Good morning! Today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Gerald of Mayo. That’s not really useful information, Gerald just seems like a weird name for a saint. And being from a place called Mayo is just embarrassing. Makes you wonder if future Catholics will celebrate, like, St. Brixleigh of Wichita or something.

EDUCATION

🏫 Is it time to say goodbye to the Department of Education?

Another day, another department. Cuts to the federal workforce that have become pretty much a daily occurrence over the past few months. And now they’ve come for the Department of Education. Sec. Linda “Mrs. WWE” McMahon announced this week that about 50% of its 4,133 employees are headed for the exits.

• About 600 people took one of Trump’s voluntary separation programs. The other 1,350 probably wish they had.

The Department of Education is the smallest Cabinet department by employee count. And while its $238 billion budget is one of the largest, it's still only about 2% of the total. Most U.S. education spending comes from state and local governments, so getting rid of this thing doesn't shut down schools or anything.

• The ED (its official, non-joke acronym) oversees federal student loans and grants, and enforces antidiscrimination laws.

• It doesn’t write curriculum, but it does mandate things like standardized tests. The department also provides about 13.6% of public K-12 education funding.

What's not in danger is the National School Lunch Program. That belongs to the Department of Agriculture. And Head Start comes from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Is he abolishing the whole department? He’d love to, but that would require an act of Congress — not a likely proposition with control split on a razor’s edge. Gutting its workforce to prevent the growth of what he believes are its most egregious problems (like interference with local schools) is the next best thing.

Why are they doing this? Republicans have largely opposed the existence of the federal Department of Education since Democrats created it in 1979. In their view, the Department of Education is the federal government taking your money and giving it back with strings attached. Opponents note that U.S. education rankings have tanked since the ED's creation and that about 60% of those who work in education are administrators rather than teachers.

The Department has plenty of defenders, too. They point to things like the funding it gives to schools in poor areas that might otherwise fall further behind. They love its programs for students with disabilities and its civil rights work. They worry these cuts will gut the department’s ability to ensure kids aren’t discriminated against. And they believe its testing requirements and the data it keeps are important metrics.

GOVERNMENT

💰️ The House of Representatives passed a Trump-backed budget to fund the government mostly at current levels through the end of the fiscal year in September. Over in the Senate, Republicans need bipartisan "yes" votes from eight Democrats to pass the bill, but that’s not guaranteed. Many Senate Democrats oppose it and want to push their own version. If the two chambers can't agree by midnight on Friday, the unfunded government will shut down all nonessential services until a budget is passed.

💻️ The Department of Justice (DOJ) says Google can hang on to Android, but wants it to sell Chrome. Getting rid of the world’s most popular browser isn’t a done deal. But it is one potential remedy suggested by the DOJ to settle its antitrust case against Google that ruled the tech giant an illegal monopoly in the search engine business. If Google is forced to offload Chrome, Bloomberg estimates it could fetch $20 billion.

🚗 Tesla stock jumped after President Trump bought one and said he would label increasing attacks against Tesla dealerships domestic terrorism. Whether the spate of vandalizations meets the legal definition of terrorism is up for debate. Cases may rest on whether the perpetrators are trying to intimidate or influence the government, which itself depends on the government employment status of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

ENVIRONMENT

🏭️ EPA takes a chainsaw to environmental regulations

President Trump has made “Unleashing American Energy” a core tenant of his administration’s plan to grow the economy and reduce inflation. He signed an executive order to that effect the day he took office. Now his EPA is acting, deeming onerous regulations a major impediment to those goals.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, called Wednesday “the most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.” He announced 31 actions the EPA is taking to fulfill Trump’s energy goals.

• Zeldin believes these moves will lower the cost of living by making it cheaper to buy a car, cheaper to heat your house, and easier to operate a business.

• He said he plans to lift “suffocating rules that restrict nearly every sector of our economy and cost Americans trillions of dollars.”

What’re we talking about here? First up is the so-called “endangerment finding.” This Obama-era rule says greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are dangerous to public health. Since then, the EPA has regulated basically everything that emits CO2, including cars, trucks, and power plants.

• Also on the auto front, the new EPA wants to dump Biden-era fuel emissions standards that opponents say will soon make it impossible to produce new gas-powered vehicles.

• On power plants, the Trump administration plans to lift Biden-era rules that govern power plant emissions (which mostly hit coal plants). They say the rules aren’t needlessly harsh beyond what’s needed for safety and make energy more expensive.

• The EPA also wants to roll back new-ish rules tied to the 1972 Clean Water Act. Many farmers and industry groups say the EPA has been wrongly regulating things like isolated wetlands that don’t tie back into the larger system of U.S. waterways.

In the view of the Trump administration, these regulations are economic kryptonite. They make it more expensive to run a farm, drill for oil, buy a car, and buy a refrigerator without actually making the environment any cleaner. Zeldin said wiping them out will help unleash a “golden age of American success.”

Help! The smog is already taking over! Opponents of axing these rules believe they’re making the world a cleaner, healthier place that’s more resilient in the face of climate change. After all, who opposes cleaner air and water? Environmental groups say the EPA's actions here are "dangerous" and an abdication of its duty.

TRIVIA

When it came time for future President Franklin D. Roosevelt to get married, he famously decided to keep it in the family and marry his fifth cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, née Roosevelt. Ole FDR isn’t the only president to marry family, unfortunately. After his first wife passed away, which U.S. president married her niece?

Hint: This guy’s grandpa was also president… for 31 days.

BRIEFS

● The former president of the Philippines has been arrested and charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Prosecutors claim the anti-drug operations run by Rodrigo Duterte, who retired in 2022, killed thousands of people.

● Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) will not seek reelection in 2026, dealing a blow to Democrats’ already slim chance of retaking the Senate next year. A potential run by popular former Gov. Chris Sununu (R) would further boost Republican fortunes.

● The U.S. has resumed military and intelligence aid to Ukraine after the country agreed to a potential 30-day ceasefire deal to halt its war with Russia. The White House says the ball is in Russia’s court now, but Putin is likely to make his own demands.

● Greenland's election saw a conservative, pro-gradual independence party win a surprise victory. Its main opposition favored a quicker break from Denmark and was viewed as more open to U.S. involvement. But the most pro-U.S. party came in fourth.

● The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is under fire for slashing $1.1 billion in funding meant to help schools and nonprofits buy food from local farms. The USDA defended the cut, calling the program a "nonessential" pandemic-era leftover.

QUOTE

ANSWER

They weren’t blood relatives, but marrying your niece-by-marriage is still creepy, right? Especially when she wasn’t even born when you married her aunt. But that didn’t stop Benjamin Harrison, no siree. His first wife tragically passed away in 1892 during his final year in the White House. Four years later, he remarried… a woman 25 years his junior... whom he happened to have known her entire life.