Today’s newsletter highlights:
- U.S. Supreme Court to issue rulings.
- First appropriations bill passes U.S. House.
- Atlanta church considered for historic site status.
Ossoff’s back
Credit: Yuri Gripas/AP
Credit: Yuri Gripas/AP
After taking two weeks off to help care for his newborn girl, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is back in the halls of the Senate this week — and issuing verbal lashings to members of President Donald Trump’s administration.
On Tuesday, there was a tense back and forth between Ossoff and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins during a hearing on budget requests for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Ossoff asked Collins to explain how his proposed $18 billion cuts to VA spending could affect the number of doctors, nurses and dentists employed by the agency. Collins, a former Georgia congressman, repeatedly declined to go into specifics.
“Today is the budget hearing, where you justify the budget request,” Ossoff told Collins. “So, how do you justify these cut to medical services, and who are you going to fire in order to pay for it?”
Collins said the info would come later, prompting Ossoff to ask for the hearing to be reconvened once members had information in hand. That didn’t happen.
On Wednesday, in a different hearing featuring Trump budget director Russell Vought, Ossoff focused on proposed cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After hearing Vought repeatedly point to what he said was the CDC’s poor performance during the Biden administration, Ossoff cut him off.
“I don’t want to hear about the Biden administration, you’re here on behalf of the Trump administration,” he said sharply. He did get Vought to agree to visit the CDC headquarters in Atlanta for the first time.
Things to know
Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC
Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC
Good morning! Here are three things to know today:
- Employees at a pizzeria in Decatur blanched at messaging on pizza boxes given to the eatery for free. The takeout gear doubled as a job recruitment advertisement for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“A career that delivers”). Rather than use them for pizzas, Mojo Pizza N’ Pub employees used them in a bonfire, writes the AJC’s Gray Mollenkamp.
- A committee charged with deciding whether the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should stand behind recommending vaccinations against various diseases for a majority of Americans met in Atlanta for the first time since 17 of its members were ousted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the AJC’s Ariel Hart reports.
- A Trump administration plan to shutter the Job Corps training program is sparking stiff opposition in Georgia, the AJC’s Jeremy Redmon writes.
Court watch
Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to wrap up its term ahead of the summer break today with several potentially landmark decisions.
The most significant, according to Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck, is a case challenging birthright citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil.
“That will affect millions of people currently and going forward that would have been United States citizens who might not be, depending on what the Supreme Court does,” Kuck said.
The case is a challenge to the process of district courts issuing nationwide injunctions, which has had wide-ranging effects since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term. The key issue involves an executive order signed earlier this year ending automatic citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreign residents born in the United States.
Listen up
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast, AJC environment reporter Drew Kann explains the historic agreement to protect the Okefenokee Swamp. Then, Skyler Akins of the Log Cabin Republicans discusses the group’s dispute with Smyrna Pride and what led to their last-minute inclusion in this weekend’s celebration.
You can listen and subscribe to the show for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
2026 appropriations
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Even as Republicans in the House and Senate finalize work on the “big, beautiful bill,” a tax and spending package that contains many of President Donald Trump’s priorities, a separate discussion on how the federal government spends its money is also underway.
The U.S. House on Wednesday passed the first of 12 appropriations bills for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. For the past couple of years, Congress has not been able to pass these bills before the fiscal year begins, resulting in the passage of continuing resolutions to avoid government shutdowns.
The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies appropriations bill passed on a mostly party-line vote with only two Democrats voting in favor with Republicans. All five Democrats in Georgia’s delegation voted against the bill. Among them was U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, who is a top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
“This bill, as currently written, does not prioritize the needs of our people,” the Albany Democrat said in a news release. “Instead, it is laced with ideological provisions drawn from Project 2025.”
Republicans, on the other hand, celebrated the bill’s passage and emphasized its funding for veterans health care among other services.
“This important piece of legislation will appropriate $452.64 billion to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to fully fund veteran benefits and VA programs, with a special emphasis on health care and combating homelessness,” U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, said in his news release.
Abernathy church
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
The iconic stone church on West Hunter Street where civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy Sr. began his ministry is again being considered for national historic site status.
Georgia U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock introduced legislation Wednesday regarding the structure, built in 1906 three blocks west of where Mercedes-Benz Stadium now stands.
Abernathy co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and led the group following King’s assassination in 1968. Abernathy died in 1990.
“As a pastor of Dr. King’s spiritual home, I remain committed to preserving Georgia’s history and uplifting the power of faith in action,” said Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood.
This is the second legislative push to make the church a historic site. Ossoff and Warnock first introduced the bill in 2023. The measure received bipartisan support at the committee level but did not advance to a full Senate vote.
Today in Washington
Credit: Alex Brandon/AP
Credit: Alex Brandon/AP
Happenings:
- President Donald Trump will hold an event at the White House to promote passage of the “big, beautiful bill.”
- The U.S. House will vote on legislation sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, that would require the Department of Homeland Security to issue monthly reports on the number of people from certain Middle Eastern and Asian countries encountered at U.S. borders.
- The Senate is expected to vote on more of Trump’s nominations.
Shoutouts
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
Birthday:
- State Rep. Mary Frances Williams, D-Marietta.
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. Click here to submit the shoutouts. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
Before you go
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
A cap commemorating the inauguration of President Donald Trump stirred controversy recently at a Smyrna American Legion Post 160 event, the Marietta Daily Journal reported. The hat’s wearer, Jay Wallace, was told political messaging was not allowed at the dinner and karaoke party. He was asked to leave.
Wallace argued the hat was not political but instead a recognition of a new president being sworn into office.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
AJC reporter Adam Van Brimmer contributed to this report.
Note: This file has been updated to reflect U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop’s status on the House Appropriations Committee.
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