Policy Alerts
DHS Shutdown Enters Day 40+ — TSA Officers Working Without Pay. The Department of Homeland Security partial shutdown, triggered when Democrats blocked annual DHS appropriations over the administration's Operation Metro Surge immigration enforcement, has now stretched past 40 days. Thousands of TSA personnel have missed paychecks. Airport security lines have ballooned nationwide. The Senate passed a partial funding bill by voice vote on April 2 that covers TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA, and CISA — but explicitly excludes ICE and Customs and Border Protection. The House cleared the measure after Speaker Johnson secured President Trump's endorsement of a two-track approach: fund the non-controversial DHS components now, then pass ICE and CBP funding through budget reconciliation by June 1. Congress is in recess until the week of April 13. The far-right House flank remains opposed to any bill that separates immigration enforcement from the broader DHS package, making the timeline precarious.
Why it matters: Essential homeland security functions — port security, disaster response, cybersecurity — are being held hostage to an immigration policy dispute. Every day the shutdown continues, the nation's security posture degrades while federal workers bear the cost of congressional dysfunction.
Federal Legislative Activity
FY2026 Appropriations — Near Completion. Eleven of twelve FY2026 appropriations bills have been signed into law, covering Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, Agriculture, Military Construction-VA, Legislative Branch, Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Transportation-HUD, Financial Services and General Government, and National Security-State. The lone holdout is Homeland Security funding, now subject to the two-track strategy described above. A brief partial government shutdown on January 31 was resolved within days when the President signed a continuing resolution on February 3.
SAVE Act and SAVE America Act — Stalled in Senate. Both bills, which would require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, have passed the House but remain stuck in the Senate, where the 60-vote filibuster threshold has so far proved insurmountable. The administration's March 31 executive order on election integrity (detailed below) appears designed to achieve through executive action what Congress has not delivered legislatively. Status: Passed House; pending Senate floor action.
FEMA Act of 2025 — Oversight Provisions Worth Watching. This legislation would establish a dedicated FEMA Inspector General office, removing the agency from DHS OIG jurisdiction. It would also require the President to provide detailed justifications for approving or denying governors' major disaster declarations, mandate online dashboards for grant tracking, and direct the GAO to conduct research across eleven areas of federal disaster response. The bill represents the most significant proposed restructuring of federal emergency management accountability in decades. Status: Under committee consideration.
Executive & Agency Actions
Section 232 Tariffs on Pharmaceuticals — EO Signed April 2. President Trump signed an executive order imposing up to 100% ad valorem tariffs on imported patented pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. The order establishes a tiered incentive structure: companies that submit approved onshoring plans receive a reduced 20% rate; those that also enter Most Favored Nation pricing agreements pay zero tariffs through January 2029. Country-specific rates apply — the UK faces 10%, while the EU, Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland face 15%. Generic drugs, U.S.-origin products, and certain specialty products are exempt. Tariffs take effect July 31 for 17 named companies and September 29 for all others. The escalation clause raises the onshoring rate back to 100% by April 2030. Thirteen companies had already negotiated pre-order agreements with the Commerce Department.
Accountability note: The order's stated goal — forcing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to American soil and lowering drug prices — is ambitious. But the 120-day implementation window for major pharmaceutical companies, combined with multi-year construction timelines for sterile manufacturing facilities, raises serious questions about whether the incentive structure can deliver results before the escalation clause kicks in. Congress should demand quarterly progress reports from Commerce on onshoring commitments versus actual facility construction.
Election Integrity Executive Order — Signed March 31. The President signed an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to compile and transmit "State Citizenship Lists" of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote. The order also directs the U.S. Postal Service to initiate rulemaking within 60 days (by May 30) to deliver mail-in ballots only to voters on a preapproved list. A final USPS rule must be issued by July 29. The Attorney General is directed to take "all lawful steps" to address noncompliance, including withholding federal funds from noncompliant jurisdictions.
Legal challenges were immediate: on April 3, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a 23-state coalition lawsuit arguing the order unconstitutionally federalizes election administration, which the Constitution assigns to states and Congress. Federal courts have already blocked major provisions of the administration's earlier election executive orders. Constitutional scholars have noted that the order's primary statutory basis, 18 U.S.C. § 611, has never been closely scrutinized and may not survive legal challenge.
College Athletics Executive Order — Signed April 3. The President signed an order directing federal agencies to evaluate whether universities that violate key college sports rules on transfers, eligibility, and pay-for-play should be deemed unfit for federal grants and contracts. While framed as preserving "the unique American institution of college athletics," this order effectively leverages the federal funding apparatus to enforce athletic governance — a significant expansion of executive branch involvement in higher education administration.
FEMA Review Council — Extended March 24. The President extended the FEMA Review Council through May 29, 2026, or until 10 days after the council submits its required report — whichever comes first. The council, established in January 2025, was originally supposed to deliver its report by October 2025. A scheduled December 2025 vote on recommendations was indefinitely postponed. Leaked drafts suggest the report will recommend reducing the federal disaster cost-sharing minimum from 75% to 50% and cutting up to half of FEMA's workforce over two to three years.
Accountability note: A review council that misses its own deadline by seven months, postpones its own vote indefinitely, and then gets its mandate quietly extended raises obvious oversight questions. The American public deserves to know what the council found, what it recommends, and why the process has been shrouded in delay. Congress should subpoena the draft report.
State Watch
Religious Charter Schools — Constitutional Flashpoint. Oklahoma's Statewide Charter School Board is weighing an application from Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School to become the nation's first religious public charter school. A coalition of civil rights organizations has urged rejection, arguing it violates church-state separation. Meanwhile, a Tennessee court has allowed parent-taxpayers to intervene in litigation over a religious charter school in Knox County. These cases will likely set precedent on whether public charter school frameworks can accommodate religious institutions — a question with massive implications for the school choice movement and First Amendment jurisprudence nationwide.
Title IX and State Education Policy. The HHS Office for Civil Rights initiated compliance reviews of the Maine Department of Education and investigated Minnesota's policies on sports participation and gender identity. Both the Department of Education and HHS ultimately found that Minnesota violated Title IX. These federal enforcement actions signal that the administration will use Title IX as a lever to shape state-level education policy, with religious liberty and parental rights implications that extend far beyond athletics.
Religious Liberty Commission — Clock Ticking. The Religious Liberty Commission, established by executive order on May 1, 2025 and led by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, has a term expiring July 4, 2026. The commission's findings and recommendations, expected to shape the administration's approach to religious accommodation and First Amendment policy, have yet to be publicly released. With fewer than 90 days remaining, the commission's output — or lack thereof — warrants close attention.
Oversight Tracker
Congressional Recess Creates Oversight Gap. Congress is in recess until April 13. During this period, the executive branch continues to operate under the expanded authorities of multiple executive orders — pharmaceutical tariffs, election administration rulemaking, FEMA restructuring — without active congressional oversight or hearing schedules. The USPS rulemaking on mail ballot delivery, in particular, has a May 30 deadline that will arrive with minimal legislative scrutiny if committees do not schedule hearings immediately upon return.
FEMA Draft Report — Still Under Wraps. Multiple journalists have examined drafts of the FEMA Review Council's final report, but the council has made no public-facing publications and held no public meetings in months. The proposed cuts to federal disaster cost-sharing and FEMA staffing carry enormous implications for every state and locality in the country. The absence of formal publication, public comment periods, or congressional testimony on these recommendations represents a significant accountability deficit.
DHS Inspector General Jurisdiction. As noted above, the FEMA Act of 2025 would establish a standalone FEMA Inspector General. Currently, FEMA falls under the DHS OIG — the same department whose partial shutdown has disrupted oversight capacity across the homeland security enterprise. The structural vulnerability of housing FEMA oversight within a department subject to political funding disputes underscores the case for an independent IG.
The VALOR Institute Legislative Tracker is published weekly. All bill numbers, executive order citations, and vote counts are sourced from official government records. This tracker is intended as an intelligence brief for informed citizens who believe accountability is not optional.