Another Trump judicial rebuke
A federal judge said Kristi Noem made a legally flawed and inadequately justified decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS—and paused the end of the program for more than 350,000 people.
Today in Congress
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are breathing a sigh of relief this morning after a federal judge ruled last night that the Trump administration violated the law when it terminated Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, which would have ended tonight for 350,000 people and placed them at risk of deportation.
In a scathing 83-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sharply criticized DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for what Reyes described as a legally flawed and inadequately justified decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS. She said Noem brushed aside the evidence on the ground in Haiti, relied on vague claims rather than facts, and failed to apply the standards required by the TPS law. That, the court said, likely violates federal law and was enough to put the termination on hold while the case plays out.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) joined several CBC members and lawmakers representing Haitian communities at a press conference last month to introduce a resolution on Haitian women and girls and to call on the administration to extend Haiti’s TPS designation.
The resolution states that protecting and advancing the rights of women and girls in Haiti is essential to Haiti’s transition and long-term stability. The resolution condemns widespread gender-based violence, affirms the importance of women’s leadership in Haiti’s transition, and reaffirms U.S. commitments under the Women, Peace, and Security Act.
The administration is expected to appeal the decision. But for now, Haitian TPS recipients have a lifeline.
In other news, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) enters the day confident he’ll have the votes to both advance a spending package of five bills to fund several domestic and defense priorities to the floor for a vote and send it to President Donald Trump to be signed into law and end the partial government shutdown.
The package, which was negotiated by Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), also freezes funding for the Department of Homeland Security at current levels for two weeks while Democrats and the administration work to reach a compromise on Immigration and Customs Enforcement reforms in the wake of the killing of two U.S. citizens by two federal border patrol agents in Minneapolis. Most House Democrats would have preferred to have had these reforms enacted before agreeing to maintain the DHS status quo, but at least half of the Democratic senators who supported the package last week felt like the fact that the White House entered into a negotiation was an acknowledgment that ICE operations need an overhaul at a minimum.
Paid subscribers received my latest reporting last night in Congress Nerd Sunset on how Johnson finagled the votes—with a heavy lift from President Donald Trump—for what’s known in Beltway parlance as the “rule” that allows legislation to be debated and passed with a simple majority. I’ve also got fresh intel on why it feels like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Schumer seem to be on different procedural pages despite both leaders claiming there’s no daylight between the two on legislative strategy.
Happenings
The House is in at 10 a.m. and will vote at 11:15 a.m. on the rule to allow floor consideration for the Senate-passed funding package and several other measures. The House will vote at 1 p.m. to pass the funding package.
House Republicans and Democrats will hold their weekly conference and caucus meetings at 9 a.m. House GOP leadership will hold a post-meeting press conference at 10 a.m. House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) and Vice Chair Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) will hold a post-meeting press conference at 10:45 a.m.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), New Democrat Coalition Chair Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) will hold a rally outside ICE headquarters at 10 a.m. to call for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to be fired.
The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on obstacles to dismantling Hezbollah’s grip on power.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a markup at 10 a.m. on the Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act and on a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States requiring a federal balanced budget.
The House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on the adoption of AI in the workplace.
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on the need for urgent action one year after the L.A. wildfires.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on advancing affordable and reliable energy for all Americans.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies will hold a hearing at 10:30 a.m. on the USDA inspector general.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing at 10:30 a.m. on fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. on the Railway Safety Act.
Reps. Derek Tran (D-Calif.) and Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) will hold a press conference at 12:15 p.m. on the ICE and Customs and Border Protection Constitutional Accountability Act.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) will hold a press conference at 12:30 p.m. on the SAVE Act.
Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and Summer Lee (D-Pa.) will hold a press conference at 1:30 p.m. on the Melt ICE Act.
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs will hold a hearing at 2 p.m. to examine how federal economic development programs work in Indian Country.
Reps. Keith Self (R-Texas) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) will hold a hearing at 2 p.m. on the Sharia-Free America Caucus.
The Senate is in at 10 a.m. and will vote at 11:30 a.m. to confirm David Fowlkes to be U.S.District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas and end debate on the nomination of Nicholas Ganjei to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas.
The Senate will recess at 12:30 for weekly party lunches. It will vote at 2:15 p.m. to confirm the Ganjei nomination and end debate on the nomination of Aaron Peterson to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Alaska.
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing at 9:30 a.m. on strategic competition in an unconstrained, post-New START Treaty environment.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. on modernizing the National Institutes of Health.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing at 10:15 a.m. on hidden facts regarding Nazis and Swiss banks.
Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-Va.) will hold a press conference at 12:30 p.m. on intelligence oversight.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights will hold a hearing at 2:30 p.m. on the competitive impact of the proposed Netflix-Warner Brothers transaction.
The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism will hold a hearing at 2:30 p.m. on countering terrorist in North Africa.
President Trump will meet with Colombia's president at 11 a.m. in the Oval Office. He will participate in “signing time” at 2 p.m. in the Oval.
In the Know
— A new Government Accountability Office report says the Trump administration wasted up to $38 million by putting hundreds of Education Department Office for Civil Rights investigators on paid leave while attempting to dismantle the agency, then dismissing about 90% of more than 9,000 student discrimination complaints without review. The report, commissioned by Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), finds the administration tried to slash OCR to just 10% of its capacity during the 2025 shutdown before reversing course—damage that GAO says left fewer investigators protecting students’ civil rights than before.
— House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and House Administration Committee Ranking Member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), joined by 68 other Democrats, pressed United States Postal Service Postmaster General David Steiner for answers on the agency’s readiness for the 2026 elections, warning that USPS’s new Regional Transportation Optimization initiative could delay mail-in ballots—especially in rural areas—by reducing delivery trips. In a letter, the lawmakers urged USPS to pause RTO, arguing independent oversight bodies have found it won’t deliver meaningful savings and would worsen service, and set a Feb. 13 deadline for a response.
Read All About It
“Nancy Mace is not okay” by Jake Lahut: “‘Something’s broken. The motherboard’s fried. We’re short-circuiting somewhere.’”
“How the Supreme Court secretly made itself even more secretive” by Jodi Cantor: “Amid calls to increase transparency and revelations about the court’s inner workings, the chief justice imposed nondisclosure agreements on clerks and employees.”
“‘The greatest heist: Mike Tirico’s Super Bowl-sized decision that transformed sports TV” by Andrew Marchand: “NBC’s top on-air talent will be pulling unprecedented double-duty this week, calling the Super Bowl, then hosting the Winter Olympics.”