Politics

Contributor: Trump is cutting the funding that ensures funds are well spent

Published

11 months ago

April 12, 2025

Contributor: Trump is cutting the funding that ensures funds are well spent

Donald Trump’s first term as president was characterized by an unprecedented volume of false and misleading statements — exceeding 30,000, according to multiple news organizations. As he advances through the first 100 days of his second term, his administration appears to be intensifying this pattern, amplifying a misinformation apparatus to justify his actions and policy changes.

As he does so, he is also dismantling the government’s ability to evaluate its own policies, replacing credible evidence with propaganda. The second Trump administration is systematically eliminating funding and personnel for oversight and evaluating programs. This threatens our ability to make informed, evidence-based decisions about policies and programs, leaving the public vulnerable to unchecked misinformation and ineffective governance.

When the process or mechanism for systematically and objectively measuring what is working and what is not, what needs to be improved, and what we should replicate in other places and with other people is dismantled, the public will no longer have access to critical information and data.

The gathering and reporting of credible evidence to inform policy decisions was introduced as part of the Great Society legislation when programs under the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, sponsored by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, were required to be evaluated. Since then, evaluation has been key in shaping effective government programs. Its importance was reinforced in 2019 with the passage of the Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, signed by President Trump. This act required each government agency to develop evaluation policies outlining their priorities and practices under the appointment of a chief evaluation officer.

During his first two months back in office, the Trump administration has executed an “evidence drain” by eliminating or drastically cutting back on important research and evaluation programs. The Institute of Education Sciences has been virtually eliminated; only three staff members remain at the National Center for Education Statistics; and just over 20 personnel are left to execute the vital functions of the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Before Trump’s cuts, these offices employed more than 180 people.

The administration’s cuts to research funding have received more attention, and indeed, research is essential to medical and technological advancement. But cuts to evaluation take a serious toll as well.

Evaluation studies inform us about our national performance. With accurate, carefully designed studies, we may thoughtfully modify programs and policies to improve their performance and wind down those that we learn are not working well. Prudently constructed studies that produce nuanced answers to these and other questions have been commissioned by our government for more than 60 years to address timely and relevant questions, such as those we should be studying right now: What happens when social services are cut? To whom and where are these cuts having the most significant impact? How does shifting federal student loan programs from the Department of Education to the Small Business Administration affect access to these programs?

The public needs to know and understand the implications of cutting evaluation budgets and federal evaluation offices. Without sound evidence to counter or support claims made by public officials, we, the public, risk having access only to false information, which is now regularly pushed on unchecked social media and news outlets. That is why it is so dangerous for the public and so opportunistic for an administration moving toward authoritarianism to cut these studies with a chainsaw.

Fringe individuals with questionable professional credibility have politicized research studies by rebutting well-established findings and spreading disinformation, as we have seen with vaccine effectiveness and safety. The Trump administration has just hired one of these people to study the already discredited link between vaccines and autism. Spending tax dollars on this kind of “research” is an unquestionable waste of resources and a direct effort to continue pushing misinformation to the public, making it more difficult to discern fact from fiction.

We should also be deeply concerned that the current administration will hire equally unqualified and questionably positioned individuals to evaluate the outcomes of its cavalier cuts to funding and personnel.

We must continue to conduct sound evaluation studies of our programs and policies and provide the public with credible information to inform our national, local and kitchen table discussions. Many states and philanthropic organizations support such efforts. They should increase their commitments to this vital work.

To ensure honest appraisals that counter misinformation, we must, as a public, question the quality and accuracy of evidence used to support value-based assessments of what policies and programs are being “well” implemented and doing “good” for the American people. This is central to the survival of our increasingly fragile democracy.

Christina Christie is the dean of the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.

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Ideas expressed in the piece

The Trump administration’s cuts to federal evaluation programs, including the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Center for Education Statistics, threaten evidence-based policymaking by dismantling mechanisms that assess program effectiveness.
Eliminating oversight capacities risks replacing credible data with misinformation, as seen in the administration’s push to study debunked claims like vaccines causing autism, which undermines public trust in scientific consensus.
These cuts reverse decades of bipartisan support for evaluation, including the 2019 Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, and weaken the public’s ability to hold government accountable for policy outcomes.

Different views on the topic

Reducing federal bureaucracy, including evaluation programs, aligns with broader efforts to streamline government operations and eliminate perceived wasteful spending, as outlined in executive orders targeting agencies like the Minority Business Development Agency^[3].
Critics argue that federal evaluations can perpetuate bureaucratic bloat and that reallocating funds to direct policy implementation prioritizes fiscal responsibility and economic growth, such as through deficit-reducing tax cuts^[1]^[3].
Some frame cuts to agencies like the NIH as necessary to curb “partisan missions” and redirect resources toward priorities like national security and immigration enforcement, reflecting a focus on smaller government^[2]^[3].

Politics

Senate rejects war powers measure to withdraw forces from Iran

Published

11 minutes ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Senate rejects war powers measure to withdraw forces from Iran

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans blocked a war powers resolution Wednesday designed to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities in Iran, as the Trump administration accelerates its military campaign in a conflict that has killed hundreds, including at least six American service members.

The motion failed in a vote of 47-53.

In addition to pulling out military resources from the Middle East, the measure — introduced by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) — would have required Congress’ explicit approval before future engagement with Iran, a power granted to the legislative branch in the Constitution.

The House, where Republicans also hold an advantage, is scheduled to weigh in on a similar measure Thursday. Even if both Democratic-led measures were to succeed, President Trump was widely expected to veto the legislation.

“We are doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly,” President Trump said at a White House event on Wednesday afternoon. The president, who has come under scrutiny for offering shifting explanations on the war’s endgame, said that if he was asked to scale the American military operation from one to 10, he would rate it a 15.

Democrats dispute that Trump possesses the authority to wage the ongoing operation in Iran without explicit congressional approval.

Acknowledging the measure was unlikely to succeed, they framed the vote as a strategy to force lawmakers to put their support for or opposition to the war on record.

“Today every senator — every single one — will pick a side,” Schumer said. “Do you stand with the American people who are exhausted with forever wars in the Middle East, or stand with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth as they bumble us headfirst into another war?”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and most of his Republican colleagues have maintained that the president carried out a “pre-emptive” and “defensive” strike in Iran, giving him full authority to continue unilateral military operations.

Republicans saw the vote as the “last roadblock” stopping Trump from carrying out his mission against the Islamic Republic.

“I think the president has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities and operations that are currently underway there. There are a lot of controversy and questions around the war powers act, but I think the president is acting in the best interest of the nation and our national security interests,” Thune said at a news conference.

Senators largely held to party loyalties, with the exception of Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, who broke ranks to support the measure, and Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman, who opposed it.

The vote comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the war against Iran is “accelerating,” with American and Israeli forces expanding air operations into Iranian territory. He pointed to evidence released by U.S. Central Command of a submarine strike on an Iranian warship, and also lauded other strikes throughout the region as civilian casualties in Iran surpassed 1,000 on the fourth day of the conflict, according to rights groups.

“We’re going to continue to do well,” Trump said Wednesday. “We have the greatest military in the world by far and that was a tremendous threat to us for many years. Forty-seven years they’ve been killing our people and killing people all over the world, and we have great support.”

Republicans blocked a similar war powers vote in January after the president ordered U.S. special forces to capture and extradite Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on drug trafficking charges.

GOP leaders argued that the outcome of that mission equated to a quick success in the Middle East, despite an uncertain timeline from the Department of Defense.

In the House, lawmakers will vote on a separate war powers effort Thursday. That bill is led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), the two lawmakers who authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

“Instead of sending billions overseas, we need to invest in jobs, healthcare, and education here,” Khanna said on X.

In addition to that proposal, moderate Democrats in the House have introduced a separate resolution that would give the administration a 30-day window to justify continued hostilities in the Middle East before requiring a formal declaration of war or authorization from Congress.

Politics

Video: U.S. ‘Accelerating’ Military Assault in Iran, Hegseth Says

Published

11 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Video: U.S. ‘Accelerating’ Military Assault in Iran, Hegseth Says

new video loaded: U.S. ‘Accelerating’ Military Assault in Iran, Hegseth Says

On the fifth day of the war in Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the U.S. military operation was intensifying and that more warplanes were arriving in the region.

By Christina Kelso

March 4, 2026

Politics

US submarine sinks Iranian warship by torpedo in a first since World War II

Published

12 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

US submarine sinks Iranian warship by torpedo in a first since World War II

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

A U.S. submarine sank a prized Iranian warship by torpedo, the first such sinking of an enemy ship since World War II, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Wednesday morning.

Hegseth joined Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine at the Pentagon to provide an update to reporters on “Operation Epic Fury” in Iran.

“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War Two. Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department. We are fighting to win.”

Caine said that an Iranian vessel was “effectively neutralized” in a Navy “fast attack” using a single Mark 48 torpedo. He added that the U.S. Navy achieved “immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea.”

WATCH HEGSETH’S ANNOUNCEMENT:

Hegseth said that the U.S. Navy sank the Iranian warship, the Soleimani. The flagship was named for Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who the U.S. killed in a January 2020 drone strike during President Donald Trump’s first term.

“The Iranian Navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Combat ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated. Pick your adjective,” Hegseth said. “In fact, last night we sunk their prize ship, the Soleimani. Looks like POTUS got him twice. Their navy, not a factor. Pick your adjective. It is no more.”

This map shows U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iranian naval forces as of March 1. (Fox News)

Hegseth also told reporters at the briefing that the U.S. and Israel will soon achieve “complete control” over Iranian airspace after Iran’s missile capabilities were drastically diminished in the four days of fighting.

US ‘WINNING DECISIVELY’ AGAINST IRAN, WILL ACHIEVE ‘COMPLETE CONTROL’ OF AIRSPACE WITHIN DAYS, HEGSETH SAYS

“More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today and now, with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500 pound, one thousand pound and 2,000 pound laser-guided precision gravity bombs, of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile,” he said.

The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and dozens in Lebanon, while U.S. officials said six American troops were killed in a fatal drone strike in Kuwait.

Thousands of travelers have been left stranded across the Middle East.

This map shows security and travel updates for Americans regarding countries in the Middle East region. (Fox News)

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Caine told reporters that the U.S. military is helping thousands of Americans stranded in the Middle East after the U.S. State Department urged citizens to leave more than a dozen countries.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.