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Category: Pennsylvania Politics

  • The FBI wants to question the lawmakers who called on troops to refuse unlawful orders, including Chester County’s Chrissy Houlahan

    The FBI wants to question the lawmakers who called on troops to refuse unlawful orders, including Chester County’s Chrissy Houlahan

    The FBI is seeking interviews with the six Democratic members of Congress, including two from Pennsylvania, who released a video calling on members of the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

    A U.S. Justice Department official said the FBI has requested interviews with the six Democratic lawmakers, who are all veterans or members of the intelligence community.

    The move came a day after the Pentagon threatened to recall Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), a Navy veteran and one of the six lawmakers, to active duty potentially to face military charges. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday described the video as “seditious” and “despicable, reckless, and false” after President Donald Trump went on a social media rant against the lawmakers last week.

    U.S. Reps. Chrissy Houlahan of Chester County, an Air Force veteran, and Chris Deluzio of Allegheny County, a Navy vet, both took part in the video.

    Houlahan said in a statement Tuesday that Trump “is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress.”

    Chrissy Houlahan says she is ‘profoundly disappointed’ in lack of support from GOP colleagues after Trump’s sedition accusation

    She said the FBI contacted the House and Senate sergeants at arms on Monday to request the interviews.

    “No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution,” Houlahan said.

    The lawmaker said that members of Congress took an oath to the Constitution that “lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it.”

    “We will not be bullied. We will never give up the ship,” she added.

    The six members of Congress urged service members not to “give up the ship” in their video released last week, which drew fierce attacks from Trump. They did not refer to specific orders as illegal in the video, but some have cited military strikes against boats in the Caribbean that experts have questioned as well as Trump’s efforts to deploy the National Guard in U.S. cities.

    In a string of posts last week on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump called the Democrats “traitors” who committed sedition “punishable by DEATH.” He reshared similarly aggressive posts from supporters, including one calling for the lawmakers to be hanged.

    Houlahan and Deluzio both reported bomb threats at their district offices on Friday following the president’s attacks.

    Trump accuses Democratic vets in Congress of sedition ‘punishable by death,’ including two lawmakers from Pa.

    The Department of Defense announced Monday that it “has received serious allegations of misconduct” against Kelly, a retired Navy captain, and that “a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated.”

    Kelly is subject to military rules while the other veterans who partook in the video are not because he retired from the military. That means he earns a pension and can be recalled to active duty.

    His colleagues in the video did not serve long enough to qualify for retirement, so they are not subject to military laws, as he is.

    This article contains information from Reuters.

  • Penn State asks Pa. Supreme Court to stop the release of internal trustee documents

    Penn State asks Pa. Supreme Court to stop the release of internal trustee documents

    Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Education want the state’s highest court to overturn a recent lower court ruling that sided with Spotlight PA and stop the release of internal Board of Trustees documents.

    The case could have major implications in the state for public access to documents stored in cloud-based services.

    Last week, the university and state agency each filed a “petition for allowance of appeal,” asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to hear the public records case. There is no timeline for the court to decide whether it will hear the arguments, and the court denied 87% of requests to review a lower court decision in 2024, according to the court’s annual report.

    Spotlight PA is represented pro bono by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic. Paula Knudsen Burke, the Pennsylvania attorney for RCFP, said in a statement: “The Commonwealth Court rightly made clear that Penn State trustees cannot shield certain records from the public simply by storing them in a file-sharing system or alleging they contain proprietary information. We will continue to push for access to these records on behalf of Spotlight PA so that all Pennsylvanians can better understand how a prominent state-related institution — supported with millions of dollars of public money — is operating.”

    A Penn State spokesperson told Spotlight PA in an email that the university does not comment on “pending litigation.” The state education department did not respond to a request for comment.

    In May 2023, Spotlight PA filed public records requests with Pennsylvania’s agriculture and education departments for documents the agencies’ secretaries used while serving on Penn State’s governing board. While the university is largely exempt from the state’s Right-to-Know Law due to a legal carveout, a 2013 court ruling said records that the agencies’ secretaries used as trustees could be accessed by the public.

    The Office of Open Records ruled in 2023 that some of the records the newsroom requested should be made public. Penn State and the education department appealed the decision to Commonwealth Court.

    Penn State, in legal filings and in court in September, argued the state agencies did not possess or control the records Spotlight PA sought because Penn State housed the files on Diligent, a cloud-based file-sharing service. The online system allows the university to control who can access which files and whether the records can be downloaded.

    The court sided with Spotlight PA in its decision last month, ruling that Penn State’s argument was “without merit.” Taking the university’s position, the court said, would contradict the intent of the state’s open records law for transparency and would “perversely incentivize Commonwealth agencies, local agencies, and affected third parties like Penn State to utilize remote servers and/or cloud-based services, in order to ensure that they would no longer need to disclose what would otherwise constitute public records.”

    Penn State was also ordered to unredact portions of a 2022 document given to trustees about the university’s “fiscal challenges” and altering the budget to better align with Penn State’s “priorities and values.”

    In its petition to the state Supreme Court, Penn State said the lower court wrongly determined that the agency secretaries received the records and therefore could provide them to the newsroom. By providing documents to trustees through Diligent, the university controls who can “download, print, forward, or otherwise obtain the document.”

    The file-sharing service, the university wrote, “is the electronic equivalent of a Penn State official holding a physical document in their hand and inviting the Secretaries to look at the document. Importantly, in this analogy, the Penn State official never lets go of the document, and the Secretaries never possess the document.”

    The education department, in its filing, said the lower court’s decision ignores the intent of, and improperly expands, Pennsylvania’s open records law.

    Spotlight PA, through its legal team, will file its response to the petition in the coming days.

    Earlier this year, the Penn State board settled a separate lawsuit that Spotlight PA brought against it over alleged violations of Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act, the state law mandating transparency from governing bodies.

    As part of the settlement, the board agreed to release more information about its private meetings, including who is leading the gatherings and the topic discussed. The board also participated in a legal training in September on the open meetings law and what governing bodies must do to comply with it. The terms of the settlement will last for five years. Read the full agreement here.

    This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania.

    SUPPORT THIS JOURNALISM and help us reinvigorate local news in north-central Pennsylvania at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability and public-service journalism that gets results.

  • Chrissy Houlahan and another Pa. Democrat report bomb threats at their district offices

    Chrissy Houlahan and another Pa. Democrat report bomb threats at their district offices

    Spokespersons for U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Chester County Democrat, and Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Western Pennsylvania Democrat, reported that the legislators’ district offices had been targeted with bomb threats on Friday.

    The threats came a day after President Donald Trump accused Houlahan, Deluzio, and four other Democratic lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” after they were featured in a video urging members of the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

    All six are military veterans or members of the intelligence community.

    Early Friday evening, a spokesperson for Houlahan posted on the representative’s X account that her district office in West Chester was the target of a bomb threat.

    “Thankfully, the staff there as well as the office in Washington, D.C. are safe. We are grateful for our local law enforcement agencies who reacted quickly and are investigating,” the post said.

    A spokesperson for Deluzio posted on X late Friday afternoon that the representative’s district offices were targeted with bomb threats.

    In response to the video, Trump went after the six congressional Democrats in a string of posts on Truth Social Thursday.

    Houlahan lamented at a Friday news conference in Washington that “not a single” Republican in Congress “has reached out to me, either publicly or privately” since Trump’s posts.

  • Chrissy Houlahan says she is ‘profoundly disappointed’ in lack of support from GOP colleagues after Trump’s sedition accusation

    Chrissy Houlahan says she is ‘profoundly disappointed’ in lack of support from GOP colleagues after Trump’s sedition accusation

    U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Chester County Democrat, said Friday she is “profoundly disappointed” in her Republican colleagues for not speaking up after President Donald Trump accused her and five other Democratic lawmakers of sedition.

    Houlahan was one of six Democrats in Congress — all military veterans or members of the intelligence community — featured in a video urging members of the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

    In response, Trump went after the Democrats in a string of posts on Truth Social Thursday, accusing them of sedition that he said is “punishable by DEATH.”

    Early Friday evening, a spokesperson for Houlahan posted on the representative’s X account that her district office in West Chester was the target of a bomb threat.

    “Thankfully, the staff there, as well as the office in Washington, D.C., are safe. We are grateful for our local law enforcement agencies who reacted quickly and are investigating,” the post said.

    A spokesperson for Rep. Chris Deluzio, a western Pennsylvania Democrat also on the video, posted on X late Friday afternoon that the representative’s district offices were targeted with bomb threats as well.

    Houlahan lamented at a Friday news conference in Washington that “not a single” Republican in Congress “has reached out to me, either publicly or privately” since Trump’s post.

    “And with this, I am profoundly disappointed in my colleagues,” she added.

    In addition to calling for the lawmakers to be arrested and tried for sedition, Trump shared posts from supporters calling for retribution against the Democrats, including one that said “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!” and another calling them domestic terrorists.

    “This is not normal political discourse,” Houlahan said Friday alongside other veteran members of Congress. “Indeed, it is, in fact, a explicit embrace of political violence against the opposition.”

    “As a member who has spent my entire career calling for civility and decency and building relationships with the other side of the aisle, I’m dumbfounded by the silence,” added the Air Force veteran.

    Beyond not reaching out to her specifically, Houlahan broadly said that “not a single Republican member has condemned this call for violence, not publicly, not privately.”

    When reached by The Inquirer on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Bucks), a former FBI agent, condemned Trump’s rhetoric, but he did so without naming the president

    “This exchange is part of a deeper issue of corrosive divisiveness that helps no one and puts our entire nation at risk,” he said. “Such unnecessary incidents and incendiary rhetoric heighten volatility, erode public trust, and have no place in a constitutional republic, least of all in our great nation.”

    When asked for clarification, his spokesperson added that “He is 100% opposed to the president’s comments and 100% stands with all men and women who wear the uniform.”

    Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.) said, “There is no place in either party for violent rhetoric and everyone needs to dial it down a notch,” in a follow-up statement to The Inquirer after initially placing blame solely on the Democrats.

    Lawmakers from Pa. respond to Trump’s Truth Social post calling them seditious

    Some Republicans justified Trump’s response by saying the Democrats who made the video were in the wrong — even if the president’s rhetoric was over the top.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said that he did not think the six Democrats committed “crimes punishable by death or any of that,” but criticized the Democrats’ video as irresponsible, Politico reported.

    “The point we need to emphasize here is that members of Congress in the Senate [and] House should not be telling troops to disobey orders,” Johnson said. “It is dangerous.”

    Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, responded to a reporter asking if Trump wanted to “execute” members of Congress by saying “no,” and criticized the video put out by the veterans.

    The video that inspired Trump’s ire did not point to any specific order from Trump as illegal, despite urging troops to resist such an order.

    However, the video follows high-profile debates about the legality of Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in U.S. cities and his ordering of strikes on boats in the Caribbean. Trump alleges that the boats are carrying drugs from Venezuela, but experts have said his claims about them are misleading.

    “He has shown time and time again that when he threatens to abuse his power, he acts on it,” Houlahan said Friday at the news conference announcing a bill that would prohibit funds for military force in or against Venezuela without congressional approval.

    Houlahan said Congress has not received intelligence on the strikes. She said that Trump’s administration has “repeatedly shown disregard for the military process.”

    U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.), one of the bill’s sponsors, said military leaders who have expressed concern about the legality of the strikes have been “sidelined.” He also pointed out that threatening a member of Congress is against the law.

    “So put yourselves in the shoes of a young lieutenant or sergeant who’s in uniform right now watching the commander-in-chief threaten members of Congress to death for telling you to follow the law,” he said. “You’re watching him orchestrate legally dubious military strikes while sidelining military lawyers and commanders who say that those actions may be illegal and could therefore get you prosecuted for following those orders.”

    Moulton was not one of the six lawmakers featured in the video, but he shares a similar background, having served four tours in Iraq as a Marine.

    He said Congress should learn from its failure to question that war as it confronts the legality of Trump’s strikes in the Caribbean.

    “I’ve seen what being in a moral and legal gray area means in war,” he said.

    Staff writers Julia Terruso and Robert Moran contributed to this article.

  • Rape crisis centers are finally getting funding from Pennsylvania’s budget, but advocates say it’s not enough to support survivors

    Rape crisis centers are finally getting funding from Pennsylvania’s budget, but advocates say it’s not enough to support survivors

    Rape crisis centers in the Philadelphia region are sounding the alarm that the slight increase in funding in the recently passed state budget won’t be enough to sustain or improve crucial services for survivors of sexual assault.

    The Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect (PCAR), which funds rape crisis centers via the state allocation, estimates centers will only see an average increase of $5,300 from the state to support their work assisting victims of sexual violence.

    The Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence had to lay off most of its staff and reduce services due to the nearly five-month state budget impasse. And while leaders in the region appreciate the funding — the first increase for rape crisis centers in years — it’s only a fraction of what Philly’s only rape crisis center says it needs to survive.

    “Even with the budget now passed, the funding increase is minimal compared to the overwhelming need,” said LaQuisha Anthony, senior manager of advocacy at the center, in a news release last week. The center is known as WOAR, the initials of its former name, Women Organized Against Rape.

    Now advocates in Philadelphia and the suburbs are turning their focus to next year’s budget, pushing for an $8 million increase in state funding to rape crisis centers, which, among other services, offer victim advocacy, legal services, and crisis hotlines. A surge in funding will help provide stability for survivors and adequately compensate staff who dedicate their lives to this work.

    “An $8 million increase would help ensure that every survivor across the Commonwealth, urban, suburban, and rural, has access to care, advocacy, and prevention,” said Joyce Lukima, coalition director and chief operating officer at PCAR, in a statement.

    More than $12 million of a $50.1 billion state budget was allocated to rape crisis this year, a $250,000 increase from last year. Lukima said this $250,000 will be split among 47 rape crisis centers in the state.

    In a statement, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which oversees rape crisis center funding, highlighted Gov. Josh Shapiro’s history of support for survivors of sexual violence.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro signs the fiscal year 2025-26 budget surrounded by General Assembly members on Nov. 12 at the Capitol in Harrisburg. The state budget had been due June 30, and Pennsylvania is the final state in the country to approve a funding deal.

    “The final budget reflects the realities of working with one of the only divided legislatures in the entire country – but Gov. Shapiro will continue to fight for survivors and the Commonwealth’s rape crisis centers,” said Ali Fogarty, the DHS spokesperson.

    Victim services centers in the suburbs, which also offer rape crisis services, are echoing WOAR and PCAR’s message, highlighting the urgent need for greater funding. These suburban centers receive funding from additional sources because they support victims of other crimes.

    “For now, we’re doing OK, but another year of no increase in funding while the cost of living is going up has a significant impact on our staff as well as our organization,” said Penelope Ettinger, executive director of Network of Victim Assistance – Bucks County.

    Trying to stay afloat

    While Pennsylvania lawmakers were failing to come to an agreement on a far overdue state budget last month, rape crisis centers in Philadelphia and the suburbs were trying to make ends meet and provide services to survivors of sexual violence.

    For instance, the Victim Services Center of Montgomery County had to use a line of credit, delay bill payments, institute a hiring freeze, increase the number of interns, and commit to “triaging services,” said Mary Onama, executive director.

    “If they hadn’t passed the budget the time that they did, by December or January, we would have had to close, because we couldn’t go much longer,” Onama added.

    At the Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County, it “added a layer of stress to an already very stressful job,” though the center did not have to reduce services, said Christine Zaccarelli, the organization’s CEO.

    And at WOAR, the changes were drastic.

    The nonprofit cut their 30-person staff and paused counseling and therapy services and prevention-education programs. Other programming was kept afloat by the handful of staff members that remained.

    WOAR’s release last week said the closure of therapy and counseling services left “106 individuals wait-listed, 33 group clients waiting for services to resume, and eight child clients referred elsewhere for care.”

    The center has been serving Philadelphia since 1971 and was one of the first rape crisis centers in the United States, according to the organization. Between January and October, the center said it responded to 3,820 calls on its crisis hotline.

    But there have been recent shake-ups at the nonprofit, including the hiring of Gabriella Fontan, WOAR’S executive director, which was announced roughly a week before layoffs began in October. Prior to Fontan, the center had two interim executive directors since 2022.

    The dysfunctional approval of the state budget, though, will have lingering effects on WOAR, warning in the news release that without a “long-term, sustainable investment,” the center won’t be able to meet a rising demand for resources.

    The Bridge Loan, from the Pa. Treasury Department, provided WOAR funding owed for July through September, but it still wasn’t enough to return WOAR to full capacity, said Demetrius Archer, PCAR’s communications director. The center also brought back two employees this month, but it’s still in need of community support and is hoping to bring back more staff when possible.

    “When services are underfunded, survivors and entire communities feel the impact,” said Fontan in the news release. “In a city as large and diverse as Philadelphia, every minute counts when someone is in crisis. Survivors deserve to know that when they reach out for help, someone will be there to answer.”

    All eyes on Harrisburg

    At Temple University’s campus Tuesday, student advocates bundled up in their coats, hats, and scarves and gathered at the Bell Tower to discuss an anti-sexual violence state bill they helped develop.

    The Every Voice Bill, which primarily focuses on sexual violence prevention resources on college campuses, is even more important now that survivor services from WOAR are “unstable,” said Bella Kwok, a senior criminal justice major and president of Temple’s Student Activists Against Sexual Assault, in an interview prior to Tuesday’s event

    “This bill would ensure that stability at least on an institutional level,” Kwok said.

    Temple University students Emma Wentzel, left, and Bella Kwok speak at a podium on Polett Walk on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, about campus sexual assault and a state bill they helped craft to strengthen protections against sexual violence at colleges.

    Kwok is not the only one who is turning their attention to Harrisburg. PCAR and other rape crisis centers are continuing their push for next year’s budget to include an $8 million increase in the Pa. DHS line item for rape crisis.

    As the first increase for rape crisis centers in a few years, the new budget’s funding gives advocates “hope,” even if the amount is “disappointing,” said Zaccarelli, of the Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County.

    “Maybe our advocacy is making a little bit of a difference and shining a light on survivors and their needs and how important our centers are in the community,” Zaccarelli said.

    Ettinger said that Bucks County’s state lawmakers have been supportive of NOVA Bucks, which had to place a hiring freeze on some positions and issue “significant” restrictions on spending due to the impasse, but that a lack of increased funding from the state is “very telling.”

    “I believe that the fact that the state did not allocate a significant increase is very telling to what they believe, where they put it on the priority list,” Ettinger said.

    For his part, Shapiro signed Act 122 in October 2024, which aimed to increase transparency by requiring a statewide electronic system to track evidence kits for sexual assaults, Fogarty, the DHS spokesperson said. And in December 2023, he signed Act 59, which aims to improve access to treatment for survivors of sexual assault.

    It’s a “societal” problem, not a government problem, said Vincent Davalos, interim executive director of the Delaware County Victim Assistance Center.

    “When we talk about sexual violence, the first thought is, of most people, is to say ‘Maybe this didn’t happen,” Davalos said. “And even if they do believe it happens… it’s just a really difficult topic for people to engage and talk about it plainly.”

    This week, victim services leaders across Pennsylvania will gather in Harrisburg for an annual conference to address funding challenges among other concerns, Davalos said, noting that with more funding, his center could improve staff retention.

    But this year, the newly passed state budget is likely to be top of mind.

    “I think money is going to be a big topic,” Davalos said.

  • Trump administration steers $1 billion to Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania’s shuttered nuclear power plant championed by Shapiro

    Trump administration steers $1 billion to Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania’s shuttered nuclear power plant championed by Shapiro

    The U.S. Department of Energy will loan $1 billion to help finance the reopening of Three Mile Island, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania that has been renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center.

    The nuclear plant is owned by Constellation Energy Corp. and located on an island in the Susquehanna River just outside Harrisburg. The federal loan will lower Constellation’s price tag to get the mothballed plant running again, an effort that was already put on an accelerated timeline with the support of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro over the summer.

    The plant shuttered its one functioning reactor in 2019 when its then-parent company Exelon said it was losing money and that state lawmakers wouldn’t subsidize it. The one other reactor at the Londonderry Township site was destroyed in 1979 in the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident.

    “Constellation’s restart of a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania will provide affordable, reliable, and secure energy to Americans across the Mid-Atlantic region,” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement. “It will also help ensure America has the energy it needs to grow its domestic manufacturing base and win the AI race.”

    Constellation announced last year that it planned to spend $1.6 billion to reopen the plant as the demand for energy increases. The company announced a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to buy the power for its data centers.

    Shapiro has supported that plan and touted pushing grid operator PJM to approve an early interconnection request for the site. Constellation employees celebrated with the governor in July with news that the plant’s last working reactor would be slated to open as early as 2027, a year ahead of schedule.

    Joe Dominguez, president and CEO of Constellation, said in a statement this week that the DOE and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have “made it possible for us to vastly expedite this restart without compromising quality or safety.”

    Constellation spokesperson Mark Rodgers said Thursday the loan “supports” the already-existing plan.

    When asked for comment on the federal loan, Shapiro did not mention the federal financing or the Trump administration at all, focusing instead on his own administration’s efforts.

    “In Pennsylvania, we’re doubling down on our legacy of energy leadership by taking big, decisive steps to build new sources of power,” Shapiro said in a statement. “As an all-of-the-above energy Governor, my Administration is supporting new energy projects from all sources —from natural gas and solar to geothermal and nuclear.”

    “The Crane Clean Energy Center takes advantage of our Commonwealth’s energy assets and brings more energy onto the grid, creating jobs and more opportunity for Pennsylvanians,” he added.

    A group of people who called themselves survivors of the plant’s 1979 partial meltdown protested the reopening plan earlier this year.

    Trump’s administration has said bolstering nuclear power and artificial intelligence are among its priorities.

    Constellation is working to restore equipment for the plant, including the turbine, generator, main power transformer and cooling and control systems. Its 835-megawatt reactor can power the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes, according to the DOE.

    The agency said in a statement that the reactor “will provide reliable and affordable baseload power,” in turn helping to lower electricity costs, strengthen the reliability of the energy grid, and “advance the Administration’s mission to lead in global AI innovation and restore domestic manufacturing industries.”

    Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican who has championed embracing tech and energy in Pennsylvania, said in a statement that the state is “leading America’s energy independence and the AI revolution by providing safe, clean, reliable nuclear power.” He said the center brings 3,400 jobs and “carbon-free electricity operating 24/7 to meet our increasing energy demands and economic growth across the region.”

    The loan is being issued under an existing $250 billion energy infrastructure program initially authorized by Congress in 2022. Neither the department nor Constellation released terms of the loan.

    The plan to restart the reactor comes during a sort of renaissance for nuclear power, as policymakers are increasingly looking to it to shore up the nation’s power supply, help avoid the worst effects of climate change, and meet rising power demand driven by data centers.

    The Associated Press contributed to this article.

  • Trump administration threatens to withhold $75 million from Pennsylvania over immigrant truck drivers

    Trump administration threatens to withhold $75 million from Pennsylvania over immigrant truck drivers

    The Trump administration threatened Thursday to withhold nearly $75 million in funding if Pennsylvania does not immediately revoke what the administration claims are illegally issued commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants.

    The move by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to target Pennsylvania follows similar action against California. Both states are run by Democratic governors who have criticized President Donald Trump’s administration and who are viewed as potential top-shelf contenders to be the party’s 2028 presidential nominee.

    Duffy has made it a priority to scrutinize how the licenses are issued since August, when a tractor-trailer driver not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. That incident thrust the issue into the public’s consciousness.

    In a statement Thursday, DOT spokesperson Danna Almeida said all states were being reviewed.

    It’s unclear how many people would be affected in Pennsylvania. In any case, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ‘s administration said the federal government didn’t identify a single commercial driver’s license issued to someone who wasn’t eligible.

    Still, a letter Thursday from the Republican administration to Shapiro cited an audit that found two out of 150 people whose licenses exceeded their lawful presence in the country.

    In four cases it had reviewed, the federal government said Pennsylvania provided no evidence that it had required noncitizens to provide legitimate proof that they were legally in the country at the time they got the license.

    The Trump administration called on Pennsylvania to stop issuing new, renewed and transferred commercial driver’s licenses and permits, as well as conduct an audit to identify those licenses whose expirations exceed the driver’s lawful stay in the U.S.

    It is also asking the state to void noncompliant licenses and remove those drivers from the road. The administration said approximately 12,400 noncitizen drivers hold an unexpired commercial learner’s permit or commercial driver’s license issued by Pennsylvania.

    The governors of California and Pennsylvania — Gavin Newsom and Shapiro — are tough critics of Trump, and both have been repeated targets of Trump’s administration.

    Shapiro’s administration said the state transportation department ceased issuing commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published a regulation in late September that would severely limit which immigrants can get one.

    A federal court has put the rule on hold for now, but Shapiro’s administration said its transportation department still hasn’t resumed issuing what are called “non-domiciled CDLs.”

    Pennsylvania’s transportation department said Thursday that it follows federal rules for verifying an immigrant applicant’s lawful presence in the country by checking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s database.

    But Shapiro this week suggested that DHS was falling short by failing to properly maintain that database, which states use to check an immigrant’s legal status before issuing a driver’s license to a noncitizen.

    His comments came after DHS said it had arrested an Uzbek national with a commercial driver’s license issued by Pennsylvania. The man, who had a work authorization granted in 2024, was wanted in his home country for belonging to a terrorist organization, the department said.

    But Shapiro said the state transportation department checked the federal database over the summer before issuing a CDL to the man, and he was authorized to get one. The state rechecked the database this week, and it still listed him as qualified to get a CDL, Shapiro said.

    “They clearly are not minding the shop, and they’ve gotta get better, because every single state in the country relies on this database when making a determination as to who qualifies for a CDL. We relied on the feds before issuing this one,” Shapiro said.

    California, which said it would revoke 17,000 licenses, is the only state the administration has acted against because it was the first one where an audit was completed. The government shutdown delayed reviews in other states, but the Transportation Department is urging all of them to tighten their standards. ___ Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey, and Levy from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed.

  • Trump accuses Democratic vets in Congress of sedition ‘punishable by death,’ including two lawmakers from Pa.

    Trump accuses Democratic vets in Congress of sedition ‘punishable by death,’ including two lawmakers from Pa.

    U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan was in her Washington office when she saw attacks directed at her and other military veteran members of Congress from President Donald Trump, days after they urged members of the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

    Trump called the Democrats “traitors” in a Thursday post on Truth Social and, in a second post, accused them of sedition that he said is “punishable by DEATH.”

    Houlahan, a Chester County Democrat and an Air Force veteran, was one of six Democratic members of Congress who released a video Tuesday contending that Trump’s administration is “pitting” service members and intelligence professionals against American citizens and urging them not to “give up the ship.”

    All six lawmakers are either veterans or members of the intelligence community.

    “The idea that the most powerful man on the planet, who wields the power of the United States military and should be emblematic of all the things we value in this republic, would call for the death and murder of six duly elected members of the House of Representatives and the Senate — I’m speechless and I’m devastated,” Houlahan told The Inquirer on Thursday afternoon.

    Houlahan said she had anticipated there might be a response from the president after Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser, spent much of Wednesday railing against the lawmakers in the video. But Trump’s comments went beyond anything Houlahan imagined even from a president known for extreme and sometimes violent rhetoric.

    “I’ve been struggling with the right words for this,” she said. “‘I weep for our nation’ would be an understatement.”

    U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Navy veteran who was also featured in the video, called Thursday “a dark day in America” in an interview with The Inquirer.

    “It tells me who he is and it tells me exactly why we should be talking about the rule of law and the Constitution,” said Deluzio, an Allegheny County Democrat.

    In the video that set Trump off, the lawmakers, finishing one another’s sentences, reminded service members of their oath to the Constitution and instructed them to refuse to follow any order that would violate it.

    “Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad,” Deluzio says in the video.

    “But from right here at home,” adds U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D., Colo.) a former paratrooper and Army Ranger.

    The video was shared by U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.), a former CIA officer, and also included U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), a former Navy captain, and U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D., N.H.) a former intelligence officer.

    Houlahan said she considered the video “innocuous.”

    “It literally talked about the fact that you should follow only lawful orders, an obvious reminder that those of us who served have grown up on,” she said.

    On Thursday morning, Trump shared a Washington Examiner article about the video with the headline “Dem veterans in Congress urge service members to refuse unspecified unlawful orders,” saying their message “is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country.”

    “Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???” the president wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

    About an hour later, Trump added in his second post: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

    Sedition and treason cases in modern U.S. history are very rare.

    Democratic condemnations of Trump’s comments poured in from across the country Thursday. Republicans were more muted. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) defended Trump’s claim that the Democrats had engaged in “sedition,” describing the video as “wildly inappropriate.”

    “It is very dangerous. You have leading members of Congress telling troops to disobey orders,” he told CNN.

    Sen. Dave McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican and U.S. Army veteran, who has called out political violence in the past, both after Charlie Kirk’s killing and an arson at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence, defended the president’s verbal attacks on the lawmakers. “Not a single unlawful order is cited in this video — because there aren’t any,” he said in a statement.

    “The video is inappropriate and unwarranted, and I didn’t hear any of these calls to defy orders when Democrats were using lawfare against President Trump,” he added, “Giving outlandish pardons, or intimidating tech companies to stop free speech.”

    About an hour later McCormick’s spokesperson sent a second comment from him, adding: “President Trump can speak for himself, but as I’ve said repeatedly, there is no place in either party for violent rhetoric and everyone needs to dial it down a notch.”

    One of the few Republicans to offer any criticism of the president was U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent, who said in a statement that in the FBI he saw “how inflamed rhetoric can stoke tensions and lead to unintended violence.”

    Fitzpatrick, a moderate from Bucks County who has butted heads with Trump in the past, did not name him in the statement but said the “exchange” was “part of a deeper issue of corrosive divisiveness that helps no one and puts our entire nation at risk. Such unnecessary incidents and incendiary rhetoric heighten volatility, erode public trust, and have no place in a constitutional republic, least of all in our great nation.”

    Houlahan and Deluzio respond

    Houlahan served three years on active duty as an Air Force engineer and an additional 13 years as a reserve, and reached the rank of captain. She has been outspoken against the Trump administration on military issues, particularly surrounding women serving in combat roles.

    The lawmakers did not refer to any specific orders from the president in their video, but they had numerous concerns in mind.

    Houlahan said it was sparked, in part, by military troops being deployed to U.S. cities and lethal strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean.

    Trump has suggested that American cities should be “training grounds” for the military, and targeted Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and Portland for National Guard deployments. His administration’s boat strikes, which have led to protests in Philadelphia, have come under scrutiny by experts who say they are illegal, per the New York Times, which found Trump’s claims justifying the attacks to be questionable.

    “What we were speaking to is the future, those who are currently serving, and making sure they remember who they serve and what they serve,” Houlahan said.

    She said the lawmakers felt “a responsibility to … make sure people understood there are people in Congress who have your back.”

    Deluzio pointed to reporting about concerns from military personnel who were deployed to U.S. cities. PBS reported this week that people in uniform have been seeking outside legal advice about some of the missions the Trump administration has assigned them.

    “This is a guy who’s been documented in a meeting with the secretary of defense talking about shooting unarmed civilians in the legs,” Deluzio said, citing an account from former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

    Deluzio said he learned about the oath the first day of boot camp and trained sailors on it when he gained rank.

    “This is something that is fundamental to how our military works and the respect we show our service members,” he said.

    Deluzio served six years in the Navy including three deployments. He cofounded the Democratic Veterans Caucus in June, which was formed in opposition to the Trump administration.

    He said he has heard from people on both sides of the aisle and encouraged Republican colleagues to speak out publicly against the president’s remarks.

    “Republican officials should be stepping up loudly and clearly and saying the calling of death by hanging to members of Congress is out of bounds,” he said.

    James Markley, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Republican Party, declined to comment on Trump’s remarks and said in a text that “the woke left continues to attempt to rip apart the fibers of our communities and our country.”

    “Our party will continue focusing on making our country safer, prosperous and more affordable,” he added.

    A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, an Army veteran who is running for governor next year with the state GOP’s endorsement, did not respond to a request for comment.

    Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has made a name for himself working across the aisle, said in a post on X that threatening members of Congress is “deeply wrong” without exception, regardless of political party.

    “I strongly reject this dangerous rhetoric,” he said.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro also quickly denounced Trump for calling for violence against Houlahan and Deluzio, describing them in a post on X as “two outstanding members of Congress from Pennsylvania who have fought for our country.”

    “There should be no place for this violent rhetoric from our political leaders, and it shouldn’t be hard to say that,” said Shapiro, who has consistently spoken out against the threat of political violence since a politically motivated arsonist firebombed the governor’s mansion while he and his family slept inside in April.

    Trump’s attack on Houlahan and other Democratic veterans marks the second time in two months Democratic lawmakers who served in the armed forces have been the subject of attacks from across the aisle.

    U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a Trump ally who represents parts of central Pennsylvania, told a conservative radio station in October that Democrats in Congress “hate the military,” based on their voting records.

    Deluzio and Houlahan, both members of the House Armed Services Committee, also banded together then to push back on Perry’s comments, calling them “garbage.”

  • Delco homeless shelters prepare to reopen after state budget impasse stretched limits of regional nonprofits

    Delco homeless shelters prepare to reopen after state budget impasse stretched limits of regional nonprofits

    For the first time in months, the director of the Community Action Agency of Delaware County, which operates three homeless shelters and a rental assistance program, isn’t thinking about service cuts.

    The organization was forced to reduce capacity at one of its shelters to 50% in October and close the other two on Nov. 1 as a result of the state budget impasse. Delaware County, which had been backfilling for missing state dollars, had to cut the funds it delivered to social service organizations in half last month.

    Now, the agency is beginning to reopen its doors and its rental assistance program.

    “[Employees] have been busy kind of preparing for the residents to come back,” said Ed Coleman, the nonprofit’s executive director.

    The Community Action Agency is one of several nonprofit organizations across the region that were stretched and stressed over the last several months as state dollars stopped flowing in the absence of a budget. Since January, they have grappled with uncertainty over federal funds as President Donald Trump’s administration cancels grants and Congress considers major cuts to social service programs.

    The dynamics exposed the vulnerabilities facing philanthropic organizations while threatening the assistance they provide to those they serve.

    Last week the Pennsylvania General Assembly finally passed a budget, ending one source of uncertainty. At the Community Action Agency, this meant employees began swapping out bedding and restocking toiletry bags given to incoming residents this week, undoing significant reductions in service.

    By Wednesday, Wesley House Shelter, a facility for families and single women that Community Action manages, was able to take in a senior citizen whom a church had placed in a hotel amid the budget stalemate. A former resident who had to stay with a relative until the shelter could reopen also returned to the facility.

    The promise of state funds could not have come soon enough.

    Coleman said since Nov. 13, the agency received a little more than 250 rental assistance requests — including almost 80 on Tuesday alone.

    The organization, Coleman said, is now assessing how much it can spend on services as it waits for state dollars to begin flowing again — which is expected to happen in the next 30 to 90 days as state agencies catch up on millions in missed payments to counties, schools, and nonprofits.

    “We really don’t get paid very quickly with most of the contracts we have,” Coleman said.

    The rebuilding mirrors what nonprofits across the Philly region are managing after the state budget impasse. Several nonprofit organizations told The Inquirer they had to freeze hiring and take out lines of debt. Nearly all reported burnout among staff as need increased and uncertainty over funding loomed large.

    The federal government shutdown, which saw a pause in federal food subsidies, only exacerbated the problem.

    “In many ways, it felt similar to the early months of COVID,” said Jennifer King, executive director of the Council of Southeast Pennsylvania.

    The Bucks County Opportunity Council was forced to reduce the number of individuals it could provide rent assistance to.

    And at A Woman’s Place, a domestic violence shelter in Montgomery County, more people were showing up at the shelter door, even if they weren’t domestic violence survivors, asking for help the shelter was not equipped to provide. Often, she said, staff did not even have an answer of where to send people because of the reduction in services across the board.

    “That takes a toll on staff, and they start thinking, ‘Do I really want to do this work?’” said Beth Sturman, the shelter’s executive director.

    Providers worried most about the impact the freeze had on those they served. Jill Whitcomb, president and CEO of Surrey Senior Services in Delaware County, said older adults are facing greater stress and anxiety as a result of state and federal services being rolled back.

    “Our mission is to help people remain at home and independent and engaged as long as they possibly can or want to,” Whitcomb said. “That becomes really hard on a limited income when those incomes are already tenuous, and then they’re living with the anxiety about losing their Social Security.”

    Jeannine Litski, president of Mental Health Partnerships, said the closure of shelters in the region resulted in greater trauma to unhoused people.

    “Imagine you’re just holding on by a thread, and you have at least a place you can lay on a cot for the night and you have a little food, and now that’s taken away,” she said.

    While philanthropic organizations were grateful for the state budget deal, they remained anxious about the possibility of another federal government shutdown at the end of January and questioned how much more they could take.

    “We got through COVID. Let’s see if we can get through this,” Whitcomb said. “It’d be interesting to talk five years from now and see where everybody is.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • A new Pa. tax credit could put up to $805 in your pocket. Here’s what to know.

    A new Pa. tax credit could put up to $805 in your pocket. Here’s what to know.

    Nearly 1 million Pennsylvanians are expected to qualify for a new state tax credit that is meant to ease the burden of making ends meet.

    The new Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit will allow eligible low- and moderate-income filers to receive a state tax credit that is equal to 10% of what they qualify for through the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Like the EITC, the state credit will depend on income and number of children. The highest credit will be $805 and, according to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office, the average credit will be around $240.

    In Philadelphia alone, 175,393 people are estimated to benefit from the new state tax credit totaling $41.7 million, according to Shapiro’s office. Statewide, it is expected to provide a total of $193 million in tax relief to 940,000 Pennsylvanians.

    The policy had bipartisan support since 2023, and was led by State Rep. Christina Sappey, a Chester County Democrat. Sappey and a team of Democrats sponsored a bill that passed the Democratic-led House in May that would have allowed a 30% credit, but that figure was lowered to 10% as a result of budget negotiations with the Republican-led Senate and Shapiro.

    It’s one of the measures being hailed as a major win for Democrats in the $50.1 billion state budget deal, which was approved last week after a more than four-month impasse.

    Sappey said that she was approached by the United Way of Pennsylvania “several years ago” about the idea.

    “I think of all of the folks who are really just struggling right now to make ends meet — but they’re working,” Sappey told The Inquirer.

    “They get thrown a curveball, like an unexpected healthcare expense, get in a car accident, need a giant car repair, something like that,” she added. “They really get kind of knocked off the rails, and then they kind of spiral.”

    At a news conference on Tuesday, Shapiro listed examples of Pennsylvanians who will qualify for the tax credit.

    “That single mom who’s raising three kids whose making about $25,000 a year as a waitress, she can get $770 back on her state taxes on top of whatever relief she was going to get from the federal government,” Shapiro said.

    “This isn’t some giveaway … we’ve come together on a bipartisan basis to say, ‘If you’re working, if you’re doing everything right by the book, we’re going to put money back in your pockets,’” he added.

    Who is the Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit for?

    The tax credit is designed for working Pennsylvanians with a total income up to $61,555 if filing alone, and up to $68,675 if filing jointly as a married couple, according to the IRS guidelines for the EITC.

    Eligibility for the state credit is based on the federal EITC, which is meant for low- to moderate-income workers. Workers with kids can qualify for a bigger credit that increases with the number of children up to three or more kids.

    Individuals must be employed and earn income to qualify.

    Households that can benefit from this program may earn too much to qualify for public assistance while not earning enough to be able to handle an unplanned financial emergency, according to the United Way. About 28% of Pennsylvanians fall into this group, according to testimony from the United Way of Pennsylvania president Kristen Rotz.

    How does the tax credit work, and how much is it for?

    Pennsylvania’s state credit will be 10% of the EITC amount a filer qualifies for. Filers will automatically qualify for the state credit.

    “This is probably one of the more easy tasks you’re going to have to deal with as you’re helping people fill out their taxes,” Shapiro told a group of Widener University students Tuesday.

    The program will begin for tax year 2025, so Pennsylvanians can use it this forthcoming tax season. The credit is refundable, so taxpayers will get money back if the credit exceeds how much they owe.

    The credit amount initially increases based on how much money the earner makes and then decreases after it reaches a certain amount, resembling a bell curve, said Montgomery County accountant David Caplan. That “tipping point” differs depending on the tax filer’s status and number of dependents, he said.

    The maximum state credit for filers with no kids is $65, and about 261,739 Pennsylvanians are expected to fall in that tier, according to the Office of state House Speaker Joanna McClinton, a Philadelphia Democrat.

    That maximum raises to $432 for households with one child, $715 for two children, and $805 for households with three or more kids. About 133,641 Pennsylvanians are expected to fall in that maximum credit tier, according to McClinton’s office.

    There were 802,000 claims for the federal EITC in Pennsylvania for the 2023 tax year, totaling $2.086 billion, according to the IRS. The average federal credit amount was $2,600. Under the new state credit, that would amount to $260.

    “While it’s not much, it’s certainly a help, and that’s something that’s tangible,” said State Rep. Tarik Khan, a Democrat who cosponsored the state tax credit bill and represents parts of Philadelphia.

    Do other states have a credit like this?

    According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 31 states, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and some municipalities have their own version of the EITC.

    Most of those states calculate their credit as a percentage of the federal program, ranging from 4% in Wisconsin to 125% in South Carolina, according to the group.

    Neighboring New Jersey offers a 40% credit and Delaware has 4.5% refundable and 20% nonrefundable credits.

    State Rep. Steve Samuelson, a Northampton County Democrat who chairs the House Finance Committee and cosponsored the tax credit bill, called the credit a “commonsense” measure. He pointed out how existing states have varying political leanings, from the redder Oklahoma, Indiana, and Kansas to bluer states like New York, Hawaii, and California.

    “Better now than never,” Samuelson said.

    Is a 10% tax credit the right amount?

    Sappey and other Democrats see the 10% credit as a starting point. They hope to increase the size of the credit in future years.

    “If this is a program that both sides can agree to, getting a program established is more important than, you know, how big it is at the beginning,” she said in an interview.

    Caplan, who chairs the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Local Tax Thought Leadership Committee, said he believes the 10% tax credit could be higher, but maybe not as high as the 30% initially approved by the House.

    “I don’t think the 10% is outrageously low that it’s kind of chintzy,” he said. “I think it’s just a nice thing to do.”

    Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver, a Republican from Northumberland County who said she championed the policy, lauded the program for helping taxpayers who work.

    “This credit rewards work, strengthens household stability, and helps those doing everything right, working, paying their bills, and supporting their families,” she said in a statement. “This is a commonsense investment in both our workforce and the future of our Commonwealth.”

    Concerns from other Republicans about the program were related to the cost and its size.

    Sappey said “that’s legitimate” but contends that the program helps people “increase their earning power” and that the hope is, in turn, for them to no longer be eligible for the credit. And when they get it, she argues, “they are spending it in really good ways.”

    “We’re keeping people in the workforce, we’re generating revenue, and we’re keeping them out of social safety net programs,” she said.

    Rotz, of the United Way, said in her testimony that EITC recipients often spend their credit on grocery stores, vehicle and home repairs, paying off debt, and sometimes education.

    Khan lauded House Democratic leaders for holding onto the tax credit in negotiations — and compared their long-delayed negotiations to the Eagles’ season, which has seen the team rack up wins despite offensive struggles.

    “You love them, and then you watch the game, and you’re like, ‘Goddamn it. Why can’t you just play like a normal team?’ But then they win in the end, and you’re like, ‘You know what? That was a tough game, but damn it, I’m so happy right now,’ and so that’s how I feel with this.”