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How Weak Federal Ethics Laws Enable Presidential Profiteering

How Weak Federal Ethics Laws Enable Presidential Profiteering

The Iran War’s Price Tag: Billions Lost While Americans Go Without

The Iran War’s Price Tag: Billions Lost While Americans Go Without

Protestors holding signs, many that say "Stop Bombing Iran."

Trump’s ‘Just for Fun’ War Talk Shows a Dangerous Trivialization

Trump’s Racism Carries No Consequences—And That’s Scary

Trump’s Racism Carries No Consequences—And That’s Scary

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of the Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House

Trump’s Troubled Appointees Face Scandals, Backlash, and Low Support

Video: Are We Scaring The Next Generation Away From Public Service?

Video: Are We Scaring The Next Generation Away From Public Service?play icon
FMC: Former Members of Congress & The Fulcrum
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The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumSep 22, 2021
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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From social media to cable news, all the American public sees from our leaders are partisan attacks and hyperbolic rhetoric, but that's not the way it has to be. To prove it, Former Members of Congress (FMC) and the Fulcrum have joined forces to bring you Congress at a Crossroads.

The new monthly video series will bring together former members of both parties to discuss the structural issues in today's Congress, as well as the hottest political issues. They won't always agree, but they will always treat each other with respect and civility.

This month, our host, FMC CEO Pete Weichlein sat down with Former Reps. Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Donna Edwards (D-MD) to discuss whether today's hyper-partisanship and lack of civility are scaring the next generation away from public service.


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Profits over Patients
Health

Profits over Patients

Trump Administration’s Escalating Attacks on Media Raise Concerns about Trust in Media, Self-Censorship
Media & Technology

Trump Administration’s Escalating Attacks on Media Raise Concerns about Trust in Media, Self-Censorship

Strange Days Indeed: Why ‘Nobody Told Me’ Echoes America Today
Pop Culture

Strange Days Indeed: Why ‘Nobody Told Me’ Echoes America Today

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DHS Shutdown Becomes Democrats’ Leverage to Curb ICE Tactics after Minnesota Deaths

Demonstrators protest Department of Homeland Security assigning ICE agents to work alongside TSA agents at O'Hare International Airport on March 27, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. The travel disruptions continue as hundreds of TSA agents quit or work without pay during a partial government shutdown. U.S. President Donald Trump said ICE agents will be deployed to U.S. airports on Monday, with border czar Tom Homan in charge of the effort.

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

DHS Shutdown Becomes Democrats’ Leverage to Curb ICE Tactics after Minnesota Deaths

WASHINGTON – For more than a month, Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security while demanding that the agency limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in ten specific ways after federal agents killed two people during federal immigration operations in Minnesota in January.

“We will not continue to allow what we’re seeing on the streets. Thousands of Americans, of immigrants, of our neighbors from Chicago to Minneapolis are saying ‘enough is enough,’” said Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill.

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President Trump signing a bill into law.

U.S. President Donald Trump signs a bipartisan bill to stop the flow of opioids into the United States in the Oval Office of the White House on January 10, 2018 in Washington, DC

Getty Images, Pool

Two Bills to Become Law; Lots of Ongoing Work

Two Bills to Become Law

These two bills have passed both the Senate and the House and now go to the President for signing, or, if he remembers his empty threat from the week before last, go to the President to sit for 10 days excluding Sundays at which time they will become law anyway.

Recorded Votes

These bills have only passed the House, so they are not going to become law anytime soon.

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Confirmation on Easy Mode: Sen. Mullin’s nomination to lead DHS

U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) testifies during his confirmation hearing to be the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 18, 2026 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Confirmation on Easy Mode: Sen. Mullin’s nomination to lead DHS

Since arriving in Congress in 2013 Sen. Markwayne Mullin has been known for disappearing for a few weeks to Afghanistan in a putative effort to rescue Americans still there after withdrawal and tried to draw the president of the Teamsters into a fight during a hearing. Ironically, or possibly appropriately, Sean O’Brien, that same president of the Teamsters, endorsed Mullin’s nomination. He has written several laws supporting Native American communities and pediatric cancer research. A Trump loyalist, on January 6, 2021 in the hours after the riot at the Capitol, Mullin voted to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election by omitting Arizona and Pennsylvania’s votes for Joe Biden.

His work experience prior to his political career was primarily in running his family’s plumbing business after his father became ill. He spent four months as a mixed martial arts fighter with a record of three wins. (He’s also gotten a lot richer while in Congress.)

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Two people signing papers.

A deep dive into the growing uncertainty in the U.S. legal immigration system, exploring policy shifts, backlogs, and how procedural instability is reshaping the promise of lawful immigration.

Getty Images, Halfpoint Images

When Immigration Rules Keep Changing, the System Stops Working

For generations, the United States has framed legal immigration as a kind of social contract. Since 1965, when the Immigration and Nationality Act ended the national-origin quota system, the U.S. has formally opened legal immigration to people from around the world without racial or national-origin preferences. If people from across the globe sought to reunite with family or bring needed skills to the American economy, they were told they would be welcomed. If they sought U.S. citizenship, the country would provide a clear route to reach it.

Follow the procedures, submit the forms, pay the fees, pass the background checks, and your time will come. Legal immigration has never been easy or quick. But the promise has always been that the path exists.

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