The Gov Hub Newsletter: June 30, 2025

Vote-a-rama and loads of political drama

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Gov Hub
June 30, 2025

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GOOD NEWS BEARS

Positive political wins [yes, those do exist]

NC GOV. STEIN SIGNS HURRICANE HELENE RELIEF BILL, PART 2: The ‘part two’ of the Disaster Recovery Act was signed into law by North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein [D], providing $575M in relief funds to assist those still on the long road to recovery post-Hurricane Helene. Amongst the line items are $25M for rebuilding farm infrastructure, $75M for rebuilding privately-owned roads and bridges, and $64.3M to rebuild and repair damaged schools. The legislation also extends the State of Emergency through October 1, 2025 to enable expedited recovery processes to continue.

PA GOV. SHAPIRO SIGNS BILL TO ENHANCE CONSUMER PROTECTIONS ON VIRTUAL CURRENCIES: A GOP bill passed the state Senate unanimously and the state House 201-2, landing on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's desk for signature, which the bill received on Friday. The ‘about as bipartisan as it gets bill,’ adds virtual currency [ex: bitcoin] to the regulatory docket of the Money Transmitter Act. That change will now require companies that manage the transfer of a virtual currency to meet licensure requirements, meaning more oversight on what these bitcoin bros are up to. 

$1.3M IN MANUFACTURING GRANTS AWARDED BY ILLINOIS GOV. PRITZKER: As part of the Made in Illinois Grant Program, Gov. JB Pritzker [D] has awarded 29 small and mid-size manufacturers across the state with grant funds to help grow their businesses. The total funding provided is $1.3M and is centered around fostering and supporting a competitive manufacturing industry in Illinois. This particular grant program is administered by the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center using funding from the Illinois Department of Commerce, and provides matching grants up to $50K.

BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T

Bills, bills, bills

EDITOR’S NOTE: Normally this section highlights a range of bills, but today it’s all about Trump’s bill of bullsh*t that’s being pushed through the Senate ATM. The sitch is evolving quickly, so please note that items below may shift in a matter of minutes, hours, etc. If the bill does pass in the Senate, it will go back to the House.

  • Senator Slotkin [D-MI] shared key updates on what’s happening with the bill as of this morning as she headed to the Senate floor: 1. The full bill text isn’t even out, so no one can even read the full text of the bill 2. The bill will further crush the middle class by knocking 17 million people off their health insurance 3. The bill will demolish solar and wind energy making energy costs for everyone soar.

  • Senator Schiff [D-CA] shared the quick skinny on what the big bill will do. The synopsis: increase the deficit and the cost of living across the country.

  • Following wknd activity on the bill, which included a procedural vote, Dems requiring Senate clerks to read all 940 pages of the bill as it was at that point, and hours of debate, the Senate is now in a game show of their own making - vote-a-rama, where Senators can introduce as many amendments as they please [amendments are required to get 50 votes in order to be added to the bill].

  • Congressman Michael McCaul [R-TX] popped onto the Sunday Show circuit, sharing on Face The Nation that he believes the GOP “base back home” will vote members of the House out if they don’t vote for Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” The response? A question about whether GOP support is about their own job security or policy that impacts the people they represent.

  • Senator Lisa Murkowski [R-AK] who has been playing both sides of the fiddle recently is more likely to be a ‘yes’ on the bill, after she got waivers for her state with regard to what would be new SNAP [food stamps] work requirements. 

  • The Congressional Budget Office [CBO] gave their prognosis on the potential economic impact of the bill if passed into law – it would increase the deficit by $3.3 trillion between 2025 and 2034, which is a whole ONE TRILLION more than even the House’s package.

  • Senator Thom Tillis [R-NC] got into a public war of words with Trump over voting no on a procedural vote related to the bill. The tl;dr in no particular order: Trump threatened to bring a primary challenger his way, followed by Tillis saying he was retiring and not seeking re-election, which then was further followed by Tillis [for now] started telling the real real on the Senate floor [everyone can do that math]. The electoral math is a possible opening for Dems to snatch that seat in ‘26, but one that could become challenging quickly should Lara Trump, a native North Carolinian, get into the race – TBD.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

Stories that are guaranteed to make it to the group chat

  • A DOGE staffer known as “Big Balls” – a 19-year old teenager – has decided to move over to a new role at the Social Security Admin as a “special government employee.”

  • The one-month countdown has begun for when the Trump Admin will cut off satellite data for hurricane forecasters. Per CNN, “NOAA has publicly maintained there are many other sources of data on hurricanes that will allow for accurate forecasts this season.” 

  • SCOTUS took a major swing at the power of federal judges with a decision they released late last week. The ruling essentially cockblocked individual federal judges from being able to issue nationwide injunctions on policies being implemented – including via executive order, which is where this case originates. The conservative majority based their argument on their view that the use of nationwide injunctions exceeds the “equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts.” Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayer had this to say in her dissent, and ACLU has this to say on how this could impact birthright citizenship.

  • ProPublica found something shadier about Kristi Noem than her killing her own dog – back in 2023 when she was the Gov. of South Dakota, she was redefining the term “side hustle.” Specifically, per their investigation, they found that she was supplementing her income by taking a share of the money she had raised for a nonprofit on the DL.

  • Coming to SCOTUS this fall will be oral arguments around a 2001 decision that limited the amount of money that political parties could spend on advertising in coordination with a federal candidate. The case originates from none-other than current VP J.D. Vance, under the guise that the limit pushes donations to SuperPACs and forces political parties to operate as “shadow parties.” 

CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Politics meets social media

  • Gov. Gretchen Whitmer [D] came to PLAY in this interview, sharing that her favorite gay bar in Michigan back in the day was Spiral, while also sharing love for Gigi’s in Detroit. 

  • There’s another Swiftie in Congress and it’s Congresswoman Sarah McBride [D-DE], who revealed her fave musician, as well as her fave beach in Delaware when she joined Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan [D-VA] on Moments with McClellan.

  • A friendly rivalry as old as dinosaurs between NY and VT on which state has the better maple syrup has continued, with NY Gov. Kathy Hochul [D] throwing out these fighting words about NY’s being better.

  • Speaking of rivalries, but one on the less than friendly spectrum, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker [D], who just announced that he’s running for a 3rd term, read through mean Tweets from Trump and clap-backed at them as well.

  • As revealed on an eppy of the Corporate Gossip Podcast and via walk down memory lane, Jake Tapper apparently went on one date with Monica Lewinsky back in the day, and then made it his entire personality during the scandal that upended her career [and American politics at the time].

  • Biden went to MN to pay his respects to state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, who were murdered this month. He was later joined by former VP Kamala Harris. Missing from the funeral events: the current prez and his VP. 

  • In Michigan, a GOP state senator giving 40-year old virgin vibes, tried to gather support for calling Trump “daddy” after Trump was referred to as such at NATO. His failure to urban dictionary the term played right into the hand of Speaker Jeremy Allen Moss, who responded with “you don’t want to know what daddy means in my community.”

EXTREMISM

…that’s the tweet [or the x]

  • In a simple but scary case of cause and effect – as a result of ICE agents failing to wear uniforms or identifying clothing, and tbh, just full on kidnapping people off the streets, there has been an increase in people posing as federal law enforcement officers with possible to intent to harm, some of which have been arrested for doing so. 

  • FL Gov. Ron DeSantis used his “emergency powers” to seize an airstrip in the environmentally vulnerable Everglades to build a detainment and deportation facility that’s being called “Alligator Alcatraz.” The $450M/year to operate facility was provided that moniker because it’s surrounded by essentially a moat of alligators, something that DeSantis joked about in a Fox interview, where he lol’d at people being unable to escape because of the alligator fate they would meet if they tried… Trump plans to visit the DHS-approved facility that has yet to prove how they would provide humane conditions, on opening day this week.

  • An insane amount of ICE agents in tactical gear blew off the door of a home in LA, where a young mom and her children were – all citizens mind you – looking for her boyfriend who had been told he could leave a scene a car accident previously – something that to ICE turned into “lets dress up for war and traumatize children and sprinkle in some lies too.”

  • In the same vein, ICE agents violently tackled and arrested a protester in LA – a U.S. citizen  – further highlighting ICE’s brutal use of force against this country’s own citizens. 

  • The death of a Canadian national – Johnny Noviello – is under investigation after he died in ICE custody while awaiting deportation. Noviello is the 10th person reported to have died in custody in the fiscal year 2025, as shared by USA Today.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

In the club, we’re all sick

  • Despite the MAHA influencers parroting vaccine conspiracy theories including their cult leader, RFK Jr., a new poll, as shared by The 19th, shows that 72% of parents believe that parents should be required to vaccinate their children against preventable diseases in order to attend school. The same poll found that 91% of American adults believe in the safety of vaccines for children.

  • In Pennsylvania, a bill that would require insurance companies operating in the state to cover all FDA-approved birth control at zero cost to the patient – the Contraceptive Access for All Act – passed the state House and is now being considered in the state Senate.

  • America’s biggest party poopers, SCOTUS ruled late last week that states are allowed to bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood. For context, some states already block Medicaid payments from going to Planned Parenthood for abortion services, but allow for payments to be used for Planned Parenthood’s many other services like cancer screenings. However, this ruling is viewed as a win for anti-abortion activists and another major blow to women’s healthcare access.

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

That money though

  • Deadlines for tariff pauses are on the very near horizon, including with longtime ally, Japan. When asked about how he’s going to approach the sitch, Trump said, “he’s going to send a letter to Mr. Japan.”

  • New numbies are out from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, with the latest estimate on how much mass deportations are going to cost the state of California’s economy – an economy that’s larger than that of Japan’s btw. The estimate is that deportations will cost CA’s economy $275 billion, like billion with a B, dollars.

  • Trump’s tariffs are starting to hit people's “say yes to the dress” moment hard, with the majority of wedding dresses being made overseas and thus being subject to Trump’s tariffs…. Because wedding dresses weren’t expensive enough as is…

  • Should Trump’s bill pass, energy costs per household are expected to rise significantly by 2035, with these estimates per state, showing that those that will be hit hardest cost-wise all live in red states – Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and South Carolina.

THE ACTION ITEMS

Get ‘em done from your phone

ACTION 1 - BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

The Ask: Tell Congress to protect the 14th Amendment.

The Background: It’s literally in the Constitution, but somehow that’s not stopping the Trump Administration from going after birthright citizenship. Tell the Admin’s besties and even its foes too, hands of the Constitution.

ACTION 2 - MEDICAID

The Ask: Tell your Senators to vote no on Trump’s big bullsh*t bill.

The Background: The bill is set to gut Medicaid and kick millions of people off the health coverage they depend on to live. It’s bad for the health of the country’s people and the economy.

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

  • USA Today: Late-night noise latest tactic used in LA immigration protests

  • AP: A Georgia town that solidly backed Trump could fall victim to his tax bill’s green energy cuts

  • Axios: Millions of U.S. kids attend schools in “urban heat zones”

  • Politico: Inside the fallout at Paul, Weiss, after the firm’s deal with Trump

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