The conservative America First Policy Institute has a toolkit for students facing viewpoint discrimination on campus.
It is intended to help students create new campus groups and student organizations that are denied privileges or otherwise treated unfairly.
“The First Amendment protects your right to freedom of expression. If your school or university is treating your organization unfairly because of political or religious content, they may be in violation of the law,” says AFPI, which was founded by veterans of President Trump’s first term.
The tools include letter templates students can use when applying for recognition of an organization, appealing a denial of club recognition and challenging unfair treatment.
The campus conservative organization Turning Point USA grew by tens of thousands after its founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated last month during a college campus event in Utah.
Some of the new TPUSA chapters have faced resistance from school administrators.
Study finds waste in Obamacare subsidies
A study by Paragon Healthcare Institute found that millions of enrollees in the Obamacare exchanges do not use their benefits, resulting in billions of dollars in wasted taxpayer dollars.
Large numbers of zero-claim enrollees — people who did not file a single medical claim — boost evidence of rampant fraud in ACA exchanges, according to the study.
Many of these enrollees are “phantoms,” people unaware of their coverage or enrolled in other plans, it said.
President Biden’s enhanced subsidies for Obamacare during the COVID pandemic, the research says, invited fraud by creating zero-dollar plans that are fully subsidized by taxpayers and require no enrollee contributions.
Those expanded subsidies, which are set to expire this year, are not at the center of the government shutdown standoff. Democrats refuse to pass a government funding bill unless it includes an extension of the extra subsidies.
Paragon Healthcare Institute argues that the extra subsidies need to end.
“Unscrupulous brokers enrolled many people without their knowledge and many others after manipulating information on applications to maximize subsidies,” according to the study.
The report said the increase in zero-claim enrollment from 2021 to 2024 is not supported by significantly higher enrollment among young, healthy beneficiaries.
“Zero-claim enrollment numbers dwarf potential coverage loss estimates of not extending the COVID credits,” it said.
This anomaly shows that when the COVID credits expire on schedule at the end of 2025, they will have no negative impact on access to health care services or health, they say.
“To curb fraudulent enrollment that harms both patients and taxpayers, Congress must allow the Biden COVID credits to expire on time,” the researchers said.
Liberals want major victory from shutdown
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s Adam Green said that Democrats must be able to declare a significant healthcare policy victory in their fight with Republicans over the government shutdown.
“There has to be some type of significant health care policy victory. It can’t just be winning by losing,” Mr. Green said on MSNBC’s “Way Too Early with Ali Vitali”
“We have the messaging win. That’s very Chuck Schumer-y. But, you know, I don’t think if it was a one-year or two-year [or] three-year extension of benefits that most people in America [want]. I think most people in America would be like, ’Wow, Democrats actually fought and won.’”
He added, “That would actually put us … winning again, which would be nice.”
DOJ, FBI sued over canceled grants
Democracy Forward has sued the Department of Justice and FBI to compel the release of public records about the termination of more than $800 million in grants for violence prevention, crime victim services and community safety.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks to enforce the Freedom of Information Act request after the DOJ and FBI failed to produce the records about the decisions to cancel more than 375 multi-year cooperative agreements and grants issued through the Office of Justice Programs.
The FOIA requests, filed in May 2025, sought communications and records that could “shed light on the extent of this political interference and its impact on public safety funding.”
The organization blamed the Department of Government Efficiency for identifying which grants would be terminated.
“The administration’s political operatives appear to have interfered with critical Justice Department programs that make our communities safer — and the public has a right to know why,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a liberal national legal organization.
“When a government secretly pulls funding from programs that prevent gun violence, support survivors of violence, and strengthen public safety, it’s not efficiency — it’s abuse of power,” Ms. Perryman said.
The Advocates column is a weekly look at the political action players who drive the debate and shape policy outcomes in Washington.
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