By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREAKING, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tax breaks tallying more than $5 trillion — but also sizable reductions in Medicaid health care, food stamps for older Americans and green energy strategies to fight climate change — are all up for debate Tuesday as the House Republicans launch marathon public hearings on their “big, beautiful bill.”

It’s a long day and night ahead. Republicans are working to push President Donald Trump’s signature legislative package through a gauntlet of committee hearings over mounting opposition from Democrats, advocacy groups and even some wary Republicans themselves.

Trump, speaking at an forum in the Middle East, struck an ambitious chord, saying Congress was “on the verge of passing the largest tax cut and regulation cut in American history.”

“If we get that, that will be like a rocket ship for our country,” Trump said in Saudi Arabia.

But to be sure, there are many more steps before the package becomes law.

It’s the biggest political and legislative debate for the Republicans leading Congress since Trump’s first term, setting up a career-defining clash over the nation’s priorities — some $5 trillion in tax breaks, including the president’s promises for no taxes on tips, Social Security income and car loan interest, offset by $1.9 trillion in tax savings largely from green energy rollbacks, for a net tally of $3.7 trillion in taxes, according to the most recent estimates.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of “jamming another GOP tax scam” that benefits the wealthy at the expense of programs and services used by Americans.

“It is an egregious and outrageous bill,” Jeffries said.

At its core, the goal for GOP lawmakers is to extend — and enhance — tax cuts approved in 2017.

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Additionally, the Republicans are boosting spending on their GOP priorities, with $350 billion for Trump’s mass deportation plans and funding for the Pentagon.

At the same time, the Republicans are seeking to defray the lost tax revenue and avoid skyrocketing national deficits by with another GOP goal, which is scaling back federal spending with nearly $800 billion cuts to health care, $290 billion to food programs and billions in the Biden-eras green energy investments that millions of Americans rely on in states across the country.

And tucked in is a smattering of other provisions important to the White House — including one that would allow the Trump administration to yank the tax exempt status of groups it says support terrorists, sending a chill through civil society organizations who warn it’s a way to punish opponents.

Speaker Mike Johnson is determined to push the package through the House by Memorial Day, sending it to the Senate, where Republicans are working on their own version and approach.

With the slimmest majority in the House, Johnson has just a few votes to spare, and is running into resistance from his party, including lawmakers in the Senate, which also has thin GOP margins.

“In the current form, I can’t support it,” said Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, a deficit hawk who wants deeper spending reductions.

On Tuesday, three House committees will gavel into session for what is expected to be marathon hearings on the three largest components of the package — the Ways & Means tax writing committee; the Energy & Commerce Committee that handles health care and energy policy; and later in the evening, the Agriculture Committee that has proposed the food stamps cuts.

Advocacy groups are protesting the cuts and Democrats, as the minority party in Congress unable to stop the bill, are planning to use the procedural tools available in to slow down the process.

The lawmakers are racing for a July 4 deadline to have the whole package sent to Trump’s desk in time to also avoid a dangerous debt default. The Treasury Secretary has said federal tax revenues are running short and Congress needs to raise the spending limit to keep paying the bills.

The package includes a $4 trillion boost to nation’s now $36 trillion debt limit, enough to fund operations for several more years.

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — Triple-digit temperatures more commonly seen in the throes of summer and not in the spring were making an unwelcome visit to Texas and other parts of the southeastern United States this week, placing millions of Americans under extreme heat warnings.

“Definitely more like August this week than May,” Cameron Self, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in the Houston and Galveston area, said Tuesday.

A very strong ridge of high pressure over the south-central United States that is centered over the Gulf of Mexico will be responsible for the extreme heat.

For the next six to 10 days, much of south central and the southeastern United States will be warmer than normal, with the highest temperatures occurring over parts of Texas and Florida, Self said.

Some parts of southeast Texas could easily break daily record highs and some could come close to breaking their monthly record highs, Self said.

Areas like Houston that are closer to the Gulf of Mexico could have their temperatures “modified somewhat” because water temperatures are still cool enough, but parts of Texas farther west of the Gulf are going to see temperatures well over 100 degrees, Self said.

It’s not uncommon to get a day or two with temperatures around 94 or 95 degrees in May in Houston.

“But getting long stretches of temperatures well in the 90s that usually holds off till June,” Self said.

“There’s a chance that this could go into next week or longer,” Self said.

Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The order only carries authority within the U.S. Other countries and international institutions continue to use the name the Gulf of Mexico.

By Amanda Hernández, Stateline.org

For help, call 1-888-373-7888 or text *233733 for the 24/7 National Human Trafficking Hotline, a national, toll-free hotline.

States are moving to strengthen protections against human trafficking, but some advocates warn that federal funding cuts could undermine efforts to support survivors.

This year, lawmakers in several states have introduced bills to expand education, strengthen penalties and fund survivor support. But some victim service providers say these efforts might fall short, with millions of dollars in federal cuts threatening programs that help trafficking victims heal and rebuild their lives.

Human trafficking is the exploitation of people through force, fraud or coercion for the purposes of sex or labor. It often involves victims who lack control over their circumstances — whether due to threats, manipulation or economic dependency — and can occur in both illicit and legal industries, from commercial sex work to agriculture, domestic work and construction.

A poll released in March by the University of California, Irvine and the anti-trafficking nonprofit EverFree found that while nearly 99% of Americans view trafficking as a global and national issue, only about 80% believe it’s a problem in their own state — a gap that hinders local prevention efforts, experts say.

The poll, which was conducted in October, also found that just 19% of respondents ranked human trafficking as a top national concern.

“Because it’s such a dark, challenging issue, there’s a dissonance that happens where you don’t want to believe that [trafficking] happens in your community,” Kelsey Morgan, the CEO and co-founder of EverFree, said in an interview. “To admit or to acknowledge that it’s happening in your community requires action.”

Lawmakers across the country are considering or have already passed a range of bills this year aimed at curbing human trafficking and supporting survivors. Many approaches focus on prevention, education, tougher penalties and expanding support services.

In Michigan, a pair of new laws will allow certain hearsay statements from trafficking survivors to be admitted in court and permit relevant prior acts to be used as evidence in human trafficking cases. In March, Utah enacted a law that increases criminal penalties for sex and labor trafficking offenses. In Tennessee, a new law set to take effect next year requires tattoo artists to complete up to one hour of training on recognizing and reporting signs of trafficking.

In California, lawmakers are considering a bill that would establish a “Survivor Support Fund” and criminalize loitering with the intent to purchase sex. The Oregon House passed legislation in April targeting illicit massage businesses by expanding enforcement authority and increasing criminal penalties and fines.

Other states are taking steps to raise awareness and improve accountability. The Florida and Montana legislatures passed bills mandating trafficking prevention education and training in schools. Both bills await action by governors.

A bill in Indiana would require gas stations, rest areas and welcome centers to display trafficking awareness posters, and mandate training for employees at food and lodging establishments. It passed in April and was sent to the governor.

Lawmakers in Florida and Georgia also have passed legislation that aims to strengthen criminal trafficking penalties, particularly in trafficking cases involving children or people with disabilities.

Minnesota is weighing several new proposals, including one to increase oversight of adult entertainment venues and massage parlors. The governor signed into law another measure that will require biennial legislative reports on the state’s child trafficking prevention efforts.

Funding to help victims recover

Some advocates say the legislation nationwide reflects growing awareness of trafficking’s scope — but caution that without consistent funding for victim services and a deeper public understanding of the issue, laws alone won’t be enough to support survivors or prevent trafficking.

In late April, the U.S. Department of Justice canceled 365 federal public safety grants — including some that supported anti-human trafficking programs — disrupting a wide range of services for crime victims, local police departments and correctional facilities.

Since then, the department has restored at least two of the canceled grants — one supporting a national crime victim hotline and another funding a national domestic violence network.

The cuts, which totaled $811 million, were administered through the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, which awarded roughly $3 billion in competitive grants during the 2024 fiscal year, according to Reuters.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the cuts in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, stating that the department has cut “millions of dollars in wasteful grants.” She also signaled that additional cuts may be on the way.

Underreported to police

Human trafficking data in the United States is limited, but available figures suggest the problem is both widespread and underreported.

FBI data shows that in 2023, there were 2,584 reported trafficking incidents and 3,117 identified victims — a sharp increase from just 22 incidents in 2013, when the agency began tracking trafficking through its Uniform Crime Reporting system. The rise is largely attributed to more law enforcement agencies participating in the data collection system.

Separate data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which offers support to victims, identified 9,619 trafficking cases in 2023 — up from 5,551 in 2015. In 2023, the hotline received more than 30,000 tips, or “signals.”

Experts and advocates emphasize that both the hotline and the crime data capture only a fraction of trafficking incidents, given the hidden nature of the crime and the barriers victims face in reporting to police.

Although national data struggles to capture the full scope of trafficking, Minnesota is among the states that have taken extra steps to build their own data collection systems to better understand the issue and support victims.

Its efforts have drawn attention for state officials’ focus on both urban and rural communities, as well as on Native populations that often face barriers to accessing services.

Experts say it’s a common misconception that trafficking is primarily an urban issue — in reality, it can and does happen everywhere.

Still, some victims — including boys and men — may be overlooked.

“Sometimes for male youth, they are not identified as victims. They may show up in the criminal justice system as defendants or they may be adjudicated as juvenile delinquents,” said Caroline Palmer, the human trafficking prevention director at the Minnesota Department of Health. “There’s not really a close look at what might be happening in the background in terms of their victimization and trafficking exploitation.”

Palmer noted that while Minnesota offers programming for all genders, some male-identifying people may not feel comfortable with certain services, highlighting the need for more tailored support to meet everyone’s unique needs.

More than three-quarters of respondents to the UC Irvine-EverFree poll said being a woman greatly increases the risk of trafficking, but only 2% of respondents said the same about men — despite the fact that trafficking affects people of all genders.

Public perceptions about survivors were also influenced by the victim’s age: While 83% of respondents believe minors who are trafficked are always victims, only 61% say the same about adults — a gap that, advocates warn, can contribute to the criminalization of adult survivors.

Stateline reporter Amanda Hernández can be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By THOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Pete Buttigieg returns to Iowa on Tuesday for an event focused on veterans, six years after he burst onto the national political stage with a strong run ahead of the state’s leadoff presidential caucuses.

Buttigieg, a former intelligence officer in the Navy Reserves who served in Afghanistan, will headline a town hall in Cedar Rapids sponsored by the Democratic political organization VoteVets, which is focusing on President Donald Trump’s cuts to federal agencies and how they affect veterans and military families.

While the 43-year-old former transportation secretary has not confirmed he will make a second White House run, he has tangled with Trump online and has spoken out about changes he wants to see in the Democratic Party.

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Opposition to the Republican president “has to travel with a clearer picture of what we are actually for,” Buttigieg said during a recent interview with former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki on MSNBC.

“That needs to be as clear a picture as our response to the authoritarian tendencies of this administration,” he said. “We would not be in this situation if the government, the economy and the politics of our country were healthy. They’ve been unhealthy for a long time.”

Buttigieg finished atop the Iowa Democratic Party’s tallies in the glitch-plagued 2020 caucuses alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, though The Associated Press did not call a winner given remaining concerns about whether the results as reported by the party are fully accurate.

Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana, mayor who moved with his husband and twins to Michigan, turned down runs for his adoptive state’s open U.S. Senate and governor’s races. His aides insist his travel to Iowa is intended to meet people and hear their concerns, not just as an exercise to set up a presidential bid.

Still, a number of other potential 2028 contenders are traveling the country in the early days of the second Trump administration.

Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent joint rallies have drawn large crowds around the country, including in Republican-led Western states. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently called for mass mobilization of Democrats at a speech in New Hampshire, and Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota plan stops in South Carolina at the end of May.