Rhode Island
Senate rejects two impeachment articles against DHS Secretary Mayorkas • Rhode Island Current
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday dismissed two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Democrat-controlled chamber voted, 51-49 along party lines, to adjourn the impeachment trial after finding that the impeachment articles accusing Mayorkas of not complying with federal immigration law and breaching the public trust did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors and were therefore unconstitutional.
“The charges brought against Secretary Mayorkas fail to meet the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor before a series of votes. “To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future.”
The adjournment vote followed successful votes to drop the two House-passed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, as well as a series of Republican motions to adjourn the court of impeachment or enter closed session, which all failed.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only senator to break party ranks during an afternoon vote series. She voted “present” on a motion to drop the first article of impeachment.
Senators were sworn in Wednesday as jurors after House Republican impeachment managers delivered the two articles of impeachment the day before, starting the proceedings. House Republicans voted to impeach Mayorkas, on their second try, in February.
Republicans have demanded a trial, while Senate Democrats indicated they planned to either dismiss the articles or table the trial because they argued the charges against Mayorkas did not reach the constitutional threshold required of impeachment, which is “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said.
Republicans blast process
Following the vote, Republicans slammed Democrats, arguing the move to avoid a trial set a precedent.
“They created a new precedent saying you don’t even have to vote on the articles (of impeachment),” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told reporters off the Senate floor.
Missouri Republican Eric Schmitt warned that voters would remember the Senate’s decision in the November elections.
“They see what a disaster the border’s been,” he said to reporters.
Congressional Democrats and the White House have criticized Republicans’ efforts to impeach Mayorkas as political and campaign fodder for the November elections. Congressional Republicans and the Biden administration have clashed over immigration policy for years.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell argued Wednesday it was senators’ constitutional duty to hold a trial.
“It is the job of this body to consider the articles of impeachment brought before us and to render judgment,” the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor.
Even if a trial had been held, it’s unlikely that the two-thirds majority in the Senate required to remove Mayorkas could have been reached.
In an email, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said House Republicans have not provided the necessary evidence to warrant an impeachment effort.
“Secretary Mayorkas spent months helping a bipartisan group of Senators craft a tough but fair bill that would give DHS the tools necessary to meet today’s border security challenges, but the same House Republicans playing political games with this impeachment chose to block that bipartisan compromise,” the spokesperson said.
“Congressional Republicans should stop wasting time with unfounded attacks, and instead do their job by passing bipartisan legislation to properly fund the Department’s vital national security missions and finally fix our broken immigration system.”
Amid the impeachment proceedings in the Senate, Mayorkas has been making his rounds on Capitol Hill to defend the president’s fiscal year 2025 budget for the Department of Homeland Security.
White House Spokesperson for Oversight and Investigations Ian Sams praised the Senate’s decision in a statement.
“Once and for all, the Senate has rightly voted down this baseless impeachment that even conservative legal scholars said was unconstitutional,” he said.
Several votes
Washington state Democrat Sen. Patty Murray presided over the impeachment proceedings, which included several votes Wednesday afternoon.
Schumer tried to approve by unanimous consent a structure for the trial, including debate time and the number of points of order senators could make, but Schmitt objected.
“I will not assist Sen. Schumer in setting our Constitution ablaze,” he said.
Schumer then raised a point of order declaring that the first article of impeachment did not rise to high crimes under the constitution, leading to a series of Republican senators demanding votes on proposals to delay a vote on Schumer’s motion
Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, moved to go to closed session and debate the articles of impeachment but Schumer objected. GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah made the same motion. Senators voted on both motions and rejected them 49-51.
Sen. John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, made a motion to adjourn the court of impeachment and begin impeachment proceedings on April 30 at noon.
Kennedy’s motion failed 49-51.
GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida made the same motion to adjourn, which also failed 49-51.
They went back to the point of order Schumer made that declared the first article of impeachment was unconstitutional. The Senate voted, 51-48, to reject the first article of impeachment on the grounds that it did not rise to the constitutional standard for impeachment, with Murkowski voting present.
Schumer made an identical point of order on the second article of impeachment.
Kennedy again filed a motion to adjourn to May 1, 2004 for impeachment proceedings. He corrected his request to 2024. It again failed 49-51.
GOP Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas then made a motion to adjourn until Nov. 6 until after the election and “before this body disrespects the Constitution.” It failed 49-51.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, moved to table Schumer’s second point of order that the second article of impeachment is unconstitutional. It failed 49-51.
Senators then approved Schumer’s second motion, 51-49.
House action
Georgia’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been at the forefront of impeachment efforts against Mayorkas, first introducing the measure in September.
Greene is also a House impeachment manager, along with GOP Reps. Mark Green of Tennessee, Michael McCaul of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ben Cline of Virginia, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Laurel Lee of Florida and August Pfluger of Texas.
Two of the impeachment managers, Biggs and Higgins, came to the Senate Wednesday to watch that chamber’s proceedings.
The two articles of impeachment charged Mayorkas with not complying with federal immigration law and breaching the public trust.
The first article of impeachment accused Mayorkas of contributing to myriad problems, including rising profits for smuggling operations, a high backlog of asylum cases in immigration courts, fentanyl-related deaths and migrant children found working in dangerous jobs. Republican state legislatures have moved to roll back child labor laws in industries from the food industry to roofing.
Republicans argued that the first article of impeachment would hold Mayorkas accountable for the large number of migrants that have traveled to the southern border to claim asylum. The Biden administration is dealing with the largest number of migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border in 20 years.
The second article of impeachment charged Mayorkas with breaching public trust by making several statements in congressional testimony that Republicans argue are false, such as Mayorkas telling lawmakers that the southern border is “secure.”
The second article also charged Mayorkas with not fulfilling his statutory duty by rolling back Trump-era policies such as terminating contracts that would have continued construction of the border wall and ending the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy that was ended after it went up to the Supreme Court.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Rhode Island
R.I. legislative commission recommends medical school at URI, suggests $20m in ‘seed funding’ – The Boston Globe
“It’s clear that enabling Rhode Island students to more affordably enter the primary care field, and supporting them once they make that choice, is both feasible and necessary,” Lauria said.
URI President Marc Parlange, also the commission’s co-chairman, said the medical school would be a “natural and strategic extension” of URI’s work. “It would help address Rhode Island’s primary care shortage while strengthening our state’s economy,” he said in a statement.
Lauria said the commission is calling for the state to provide $20 million in “initial seed funding” for the medical school in the state budget for fiscal year 2027, and $22.5 million in annual state funding beginning in 2029, when the first class of students would arrive. The commission also recommended the General Assembly create “a dedicated, recurring budget line to support ongoing medical school planning, accreditation, and initial operational activities.”
In an October report, the Tripp Umbach consulting firm told the commission the school’s start-up costs would total $175 million, and the commission called for exploring federal grants, a direct state budget appropriation, and a statewide bond referendum.
The consultants projected the medical school would be financially stable by its third year of operation, with costs offset by tuition revenue, clinical partnerships, and research growth. And the consultants projected the school would end up generating $196 million in annual economic activity, support about 1,335 jobs, and contribute $4.5 million in annual state and local tax revenue.
During a Rhode Map Live event in June, some officials called the medical school proposal a distraction from addressing the immediate need to provide more financial support and to improve the shortage of primary care doctors.
“In terms of the problem we face today, that won’t fix it,” Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said at the time. “As the head of Anchor [Medical Associates] said to me when I talked to him, that’s like telling the patient that the inexperienced doctor will be with you in a decade.”
But Lauria said the Senate is pursing short-term, medium-term, and long-term solutions to the shortage of primary care doctors, and the medical school is a long-term solution.
In the short term, Lauria said legislators pushed to speed up a Medicaid rate review aimed at boosting reimbursements for primary care doctors. And she noted the Senate passed legislation prohibiting insurers from requiring prior authorization for medically necessary health care services.
Lauria, who is a primary care nurse practitioner, said Rhode Island is lagging behind other states in Medicaid reimbursement rates. For example, she said, she practices medicine in East Greenwich, but if she did so 23 miles away Massachusetts, she could make 20 percent to 30 percent more.
Senate President Valarie J. Lawson, an East Providence Democrat, noted if the Legislature doesn’t act now on a public medical school, it might be having the same conversation in a decade, she said.
Lawson said her own primary care doctor is retiring at the end of March. “We know that we need to recruit physicians here and we need to retain them,” she said.
The commission report acknowledged that a URI medical school would not solve the state’s primary care problem. “Educating more clinicians is necessary but not sufficient for increasing supply,” the report states.
Doctors tend to stay where they train, so Rhode Island must have a plan to produce more primary care doctors through a residency strategy that incentivizes training more primary care doctors and trains them in places such as community health centers, the report states. Appropriate payment for primary care, reduced administrative burdens for clinicians, and lower uninsured rates could also be considered.
The commission called for creating a Primary Care Commission “to ensure continued focus on achieving a primary care–oriented system of care.” The commission also called for the development of a scholarship program linked to a minimum five-year obligation to local primary care practice.
The commission voted 15-0 in favor of the report. Senator Thomas J. Paolino, a Lincoln Republican on the commission, said, “The importance of this issue cannot be understated. My colleagues and I continually hear from constituents frustrated by skyrocketing healthcare costs, severe workplace shortages, and especially limited access to primary care.”
The commission began its work in 2024 when then-Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio named 21 people to the panel. In February 2025, the Joint Committee on Legislative Services approved $150,000 for a feasibility study. Tripp Umbach made a presentation on its draft of the report in May.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.
Rhode Island
As Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut dig out of major snowstorm, light snow continues with abnormally cold temps ahead with new potential storm looming
Southern New England hasn’t even finished digging out of over a foot of snow that dropped Sunday into Monday without talks of a significant storm possible in the coming days.
According to the National Weather Service, periods of light to moderate snow continue behind
low pressure as it pulls offshore Monday.
The surface low is well into the north Atlantic by noon today and the expected dry slot has moved overhead shutting off efficient snow making. So, while lingering wrap around moisture will continue to produce light snow across the region today, lack of moisture and the strong forcing that we saw on Sunday will mean much less in the way of additional snowfall today. Overall, expecting 1-2 inches in inland Southern New England with 2-5 inches more likely as you get closer to the extreme eastern and northeastern MA coastline. This is where NE wind
trajectory off the water together with convergence ahead of a front late in the day will lead to a pickup in snow coverage by the afternoon/evening.
After Monday, abnormally cold and mostly dry air enters with yet another storm possible off the coast next weekend.
Quiet weather then follows our active start to the week as dry, abnormally cold NW flow lingers overhead most of the week. Temperatures remain well below normal each day. Normal
highs/lows for late January are in the mid 30s and low 20s respectively; we are forecasting highs in the teens and 20s with lows in the single digits thanks to an anomalously cold airmass
overhead. A few shortwaves rounding the broader trough could bring some flurries off and on but on the whole, things look dry. The National Weather Service continues to monitor a potential storm off the coast toward next weekend. Can we make it 3 Sunday coastal storms in a row? We`ll see!
Lawmakers lament bleak — but fixable — future of health care in New Mexico
Three can’t-miss games in southwest North Dakota
Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia Has Four Word Phrase As Ohio State Rallying Cry
Oklahoma Mourns the Death of Football Legend Clendon Thomas
Oregonians can now file 2025 taxes. How big the kicker is, what to know
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
Video: F.A.A. Ignored Safety Concerns Prior to Collision Over Potomac, N.T.S.B. Says
Democrats demand Kristi Noem be fired or warn impeachment will follow
EU Commissioner Virkkunen urges US to respect EU digital rules
Families of killed men file first U.S. federal lawsuit over drug boat strikes
Video: New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti
-
Sports1 week agoMiami’s Carson Beck turns heads with stunning admission about attending classes as college athlete
-
Illinois5 days agoIllinois school closings tomorrow: How to check if your school is closed due to extreme cold
-
Pittsburg, PA1 week agoSean McDermott Should Be Steelers Next Head Coach
-
Lifestyle1 week agoNick Fuentes & Andrew Tate Party to Kanye’s Banned ‘Heil Hitler’
-
Pennsylvania2 days agoRare ‘avalanche’ blocks Pennsylvania road during major snowstorm
-
Sports1 week agoMiami star throws punch at Indiana player after national championship loss
-
Cleveland, OH1 week agoNortheast Ohio cities dealing with rock salt shortage during peak of winter season
-
Science1 week ago‘It is scary’: Oak-killing beetle reaches Ventura County, significantly expanding range