--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita. I've got a quick request for you. If Apple News Today is an essential part of your morning routine, follow the show in Apple Podcasts. And if you have another 30 seconds, leave us a rating and a review too. It helps other people find our show and it helps us know what you like about it. Thanks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Wednesday, July 2nd. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, why Trump wants to build the country's first ever national citizenship database. In California, a surprising walkback of environmental law. And Sean Combs is found guilty on two charges, but acquitted of offenses that could have put him behind bars for life. But first, to Washington, where House Republicans have picked up the debate over President Trump's massive tax and spending bill after a fiercely divided Senate narrowly passed it yesterday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 50. The Senate being evenly divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative. The bill as amended is passed. That's Vice President Vance casting the tie-breaking vote, which he had to do after three Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine, Tom Tillis of North Carolina, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the bill, all for very different reasons, and along with every single Democrat.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Senators spent over 24 hours debating and amending the legislation, voting a record-breaking 49 times in all before it passed. Now House Republicans are on the clock to finalize the legislation. The president gave Congress until Friday to deliver a final version of the bill, though he told reporters yesterday that he might be willing to consider an extension.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The drawn-out debates in the Senate revealed that even some Republicans who voted for the bill had major reservations. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who cast the deciding vote, claimed that it was agonizing and told NBC that she only supported it after getting very specific carve-outs for her state.
--:-- Lisa Murkowski: Do I like this bill? No, because I tried to take care of Alaska's interests. But I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don't like that.
--:-- Lisa Murkowski: She later said she hoped this bill was not the final product. Murkowski has long expressed concerns about cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food assistance in the bill, but still voted for the legislation after she got some assistance for people in Alaska, including a provision that allowed whaling captains in the state to write off more of their expenses.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Changes like this are indicative of why House Republicans might find it challenging to hastily pass this bill. Already, members like Ralph Norman of South Carolina are saying things like this.
--:-- Ralph Norman: It is my hope we'll go back to the drawing table and get very close to what we sent the Senate, because instead of each individual senator getting a goody bag and sacrificing the health of this country is an abomination.
--:-- Shamita Basu: House Speaker Mike Johnson also said that the Senate went a little further than many would have preferred. What exactly the final version of the bill will include is the big question for the coming days as the House deliberates.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Many House lawmakers are not happy about the fact that the Senate version of the bill is roughly $1 trillion more expensive than the House version passed in May, and that hundreds of thousands of more Americans would lose health insurance coverage under it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: According to nonpartisan estimates and experts, at least 17 million Americans would eventually lose health care coverage, wiping out many of the gains made by the Affordable Care Act. And other House lawmakers are concerned about the financial move pulled by the Senate that we explained on yesterday's show, how senators obscured the cost of the bill by claiming that extending trillions of dollars of expiring tax cuts does not count toward impact on the federal budget.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In May the House passed their version of the bill 215 to 214 leaving no meaningful margin of error in the days ahead Republicans can only lose three votes among their caucus. And unlike in the Senate, all House members will have to face midterm elections next year, where Medicaid cuts, state and local tax deductions, and more could be politically consequential.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If the House does change the legislation in the coming days, we could see Trump's Friday, July 4th deadline put in jeopardy. That's because the bill would have to go back to the Senate for another vote there. However, as The New York Times reports, most senators promptly left D.C. after voting yesterday. So it could be a challenge to reconvene lawmakers this week if it's needed.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Let's turn now to exclusive reporting from NPR on a new tool the administration has rolled out to track citizens of the United States. The United States has never had a roster of U.S. citizens before. And this system that's being developed seems to inch us closer than we've ever been before to that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Reporter Jude Jaffe-Block told us about this system called SAVE. It was originally built decades ago to check the immigration status of non-citizens, so local governments could determine if they were eligible for certain benefits. But in recent months, the Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with Elon Musk's Doge team, expanded SAVE's capabilities to make it a tool for local election officials to check the status of everyone on their voter rolls.
--:-- Jude Jaffe-Block: It can now query the Social Security Administration data. And so now, for the first time, with a social security number, state and county election officials with the name and birth date of a voter can go into this system and find out if someone is a citizen. And it's not just exclusively for foreign-born individuals. It can also confirm citizenship for U.S.-born citizens as well.
--:-- Jude Jaffe-Block: The change was driven by President Trump and some Republicans who have made erroneous claims about non-citizen voter fraud, despite the fact that recent audits of voter rolls show instances of non-citizens voting are exceedingly rare. Trump signed an executive order in March instructing DHS to give states access to free systems to verify their voter rolls.
--:-- Jude Jaffe-Block: Election experts told me they are wary about how the tool could end up being used, given that context. Because this seems rooted in talking points about the threat of non-citizens voting, and even though that has been found to only be happening at low levels, once there's a lot of data, you can kind of tell a story with data that can be quite misleading.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There are also questions about the legality of how these changes to SAVE have been rolled out. Someone who attended a recent DHS briefing told NPR, the agency has run more than 9 million voter records through the system already.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Jaffe Block says when federal agencies plan to collect or use data in new ways like this, they're supposed to inform the public beforehand. We couldn't find evidence of one of those notices.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We asked the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service and Social Security Administration if they had issued one, and we didn't hear back from that. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service did, however, confirm to NPR that the tool exists.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Centralizing the personal information of Americans in this way has long been considered a political third rail by privacy advocates and conservatives who worry that the information could be abused.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Kim Wyman, a former Republican Secretary of State for Washington State, who now works for the Bipartisan Policy Center, shared another concern with NPR. It seems like it takes the federal government more than just four months to be able to make a comprehensive national database of information that going to be accurate.
--:-- Kim Wyman: But Wyman also told NPR she hopeful this tool could provide some benefits to voters. For years, election officials have pointed out, without a tool like this, it's voters who often bear the responsibility of proving their eligibility by providing a birth certificate or a passport.
--:-- Kim Wyman: That can risk disenfranchising millions of people who don't have access to those documents for whatever reason. And Wyman says taking that burden of proof off voters is a good thing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Right now, NPR reports that most states can't use the new save capabilities, but upgrades are coming soon. And sources said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to reach out to every state election chief, urging them to run their roles through the system.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to California, which has just approved sweeping rollbacks to one of its signature environmental laws in what's being seen as a major win for the Yimbies against the Nimbies, and a prioritization of the need to build more housing.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, required builders and developers to disclose, study, and reduce the environmental impact of a construction project. And so it sounds very simple, but when it comes down to how it's actually implemented, it gets very complicated very quickly.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's Liam Dillon with the Los Angeles Times. He says that many see CEQA as responsible for preserving California's natural beauty and scenic vistas, but that its scale and bureaucracy has long drawn criticism.
--:-- Liam Dillon: The SIPCRA process can involve things like thousands of pages of environmental reports on issues like soil safety, noise, traffic, shadows. It's just become this sort of, in many ways, kind of super sprawly kind of mess of a process.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The measures signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom this week exempt some home and manufacturing construction projects like EV plants and high-speed rail from this environmental review. They also make it more difficult to bring environmental lawsuits against developers.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They passed with bipartisan support, but it was not without some public opposition and enraged environmental groups. Dylan told us that CEQA had empowered community groups to become involved in developments, which can be essential for prioritizing local needs, but that power has also been exploited by some activists and business owners.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In one case that I remember, a gas station across the street from a new proposed gas station sued under CEQA to try to stop that gas station from being built. Now, they did it under environmental concerns. That was a stated reason. But really, it was a business competition issue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But while the L.A. Times reports that CEQA has stalled projects like homeless shelters, food banks, and child care centers, politicians have long resisted taking it on. As he signed the law, Newsom said the reforms were long overdue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, it might seem surprising that Democrats in one of the most environmentally friendly states in the U.S. voted to roll back an environmental protection law. But Dillon points out that it's part of a broader movement spurred on by journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson and their recent book, Abundance, to reduce bureaucratic red tape that prevents states from building housing and addressing the affordability crisis.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Those six-story apartment complexes that you see popping up in your neighborhood, those buildings are no longer subject to the rules under the California Environmental Quality Act. And so that means that assuming they meet zoning rules and things like that, then developers can just go right ahead.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's not just a urban housing project in Berkeley that no longer has to deal with sequish rules, but urban housing projects all over the state. And so that's really why people are saying this is a landmark reform.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go a few other stories we following In a huge win for music mogul Sean Diddy Combs a Manhattan jury found him not guilty of the most serious federal charges against him for sex trafficking and racketeering where he faced a possible life sentence He was, however, convicted on two lesser charges for transporting people for prostitution, which means he could potentially serve up to 20 years in prison.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And prosecutors say they'll seek the maximum sentence. Over the eight-week trial, they argued Combs used his business empire as a criminal enterprise to sexually abuse and exploit women, and that he coerced two former partners, including musician Cassie Ventura, into having unwanted sex with male prostitutes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Combs denied the allegations, and his defense team argued the sexual encounters were consensual, though they did acknowledge that he engaged in domestic violence. The defense has asked for Combs to be released on bond from federal detention, where he's been held for nearly a year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After the verdict was read, he reportedly fell to his knees as his family clapped and cheered. In other news, the University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from competing for women's sports teams, putting an end to a federal investigation and making Penn the first Ivy League school to agree to the Trump administration's demands on changes to sports.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Since it started targeting elite institutions. The case focused on Leah Thomas, who became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in swimming in 2022. The Department of Education argued her participation violated Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding sex discrimination in education.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the administration this year paused $175 million in federal funding to Penn, citing Thomas in particular. She was the first and to this day only transgender woman to compete at Penn, and her victory drew criticism from some former competitors, who said they felt they were, quote, disadvantaged.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Penn agreed to apologize to these athletes. At the time, Penn was following NCAA guidelines, which allowed trans athletes. Since then, the NCAA has called for a sport-by-sport approach to its policy. Going overseas, France said au revoir this week to advice that the country has long been culturally linked to.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A new nationwide ban on smoking is in effect for many public spaces, places like parks, beaches, bus stops, swimming pools, sports venues, and more. Now, I should say this law only bans cigarettes, not vapes. Still, it's one of the most restrictive anti-smoking policies implemented by any country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The primary goal is to protect the health of children in public spaces. It's the latest move in President Emmanuel Macron's push to create the first tobacco-free generation of French residents by 2032.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, there was a Disney miracle of a very different kind, as a father and his five-year-old daughter were saved after going overboard on a Disney cruise ship. It's still unclear exactly what happened, but after the girl fell in, her father reportedly jumped in after her and treaded water as they waited for crew to arrive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One passenger, Tracy Robinson Hughes, captured it on tape and spoke with ABC, clearly in awe of the father. Oh my God, thank you, Jesus. What a dad. Oh my God, that's a dad that needs to have a hero. He's a hero.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In their statement, Disney commended their crew for their quick work in the safe return of their guests. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bloomberg Businessweek has the story of a mortgage fraud operation out of Canada that led to a shocking murder in suburban Toronto last year. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And a quick note before we let you go, our team is taking the next two days off for the Fourth of July holiday. So enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
