Editor’s note: This week, we’re reprinting some of our best stories from the past year. This piece, originally published in May, won Luke Rosiak the 2025 Dao Prize For Excellence In Journalism. It is reprinted here in its entirety along with a note from Daily Wire editor-in-chief Brent Scher, added to mark Rosiak&#8217;s Dao victory.
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Earlier this year, we decided to put Luke Rosiak on full-time DOGE coverage. But his work on government efficiency started more than a decade ago. Luke was mentored by the late Tom Coburn, the senator who famously put out an annual “Wastebook” documenting government stupidity. None of the stupidity, however, ever got cut.
“For years, us waste-watchers saw that nothing got better under either party,” Luke said back in February. “We thought we had to accept it.”
But then DOGE came along, led by a confrontational billionaire empowered to take action as soon as he was alerted of government waste. The goal was never for Luke to cover what Elon Musk and DOGE were doing, any reporter could do that, but rather to spotlight as much waste, fraud, and abuse as he could while the government cared.
He’s done that, far more thoroughly than we could have imagined. He locked his investigative prowess in on waste and abuse of the federal food stamp program, figured out what was going on<a href="http://dailywire.com/news/this-foreign-aid-agency-locked-its-doors-to-keep-doge-out-now-we-know-why" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> inside the African Development Foundation</a>, where they shuttered the doors to keep DOGE from entering, and told the world the story of how the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-doge-origin-story-how-barack-obama-laid-the-groundwork-for-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wokest office at the White House</a> really made DOGE possible. Elon was following — and literally responding with “Deleted” to Luke’s reporting on X.
This week Luke was recognized for his work spotlighting with the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wires-luke-rosiak-wins-investigative-journalism-award-for-best-doge-reporting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prestigious Dao Prize</a>, awarded to “recognize excellence in investigative journalism.” It was for his work on the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which thanks to reporting like Luke’s, no longer exists.
This piece was originally published on March 19, 2025, but we’re sharing the award-winning journalism again today. — Brent Scher
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One of the seven small federal agencies that President Donald Trump ordered <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/continuing-the-reduction-of-the-federal-bureaucracy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">downsized or eliminated</a> on Friday was rife with corruption, with its employees hiring friends and relatives, commissioning paintings of themselves, and using government credit cards to indulge in constant luxuries.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) occupied a nine-story office tower on D.C.’s K Street for only 60 employees, many of whom actually worked from home, prior to the pandemic. Its managers had luxury suites with full bathrooms; one manager would often be “in the shower” when she was needed, while another used her bathroom as a cigarette lounge. FMCS recorded its director as being on a years-long business trip to D.C. so he could have all of his meals and living expenses covered by taxpayers, simply for showing up to the office.
FMCS is a 230-employee agency that exists to serve as a voluntary mediator between unions and businesses. As an “independent agency,” its director nominally reports to the president, but the agency is so small that in effect, there is no oversight at all — and it showed, becoming a real-life caricature of all the excesses that the Department of Government Efficiency has alleged take place in government.
This reporter spent a year <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/watchdog-just-sign-here/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigating the agency</a> a decade ago, and I found egregious and self-serving violations of hiring, pay, contracting, and purchase card rules. One thing I could not discover is why the agency actually existed, other than to provide luxurious lifestyles for its employees. Endless junkets to resort destinations, which employees openly used to facilitate personal vacations, were justified as building awareness of the agency in the hopes that someone would actually want to use its voluntary services.
FMCS seemed, quite clearly, to exist for the benefit of those on its payroll, and not much else. One employee told me: “Let me give you the honest truth: A lot of FMCS employees don’t do a hell of a lot, including myself. Personally, the reason that I’ve stayed is that I just don’t feel like working that hard, plus the location on K Street is great, plus we all have these oversized offices with windows, plus management doesn’t seem to care if we stay out at lunch a long time. Can you blame me?”
<h3>“Recreation and reception fund.”</h3>
Top FMCS official George Cohen used a “recreation and reception fund” to order champagne and $200 coasters for his office, and to purchase artwork painted by his wife. The tiny agency commissioned paintings of its top employees — as one employee told me, “like they were reigning kings or something…I’ve never seen anything like it before.” It spent $2,402 retouching the portrait of someone who briefly held the top job in an acting capacity.
FMCS employees “unblocked” their government credit cards to turn off typical abuse protections, then used them to apparently fund personal expenses and simply bill anything they’d like to the government. One employee leased a BMW; another (IT director James Donnen) billed the government for his wife’s cell phone, cable TV at both his home and his vacation home, and even his subscription to USA Today.
Employee Dan W. Funkhouser used his FMCS card to rent a storage unit near his home in rural Virginia, two hours from the office he supposedly worked at, which was used to store personal possessions such as a photo album of his dog, Buster. Funkhouser also spent $18,000 at a jewelry store near his house, and “destroyed all purchase card records upon leaving the agency,” an audit said.
When Charles Burton retired from FMCS, he incorporated an LLC to which another FMCS employee paid $85,000 using his purchase card, listing it as a “Call Center Service,” even though the company had neither a website nor a working phone.
When an accountant, Carol Booth, blew the whistle on financial abuses to the General Services Administration, which manages purchase cards and contracting, Cohen forced her to send an email (which he wrote under her name) rescinding her statement.
Like something out of “The Office,” the employees spent an inordinate amount of time and money congratulating one another for being employed there and engaging in “work” that really amounted to pampering themselves.
One purchase was for $30,000 on trinkets marking employees’ anniversaries. The agency’s office was absurdly oversized, but it refused to move. It hired a consultant for a “Hallway Improvement Project” to decorate. It had an in-house gym for employees, and purchased a $1,000 TV for the gym, a $3,867 ice-maker, and a $560 stereo.
The expenses that were actually business-related were hardly better. It paid, for example, $895 “for Suzanne Nichter’s enrollment in the English Essentials: A Grammar Refresher course” and $735 “for Lakisha Steward to attend Listening and Memory Skills Development Course.”
<h3>All expenses paid lifestyle</h3>
FMCS used federal jobs as a spigot of cash for friends and relatives. Allison Beck, a former union lawyer who became a top FMCS official, employed her sister-in-law as a “special assistant,” and an inspector general found evidence that she tried to create a high-level job for a friend.
FMCS employees allegedly steered contracts to friends, allowing them to write the “statement of work” that would be used to choose the contract winner — resulting in, of course, their own selection. Such “trainers” were paid $1,500 per day per person to train FMCS’s staff, plus $163 an hour for travel. When a low-level employee eventually said the extra travel pay ran afoul of federal rules, a contractor made clear he viewed it as an entitlement, huffing: “Work we have successfully performed for the agency for more than a decade — at great personal sacrifice, I should add — will be taken away unless we comply in an unquestioning manner with your edict.”
Scot Beckenbaugh, a top agency official, was paid $174,000 a year, but that wasn’t enough: He had his “duty station” listed as Iowa so that he could have all of his living expenses and food paid for in D.C., where he lived and worked, as if he was on a <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/384045/fmcs-paid-senior-officials-rent-meals-other-living-expenses-for-six-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">six-year-long business trip</a>. When an employee raised the issue to an agency lawyer, the lawyer told him he “should not raise these issues … it would open a can of worms.”
FMCS hired a former mail carrier who lived in Pennsylvania, Lu-Ann Glaser, for a high-level, D.C.-based job, and agreed to pay for her to stay in a hotel for half of every month — even though it would have been easy to find someone better qualified who didn’t need to be put up in a hotel to simply do her job.
Paul Voight, a human resources official, was listed as living in D.C. even though he <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/359002/fmcs-oks-higher-locality-pay-for-employees-working-in-distant-low-tax-states/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">actually lived</a> in Wisconsin, in order to fraudulently obtain higher cost-of-living pay. Voight’s boss was Artur Pearlstein, who left the agency to become a law professor, and was then re-hired after his academic career imploded in a plagiarism scandal. His first move in his new job was terminating an independent investigation into FMCS staff abusing taxpayer funds for personal gain.
Cohen, for his part, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1450139/despite-ethics-pledge-fmcs-hired-directors-old-boss-to-do-legal-work/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">steered work</a> to his previous employer, despite signing ethics forms saying he would not.
<h3>Constant junkets</h3>
Many of the agency’s top employees lived outside of the typical Washington, D.C., commuting area, and only stopped in the area occasionally, in an era before telework was routine. Its CFO, Fran Leonard, would come to the office twice a week but leave by 2:00 p.m.
The agency had, inexplicably, an office in Honolulu.
It funded <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/875236/exography-globe-trotting-honchos-spend-big-on-fmcs-dime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">constant travel of its employees to exotic locales</a>, on the pretext that it was drumming up business for the federal agency — an admission that there was little demand for the agency’s existence.
In one month, Beck traveled to Italy and Switzerland, where she conducted a business meeting — over video chat. Then she went to Tunisia and an island off the coast of Georgia. She flew first class and forced the agency to reimburse her for mileage when she drove to her vacation home in Maine.
The agency had three full-time media relations staffers, none of whom would speak to me, almost certainly one of the only reporters to ever call.
<h3>Cash grants for insiders</h3>
The agency’s existence is predicated on the idea that it is an impartial mediator, biased neither towards labor nor management. But its staff largely comes from a union background, and it gave out grants to promote union membership. But it was too incompetent to do much ideological damage; its employees’ comfort always came before helping unions.
Anyone could request cash grants from the agency, with the only requirement that they mention some nexus with unions, however tortured. It doled out a seemingly <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2364087/exography-federal-agency-fmcs-gave-grants-to-promote-union-membership/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">random assortment of giveaways to private businesses</a>, perhaps because they were the only ones who knew the grants existed.
It gave $63,000 to a hospital that went bankrupt; $51,000 to a childcare company to help it pay government licensing fees; and $57,000 to a company to “strengthen of culture of continuous improvement to drive us to world class excellence!”
What surprised me most about my FMCS investigation was what happened afterward: nothing. An inspector general made a referral to the FBI, but there were no prosecutions. Instead, President Barack Obama nominated a chief subject of the investigation to the top job.
A decade later, Trump has done what even the agency’s own employees said should happen: shut it down.

Untitled design (85)

Best Of 2025: Inside The Now-Shuttered Agency Where Employees Lived ‘Like Reigning Kings’

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Donald Trump

Luke Rosiak

WASHINGTON—Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak will testify before the United States Senate Wednesday afternoon on a federal DEI program riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse.
Rosiak will address lawmakers during a Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee hearing titled &#8220;Running Government Like a Small Business: Cut Waste, Crush Fraud.&#8221; He will speak on the 8(a) program, one of the largest and oldest DEI initiatives in the country, which affects contracts at almost all federal agencies. Rosiak has led the charge in exposing problems with 8(a), which sets aside government contracts for firms run by members of certain &#8220;disadvantaged&#8221; classes, largely racial and ethnic minorities.
The hearing will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET. and will be streamed live on The Daily Wire.
Rosiak, who last month won the<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wires-luke-rosiak-wins-investigative-journalism-award-for-best-doge-reporting" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 2025 Dao Prize</a> for his work covering extraordinary government waste, has exposed countless<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/core-part-of-minority-contracting-program-is-illegal-judge-said?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+Core+Part+Of+This+Federal+Race-Based+Contracting+Program+Is+Illegal%2C+Judge+Says" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 8(a) program abuses.</a> The Department of Justice found that the 8(a) program had been exploited to carry out a<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/usaid-official-and-three-corporate-executives-plead-guilty-decade-long-bribery-scheme" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $550 million bribery scheme</a> over several decades. The program became vulnerable to abuse through &#8220;pass-through&#8221; fraud, in which minority-owned businesses would win a federal contract through a no-bid process, collect a cut of the funds, and then subcontract another company to do the actual work needed for the contract.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler are investigating the misuse, which independent journalist James O&#8217;Keefe describes as a potential <a href="https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1980344367014429114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$100 billion scandal</a>.
The upcoming hearing aims to highlight the full extent of the waste, fraud, and abuse that investigators say took place. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), who chairs the small business committee, recently introduced the<a href="https://www.ernst.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ernst-introduces-bill-to-halt-fraud-filled-sba-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Stop 8(a) Contracting Fraud Act</a> to place a hold on all new no-bid federal contracts until the 8(a) program, dramatically expanded under President Joe Biden as part of a DEI initiative, undergoes a full audit.
While Rosiak will focus on fraud within the 8(a) program, two other witnesses will address additional areas of waste, including misuse of COVID funds and USAID grants: Open the Books CEO John Hart, and Courtney LaFountain, Acting Director of the Government Accountability Office.
“If a small business treated their finances like the government treats tax dollars, they would go out of business,” Ernst said. “This has always been an issue in Washington, but under Joe Biden it became an all-you-can-eat buffet of waste, fraud, and abuse with criminals and con artists cashing in while hardworking Americans were left out in the cold. I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses on where Congress should focus our continued efforts to downsize the bloated bureaucracy, increase government efficiency, and best serve small businesses.”

IMG_3502

Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak Will Testify Before The Senate On Massive Federal DEI Scheme

Daily Wire

Fraud

Joni Ernst

Senate

WASHINGTON—Daily Wire investigative journalist Luke Rosiak was awarded the prestigious Dao Prize on Wednesday night for his work covering extraordinary government waste. 
Rosiak is the winner in the Best Reporting on Government Waste category, a special category at this year’s awards that was created due to the exceptional reporting done around Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. His prize-winning <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fmcs-slush-fund-abolished-by-trump">investigation</a>, “Inside The Now-Shuttered Federal Agency Where Employees Lived ‘Like Reigning Kings,’” detailed the unchecked spending that went on for decades at an agency that most Americans never knew existed.
“I want to issue a hearty congratulations to an amazing reporter who shuttered an agency that I’ve never heard of,” said conservative radio host Vince Coglianese, who presented the award at the event sponsored by the Young America Foundation’s National Journalism Center. “And boy were these people wasting your money like it was their job.”
Rosiak’s story took readers inside the little-known Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which occupied some of the priciest real estate in Washington, D.C., but did little to nothing of value for taxpayers. Employees spent taxpayer money on exotic vacations, portraits of themselves, and even to boost their own side-projects. 
It was just one of Rosiak’s eye-opening investigations this year on the topic of government waste, which became his main focus after Donald Trump announced that he would give DOGE the power to do something about the sort of waste that Rosiak has been exposing for more than a decade.
Other investigations by Rosiak this year uncovered massive abuse of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha">federal food stamp system</a>, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-foreign-aid-agency-locked-its-doors-to-keep-doge-out-now-we-know-why">three-part series on mismanagement of the USAID-linked African Development Foundation</a>, and the origin story of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-doge-origin-story-how-barack-obama-laid-the-groundwork-for-elon-musk">how a woke White House office created by Barack Obama was transformed into DOGE</a>.
The Dao Prize was established in 2023 to “recognize excellence in investigative journalism,” and set out to put a spotlight on “courageous journalists” who for years have been ignored by the legacy media. This was the first year it recognized reporters in the field of government waste. 
“Luke is one of the most tenacious reporters in the business, and he’s ultimately motivated by shining a light where few other reporters are looking,” said Brent Scher, The Daily Wire’s Editor-in-Chief. “When he set out last year to put his full focus on government waste, we all knew it would have an impact. It’s great to see it recognized with this prestigious award.”
Rosiak’s work was regularly spotlighted by Musk as he drove DOGE, and in some cases, provided the investigative backbone for its work cutting government spending. 
“Investigative reporters never write happy stories, and at times our work can be emotionally draining,” Rosiak said. “It’s easy to feel outnumbered. But nights like tonight remind all of us here that we’re not alone.”
He said he hopes his reporting inspires other journalists to stick to their instincts, even when it feels like nobody’s paying attention.
“We don’t always see the impact of our work right away. Do the right thing for the right reasons, trust yourself, and keep persevering, and the reward will come eventually.”

Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak Wins Investigative Journalism Award For Best ‘DOGE’ Reporting

DOGE

Investigation

In 10 years, The Daily Wire has put up some incredible wins, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking back at 10 of our greatest victories — none of which could have happened without the support of our loyal members and fans. 
To begin, we’re going back to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">story</a> that shocked America — a story that only saw the light of day because The Daily Wire decided it needed to be told. 
In June of 2021, a Virginia man was arrested at a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">Loudoun County</a>, Virginia, school board meeting after he and other attendees spoke out against a proposed transgender bathroom policy for students. Scott Smith became an example used by the Left to label parents who voiced concern about woke policies in schools as potential “domestic terrorists.” 
But Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak discovered that there was much more to the story. 
“What people did not know is that weeks prior on May 28, Smith says, a boy allegedly wearing a skirt entered a girls’ bathroom at nearby Stone Bridge High School, where he sexually assaulted Smith’s ninth-grade daughter,” Rosiak reported. 
Smith was angry after the superintendent falsely stated that there had never been any sexual assaults in Loudoun’s bathrooms as part of a lecture dismissing parents’ concerns. As a result of LCPS’s deliberate effort to sweep that rape under the rug, including submitting falsified documentation to the state, the school board was able to pass the transgender policy that they wanted. Weeks later, the boy who raped Smith’s daughter in the bathroom was arrested for another sexual assault, after police said he forced a girl into an empty classroom, held her against her will, and touched her inappropriately. 
Without The Daily Wire’s coverage and the support of our readers, this story likely would have never been told, and Loudoun County Public Schools would have never faced widespread public scrutiny. 
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
The Daily Wire article, which was published in October 2021, sent a shockwave throughout Virginia and the nation just weeks before a major Virginia gubernatorial election. The story became a rallying cry for parents demanding accountability and transparency from school boards, especially on the issue of transgenderism.
The Daily Wire investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools was a major reason that parental rights became a central issue in the 2021 Virginia election, with Republican Glenn Youngkin pulling off a surprise victory. The Daily Wire’s reporting didn’t just break a story — it helped shift the political landscape. 
As we celebrate this win, we’re reminded that The Daily Wire’s mission is about more than breaking news — it’s about challenging the Left’s obfuscation of reality and amplifying the stories and voices that need to be read and heard. And of course, that victory couldn’t have happened without your loyalty to The Daily Wire. With your continued support, we’ll keep fighting for the truth, no matter how inconvenient it may be.

Loudoun County

Decade Of Daily Wire: How We Exposed Loudoun County’s Dirty Secrets

Virginia

Senator Ted Cruz is calling on the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to immediately end a Democrat-led parole program, alleging that the program is rife with fraud and is enabling trafficking and violent crime, including “sexual assault, rape, and murder.” 
In a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Cruz and his fellow senators call for the Cuba-Haiti-Nicaragua-Venezuela (CHNV) Parole Program to be terminated “immediately,” calling it “ineffective, unlawful, and hazardous.” 
The senators also demand enhanced border security and immigration enforcement, a comprehensive investigation of the failures and abuses associated with the program, and the promise that any future immigration policies will be subject to appropriate congressional review. 
The Biden-Harris administration temporarily halted the CHNV Parole Program in mid-July “out of an abundance of caution” following serious backlash to the program, which facilitated the entry of about 520,000 illegal aliens into the United States by plane. 
Yet DHS restarted the program after less than six weeks&#8217; pause, the senators wrote in their letter to Garland and Mayorkas, noting that DHS merely added new requirements for those who wish to sponsor illegal aliens to submit fingerprints. 
“These stop-gap marginal improvements and platitudes to improve the program do not solve the fundamental fraud, failure, and illegality of the CHNV program,” the senators wrote. “This fundamentally-flawed program must be permanently dismantled, and steps must be taken to ensure that future immigration policies are both lawful and effective.”
<div id="attachment_793335" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2167160572-scaled.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-793335" class="wp-image-793335 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2167160572-scaled.jpg" alt="Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (2L) speaks about immigration and border security near Coronado National Memorial in Montezuma Pass, Arizona, August 22, 2024. (Photo by OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images)" width="2560" height="1696" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2167160572-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2167160572-300x199.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2167160572-870x576.jpg 870w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2167160572-768x509.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2167160572-1536x1017.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2167160572-2048x1356.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /></a>Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (2L) speaks about immigration and border security near Coronado National Memorial in Montezuma Pass, Arizona, August 22, 2024. (Photo by OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
DHS had pulled the plug on the program in July after an audit found that many of the program’s sponsors were lying about their relationship with the immigrants who were seeking U.S. residency, The Daily Wire’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-dnc-platform-was-printed-the-program-it-touts-as-top-border-success-was-shut-down-for-fraud">Luke Rosiak reported on August 20.</a> Many sponsors were posing as relatives or friends while exploiting migrants. 
The Democratic Party <a href="https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/FINAL-MASTER-PLATFORM.pdf">still cites</a> the program as its top plan for “expanding legal immigration and deterring illegal immigration.” 
Cruz and his fellow senators allege that the CHNV Parole Program violates existing law. Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act stipulates parole can only be granted on a case-by-case basis for “significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian need.” 
“By establishing a categorical program based on nationality, the Biden administration created a parallel immigration system without congressional approval,” the senators wrote.  
The senators also warn DHS and DOJ that the program has “pervasive failure in oversight” and does not properly vet applicants, allowing fraudulent submissions.
“There have been many instances of crimes, such as sexual assault, rape, and murder committed by CHNV participants.” 
The program is rife with massive fraud, the senators continue, citing an internal Homeland Security report that found a total of 100,948 forms had been filed by 3,218 sponsors who often did not provide their income or meet the financial threshold necessary to support the number of parolees they were asking to sponsor. The report also cited many instances of fake phone numbers and addresses and identical false information, “suggesting a coordinated attempt to exploit the program.” 
“Scammers have been charging up to $5,000 for sponsorship, which underscores the program’s vulnerability to exploitation by traffickers and other malicious actors,” the senators wrote. 
Given that the United States has “limited diplomatic relations with Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua” and that Haiti lacks a functional government, the senators also expressed concerns that the program has exposed the United States to serious national security risks. 
“This unprecedented surge has overwhelmed our border enforcement resources and heightened the risks associated with inadequate immigration controls,” they wrote. “Given these grave concerns, it is clear that the CHNV Parole Program represents a profound failure of policy and administration. The program has not only facilitated widespread fraud, but has also exposed serious vulnerabilities in our immigration system, leading to dire consequences for public safety.” 
<div id="attachment_793331" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-scaled.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-793331" class="wp-image-793331 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-scaled.jpg" alt="Supporters of former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump hold images of Laken Riley before he speaks at a &quot;Get Out the Vote&quot; rally in Rome, Georgia, on March 9, 2024. Riley, a nursing student, has become the face of immigration reform after her murder allegedly by an illegal immigrant on February 22, 2024. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage / AFP) (Photo by ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)" width="2560" height="1707" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-2064210746-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /></a>Supporters of former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump hold images of Laken Riley before he speaks at a &#8220;Get Out the Vote&#8221; rally in Rome, Georgia, on March 9, 2024. Riley, a nursing student, has become the face of immigration reform after she was murdered by an illegal alien. (Photo by ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
The lawmakers also note that the program has been associated with a significant increase in Venezuelans entering the United States associated with a “troubling rise in crime” — including violent Venezuelan gangs operating within the country linked to drug trafficking, extortion, and violent assaults. 
One such Venezuelan illegal alien has been charged with the brutal murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia. Her killer is connected to the gang Tren de Aragua.
“The CHNV program’s design, which allows for large-scale entry without thorough individual vetting, has made it easier for criminal elements to exploit the system and to enter the interior of the United States,&#8221; the letter states. &#8220;In tandem with the current border crisis, the CHNV program does not only pose a direct threat to public safety but also strains law enforcement resources as they work to address the rising crime rates associated with an influx of inadequately vetted aliens.”
DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Wire. The DHS claimed that the CHNV parole processes have made southwest border encounters with these nationalities go down more than 99% from the period before they were implemented. Homeland Security also said that CHNV processes include thorough vetting of beneficiaries before they are approved to travel to the U.S, and through vetting of sponsors.

GOP Senate Judiciary Members Hold Press Conference On The Supreme Court

EXCLUSIVE: Senators Urge Biden-Harris Admin to ‘Immediately’ End Immigration Program Enabling Rape, Murder, Trafficking

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<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/luke-rosiak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Luke Rosiak</a>, an investigative reporter for The Daily Wire, was suspended from <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> on Tuesday after he posted a link to a story about activists scheduling a transgender “Day of Vengeance” the same week of the shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Police said that a 28-year-old woman who identified as a transgender man killed three 9-year-old children and three adults at The Covenant School, which is associated with the conservative evangelical Covenant Presbyterian Church. Authorities <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nashville-christian-school-shooter-identified-as-transgender-authorities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that the shooter, whom The Daily Wire will not name in accordance with company policy, executed a “targeted attack” and left behind a “manifesto.”
Rosiak noted on Monday that the suspected shooter executed her attack days before the Trans Radical Activist Network called for a “Day of Vengeance” on Saturday, April 1. Twitter removed a post from Rosiak linking to an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-radicals-plan-day-of-vengeance-in-d-c-alongside-firearms-training" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> he wrote earlier this month about the activists.
“The shooting of a Christian school by a transgender comes the same week that activists scheduled a ‘Trans Day of Vengeance,’ with the group also raising money for firearms training,” Rosiak had said in the tweet.
Rosiak, who said he has been on Twitter for 13 years but has “never had a single strike,” received an alert indicating that the tweet violated “rules against violent speech” and stating that the social media platform does not permit users to “share abusive content, harass someone, or encourage other people to do so.”
He was told that he must delete the original post to regain access to his account; he appealed the decision, observing that he was not “advocating for violence” but rather “stating a fact and noting disapprovingly” that others had been calling for violence. Trans Radical Activist Network indeed <a href="https://twitter.com/ResistanceTrans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retains</a> its account on Twitter.
“The activists, which describe their ‘Day of Vengeance’ alongside references to Molotov cocktails and specifically mentioned Tennessee, advertised this event on Twitter itself, and their accounts have not been banned,” Rosiak told The Daily Wire in reaction to his suspension. “Are trans activists mass-reporting factual tweets to prevent the public from learning about their actions, and does Elon Musk&#8217;s system allow organized groups of leftists to game it that way?”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/josh-hawley-calls-for-federal-hate-crime-investigation-into-shooting-at-nashville-christian-school" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> on federal officials to investigate whether the Nashville massacre was a hate crime against Christians, had <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1640722177002545159" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retweeted</a> the post from Rosiak. “This kind of hateful rhetoric, ‘genocide’ and ‘day of vengeance,’ must be condemned,” the lawmaker said. “The hate crime massacre in Nashville exposes where rhetoric like this can lead.”
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Rosiak, who broke the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bombshell story</a> about school officials in Loudoun County, Virginia, attempting to conceal a sexual assault in a women’s bathroom perpetrated by a boy allegedly wearing a skirt, has not been the first conservative to be suspended from Twitter even after Elon Musk assumed control of the platform last year. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) each briefly lost <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/utah-senator-mike-lee-suspended-from-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">access</a> to their account in recent weeks.
The suspected shooter sent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nashville-shooter-sent-chilling-messages-to-a-friend-moments-before-entering-christian-school" target="_blank" rel="noopener">messages</a> to her former middle school basketball teammate moments before the attack, saying she was “planning to die today” and that the friend would “probably hear” about her on the news. “My family doesn’t know what I’m about to do,” she added. “One day this will make more sense. I’ve left more than enough evidence behind.”

Daily Wire Reporter Suspended From Twitter Over Story About Trans ‘Day Of Vengeance’ Scheduled For Same Week As Nashville Shooting

Daily Wire Reporter Luke Rosiak Suspended From Twitter Over Story About Trans 'Day Of Vengeance'

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The Media Research Center (MRC) announced Tuesday that Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak has won its first-ever MRC Bulldog Award for “Outstanding Investigative Journalist.”
Rosiak was among six Bulldog Award winners, including Fox News host Mark Levin (“Outstanding Talk Show Host”), New York Post columnist Miranda Devine (“Outstanding Columnist”), and conservative radio host Dan Bongino (“Outstanding Podcast”).
“Today’s MRC Bulldog Award recipients have been selected after careful consideration,” MRC President Brent Bozell said. “Their impactful work is trusted and respected by Americans nationwide, unlike the work of the left-wing operatives that call themselves ‘journalists.’ As the liberal media celebrate themselves with Pulitzers, we wanted to shine a light on the real journalists who are greatly dedicated to informing the American public on stories the legacy media ignores.”
Rosiak received the award for his investigative work uncovering the sexual assaults in Loudoun County, Virginia, public schools. His <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">piece</a> published by The Daily Wire in October 2021 documented the sexual assault of a girl in a Loudoun high school bathroom. 
Rosiak’s revelations “redefined the Virginia gubernatorial and attorney general campaigns,” MRC said in a press release, as voters in Virginia overwhelmingly voted for Republican candidates promising to give parents more say in their children&#8217;s education. 
MRC says it is committed to &#8220;neutralizing leftist bias in the news media and popular culture has had a critical impact on the way Americans view the liberal media.&#8221; The research center prides itself in educating the public about Left-wing media bias.
Other winners of the MRC Bulldog Awards included The Reload founder Stephen Gutowski for “Outstanding Blogger” and Washington Free Beacon Media Reporter Drew Holden for “Outstanding Social Media Personality.” 
The Bulldog Award winners were voted on by a panel of judges nominated by the public.

Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak Wins Award For ‘Outstanding’ Investigative Journalist

Luke Rosiak Wins Award For 'Outstanding Investigative Journalist'

Public Schools

In October, The Daily Wire shook the Virginia gubernatorial election when investigative reporter Luke Rosiak broke the story that the Loudoun County school board had lied about a rape in a girls’ bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt. How was Rosiak positioned to get the scoop? Because, it turns out, he had quietly been working on a two-year-long investigation of America’s schools.
The product of that investigation, a book called &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720/?tag=governmacco01-20">Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education</a>,&#8221; released Tuesday, and stands to expose districts across the country the way that Loudoun was exposed.
“Loudoun is just a case study,” Rosiak said. “The point is the same dynamics you see there are present in most school districts.” 
While the book illuminates those dynamics, and also calls out 61 districts and 11 states by name, its reach actually encompasses almost all school districts. 
The book finds that a small group of radical racial consultants have been hired prolifically by districts &#8212; even in conservative areas &#8212; and spread their ideas. One consultant alone, Glenn Singleton of Pacific Education Group &#8212; whose presence can often be detected by the telltale phrase “courageous conversations” &#8212; has been hired by at least 500 of the nation’s 13,000 districts. 
The book also details how national activist groups reach their tentacles into most public school districts and even private schools, by producing politicized lesson plans that teachers use rather than produce their own lessons. 
The Zinn Education Project, for example, named after socialist historian Howard Zinn, creates lesson plans used by the content company Newsela, which is used by 90% of U.S. schools. Learning For Justice, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, sends its magazine to more than 400,000 teachers across the U.S. 
Rosiak said one of the most remarkable aspects of indoctrination in schools is how merely living in a conservative area does not mean schools are safe from it. The Topeka, Kansas, schools, for example, were promoting Singleton’s ideas as early as 2014. Many of the ideas began in Minneapolis and Seattle but are now routinely pushed by states like Missouri and Indiana, where the state Department of Education has incorporated Learning For Justice’s “Social Justice Standards.”
The spread of these ideas has come even as they have failed to improve anything in Minneapolis and Seattle, which have seen more racial tension and achievement gaps, not less, as they have provided massive “equity” programming. Seattle’s “ethnic studies” czar moved her eight-year-old child in with a convicted child molester, the book reveals, and includes an interview with the activist’s father, who compares his daughter to Rachel Dolezal for her claimed “Xicana” identity.
“Information is power,” Rosiak said. “If you want to save your kids, you have to know who they’re up against, and most of them aren’t household names. That’s how they took over to begin with &#8212; anonymous operators working for decades while no one was watching.”

US-EDUCATION-SCHOOL

Daily Wire Reporter Who Broke Loudoun Rape Story Examines 61 School Districts Nationwide

Chris Rufo, a luminary in the war against Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools, says a new book by Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak “provides a road map for returning to sanity in our schools.”
&#8220;Luke Rosiak exposes the complex network of activists, unions, bureaucrats, and philanthropists who are hell-bent on racializing the American education system and indoctrinating students with left-wing ideologies. This book is an essential read for parents, educators, and citizens who care about the future of American education. It’s high time for our country to get back to basics, and Race to the Bottom provides a road map for returning to sanity in our schools,&#8221; he said.
The book, titled “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720">Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education</a>,” hits shelves March 8.
Rufo popularized the term “Critical Race Theory” as a catchall for K-12 policies and lesson plans that ascribe all racial differences to invisible but pervasive racism in “systems,” and deem the U.S. as permanently and comprehensively racist. He has helped lead initiatives to combat them, including challenging disparate treatment based on race in court, and pushing “curriculum transparency” initiatives that would require schools to post online what they are teaching children.
Rosiak is the reporter who broke the Loudoun County bathroom rape story for The Daily Wire. His book takes the scrutiny nationwide, tackling school shutdowns and Critical Race Theory, and getting to the bottom of the special interests taking over America’s schools, from teachers unions to activist nonprofits.
The book is a product of a two-year investigation in partnership with Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute. It is the first comprehensive exposé of teachers union influence, the effect of union-induced coronavirus school shutdowns, and racialized, politicized curriculum, which is popularly referred to as “Critical Race Theory,” but which school districts refer to as “equity.”
The 318-page book serves as an anthem for the trans-partisan movement of parents who have emerged as a surprise constituency in American politics as they saw school closures and an assault on merit, such as attacks on math magnet schools because too many Asians were succeeding there. The book exposes manipulations by school officials over twenty years, painting a picture of malfeasance that was able to occur mainly because no one — other than self-interested teachers unions and administrators — was watching.
Rosiak says some action points that parents can take, based on the scandals exposed in the book, are:
<ul>
<li>Know your school board members and their backgrounds</li>
<li>Don&#8217;t allow student school board members</li>
<li>Make school board elections partisan and concurrent with major elections</li>
<li>Run for school board</li>
<li>Watch for the word “equity”: it means CRT and lowering standards</li>
<li>Rely on objective standardized tests, not grades</li>
<li>Don’t assume the PTA represents you</li>
<li>Push for large school districts to be broken up into smaller ones</li>
<li>Put school choice/vouchers directly to voters with ballot measures</li>
</ul>

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Chris Rufo: New Book Lays Out ‘Road Map For Returning To Sanity In Our Schools’

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Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak has produced a 318-page book that does for the nation’s K-12 schools at large what Rosiak did for the Loudoun County Public Schools in the pages of this site, Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro said.
The book, titled “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720">Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education</a>,” hits shelves March 8.
“Rosiak’s exploration of our failing K–12 system is a damning and deserved indictment,” Shapiro said. &#8220;Luke Rosiak is an absolutely indispensable reporter, and in his new book, he proves why once again. Americans should be able to expect that the schools to which they send their children aren’t indoctrination centers dominated by special interests—but they can’t.”
Shapiro made his name writing books about political indoctrination in colleges. In the years since, it has become increasingly clear that the problem starts much earlier &#8212; in public schools occupied by people far more impressionable than college-age adults, funded by our taxes, and where, unlike college, everyone must attend.
Shapiro’s Daily Wire has been on the forefront of documenting the many problems of K-12 schools at the 13,000 school districts across the country, one story at a time. Now, Rosiak’s book takes a step back to examine K-12 schools in totality, as Shapiro’s early works did for colleges.
The book (which is published by HarperCollins) comes as Shapiro has underscored The Daily Wire&#8217;s growing investigative prowess, a trend he says is still in progress. &#8220;Imagine if we had 10 ‘Luke Rosiaks’ hunting down and exposing the truth. Or 20! It is vital that we build up our investigative team, and do so quickly,&#8221; he wrote shortly after Rosiak broke the Loudoun County, Virginia, bathroom rape story.

Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro: New Book ‘A Damning And Deserved Indictment’ Of ‘Our Failing K-12 System’

Broadcaster Mark Levin, author of &#8220;American Marxism&#8221; and host of &#8220;The Mark Levin Show,&#8221; praised a new book by Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak, saying, “What you saw with teachers unions’ school closures and what you’ve heard about critical race theory is only the tip of the iceberg. If you want to preserve a good life for your kids—and yourself—you need to understand what’s in this book. The stories Luke tells are wild . . . and, unfortunately, all too true.”
Levin, one of the best-selling authors in the country, received an advanced copy of the book, titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720/?tag=governmacco01-20">Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education.&#8221;</a>
The book, Rosiak&#8217;s first since he broke the Loudoun County, Virginia, bathroom rape story for The Daily Wire, scrutinizes schools across the nation for shutdowns and Critical Race Theory, and gets to the bottom of the special interests taking over American schools. The project was researched over two years with assistance from Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute.
The book hits store shelves Tuesday, and is billed as “the first comprehensive exposé of the way radical ideology and self-serving administrators are destroying academic quality in America’s K-12 schools.” It tackles declining academics, critical race theory, teachers union influence and the effect of coronavirus school shutdowns, the truth about school funding, teacher performance, and the war on advanced academics like math magnet schools.
Levin’s comments suggest the book could do for schools what Rosiak’s reporting did in Loudoun County, and also serve as a reminder to parents not to return to blindly trusting schools as the coronavirus shutdowns fade into the rearview mirror.
 The book focuses on how schools are failing at their sole, imperative mission &#8212; educating children to be adept at reading, science, and math and ready for the workforce &#8212; and how special interests are making it worse.
“Race to the Bottom pulls no punches,&#8221; said Peter Boghossian, a dissident academic. &#8220;It offers a raw, honest, and evidence-based account of the crisis that has beset our educational intuitions. It is not hyperbole to say that generations of students have been robbed of a genuine education and cognitively damaged because of a system that’s been captured by ideology. Every parent would be wise to read this book.”
Max Eden, a conservative education scholar, called Rosiak &#8220;American public education’s only investigative journalist. The pandemic started to open parents’ eyes to the corruption of K–12 education, but any mom or dad who cares to see to the core must read Race to the Bottom.&#8221;

Mark Levin

Mark Levin: What You’ve Seen From Teachers Unions And CRT Only ‘Tip Of The Iceberg’

Daily Wire reporter Luke Rosiak is working with Peter Schweizer, the #1 bestselling author of Red-Handed and Clinton Cash, for a major investigation of U.S. public schools, The Daily Wire can report. 
Rosiak, who broke the story of the Loudoun County, Virginia bathroom rape, is a fellow with Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute (GAI) in addition to his role as Daily Wire investigative reporter. 
The arrangement between Rosiak and Schweizer brings together The Daily Wire &#8212; which has led the pack in revealing problems in K-12 schools &#8212; and GAI, one of the nation’s foremost investigative groups specializing in exposing special interests on both sides of the aisle. GAI exposed congressional insider trading, leading to a law called the STOCK Act, it brought the Clinton Foundation’s influence-peddling to the fore and discovered Hunter Biden’s overseas deals even before the 2020 election.
Schweizer’s most recent book is &#8220;Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, which documents prominent Democrats’ and Republicans’ sweetheart deals with China. 
The result of the two-year collaboration is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720/?tag=governmacco01-20">Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education</a>, written by Rosiak with a foreword by Schweizer. Both &#8220;Red-Handed&#8221; and &#8220;Race to the Bottom&#8221; are published by HarperCollins.
“My work as an investigative journalist involves sifting our nation’s political class for evidence of corruption,&#8221; said Schweizer. &#8220;What I have seen over my decades of work is that corruption is most likely to fester where no one is looking. What Luke has found is that some of the same forms of deception, self-­dealing, and corruption that I have seen in the halls of power are also occurring behind the friendly-­seeming facades of the schools in your town. He identifies systemic rot in an area that is, somehow, simultaneously omnipresent and remarkably under-scrutinized.&#8221;
The project has been underway since late 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic and before teachers&#8217; unions engaged the public by shutting down schools. The shutdown, however, inadvertently exposed what has since become known as Critical Race Theory because online classes let parents see, for the first time, what their children were actually being taught in schools.
GAI’s decision to begin an investigation into K-12 schools years ago shows that it was ahead of the curve again.
“Luke Rosiak’s exhaustive work in this book shows that while it might have been parents’ first glimpse of such issues, they did not appear in K–12 schools overnight. Through the stories of local school systems in different parts of the country—from inner cities to wealthy suburbs and rural areas—Luke shows readers how, for years, local K–12 school systems have been captured by a variety of special interests whose allegiance is to anything but the ‘three Rs,’” Schweizer said.
Another GAI “fellow” is former Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), who authored &#8220;They Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste: The Truth About Disaster Liberalism,&#8221; a book about politicians’ use of COVID-19 to ram through unrelated agendas.

Peter Schweizer.

‘Race To The Bottom’: Luke Rosiak Teams Up With ‘Clinton Cash’ Author To Investigate Public Schools

Peter Schweizer

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