In this episode of Washington Watch, guest host Jody Heiss dives deep into the pressing issues surrounding the temporary extension of Section 702 within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Joining the conversation is Texas Congressman Michael Cloud, who discusses the civil liberties of Americans and the challenges faced in reforming FISA. Later, Jody Heiss brings us the latest updates on the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, noting developments that could impact international relations significantly.
SPEAKER 14 :
from the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss. Mr. President, I know of no further debate on the bill.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yes, there’s no further debate. The question is on passage of the bill. All in favor say aye. All in favor say aye. All opposed, no? The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The bill is passed.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, that was Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senator Katie Britt earlier today after the Senate voted to temporarily extend Section 702, which is the spy powers law within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Welcome to this Friday, April 17th edition of Washington Watch. I am your Friday host, Jody Heiss. Thank you so much for joining us. All right, coming up today, Texas Congressman Michael Cloud will be joining me to discuss the controversial surveillance powers that Congress has voted to extend. for 10 days. Plus, Ohio is seeking internal FDA records related to the safety and efficacy of the abortion drug Mifepristone, as well as the agency’s review of it all. We’ll get the details from all that with Dr. Chris Gasek, who is FRC’s Senior Fellow for Regulatory Affairs. All that and much more is coming your way straight ahead. Well, the Strait of Hormuz is now open to commercial ships, but President Trump says the U.S. Navy blockade on Iran will continue until a deal is finally reached. And joining us now to discuss the latest developments is Washington Watch reporter Mary Stackhouse. Mary, thanks for joining us. What can you tell us about the latest news on this?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, Jody, this morning, the Iranian foreign minister announced in a post on X that, quote, in line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is completely open for the remainder of the ceasefire. President Trump responded in a post on Truth Social, where he thanked Iran for opening the Strait. The president in another post said that the naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran. He said that Iran has agreed to most of the U.S.’ ‘s points in negotiations and says that the process should go quickly, quickly, excuse me, after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz open. U.S. oil prices fell to about $80 per barrel. President Trump says that the U.S. and Iran are working to remove sea mines from the Strait of Hormuz so it’s safe for vessels to cross. Jodi.
SPEAKER 06 :
Really good developments moving forward, it sounds like. Mary, earlier today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he faced lawmakers for a hearing in the House for the second day, and he testified about the administration’s agenda for HHS. Can you kind of tell us a little bit more of what transpired in that hearing?
SPEAKER 15 :
Sure, Jody. So today, Secretary Kennedy, he appeared before the House and Education Workforce Committee, where he faced tough questions as well as some criticisms. During the hearing, he touted the administration for reforming dietary guidelines and tackling waste, fraud, and abuse. Today, he testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, where he said that the agency is working to protect children from gender transition procedures that cause irreversible harm. This year, Kennedy has pushed to reduce the number of children in foster care. And during the hearing, he shared a striking statistic on how the agency has tackled that issue.
SPEAKER 19 :
Number of foster children has dropped. from 425,000 to 325,000 because there’s more kids who are doing early preventative services on and intervening early with parents who have drug addiction problems.
SPEAKER 15 :
At the hearing, committee chairman Robert Adderhall thanked Secretary Kennedy for the department’s investigation into 13 states that mandated that insurance providers cover abortion. Secretary Kennedy has also moved to rescind a Biden-era rule that prevents parents with certain religious beliefs from being able to foster children. The rule required foster parents to affirm children who identify as homosexual and who are confused about their gender. Jodi?
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. Mary, thank you so much for bringing us these updates. We appreciate it a great deal. All right. I want to jump over now there to Capitol Hill. There’s been just a flurry of activity over the past 24 hours or so regarding the extension of Section 702, which is a spy powers law portion of FISA, which, of course, is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act extension. And joining us now to discuss where we are in all of this is Congressman Michael Cloud. He serves on the Appropriations Committee as well as the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He represents the 27th Congressional District of Texas. Congressman Cloud, my friend, welcome back to Washington Watch. Great to see you. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 03 :
Of course. Good to be on with you, Jody. Good to see you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, there’s a lot going on and I know we’ve had some discussion about 702 and within the FISA. It looks like the House passed a 10 day clean extension of that. So the and the Senate’s approved it. So what can you tell us about what’s all unfolding right now and what happened last night?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, there’s a number of people who have concerns, a number of people in Congress who have concerns about where we were headed. You know, when we revisited this a couple years ago, some reforms were put in place. We all know about the well-documented abuses of FISA, all the attacks against the Trump campaign and the like that came out of this, things that were really just criminal. And as President said when he was running for office, he said, what they’re really wanting to do is to come after you, but he was just standing in their way. And so we are working to make sure that we continue the process of cleaning up FISA to make sure that our intelligence agencies have the tools they need to go after foreign threats to the United States, but at the same time make sure that we protect the civil liberties of Americans. And so we wanted to see, you know, a few things that I’ve been talking about is a need for a warrant requirement, There’s an issue called the Fourth Amendment for Sale where intelligence agencies can, instead of collecting information and getting a warrant, just go out and buy your information from data brokers. And that’s a concern as well. And then one thing that’s really important to me too is a central bank digital currency. And this would be the ultimate surveillance tool. And so I felt this needed to be a part of this discussion as well. We made a lot of ground heading into the vote yesterday. on the first one of those on a warrant requirement, able to add a few more protections. With the protections that were made last time, you still kind of had the fox guarding the hen house in a sense. And so one of the things that got added was a way to have an audit and a review of that audit to have different eyes. You don’t want the FBI basically grading their own papers, so to speak. You want somebody else to be able to look at that. And especially, you know, we want this, it’s not just about the Trump administration. We believe they’re doing a good job by and large, but it’s about future administrations and making sure that we don’t see the bad practices we saw during the Biden administration and making sure that while we have the chance, we put those protections in place.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and I think it’s important for people to understand exactly what you’re talking about here. We’re talking about the violation of privacy, largely among other things that are constitutionally guaranteed the American people. Isn’t that really in a nutshell what this is all about?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s about. Sometimes when they’re surveilling a foreign entity that could potentially be a threat, an American will get wrapped up in because maybe there was a phone call or something like that, and making sure that that doesn’t turn into an unwarranted investigation on American people. Sometimes that could just be… Maybe they were delivering pizza to somebody. That’s kind of a funny example, but some of those connections can be very benign, and you don’t want surveillance on Americans just because they happen to be in a wide swath of data that was collected. We want to give them all the tools to go after real threats, but make sure that we’re protecting American civil liberties. And so, again, especially because we’ve seen this misused so many times in the past. And so this is about getting the safeguards where they need to be, protecting those Fourth Amendment constitutional liberties as we continue to move forward. We don’t want to see the bad practices that happened during the last administration happen again.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and these are things that that must be protected. I mean there were their constitutional issues. Do you think we’re going to get over the hurdle in these protections in the next 10 days during the extension?
SPEAKER 03 :
We did make a lot of progress in the last couple days, just kind of ran out on the clock. And so that’s why we came down to a couple more weeks. You know, I’d like to see even maybe a few more, a couple more weeks, not too long, but maybe three or four weeks to really, you know, FISA, when you get into nuts and bolts, it’s very technical, it’s very wonky, and a good portion of it is on the classified side. So those who are really working on this issue, you know, we get in the skip We have to go through a bunch of technical information on this to make sure we get it right. You don’t want to write this kind of legislation just on a whim real quick because you’re up against a deadline. You want to get it right because every word has a legal meaning and a pretty big impact. The wrong way to do this is to throw a bill like this together at midnight and try to rush it across the floor. That’s why so many people had a concern. Conversations were headed in the right direction. We were making progress, but was not ready for prime time last night.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I’m really glad to hear that, Congressman Cloud. And again, just a huge exclamation point on the emphasis you gave of the importance of every word being right on this, because this is a major, major issue. If I can turn real quickly to DHS funding, Senator Thune, Senate Majority Leader, is saying that he hopes to have a draft framework perhaps early next week for immigration enforcement funding. Your thoughts on what the Senate’s working on. Do you know much about what they’re planning?
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s talks about putting it into some sort of reconciliation package, perhaps just doing ICE and Border Patrol in it. I have a lot of concerns about having something very narrowly tailored like that. And what that has proposed, one of the proposals is that would increase The other side of that would be an appropriations bill that would pass that would have the funding for those departments at zero. There’s a big concern about us passing legislation through Congress that has a goose egg for an agency that we need and protects the safety and security of Americans. and the kind of legal quagmire that would create. This is not the way this should be funded. It was kind of the wrong way to go about it, isolating DHS in the first place. Unfortunately, the Dems, I think those who tried to make that deal thought the Dems would realize the importance of safety and security of Americans, but unfortunately, they would rather try to make things get bad to make it look bad for the American. They’re willing to put the safety of Americans at risk in order to somehow try to score political points out of this. You hate to think that they’re even hoping something bad happens, but it’s almost what it seems like, that our border security is becoming strapped. Our DHS is in a very difficult situation right now. They’re finding ways through the president’s executive order to keep TSA employees working, but we’re losing them. This becomes very difficult because the employees are trying to make make ends meet, you know, month to month and pay their bills and serve the American people. And it puts them in a very difficult position. This really needs to pass. It needs to get funded. And ultimately, it really would help if the Dems would step up and just do their job.
SPEAKER 06 :
Absolutely. Well, listen, Michael Cloud, Congressman Cloud, always great to have you. I know you’ll be joining me and a host of other leaders from across the country for America Reads the Bible. Some 500 or so people will be teaming up for a week long Bible reading going from Revelation from Genesis to Revelation. And you’re going to be one of those. Listen, I look forward to seeing you for that. And thank you for your leadership in Congress and for the kingdom of God. Great seeing you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, thank you. Yeah, good seeing you. God bless you.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, friends, you can tune in, by the way, to that America Reads the Bible, americareadsthebible.com. All right, stay with us. Much more coming your way on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 09 :
250 years ago, our founding fathers signed a death warrant, pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the idea that our rights do not come from men, but from God. Protected by providence, they brought forth a new nation, one nation, whose word rings beneath every law and liberty. Family Research Council believes in preserving this rich history, the grounds of our freedom, our undeniable foundation of faith.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think all people really need to have this type of education.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I can tell you that it’s been an amazing course, period. I think this course is a reminder that a biblical worldview should really impact everything. It impacts our government from the federal to the state to the local. It should impact what we’re doing with our families and with our work.
SPEAKER 12 :
God and Government is a video-driven, Bible-based training course from Family Research Council that explores the connection between between biblical principles and American government. In this six-session video series, FRC President Tony Perkins equips participants with a practical understanding of civil government from a biblical worldview.
SPEAKER 09 :
I would encourage all people to take it. I almost wish I would have took it earlier that I could have taught my kids this. I wish I had known these things when we were homeschooling because I think children and my adults now would just greatly be influenced by that information.
SPEAKER 13 :
So I’m an attorney, and for me, it gives me some direct practical knowledge of what I can do to try to impact my legal community, to make better legislation, to try to encourage legislators to make choices that have a biblical worldview, which is what we really want.
SPEAKER 01 :
Any pastor would benefit from taking this course because we are dual citizens, right? We are citizens of the kingdom of God, but we’re also citizens of this great land, and that comes with responsibility.
SPEAKER 11 :
Even as someone who has been involved in these types of issues for a while, you’re learning little bits and pieces of new stuff all the time. But it’s also approachable enough that newer people, younger people, high school, college students, they can really glean something from this. So I would encourage everybody to take this course, whether it’s the videos, whether it’s doing it in person, bring your Bible study group through it, bring your homeschool group through it, and equip yourself for these challenging days ahead.
SPEAKER 12 :
View the course at frc.org slash God and government or on the Stand Firm app.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you so much for tuning in today to Washington Watch, your source for news from a biblical perspective. I’m your Friday host, Jody Heiss, and again, so glad to have you. All right, before I bring on my next guest, I want to invite you to join FRC’s Whom Will You Serve Challenge. This is a drawing from Joshua 24, 15. But bottom line is, like Joshua, look, all of us as believers, we’ve got to make a choice. Who are we going to serve, be it the Lord or man? And service from everything from defending the unborn to raising families. with biblical values, it’s time for Americans, it’s time for believers to make a clean choice. And we encourage you to join this challenge financially. Text the word challenge to 67742. It’s challenge to 67742. And here’s what’s amazing. If you make a donation before midnight tonight, that donation will be tripled. Triple, folks, huge opportunity. Text CHALLENGE to 67742. All right. The Trump administration’s Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, continues to get a lot of pushback over its Biden policies on the abortion drug Mifepristone. And I must say, rightfully so. This week, Attorney General Dave Yost from Ohio submitted a Freedom of Information Request. That’s also known as a FOIA request. But he’s looking for internal records related to the safety and efficacy of mifepristone as well as the FDA’s review on that abortion drug. So all this follows last week’s decision by a federal judge to put a pause on Louisiana’s lawsuit over the FDA’s abortion drug policy until the agency completes all this long-promised safety review. So what impact might all of this have on the effort from many of us to try to restore and strengthen the FDA’s safety standards for mifepristone? Well, joining us now to discuss this is Dr. Chris Gasek. He’s a senior fellow for regulatory affairs here at the Family Research Council. Chris, always great to see you, my friend. Welcome back to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 16 :
Hello Judy, you framed that introduction very well. I thought it was. It was helpful to me to how I might. Well, how answer the question, I think so.
SPEAKER 06 :
Alright, good. Well, let’s start with this. Ohio, the Attorney General there Davios has put forward this FOIA request. So for what purpose? I mean, what? What is this FOIA bottom line looking for? I know I’ve mentioned a little bit of the highlights, but go go further with us.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, it’s a very detailed document, and it’s asking for a lot of information. But the main subject area focus is this, trying to get information about the review of, apparently, of data that the HHS and FDA have about the safety of mifepristone. And so there’s supposed to be Senator, I mean, Secretary Kennedy said that there was going to be a review done about the safety of the drug. And then not much has been said about it it’s been it’s been pretty vague and they came into court in louisiana they talked about the department of justice and fda and they said we’re doing this review uh hold off on six months on this litigation or hold off for a while and the court dismissed the case but they said in six months they’re going to take another look and see how things are you know shaping up and with the notion that I think that you could you know Louisiana could refile so I think what Attorney General Yost did here was to say well if everything is hanging on this this review I want to find out about this what’s going on here because we don’t have a lot of information so I’m going to send this FOIA in and it’ll do two things it may actually produce some documents but also is going to send it in you know, a flag, you know, a shot across the bow of the administration that here I am, a Republican pro-life AG, and I’m not happy with the information I’m getting. And then to cap it all off, the FOIA request targets the political appointees at FDA and their communications.
SPEAKER 06 :
It sounds like a really great strategy to me. I mean, you’re the lawyer, you’re the expert on all of this, but it sounds like it’s a good move by A.G. Yost. So there are others involved in all this. Senator Josh Hawley, Bill Castee, and you’ve got, as we both have mentioned, Attorney General Yost. Is all of this, you think, Chris, the… right way forward on the abortion drug going forward? Is this the right pressure points, do you think?
SPEAKER 16 :
I think one of the things that’s going on here is that there’s been a real shift in the aggressiveness of the Republican, I’d say caucus, the people here in Washington and how they want to investigate and deal with Mifepristone. I think there’s basically no faith in FDA anymore. That’s basically done. What Senator Hawley and Cassidy did, it was really powerful. And so what essentially they did was they, from their committees, Department of Justice, I mean the Judiciary Committee with Hawley and then the Health Committee with Senator Cassidy, they sent out a number of letters to the drug manufacturers They each did that, this would be Danko to each case and then other generic mifepristone makers. And then Cassidy sent one to FDA itself. These were extremely detailed, aggressive letters. And to the ones at the drug companies, we want to know who’s involved in your drug companies. We want to know, I mean, we’re basically peeling the bark off the tree. And the way I look at this now is that I think a lot of people on the Hill have taken the position that if these companies and the agencies and fda are going to come in and allow this to happen and going to facilitate this bringing drugs into our states and killing babies in our states then we’re going to find out everything we need to know about you we’re not playing this game anymore where you get anonymity and you get to hide behind all these rules we’re going to we’re going to find out and we’re going to come after you and if we have to have hearings we have to get subpoenas we’re going to do i mean i think something has changed up here and there’s a much higher level of aggression on the part of the members of Congress to find out and get to the bottom of who these people are and what they do.
SPEAKER 06 :
Great to hear. Chris Gasek, thank you so much. Senior Fellow for Regulatory Affairs at Family Research Council. Excellent information. We appreciate it so much. And friends, listen, you can help us be a voice. We need the Trump administration to restore and strengthen the safety standards at the FDA for Mifepristone. And we’re trying to direct the Department of Justice to enforce federal law. You can help be a voice. Text the word LIFE to 67742. All right, coming up, an angel mom will be here to highlight the toll of St. Paul.
SPEAKER 12 :
Proverbs 22, 6 says, Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
SPEAKER 07 :
For God so loved the Lord that He gave His only begotten Son For whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER 08 :
John 3.16 For know that my Redeemer lives. Job 19.25 God raised Jesus from the dead because it was impossible for death to hold on him. Acts 2, 24.
SPEAKER 12 :
Join Family Research Council in standing on the Word. Visit frc.org slash Bible for free resources to help your family follow the way. Jesus, the risen Savior of the world.
SPEAKER 04 :
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal. That they’re endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.
SPEAKER 10 :
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
SPEAKER 04 :
Happy 250th. Happy 250th.
SPEAKER 18 :
Happy 250th.
SPEAKER 10 :
Happy 250th birthday, America. May God bless America.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you so much for joining us. I’m your Friday host, Jody Heiss, and we welcome you aboard. All right, during the Biden administration, we saw record numbers of illegal immigrants flooding into the country. I’m sure you all remember that well. And that all really can, we can thank Democrats open border policies for all of that. But with it all, we saw naturally a surge in criminal aliens who were arrested after then President Joe Biden took office. And by the way, when we’re talking criminal aliens, we mean individuals apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol who had a criminal conviction history. For example, the number of criminal aliens apprehended with a history of homicide or manslaughter convictions was just two or three in the years before President Biden took office. But after he took office, it shot up to 60. And more broadly, when you look at convictions of all types across the board, we saw the number of criminal aliens jump from around 2,400 to almost 11,000 in 2021. And that number continued to increase year after year up until fiscal year 2024. And although some of these figures have certainly dropped since President Trump took office, families… whose lives were devastated by criminal aliens will never be the same. And that fact was highlighted yesterday during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing. And joining us now to share her family’s story is one of the witnesses in yesterday’s hearing. And I’m speaking of Laura Wilkerson, who’s the mother of Joshua Wilkerson. Laura, welcome to Washington Watch. We appreciate you joining us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for having me today.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, if you don’t mind, let’s start with Joshua, the story of him. What happened to him?
SPEAKER 02 :
Josh was our third of three children. He was the baby of our family. And he was 18 and a senior in high school. And he went to school one day, and apparently a kid who was illegal in the country, of course we found that out later, asked Josh if he would give him a ride home. And Josh did. And he. Somehow wanted to take Joshua’s truck, we believe, to scrap for money. And so he first he said the will. The killer told us from the witness stand that first he. hit Josh in the face and nose, and it broke all of his facial cavities and bones, and then he said he kneed Joshua in the stomach, and when he did, Josh was very skinny, and it caused Joshua’s spleen to go into his spine and be cut in two. The medical examiner said that was torture for him. For Josh? Josh wasn’t dead yet, and per the killer’s words, he kept trying to get up off the ground. And so then he took a closet rod and beat him over the head with it until the closet rod broke in four pieces. And then Josh still wasn’t dead, so he strangled him and let him go to see if he was still breathing and strangled him again. uh until over and over again until he wasn’t breathing any longer and then he tied joshua up with about 13 ropes from joshua’s neck to his hands and feet behind his back and he put him in joshua’s truck and he took two dollars out of josh’s wallet and bought gasoline and he poured it on josh and set him on fire
SPEAKER 06 :
That is just one of the most horrific stories ever. And I know it’s extremely emotional for you to share that. But thank you for the courage for doing so. That is a story people need to hear. That’s what this whole battle is all about. And I know during the hearing yesterday, there was a fiery clash that erupted after Democrat Congressman Hank Johnson dismissed the hearing as nothing other than a MAGA stunt. Republican Congressman Brandon Gill responded, and I want to show a clip of that. So please show clip four.
SPEAKER 20 :
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing and Thank you to the witnesses for coming here and telling us your stories and your family’s stories. Before we get into that, I think it’s worth saying that was one of the most disgusting testimonies I have ever heard. To have Hank come in here and lecture angel families about how they shouldn’t be here, how we shouldn’t be holding this hearing. What the hell is wrong with you guys?
SPEAKER 06 :
Wow. Why was a hearing like that that took place yesterday so important?
SPEAKER 02 :
So that we can tell our stories and say that we are just American citizens raising our family and giving our family our values. And then somebody can come along that’s not legally in the country and just take them and kill them and just delete them from our lives. It’s a trauma like nothing else. And My prayer is that it won’t happen to any other families. It’s pretty naive after doing this for 10 years or so that it has a lot hasn’t changed. But yeah, I was a little bit stunned about that. Mr. Johnson yesterday in that hearing and I was just shocked by it.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’ve only got about 30 seconds or so left. Anything that you would want to say, be it to public officials or just the public in general, as the importance of this issue?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, I think that President Trump has stopped the leak of the border of the open border policies, and it’s now time for ice to clean up the mess that’s left behind. It’s going to be a lengthy process. It will not be happy for everybody involved. The ice are not going out there just taking anybody and everybody off of the streets. But if you have a criminal record and they know about you, they’re coming to get you. If you get caught up in the middle of that, then you may go. But that’s just that’s just the reality of it. It’s better than burying yourself.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you. Angel mom, Laura Wilkerson, mother of Joshua Wilkerson, thank you for your courage and thank you for coming on the program. God bless you. All right, after the break, we’ll end the program and the week with our biblical worldview discussion with Dr. David Claussen. Stay with us.
SPEAKER 10 :
Exodus chapter 9, verse 1 says, Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. You see, America has freedom for a purpose. The question is, are we living by that purpose today? In Scripture, deliverance and freedom is never an end in itself. It is a liberation unto obedience, to worship, and to a covenantal relationship. God’s demand to Pharaoh was not freedom for freedom’s sake. but freedom so his people could identify with and belong to and serve him. Freedom that is not used to serve God will not endure. One of the founders actually echoed a similar warning. Thomas Jefferson wrote, indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and his justice cannot sleep forever. See, the founders understood we as a nation would be accountable to God for what He had granted to us. They sought freedom for a purpose, and that freedom was given to us as a nation for that same purpose, to serve God, to honor Him, and to live as a people under His authority. In this 250th anniversary year, we must ask the question, are we living by that purpose today as a nation. Lord, we thank you for the godly foundation and heritage of our states. Lord, we would return to an understanding of the freedom that you’ve granted to us, that freedom has a name. His name is Jesus. And freedom has a purpose. It is to honor and glorify you. And I pray that our nation would return to that understanding of the purpose of the freedom that you have granted to us. We thank you, Father. By faith, we pray that we would return to that purpose. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
SPEAKER 18 :
Looking for a trusted source of news that shares your Christian values? Turn to The Washington Stand, your ultimate destination for informed, faith-centered reporting. Our dedicated team goes beyond the headlines, delivering stories that matter most to believers. From breaking events to cultural insights, we provide clear, compassionate coverage through a biblical lens. Discover news you can trust at the Washington Stand, where faith and facts meet every day.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, thank you for joining us on Washington Watch. Welcome back. I am your Friday host, Jody Heiss, and glad to have you with us. All right, one more time, I want to just put this out here. The clock is ticking. I want to encourage you to join FRC’s Whom Will You Serve Challenge. This is coming from Joshua 2415. And look, this is a time for all of us to take a stand, stand for family values, stand for life, to stand up and be counted. America needs to make a choice, and we at FRC, we’re doing all we can to do that. And asking you to come on and help us financially. Text the word CHALLENGE to 67742. And keep this in mind. I said the clock was ticking. Here’s what I was referring to. Thanks to a generous challenge match, any gift to FRC that’s given through midnight tonight will be tripled. Friends, you just can’t have a better deal than that. You can triple your impact with what we’re doing here, and we encourage you to do so. Text the word CHALLENGE to 67742, and thank you in advance for doing that. Okay, with so much news in the week that we’ve just gone through and constantly going through the news cycle, we’ve got the ongoing conflict with Iran and a host of other things. We always like to end the week by taking a look at the major issues through the lens of Scripture. And so we want to do some of that right now. And joining me for that discussion is our weekly worldview conversationalist, Dr. David Claussen. He’s the director of FRC’s Center for Biblical Worldview. He’s also the author of Life After Roe, Equipping Christians in the Fight for Life Today. Dr. Claussen, happy Friday to you. Always great to have you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Happy Friday, Jody. Great to be with you again.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, let’s begin with an issue that I think really does not receive the type of attention that it deserves. And we’re talking about adoption and foster care. I was glad to see these topics actually came up during a House hearing with HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. But in his remarks, David, he claimed that the Biden administration excluded individuals with religious convictions from certain programs. What more do we know about these type of policies? And I guess more importantly, why should this matter to Christians?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Jody, the context of this story is so important. And really, the context goes back to last fall when President Trump put out an executive order titled Fostering the Future for American Children and Families. And this is actually part of the president’s broader effort to reform the foster care system in the United States, of course, which needs a great reform. Part of the executive order has tasked HHS, or the Department of Health and Human Services, to start a new initiative. And so this new initiative was launched in the fall, Jodi. It’s called A Home for Every Child. And the First Lady, Melania Trump, has really lent her voice to promote this. And again, it’s kind of just setting the context, because this is something that Christians should care deeply about. Currently, there are 57 homes for every 100 children that need a foster care home. And of course, the goal of HHS is to bring those numbers down really to a one-to-one ratio. to where every child who needs a foster home, there would be one family that could take that child in. And I would just say this, of course, matters for Christians because as Christians we care about families, we care about children, we care about orphans and widows. James tells us, of course, about that. And I’m encouraged that FRC has actually been a part of a broader coalition of groups that are advising and working on this issue. I think this is a great opportunity for Christian families and churches to get involved, and HHS is looking to partner with churches. But the reason we’re talking about this, Jodi, is because of what Robert Kennedy revealed in that hearing yesterday, which is that the Biden administration apparently during their four years in office was putting pressure on states to require foster homes as a condition of housing children to make those parents affirm LGBT identities. And it really, according to Secretary Kennedy, was a way of excluding a massive amount of families with Christian convictions. And so, Jody, we already knew the previous administration was beholden to the LGBT lobby, but this revelation, specifically from yesterday’s hearing, in my view is unconscionable, that politicians would work to keep families with Christian values out of the foster care system simply to score political points with their base at the expense of needy children.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it’s unbelievable, and particularly in light of the statistics that you shared, 57 homes for every 100 kids right now in need, and then to have a previous administration discriminating primarily against Christians, amazing. I’ve got a clip here, just speaking of all that, from Secretary Kennedy’s testimony yesterday. Let me play this for you here. Clip number one, please.
SPEAKER 19 :
The Biden administration was excluding an entire class of people because of their religious beliefs. We are, and told the states to actually pass laws, instructed them to pass laws, refusing families who had religious, certain religious beliefs, mainly Christian religious beliefs, to not be allowed to have children. And that dramatically constricted the pool of available parents. We are changing that.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that’s amazing. I mean, that’s what you were just referencing. And I thought it’d be important for us to just pull this up and let people see it and hear it for themselves. That is a striking statement. So let me ask you, do we know of and he did. Secretary Kennedy did say we’re trying to change this. So do we know exactly what steps, if any? I mean, what what is this? the Trump administration doing? What steps are they taking to try to reverse these policies?
SPEAKER 05 :
Again, this is such a bombshell, Jody, and for Christians who are moved for families and for children in need, again, this revelation is something that should have our attention. So I did dive into this a little bit, and I’m grateful that I can share that the administration appears to be doing a lot, actually. So just last month, the Health and Human Services Department has proposed a rule. And of course, these rules have to go through the official rulemaking process. But they’ve proposed a rule to abolish the Biden era requirement. Again, in this pressure that families would have to affirm LGBT identities. And of course, This is all about the way statutory language is applied. And again, under the Biden administration, families that were considered not safe for placement, that could include, again, a refusal to go along with the whole transgender revolution and just the belief that the parents had of a biblical sexual ethic. And so this rule change would undo that Biden era process. Again, I mentioned the new initiative. It’s called a Home for Every Child. This is a great program that is looking to actually engage with churches and denominations and kind of faith communities. And so it seems they’re turning to the folks who really care about this issue. Because, again, Jody, it is just it’s. unimaginably cruel that someone would put an adult political agenda, whether the politics of LGBT or something else, above the needs of vulnerable children. I just don’t think we can stress that enough. But again, I’m encouraged. It seems the HHS is dealing with this. One other thing I’ll share is actually Assistant Secretary Alex Adams. This is a gentleman who’s overseen much of this effort at HHS to reform the foster care system. He actually, in comments that he gave to Fox News Digital, he actually confirmed something that we know is that it’s actually foster families with religious convictions. These are the people with religious convictions. They are the most likely to open up their doors to children who are invulnerable in needy situations. And so I’m just encouraged that the folks who are in charge seeking to reform the system, they recognize that people of faith are those who are most willing to volunteer, step up and serve those in need.
SPEAKER 06 :
That really is some encouraging news coming out of what was just exceedingly, worse than offensive, just downright wrong treatment and discrimination. So it was great to have some encouraging news there. And that enables me to take another jump to some other encouraging news that I saw this past week, David, and that was a Gallup poll that shows a sharp rise in young men in particular who say, religion is very important in their lives. In fact, they’re surpassing young women for the first time in decades. So what do you think is driving this? What’s going on with young men today?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Jared, I have a portion of the study right in front of me. And just to be clear, again, this is looking at young men, Gen Z men, and probably the youngest millennials. This would be ages 18 to 29. And the percentage who say that religion is very important to them in just a couple of years has gone up from 28% to 42%. Again, 42% of young men saying that religion is very important to them. And it’s not just the attitudes. It’s actually these attitudes are being translated into behavior. because the report also showed that 40% of these young men are at least attending church monthly. So they’re not only telling pollsters that religion is important to them, they seem to be pursuing worship services and community within kind of a church setting or denominational setting. What’s driving it? I think part of it’s political, and the report noted that a lot of these young men lean Republican, But I do think, Jody, there’s a deeper cultural story that this is actually revealing to us. We know many young men are searching for purpose. They’re searching for meaning. They’re searching for identity. Many young men do feel disoriented in a culture that seems hostile to traditional masculinity. Think about this, you know, the so-called toxic masculinity mantra that we’ve heard for so long. And so I think in that kind of cultural milieu that seems hostile to young men, young men are looking to places where they’re accepted and they’re clearly looking to the church, which they seem compelling in some ways. And of course, we know the church has a transcendent message. It affirms traditional understandings of masculinity. Church provides moral clarity. Church provides a framework for ordered liberty. And so I think young men are seeing that. They’re being drawn to that. And again, I don’t think that’s accidental, Jody. I think there’s a real hunger for young men for something more substantial, something that they’re not getting just in the cultural streams that they’ve been swimming in. Great opportunity, in my view, for churches and specifically for pastors to reach these young folks.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, well, let’s go there because I agree. I mean, this is news that ought to be just received extremely warmly and a great deal of excitement for the church. When you have young men ready to put… Christ central in their lives, or as they say, very important. This is good news. So how should pastors, how should church leaders, you think, respond to ensure that this not only continues, but I think the greater calling and need is to take this hunger with young men and transfer it into discipleship and spiritual maturity for these young people. It’s a great opportunity, isn’t it?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you just said it, and I think that’s going to be the key is to translate this interest into something deeper and to what we would call, of course, discipleship. I think that churches, we just can’t assume that young men who are showing up and expressing interest, that they actually understand the gospel. that they actually are growing spiritually. And so I think pastors in particular, Jody, need to meet this moment with serious teaching, with clear discipleship, with sound theology. And again, I think this is going to be, part of this is going to be calling these young men to responsibility and to leadership and of course to holiness. not just offering them this vague sense of belonging, but calling them to a life of discipleship that follows the Lord Jesus. And I think really if the church is faithful here, this could be a real moment of spiritual formation, not just a temporary trend. And with that, I will say that the other side of this is our young women. The data shows that young women are quickly becoming the least religiously committed demographic in this country. And I think we could talk about this. I think a lot of young women are being shaped by the dominant narratives that our culture tells us about identity, about autonomy, about self-expression. And so I think that there is some encouraging news here. but we can’t give up on young women either. And we need to really cast a biblical vision of womanhood that young Gen Z and millennial women will see and be attracted to as well.
SPEAKER 06 :
Totally agree. Totally agree. Let me ask you another real quick story before I let you go. Another event this week in Tennessee, the Governor Bill Lee there signed a proclamation declaring June as Nuclear Family Month. I thought that was a pretty big deal. Why is it so important to affirm the family, particularly nuclear family? Why is that so important in today’s culture, in our political landscape?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, Jody, from a biblical worldview, we know that the nuclear family, the father, the mother, and their children, that’s not just a social construct. That’s really embedded in the creational reality that we find ourselves. This is Genesis 1 and 2. God designed family as the primary institution for raising children, for forming individuals. Healthy families, of course, are the bedrock of healthy societies. And we know this from a social science perspective that children who grow up in families with a mom and dad who are married to one another and committed to one another. They’re less likely to go to prison, less likely to drink alcohol, less likely to have out-of-wedlock births, more likely to graduate high school. The social science is there. We shouldn’t be surprised, of course, as Christians, that the social science aligns with God’s plan for families. And final thing I’ll just say, Jodi, I’m grateful. Of course, we know that the rest of the world celebrates June as Pride Month, And I’m grateful for this governor showing courage, saying that he’s not going to echo the dominant cultural message that we often see at this time of year and saying that he has an opportunity using his position of leadership to say, no, that there are some priorities that I’m going to focus on nuclear families that actually set families up, set society up to actually flourish, to actually thrive. So kudos to this governor, I think, for sending the signal that I hope others will follow and emulate.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, absolutely. Major, major kudos for his leadership on that. You know, it’s been a long time coming that we see national leaders take a stand so boldly for the family. And hats off to him and thank the Lord for him. Also thanking the Lord for you, Dr. David Claussen, Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview here at FRC. As always, thank you for joining us. All right, friends, that wraps up this day and this week. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. We’ll be back again next week on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 14 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council. To support our efforts to advance faith, family, and freedom, please text GIVE to 67742. That’s GIVE to 67742. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information, please visit TonyPerkins.com.
