FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise have nominated a new commissioner to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Gene Mills, a religious leader and president of the Louisiana Family Forum, will serve alongside eight others to ensure religious freedoms are protected around the world. “I am excited to nominate Gene Mills as the newest commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,” Johnson told the Daily Signal. “Gene has been a steady voice supporting religious freedom in the state of Louisiana and in our country for more than a quarter century.” The Louisiana Family Forum, which Mills heads, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 to advance life, liberty, and limited government. @Gene_Mills of @lafamilyforum invites you to be part of this historic moment as America reads the Bible aloud, cover to cover, in Washington, D.C. Join believers from across the nation as we honor Scripture together. Get tickets for in person or watch online:… pic.twitter.com/UeDF92Abkf— America Reads the Bible (ARTB) (@AmericaRTBible) April 3, 2026 “I’ve known Gene Mills for 30 years, and his deep faith will strengthen the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in its mission to defend religious freedom at home and around the world,” Scalise told the Daily Signal. The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 codified the U.S. government’s role in promoting religious freedom around the world. The law created the commission to monitor and respond to violations of religious freedom globally, and to make policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state, and Congress. “The United States has a long history of supporting religious freedom because this principle forms the bedrock for so many other basic human freedoms we enjoy today, and I am confident that the important work of this commission will be further strengthened by Gene’s participation,” Johnson continued. For the 250th anniversary of our independence, we rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God. Last Sunday’s gathering was an important moment in our history.May the Lord grant us all the courage and conviction to preserve this extraordinary republic. pic.twitter.com/DP5Q5ovAF2— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) May 24, 2026 “Our Founding Fathers believed so strongly in religious liberty that they enshrined it in the Constitution, and that is why America has always stood tall as a beacon for people of faith around the world,” Scalise concluded. The commission works with independent human rights groups, nongovernmental organizations, religious communities, and the State Department to identify countries of particular concern where religious freedoms are being violated. There are currently 18 countries listed as countries of particular concern, including China, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, India, Cuba, and Vietnam. There are 11 countries on a special watch list, including Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, and Turkey. Congratulations to our friend and former colleague, Vicky Hartzler, who was just elected to serve as chair for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.This bipartisan organization plays an important role in protecting everyone’s essential right to…— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) June 10, 2025

Former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sat down for her second round of interviews with the House Oversight Committee Friday amid investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—despite undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer. Bondi underwent surgery in May. She wore a throat bandage from the surgery on her walk to the committee hearing. She testified Friday morning in a closed-door interview. This marked her second closed-door interview with the committee about her investigation into Epstein and his associates. During the first interview on March 18, Democrat members of Congress staged a public walkout to protest the decision to hold the hearing behind closed doors. Some Democrat House members criticized the same decision for the hearing Friday. Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., posted on X, “Republicans are doing everything possible to make sure you don’t hear what Pam Bondi has to say about the Epstein files.” Republicans are doing everything possible to make sure you don’t hear what Pam Bondi has to say about the Epstein files. She was subpoenaed to testify under oath, on camera, on the record. Republicans on the Oversight Committee made sure that didn't happen. Today, she’s sitting…— Rep. Mike Levin (@RepMikeLevin) May 29, 2026 He added, “She’s NOT under oath, there are no cameras, no video recordings, and it’s closed to the public.” However, when asked if Bondi will be sworn under oath, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who chairs the committee, affirmed, “She’s coming in. If she says anything that’s not true, that’s a felony, and she’ll be prosecuted.” Comer also stated that the transcripts will be released to the public shortly after the hearing. “We will release the transcripts, and we will be 100% transparent,” the chairman said.

The controversial 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate in order to pass legislation, which could by removed by Senate majority leadership, has become a vital point in the Georgia Senate race. Derek Dooley, who is competing against Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., for the Republican nomination to face Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., in November for his seat, said on Newsmax recently that he thinks “there is a bigger issue at stake” when asked if he would work to abolish the filibuster or support the talking filibuster if elected. “Well, I think there’s a bigger issue at stake,” Dooley said on air. “You know, anytime you talk about the filibuster, of course, the first thing I think about is how would we have liked it back in 2020 if Joe Biden and the Democratic administration would have had it.” Abolishing the filibuster would eliminate the 60-vote threshold needed to pass legislation in the Senate, while the talking filibuster will keep the threshold but open the door for unlimited debate, and ultimately force a vote on the legislation. “We couldn’t even reel it back as it relates to packing the Supreme Court, or [admitting] new states in D.C. and Puerto Rico, but the bigger issue is the ineptitude of Congress, and I got in this race because I was so disappointed in Congress,” Dooley continued. “I think it’s changed. It’s not working for the people the way it used to.” The candidate and former college football coach went on to talk about how he believes the Senate has become self-serving and ineffective, without directly answering the question he was asked. “We can’t even get issues that 85% of the country want through the finish line, and it always comes back to leadership in Congress,” Dooley added. “There’s too much careerism, where people have been up there too long. We got a lot of corruption going on, and mostly it’s the inaction, a lot of yelling and screaming, [and] nobody delivering results for the people. That’s why I got in this race.” Dooley, who is preparing for a runoff election against Collins in June after neither candidate received 50% of the vote in May, added that Georgia voters are increasingly frustrated with the Senate. “Let me tell you something—that’s the No. 1 thing voters are frustrated with in Georgia, and that’s why I put pen to paper on a Georgia-first contract on what’s going to lay out every decision I make and every vote I cast, and it’s resonating well with the Georgia people,” Dooley said. Collins, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms and voted three times to send the SAVE America Act to the Senate, has not publicly stated if he would push to abolish the filibuster if elected to the Senate. The controversy over abolishing the filibuster comes after President Donald Trump, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and several House Republicans such as Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to eliminate the rule to pass crucial voter ID legislation into law. “Not passing the SAVE AMERICA ACT will lead to the the worst results for a political party in the HISTORY of the United States Senate,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “An Unrecoverable Death Wish!!! Likewise, the FILIBUSTER – TERMINATE IT NOW!” Recent polling shows that over 70% of Americans support the SAVE America Act. Collins and Dooley did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

A spate of “teen takeovers” in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend highlighted a serious, growing phenomenon that now plagues cities across America. Unfortunately, solutions aren’t on the way as Mayor Brandon Johnson, a far-left Democrat, decided to shift blame away from the criminals. More on that in a bit. A so-called teen takeover is when large mobs of young people coordinate and rapidly show up in a public place all at once. They frequently commit crimes and violently clash with bystanders and police. Chicago Police arrested more than 50 people in these teen takeovers in several major incidents over the weekend according to Chicago’s WGN 9. In one case, an 18-year-old allegedly rammed a car into a group of police officers, injuring five of them. Other cities have dealt with this problem, and some leaders are taking active measures to crack down on criminals. Following a major incident in the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said she would take decisive action. “We don’t want your kids victimized either, and neither should you,” Pirro said, according to NewsNation. “And that requires that you do something about this. And that’s why we’re going to hold you accountable. These are not harmless gatherings, they are violent, and they are disruptive.” That’s the right way to respond. Of course, the Trump administration is doing its best to show a deep blue city what it’s like to live under common sense governance. Crime is down dramatically, police enforcement is up, and even the fountains are working now. That may not sound impressive, but it is if you’ve lived in D.C. at any point in the last few decades. Weekly reminder: Decline is a choice. pic.twitter.com/LeFsjFqg3R— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 28, 2026 I wouldn’t count on any kind of grand transformation in Chicago. President Donald Trump offered to help deal with Chicago’s teen takeover problem, but he’s been ignored. Meanwhile, the mayor did his best to shift blame away from the perpetrators and signal that the city would continue doing the bare minimum to keep them in check. “We believe we can arrest our way towards safety? We’re wrong,” Johnson said. “We ask police officers to do too much. At some point adults have to work hard to raise their children and that’s what we’re calling for in this moment.” TEEN TAKEOVERS: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson addressed violent teen takeovers at summer safety press conference on Thursday."If we believe that we can arrest our way towards safety, we're wrong!" he said.Credit: WFLD pic.twitter.com/TGmswkSCVl— Fox News US (@FoxUSNews) May 22, 2026 Yes, we can arrest—and prosecute, don’t forget that critical part—our way to more safety. Parents should be taking care of their children, but that clearly isn’t happening in large parts of the city, nor is the government ensuring that it does. Most importantly of all, the mayor refuses to encourage *gasp* personal responsibility. In fact, the evasion of responsibility has been one of the defining features of Johnson’s tenure. With so many other socialist, big city mayors making headlines in the last year it’s easy to forget Johnson. He was a far-Left darling who became mayor of the Windy City at the high tide of the Great Awokening. Johnson’s star has lost some luster since his victory in 2023. His approval ratings sank to 14% last year—no, that isn’t a typo—and even many of his progressive allies abandoned ship. His time in office has been defined by a string of crises. A budget crisis, an immigration crisis, a crime crisis. By most accounts he handled these challenges poorly, though there are some good signs of improvement. Homicides are now down in the city this year, though other kinds of violent crime remain high—much higher than most of the country. In repudiation of Johnson’s “you can’t arrest your way to safety” comment, the drop in Chicago homicides coincided with a significant increase in arrests. “As crime fell citywide, arrest rates for total and violent crime rose,” Illinois Policy reported in February. “The arrest rate for total crime climbed from 13.8% to 15.8%. The arrest rate for violent crime also increased to 17.9%, the highest level since the pandemic.” Despite Johnson’s attitude, it seems that arresting more people is one thing that’s really working. But the urban chaos problem isn’t over. Johnson’s reaction to the surge in teen mob violence has been to pin blame on other forces, other people besides the criminals. When Chicago faced a surge in car thefts a few years ago, he didn’t castigate the thieves. Instead, he faulted automakers for not doing enough to stop them. “The failure of Kia and Hyundai to install basic auto-theft prevention technology in these models is sheer negligence, and as a result, a citywide and nationwide crime spree around automobile theft has been unfolding right before our eyes,” Johnson said while launching a lawsuit of those companies. In the case of recent teen violence, Johnson said he’d focus on going after social media companies. Johnson declared that the Chicago city government would hold these companies “accountable” for their role in harming the “mental health and well-being of our young people.” It’s always someone else’s fault… https://t.co/YcOySwFHwL— Rafael A. Mangual (@Rafa_Mangual) May 27, 2026 Social media can certainly be a catalyst for bad behavior, but again we see Johnson shifting the blame away from the individual perpetrators of the crimes. And while Johnson said parents need to take more responsibility for their kids, he refuses to lift a finger to ensure that happens. Johnson continues to oppose curfews and parental responsibility laws that have been proposed in the city. So, even that stuff about making parents take care of their kids was just blather. If anything, Chicago’s mayor is an excellent example of why leftist ideology leads to ruin. Taken to its logical conclusions it skirts around human nature, it rejects Judeo-Christian morality while favoring materialistic “root causes” as the answer to all problems, and it leads to the suppression of truth when plans fail.

LOS ANGELES—With voters set to decide who will lead California’s largest city for the next four years, some residents who live on the streets of Los Angeles, or have been affected by homelessness, spoke out against the current leadership, calling for change. Angelenos have less than a week to decide who their next mayor will be. The top three candidates are incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman, and Pacific Palisades fire survivor Spencer Pratt. Recent polls have shown that Bass remains under the 50% needed to win outright, while Pratt and Raman are running neck-and-neck for second. For years, local residents have watched what was supposed to be a contained area for the homeless grow throughout the city. During her 2022 campaign for mayor, then-candidate Bass ran on solving the crisis. “Our city is facing an unprecedented emergency, and we need to treat it as such,” she wrote in 2022.  While Bass has touted decreases in unsheltered homelessness and expanded housing and services, questions about where the city’s millions in taxpayer dollars are actually going have become a major issue. Throughout Bass’ term, the city has allocated well over $2 billion to homeless services and programs. In her first partial fiscal year, several hundred million dollars were directed toward the issue.  By fiscal year 2023-24, that number jumped to $1.3 billion, covering programs like Inside Safe, permanent and interim housing, and outreach and prevention services. However, only an estimated $599 million was spent by the end of that fiscal year. During that time, Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia released a report in 2024 showing how little of the allocated funds had been spent.  As Mejia sought answers from the Bass administration and the City Council about where the rest of the money went, officials failed to provide clear explanations. Questions about the lack of transparency grew, with public criticism at the time calling for better tracking and accountability. What the People Say in Skid Row “The whole city of LA is now Skid Row. That’s the reality. I think everybody’s sick of it. Even the people on the street are sick of it. Even the people living in low-income housing are sick of it. They’re not doing anything,” Don Garza, a U.S. military veteran who has been in Skid Row for 26 years, told the Daily Signal.  “Where’s the money going?” he continued. “I already told you where the money’s going—it’s going in their pockets. We know, we’ve seen it. But the question is, why do they fight so hard to not be accountable for that money? That’s the question.” Crackdowns on the city’s nonprofit organizations have ramped up under the leadership of First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. In January, officials arrested and charged 42-year-old Alexander Soofer of fraudulently obtaining $23 million in taxpayer funds through his organization and keeping at least $10 million of it. “[Pratt has] got a point. I want to know what nonprofits get the money, how much they get, where it goes, and what the results are. And from what I’ve seen, there’s no results,” Garza said. “Karen does not deserve another [term]. She doesn’t deserve to be the mayor again.” “As far as Spencer Pratt, he’s absolutely correct. There’s no reason why we can’t do these things. I agree with him that laws should be enforced,” he added.  Another Skid Row resident, Rick, who provided only his first name, called the money scandal regarding homelessness the “biggest rip-off in history.” “I don’t give a f— about the money. I want to see them locked up. And that’s what is the most important part to me,” he continued. “I like to see them suffer. Because they did a lot of wrong s— to people of all color and poor people. And they get mad when somebody like me is talking because I’m telling the truth.” When asked about Bass’ leadership, Rick stated that he was confident the incumbent mayor would not win again. Along with call outs of the nonprofit organizations down in Skid Row, many on the ground have been vocally against health services that have provided things like needles and pipes to drug users, also known as harm-reduction services. With part of Pratt’s campaign honing-in on wanting to cut the drug abuse and get proper mental services to those on the streets, an ex-psychiatric nurse by the name of Fred, who has lived in Skid Row for more than four years, told the Daily Signal that he agreed with wanting policy to change if Pratt were to win.  “What I’d like to see is, when they have somebody that’s wigging out and it’s obviously [a] mental [issue] … to go ahead and talk them down instead of the police going in and having to tackle them, and all this other stuff,” Rick said. However, even if new leadership comes to the city, not all in Skid Row say real change is likely. A resident by the name of Jake told the Daily Signal that even if Pratt were to get in, he believed the crisis would stay the same, as it has already hit “the ceiling.” “It’s going to stay the same. It’s at its worst, you know. … You can’t go any further than hitting the ceiling,” Jake said. “Look at all the mayors we’ve had in the past. What’s another person going to do to try to fix this whole situation?” With just days until the June 2 primary, a Cygnal poll conducted May 15–18 showed Bass at 25%, well short of the majority needed to win outright. Pratt sat at 22% and Raman at 18%, with 25% of likely voters still undecided.