Live updates: Trump taps Pulte for acting DNI job; Rubio, Blanche face Senate panels
Center
President Trump on Tuesday morning announced he would appoint Bill Pulte to replace outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Pulte moves from his role as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will testify before the House on Tuesday morning…
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will testify before a House Appropriations Committee panel on Tuesday afternoon on oversight of the Justice Department. The hearing comes as the Trump administration has faced heavy scrutiny over its $1.776 billion compensation fund, which would help settle claims between those who say the government wrongfully prosecuted them. The “anti-weaponization”…
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin is testifying in front of a Senate appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday about his department’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year. The Department of Homeland Security is requesting $118.4 billion in overall funding for fiscal 2027, starting Oct. 1, as proposed by the White House. Nearly $23 billion of […]
Dr. Mehmet Oz sidestepped questions on Tuesday about President Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte, the homebuilder and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to serve as acting head of the nation’s intelligence services, saying he trusted the president’s judgement. Oz, who serves as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, received multiple…
The number of young children without health insurance in the US rose sharply between 2022 and 2024 and is set to continue surging as the Trump administration implements work reporting requirements and other changes expected to kick millions—adults and kids—off Medicaid.A report published Monday by the Center for Children and Families (CCF) at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy found that nearly 220,000 additional children under the age of six were uninsured in 2024, a 23% increase from 2022. During that period, the total share of young children without health insurance rose to 5.3%—the highest rate in almost a decade.The new report argues the rising uninsured rate among young children is “at least in part” attributable to the unwinding of pandemic-era protections that allowed people to remain on Medicaid without undergoing routine eligibility checks. The analysis found that Texas, Florida, and Georgia accounted for more than half of the increase in young children without insurance between 2022 and 2024.Elisabeth Wright Burak and Aubrianna Osorio, researchers at CCF, wrote that “these data provide a major warning sign for what’s to come, as states grapple with the onslaught of Medicaid cuts from [the 2025 Republican budget law] and new coverage restrictions.”“One in 4 children in the US have at least one parent who was born abroad,” the researchers wrote. “For these children, the vast majority of whom are citizens, harsh anti-immigration policies and rhetoric are already leading to missed doctor appointments, on top of the ongoing fear, uncertainty, and overall stress that can compromise healthy development of young children. Fears of safety and separation have made more parents afraid to enroll their eligible, citizen children in programs like Medicaid and [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program], exposing children and families to additional financial risk and food insecurity.”“Many more parents of young children enrolled in Medicaid themselves will be at higher risk of losing coverage as work reporting requirements and added red tape come along in 2027,” they added. “We know as parents lose coverage, their children are also at grave risk of losing access to health care through the ‘unwelcome mat’ effect.”CCF’s report came as the Trump administration rolled out a new rule that will dictate how states implement Medicaid work reporting requirements included in the 2025 Republican budget law, which contains around $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade.Advocates warned the rule will result in millions of people, including many children, losing coverage by creating onerous bureaucratic barriers to obtaining and keeping Medicaid coverage. CCF estimated last week that, as of April 2026, roughly 2 million fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program compared to January 2025, the start of President Donald Trump’s second White House term.“This is terrible news because when child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP goes down, the child uninsured rate goes up,” wrote Joan Alker, CCF’s executive director. “And the child uninsured rate was already going up when President Trump took office, yet we have heard nothing about this from them. Federal officials should be scrambling to figure out the root cause of this coverage loss for children as income eligibility levels did not change and the unemployment rate has been inching upward since President Trump took office.”
President Trump has named Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as the acting director of national intelligence after Tulsi Gabbard resigned from the position. NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez reports on the appointment and Pulte's past work in the administration.
Democratic lawmakers are airing their frustration Tuesday, after President Trump appointed Bill Pulte to serve as acting head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Trump named Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency )FHFA), to replace Tulsi Gabbard after she resigned from the office last month. “Bill Pulte is…
