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Virginia SWAM bill faces legal challenges over race and sex, experts say | Fox News

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger gives the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address.

A Virginia state bill passed along party lines directing state agencies to consider the race and sex of small businesses’ ownership when distributing discretionary funds for procurement and contracts is likely to face major legal headwinds, experts told Fox News Digital.

The Small SWAM Business Procurement Enhancement Program act “provides that executive branch agencies and covered institutions are required to increase their small SWaM business utilization rates by three percent per year until reaching the 42-percent target or, if unable to do so, to implement achievable goals to increase their utilization rates,” according to its text. SWAM stands for small, women-owned, and minority-owned.

Purchases between $10,000 and $200,000 must be set aside to be awarded to SWAM businesses as well, according to the text of the bill drafted by Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton.

[INVESTIGATION OF NIKE’S DEI PRACTICES COULD HAVE MAJOR NATIONWIDE IMPACT ON HIRING, SAYS ALAN DERSHOWITZ]

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger offers the Democratic response to the State of the Union.(Mike Kropf/Getty Images)

As the bill approaches Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk, Oversight Project vice president of legal Kyle Brosnan told Fox News Digital it appears par for the course for the way Richmond is moving.

Brosnan said the bill constitutes “clearly intentional discrimination against White men.”

“Since reclaiming total control of state government, Virginia Democrats have shown their true colors as nothing short of radical ideologues,” Brosnan said.

[Former Virginia attorney general sounds off on ODU terror attack, Spanberger policies]

“By setting race and sex quotas for 42 percent of the state discretionary spending on government contracts, Gov. Spanberger and her far left enablers in Richmond are showing their true colors as radicals.”

Zach Smith, a former federal prosecutor for the Northern District of Florida, added that whenever the government proposes to treat people differently based on race and gender, it is unconstitutional.

“I think we saw the Supreme Court speak explicitly to this with its Harvard and UNC decisions, banning the use of race in admissions in higher education,” he said.

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[Illegal immigrant charged with groping Fairfax High School students]

“As a result of that Students for Fair Admissions decision, we’ve seen some federal courts apply that same logic to other federal government programs that seek to prioritize minority-owned businesses are treating people differently based on their race and so I would certainly think the same logic would apply to this state law action as well.”

That Supreme Court case saw Chief Justice John Roberts author the majority opinion and Justice Clarence Thomas write a concurrence in a historic decision ending affirmative action in college admissions.

“While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination, I hold our enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles [that] all men are created equal … and must be treated equally before the law,” Thomas said at the time.

[DEM GOVERNOR-ELECT TAPS CROCKETT’S FORMER ‘CHIEF BRAND STRATEGIST’ FOR TOP DEI ROLE]

Smith said that even prior to such, the Supreme Court found quotas “impermissible” and that if Spanberger signs the bill there will be business owners who are outraged and will demand accountability.

“I do think there is likely going to be litigation surrounding this because this would involve a federal constitutional issue in addition to other legal claims that may be raised,” he said in a Wednesday interview.

[CORPORATE AMERICA HAS DECIDED THAT DEI NEEDS TO DIE]

A welcome sign is posted in the grass near the intersection of Lee Highway, Key Bridge, and the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Rosslyn, Arlington County, Virginia.(Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Brosnan agreed, criticizing the bill’s section requiring Virginia taxpayers to fund $1 million for systems updates, staffing and reporting to “institutionalize discrimination” in his words.

“It also “sets aside” government contracts of up to $200,000 for women and minority owned businesses, so long as their bids are no more than 5% higher than the lowest “noncertified” — read ‘White male-owned’ — business.”

“Did Virginians expect to get this institutionalized wokeism when they voted for the ‘moderate’ governor?” he asked.

The conservative outlet “The Federalist” said the bill instituted “racial rigging” and reported a section of the bill enforces the director of the Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity to conduct a “disparity study” every five years, which the outlet said translated to determining how to reduce the number of White males winning government contracts.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger for an indication as to whether she will sign the bill. Fox News Digital also reached out to Ward, who is also the chairwoman of the Labor & Commerce Committee on Capitol Square.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.

Iran hangs 3 people, including teen wrestler, in first executions over January protests

March 19, 2026 / 1:13 PM EDT / CBS/AFP

Iran executed three men on Thursday who were accused of killing police officers during protests in January, with activists warning of the risk of a new surge in hangings as war rages with Israel and the United States.

They were the first hangings Iran has carried out related to the nationwide demonstrations that were met with a brutal crackdown by the authorities.

Two sources confirmed to CBS News that Saleh Mohammadi, a young member of Iran’s national wrestling team, was among the three men executed in Iran.

Rights groups said the trio were executed without a fair trial and had given confessions under torture.

Mohammadi, Mehdi Ghasemi, and Saeed Davoudi were hanged in the city of Qom, south of Tehran, after being convicted of the capital crime of waging war against God, known as moharebeh under Iran’s sharia, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.

They had been found guilty of involvement in the killing of two police officers and carrying out

3 reasons the Federal Reserve’s interest rate pause is worrying investors

March 19, 2026 / 2:31 PM EDT / CBS News

The fog from the Iran war is obscuring the Federal Reserve’s view of the U.S. economy.

Investors were rattled on Wednesday, when the central bank said it is holding interest rates steady, after Fed Chair Jerome Powell repeatedly underlined the mounting uncertainty caused by the escalating Middle East violence. Stocks slumped during his afternoon press conference, and have continued to drop on Thursday.

“The Fed is frozen,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, told CBS News. “We’re in this world where clearly the risks are elevated to the extreme, and the No. 1 question for the economy is when does the Strait of Hormuz reopen — and that isn’t really an economic question.”

About 20% of the world’s oil supply travels through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, which has been effectively paralyzed by the Iran war.

Here are three reasons the Fed’s latest economic outlook is causing investors to fret.

The Fed looks frozen

During Wednesday’s press conference, Powell used the phrase “we don’t know” at least 14 times and said “wait-and-see” another four times. The upshot, according to EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco: The Fed doesn’t want to preemptively adjust monetary policy given the roiling uncertainties around how the Iran war could evolve.

“It seems clear that the Fed was blindsided by recent inflation data and paralyzed by the Iran conflict, leaving [Fed] participants caught like deer in the headlights,” Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist at SGH Macro Advisors, told clients in a report.

The Fed on Wednesday also released its latest Summary of Economic Projections, a quarterly report that outlines its members’ expectations for everything from inflation to economic growth. The forecast shows that Fed officials expect inflation to be slightly hotter in 2026 than in their December forecast.

At the same time, Powell downplayed his confidence in that outlook, highlighting the unknowns now facing the central bank as oil and gas prices surge due to the Iran war.

“The thing I really want to emphasize is that nobody knows,” Powell said. “The economic effect could be bigger, they could be smaller, they could be much smaller or much bigger. We just don’t know.”

Rate cuts may be off the table this year

Powell’s remarks suggest the Fed may opt against lowering its benchmark interest rate in 2026, economists noted. Before the meeting, the Fed had been expected to cut rates once or even twice this year, Long noted.

Now, CME FedWatch, which tracks expectations for the Fed’s rate decisions, shows an almost 75% probability of no rate cuts this year.

“That’s a pretty big shift,” she added.

The so-called “dot plot” — a chart that shows where each Fed official expects the federal funds rate will be in the near future — also signals that Fed members are less confident that additional rate cuts could occur in 2026, noted Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank.

Seven Fed officials penciled in no rate cuts in 2026, while seven support one, and five policymakers predict two or more.

“Overall, the dot plot of median rate expectations highlights a deeply divided committee,” Daco said.

The job market has stalled

The Federal Reserve’s dual mandate requires it to keep inflation low while also ensuring full employment.

On Wednesday, Powell noted that the unemployment rate remains relatively low, at 4.4%, but added that job creation has slowed to a standstill. “Effectively, there is zero net job creation in the private sector,” he said.

Typically, the Fed cuts interest rates to bolster the job market because lower borrowing costs make it cheaper for businesses to expand and hire new workers. But the central bank is balancing labor market weakness with stubborn inflation, which has remained above the Fed’s annual 2% annual target and which is expected to rise because of surging energy prices.

A plus for U.S. workers is that layoffs remain low by historical standards. Still, that doesn’t mean the job market is humming, experts noted. The U.S. shed 92,000 jobs in February, an unexpected setback after economists had forecast a gain.

“The United States is in a hiring recession,” Long said. “Americans are worried and frustrated about it — it’s really hard to get a job right now.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/impact-of-rising-fuel-costs-on-feds-interest-rate-decision/

Huge Trump Iran war funding request faces stiff opposition in Congress

March 19, 2026 7:31 PM UTC / Reuters

Item 1 of 2 Smoke rises after air strikes, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran in this screengrab obtained from a social media video released on March 16, 2026. Social Media/via REUTERS T

[1/2]Smoke rises after air strikes, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran in this screengrab obtained from a social media video released on March 16, 2026. Social Media/via REUTERS T

• Summary

• ‘It takes money to kill bad guys,’ Hegseth says
• Congress has already boosted Pentagon funding
• Some Republicans also surprised at size of possible request

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. military’s request for $200 billion in additional funding for the Iran war met with stiff opposition in ​the U.S. Congress on Thursday, as Democrats and even some Republicans questioned the need for the money after large defense ‌appropriations last year.

A U.S. official confirmed a Washington Post report that the Department of Defense has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran.

The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. Sign up here.

President Donald Trump has not yet sent a request for the Senate and House of Representatives to approve the huge sum ​and his administration made clear the number could change.

“I think that number could move, obviously. It takes money to kill bad guys,” ​Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told a news conference on Thursday. “So we’re going back to Congress and folks ⁠there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future.”

Early indications suggest ​that the war will be the most expensive for the U.S. since the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Administration officials told lawmakers that the first ​six days of the Iran war had cost more than $11 billion.

Opinion polls show that the war is not popular, with only about one in four Americans supporting it.

The Republican-led Congress has already approved record funding for the military since Trump began his second term in January 2025. Last month, he signed into law the Fiscal 2026 ​Defense Appropriations Act with about $840 billion in funding.

And last summer, over stiff opposition from Democrats, the Republican-led Congress passed a sweeping tax cut and ​spending bill that included $156 billion for defense.

Democrats questioned why the Pentagon needed more money, given recent cuts to social services, foreign aid and other programs, and ‌said that ⁠no one who opposes the war should vote to fund it.

CONGRESS WANTS MORE INFORMATION

U.S. and Israeli forces launched the campaign against Iran on February 28. As the war neared the end of its third week, lawmakers, both Democrats and some Republicans, have clamored for more information about Trump’s plans for a conflict that has killed thousands of people, disrupted the lives of millions of others and roiled world energy and stock markets.

“We just ​heard that the Pentagon is putting ​forward a request for $200 billion more ⁠for this war. How on Earth are we going to pay for that? It is absolutely ridiculous,” Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington said in a speech in the House of Representatives.

After receiving briefings from administration ​officials, lawmakers estimated the war is costing $1 billion to $2 billion per day.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of ​Maryland said the ⁠request should be a non-starter with members of Congress. “The best way to end this war, protect our troops, save civilian lives, and rein in a lawless Administration is to cut off funding. I’m a hell no,” he wrote on X.

Some of Trump’s fellow Republicans also seemed surprised at the amount being ⁠considered. Republican ​Senator Susan Collins, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday ​night she had not yet been notified about a $200 billion supplemental request.

She said the total is “considerably higher than I would have guessed, but I don’t know how it’s broken ​down.”

Collins also said she would most likely want a public hearing on such a request.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee and Edmund Klamann

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

节点运行失败

Congressional Republicans are urging the Trump administration to make illegal Chinese-made e-cigarettes a bigger trade and law-enforcement priority, framing the issue as both a public health concern and a politically advantageous one for the 2026 midterms.

“As trade discussions with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) advance, it is critical that the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the Department of the Treasury confront the ongoing exploitation of our trade system,” Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, wrote in a joint letter from 70 House Republicans to USTR Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Any new trade agreement with China should require the Chinese government, through its oversight of e-cigarette exports, to take decisive action to curb the influx of illegal, youth-oriented e-cigarettes that openly flout U.S. and Chinese law.”

A crackdown on unauthorized imported vapes allows Republicans to combine anti-China messaging, child-protection rhetoric and law-and-order enforcement in one issue, a GOP operative working on the 2026 midterms told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

TOM COTTON DEMANDS FDA PROBE INTO ILLEGAL CHINESE INGREDIENTS IN US WEIGHT LOSS DRUGS

That makes it especially attractive in battleground districts, where candidates often look for broad, cross-pressured themes that can win over independents and soft partisans on an 80-20 issue in battleground districts.

“Cracking down on illegal Chinese vapes is not only smart policy – it’s what voters want, and members of Congress are right to act on it,” the operative wrote in a statement.

Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, warned this week that unapproved devices from China were appearing in Iowa communities.

“Illegal Chinese vapes designed to hook kids on nicotine are showing up in Iowa communities, and the FDA never approved any of them,” Nunn wrote on X. “As a dad of six, I’m fighting back.”

Illegal Chinese e-cigarettes are a trade and health concern that Republicans need to jump on as a winner for the 2026 midterm battlegrounds, a GOP operative says.(CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

AS TRUMP TOUTS TARIFF WINDFALL, BATTLEGROUND STATES SHOULDER BILLIONS IN COSTS

Federal and state authorities under President Donald Trump have built a long list of enforcement actions.

In one of the largest operations, Health and Human Services, through the Food and Drug Administration and Customs and Border Protection, said they seized 4.7 million unauthorized e-cigarette units in Chicago with an estimated retail value of $86.5 million, calling it the largest-ever seizure of its kind.

Separately, the FDA and CBP announced another Chicago operation involving nearly 2 million unauthorized e-cigarettes valued at roughly $33.8 million.

Illegal Chinese vapes target young users in the U.S. and pose health and even national security risks, House Republicans warned in a letter to the Trump administration.(iStock)

TRUMP UNLEASHES ‘TOUGHEST FENTANYL CRACKDOWN IN HISTORY’ AS GOP VOWS ‘CONSEQUENCES’ FOR CHINESE PRODUCERS

The broader administration crackdown has extended beyond ports of entry. In September 2025, the DEA said its “Operation Vape Trail” seized more than 2.3 million vape devices and cartridges and more than 100 weapons during a nationwide enforcement action targeting illegal substances in vape shops.

And, in Virginia, “Operation Magic Dragon” targeted vape retail establishments tied to broader alleged criminal activity, with authorities reporting seizures that included drugs and firearms.

That enforcement record helps explain why Republican strategists see the issue as unusually strong politics.

“Cracking down on illegal Chinese vapes is not only smart policy – it’s what voters want, and members of Congress are right to act on it,” a GOP operative says.(Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images)

“Any candidate not making this issue a priority is leaving votes on the table that could be helping President Trump secure his trifecta once again,” the GOP operative concluded.

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“When 80% of voters in swing districts are behind an issue, it’s a signal to prioritize it.”

Eric Mack is a writer for Fox News Digital covering breaking news.

Fired FBI agents who worked on Trump 2020 election probe sue for wrongful termination

March 19, 2026 / 2:38 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington— Two former FBI agents who helped investigate President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results sued the federal government on Thursday, alleging they were wrongfully terminated simply because they worked on the probe.

The lawsuit, filed against FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and their respective agencies, is the latest in a growing number of cases being filed by former agents who allege they were fired for political reasons without due process.

The lawsuit does not name the two former agents, each of whom worked on the 2020 election case that was known internally at the FBI as “Arctic Frost.” They are referred to as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 in the suit.

The former agents are asking the court to find that their First and Fifth Amendment rights were violated and to reinstate them to their previous jobs.

The firings took place in the fall of 2025, not long after unredacted internal documents from the investigation were released publicly to Congress.

“FBI Director Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel summarily fired each Plaintiff. No internal investigation, notice, or hearing preceded their firings. Nor were Plaintiffs presented with any evidence purportedly supporting their firings or given an opportunity to appeal,” the former agents allege in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Lawsuit from former FBI agents suing over their firing

Page of 41

Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the FBI could not be immediately reached for comment.

In the lawsuit, the former agents said their firings run afoul of FBI policy, which stipulates that agents can only be removed for cause, such as poor performance on the job, abuse of leave, misconduct, national security concerns or an inability to perform their duties.

One of the fired agents was asked to help with the 2020 election probe, led by special counsel Jack Smith, because of the need for financial investigative expertise. However, the work he ultimately performed was “largely administrative and ministerial,” the lawsuit says.

“Despite his listing as a point of contact, John Doe 1 himself prepared very few Arctic Frost subpoena requests and performed only a minor role in the investigation,” it added.

The second former agent, John Doe 2, was also not a lead investigator for the case, and served in a “supporting role, handling tasks such as recording interviews when requested by lead agents or prosecutors, arranging for transcription services for recorded interviews, and keeping track of interview logs and records,” the lawsuit says.

John Doe 1 was informed of his firing on Halloween 2025, as he was about to go trick-or-treating with his children, the lawsuit says.

John Doe 2 was terminated a few days later. At the time, he was working on “a high-profile fraud against the government investigation” and he had just briefed both Patel and former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on the case.

At the time, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro tried to intervene to save the agent from being fired because of the important work he was involved with for her office, but the effort failed, according to the lawsuit.

Since their terminations, both former agents have struggled to find new jobs, the suit said.

Elizabeth Tulis, a partner at Perry Law and an attorney for the former agents, said that her clients “did exactly what they were trained to do: they accepted an assignment from their supervisors and carried it out professionally and apolitically.”

“The government fired them not because they did anything wrong, but solely because of their assignment to an investigation involving then-former President Trump, and a perception that the agents were therefore political non-supporters of President Trump,” Tulis said. “The First Amendment forbids this kind of political retaliation.”

Homeland Security Secretary-designate Markwayne Mullin was challenged Wednesday over concerns that the Trump administration could position ICE agents near polling places this November.

The back-and-forth with Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., comes amid warnings from some on the right that many blue states’ election security policies are potentially allowing illegal immigrants to cast ballots for races they are prohibited from participating in.

Illegal immigrants are allowed to vote in certain local elections, starting with Takoma Park, Maryland, in 1993, but are federally banned from voting for congressional and presidential candidates.

When asked by Slotkin whether the feds or the states run elections, Mullin cited the Constitution in responding that they are a state responsibility that includes some federal oversight.

TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON CALLS FOR GOP TO ‘NATIONALIZE’ VOTING AS CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS BALK

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., gestures during his confirmation hearing.(Olivier Contreras/Getty Images)

“So if you’re talking about the SAVE America Act requiring you, which is within the Constitution, by the way… to be citizens of the United States, I don’t think it’s too much to ask somebody to prove they’re a citizen of the U.S. to vote in a federal election,” he said.

Slotkin said she was not inferring any controversy over the SAVE Act, which remains held up in the Senate, but instead was raising concerns about immigration enforcement activity on Election Day.

“If you are secretary of Homeland Security, do you feel you have the authority to put uniformed officers at polling locations in 2026?” she asked. Mullin replied he had discussed the subject with her in her office and confirmed he would only dispatch ICE if there was a “specific threat” and “not for intimidation.”

Slotkin countered by questioning the type of threat that could arise, adding that such agents were not dispatched during dangerous periods in history, like World War II or the War on Terror.

DHS SAYS ICE AGENTS WILL NOT BE AT POLLING PLACES DURING MIDTERMS

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., votes during a session in the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 23, 2025.(Tom Williams/Getty Images)

Mullin said he couldn’t engage in hypotheticals other than to reiterate that if there was a threat to a group like the Jewish community – which Slotkin brought up in a previous exchange about the threat landscape – that the public would understand why DHS needed to be in a certain area.

“I think the reason you’re here and not Kristi Noem is because Americans trust their local law enforcement now way more than they trust ICE. So I would just say, if we ever get to the point where you are being asked to put armed ICE officers at polling locations, we have lost the plot as a country,” Slotkin said.

“And until I hear someone tell me that this man, President Trump, will actually allow us to have a free and fair election, there is zero trust here, and I cannot trust that he won’t try and steal it.”

With illegal immigrants ineligible to vote in federal and most state and municipal elections, conservatives have questioned why the idea of ICE at the polls is so controversial among Democrats, with some offering their own conjecture about potential “stealing.”

Connecticut lawmakers are reportedly set to vote on a ban on enforcement activity within 250 feet of a polling place without a warrant in the Constitution State. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., is looking to pass a similar nationwide ban, according to a post on his social media.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT’S TWO DECADES OF UNLAWFUL VOTES EXPOSE THE REAL ‘THREAT’ TO DEMOCRACY: EXPERTS

New Mexico has already banned ICE from the proximity of polls, while federal law prohibits deployment of armed forces to such unless “necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.” Virginia is also considering a similar ban that also includes courthouse confines.

Connecticut state Rep. Matthew Blumenthal, D-Stamford, whose father Richard questioned Mullin at the U.S. Senate hearing, authored the 250-foot-ban bill and told the AP there is a fear that the Trump administration will “attempt to evoke a national emergency or execute some other deployment of federal agents or military troops in order to interfere with elections and intimidate voters.”

However, some pro-Trump voices have called for ICE activity to prevent any potential nefarious voting.

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Stephen Bannon, the former White House advisor, said on a February airing of his “War Room” program that “we’re going to have ICE surround the polls in November.”

“You’ve got to get around every poll and make sure only people with IDs, [those] actually registered to vote and people that are United States citizens vote in this election,” he said, according to Politico.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.

Cracks emerge in GOP over Iran war cost as administration floats more than $200B request to Congress

2026-03-19T18:33:16.004Z / CNN Politics

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PUBLISHED Mar 19, 2026, 2:33 PM ET

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President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, on Wednesday.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Cracks are emerging among congressional Republicans over the Iran war with key lawmakers skeptical about spending hundreds of billions of dollars to prolong the conflict and several refusing to support any money without a clear White House strategy.

In the coming weeks, [President Donald Trump] could ask Congress to spend as much as $200 billion to fund the ongoing war. But it will be enormously difficult to pass. GOP leaders do not believe they have the votes to fund the war even in their own party without far more detailed plans from the White House, according to multiple people involved in those preliminary discussions.

Trump previewed the funding request on Thursday, saying he wants to ensure the military has “vast amounts of ammunition” but without offering specifics on what the Pentagon needed the funding for.

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“We want to be in the best shape, the best shape we’ve ever been in,” Trump said from the Oval Office Thursday. “It’s a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top.”

The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a request to Congress for over $200 billion in additional military funding to fund the ongoing war, according to two sources familiar with the matter. It will likely be days, if not weeks, before that request comes to Congress. Yet already, many lawmakers – even some Republicans – appear skeptical of approving such a large sum, particularly since the Trump administration has yet to seek Capitol Hill’s approval for the war with Iran, which is about to enter its fourth week. The White House and Pentagon have yet to articulate a clear timeline for ending military operations, which is a major concern inside the Capitol, sources said.

The supplemental funding request would, in part, be used to help offset munitions expenditures and operations costs from the conflict — which totaled roughly $11 billion during just the first week of military strikes alone, the sources said. Some of the requested funding could also go toward other areas not directly associated with the Iran war, both sources added – an accounting maneuver the Pentagon has used before to fund defense projects.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday morning the figure could change because “it takes money to kill bad guys.” But he and other administration officials will need to make a hard sell to their own party about quickly approving that request.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth arrives for a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a staunch Trump ally, told CNN she would not support more money for Iran under any circumstance.

“I am a no. I have already told leadership. I am a no on any war supplemental. I am so tired of spending money over there,” Boebert told CNN. “I have folks in Colorado who can’t afford to live. We need America first policies right now.”

So far, Boebert is an outlier in her party. But plenty more Republicans told CNN they are increasingly anxious about whether the US is being dragged into an “endless war” that Trump himself ran against. Several said they would only consider the Iran funding request if the White House better explains its plans — including the [possibility of thousands] of US troops being sent to the Middle East.

“What are we doing? We’re talking about boots on the ground. We’re talking about that kind of extended activity. Now we’re in a whole ‘nother zip code,” Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a fiscal hawk who has long scrutinized Pentagon spending, told CNN. “They got a whole lot more briefing and a whole lot more explaining to do on how we’re going to pay for it and what’s the mission here?”

Fellow fiscal hawk, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, added: “It begs the question, how long do they plan to be there? What are the goals? Is this the first $200 billion? Does this turn into a trillion?”

It’s not just the GOP’s hard-right wing with questions. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski — a centrist and top GOP spending leader in the Senate — said she won’t fund more money for the war until the White House outlines its plan to Congress.

“The people in Alaska are asking me how long is this going on? Are there going to be boots on the ground, how much is this going to cost?” Murkowski said Thursday. “The answer to most of this is I don’t know.”

GOP anxiety over boots on the ground

The question of ground troops, in particular, is rattling Republicans, with even Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress advising a quick exit. GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL, told CNN he has specifically advised the administration against any boots on the ground: “I don’t want to see it.”

“I think we need to find an exit strategy as fast as possible,” added Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee. “I don’t want to put Americans on the ground out there in any shape, form or fashion.”

Congressional Republicans have so far avoided publicly entwining themselves in the Iran war. They’ve been briefed in secret. They’ve taken no formal votes authorizing the action. And they’ve chugged away on their own agenda.

People sift through the rubble in a house in Tehran, Iran, on March 15, two days after it was damaged by missile attacks.

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

As the Pentagon’s price tag increases, though, Congress will soon be in charge of what’s next. Behind the scenes, some Republicans have joined Democrats in pressing administration officials about the war’s costs, multiple sources told CNN. Only two cost assessments – both in the billions –have been shared with lawmakers to date, and both are incomplete.

Some Republicans are already laying out conditions for any more Pentagon money. Roy, Burchett and Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee told CNN they want the money offset.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, meanwhile, told CNN he wants to pay for it by targeting the “boatload of waste, fraud and abuse through the federal government.”

Rep. Eric Burlison said the Pentagon should “pass an audit” before he could consider backing $200 billion in additional funds: “We’ve known that they haven’t passed an audit in many, many years, so I want to it’ll give me comfort to if they pass an audit, and then I’ll know that at least they’re keeping track of the dollars.”

Other fiscal hawks including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rick Scott of Florida said they want more details about the war funding request before weighing in on how they would vote.

“I don’t want to get too far over my skis on this, I’d like to see what they actually request,” Hawley said.

Meanwhile, anxiety is creeping up in the GOP about the possibility of a long-term conflict, with a critical election ahead and an already-skyrocketing national debt.

Privately, many lawmakers and operatives acknowledge the political reality in Washington: This GOP is simply no longer the hawkish party of decades past. In less than a decade, Republicans went from a party led by war hero Sen. John McCain to one led by Trump and MAGA with his “no more forever wars” mantra.

GOP leaders have maintained that it’s a short-term war, with Speaker Mike Johnson insisting on Thursday that the US mission will end “very soon,” while acknowledging that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz “is dragging it out a little bit.”

“It’s a limited operation, the mission is all but complete,” Johnson said.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks with reporters in the US Capitol on Thursday.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP

Johnson, along with his Senate counterpart, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, were both noncommittal about whether Congress would fulfill the White House’s Iran funding request, the price tag of which the Washington Post first reported.

Thune said “it remains to be seen” if it could pass in the Senate where it would likely need several Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster.

“I think they’re going to have to show us how they want to use it,” Thune said. “For sure.”

But Republicans are concerned that a prolonged war, where gas prices continue to increase will hurt their chances in the midterms.

“We know that we are temporarily going to have higher gas and petroleum prices, but if those prices stayed high, if we continue to have problems with the Strait of Hormuz, if we continue to be involved in this, then it’s more of an issue,” GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew said.

Across Washington, most Democrats remain adamantly opposed to Trump’s war and even centrist, pro-Israel Democrats have told CNN they remain skeptical of funding the war under current conditions. That further complicates Trump’s push to pay for the operation — which would typically need at least some support from Senate Democrats to get any bill to his desk.

GOP leaders are already drawing up an alternative plan: Approving the war funds using the same budgetary tool they used to pass Trump’s tax cuts last year.

But that path would expose a massive divide in the GOP, with fiscal hawks eager to use the special powers to bypass a filibuster to tackle major overhauls of government programs — like the contentious Medicaid cuts. Republicans close to GOP leadership, however, have said that would be an enormous lift.

As Republicans await the formal funding request from the White House, many are hoping to see a major deescalation in the coming weeks.

GOP Rep. Mike Flood, who stood at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware earlier this month at the dignified transfer of six fallen soldiers who were killed in Kuwait, including a sergeant from his state, said he doesn’t “want families to go through that” and hopes the war is nearly over.

“Everybody wants this over,” Flood said.

CNN’s Alison Main, Ted Barrett and Ellis Kim contributed to this report.

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US DOJ, White House clearing way to keep Powell probe going, Bloomberg News reports

By Reuters
March 19, 2026 6:52 PM UTC Updated 36 mins ago

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U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

March 19 (Reuters) – The leaders at the U.S. Justice Department are rallying behind federal prosecutor Jeanine Pirro to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the White House is not ⁠opposing, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing sources.

U.S. President Donald Trump had been open to the idea of dropping the probe into Powell until last Friday, ⁠when a judge rejected subpoenas issued to the central bank, but he is now ⁠believed by aides and allies to support a push to ⁠appeal, the report said.

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Reuters could not immediately ⁠verify the report.

Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Mexico City; Editing by Chris Reese

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Book excerpt: “Stand” by Cory Booker

March 19, 2026 / 1:31 PM EDT / CBS News

St. Martin’s Press

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“We are more than a government,” writes New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. “We are a nation, a people bound by shared bedrock virtues.”

In his new book, [“Stand”] (to be published March 24 by St. Martin’s Press), Booker tells us that, at a time when America is splintered in many areas of public life, virtue is a strategy that can awaken our sense of common cause.

Read the introduction below, and don’t miss Faith Salie’s interview with Cory Booker on “CBS Sunday Morning” March 22!

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[“Stand” by Cory Booker]

Prefer to listen?[Audible]has a 30-day free trial available right now.

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Introduction

This book is about virtue.

I know how that might sound—lofty, abstract, even detached from the crises we face.

Our nation is fractured. In our communities, and even in our families, tribalism drives us not merely to disagree with but to despise one another. Politics has become an obsession with enemies. Demagoguery is ascendant. Authoritarianism threatens our constitutional principles.

Corruption is being normalized. Hope feels scarce. What we are against preoccupies our attention, while the deeper question of what we are for is left unanswered.

So I can already hear someone objecting: Dear God, Booker, our country is in crisis and you want to talk about … virtue?

Yes.

Virtue is not a luxury or an end in itself. Virtue—the disciplined practice of our highest ideals—is the strategy through which we as a nation survive and prevail.

It is how we fight. It is how we win. It is how we heal.

The ten virtues I have selected for this book—agency, vulnerability, patriotism, truth, humility, community, creativity, perseverance, grace, and vision—are practices I have wrestled with in my own life. Over the next ten chapters, I explore how these virtues were the keys to success, survival, redemption, and renewal in the lives of individuals and the life of our country, and I argue why each is desperately needed in this moment. From George Washington to Conan O’Brien, from suffragist Alice Paul to disability rights activist Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, from Abraham Lincoln to John Lewis, I have looked to the stories of leaders from our past and present, along with lessons I have learned the hard way in my own life, for instruction in our time of crisis and challenge.

In this book, I argue that many Americans who came before us, and many among us today, have consistently proven that virtues are practical: They expand our power, deepen our sense of belonging, and equip us to endure and ultimately prevail. Virtue is a strategy that wins elections, moves legislation, and shapes government priorities. But, most importantly, virtue is a strategy that transcends: awakening our sense of common cause, reigniting our shared convictions, and rekindling the belief that our destiny is bound together. In turn, virtue makes the practical work of governing effectively all the more possible.

In the early days of the Civil War, when the survival of the United States of America itself hung in the balance, Reverend Samuel F. Colt, a Union army chaplain, captured the essence of the conflict in a piercing question: “Are we a Nation? Or, Have we a Government?”

His question was definitional: Who are we? What do we believe in? What do we stand for? What binds us together beyond laws, policies, or our government’s delivery of services?

Our founders, imperfect geniuses as they were, sought to create not only a government but a nation rooted in virtue. They studied and drew from Enlightenment philosophers and debated history and human nature. They knew that the government alone could not bind us; only shared values, rooted in the best of humanity could. Those ideals inspired what was written into the Constitution, and the very idea that our Constitution must be amended and our nation improved by future generations who could redeem their shortcomings and address their imperfections through collective struggle and the democratic process. They also knew, and showed us, that virtues are not self-fulfilling or inevitable. They require constant work.

And so, again and again, in every era of our history, Americans have made the deliberate and difficult choice to turn toward virtue to meet their greatest challenges and to rise to the call of our country to make ours a more perfect union.

Now it is our time.

We are more than a government. We are a nation, a people bound by shared bedrock virtues. These virtues are not irrelevant relics. They are disciplines of survival and instruments of triumph.

I know many are feeling scared, angry, hurt, and hopeless right now. It is in times such as these that we again face a difficult choice. There is the inevitable temptation to sacrifice virtue for convenience, to exchange our highest ideals for the false promise of expediency. But we can’t abandon our virtues now and hope to pick them up later—sacrifice our binding virtues and there may be no later for our nation at all.

I was raised as a child of the civil rights generation. From my parents and grandparents and their friends, I heard stories of heroism—ordinary Americans of all backgrounds who became the foot soldiers of a movement. People who defied impossible odds with courage, sacrifice, and struggle. Amidst their trying time, when people were drenched in hurt and hope was hard to find, they demonstrated great virtue. For them, virtue was a difficult but ultimately rewarding choice. It became an invaluable weapon of resilience, a shield against oppression, and a compass that guided them forward.

My parents quoted something so often in my childhood that it almost lost its meaning for me. Now that I am older, it compels me and imparts a renewed sense of urgency.

It is a refrain familiar to us all: “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”

The virtues within our history are not soft sentiments or moral niceties.

When things get difficult, they keep us upright.

They are a constellation by which to steer through dark times.

In the midst of a storm, our virtues are our defiant, deeply American insistence on standing: for ourselves, for one another, and for the nation we love and share.

Excerpted from “Stand” by Cory Booker. Copyright © 2026 by the author, and reprinted with permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

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[“Stand” by Cory Booker]

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• [“Stand”] by Cory Booker (St. Martin’s Press), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available March 24
• [Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)]

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