Trump Admin to Dramatically Lower Biden-Era Vehicle Fuel Economy Requirements

The Trump administration is preparing to ease federal fuel economy rules for cars and trucks, undoing stricter requirements adopted under former President Joe Biden.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that the administration would soon release the new standards, which are expected to significantly lower the mileage targets automakers must meet.

A proposal issued by NHTSA in December projected a combined industrywide average of roughly 34.5 mpg for passenger cars and light trucks by model year 2031, down from approximately 50.4 mpg under Biden-era rules.

Speaking in Michigan, Duffy said the administration wants Detroit manufacturers to produce vehicles based on consumer demand instead of federal mandates.

“We are about to announce a common-sense fuel economy standard because we want ​Detroit to build cars that Americans want to buy not cars that Democrats want Washington ​to build,” Duffy said.

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The December proposal would also lower the standard previously set for 2022 and require only small annual increases of between 0.25 percent and 0.5 percent through 2031.

Sen. Ron Johnson Seeks ‘Covid Reckoning’: ‘I Want to Make Sure That Anthony Fauci’s Reputation Is Completely Destroyed’

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) called for a “COVID reckoning,” saying officials involved in the government’s pandemic response must be exposed and held accountable.

“We keep finding more things, trying to reveal that and expose it in an organized fashion so it actually makes sense to people rather than just dumping it on the public,” he said.

Johnson added that investigators must withhold some documents while interviewing witnesses so those involved do not know what evidence the committee has obtained.

“That’s not a way to conduct a serious investigation,” Johnson said of releasing every document immediately.

The Wisconsin Republican then turned his attention to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“I want to make sure that Anthony Fauci’s reputation is completely destroyed, that people actually understand what a truly monstrous individual he was,” Johnson said.

White House Tears Into Democrats After Near-Unanimous Vote Defending Socialism

The White House ripped into Democrats after a near-unanimous vote Tuesday night in defense of socialism, calling the vote the latest illustration of “how extreme their party has become.”

The vote turned contentious, with only eight Democrat members of the House crossing the aisle to vote with Republicans on the resolution to denounce “socialism in all its forms.” It passed 220-192, with all the votes against the condemnation coming from Democrats. Two Democrats refused to pick a side and simply voted present.

The White House is using the vote to tear into Democrats, suggesting that the party has been lost to its most radical elements.

“Yet again, the Democrats prove how extreme their party has become,” White House spokeswoman said. “They support radical socialism, defunding federal law enforcement, and non-citizens voting in American elections.”

The vote was far closer than last November, when a similar resolution condemning the “horrors of socialism” passed with support from 86 Democrats. The shift comes as the Democrat Socialists of America grows its influence on the political Left, with many of the most prominent party figures in the country proudly embracing the socialist label.

Highlighting this radical shift will be central to the Republican strategy in the rapidly approaching midterm elections, which, especially in House elections, will play out with electorates far less open to socialism than the Democrat base. In some key elections that will determine control of the U.S. Senate, however, the Democrat candidates who prevailed in primaries are on the far-Left.

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, for example, called capitalism an “oppressive system” that needs to be “dismantled.” Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, has attempted to distance himself from the socialist but has regularly reached out to the far-Left wing of the party including by campaigning with America-hating communist streamer Hasan Piker.

Obama-era mandate slashed after being blamed for ‘skyrocketing’ housing costs

In a bid to tackle the nation’s housing affordability crisis, the Trump administration has scrapped a controversial Obama-era mandate blamed for driving up property costs and stifling the affordable housing supply.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), alongside the Department of Justice, jointly rescinded an Obama-era policy that allowed third parties to file accessibility-related complaints over original building design flaws indefinitely, putting subsequent building owners on the hook for millions of dollars years after a project is completed, even if they were not the original builders.

According to internal agency data, the previous policy forced property owners to spend more than $112 million in accessibility retrofits over the last five years just to qualify for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) refinancing costs that HUD says directly choked off affordable housing supply.

The rule eliminates the ability to hold current property owners indefinitely liable for architectural deviations committed by original builders decades in the past. Under the updated enforcement framework, the clock for filing Fair Housing Act design and construction challenges begins on the exact date a building receives its official certificate of occupancy.

Individuals or advocacy groups now have a strict one-year deadline to file administrative complaints directly with HUD. For private civil lawsuits filed in federal court, the statute of limitations caps claims at two years from the completion of construction.

Once those respective windows close, property owners are shielded from retroactive, building-wide liability for original architectural flaws, though individual tenants retain the right to seek reasonable modifications for their specific housing needs at any time under existing Fair Housing Act protections.

“[The Obama-era regulation] dramatically expanded the scope of the Fair Housing Act by declaring that deviations from HUD’s accessibility guidelines, at the point of initial construction, gave rise to strict liability against the builder in perpetuity,” the new guidance says. “That interpretation was egregiously wrong. It exceeded the Department’s statutory authority, failed to increase the supply of accessible housing for individuals with disabilities, and imposed an unwarranted and unduly prejudicial burden on American homebuilders.”