The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | DeSantis on Education Reform, Biden’s End to COVID Emergency Declaration, Pro-Lifer Found Not-Guilty | Jan. 31

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: President Biden’s intent to end COVID-19 emergency declarations  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education reform Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra teases public health emergency on abortion A pro-life activist is found not-guilty Rep. George Santos steps down from his committees  Relevant Links:  DeSantis Announces Changes to Florida’s Colleges https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/01/31/desantis-announces-changes-to-floridas-colleges/  Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Virginia Allen. I'm Samantha Sherris. And this is the Daily Signal Top News for Tuesday, January 31st. Here are today's headlines. Florida is making a slew of changes to its colleges. That's according to Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. Let's take a listen to some of DeSantis' comments Tuesday morning via his Twitter. We are also going to eliminate all DEI and CRT bureaucracies in the state of Florida. no funding, and that will wither on the vine. And I think that that's very important because it really serves as an ideological filter, a political filter. You've seen different things.

I mean, new college has really embraced that. And that's part of the reason I think it hasn't been successful in the enrollments down so much, because I think people want to see true academics, and they want to get rid of some of the political window dressing that seems to accompany all this. Our colleague Elizabeth Troutman reported that the governor announced changes to Florida's higher education system. The changes include adding a core curriculum at Florida's universities, reviewing tenured professors, and overhauling faculty and operations at the new college of Florida. The governor said the legislature directs $15 million in the 2023-2020 budget to recruiting faculty for the new college of Florida. DeSanta said it's not just new college. In our budget, we're going to put $100 million for recruiting highly qualified faculty at all our universities.

The Florida governor also said new general education requirements at Florida universities will be rooted in values of liberty and the Western tradition and will not promote ideological indoctrination. The governor will require colleges and universities to prioritize graduating students with degrees. that lead to high-wage jobs and not those that are designed to further a political agenda and prohibit political filters like DEI statements when making hiring decisions. DeSantis announced higher standards for Florida professors saying that all tenured faculty must be reviewed every five years and can be let go if not up to standards. We will leave the link to this article in today's show notes. if you want to hear more about the changes that DeSantis is making in Florida.

As the three-year mark of the U.S. battle against COVID-19 approaches, President Biden has vowed to end the COVID emergency declarations on May 11th. As some of you may recall, the president did declare that the pandemic was over back in September 2022. Republican Representative Thomas Massey tweeted about Biden's impending action, saying Republicans already getting results. This week, we are voting to end the COVID emergency. In response, Biden announces he is going to end the COVID-19 emergency declarations. Now that Biden is trying to avoid embarrassment, how will Democrats vote?

What about vaccine mandates? Republican Senator Chuck Grassley also weighed in, tweeting President Biden says he will end COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11th, about time. The Republican-controlled House is set to vote on the pandemic is overact this week. Pushed by abortion activists and democratic lawmakers, the Biden administration is reportedly considering declaring a public health emergency on abortion. This possible declaration is in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision. Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Bacera told Axios on Monday, there are discussions on a wide range of measures. that we can take by trying to protect people's rights. He added,

there are certain criteria that you look for to be able to declare a public health emergency. That's typically done by scientists and those that are professionals in those fields who will tell us whether we are in a state of emergency, and based on that, I have the ability to make a declaration. Democratic lawmakers and abortion supporters have pushed the Biden administration and the Department of Health and Human Services to declare such a public health emergency and issue a national emergency declaration. Democrats told Biden and Bacera in July, the Supreme Court's radical and dangerous decision

in Dobbs v. Jackson Wins Health Organization has precipitated a full-scale reproductive health crisis across our nation. It has also plunged our health system into a state of uncertainty and upheaval that threatens patient's lives. Susan B. Anthony pro-life America president Marjorie Danenfellzer reacted to the report Tuesday, accusing Democrats of pro-abortion extremism that knows no bounds. Danenfelser added, they think allowing more Americans to be born is a crisis and the only solution is ending those lives through abortion for any reason up until birth. Their latest scheme would result in taxpayer-funded abortion on demand across the country with no protections whatsoever for unborn children or their

mothers, including dangerous male order abortion drugs that put women at risk of serious complications. Freshman Republican Representative George Santos is planning to step back from the Small Business and Science Committees, sources familiar with the matter told Fox News. Fox News reports that Santos made the announcement during a Republican conference's Tuesday morning meeting. Santos has come under fire over the last couple of weeks for allegedly lying about his resume. In December, Santos said, I am not a criminal, not here, not abroad, in any jurisdiction in the world, have I ever committed any crimes. To get down to the knit and gritty, I'm not a fraud. I'm not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictional

character and ran for Congress. I've been around a long time. I mean, a lot of people know me. They know who I am. They've done business dealings with me. The New York Times reported in December that Santos's resume may be largely fiction and that he seems to have misrepresented a number of his career highlights. Specifically, Santos put Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the marquee Wall Street firms, on his campaign biography. But the New York Times reported that the firm said it had no record of Santos ever working there.

And when it comes to college attendance, there is a question mark there as well. Santos says he graduated from Brute College in 2010, but the Times reports that the university could find no record of anyone matching his name and date of birth graduating that year. In addition, the Times reported that there was also little evidence that his animal rescue group Friends of Pets United was, as Mr. Santos claimed, a tax-exempt organization, among other allegations relating to his finances. And for our final story today, we have a little bit of good news. A jury has found Mark Halk not guilty of the federal charges brought against him by President

Joe Biden's Department of Justice. Our colleague Mary Margaret Olahan reported that the DOJ had charged Halk with two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, also known as the Face Act. He was charged after an incident outside a Pennsylvania abortion clinic when Halk allegedly pushed a pro-abortion activist who was allegedly antagonizing his son. A jury acquitted Hauk of both DOJ charges on Monday. Thomas Moore Society Executive Vice President and head of litigation Peter Breen said in a statement Monday, we are of course thrilled with the outcome. Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration,

administration threw upon them. Brean previously told the Daily signal that the Justice Department sent 20-plus heavily armed federal agents with shields and long guns to arrest Halk in September as his children watched to intimidate pro-life people and people of faith. Let's listen to some of Mark's first comments after being acquitted per Joe Bucharest's Twitter. I'm just so grateful for the the men that he surrounded me. Thomas Moore's Society, the best lawyer in the city of Philadelphia, my family. I'm George Bailey today. Halk pled not guilty to the federal charges.

His legal team argued that the Justice Department was violating the Constitution by engaging in viewpoint discrimination and selective prosecution against Halk, violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment to protect. of the free exercise of religion. And that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to The Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed, where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices.

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