Political Guyentist

1usUpdatecontestedImmigration enforcement

Supreme Court lets states resume checking voter rolls against Trump's expanded federal citizenship database while the case is appealed

Federal law bars systematic voter-roll purges within 90 days of a federal election, and Nov. 3 is less than 40 days away.

- 2025 — The Trump administration rebuilt SAVE, a Homeland Security citizenship check, adding Social Security data and bulk uploads of whole voter rolls, and states began running their rolls through it. - June 22 — U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked the rebuilt system, finding the administration had knowingly trampled citizens' privacy rights. - Sept. 4 — A D.C. Circuit panel refused 2-1 to pause her ruling during the appeal. - Sept. 8 — Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court for an emergency stay, calling the order "indefensible."

ContextTexas ran more than 18 million registrations through SAVE: 2,724 were flagged as possible noncitizens, 117 were referred for prosecution and three people were charged, and in Travis County at least 10% of nearly 100 flagged voters turned out to be citizens. North Carolina's post-2016 audit found 41 noncitizen votes among nearly 4.8 million ballots. Nationally, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned since the revamp, so Texas alone accounts for about a quarter. Sauer told the Court the system had verified more than 65 million voters across 26 states.

PBS NEWSHOUR11 sources

2uscontested

Trump cancels $810 million in Congress-approved spending 5 days before it expires, too late for a congressional vote

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (Sen-R Maine) calls it unlawful and says she got no warning; GAO has said the maneuver is illegal.

What the $567 million refugee cut takes, and what nobody knows: It comes from $6.3 billion Congress passed in fiscal 2024, spendable only through Sept. 30, 2026. The request does not say how much of it was already promised to grantees. The refugee office was still posting new grant offers on Aug. 4 and Aug. 5, 2026.

ContextImpoundment (a president holding back money Congress approved) is limited by a 1974 law, the Impoundment Control Act. Under it, a president can ask Congress to cancel money it already approved, and lawmakers get 45 days to vote on the request. This request was filed Friday, Sept. 25, with five days left before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, so the money lapses before that window closes, with or without a vote. The Government Accountability Office (Congress's nonpartisan auditor) has concluded the maneuver is illegal. Trump used the same move a year earlier to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid. Before that, the last president to do it was Jimmy Carter, in 1977. The Supreme Court let that one go ahead 6-3 on Sept. 26, 2025, in an emergency order resting on the president's foreign-affairs power. It said the order "should not be read as a final determination on the merits," so no court has ruled the maneuver legal, and GAO's finding has not stopped it.

TIME12 sources

3usUpdatecontestedIran war

Trump rejects Iran's offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days in exchange for ending the U.S. blockade

The Wall Street Journal reports Trump told staff a renewed bombing campaign is probable after the November elections; asked directly, he did not answer.

- Feb. 28 — U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran started the war. - June — The two sides signed a memorandum in Islamabad; it fell apart by July after Iran hit ships in the strait and the U.S. struck back. - Sept. 22 — Qatari mediators carried messages between U.S. and Iranian negotiators, the first talks since June. - Sept. 23 — Trump addressed the UN General Assembly, pitching UN budget cuts as the war neared seven months. - Sept. 24 — Iran's president offered talks but rejected nuclear limits and demanded an end to the U.S. naval blockade.

ContextThe war's only prior deal, June's Islamabad memorandum, also promised to free Iran's frozen money, but none was released and it collapsed by July. Most of Iran's frozen money abroad is oil payments held under sanctions since 2018. An NBC News poll finds 31% approve of Trump's handling of the war and 69% disapprove.

THE NEW YORKER11 sources

4us

Trump's approval falls to a Reuters/Ipsos low of 32% as Republican approval drops 9 points in a week

Republicans' approval of his handling of the cost of living is down 26 points since January, to 44%, five weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms.

The drop is feeding into the House races:

ContextThe drop is feeding into the House races: * Quinnipiac has Democrats ahead 49% to 38% on which party should control the House, up from 48% to 41% in July. * In an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, 45% said their congressional vote is mostly against Trump and 24% mostly for him. * Marist voters trust Democrats over Republicans on the economy, 42% to 34%, and on gas prices, 40% to 27%.

THE HILL2 sources

5not newslongform

CDC has lost close to 30% of its workforce in a year, with entire teams effectively shut down, New York Times reports

Staff describe the agency as 'zombified,' struggling to carry out its scientific mission after heavy turnover in its top leadership.

Which CDC teams the 2025 layoffs emptied or halted: April 2025 layoffs: the Division of Violence Prevention, which studies gun deaths and injuries, lost about three-quarters of its staff, per its retired director, James Mercy; the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention lost about a third Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, the main federal survey on maternal health: suspended National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): HHS moved to cut about 90% of staff, then revoked the remaining layoff notices in January 2026

ContextFederal data charted by Michigan State University researchers show the CDC fell from 12,763 employees in January 2025 to 9,270 in April 2026. ABC News reports that more than 200 projects Congress funded for fiscal 2026 (the federal budget year that runs Oct. 1, 2025, to Sept. 30, 2026) have no staff to run them. One, per ABC, is the $246 million Office on Smoking and Health. The agency also went about a year without a permanent director. The Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz 51-44 on Aug. 5, 2026, making her the first permanent CDC head since that gap began.

THE NEW YORK TIMES2 sources

6not newslongformUpdate

Pennsylvania reports 55 more measles cases, bringing its outbreak to 890 with 4 deaths

173 people have been hospitalized, and Lancaster County alone has 359 of the cases.

On Thursday, Sept. 24, the CDC's 2026 measles tracker listed its first death of the year. Pennsylvania's own count already stood at four measles-associated deaths, its first in about 35 years.

ContextLancaster County has 359 of the state's 890 cases, the most of any county. Its kindergarten MMR coverage fell to 87.6% in 2025-26 from 95.5% in 2017. The national kindergarten rate is 92.4%. The CDC counted 3,659 U.S. cases as of Thursday, Sept. 24; it counted 2,289 in all of 2025. Pennsylvania's health department says measles usually kills one to three of every 1,000 patients. This outbreak, which began in late April, has four deaths in 890 cases.

THE GUARDIAN1 source