THE SITUATION

The State Department quietly created an Office of Remigration -- a term that originated with European far-right movements and refers to the forced mass removal of immigrants. Wired reported the office processes deportation-related payments worth tens of millions of dollars with no real monitoring. A member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus said on the record: 'They're not even trying to hide their intentions anymore.' Separately, more than 17,500 people have been forcibly transferred to third countries they have no ties to under similar agreements -- some shackled, some held in conditions Amnesty International says may amount to torture. A federal judge ruled the underlying practice illegal; the Supreme Court allowed it to continue during appeal.

Congress is home until July 13th — representatives reachable and visible in their districts rather than insulated in Washington. On July 4th, PHIERS launched its first national district membership drive, timed to the same principle that founded the country 250 years ago: governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The drive isn't built around a party or a single issue — it's built to help every congressional district identify its own priorities, organize around them, and put its representative on the record, publicly.

Speaking Friday at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson told Republican donors and allies what's actually at stake in the midterms, in his own words: 'If we were to lose the midterms... these Democrats... will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body and they will go after the president's family, the cabinet, his donors and friends -- half of you in this room will be targeted. I run the protection program. I'll take care of you.' The remarks were captured on video and confirmed by multiple outlets, including C-SPAN footage.

Leon Black, former CEO of Apollo Global Management, appeared voluntarily before the House Oversight Committee's Epstein investigation Friday -- its 16th closed-door interview in a bipartisan probe that has also included former Attorney General Pam Bondi, former President Bill Clinton, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Black opened by saying he 'never abused a woman' and was never blackmailed by Epstein, but then refused to answer specific questions about non-disclosure agreements tied to women in Epstein's circle, citing his lawyer's advice. Republican Chairman James Comer issued two subpoenas on the spot -- one compelling a sworn deposition on July 16, one compelling production of the NDAs themselves -- and Black walked out about an hour into the interview.

New York City's Rent Guidelines Board voted 7-1 to freeze rent for roughly one million rent-stabilized apartments -- about 40% of the city's rental housing -- for new one- and two-year leases starting October 1. The board's nine members are appointed by the mayor; Mayor Zohran Mamdani named six of them and made the freeze a central campaign promise. Tenant organizers who had pushed for the freeze for years packed the public hearing.

In February, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to force increased domestic production of glyphosate -- Bayer is the only US producer -- one day after Bayer proposed a $7 billion settlement over cancer lawsuits, and while the administration was separately backing Bayer's Supreme Court case to block those same lawsuits. On June 25, the Court ruled 7-2 in Monsanto v. Durnell that federal pesticide law preempts state failure-to-warn claims. The WHO's cancer research arm classifies glyphosate as a probable carcinogen; the EPA disagrees, despite a 2000 safety study underlying its position having been formally retracted this year.

The Supreme Court issued two 6-3 immigration rulings the same day. Mullin v. Al Otro Lado clears the way for 'metering' -- physically blocking asylum seekers at the border before they can file a claim. Mullin v. Doe shields the administration's end of Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians from meaningful judicial review. Justice Sotomayor's dissent warned the ruling lets the administration 'circumvent' the law designed to ensure every asylum case gets individually assessed.

The White House asked Congress for $87.6 billion in emergency funding, the same day the THAAD restock contract was announced. $67.1 billion goes to the Pentagon -- including $21 billion specifically to replenish munitions burned through in the Iran conflict. The rest is bundled with $11.1 billion in farm aid, $1.4 billion for Ebola response in Africa, and infrastructure money for Penn Station and DC restoration -- items with real public support, attached to a war request that doesn't have it.

The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin a seven-year, up-to-$35 billion contract to quadruple THAAD interceptor production, from 96 to 400 missiles a year, after the Iran conflict burned through as much as 80% of the US stockpile. Each interceptor costs roughly $15.5 million. Replacing just the missiles used in this one conflict costs an estimated $4.5 billion, and even at the new, quadrupled production rate, analysts say it will take three to eight years to fully rebuild the stockpile.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act -- the most significant housing legislation in decades -- passed the Senate 85-5 and the House 358-32. Hours before the scheduled signing, Trump canceled it on Truth Social, declaring he wouldn't sign until Congress passed the unrelated SAVE America Act, a separate voter ID bill that lacks the votes to clear the Senate filibuster. Trump tied his refusal directly to Mamdani-backed candidates winning their primaries the same day.

On Tuesday, June 23, the Senate voted 50-48 to direct Trump to remove forces from the Iran conflict -- a rare bipartisan rebuke. It didn't last. Wednesday, Trump confronted Senate Republicans at a closed-door lunch that turned into a shouting match -- Cassidy admitted losing his temper, Trump called him a 'lunatic.' Cassidy then received a private White House briefing. That same night, the Senate voted 47-50-1 to block a nearly identical resolution from advancing. Trump posted: 'The Senate just changed its vote on Iran from 50-48 against, to 50-47 for... This vote puts Iran on notice!'

Chemours settled with the EPA and DOJ for $450 million over a decade of illegal 'forever chemical' discharges into the Ohio, Cape Fear, and Delaware Rivers. The deal includes $22.5 million in civil penalties and $90 million over 15 years for mitigation. What it doesn't include: compensation for individuals already harmed, a medical monitoring fund, or river restoration. Chemours keeps operating and keeps making PFAS.

On June 17, Trump and Iran's president signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war, with a 60-day roadmap toward a final deal. The Strait of Hormuz reopened and shipping resumed. Four days later, Trump threatened on national television to "take over the Strait" and "collect tolls" if Iran didn't make a deal — nearly derailing the talks he'd just signed onto. He has separately called the memorandum "just an option," saying "I can do whatever I want after that option." Meanwhile, the Senate passed a war powers resolution for the first time in its history this week, 50-48, directing Trump to remove forces from hostilities absent a formal declaration of war. Three Democrats whose votes could have swung the outcome have taken a combined $1.7 million from AIPAC. Nine senior Democratic leaders — despite collectively taking nearly $9 million from AIPAC — broke from the lobby's position and criticized the strikes anyway, calling for the War Powers Act to be invoked. Trump called the Senate's vote "poorly timed and meaningless" and accused the chamber of "aid and comfort to the Enemy."

Damon Landor, a Rastafarian serving the final weeks of a Louisiana prison sentence, carried a copy of a federal appeals court ruling protecting his right to keep his dreadlocks. A guard threw the ruling in the trash. Officials handcuffed Landor to a chair and shaved his head anyway. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that he cannot sue the officials for damages -- not because his rights weren't violated, but because the law doesn't let individuals sue government employees personally for money.

The Department of Justice moved to intervene against Evanston, Illinois's reparations program -- the first in the nation -- which pays $25,000 to Black residents (or their descendants) who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969, when the city's own zoning and lending policies blocked Black homeownership. The city has paid out over $5 million so far. The DOJ's Civil Rights Division argues the eligibility criteria itself is illegal race discrimination, joining a private lawsuit filed on behalf of six non-Black plaintiffs, none of whom currently live in Evanston.

USDA confirmed New World screwworm in Texas cattle on June 3, 2026 — the first domestic detection since the parasite was eradicated decades ago. Parasitologists warn it likely signals reestablishment, not an isolated case, with potentially hundreds to thousands of flies already present. Canada immediately restricted livestock imports from affected areas.

The pest spreads through living tissue of warm-blooded animals and can be fatal without treatment. USDA says the food supply is safe — but the livestock industry, already strained, faces a new threat with no quick fix. Ramping sterile-fly production to full capacity could take 18 months to two years.

Gregory Bovino, who led Trump's mass deportation operations before being fired after agents under his command fatally shot two American citizens, appeared as a VIP guest at the 2026 Remigration Summit in Portugal -- organized by Martin Sellner, an Austrian former neo-Nazi. Bovino cited Nazi general Erwin Rommel as an inspiration and declared to a standing ovation that the US had already 'proof tested' remigration with Trump's election. Separately, a quietly created Office of Remigration inside the State Department processes deportation-related payments with little public oversight.

In July 2025, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home early for the August recess to avoid Republicans being forced to vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. The House floor was paralyzed for days, and they left with tight deadlines on major legislation when they returned in September. A bipartisan resolution co-sponsored by nine Democrats and eleven Republicans would have forced the complete release of the government's Epstein files — Johnson blocked the vote entirely. Your rep took a five-week vacation rather than cast a vote. Not on a hard issue — on whether to release information the president himself promised to release. Bipartisan agreement wasn't enough.

In July 2025, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home early for the August recess to avoid Republicans being forced to vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. The House floor was paralyzed for days, and they left with tight deadlines on major legislation when they returned in September. A bipartisan resolution co-sponsored by nine Democrats and eleven Republicans would have forced the complete release of the government's Epstein files — Johnson blocked the vote entirely.

Your rep took a five‑week vacation rather than cast a vote. Not on a hard issue — on whether to release information the president himself promised to release. Bipartisan agreement wasn't enough. The Speaker simply closed the building.

The DOJ's Public Integrity Section — created after Watergate specifically to investigate and prosecute corrupt politicians — had around 40 full‑time attorneys when Trump returned to office in January 2025. It has since dropped to just two. The section was handling 175–200 open corruption cases when Trump returned to office. That number has plummeted to around 20. Simultaneously, at least 15 former elected officials charged with or convicted of corruption offenses have been pardoned by Trump since he returned to office.

The one federal unit built to hold elected officials accountable for crimes has been reduced from 40 prosecutors to 2. Corruption cases against politicians are being dropped or handed off and quietly buried. The people who were supposed to be prosecuted are being pardoned instead.

In late February 2026, the United States and Israel launched coordinated military strikes against Iran without a single Congressional vote authorizing the use of force. The strikes targeted nuclear facilities and military installations, escalating a conflict that has already drawn in regional allies and pushed the global economy toward recession. Congress was not consulted, and the administration cited an expansive interpretation of the 2001 AUMF — a law written to authorize the war in Afghanistan.

For the third time in a generation, American soldiers were sent into combat without a declaration of war, without a public debate, and without the consent of the people they are supposed to represent. The president's lawyers found a loophole. Congress did nothing to close it.

$600 per year covers telehealth for 234 million Americans. No new legislation required. No tax increase. No deficit spending. Collective buying power — the same leverage corporations use against us, turned around. Lower drug prices. Living-wage jobs. A safety net that actually holds. Funded by savings we create together — not by waiting for Congress to act.

Corporate landlords are buying up neighborhoods. Fair housing enforcement is being gutted under the cover of "eliminating DEI." Wages haven't kept pace with rent, food, or medicine in a decade. These are not separate problems. They are one problem: the needs of the few being put ahead of the survival of the many. The same communities losing voting power are the same communities losing housing access. That's not coincidence. That's strategy.

42 Democrats joined House Republicans to expand warrantless surveillance powers — handing the Trump administration sweeping spy authority that has already been used against Black Lives Matter protesters, journalists, and members of Congress. ICE has hired private security accused of torture to track undocumented children. The FEC has been deliberately left understaffed so campaign finance laws can't be enforced. Press freedom is under executive threat. The tools being used against Black and immigrant communities today will be used against everyone else tomorrow.

Privatizing the Post Office hits rural, Black, elderly, and low-income communities hardest — cutting access to medicine, ballots, and economic lifelines. Data centers are being placed in low-income communities with massive environmental cost and zero community benefit. Public goods exist to serve people. Not to extract from them. Not to be sold to the highest bidder while the communities that need them most get nothing.

Trump has stated publicly that he doesn't care if we survive his policies. Conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and the corporate capture of government are not governing — they are looting. The FEC is understaffed on purpose. The courts have been packed. The Voting Rights Act is gone. Fascism always lands hardest on Black, immigrant, disabled, and poor communities first. It always has. Name it. Fight it. Don't normalize it.

Senate Republicans have now blocked an Iran War Powers resolution six times — preventing Congress from reining in military strikes being conducted without a single Congressional vote authorizing them. The Pentagon has struck nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and Pacific, claiming without evidence they were all carrying drugs. Trillions spent on foreign wars. Zero spent on the communities those soldiers came from. This is not idealism — ending wars is the economic prerequisite for everything else on this list.

The White House announced a major TrumpRx expansion with Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs, Amazon Pharmacy, and GoodRx — adding 600 generic medications at transparent cash prices. Cuban, who endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, stood beside Trump at the White House because the goal of lowering drug prices transcends politics.

Analysts note the model still doesn't reach Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, or uninsured populations fully. At least 350 branded medications saw price increases at the start of 2026 even as the administration struck deals with individual manufacturers.

Senate Republicans have now blocked an Iran War Powers resolution six times — preventing Congress from reining in military strikes being conducted without a single Congressional vote authorizing them. The Pentagon has struck nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and Pacific, claiming without evidence they were all carrying drugs.

Trillions spent on foreign wars. Zero spent on the communities those soldiers came from. This is not idealism — ending wars is the economic prerequisite for everything else on this list.

$600 per year covers telehealth for 234 million Americans. No new legislation required. No tax increase. No deficit spending. Collective buying power — the same leverage corporations use against us, turned around.

Lower drug prices. Living-wage jobs. A safety net that actually holds. Funded by savings we create together — not by waiting for Congress to act.

Corporate landlords are buying up neighborhoods. Fair housing enforcement is being gutted under the cover of "eliminating DEI." Wages haven't kept pace with rent, food, or medicine in a decade.

These are not separate problems. They are one problem: the needs of the few being put ahead of the survival of the many. The same communities losing voting power are the same communities losing housing access. That's not coincidence. That's strategy.

42 Democrats joined House Republicans to expand warrantless surveillance powers — handing the Trump administration sweeping spy authority that has already been used against Black Lives Matter protesters, journalists, and members of Congress.

ICE has hired private security accused of torture to track undocumented children. The FEC has been deliberately left understaffed so campaign finance laws can't be enforced. Press freedom is under executive threat. The tools being used against Black and immigrant communities today will be used against everyone else tomorrow.

Privatizing the Post Office hits rural, Black, elderly, and low-income communities hardest — cutting access to medicine, ballots, and economic lifelines. Data centers are being placed in low-income communities with massive environmental cost and zero community benefit.

Public goods exist to serve people. Not to extract from them. Not to be sold to the highest bidder while the communities that need them most get nothing.

Trump has stated publicly that he doesn't care if we survive his policies. Conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and the corporate capture of government are not governing — they are looting. The FEC is understaffed on purpose. The courts have been packed. The Voting Rights Act is gone.

Fascism always lands hardest on Black, immigrant, disabled, and poor communities first. It always has. Name it. Fight it. Don't normalize it. And don't wait for someone else to stop it.

Senator John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote against the War Powers Resolution — again. This time his vote determined the outcome: 49–50. Pennsylvania polling shows broad public opposition to continued escalation.

Senator John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote against ending the war — putting the interests of a foreign government above the survival of his own constituents. That vote is documented. His district knows it.

PHIERS can hold him accountable through a formal, organized, district-level process — and turn it into a replicable model. Any elected official who votes against the people they represent faces the same organized, documented consequence. That's not protest. That's leverage.

PHIERS has been pushing hard for petition signatures. We're pulling back on that — not because the petition doesn't matter, but because we got the sequence wrong. Signatures mean more when the people signing them understand what they're signing and feel genuinely heard. So we're flipping the order: survey first, petition second. We've also corrected language on the petition page that was imprecise about privacy. Your name is never made public. We share only district-level counts with elected officials who request verification that real constituents in their district are paying attention. Your email is optional. Nothing is sold or shared. If you have questions, the survey is the place to ask them. We respond personally, three nights a week.

The Strait of Hormuz blockade continues. Oil prices rise. Statements from federal officials signal potential military actions without clear Congressional authorization. Regional tensions involving Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia remain high.

Six states are redrawing congressional maps mid-cycle, reshaping representation ahead of November. Louisiana suspended its own primary after ballots were already in the mail. Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Missouri, and Ohio are moving rapidly. Primaries paused. Maps rewritten. Major changes underway.

Multiple states — across parties — are redrawing maps rapidly. Analysts note that the 2026 landscape looks significantly different than it did six months ago. Representation and district boundaries are shifting in real time.

PHIERS has been pushing hard for petition signatures. We're pulling back on that — not because the petition doesn't matter, but because we got the sequence wrong.

Signatures mean more when the people signing them understand what they're signing and feel genuinely heard. So we're flipping the order: survey first, petition second.

We've also corrected language on the petition page that was imprecise about privacy. Your name is never made public. We share only district‑level counts with elected officials who request verification that real constituents in their district are paying attention. Your email is optional. Nothing is sold or shared.

If you have questions, the survey is the place to ask them. We respond personally, three nights a week.

New federal requirements under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act mandate 80 hours per month of work, community service, or education for Medicaid expansion enrollees. Nebraska became the first state to enforce them on May 1, 2026. Montana, Arkansas, and Iowa follow later this year. All states must comply by January 2027.

Health researchers and the Congressional Budget Office project more than 5 million people could lose coverage by 2034 — and most of those people are already working. The requirement adds bureaucratic burden without increasing employment.

The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, making it dramatically harder to prove racial vote dilution in redistricting. States moved within days: Tennessee and Florida have already eliminated majority-Black congressional districts. Louisiana suspended its own primary mid-vote to redraw its map under the new standard.

The 6–3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais eliminated Section 2, a key federal protection against discriminatory redistricting. States began redrawing maps within 48 hours. Louisiana suspended an election mid-vote.

The Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais didn't just gut one provision. It cleared the way for states to redraw every congressional district, state legislature, county commission, city council, and school board in America — with no requirement to prove they aren't targeting Black voters.

Tennessee is eliminating the majority-Black Memphis congressional district. Florida eliminated a near-majority Black South Florida district. Louisiana threw out votes already cast to eliminate New Orleans's Black congressional district. The pattern is not subtle.

As Justice Kagan wrote in dissent: this ruling "threatens a half-century's worth of gains in voting equality."

After Trump posted on Truth Social that "a whole civilization will die tonight" if Iran didn't open the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m., more than 70 congressional Democrats called for invoking the 25th Amendment or beginning impeachment proceedings. Sen. Chris Murphy called the behavior "completely, utterly unhinged." Rep. Diana DeGette said "25th Amendment proceedings must begin immediately."

Republicans in both chambers took no action. The 25th Amendment has never been invoked under Section 4, and doing so would require Vance, a majority of the Cabinet, and ultimately two-thirds of Congress.

HUD has cut staff and abandoned active investigations in its own Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, withdrawn its disparate-impact enforcement rule, and pulled guidance covering everything from criminal-record screening to language-access protections. The National Urban League called it 'a grave betrayal of civil rights.' Sixteen states and Washington, D.C. have sued, arguing HUD's new funding conditions undermine state-level enforcement entirely.

The CDC officially closed its response to a hantavirus outbreak tied to a cruise ship -- 18 exposed Americans were identified early, monitored in dedicated biocontainment units, and the response ended with zero sustained US transmission. Meanwhile, an Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda has grown to over 1,100 confirmed cases and nearly 300 deaths -- the second-largest outbreak of its kind on record. A former CDC director warned during the hantavirus response that the agency itself is 'much less safe' after mass staff firings.

Three congressional candidates endorsed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani -- Claire Valdez (NY-7), Brad Lander (NY-10), and Darializa Avila Chevalier -- swept their Democratic primaries, with Lander and Avila Chevalier unseating sitting incumbents. All three advance to November's general election. Mamdani has since said a democratic socialist 'can get elected anywhere across this country for any position.'

Trump pushed to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook before her term ends -- a case the Supreme Court took up, where Trump-appointed Justice Kavanaugh said the administration's position 'would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve.' A DOJ investigation into the Fed's building renovation, which Chair Jerome Powell called a pretext to pressure rate decisions, was dropped in April. Republican Senator Thom Tillis said there's no remaining doubt that administration advisers are 'actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve.'