March, 25 2021, 12:00am EDT
The Congressional Review Action on Methane Is Not Enough
Background: On March 25th, the House Representative Diana DeGette (D-Co) and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) are expected to introduce resolutions that would reinstate the Environmental Protection Agency's methane pollution safeguards, following the previous administration's efforts to weaken the rules, using the Congressional Review Act.
Statement from Lauren Pagel, Earthworks Policy Director:
WASHINGTON
Background: On March 25th, the House Representative Diana DeGette (D-Co) and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) are expected to introduce resolutions that would reinstate the Environmental Protection Agency's methane pollution safeguards, following the previous administration's efforts to weaken the rules, using the Congressional Review Act.
Statement from Lauren Pagel, Earthworks Policy Director:
"We thank our Congressional champions for this welcomed first step towards controlling methane pollution from oil and gas production but reinstating rules from 2016 is not enough. Bolder action is urgently needed after four years of reckless Trump administration policies and feet dragging by industry on climate.
"To prevent a climate crisis President Biden must direct the EPA to use the full force of the Clean Air Act to cut methane pollution 65% by 2025."
Earthworks is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the adverse impacts of mineral and energy development while promoting sustainable solutions.
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Applause as Judge Halts 'Blatantly Illegal and Cruel' ICE Courthouse Arrest Policy Nationwide
"The courthouse is meant to be a refuge for the pursuit of justice, not a hunting ground for ICE," said one attorney.
Jun 24, 2026
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a nationwide halt to a Trump administration policy expanding immigration enforcement officials' authority to arrest non-citizens at US immigration courthouses.
US District Judge P. Casey Pitts, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ruled that the courthouse arrests carried out by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violated the Administrative Procedures Act's requirement for "reasoned decision making" in federal agencies' policy decisions.
After reviewing the evidence, Pitts found that the government "failed to provide reasoned explanations for their actions," which he thus deemed "arbitrary and capricious."
"The expansion of arrests at immigration courthouses results not from merely unreasoned decision making," Pitts emphasized, "but a complete lack of decision making."
The Trump administration last year rescinded previous policies that had restricted ICE agents' ability to make arrests at courts, and allowed agents to keep noncitizens detained for up to 72 hours.
In prior years, noted Pitts, courthouse arrests "would be undertaken only against noncitizens whom ICE had a heightened interest in detaining immediately because, for example, they were ‘suspected of terrorism or espionage,’ had been convicted of crimes, ‘participated in organized criminal gangs,’ or ‘otherwise pose[d] a serious risk to public safety.'"
Pitts' ruling, which the Trump administration is expected to challenge, restores those previous restrictions on courthouse arrests.
Jordan Wells, senior staff attorney at the Bay Area chapter of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, told The San Francisco Chronicle that Pitts' ruling restored the notion that "the courthouse is meant to be a refuge for the pursuit of justice, not a hunting ground for ICE."
“No one, including immigrants, should be forced to choose between their liberty and their day in court," added Wells, whose organization is co-representing a group of asylum seekers who had filed a complaint to overturn the ICE courthouse arrest policy.
Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) hailed Pitts' ruling as "excellent news."
"Immigrants who show up to court—'the right way'—have been targeted by this administration," Escobar wrote in a social media post. "So glad to see this blatantly illegal and cruel policy struck down."
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Heritage Foundation Brags That Trump Has Implemented More Than Half of Project 2025
"These actions will have devastating consequences for workers, the environment, public health, and the rights of millions of Americans," warned progressive groups tracking the far-right agenda's implementation.
Jun 24, 2026
The right-wing Heritage Foundation boasted in a fundraising email on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump's administration has implemented more than half of the policy proposals laid out in the group's Project 2025 agenda, a sweeping conservative governance plan that Trump repeatedly claimed to know nothing about during his campaign for a second White House term.
The Heritage Foundation's email, first reported by Bloomberg, stated that 53% of Project 2025 is now federal policy, pointing to the administration's dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and broader attack on "diversity, equity, and inclusion policies" as examples. The group emphasized that its work is far from finished, declaring that "in this special 250th anniversary year, we must work to implement all of Heritage’s policy recommendations to ensure another 250 years of American greatness.”
Heritage's estimate that the Trump administration—which includes Project 2025 chief architect Russell Vought, the head of the White House budget office—has enacted 53% of Project 2025's proposals aligns precisely with a tracker maintained by the Center for Progressive Reform and Governing for Impact. The groups warned that "these actions will have devastating consequences for workers, the environment, public health, and the rights of millions of Americans."
The tracker, last updated in February, shows that the Trump White House had by that point implemented 283 of the 532 policy actions recommended by Project 2025 via executive order—from the dismantling of the Education Department to halting federal grants for environmental organizations to stripping civil service protections from federal workers.
That the Trump administration's policy actions mirror those recommended by Project 2025 should not be entirely surprising, given that the agenda broadly reflects the conservative movement's priorities. But Project 2025's creators have publicly taken credit for the White House's moves.
“This is exactly the work we set out to do,” Paul Dans, who worked in the first Trump administration and oversaw Project 2025's creation, told CNN last year as the administration's early actions mirrored the right-wing agenda. “We wanted to make sure the president was ready to hit the ground running on day one. The rapidity and the depth of what they’ve rolled out this quickly is a testament to the work done in Project 2025."
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'Seismic Victory': Mamdani-Backed Progressives Trounce Establishment Dems, AIPAC Cash
"Today we make it clear: The politics of the past end today," said Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat.
Jun 24, 2026
Three progressive candidates emerged victorious from US congressional primaries in New York on Tuesday, overcoming millions of dollars in spending by corporate interests and AIPAC with grassroots campaigns that centered the working class.
Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller, defeated Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman in New York's 10th Congressional District, nearly doubling the incumbent's vote count with over 90% of ballots tallied. In New York's 13th, Darializa Avila Chevalier—who was recruited by Justice Democrats—defeated five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat. Claire Valdez, a New York state assemblymember and democratic socialist recruited by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, defeated Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso in the race for the 7th District seat left open by retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
The wins marked a clean sweep for Mamdani-backed candidates, each of whom campaigned on Medicare for All, affordable housing, stronger union protections, and an end to US military support for Israel's genocidal assault on Palestinians. The primary wins for Lander, Valdez, and Avila Chevalier essentially guarantee them seats in the US House in the heavily Democratic districts.
"Today we make it clear: The politics of the past end today," Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old community organizer, said after winning the primary in New York's 13th District, which Espaillat has represented for nearly a decade. The incumbent lost despite millions of dollars in spending by at least seven super PACs—including AIPAC's United Democracy Project.
"What we have delivered here today is a clear mandate that the era of taking a check and cashing a check and calling it representation is over," said Avila Chevalier in her victory speech.
Justice Democrats called Avila Chevalier's win a "seismic victory" and "the biggest primary upset against a Democratic incumbent this cycle."
"Darializa Avila Chevalier is exactly what Democratic voters nationwide are demanding—progressive champions who fight for their communities, not just when it's politically convenient but when it's morally necessary," said Alexandra Rojas, the group's executive director. "While a party machine led by Espaillat has spent decades failing to meet the needs of its voters, Darializa has taken on corporate interests and right-wing extremists to protect working families her whole career."
Mamdani, speaking at Valdez's victory party in Brooklyn, said New York City's mayoral race last year "was not the end of a political movement, it was the beginning."
"Let’s hear it for a politics that will never forget working people," the mayor said to cheers. "For a politics that is ready to write a new chapter in our party’s history. And for a politics that realizes the old politics that got us to this crisis is not gonna get us out of this crisis. It's time for working people to be back at the heart of our politics."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s full speech at Claire Valdez’s victory party: pic.twitter.com/OdqFX7Daac
— Michael Lange (@MichaelLangeNYC) June 24, 2026
National progressives celebrated the wins in New York, with the advocacy group RootsAction declaring that "voters overwhelmingly rejected corporatist Democrats in favor of candidates who had the moral fiber to use the word 'genocide' and the backbone to stand up to the donor class."
"Now, Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Brad Lander will join the next Congress as three of the most progressive members in that body," the group added. "With these three in Congress, we’re on track to have one of the most progressive Democratic caucuses ever in the House. That means more pressure on the corporatist Democrats, and leaders who are willing to truly stand up to the fascistic Republican Party."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who endorsed Lander and Valdez, applauded their "landslide victories" in a social media post late Tuesday.
"Together," the senator wrote, "we are creating a grassroots progressive movement that will defeat the oligarchs."
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