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Virginia senators seek injunction against seating 8 rejected BOV appointees

Summary

  • Virginia senators file for injunction to prevent eight rejected appointees from joining three university boards
  • They ask for July 18 hearing, before , George Mason, VMI boards meet next
  • Controversy stems from Senate committee vote on appointees

Nine Democratic state senators are asking a circuit judge to fast-track a preliminary injunction that would prevent three Virginia universities from installing rejected board of visitor appointees, the latest salvo in the senators’ war with the Youngkin administration.

On Tuesday, attorneys representing Virginia state senators filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against Rector Charles Stimson, Rector Rachel W. Sheridan and Thomas E. Gottwald, who was previously president of ‘s board, from recognizing eight people whom Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed to the three schools’ boards but were rejected in June by a Senate committee.

On June 24, the senators — eight of whom voted not to confirm the appointees, as well as Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas — sued the three universities’ board leaders over what they called Youngkin’s attempted “nullification” of the committee’s vote.

The governor and the executive branch, the says, “have refused to recognize the rejection of those appointments by a coequal branch of government, in open defiance of the Constitution of Virginia and 50 years of tradition in the Commonwealth.” Youngkin dismissed the lawsuit as “meritless” last week in a Q&A period with reporters.

Tuesday’s filings by Mark T. Stancil of Willkie Farr & Gallagher for the plaintiffs include a letter to Judge David A. Oblon to request a hearing on July 18 “or as soon as possible thereafter prior to July 31” to address the preliminary injunction. The letter notes that George Mason’s board plans to meet for its annual planning conference July 31, with its annual meeting scheduled the following day, Aug. 1.

The injunction calls for Stimson, Gottwald and Sheridan to be prohibited from recognizing the appointments of the eight people rejected by the Senate committee.

They include former Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, who was named to U.Va.’s board, and former Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick, appointed this spring to George Mason’s board. The others include VMI appointees Jonathan Hartsock, Stephen Reardon and José J. Suárez; and Mason appointees Charles J. Cooper, William D. Hansen and Maureen Ohlhausen.

Sheridan replaced former U.Va. rector Robert Hardie in Tuesday’s filings, as she succeeded Hardie as the head of the university’s board July 1. According to a VMI spokesperson, Gottwald’s term as the head of VMI’s board was set to end June 30, and retired Col. James P. “Jamie” Inman was set to succeed him as board president July 1, so it is likely that Gottwald will be replaced by Inman in the lawsuit.

Stancil’s letter to the judge requesting a July 18 hearing notes that the defendants have not yet filed a response to the lawsuit, but the plaintiffs expect the three rectors to be represented by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who has already weighed in on the matter.

Miyares and Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, sent dueling letters to the three universities’ rectors following the 8-4 party line Senate committee vote, with Miyares arguing that the rejection of the appointees was not valid because the entire General Assembly had not voted on the appointments. Thus, the eight appointees remain board members “with the rights and responsibilities conferred upon a member of a board of visitors,” Miyares wrote.

Surovell, also an attorney, wrote that the rejected appointees are no longer members of their boards following the June 9 vote, and if the boards’ rectors were to recognize them as board of visitors members, “such conduct would constitute ‘malfeasance and incompetence’ … and would provide grounds for removal.”

The power of universities’ boards of visitors and the governor, who can make appointments and remove board members for cause, was in plain view last week as U.Va. President Jim Ryan resigned under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice over diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the university.

Many of Ryan’s supporters, including elected state Democrats, criticized the and Youngkin for what they viewed as overreach and an attempt to control Virginia’s public universities, with federal funding threatened. Some went further, saying that Youngkin’s appointees to the U.Va. board did not defend Ryan while he faced demands from DOJ officials to step down.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger said in a statement Friday that if elected, she would “take decisive steps to ensure that all of our commonwealth’s boards of visitors are composed of individuals committed to the mission of serving and strengthening our public colleges and universities.”

As of Tuesday, U.Va.’s board is entirely made up of Youngkin appointees, who are expected to name an interim president shortly.

On Monday, outgoing U.Va. rector Hardie and incoming rector Sheridan announced that Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, the university’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, will be U.Va.’s acting president until the board names a longer-term interim president to serve until a permanent hire is made following a national search.

VMI’s board, meanwhile, is leading a national search for the replacement for former superintendent and retired Army Gen. Cedric T. Wins, whose ousting as the school’s first Black superintendent in February has been met with controversy as well.

Virginia’s public university boards have the primary duties of hiring and firing presidents and setting tuition, although they have significant influence over architectural decisions and capital spending, as well as university-based health systems’ operations.

FBI to stay in D.C., will move from Hoover to Reagan buildings

SUMMARY:

  • FBI’s move from one building to another means agency will stay in , D.C.
  • Previously, agency was set to move to Maryland, but Trump called it off.
  • Virginia’s senators criticize decision as a “punt.”

The FBI will move its headquarters from the J. Edgar Hoover Building to the Ronald Reagan Building, a decision that keeps the federal enforcement agency in Washington, D.C.

Announced Tuesday by the FBI and the U.S. General Services Administration, the of the FBI’s headquarters puts a cap on a yearslong saga that involved infighting among Virginia, Maryland and the District, as well as the involvement of three presidential administrations, beginning with former President Barack Obama.

“This is a historic moment for the FBI,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement Tuesday. “Through our strong partnerships with members of Congress and GSA, we are ushering into a new era and providing our agents of justice a safer place to work. Moving to the Ronald Reagan Building is the most cost effective and resource efficient way to carry out our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution.”

During the Obama administration, the GSA began evaluating new homes for the FBI, which has been housed since the 1970s in the deteriorating Hoover building at 935 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. In 2013, localities in Northern Virginia proposed multiple locations for a new building, but it took until 2016 for the GSA to come down to three finalists, including one location in Springfield and two in Prince George’s County.

FILE - The American flag flying alone beside an empty flagpole that previously had the flag of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, are pictured in the reflection of a window that previously had the sign and the seal of USAID, outside the agency's headquarters in Washington, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE – The American flag flying alone beside an empty flagpole that previously had the flag of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, are pictured in the reflection of a window that previously had the sign and the seal of USAID, outside the agency’s headquarters at the Reagan Building in Washington, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Then came President ‘s first term in 2017, when all progress on moving the FBI halted, as Trump said he had no interest in moving the agency to a new, billion-dollar complex. However, with the 2020 election of President Joe Biden, the three locations in Maryland and Virginia were reconsidered.

In late 2023, the GSA announced it had chosen Greenbelt, Maryland, as the FBI headquarters’ new location — an announcement that infuriated , who called it a “corrupt” process after former FBI Director Christopher Wray wrote to the entire agency that a political appointee to the GSA had overridden a three-person panel’s unanimous recommendation to build the new headquarters in Springfield.

Warner, , and almost all of Virginia’s congressional delegation called for a reversal of the decision, condemning “political interference” in the site selection.

But then, Trump was re-elected in 2024, and he called off the move to Maryland, and that leads us back to Tuesday’s news. Formerly home to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was dismantled and put out of business by the , the Reagan complex at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, was completed in 1998 and houses the U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters and private tenants, according to the FBI-GSA announcement.

“This move not only provides a world-class location for the FBI’s public servants, but it also saves Americans billions of dollars on new construction and avoids more than $300 million in deferred maintenance costs at the J. Edgar Hoover facility,” said GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters. “We are proud to partner with Director Patel to drive efficiency and improve the quality of space for a productive workforce in service to national security and taxpayers.”

Warner and Kaine, both Democrats, criticized the decision in a joint statement Tuesday: “Moving the FBI from the Hoover Building to the Reagan Building isn’t a plan, it’s a punt. For years, Democratic and administrations alike have agreed on the need for a secure, purpose-built headquarters that actually meets the FBI’s mission needs. This announcement brushes aside years of careful planning, ignores the recommendations of security and mission experts, and raises serious concerns about how this decision was made.

“Unfortunately, it fits a broader pattern from this administration — one marked by indiscriminate firings, canceled leases, and a general disregard for the federal workforce.”

CIA pays Peterson Cos. $246M for Virginia office building

The recently purchased a massive, 10-story office building in for $246.4 million, according to tax records. However, the agency has yet to reveal its plans for the building.

Records indicate that DD North 2 — a limited liability company for family-owned Fairfax-based real estate developer — sold its Dulles Discovery 2 , located at 13870 Air and Space Museum Parkway, to the federal government on May 29. The company’s website states that the property features a 434,000-square-foot Class A office building, constructed in 2010.

While the CIA isn’t specifically mentioned in the tax records, the mailing address for the new owner contains the , zip code 20505, which is a code unique to the CIA.

The CIA did not immediately return requests for comment. Bill Smith, senior managing director for commercial with Peterson, said that the CIA had already been leasing Dulles Discovery 2 for , and that the building was originally built to serve the agency’s needs. He said the federal government leases the remainder of the Dulles Discovery buildings, but declined to provide additional details.

The property is part of the Dulles Discovery office campus, east of Route 28 and west of Route 657. It is near a Chick-fil-A, a Wawa and an urgent care. In addition to the building recently sold to the CIA, there are four other Dulles Discovery buildings that total more than 1.8 million square feet of space. The most recent building was built in 2024.

Founded in 1965 by the late Milton V. Peterson, Peterson Cos. has developed multiple major mixed-use projects in Northern Virginia and Maryland, including National Harbor in Maryland, home to the MGM National Harbor casino resort; the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center; The Capital Wheel; Fairfax Corner; Fair Lakes; Burke Centre; and Tysons McLean Office Park.

2025 GAUGE Report Reveals Keys to GovCon Performance and Resilience

Unanet, a leading provider of ERP and CRM solutions for government contractors (GovCons), and CohnReznick LLP have released the 2025 GAUGE Report revealing timely insights into how GovCons are improving resource planning and program execution, as well as utilization metrics, to stay competitive in today’s dynamic federal contracting market.

“When we team up to publish the GAUGE Report, the GovCon industry pays attention because it’s grounded in real data from over 1,200 of their peers,” said Unanet Vice President of Product Marketing Kim Koster, a co-author of the report along with CohnReznick Partner Christine Williamson. “This year’s findings make one thing clear: the most successful GovCons are mastering resource management and building mature, scalable systems that align people, projects, and performance.”

The special theme for the 2025 GAUGE Report is resource and operational maturity of high-performing GovCons. The data underscores how firms are embracing centralizing project management offices (PMOs), AI-powered tools, and scalable systems to support growth across multiple programs and locations. From compliance to forecasting, the report provides benchmarking data and best practices rooted in real-world performance.
The GAUGE allows GovCons to benchmark their company vis-à-vis their peers in five key areas:

• G – Government compliance: Business systems, efficiency, and audits
• A – Accounting: Margins, indirect costs, and DSO
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Senate passes Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill as Vance breaks 50-50 tie

Summary

  • Senate passes bill with VP breaking 50-50 tie.
  • Package includes tax breaks and steep spending cuts.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson warns against major changes.
  • Senate clashed over Medicaid reductions and deficit impact.
  • and two other Republicans opposed the bill.

(AP) — Senate Republicans hauled President ‘s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday on the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session.

The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the president’s signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.

Three senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky — joined all Democrats in voting against it.

“The big not so beautiful bill has passed,” Paul said after the vote.

The difficulty it took for Republicans, who have the majority hold in Congress, to wrestle the bill to this point is not expected to let up. The package now goes back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson had warned senators not to deviate too far from what his chamber had already approved. But the Senate did make changes, particularly to Medicaid, risking more problems as they race to finish by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.

The outcome is a pivotal moment for president and his party, which have been consumed by the 940-page “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” as it’s formally titled, and invested their political capital in delivering on the GOP’s sweep of power in Washington.

Trump acknowledged it’s “very complicated stuff,” as he departed the White House for Florida.

“I don’t want to go too crazy with cuts,” he said. “I don’t like cuts.”

What started as a routine but laborious day of amendment voting, in a process called vote-a-rama, spiraled into a round-the-clock slog as Republican leaders were buying time to shore up support.

The droning roll calls in the chamber belied the frenzied action to steady the bill. Grim-faced scenes played out on and off the Senate floor, amid exhaustion.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota was desperately reaching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried the bill’s reductions to Medicaid will leave millions without care, and his most conservative flank, which wants even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts.

The GOP leaders have no room to spare, with narrow majorities. Thune could lose no more than three Republican senators, and two — Tillis, who warned that millions of people will lose access to Medicaid health care, and Paul, who opposes raising the debt limit by $5 trillion — had already indicated opposition.

Attention quickly turned to two other key senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Collins, who also raised concerns about health care cuts, as well as a loose coalition of four conservative GOP senators pushing for even steeper reductions.

Murkowski in particular became the subject of the GOP ‘s attention, as they sat beside her for talks. She was huddled intensely for more than an hour in the back of the chamber with others, scribbling notes on papers.

Then all eyes were on Paul after he returned from a visit to Thune’s office with a stunning offer that could win his vote. He had suggested substantially lowering the bill’s increase in the debt ceiling, according to two people familiar with the private meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said “Republicans are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular.”

An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became . The CBO said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade.

And on social media, billionaire Elon Musk was again lashing out at Republicans as “the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” for including the $5 trillion debt ceiling in the package, which is needed to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills.

Senators insist on changes

Few Republicans appeared fully satisfied as the final package emerged, in either the House or the Senate.

Collins had proposed bolstering the $25 billion proposed rural hospital fund to $50 billion, offset with a higher tax rate on those earning more than $25 million a year, but her amendment failed.

And Murkowski was trying to secure provisions to spare people in her state from some food stamp cuts, which appeared to be accepted, while she was also working to beef up federal reimbursements to hospitals in Alaska and others states, that did not comply with parliamentary rules.

What’s in the big bill

All told, the Senate bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to the latest CBO analysis, making permanent Trump’s 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.

The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide. It would impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states.

Additionally, the bill would provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.

Democrats fighting all day and night

Unable to stop the march toward passage, the Democrats tried to drag out the process, including with a weekend reading of the full bill.

A few of the Democratic amendments won support from a few Republicans, though almost none passed. More were considered in one of the longer such sessions in modern times.

One amendment overwhelmingly approved stripped a provision barring states from regulating if they receive certain federal funding.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking on the Appropriations Committee, raised particular concern about the accounting method being used by the Republicans, which says the tax breaks from Trump’s first term are now “current policy” and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits.

She said that kind of “magic math” won’t fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books.

Senate strikes AI provision from GOP bill after uproar from the states

Summary

  • Senate votes 99-1 to strike AI preemption clause.
  • Proposal would’ve barred states from regulating AI for 10 years.
  • Measure was tied to broadband and AI infrastructure funding.
  • Faced criticism from governors of both parties.
  • Provision was part of Trump’s tax cut and spending bill.

(AP) — A proposal to deter states from regulating for a decade was soundly defeated in the on Tuesday, thwarting attempts to insert the measure into President ‘s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts.

The Senate voted 99-1 to strike the AI provision from the legislation after weeks of criticism from both and Democratic governors and state officials.

Originally proposed as a 10-year ban on states doing anything to regulate AI, lawmakers later tied it to federal funding so that only states that backed off on AI regulations would be able to get subsidies for broadband internet or AI infrastructure.

A last-ditch Republican effort to save the provision would have reduced the time frame to five years and sought to exempt some favored AI laws, such as those protecting children or country music performers from harmful AI tools.

But that effort was abandoned when Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, teamed up with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington on Monday night to introduce an amendment to strike the entire proposal.

Blackburn said on the floor that “it is frustrating” that Congress has been unable to legislate on emerging technology, including online privacy and AI-generated “deepfakes” that impersonate an artist’s voice or visual likeness. “But you know who has passed it? It is our states,” Blackburn said. “They’re the ones that are protecting children in the virtual space. They’re the ones that are out there protecting our entertainers — name, image, likeness — broadcasters, podcasters, authors.”

Voting on the amendment happened after 4 a.m. Tuesday as part of an overnight session as Republican leaders sought to secure support for the tax cut bill while fending off other proposed amendments, mostly from Democrats trying to defeat the package.

Proponents of an AI moratorium had argued that a patchwork of state and local AI laws is hindering progress in the AI industry and the ability of U.S. firms to compete with China.

Some prominent tech leaders welcomed the idea after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who leads the Senate Commerce committee, floated it at a hearing in May.

But state and local lawmakers and AI safety advocates argued that the rule is a gift to an industry that wants to avoid accountability for its products. Led by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a majority of governors sent a letter to Congress opposing it.

Sanders, who was White House press secretary in Trump’s first term, credited Blackburn for “leading the charge” to defend states’ rights to regulate AI.

“This is a monumental win for Republican Governors, President Trump’s one, big beautiful bill, and the American people,” Sanders wrote on X on Tuesday.

Also appealing to lawmakers to strike the provision was a group of parents of children who have died as a result of online harms.

Cruz over the weekend tried to broker a last-ditch compromise with Blackburn to save the provision. Changes included language designed to protect Tennessee’s so-called ELVIS Act, championed by the country music industry to restrict AI tools from replicating an artist’s voice without their consent. Cruz said it could have “passed easily” had Blackburn not backed out. Blackburn said Tuesday there were “problems with the language” of the amendment.

“When I spoke to President Trump last night, he said it was a terrific agreement,” Cruz said. “The agreement protected kids and protected the rights of creative artists. But outside interests opposed that deal.”

Cruz withdrew the compromise amendment and blamed a number of people and entities he said “hated the moratorium,” including China, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a teachers union leader and “transgender groups and radical left-wing groups who want to use blue state regulations to mandate woke AI.”

He didn’t mention the broad group of Republican state legislators, attorneys general and governors who also opposed it. Critics say Cruz’s proposal, while carving out some exemptions, would have affected states’ enforcement of any AI rules if they were found to create an “undue or disproportionate burden” on AI systems.

“The proposed ban that has now been removed would have stopped states from protecting their residents while offering nothing in return at the federal level,” Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of children’s advocacy group Common Sense Media, wrote in a statement. “In the end, 99 senators voted to strip the language out when just hours earlier it looked like the moratorium might have survived.”

Wall Street drifts as Tesla drops and yields rise following economic updates

Summary

  • dips 0.1%, its first loss in four sessions.
  • adds 153 points; Nasdaq slips 0.2%.
  • shares fall amid Musk-Trump tensions.
  • Treasury yields rise after strong report.
  • Fed Chair Powell signals rate cuts remain on hold.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting on Tuesday as Wall Street’s momentum slows after setting record highs in each of the last two days.

The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in morning trading and potentially on track for its first loss in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 153 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.

Tesla tugged on the market as the relationship between its CEO, Elon Musk, and President soured even further. Once allies, the two have clashed recently, and Trump suggested there’s potentially “BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED” by scrutinizing subsidies, contracts or other government spending going to Musk’s companies.

Tesla fell 4.1% and was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500. It had already dropped a little more than 21% for the year so far coming into the day, in part because of Musk’s and Trump’s feud.

On the winning side of Wall Street were stocks of casino companies. They rallied following a report showing better-than-expected growth in overall gaming revenue in Macao, China’s casino hub. Wynn Resorts climbed 8.9%, and Las Vegas Sands gained 7.2%.

The overall U.S. has made a stunning recovery from its springtime sell-off of roughly 20%. But challenges still lay ahead for Wall Street, with one of the largest being the continued threat of Trump’s tariffs.

Many of Trump’s stiff proposed taxes on imports are currently on pause, but they’re scheduled to kick into effect in about a week. Depending on how big they are, they could hurt the economy and worsen inflation.

Congress is also debating proposed cuts to tax rates and other measures that could send the U.S. government’s debt spiraling higher, which could push inflation upward. That in turn could mean higher , which would hurt prices for bonds, stocks and other investments.

Despite such challenges, strategists at Barclays say they’re seeing signals of euphoria emerging among amateur and smaller-pocketed investors. The strategists say a measure that tries to show how much “excess optimism” is in the market is not far from the peaks seen during the “meme stock” craze that sent GameStop to market-bending heights or to the dot-com bubble at the turn of the millennium.

Other signals are also indicating exuberance in the market, such as demand for what are known as “blank-check companies” that hunt for privately held companies to buy. When too much optimism is in the market, it can inflate stock prices to too-high levels in what’s called a “bubble.”

Of course, “market bubbles are infamously difficult to predict and can endure far longer than anticipated before correcting,” according to the Barclays strategists led by Stefano Pascale and Anshul Gupta.

In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher following some mixed reports on the .

One said U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of May than the month before and than economists expected. That could be an encouraging signal for a job market that had been appearing to settle into a low-hire, low-fire state.

Separate reports on U.S. manufacturing were more mixed. One from the Institute for Supply Management said U.S. manufacturing activity shrank again in June, but not by as much as the month before.

“Customers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,” one survey respondent in the fabricated metal products industry said.

A separate report from S&P Global suggested manufacturing production returned to growth in June after three months of declines.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.26% from 4.24% late Monday after erasing an earlier, modest loss.

The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the will do with its main interest rate, rose more sharply to 3.77% from 3.72%.

Fed Chair  said again on Tuesday that he wants to wait for more evidence about how much Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and inflation before resuming cuts to interest rates. That’s despite Trump’s angry insistences lately that Powell and the Fed act more quickly to give the economy a boost through lower rates.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell modestly in Europe following more mixed sessions in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6% for two of the larger moves.

US job openings in May hit 7.8 million in a continuing display of labor market resilience

Summary

  • rose to 7.8 million in May, up from 7.4 million in April.
  • Economists had forecast a slight decline to 7.3 million openings.
  • Hiring slowed, but layoffs fell and quit rates edged up.
  • Vacancies fell in federal government amid Trump’s hiring freeze.
  • remains strong despite high and tariffs.

(AP) — U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in May, a sign that the American labor market remains resilien t in the face of high and uncertainty over U.S. economic policy.

U.S. employers posted 7.8 million vacancies in May, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, up from 7.4 million in April. Economists had expected a slight decrease to 7.3 million. Openings were reported at hotels and restaurants and at finance companies. Vacancies at the federal government fell to the lowest level since May 2020, likely reflecting President ‘s hiring freeze.

The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report showed that the number of Americans quitting their job — a sign of confidence in their prospects — rose modestly, and layoffs fell.

However, the report showed that hiring fell in May, suggesting that employers, though reluctant to lose staff, are hesitant about adding workers amid uncertainty over the economy.

“Hiring remains depressed, but that is less worrisome than it would be otherwise because layoffs continue to be low,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a commentary.

Openings are high by historical standards but have come down sharply since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022.

The U.S. job market has steadily decelerated from hiring boom of 2021-2023 when the economy bounced back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The unexpectedly strong post-pandemic recovery ignited , prompting the to raise its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023.

The higher borrowing costs have gradually cooled the labor market, and President Donald Trump’s policy of taxing imports at high rates has added uncertainty to the hiring outlook.

The Labor Department is expected to report Thursday that the generated 117,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. That would be down from 139,000 in May, from an average 168,000 a month in 2024 and a from a monthly average of 400,000 from 2021 through 2023. The rate is forecast to tick up to a still-low 4.3% from 4.2% in May.

 

Trump ramps up attacks on the Federal Reserve but Powell sticks to ‘wait and see’ stance

Summary

  • Fed Chair says central bank will keep rates steady.
  • Move comes despite pressure from for cuts.
  • Powell expects to rise later this summer.
  • Says the economic effects of tariffs remain uncertain.
  • Fed is taking a wait-and-see approach on future policy shifts.

(AP) — Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday stuck to his position that the central bank will keep its key rate on hold while it waits to see how President ‘s tariffs effect the economy, despite the steady stream of criticism from the White House, which wants lower .

Powell, speaking in Sintra, Portugal, at a conference hosted by the European Central Bank, also said that U.S. inflation is likely to pick up later this summer, though he acknowledged that the timing and magnitude of any price increase from the duties is uncertain. But he said the Fed will keep rates on hold while it evaluates the impact of tariffs on the .

“As long as the economy is in solid shape, we think the prudent thing to do is to wait and see what those effects might be,” Powell said, referring to the sweeping duties Trump has imposed this year.

Powell’s comments underscored the divide between the U.S. central bank’s leader and the Trump administration. Trump has repeatedly urged the Fed to cut its key rate, which he says would save U.S. taxpayers on interest costs on the federal government’s massive debt, and boost the economy. The fight has threatened the Fed’s traditional independence from , though since the Supreme Court signaled the president can’t fire the chair, financial markets haven’t responded to Trump’s criticism.

The Fed chair also said that without tariffs, the Fed would probably be cutting its key rate right now. The central bank went “on hold” after it saw how large Trump’s proposed tariffs were, Powell said, and economists began forecasting higher inflation.

At the same time, Powell did not rule out a rate cut at the Fed’s next policy meeting July 29-30.

“I wouldn’t take any meeting off the table or put it directly on the table,” Powell said. Most economists, however, expect the Fed won’t reduce rates until September at the earliest.

On Monday, the president attacked Powell again and extended his criticisms to the entire Fed governing board, which participates on interest-rate decisions.

“The board just sits there and watches, so they are equally to blame,” Trump said. The attack on the board ratchets up pressure on individual Fed officials, such as Governor Chris Waller, who have been mentioned as potential successors to Powell, whose term ends in May 2026.

The Fed has kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged this year, at about 4.3%, after cutting it three times in 2024.

At a news conference in June, Powell suggested that the central bank would “learn a great deal more over the summer” about whether President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs would push up inflation or not. The comment suggested the Fed wouldn’t consider cutting rates until its September meeting.

Yet a few days later, Fed governors Waller and Michelle Bowman, who were both appointed by Trump, said that it was unlikely the tariffs would lead to persistent inflation. Both also indicated that they would likely support reducing the Fed’s rate at its July 29-30 meeting.

U.Va. names short-term leader following Ryan’s exit

SUMMARY:

  • EVP and COO will serve as short-term acting president upon Jim Ryan’s resignation
  • A longer-term interim president will be named by U.Va.
  • As of July 1, board will be made up entirely of Youngkin appointees

Following President Jim Ryan’s sudden resignation, the ‘s short-term acting president will be Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis, the university’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, the university’s board of visitors announced Monday.

She will remain acting president until the board — which changes composition Tuesday with the start of the next year’s terms — names a longer-term interim president to serve until a permanent hire can be made after a national search.

Ryan, who resigned June 27 under pressure by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, leaves U.Va. with no permanent top leaders, as both the provost and UVA Health chief posts also are being held by interim officials.

Rector Robert D. Hardie, whose second and final term on the board of visitors was to end Monday, and Rector-elect Rachel W. Sheridan, who takes the reins of the board on Tuesday, July 1, sent a joint letter to the university community on Monday afternoon announcing that Davis will assume the role of acting president upon the effective date of Ryan’s resignation, although that date was not disclosed in the letter. According to a spokesperson, Ryan’s resignation has not yet become effective as of June 30.

Davis, who will work with interim Provost Brie Gertler and interim CEO of Health Affairs Mitch Rosner, “will remain in that role until we name an interim president who will continue to lead the university as we conduct a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.” According to the BOV’s manual, the rector must convene a search committee when there is a presidential vacancy.

The search process will include input from faculty, students, staff and alumni, the letter from Hardie and Sheridan says, and this process “will commence shortly.”

Sheridan, a partner in Kirkland & Ellis’ Capital Markets Practice Group in the , , region, is a 2023 appointee to the board by . She succeeds Hardie, a real estate investor who was appointed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2017 to his first term and reappointed by Gov. Ralph Northam in 2021.

Ryan has been at the center of controversy for months, as two highly ranked U.Va. alumni in the DOJ’s Civil Rights division placed pressure on him and the university to prove that every division of the university and its health system has dissolved and dismantled its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, following a board vote in March.

Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil rights division, and Gregory W. Brown, deputy assistant attorney general, sent a letter in April to Ryan and Hardie demanding they produce audio and video from a closed session of U.Va.’s board of visitors and other materials by May 30.

According to The New York Times and other reports, Brown — previously a Charlottesville private attorney who sued the university in 2024 on behalf of a Jewish student who claimed he suffered antisemitic attacks on campus — demanded that Ryan resign in order for the university to reach a settlement with the , protecting its federal funding.

Ryan sent a message to the university community Friday afternoon, acknowledging he had submitted his resignation to Hardie earlier in the day. In the letter, the president said that he was leaving to preserve federal funding for research at U.Va., as well as jobs funded by federal money and student financial aid.

“To make a long story short, I am inclined to fight for what I believe in, and I believe deeply in this university,” Ryan wrote. “But I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job.”

On Friday afternoon after news of his resignation broke, hundreds of people showed up at the U.Va. Rotunda to show their support for Ryan and their anger at what many viewed as the ‘s overreach. Some held signs criticizing the BOV, which will be entirely made up of Youngkin appointees starting Tuesday.

Virginia Democrats, including U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, were highly critical of the Justice Department’s pressure on Ryan to resign, and many blasted Youngkin as well, who has been accused by Democrats of attempting to exercise too much control over the state’s universities throughout his term.

“The Trump administration, in partnership with Gov. Youngkin, has turned yet another public institution into a political target,” the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus said in a statement Friday. “Their goal is clear: to defund public education, rewrite what is taught in classrooms, restrict who gets to learn, and remove leaders who refuse to conform to their narrow ideological vision.”

Earlier in June, nine Democratic state senators sued the rectors of U.Va., and over what they view as Youngkin’s attempt to nullify a Senate committee’s vote to reject eight board of visitors appointments, including former Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s appointment to U.Va.’s board.

On Friday, Youngkin thanked Ryan for his service in a statement but made no reference to the political controversy.

Hardie and Sheridan attempted to strike a balance between divergent points of view in their letter Monday, writing: “We share the sentiments of so many members of the university community who have expressed their sorrow about President Ryan’s resignation and their appreciation for his remarkable service to the institution.

“The board, individually and collectively, affirms our confidence in this great university and our understanding of the responsibility we have to ensure U.Va. remains a leader in academic excellence, free speech and responsible governance.”