, but said those can be addressed with strong regulations like those that exist in Kentucky and Minnesota.</p><p>“These are good examples of states that have put together robust regulations. But we need to see that at the federal level, and we’ve been supporting legislation to do that for the last seven years,” he told Stateline.</p><p>Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, said he included the hemp measure in the bill to close an unintended legal loophole and that the measure would still allow farmers to grow hemp for fiber, oil and drug trials.</p><p>But fellow Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said the move would “eradicate the hemp industry” and could override some state laws. Paul offered an amendment to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/hemp-growers-retailers-targeted-section-government-shutdown-legislation" target="_blank">remove the hemp provision but failed</a>.</p><h2>The hemp loophole</h2><p>Hemp derives from the same cannabis species as marijuana, but is legally defined by its lower levels of THC, the psychoactive component of the plant.</p><p>While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, Congress sanctioned hemp in the 2018 farm bill to allow an agricultural market for hemp-based textiles, animal feeds and human wellness products centered on cannabidiol, or CBD, products. The farm bill allowed cultivation of hemp plants with a THC concentration of 0.3% or lower by dry weight.</p><p>But that threshold has become essentially meaningless, said Katharine Neill Harris, a fellow in drug policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.</p><p>That’s because manufacturers have found ways to convert legal hemp plants into potent forms of synthetic marijuana. Aside from the potential of creating very strong products, she said the process requires the addition of solvents and other ingredients that raise many safety questions.</p><p>“With marijuana products, you can get some very potent products,” she said. “But the psychoactive components to THC are naturally occurring. It naturally occurs in that natural amount. You’re not doing a whole bunch of manipulation to increase the potency of the product and adding ingredients.”</p><p>Harris has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/mapping-hemp-products-legal-status-across-us-states" target="_blank">tracked</a>&nbsp;the growing number of states regulating the industry: Six states and the District of Columbia now ban all consumable hemp products with any amount of THC. In 24 states, intoxicating hemp products are permitted, though 15 of those states allow only low-potency products.</p><p>But even states with strict regulations still must contend with legal online markets.</p><p>“There’s a big part of that activity that you can’t control as a state when something is federally legal, and so that’s one thing that they’re asking for is federal leadership on this issue,” she said. “I think there is a big demand for some sort of industry standards.”</p><p>If approved by Congress and signed by the president, as expected, the new hemp legislation will likely have uneven impacts across the states.</p><p>For example, the change likely won’t dramatically alter the legal landscape in&nbsp;<a href="https://alaskabeacon.com/2025/05/29/judge-alaska-limits-on-intoxicating-hemp-products-do-not-violate-the-u-s-constitution/" target="_blank">Alaska</a>, where the regulators have banned all intoxicating hemp products. Marijuana businesses complain those products are still being sold, despite the ban.</p><p>But in a state like Nebraska, where lawmakers have been&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/05/30/proposal-to-ban-most-thc-consumable-hemp-products-in-nebraska-delayed-until-at-least-2026/" target="_blank">unsuccessful</a>&nbsp;in limiting intoxicating hemp, the change could drastically alter both consumer access and business sales, depending on enforcement.</p><p>On Monday, Paul said the federal legislation would wipe away hemp regulations in many states, including Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine and Utah.</p><p>“The bill before us nullifies all these state laws,”<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/hemp-growers-retailers-targeted-section-government-shutdown-legislation" target="_blank">&nbsp;he said</a>.</p><h2>‘Running with knives’</h2><p>The hemp industry has argued that a lot of the opposition to it stems from marijuana businesses looking to protect their own markets, noting that campaigns for restrictions are often more organized in states that have legalized marijuana.</p><p><i>"Everybody is using hemp as a cover to basically sell intoxicating drugs."</i></p><p><b>– Andrew Mullins, president and executive director of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association</b></p><p>But producers of intoxicating hemp are looking for market access without the associated safety regulations and tax structures states have created for marijuana, argued Chris Lindsey, the director of state advocacy and public policy at the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, an organization representing the legal marijuana industry.</p><p>“They want to have some kind of regulatory framework that’s somehow different than the one that states already have [for marijuana],” he said.</p><p>His organization&nbsp;<a href="https://atach.org/atach-thanks-senate-for-addressing-unregulated-synthetic-thc-products/" target="_blank">cheered</a>&nbsp;the Senate’s efforts “to address the dangerous proliferation of unregulated synthetic THC products.”</p><p>Lindsey said hemp-derived products can contain contaminants, including pesticides. Many hemp products can be sourced cheaply overseas, he said, and with lax oversight, there is no system to recall tainted products here.</p><p>“To me, that’s like running with knives,” he told Stateline.</p><p>The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association recently purchased hemp products from gas stations and smoke shops from across the state to test them in an effort to show they need more regulation.</p><p>In its “<a href="https://missourihemphoax.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Missouri-Hemp-Hoax-Report-Final-11.02.25.pdf" target="_blank">Missouri Hemp Hoax Report,</a>” the organization said independent testing found 53 of the 55 products purchased were actually intoxicating marijuana well above the legal limit of THC. Third-party lab results also showed some of the products contained pesticides and heavy metals.</p><p>Those results underscore that the products should face the same rules as legal marijuana does, said Andrew Mullins, president and executive director of the cannabis trade association. State law requires marijuana to be grown and manufactured in Missouri, mandates&nbsp;lab testing and allows for sales only at licensed dispensaries.</p><p>“In my mind, if it’s marijuana, which most of this is, then it should be regulated like marijuana,” Mullins said.</p><p>He said calling the unregulated products “hemp” is akin to someone selling whiskey and calling it corn: “Everybody is using hemp as a cover to basically sell intoxicating drugs.”</p><p>Mullins acknowledged the confusion among policymakers and law enforcement. But he said there are already laws — including those against trafficking marijuana without a license — that could help address the issue.</p><p>Catherine Hanaway, a Republican who was sworn in as Missouri’s new attorney general in September, has vowed action on unregulated hemp products, particularly THC beverages that are&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/27/thc-beverage-boom-faces-missouri-crackdown-amid-regulatory-concerns-safety-risks/" target="_blank">booming</a>&nbsp;in popularity.</p><p>“Our focus is on the health and safety of Missourians,” James Lawson, her deputy chief of staff, told the<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/27/thc-beverage-boom-faces-missouri-crackdown-amid-regulatory-concerns-safety-risks/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Missouri Independent</a>&nbsp;last month. “This is an unregulated industry that makes untested, unknown substances available to the public without any oversight, including children where we think it’s particularly detrimental.”</p><p>Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:khardy@stateline.org">khardy@stateline.org</a>.</p>

Congress pushes hemp crackdown after pressure from states, marijuana industry

By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ashley-murray/">Ashley Murray</a>

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democrats investigating the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released emails Wednesday they say show President Donald Trump knew about the financier’s abuse of underage girls as far back as 2011.

<a href="https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-oversight.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/3-emails_redacted.pdf">Click here to read the emails</a>

The three&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26223234-2011-2015-2019-epstein-emails/" target="_blank">emails</a>&nbsp;released by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform were among 23,000 pages of documents turned over to the committee by Epstein’s estate, according to Democrats.

In a 2011 correspondence with the now-convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote that Trump “spent hours at my house” with a victim whose name is redacted from the email. In the same email, Epstein refers to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked.”

In a 2015 email exchange between Epstein and journalist Michael Wolff, Wolff tells Epstein that he’s heard CNN will ask Trump about his relationship with the financier. The two have an exchange about how to hypothetically “craft an answer” for Trump.&nbsp;

Wolff responds, “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable (public relations) and political currency.”

In a January 2019 email, also to Wolff, Epstein referenced a victim’s name, redacted, as having been at Trump’s Florida estate and private club, Mar-a-Lago, and wrote “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”&nbsp;

Emails raise more questions, leading Dem says

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia said in a statement Wednesday the emails “raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President.”

“The Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims,” Garcia continued.

Within hours of the committee Democrats’ release of the emails, committee Republican leaders issued a brief press release linking to “an additional 20,000 pages of documents received from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein” contained on Google Drive and Dropbox clouds.&nbsp;

The White House did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.

Congress investigates after FBI backtracks

The bipartisan committee investigation began shortly after the FBI released a July&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline" target="_blank">memo</a>&nbsp;stating the Department of Justice would not be releasing any further information on the government’s sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.

Epstein was found dead, apparently by suicide, in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell where he was awaiting federal trial.

The FBI’s announcement that the agency would not release further details caused a firestorm of demands to release all investigative material, even among Trump’s supporters in Congress and far-right media influencers,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-charlie-kirk-epstein/5168389" target="_blank">including</a>&nbsp;Megyn Kelly and the late Charlie Kirk.&nbsp;

Trump campaigned on releasing what are often referred to as the “Epstein files.”

A bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives is aiming to force a vote on the release of the files as soon as this week after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., swears in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva.&nbsp;

Grijalva has pledged to be the final signature needed on a discharge petition by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., that will compel a floor vote on a bill to release all Epstein investigation files.

Massie and Khanna hosted a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/congress-must-choose-epstein-survivors-demand-vote-release-case-files" target="_blank">press conference</a>&nbsp;on Capitol Hill in early September featuring several women who told stories of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell.

Since the FBI memo, a magnifying glass has been fixed on Trump’s past relationship with Epstein.&nbsp;

The president sued The Wall Street Journal for reporting on a 50th&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?mod=Searchresults_pos1&amp;page=1" target="_blank">birthday card</a>&nbsp;Trump allegedly gave to Epstein. The card featured a cryptic message and a doodle of a naked woman with Trump’s apparent signature mimicking pubic hair.&nbsp;

The Journal also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/justice-department-told-trump-name-in-epstein-files-727a8038?mod=hp_lead_pos1" target="_blank">reported</a>&nbsp;that Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed the president in May that his name appeared in the Epstein case files. The context in which his name appeared is unclear.&nbsp;

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/1/1704330351229.png" alt="Epstein-photo NY Sex Offender Registry" />
                        <figcaption>Epstein-photo NY Sex Offender Registry</figcaption>
                    </figure><p>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ashley-murray/">Ashley Murray</a></p><p>WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democrats investigating the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released emails Wednesday they say show President Donald Trump knew about the financier’s abuse of underage girls as far back as 2011.</p><figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/11/1762964441190.png" alt="One of the emails released Wednesday by House Oversight Dems" />
                        <figcaption>One of the emails released Wednesday by House Oversight Dems</figcaption>
                    </figure><p><a href="https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-oversight.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/3-emails_redacted.pdf">Click here to read the emails</a></p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Q: &quot;In the interest of transparency, why not just go ahead, release the full files on Epstein, get this all over with?&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> Karoline Leavitt: &quot;This administration has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/t9LlWGohPt">pic.twitter.com/t9LlWGohPt</a></p>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1988682162728759490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><p>The three&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26223234-2011-2015-2019-epstein-emails/" target="_blank">emails</a>&nbsp;released by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform were among 23,000 pages of documents turned over to the committee by Epstein’s estate, according to Democrats.</p><p>In a 2011 correspondence with the now-convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote that Trump “spent hours at my house” with a victim whose name is redacted from the email. In the same email, Epstein refers to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked.”</p><p>In a 2015 email exchange between Epstein and journalist Michael Wolff, Wolff tells Epstein that he’s heard CNN will ask Trump about his relationship with the financier. The two have an exchange about how to hypothetically “craft an answer” for Trump.&nbsp;</p><p>Wolff responds, “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable (public relations) and political currency.”</p><p>In a January 2019 email, also to Wolff, Epstein referenced a victim’s name, redacted, as having been at Trump’s Florida estate and private club, Mar-a-Lago, and wrote “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”&nbsp;</p><h2>Emails raise more questions, leading Dem says</h2><p>House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia said in a statement Wednesday the emails “raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President.”</p><p>“The Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims,” Garcia continued.</p><p>Within hours of the committee Democrats’ release of the emails, committee Republican leaders issued a brief press release linking to “an additional 20,000 pages of documents received from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein” contained on Google Drive and Dropbox clouds.&nbsp;</p><p>The White House did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.</p><h2>Congress investigates after FBI backtracks</h2><p>The bipartisan committee investigation began shortly after the FBI released a July&nbsp;<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline" target="_blank">memo</a>&nbsp;stating the Department of Justice would not be releasing any further information on the government’s sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.</p><p>Epstein was found dead, apparently by suicide, in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell where he was awaiting federal trial.</p><p>The FBI’s announcement that the agency would not release further details caused a firestorm of demands to release all investigative material, even among Trump’s supporters in Congress and far-right media influencers,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-charlie-kirk-epstein/5168389" target="_blank">including</a>&nbsp;Megyn Kelly and the late Charlie Kirk.&nbsp;</p><p>Trump campaigned on releasing what are often referred to as the “Epstein files.”</p><p>A bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives is aiming to force a vote on the release of the files as soon as this week after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., swears in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva.&nbsp;</p><p>Grijalva has pledged to be the final signature needed on a discharge petition by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., that will compel a floor vote on a bill to release all Epstein investigation files.</p><p>Massie and Khanna hosted a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/congress-must-choose-epstein-survivors-demand-vote-release-case-files" target="_blank">press conference</a>&nbsp;on Capitol Hill in early September featuring several women who told stories of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell.</p><p>Since the FBI memo, a magnifying glass has been fixed on Trump’s past relationship with Epstein.&nbsp;</p><p>The president sued The Wall Street Journal for reporting on a 50th&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?mod=Searchresults_pos1&amp;page=1" target="_blank">birthday card</a>&nbsp;Trump allegedly gave to Epstein. The card featured a cryptic message and a doodle of a naked woman with Trump’s apparent signature mimicking pubic hair.&nbsp;</p><p>The Journal also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/justice-department-told-trump-name-in-epstein-files-727a8038?mod=hp_lead_pos1" target="_blank">reported</a>&nbsp;that Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed the president in May that his name appeared in the Epstein case files. The context in which his name appeared is unclear.&nbsp;</p><p>Trump has denied the reports.</p>

US House Dems say newly released Epstein emails show Trump knew about abuse

Nebraska Legislature’s Executive Board looking into new security investments in Capitol building

LINCOLN — Nebraska lawmakers are exploring “enhanced security measures” at the state Capitol ahead of the next legislative session set for January.

State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, chair of the Nebraska Legislature’s Executive Board, announced the latest effort in a Wednesday press release. Hansen said the move was prompted by “recent acts of political violence in nearby states and across the country” but listed no specific incidents motivating the decision.

Just this year, there have been multiple incidents of violence against state leaders across the U.S., including a f<a href="https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/06/14/minnesota-house-democratic-leader-dead-after-targeted-shooting-democratic-senator-also-shot/" target="_blank">atal shooting of a Minnesota legislator</a>&nbsp;and a fire-bombing at the&nbsp;<a href="https://penncapital-star.com/uncategorized/governors-mansion-arson-suspect-cited-shapiros-positions-on-israel-palestine-conflict-police-say/" target="_blank">Pennsylvania governor’s mansion</a>.

“The state Capitol is the people’s house,” Hansen said in the release. “We are dedicated to ensuring that all Nebraskans can enjoy it safely and participate fully in our political process.”

Nebraska’s Capitol is secured by in-house security officers through the Nebraska State Patrol, as well as cameras throughout the building. Hansen did not specify what other measures the Legislature is interested in implementing.

Other government buildings in Nebraska, including courthouses and local government offices, use metal detectors and offer fewer public entrances compared to the Capitol.

Hansen said the Legislature has been working with Capitol security and the other two branches of Nebraska state government also housed in the Capitol to determine what additional security measures are warranted.

Those conversations are ongoing, he said.

Hansen’s press release did not specify the estimated cost of such security measures. Budget constraints are poised to be a large focus of the 2026 session, as lawmakers are tasked with filling a projected budget hole that currently stands at an estimated $451 million.

Although any building-wide security changes approved by lawmakers during the 2026 session would not be implemented until at least 2027, Hansen said, the Legislature may take independent steps to enhance the security of legislative proceedings before then.

Hansen said the public should be prepared for possible security-related changes to legislative procedures in the upcoming session, scheduled to begin Jan. 7.

<h2>Nebraska Legislature’s Executive Board looking into new security investments in Capitol building</h2><p>By: Erin Bamer | Nebraska Examiner</p><figure>
                        <img src="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/20220118_NE_CAPITOL_007-1536x1025.jpg" alt="&nbsp;The Nebraska State Capitol Building. (Rebecca S. Gratz for Nebraska Examiner)" />
                        <figcaption>&nbsp;The Nebraska State Capitol Building. (Rebecca S. Gratz for Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
                    </figure><p>LINCOLN — Nebraska lawmakers are exploring “enhanced security measures” at the state Capitol ahead of the next legislative session set for January.</p><p>State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, chair of the Nebraska Legislature’s Executive Board, announced the latest effort in a Wednesday press release. Hansen said the move was prompted by “recent acts of political violence in nearby states and across the country” but listed no specific incidents motivating the decision.</p><figure>
                        <img src="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/dist16-e1693143803215-252x300.jpg" alt="State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, District 16. (Courtesy of Unicameral Information Office)" />
                        <figcaption>State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, District 16. (Courtesy of Unicameral Information Office)</figcaption>
                    </figure><p>Just this year, there have been multiple incidents of violence against state leaders across the U.S., including a f<a href="https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/06/14/minnesota-house-democratic-leader-dead-after-targeted-shooting-democratic-senator-also-shot/" target="_blank">atal shooting of a Minnesota legislator</a>&nbsp;and a fire-bombing at the&nbsp;<a href="https://penncapital-star.com/uncategorized/governors-mansion-arson-suspect-cited-shapiros-positions-on-israel-palestine-conflict-police-say/" target="_blank">Pennsylvania governor’s mansion</a>.</p><p>“The state Capitol is the people’s house,” Hansen said in the release. “We are dedicated to ensuring that all Nebraskans can enjoy it safely and participate fully in our political process.”</p><p>Nebraska’s Capitol is secured by in-house security officers through the Nebraska State Patrol, as well as cameras throughout the building. Hansen did not specify what other measures the Legislature is interested in implementing.</p><p>Other government buildings in Nebraska, including courthouses and local government offices, use metal detectors and offer fewer public entrances compared to the Capitol.</p><p>Hansen said the Legislature has been working with Capitol security and the other two branches of Nebraska state government also housed in the Capitol to determine what additional security measures are warranted.</p><p>Those conversations are ongoing, he said.</p><p>Hansen’s press release did not specify the estimated cost of such security measures. Budget constraints are poised to be a large focus of the 2026 session, as lawmakers are tasked with filling a projected budget hole that currently stands at an estimated $451 million.</p><p>Although any building-wide security changes approved by lawmakers during the 2026 session would not be implemented until at least 2027, Hansen said, the Legislature may take independent steps to enhance the security of legislative proceedings before then.</p><p>Hansen said the public should be prepared for possible security-related changes to legislative procedures in the upcoming session, scheduled to begin Jan. 7.</p>

Nebraska lawmakers seek extra security at state Capitol ahead of 2026 session

By:<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/jacob-fischler/">Jacob Fischler</a>

The U.S. Supreme Court has extended through Thursday a pause on lower courts’ orders that the Trump administration authorize a full month of benefits for a food assistance program that 1 in 8 Americans use to buy groceries.

A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/111125zr_3204.pdf" target="_blank">brief, unsigned order</a>&nbsp;published Tuesday evening also said the full court would decide on the administration’s request to block court orders that the U.S. Department of Agriculture release full November benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.&nbsp;

The case was presented to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who said she would have dismissed the case and denied the request for an administrative stay. Jackson was appointed to the high court by President Joe Biden.

The order adds another wrinkle to a case that was already the object of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-tug-war-over-snap-benefits-timeline" target="_blank">a weekslong tug-of-war</a>&nbsp;over how the program should operate during the government shutdown.

The shutdown could end before the stay expires. The U.S. Senate passed a bill Monday to reopen the government, and the House is expected to pass it Wednesday. President Donald Trump has said he supports the measure and will likely sign it before the end of the day Thursday.

Trump and administration officials have maintained they were not authorized to release November SNAP benefits during the shutdown.

A Rhode Island federal judge ordered the USDA on Thursday to release full benefits for November. The department sent states a memo authorizing those payments Friday morning, then appealed to the Supreme Court on Friday evening to have the district court’s order overturned.

At the same time, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s order.

In the face of often contradicting administrative guidance and court orders, some states began processing full benefits for November, while others have yet to release them.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761944916334.png" alt="Post Photo" />
                        <figcaption>Post Photo</figcaption>
                    </figure><p>By:<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/jacob-fischler/">Jacob Fischler</a></p><p>The U.S. Supreme Court has extended through Thursday a pause on lower courts’ orders that the Trump administration authorize a full month of benefits for a food assistance program that 1 in 8 Americans use to buy groceries.</p><p>A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/111125zr_3204.pdf" target="_blank">brief, unsigned order</a>&nbsp;published Tuesday evening also said the full court would decide on the administration’s request to block court orders that the U.S. Department of Agriculture release full November benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.&nbsp;</p><figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/11/1762903719839.png" alt="<br>" />
                        <figcaption><br></figcaption>
                    </figure><p>The case was presented to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who said she would have dismissed the case and denied the request for an administrative stay. Jackson was appointed to the high court by President Joe Biden.</p><p>The order adds another wrinkle to a case that was already the object of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/shutdown-tug-war-over-snap-benefits-timeline" target="_blank">a weekslong tug-of-war</a>&nbsp;over how the program should operate during the government shutdown.</p><p>The shutdown could end before the stay expires. The U.S. Senate passed a bill Monday to reopen the government, and the House is expected to pass it Wednesday. President Donald Trump has said he supports the measure and will likely sign it before the end of the day Thursday.</p><p>Trump and administration officials have maintained they were not authorized to release November SNAP benefits during the shutdown.</p><p>A Rhode Island federal judge ordered the USDA on Thursday to release full benefits for November. The department sent states a memo authorizing those payments Friday morning, then appealed to the Supreme Court on Friday evening to have the district court’s order overturned.</p><p>At the same time, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s order.</p><p>In the face of often contradicting administrative guidance and court orders, some states began processing full benefits for November, while others have yet to release them.</p>

US Supreme Court maintains temporary freeze on full SNAP benefits for November

WASHINGTON —President Trump observed Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery.&nbsp;It is the first Veterans Day since he returned to office.

<figure>
                        <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/11/1762883390058.png" alt="Image from video by Margo Martin, Special Assistant to the President" />
                        <figcaption>Image from video by Margo Martin, Special Assistant to the President</figcaption>
                    </figure><p>WASHINGTON —President Trump observed Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery.&nbsp;It is the first Veterans Day since he returned to office.</p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">President Trump at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at <a href="https://twitter.com/ArlingtonNatl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArlingtonNatl</a> Cemetery on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VeteransDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VeteransDay</a>. <a href="https://t.co/kHCahBjvnK">pic.twitter.com/kHCahBjvnK</a></p>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1988283665873264796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in honor those who served and our fallen heroes 🙏❤️ <a href="https://t.co/nMXD29yGWx">pic.twitter.com/nMXD29yGWx</a></p>&mdash; Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) <a href="https://twitter.com/MargoMartin47/status/1988286691766136839?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecVetAffairs</a> salute as the National Anthem plays at Arlington Cemetery 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/raOmGVAcHN">pic.twitter.com/raOmGVAcHN</a></p>&mdash; Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) <a href="https://twitter.com/MargoMartin47/status/1988281544667263008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in observance of Veterans Day 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/to50HJpYpy">pic.twitter.com/to50HJpYpy</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988280632028655844?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecVetAffairs</a> arrive at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery to honor those who have served the United States 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/onlMcWBEXw">pic.twitter.com/onlMcWBEXw</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988280452822507856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">God Bless America ❤️ <a href="https://t.co/WLHDxt4vIa">pic.twitter.com/WLHDxt4vIa</a></p>&mdash; Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) <a href="https://twitter.com/MargoMartin47/status/1988297661963972639?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> at Arlington National Cemetery: &quot;On Veterans Day, we honor those who have worn the uniform... whose ranks have formed the mighty wall of flesh and blood, bravery and devotion, that has defended our freedom for 250 years.&quot; 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/i3WtIuJNve">pic.twitter.com/i3WtIuJNve</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988292245402120657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> honors our veterans at Arlington National Cemetery: &quot;With selfless commitment and unyielding conviction, they made themselves America&#39;s ramparts, and became the shield between our homeland and those who would do us harm. With everything they had, they did one thing above… <a href="https://t.co/EHDcx36eXF">pic.twitter.com/EHDcx36eXF</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988297193489350659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This Veterans Day, <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> discusses the work his administration has done to fight for our great veterans:<br><br>— Cut the backlog of VA benefit claims IN HALF<br>— Added more than 1 million extra service hours across VA centers<br>— Opened 20 new facilities in 13 states<br>— Brought back VA… <a href="https://t.co/BWvyk5X6pP">pic.twitter.com/BWvyk5X6pP</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988295939719586178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;Our heroes have lived through unthinkable nightmares so we could live the American Dream... and today, we know without any doubt in our hearts that after two and a half centuries, America stands tall because America’s veterans stood so strong.&quot; ❤️🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/7a6HP5LxUU">pic.twitter.com/7a6HP5LxUU</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988293964949319931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">WATCH IN FULL: <a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a> delivers remarks at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day <a href="https://t.co/PIv0gYfCYl">pic.twitter.com/PIv0gYfCYl</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988293133193327068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">GOD BLESS AMERICA — MY HOME SWEET HOME! ❤️🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/dN0Zl4rroX">pic.twitter.com/dN0Zl4rroX</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988298531158061466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">GOD BLESS OUR GREAT VETERANS! <a href="https://t.co/N71SlAOxsp">pic.twitter.com/N71SlAOxsp</a></p>&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1988298999083012286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>

🎥President Trump observes Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery

‘I think that they’re forgetting a group of folks that shouldn’t be forgotten,’ says former State Sen. Tom Brewer, combat vet

<i>By Zach Wendling | Nebraska Examiner</i>

LINCOLN — Nebraska was set to lead the way July 1 with a new statewide criminal justice diversion program for eligible veterans through evidence-based treatment and case plans. But lawmakers delayed the rollout for two years in the face of growing budget woes.

It’s not yet clear whether Nebraska lawmakers can meet that later timeline and find the roughly $4.7 million in annual funding the state court system says is needed to start by July 1, 2027.&nbsp;

Several current and former state lawmakers called the funding decision “disappointing” and “incredibly problematic.” Another former lawmaker said she wasn’t in a position to “second guess” a response to the&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/01/07/speaker-arch-nebraska-budget-without-a-doubt-biggest-issue-of-2025-session/">state’s fiscal situation</a>.

Former State Sen. Tom Brewer, the sponsor of the 2024 bill who represented north-central Nebraska, said in a May text that lawmakers had made a “conscious decision” to ignore veterans’ problems and wait to support those who have stumbled and need a second chance.

Brewer said the&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/pdf/reports/fiscal/2025budget.pdf" target="_blank">budget</a>&nbsp;had already passed by the time he learned about the proposal.&nbsp;

“I believe that veterans will come with a vengeance against those senators and the governor if they take a law that was debated and voted on and made into law and then ignore it for their convenience for the budget,” Brewer said in May.

Unlike the state’s&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskajudicial.gov/courts/problem-solving-courts/problem-solving-court-types/veterans-treatment-courts" target="_blank">four specific Veterans Treatment Courts</a>&nbsp;operating in the three most populous counties and in central Nebraska, the new veterans justice program would support all veterans, not just those who were honorably discharged. The Veterans Administration can’t reimburse the treatment costs for veterans who are dishonorably discharged, which increases state costs.

Two other lawmakers, both lawyers, joined Brewer this week in criticizing the spring decision as a continuation of not fully supporting veterans who have come home from serving.

“It’s unfortunate that we’re playing politics with our veterans,” former State Sen. Justin Wayne, the then-chair of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee who partnered with Brewer on the bill, said this week.

“We don’t uphold our end of the deal, and those folks are left holding the bag,” said State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln, another supporter of the law who works in the public defender’s office in Lancaster County.

This week, just before Veterans Day, Brewer added: “I think that they’re forgetting a group of folks that shouldn’t be forgotten.”

The law,&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_votes.php?KeyID=11007" target="_blank">passed 44-0</a>&nbsp;in April 2024, directed the Nebraska Judicial Branch to provide targeted&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_bill.php?DocumentID=49866" target="_blank">statewide support to eligible veterans</a>&nbsp;if a veteran’s military service-connected conditions contributed to their alleged criminal actions.

“The ones that are struggling are the ones that have seen some of the worst action, and sometimes, figuring out how to beat those ghosts that you’re dealing with, you need a little extra help,” Brewer said.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen identified the specialized diversion program as one of many “last in, first out” laws his budget proposal targeted for cuts or delayed implementation in January.&nbsp;

The recommendations temporarily ensnared or ended programs, including a prescription drug donation program costing about $500,000 annually, a step which was later reversed. The moves were part of&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/01/15/gov-pillen-proposes-his-answer-to-432-million-projected-budget-shortfall/">Pillen’s answer to a then-projected$432 million state budget deficit</a>&nbsp;through June 30, 2027.&nbsp;

The total budget hole lawmakers ultimately filled was much larger.&nbsp;In the case of the veterans justice program, Pillen’s recommendations argued the state court system could support veterans without additional taxpayer dollars.

“The Supreme Court is able to develop a process independently to address critical veteran justice needs,” Pillen’s&nbsp;<a href="https://das.nebraska.gov/budget/publications/docs/2025-2027/2025/ExecutiveBudgetinBrief2025-2027Biennium.pdf" target="_blank">budget recommendations</a>&nbsp;said in mid-January.

Because the veterans justice program didn’t start until July 2025, lawmakers would have needed to find the $9.4 million for this budget year.&nbsp;

The Appropriations Committee accepted Pillen’s recommendation, and the full Legislature accepted the change with little opposition in the first year after legislative term limits sent home Brewer, Wayne and another lead supporter, former State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of the Elkhorn area.

The trio joined a large class of lawmakers in 2017 and were among the most influential senators in recent years. Linehan chaired the Revenue Committee, and Brewer chaired the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.&nbsp;

Brewer, a 36-year military veteran with two Purple Hearts, served six combat tours in Afghanistan and two in Kyrgyzstan. He has since led&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/11/10/ukrainians-honor-nebraskans-for-support-during-russian-invasion/">nine volunteer missions to Ukraine</a>&nbsp;after Russia invaded the country in February 2022 and plans to return next month.

The decorated veteran said he thought the decision would have been harder and that it would have been different had his class of “natural supporters” still been there. He said he would have “obviously fought it tooth and nail.”&nbsp;

But Brewer also expected other military veterans in the Legislature to step up.

“Maybe they didn’t want me barking at them, so they didn’t bother to let me know what was going on with it, but Justin [Wayne] notified me afterwards, and that’s the first I knew about it,” Brewer said.

Wayne said that while $5 million a year is big to everyday Nebraskans, it isn’t for the state budget or for those who have served the country. He said every dollar invested in problem-solving courts today, including those specific to veterans, yields a return of $8 to $10.

“The government put them in an area that caused it, so we as a government should take care of it,” Wayne said. “It’s unfortunate that Nebraska continues to fall behind in that.”

Brewer said Wayne came to him with the idea for the diversion program in the 2024 session, after bill introductions in their final session, but the&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/02/23/former-defense-secretary-hagel-backs-nebraska-proposal-expanding-access-to-veterans-court-services/">two worked together with Linehan and other legislative leaders</a>&nbsp;to find an unusual and speedy path to making it law.

“We weren’t sure if we could get it pushed through or not, but everything clicked,” Brewer said.

Dungan said he has seen and defended veterans facing criminal charges connected to their service. He said he recently attended a Lancaster County Veterans Treatment Court graduation, which was “one of the more moving things I’ve ever seen.”

“I understand that budgets are tight right now, but, again, it comes down to prioritization,” Dungan said. “I think that we absolutely have to prioritize the health and the welfare of vets across this entire state.”

State Sen. Christy Armendariz of Omaha, Appropriations Committee vice chair, was among those who led the committee’s push to accept Pillen’s recommendation for the veterans program. She had told the Examiner during the 2025 session that her budget focuses were infrastructure, public safety and taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves, such as children and older adults.

In one executive session of the budget-writing committee in late March, she told her colleagues she felt the court hadn’t provided the Legislature a “fair number” and had inflated the estimated cost of a veterans justice program.

Armendariz was among those who supported the passage of the program the previous year, as did all other members of the Appropriations Committee at the time. An&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/108/PDF/FN/LB253_20240411-112000.pdf" target="_blank">April 2024 fiscal note</a>&nbsp;estimated the same&nbsp;$4.7 million annual&nbsp;cost that the Appropriations Committee and Pillen wrestled with this spring.

Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke and State Court Administrator Corey Steel told the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee that the court system could not proceed with implementing the new program without the new funding. The plan is to add specialized probation officers, for instance, to monitor eligible veterans.

“I think we’re statutorily obligated to do that work,” Funke told the committee in his&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/10/25/justice-jeffrey-funke-chosen-as-nebraskas-next-chief-justice-after-justice-heavican-retires/">first budget cycle leading the court system</a>. “We just don’t have the funding to do it.”

Steel told the Examiner in May that the fiscal estimate included roughly $3 million for staffing, $1 million for treatment costs and $500,000 for related information technology programming needs.

If the program had no state funding, it would have needed to go into effect July 1. But&nbsp;Steel told the Examiner in May, “The implementation would be very watered down and not implemented at the expectation that LB 253 was passed.”&nbsp;

In late May, lawmakers took the extra step of formally delaying the implementation of the diversion program in state law, through&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_bill.php?DocumentID=59006&amp;docnum=LB150&amp;leg=109" target="_blank">Legislative Bill 150</a>.&nbsp;

The Appropriations Committee almost advanced the delay without a separate public hearing on the proposal, but State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha urged the Judiciary Committee to hold one, partly because neither Pillen nor lawmakers had proposed the delay in the budget or in a separate bill.

With less than 24 hours’ notice, and with the budget having already passed, the Judiciary Committee hosted a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Transcripts/Judiciary/2025-05-22.pdf" target="_blank">short hearing the morning of May 22</a>. It lasted no longer than 15 minutes, said State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, Appropriations Committee chair..

“I do not want the Legislature to start a new program without a reasonable plan and proper funding,” Clements testified. He had sponsored the amendment delaying the program’s start.

State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha, vice chair of the Judiciary Committee, asked Clements why pushing the program out to 2027, to a new budget cycle for a different set of lawmakers, would be the “magic date.”

“Well, that’s part of the budget discussion. There wasn’t room for it in this year’s budget, and we’ll see how revenues and budgets are in the future,” Clements responded.

Since then, the state’s budget situation has worsened, with lawmakers projected to face another&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/10/31/nebraskas-projected-budget-deficit-grows-to-451-million-after-new-forecasts/">nearly half-a-billion-dollar deficit</a>&nbsp;heading into the 2026 session that ends in mid-April.

Pillen also&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/05/22/pillen-vetoes-14-5-million-from-nebraskas-2025-27-budget-83-of-it-from-supreme-court/">tried to trim the court system’s</a>&nbsp;budget in late May, attempting to veto $12 million that court leaders said could have&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Veto-Override-Letter-052025.pdf">shuttered some critical court services</a>, including a separate Veterans Treatment Court in Sarpy County. The Legislature deemed the&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/05/22/constitution-was-not-followed-legislature-questions-line-item-vetoes-to-nebraska-budget-bills/">vetoes had not been properly submitted</a>, prematurely ending the fight and preserving the funds.

Clements told the Examiner in May that a “problem” with the veterans justice program was that any veteran would be able to “claim he needs the veterans justice treatment” in any district or county court. He said judges and staff were not trained for that, suggesting a regional hub model as a possible alternative.

“I think the body will be favorable to that, so there’s some time to adjust the program down to what’s workable,” Clements said in a phone call.

At Clements’ hearing on the delay, DeBoer said she might consider seeking funding for the veterans program in 2026. She confirmed Monday night that she is still considering doing so in what would be her and Clements’ final year.&nbsp;

Pillen told the Examiner in a post-session interview that his office continued to support veterans statewide, including recognizing those who served in Vietnam, Korea and World War II.

“I think that there’s way more to supporting our veterans than just talking about more money,” Pillen said June 3, a day after the 2025 session ended.

Funke, in a wide-ranging interview this month about the judicial branch, said the courts continue to work to design the new veterans justice diversion program, which would supplement the existing state&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskajudicial.gov/sites/default/files/Programs/psc/Nebraska_Veterans_Treatment_Court_Best_Practice_Standards.pdf" target="_blank">Veterans Treatment Courts</a>. Judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and more support those intensive programs designed to reduce recidivism and allow reentry to society.

“Once they say, ‘Yep, go forward, here’s the funding,’ we’re ready to go,” Funke said last week of the Legislature.