By KEN SWEET, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Senate Republicans have moved to cut the funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by roughly half, as part of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which is likely to lead to hundreds of job cuts at the nation’s financial watchdog agency.

It would be a major blow to the CFPB, which was created after the 2008 financial crisis to police potential bad actors in the financial services industry, and it would be a win for the GOP, who have largely wanted to make the CFPB go away since its creation.

The CFPB is funded through the Federal Reserve, not the Congressional appropriations process. But in the latest version of the bill to come out of the Senate Banking Committee, the CFPB’s funding would be cut from 12% of the Federal Reserve’s profits to 6.5% of the central bank’s profits.

The CFPB requests its annual budget from the Fed every year, effectively as a line of credit from the central bank. It has never needed the entire 12% of the Fed’s profits, but it has come close in previous years to using much of what the Fed would allocate to it. For example, last year the CFPB requested $762.9 million from the Fed, which was close to the transfer cap of $785.4 million.

But cutting the transfer cap by roughly half would mean the CFPB would have to cut its budget significantly or seek to supplement its budget from Congress through the traditional appropriations process, a goal that Republicans have been seeking for years.

“The committee’s language decreases the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding cap without affecting the statutory functions of the Bureau,” said Sen. Tim Scott, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

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Under President Biden, the bureau was a potent regulator that often gave banks and other financial services companies headaches on a regular basis. The previous director, Rohit Chopra, used the bureau to look into a broader array of financial services beyond the banks, investigating bad practices at credit card companies, payday lenders, buy now, pay later companies and other financial technology firms. The bureau has returned billions of dollars to consumers since its creation through its enforcement actions.

But since President Trump came into office, the bureau has been effectively inoperable. Russell Vought, the President’s budget director, is currently the acting director of the Bureau and has stopped all enforcement and supervision work, the bureau is not writing new rules or regulations and employees are being told not to communicate with banks or outside parties. Employees are logging in once or twice a day to check emails, but there is little supervisory or enforcement work happening at the bureau. Even emails to the CFPB’s press office go unanswered.

House Republicans held a hearing on Wednesday attacking Chopra’s work, calling the former director and his appointees out-of-control bureaucrats who targeted small businesses vindictively. The CEO of a company labeled by the GOP as a small business — but was basically a chain of check cashing and payday lending shops — testified that she spent years having to go back and forth with the CFPB over its operations.

The Senate Republicans’ move comes after their original proposal to cut the CFPB’s budget to zero was ruled in violation of Senate rules by the Senate Parliamentarian. Congressional Republicans are using a process known as “reconciliation” to pass this bill, which only requires a 51-vote majority in the Senate to pass.

This new proposal did pass Parliamentarian muster, but Senate Democrats are expected to fight to remove the provision on the floor.

Donald Trump and Republicans tried to shut down the CFPB by gutting its entire operating budget to (zero),” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, and also the original proposer of the CFPB nearly 20 years ago. “Now, Senate Republicans will bring to the floor a proposal that slashes the agency’s available budget so they can hand out more tax breaks for billionaires and billionaire corporations.”

The Trump administration continued to reshape U.S. health policy in recent days with several moves that could change what vaccines people can get to protect themselves from common illnesses.

Some of the changes are immediate, others are still being discussed, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must still sign off on some.

Doctors’ groups have expressed alarm at the moves made by Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, and his appointees, who at times have ignored well-established science. Nearly 80 medical groups, including the American Medical Association, issued a statement backing vaccines against common respiratory ailments as “among the best tools to protect the public.”

“We come together as physicians from every corner of medicine to reaffirm our commitment to these lifesaving vaccines,” the groups wrote.

Here’s what to know about some of the recent vaccine policy changes:

Flu shots and thimerosal

On Thursday, a vaccine advisory group handpicked by Kennedy recommended that just about every American get a flu shot this fall.

But the group also said people should avoid shots containing thimerosal, a preservative used only in large multi-dose vials that has been proven to be safe. The ingredient isn’t used in single-dose flu shots, the type of syringe used for about 95% of U.S. flu shots last season.

Status: Kennedy must sign off on the recommendations. Read more AP coverage here.

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How to get a COVID-19 shot

Universal access to updated COVID-19 shots for the fall remains unclear, even after Kennedy’s vaccine advisers were shown data showing how well the vaccines are working.

Kennedy changed CDC guidance last month, saying the shots are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women — even though doctors groups disagree. And the Food and Drug Administration has moved to limit COVID-19 vaccinations among healthy people under age 65.

Status: Upcoming advisory meetings, regulatory decisions and policies from insurers and employers are likely to influence access. Read more AP coverage here.

Expanded warnings on COVID-19 vaccine labels

At the request of the FDA, makers of the two leading COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday expanded existing warnings about a rare heart side effect mainly seen in young men.

Prescribing information from both Pfizer and Moderna had already advised doctors about rare cases of myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation that is usually mild. The FDA had asked the drugmakers to add more detail about the problem and to cover a larger group of patients.

Status: Labels are being updated now. Read more AP coverage here.

Changes considered for the childhood vaccine schedule

On Wednesday, Kennedy’s vaccine advisers said they would be evaluating the “cumulative effect” of the children’s vaccine schedule — the list of immunizations given at different times throughout childhood.

The announcement reflected vaccine skeptics’ messaging: that too many shots may overwhelm kids’ immune systems. Scientists say those claims have been repeatedly investigated with no signs of concern.

The American Academy of Pediatrics said it would continue publishing its own vaccine schedule for children but now will do so independently of the government advisory panel, calling it “no longer a credible process.”

Status: The examination is in its early stages. Read more AP coverage here.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Fox News on Friday over alleged defamation, saying the network knowingly aired false information about a phone call he had with President Donald Trump around the time the National Guard was sent Los Angeles.

The lawsuit alleges Fox News anchor Jesse Watters edited out key information from a clip of Trump talking about calling Newsom, then used the edited video to assert that Newsom had lied about the two talking.

Newsom is asking for $787 million in punitive damages in his lawsuit filed in Delaware court where Fox is incorporated. That’s the same amount Fox agreed to pay in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems. The company said Fox had repeatedly aired false allegations that its equipment had switched votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden during the 2020 election, and the discovery process of the lawsuit revealed Fox’s efforts not to alienate conservatives in the network’s audience in the wake of Biden’s victory.

“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,” Newsom said in a statement. “I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet.”

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He asked a judge to order Fox News to stop broadcasting “the false, deceptive, and fraudulent video and accompanying statements” that Newsom said falsely say he lied about when he had spoken to Trump regarding the situation in Los Angeles, where protests erupted on June 6 over Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Fox News called the lawsuit “frivolous.”

“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed,” the company said in a statement.

The law makes it difficult to prove defamation, but some cases result in settlements and, no matter the disposition, can tie up news outlets in expensive legal fights.

Particularly since taking office a second time, Trump has been aggressive in going after news organizations he feels has wronged him. He’s involved in settlement talks over his lawsuit against CBS News about a “60 Minutes” interview last fall with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris. This week, Trump’s lawyers threatened a lawsuit against CNN and The New York Times over their reporting of an initial assessment of damage to Iran’s nuclear program from a U.S. bombing.

Newsom’s lawsuit centers on the details of a phone call with the president.

Both Newsom and the White House have said the two spoke late at night on June 6 in California, which was already June 7 on the East Coast. Though the content of the call is not part of the lawsuit, Newsom has said the two never discussed Trump’s plan to deploy the National Guard, which he announced the next day. Trump said the deployment was necessary to protect federal buildings from people protesting increased immigration arrests.

Trump later announced he would also deploy Marines to the area.

On June 10, when 700 Marines arrived in the Los Angeles area, Trump told reporters he had spoken to Newsom “a day ago” about his decision to send troops. That day, Newsom posted on X that there had been no call.

“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” Newsom wrote.

On the evening of June 10, the Watters Primetime show played a clip of Trump’s statement about his call with Newsom but removed Trump’s comment that the call was “a day ago,” the lawsuit said. Watters also referred to call logs another Fox News reporter had posted online showing the phone call the two had on June 6.

“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?” Watters asked on air, according to the lawsuit. The segment included text across the bottom of the screen that said “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call.”

Newsom’s suit argues that by editing the material, Fox “maliciously lied as a means to sabotage informed national discussion.”

Precise details about when the call happened are important because the days when Trump deployed the Guard to Los Angeles despite Newsom’s opposition “represented an unprecedented moment,” Newsom’s lawyers wrote in a letter to Fox demanding a retraction and on-air apology.

“History was occurring in real time. It is precisely why reporters asked President Trump the very question that prompted this matter: when did he last speak with Governor Newsom,” the letter said.

Associated Press journalist David Bauder contributed to this report.

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The city stopped handing out fines to smaller residential buildings that don’t follow the city’s mandatory composting rules, saying it needs to do more public education on how to participate. But without a dedicated budget for outreach, can officials make that happen?

An organic waste bin near the intersection of Neill and Fowler Avenues in the Bronx. The neighborhood’s ZIP code 10462 received some of the highest summonses for noncompliance with mandatory composting. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

By June 30, New York City officials are set to decide on a budget for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year. 

As negotiations come to a head, lawmakers have raised concerns about the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) not having a dedicated budget for educating New Yorkers on the city’s mandatory curbside composting program.

Only two weeks after the city began enforcing the new composting rules on April 1, the administration suspended fines issued to non-complying residential buildings with 30 or fewer units until next year. 

The program remains mandatory and the city will still issue warnings. But pausing penalties for non-compliance, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said, would allow the city to do “additional outreach and education on composting.” Residents “still have questions about this extremely important program,” the spokesperson added.

But DSNY’s Deputy Commissioner Joshua Goodman said in a hearing last month that  “there’s no additional or dedicated line item” in the budget for “outreach and education” specific to the program, and that they are using “existing resources” to get the word out instead.

“Clearly, the existing resources were not enough” if the administration was compelled to pause the fines to do more outreach, Councilmember and Sanitation Chair Shaun Abreu said at the hearing. 

He’s been critical of City Hall’s decision to suspend most enforcement, accusing the mayor of undermining the program with lack of resources. 

“The Mayor can’t cut corners, botch the roll out, and then turn around and blame New Yorkers for being confused, especially when he never prioritized educating them on the rules in the first place,” Councilmember Abreu said in a statement in April, after City Hall announced it was pausing the fines. 

Compliance with the rules, he said, “means investing real money in education.”

Councilmember and Sanitation Committee Chair Sean Abreu (John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)

DSNY, however, says it has a whole communications and public affairs bureau dedicated to doing outreach and education on a wide range of issues, including composting. 

“To date, these teams have knocked on 740,000 doors, hosted more than 1,000 outreach events, sent multiple mailers to every New Yorker, and held multiple mayoral press conferences and several rounds of Commissioner-level media discussions on this topic, on TV, in print, and in community and ethnic press,” the department said in an email.

The fine factor

The decision to pause most ticketing was made after DSNY issued 4,257 fines in those first two weeks of enforcement. In the lead up the year before, the agency handed out free composting bins and issued over 30,000 warnings, but people still fell short of following the rules, raising alarm bells about how clued in New Yorkers are to how composting works.

Residents must toss compostable trash—including food scraps, food-soiled paper, leaves and yard waste—in a labeled container with a lid that is at least 55 gallons, or in a DSNY brown bin that can be purchased here. 

DSNY issued the most fines to neighborhoods in the Bronx and Queens, while Manhattan saw fewer tickets, according to data the agency shared with City Limits. 

The most ticketed areas are hotspots for smaller homes, as nearly 79 percent of fined properties had fewer than eight units, accounting for more than 3,300 tickets.

Source: DSNY

Still, the city’s mandatory curbside composting program proved to be a huge success from the get-go. During the first week of enforcement, DSNY collected 2.5 million pounds of compost, a 240 percent increase when compared to the same time last year, the department told City Limits. 

So when the administration announced it would halt fines for smaller properties, some speculated the decision had more to do with politics than with a lack of compliance.

Hell Gate reported that it was Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro that took issue with the fines and ordered the pause. Republican lawmakers like Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato, who is sponsoring legislation to make curbside composting voluntary instead of mandatory, also took to social media to rally support against the penalties.

“This isn’t about the environment. It’s a cash grab, period,” Maramoto said on the social media platform X, claiming it was “just another tax for the working class.”

Owners of smaller buildings with up to eight units that fail to separate organic waste face $25 fines for their first offense, $50 for their second and $100 for their third. For buildings with more than nine units, the penalties start at $100 and can reach up to $300 with each failure to comply.

Second and third offenses are yet to be registered, but the buzz generated on social media about the fines amped up participation, environmentalists say.

“It had this initial effect of bringing it to people’s attention and that increased the participation rates,” said Justin Green, executive director of the non-profit Big Reuse. 

Since April, DSNY has collected on average 4.8 million pounds of organic waste per week, a sharp uptick from the 1 million pounds per week it collected in the same 11-week period last year, the department told City Limits.

Spreading the word

But Green and other environmental advocates agree that the threat of fines isn’t the only way to push New Yorkers to compost: the city also has to get the word out about what to do, and how to do it.

“You can’t expect the public to change their behavior without extensive efforts to explain why composting is important and how to participate,” said Eric Goldstein, New York City director at the environmental group National Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The Council is also pushing for $7 million in the upcoming budget deal to continue funding the Community Composting Program for All, which supports neighborhood organizations that run organic waste collection initiatives, some of them decades old. 

(Photo by Adi Talwar)

City Hall cut funds for these groups in 2023 as part of its belt-tightening measures at the time, though the Council restored much of it in last year’s budget. Community Composting plays a key role in public education and can help with curbside collection compliance, supporters argue. 

Recycling organic waste is good for the environment, and it saves New Yorkers money. Instead of spending tax dollars to transport waste into landfills outside the city, where it releases large quantities of carbon dioxide that drives climate change, materials can get repurposed and used for more environmentally friendly uses.

That includes turning it into compost so it can become plant fertilizer, and processing the waste to generate alternative forms of electricity that emit fewer greenhouse gasses.

But Goldstein says efforts to educate the public around the importance of organic waste recycling “have been minimal.”

DSNY disputes that. In addition to door knocking, outreach events, press conferences and printed mailers, the agency says it’s been working with community composting organizations to get the word out, and issued more than 11,000 warnings since the end of April to let residential properties know enforcement is in effect. 

Community composters like Nando Rodriguez ,who runs the environmental program at Brotherhood Sister Sol (BroSis), applauds these efforts. But more can always be done, he added, including more funding for outreach and investing in community composting.

“We live in a fast paced city. So the easier we can make it for residents to separate their waste and compost, the more people we will empower to become more sustainable,” Rodriguez said.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Mariana@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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