President Trump has announced plans for a Minnesota company to build a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa.
Mesabi Metallics is planning to build the plant, which is expected to produce 10 million tons of steel a year and create as many as 1,750 permanent jobs in the state. If the mill comes to fruition, it would open by 2030.
Trump clearly hopes the announcement will help his party’s midterm election prospects in Iowa, with control of Congress at stake. Republican congressional candidates are locked in tight races amid dissatisfaction over high fuel costs, particularly diesel related to the Iran war.
It would be the first new steel mill built in the U.S. since 1969.
President Trump says he didn’t discuss an offer to sell U.S. weapons to China during his summit last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump was asked about comments made Sunday by U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue, in which Perdue said the president had asked Xi during their talks whether he’d like to buy U.S. arms.
The president said he believed Perdue was referring to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, a point of contention with members of Congress. His administration is delaying approval of a $14 billion arms package that Congress approved in January.
The federal government spends $1 billion a year to keep foreign citizens in its prisons, according to a new study.
The Government Accountability Office says the government spent $8 billion to incarcerate non-citizens in the Federal Bureau of Prisons from 2016 to 2023. The cost exceeded $1 billion annually at the start of that period, dipped in the middle and then rose, even as the total number of people dropped.
About 10% ended up behind bars more than once, including 400 who were reincarcerated at least three times after their initial release, the GAO said.
That rate is likely lower than that of the general population, partly because the majority of non-citizens are deported after their release from federal prison.
Growth in the advanced defense tech sector may be slowing down, as a perfect storm in Washington, Silicon Valley and Wall Street could spark a wave of consolidation in an industry that until recently seemed poised for endless expansion.
Should expectations of a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget be dashed after the midterm elections, the money simply will not be there for companies hoping their technology will be adopted for use by the Department of Defense.
Smaller companies may merge or be gobbled up by industry giants, and for others, it may be difficult for some of those companies to scale up or stay afloat at all.
And finally … A look at James Comer’s tenure as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The Kentucky Republican leaves behind multiple successful investigations into government waste and at least one high-profile resignation: D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, who stepped down last year amid a committee investigation into allegations she allowed data manipulation that hid Washington’s crime problem.
House Republicans impose a three-term limit for committee chairs, which means Comer will be replaced at the beginning of the next Congress.
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