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Weekly-News
‘Most Dangerous Attack on Voting Rights Ever’? New GOP Election Bill Sparks Dire Warnings
"Make no mistake," said one critic of the MEGA Act, "this egregious power grab is about suppressing turnout, silencing voters, and ensuring minority rule."
Jan 30, 2026
The Republican chairman of the House committee that oversees federal elections introduced legislation on Thursday that one analyst characterized as possibly "the most dangerous attack on voting rights ever" put forth in the US Congress.
Led by Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), chair of the House Administration Committee, the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act would ban ranked-choice voting and universal mail-in ballots in federal elections, prohibit states from accepting mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day, enable large-scale voter purges, and institute photo ID requirements.
The bill was endorsed by right-wing organizations including the Election Integrity Network, an organization that—in the words of the New York Times—"has done more than any other group to take [President Donald Trump's] falsehoods about corruption in the democratic system and turn them into action." The Election Integrity Network has received funding from Citizens for Renewing America, a group founded by White House budget director and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought.
Tiffany Muller, president of the End Citizens United Action Fund, said in a statement Thursday that the MEGA Act "is a dangerous anti-voter bill and the latest escalation of the same conspiracy-driven agenda that has nothing to do with protecting our elections and everything to do with clinging to power."
"There is not a shred of evidence of widespread voter fraud in the United States. Courts, audits, and election officials from both parties have repeatedly proved that," said Muller. "Yet House Republicans, in their never-ending quest to stay in power, have once again chosen lies over facts to justify making it harder for eligible Americans to vote."
“When you steal from the working class, impose policies that strictly benefit billionaire donors, and know voters are about to hold you accountable in the midterms, you try to change the rules of the game," Muller added. "That’s the Republican playbook, and this bill is the proof. Make no mistake, this egregious power grab is about suppressing turnout, silencing voters, and ensuring minority rule."
While the bill is unlikely to get through the Senate due to Democratic opposition, it represents an ominous look at the GOP's vision for election administration ahead of the pivotal November midterms.
Yunior Rivas of Democracy Docket noted Thursday that the legislation would go further than the SAVE Act, a bill House Republicans passed last year that one historian characterized as “the most extraordinary attack on voting rights in American history.” One advocate described the SAVE Act, which some Republicans are looking to revive, as a "modern-day poll tax."
"Taken together, the MEGA Act is a catastrophic proposal for democracy in the United States," Rivas wrote. "Voting would move from a fundamental right to a permission-based system—one where voters must repeatedly prove their eligibility, navigate bureaucratic obstacles, and hope they are not wrongly flagged by a single database."
In a statement, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) warned that the MEGA Act shows Republicans are "desperately trying to rig the rules for future elections because they know they cannot win on their unpopular agenda, which is raising costs for working families."
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, said the MEGA Act is further evidence that "Trump and House Republicans are terrified of the American people."
"They are desperate to rig the system so they can choose their voters," said Morelle. "This bill is their latest attempt to block millions of Americans from exercising their right to vote. I will fight this bill at every turn."
The MEGA Act was introduced amid growing fears that Trump is laying the groundwork to subvert the 2026 midterms. On Thursday, a group of Senate Democrats led by Padilla raised alarm over Justice Department efforts to seize sensitive data and purge voter rolls in states across the country.
"While most states are resisting this illegal voter roll grab, we are gravely concerned by the amount of sensitive data the department has already amassed on millions of American voters," the senators wrote. "The department has failed to provide Congress, or the public, any information on how it is maintaining this vast amount of data, the guardrails in place to protect state voter information, how the data is to be used, or who in the federal government has access to this sensitive data."
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'Disgusting Act of Corruption': Trump Sues IRS, Treasury for $10 Billion Over Tax Return Leak
"While Trump is weaponizing taxpayer privacy laws for his own benefit, his Treasury Department is flouting those exact same laws to send tens of thousands of individual tax records to his anti-immigrant henchmen at ICE."
Jan 30, 2026
President Donald Trump has sued the US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns during his first term in the White House, when the president broke with decades of tradition by refusing to voluntarily divulge the records.
The lawsuit—joined by Trump's two eldest sons and his family business, the Trump Organization—was revealed Thursday in a filing with the Miami division of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The suit alleges that the IRS and Treasury Department "caused Plaintiffs reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Donald Trump and the other Plaintiffs' public standing."
Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor who was employed by Booz Allen Hamilton, pleaded guilty in late 2023 to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax return information and was later sentenced to up to five years in prison.
The US Treasury Department, led by Scott Bessent, announced earlier this week that it was canceling all of its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, accusing the company of failing to "implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service."
The leak included the tax records of Trump and other mega-rich Americans, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The New York Times, which obtained the records along with ProPublica, reported in 2018 that the returns showed Trump engaged in "outright fraud" and other "dubious" schemes to avoid taxation.
Trump, according to the Times investigation, "paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he was elected president, and... he had not paid any income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years."
US Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in response to the president's lawsuit that “Donald Trump is a cheat and a grifter to his core, and for him to abuse his office in an attempt to steal $10 billion from the American taxpayer is a shameless, disgusting act of corruption."
"While Trump is weaponizing taxpayer privacy laws for his own benefit, his Treasury Department is flouting those exact same laws to send tens of thousands of individual tax records to his anti-immigrant henchmen at ICE," Wyden continued. "It is the height of hypocrisy for Trump to pretend he cares one bit about taxpayer privacy."
Journalist Tim O'Brien, who has covered Trump for decades, called the lawsuit "a flagrant and obvious conflict of interest."
"Trump oversees the IRS. He wants the IRS to pay him a big chunk of change," O'Brien wrote on social media. "He is, and always has been, in it for the money."
The lawsuit isn't the first time Trump has sought a large sum of taxpayer money from a federal agency during his second term in office. Last year, Trump demanded via an administrative claims process that the US Justice Department pay him roughly $230 million in compensation for federal investigations he has faced.
Trump launched his attempt to wring $10 billion in taxpayer money out of the Treasury Department and IRS as he and his allies worked to gut the tax agency, leaving it with inadequate staff and resources to audit wealthy individuals and large corporations. The IRS is currently headed by Frank Bisignano, who was named "chief executive officer" of the agency late last year.
In a letter to Bessent and Bisignano earlier this week, Wyden and a group of fellow Senate Democrats warned that "the administration’s plans for the IRS"—including painful budget cuts—"will shift the burden of audits more heavily onto working Americans while giving rich scofflaws and big businesses a green light to cheat on their taxes."
"The administration has failed to detail any serious plan to avoid that unfair outcome," the senators warned.
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From Amazon to Home Depot and Beyond, Mass Layoffs Continue to Punish Working Class Under Trump
"When taking into account predicted downward revisions, the data says we’re losing jobs," said one economic analyst.
Jan 29, 2026
Although President Donald Trump has given himself glowing marks for his economic record, the US job market has continued showing signs of weakness amid recent layoffs from some major employers.
The Associated Press on Thursday published a roundup of corporate layoffs that have been announced in recent months, highlighted by Amazon, which announced it was cutting an additional 16,000 jobs on Wednesday; United Parcel Service, which on Tuesday revealed plans to slash 30,000 jobs; and chemical maker Dow, which on Thursday said it would be reducing its workforce by 3,000.
And as reported by CNBC, retailer Home Depot announced on Wednesday that it was eliminating 800 positions as it struggles with slower sales that company executives blame on a dampened housing market caused by high interest rates.
The latest layoffs are not merely anecdotal data, but symbolic of a labor market that has been stuck in a rut for several months. As noted by economic analyst Steve Rattner in a Thursday social media post, average monthly employment growth has been "slightly above zero" ever since Trump first announced his market-shaking tariffs in April.
"When taking into account predicted downward revisions," Rattner added, "the data says we’re losing jobs."
This week's announced Amazon layoffs drew the ire of Americans for Tax Fairness, which pointed out that the Jeff Bezos-founded online retail giant has been the beneficiary of several big-ticket tax breaks for more the last several years.
"We've given Amazon $9.5 BILLION in tax breaks over the last 7 years," the group explained. "And for what? Their CEO made $263 million from 2018-2024. Since 2013, they've spent $857 million on stock buybacks and $161 million on lobbying. And they just announced they're laying off 16,000 workers."
The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos, is reportedly bracing for layoffs of its own.
A Thursday report from Semafor revealed that the Post's White House reporters wrote a letter to Bezos imploring him to back off a plan to make substantial cuts throughout the paper's staff.
"The effort from the Washington Post’s White House reporters comes as staffers are scrambling to preserve their jobs, with layoffs set to hit the newsroom hard in the coming weeks," Semafor reported. "Unconfirmed rumors have circulated in recent days about the scope of the cuts, which are expected to be as high as 300."
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Schumer Accused of 'Downright Complicity' as ICE Reform Plan Draws Backlash
"With Trump’s ICE murdering our neighbors, kidnapping children, and terrorizing our streets, do Senate Democrats want to be remembered as fighters or as complicit?" asked one advocate.
Jan 29, 2026
Every Senate Democrat, along with a small group of Republicans, voted Thursday to block a government funding package that includes $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, setting the stage for a fight over proposals to rein in the agency at the center of US President Donald Trump's lawless and violent mass deportation campaign.
Ahead of the 45-55 vote, progressives voiced concern that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is on the verge of caving to Republicans and relinquishing critical leverage yet again, pointing to the emerging contours of a deal between the Democratic leader and the Trump White House as the January 30 deadline to avert a government shutdown looms. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has called the ongoing talks "very constructive."
The American Prospect's David Dayen reported Thursday morning that a possible framework under consideration would separate the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding measure—which includes $10 billion more for ICE—from the other five appropriations bills currently before the Senate.
A short-term continuing resolution—reportedly as short as two weeks and as long as six—would keep DHS funded at last year's levels as negotiations over ICE reforms continue.
Schumer said his caucus has coalesced around a series of demands, including: a prohibition on federal immigration agents wearing masks, an end to roving ICE patrols, a body camera requirement, and use-of-force polices that align with those of local and state law enforcement.
"Body cameras and new training are not nearly enough to reverse the damage and terror that CBP and ICE have inflicted on our communities."
Dayen noted that while Schumer said Senate Democrats are "united" on ICE reforms, "these asks represent quite a bit less than other demands expressed by senators over the past week."
"Arguably many of these conditions are already part of ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] standards; the problem is a lack of enforcement," Dayen wrote. "Indeed, a new directive sent to ICE agents late Wednesday night instructed them to avoid talking to community members ('agitators,' to use their word) and to only target immigrants with criminal charges or convictions. That would encompass a good chunk of the Schumer demands."
From me: Chuck Schumer's legislative demands for DHS funding are so narrow they almost mirror what ICE/CBP have just announced in Minneapolis. Just as Republicans were conceding the need to negotiate, Democrats pre-negotiated themselves into mush.https://t.co/UoblF3XnLN pic.twitter.com/s5y40PjIjT
— David Dayen (@ddayen) January 29, 2026
Britt Jacovich, a spokesperson for MoveOn Civic Action, expressed skepticism about the Senate Democratic leadership's demands in a statement Thursday, warning that they don't go far enough.
“With Trump’s ICE murdering our neighbors, kidnapping children, and terrorizing our streets, do Senate Democrats want to be remembered as fighters or as complicit?" Jacovich asked. "Body cameras and new training are not nearly enough to reverse the damage and terror that CBP and ICE have inflicted on our communities."
Following Thursday's vote blocking the appropriations package, Jacovich said that "Senate Democrats must continue listening to the pleas from Minnesotans, parents, schoolteachers, clergy, and the majority of Americans who want ICE reined in and hold the line until we can finally unmask these reckless agents, get ICE out of our homes, and bring families back together."
Kate Voigt, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said lawmakers' vote against the appropriations package "is a testament to the power of the people, who made their voices heard and relentlessly called on their senators to rein in ICE’s abuses."
"Public opinion is firmly against the violence, chaos, and abuse of our rights being inflicted by the Trump-Vance administration’s cruel mass deportation agenda. The American people don’t want to live in Stephen Miller’s dystopian police state," said Voigt. "We applaud the senators refusing to be complicit in these police state tactics. Now we need them to insist on real, enforceable changes to rein in ICE and Border Patrol’s increasingly dangerous immigration enforcement operations. These safeguards aren’t just common sense—they're critical to the integrity of our laws and our freedom."
Despite mounting public pressure and nationwide anger over ICE atrocities—ideal conditions for a bold reform push—progressives are wary of Schumer's ability to secure concrete changes given that, over the past year, he has engineered two Democratic surrenders in high-stakes government funding fights.
Organizer Aaron Regunberg on Thursday shared a new petition—hosted at MoveOn.org—calling on Schumer to step aside as leader of the Senate Democratic caucus.
"Chuck Schumer is poised (again) to throw away Democrats' leverage with a deal that allows ICE weeks of completely unrestrained terror in the streets, so that once public outrage has subsided and Democrats are in a much weaker position, they can (maybe) negotiate some unenforceable reforms that ICE will abide by as much as they've abided by every other law they're currently breaking," the petition reads.
"Because of the incredible organizing of hundreds of thousands of Americans on the ground, and the ultimate sacrifice of heroes like Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, Democrats were finally in a position with real leverage," the petition continues. "To abandon that fight now, as Schumer is doing, is downright complicity. Americans, Democrats, and Renee and Alex deserve so much better. Chuck Schumer must resign."
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