The GOP-led Congress and President-elect Donald Trump will “demand” that federal employees return to their desks, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared on Thursday. Johnson made the prediction on Capitol Hill, where he and other lawmakers were meeting Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that Trump has appointed them to lead. “One of the first things that I think you’ll see is a demand from the new administration and from all of us in Congress that federal workers return to their desks and get back to the work that they’re supposed to be doing. I think that is common sense,” Johnson told reporters. Speaker Mike Johnson: "One of the first things that I think you'll see is a demand from the new administration, and from all of us in Congress, that federal workers return to their desks." pic.twitter.com/ZJ4XwE9S6y — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 5, 2024 “What you’re going to see here — the overriding theme here — is a return to common sense and a return to accountability and efficiency in government,” he added. “I think that’s going to serve the people well. There’ll be a lot — there’ll be a lot more to tell you all in the days ahead.” When asked about labor unions pushing back against efforts to get workers back into the office, Johnson referred to a Senate investigation. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is leading the Senate DOGE Caucus, released a 60-page report that found 6% of federal employees work from an office full-time, a third are fully remote, and some aren’t actually working when they “work from home,” The Daily Wire reported earlier on Thursday. “There was a report that came out today. I don’t know if you all have seen it, but someone did a little survey of how many federal employees are actually working in the office,” the speaker said. “By one estimate, it may be about 1% if you don’t count the security personnel that are covering these buildings. That is absurd, and it’s not something the American people would stand for.” Musk responded to Ernst’s report on X. “If you exclude security guards & maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%!” Musk exclaimed. “Almost no one.” Ramaswamy said in a post to X a couple of weeks ago: “Most federal workers don’t physically show up, yet the cost of maintaining & providing energy for govt office buildings is $15BN/year (not counting billions more spent on office furnishings). The government owns 7,967 vacant buildings. This is nuts. Sounds like a job for DOGE.”

The House Homeland Security Committee plans to interview a second FEMA employee about a former supervisor’s instruction for relief workers to skip homes in Florida displaying Trump flags or signs, according to a letter first shared with The Daily Wire.  Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-TN) sent the letter Thursday afternoon to Chad Hershey, the supervisor of  former FEMA employee Marn’i Washington, who ordered workers in Lake Placid to “avoid homes advertising Trump.” The request to Hershey comes one day after the committee interviewed Washington, who issued the Trump home guidance both verbally and in a text message.  “The Committee seeks to uncover the complete nature and extent of FEMA’s misconduct in withholding federal assistance from Americans based on political affiliation,” Green wrote. “Your observations and experience as Ms. Washington’s Task Force Lead for the Disaster Survival Assistance Task Force are vital to the Committee’s investigation.” The letter was also signed by Reps. Dan Bishop (R-NC) and Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY).  Citing reports from The Daily Wire, Green wrote that Hershey should schedule a transcribed interview with the committee by December 9. Green indicated that the committee wanted to ask Hershey about comments she made in interviews after she was fired over the guidance, saying that he had directed her to issue the guidance.  “In an interview following her termination, Ms. Washington claimed that her instructions to FEMA workers were not exceptional, but rather that you, as her direct supervisor, instructed her to avoid homes that had signs bearing support for President-elect Donald J. Trump to avoid ‘community trends of political hostility,’” Green wrote.  CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE When first contacted by The Daily Wire, Hershey said that he was “aware” of the situation with the Trump guidance, and that it was being looked into.  “We are aware of it and we are taking proper action in this situation currently,” Hershey said last month, adding that “we are taking action at this moment regarding the situation that you’re talking about.”  Whistleblowers told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes were skipped due to the guidance. Those homes have since been visited by relief workers, according to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.  Since the first story broke, other whistleblowers have alleged FEMA misconduct toward Trump supporters in Georgia and North Carolina.

Suspended Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair responded aggressively to reports about his wearing cleats with various pieces of Hamas propaganda on them when he did an illegal hit against Jacksonville Jaguars star QB Trevor Lawrence. “IF YOU WANT ME TO BE YOUR VILLAIN, I’LL BE YOUR VILLAIN! SEE YOU SOON…” the Texans player’s X post on Wednesday read. The post included four pictures, one of which included him wearing the shoes with the message proclaiming “Free Palestine” with the word “FREE” written on one side of the cleats in the colors of the Palestinian flag. The other cleat contained a quote from the Quran and a message claiming, “at least 41,788 Palestinians killed” — a statistic taken directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Another picture showed a screenshot of the Joker from the 2019 “Joker” movie, and in the final photo, a message that read, “There is a beauty being rejected, misunderstood, unseen, and unprotected by people. It teaches you to rely on Allah for everything.” The cleats are part of the league’s “My Cause My Cleats” campaign, in which players can raise money for various causes. In Al-Shaair’s case, the money raised would go to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, according to the Houston Texans website. He began wearing the cleats last year following the horrific Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 Israelis dead, thousands more wounded, and hundreds kidnapped and held hostage. The relief fund’s partnerships with Hamas-linked groups has also brought increased scrutiny, according to NGO Monitor. The post also followed the decision by the league to uphold the three-game suspension it leveled against Al-Shaair after he was ejected from the game on Sunday following the hit on the quarterback that left Lawrence with a concussion, CBS reported. The NFL’s vice president of policy and rules administration, Jon Runyan, previously said the league had deemed the hit “unacceptable” and that the Texans player’s “continued disregard” for rules governing player safety “will not be tolerated,” ESPN reported. “You were involved in a play that the [NFL] considers unacceptable and a serious violation of the playing rules,” Runyan wrote. “Video shows you striking the head/neck area of Jaguars’ quarterback Trevor Lawrence after he clearly goes down in a feet-first slide. … You led with your forearm and helmet and delivered a forceful blow to the head/neck area of your opponent when you had time and space to avoid such contact.” The Texans player later apologized to Lawrence, but also accused critics of racism and Islamophobia. Related: Suspended Texans Linebacker Wears Cleats Featuring Hamas Propaganda

Former President Bill Clinton gave a rambling assessment of President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden — and argued that it was not at all the same as the pardon he’d issued to his brother, Roger Clinton. The former president joined host Andrew Ross Sorkin on the stage at the 2024 Dealbook Summit, where the first question focused on the Hunter Biden pardon and whether or not it was going to do any lasting damage to the Democratic Party. WATCH: Bill Clinton takes umbrage with the comparison between his pardon of his brother and Joe Biden's pardon of Hunter, because Bill's brother served his full sentence in prison:"My brother did 14 months in a federal prison." Sounds like Bill is saying 'Lock him up' pic.twitter.com/Xye8lXRtFG — Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) December 5, 2024 “I want to know what you actually think of the pardon, of Biden’s pardon for his son,” Sorkin began. “This was not on my plan originally, but I thought — you know what? Everybody, we were out in that hallway, we’re all talking about that, and I said, ‘I’m going to ask the president first.'” “Well, I think that the president did have reason to believe that the nature of the offenses involved were likely to produce far stronger adverse consequences for his son than they would for any normal person under the same circumstances,” Clinton began, saying that people needed to look at all the facts and the context before they compared Biden to him and the pardon he issued to his younger brother. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE “Someone said, ‘Well, this is just like when Bill Clinton pardoned his brother,'” Clinton continued. “Well, it’s not. My brother did 14 months in federal prison for something he did when he was 20. And I supported it. He testified, told the truth about what he’d done when he had a drug problem and helped to bring down a larger enterprise. And then they sentenced him and he served 14 months and then he got out.” Clinton went on to say that his concern was obviously not in protecting his brother from the consequences of his actions, but in assuring him a more normal life going forward. The questions on his mind at the time were: “Will he ever be able to vote again? Will he ever be able to have normal citizenship responsibilities?” When asked whether Hunter’s pardon — which Biden said repeatedly would never happen — would damage the party when Democrats claimed to be the ones supporting and following the rule of law, Clinton did not seem bothered. “We had a lot better record than Republicans did, didn’t we?” he asked. “And what good did it do us? I mean, nobody believes anybody anymore.”

Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced a bill Wednesday that would ban doctors from performing life-altering and irreversible transgender procedures on kids across the country. Marshall put forth the “Safeguarding The Overall Protection of Minors Act’’ to block doctors from giving kids puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which can cause infertility, reduce bone density, and damage heart health. The legislation would also ban transgender surgeries for kids, including genital surgeries and removing the breasts of girls who identify as boys. According to the text of the bill, doctors could be assessed a civil fine of up to $100,000 if they “knowingly perform, attempt to perform, conspire to perform, or provide a referral for any gender transition procedure on a minor.” “Americans resoundingly rejected the Left’s dangerous transgender agenda. Let’s call it exactly what it is: child abuse,” Marshall, a doctor, said in a statement. “The days of demented doctors and activists getting rich off of mutilating, sterilizing, and castrating children are over.” “Our legislation keeps children’s safety paramount by prohibiting anyone from performing, facilitating, or even conspiring to give these irreversible therapies and procedures to minors,” Marshall added. “This bill is just the beginning of what’s to come with President Trump at the helm and our unwavering commitment to protecting children from transgender activists’ twisted and criminal agenda.” The proposed legislation would also allow anyone on whom a gender procedure was performed to sue in United States district court for proper relief. Additionally, the bill would authorize the attorney general to set up a grant program for individuals attempting to undo the impacts of transgender procedures. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE Marshall has been an opponent of transgender ideology, previously introducing bills to define male and female in biology and pushing back on the World Health Organization’s embrace of transgender activists. His bill was introduced the same day that Tennessee defended its ban on transgender procedures for minors before the Supreme Court. While over two dozen states across the country have moved to protect kids from transgender medical procedures, Republicans in Kansas have so far failed. Earlier this year, they came just two votes short in the state House of overriding Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of their legislation. Stop the Harm, a database that tracks where transgender procedures have been done on children across the country, records that there have been 71 puberty and cross-sex hormone child patients in Kansas and 22 surgery patients since 2019.

"What’s good for workers is good for business."

'A big reason is that dock unions stop innovation'

'Democrats, grow a spine! Trans rights are on the line'

One of the best parts about owning a home as an adult is that you can do whatever you want with it. You get to make every design decision, and you can take on all the projects you want. The problem is, not every design decision is going to be a good one and not every project is going to be as great in reality as it was in theory. Some designs should have stayed in the hypothetical and never been... Source

Senators, yes, it’s the holiday season and a lame-duck session, but don’t get distracted from the reason you’re in Washington—namely, to improve Americans’ lives.  Unfortunately, some Republican senators are failing to show up for votes to block outgoing President Joe Biden’s nominees, allowing Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to easily shepherd eight federal Biden judicial nominees since the Nov. 5 elections.  Republican senators’ blowing off voting on one particularly important Biden nomination would adversely affect workers and families financially. It would also empower a sworn enemy of Elon Musk’s free speech rights. Biden wants Lauren McFerran to serve another term as chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Her current term expires on Dec. 16. The vote being pushed by the Biden administration seeks to control the board well into President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. The Independent Women’s Forum has joined more than 50 manufacturing groups, trade associations, small businesses, and other organizations—representing millions of workers and employers—to send a letter to senators on Tuesday flagging this important issue.  The letter, under the banner of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, outlines how McFerran is grossly unqualified due to her mismanagement of the NLRB—as made clear by federal court rulings and the NLRB’s own Office of the Inspector General (OIG), not to mention her extreme policy agenda. It’s telling that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, refused to hold a confirmation hearing on McFerran’s nomination to thwart the opposition. Our letter argues that McFerran’s judgment is so poor that the board’s decisions and flawed interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act have been invalidated and even condemned by the Supreme Court and other federal courts.  For example, in a recent Tesla case, McFerran’s board infringed on Musk’s free speech rights by forcing him to delete a post on X that it argued threatened employees, but that decision was invalidated by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, four judges of which said the decision violated Musk’s First Amendment rights and was “light on law and facts.”  Our coalition noted that many courts have questioned the legitimacy of the NLRB’s interpretations of federal law under McFerran’s leadership. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the board grounded its decisions “in a skewed or ‘clipped view’ of the record” in Absolute Healthcare v. NLRB (a case where the feds alleged a chain of medical marijuana dispensaries unlawfully fired an employee for trying to unionize), while its Tesla decision knocking Musk “rest[ed] on erroneous legal foundations.”  In partially reversing the NLRB’s judgment, the 5th Circuit called the NLRB’s Thryv Inc. decision “the epitome of arbitrary” for forcing a small business software firm to make extra payments to terminated employees. It also wrote that NLRB’s Stern Produce decision was “nonsense” and “cannot be squared with any reasonable understanding” of the National Labor Relations Act after two employees of a produce distributor were punished for their unethical behavior in the workplace.  The 8th Circuit said the NLRB relied on “unreasonable inferences” in Strategic Technology Institute, a case where McFerran’s board falsely claimed that a defense contractor fired workers for attempting to unionize. The 11th Circuit said the NLRB “did not engage in reasoned decision making” this year in a dispute around UPS’ labor practices for seasonal package-delivery workers in New York.  Such repeated condemnations from the judicial branch should give pause to the Senate on this controversial nominee. McFerran’s extreme policies do not end there, however. The NLRB under McFerran also opened up workers to bullying by moving to eliminate secret ballots in union representation elections and instead use openly signed authorization cards to determine workers’ desire for unionization. As our coalition letter pointed out: “The Supreme Court and numerous Courts of Appeals have consistently recognized that these types of “card checks” are “admittedly inferior to the election process” and are subject to “abuses” and “misrepresentations.” Our letter further notes that McFerran’s board also infringed on employer speech rights during union organizing efforts, including banning employer-sponsored meetings at which employers shared their views on unionization. The NLRB prevented employers from explaining to employees how unionization will affect their relationship. That overrules precedent in place since 1948. Employer speech rights during union organizing drives have been protected by Congress, the Supreme Court, and the board itself for decades, but McFerran’s decisions directly undermine those protections.  On McFerran’s watch, House and Senate labor committees have conducted hearings criticizing the board’s actions and sent numerous letters to the NLRB, questioning the agency on its expansive policies and allegations of wrongdoing. That’s on top of the Office of the Inspector General releasing multiple reports on the board’s mail-ballot election procedures under McFerran’s leadership.  The Office of the Inspector General’s report found the board guilty of “gross mismanagement” and a “lack of candor” that “created the risk of great reputational harm that could negatively impact the ability of the Agency to carry out [its] mission.”  Democrats still control the Senate, but with a slim margin of 51 votes to Republicans’ 49. There are enough Democratic defectors with independent streaks who could block this terrible nomination.  Fortunately, outgoing Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, along with Angus King of Maine—all of them independents who caucus with Democrats—showed a willingness to vote on principle over party. They joined Republicans to rescind the destructive, McFerran-backed joint-employer rule on franchisors and franchisees. Though Biden vetoed the bill, his rule was struck down by a federal court in March, leading the NLRB to withdraw its appeal and allow a more friendly Trump-era rule to stand. That was a massive win for small businesses and franchises, with implications for independent contractors—not to mention employees and customers who were shielded from further Biden-fueled inflationary price hikes resulting from regulatory bloat.  Senators should not allow other circumstances to distract them from their duties. They should reject the McFerran nomination. Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice and sister organization, Independent Women’s Forum. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Radical NLRB Chief Should Be Replaced, Not Reappointed appeared first on The Daily Signal.