NOW THIS IS CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has a list of 39 funding prohibitions he wants House Republican appropriators to include in the 12 spending bills Congress must adopt and send to the President by September 30.

Congress has all the ultimate weapons under the Constitution in any showdown with either the executive or judicial branches, with having the originating authority making the House of Representatives especially powerful … if the majority has political brass ones.

Now it’s up to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Kay Granger (R-Texas) to move Jordan’s prohibitions into the spending bills and to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to push for a vote by the full House.

Then we’ll see if the Republicans are serious about making bureaucrats and politicians respect congressional oversight.

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Not the Cabinet VIP’s in the Biden administration filling the National Institutes for Health (NIH) bureaucracy with government loyalists. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) appears to have just plain ignored a law passed by Congress and signed by President Barack that required 14 NIH Director slots, including the now-formerly occupied by Anthony Fauci, by a date certain in 2021.

When Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee began asking more than a year ago for documentation of those appointments, Becerra and his minions at HHS and NIH slow-walked or ignored the requests. Finally in June, documents were provided that clearly show Becerra ignored the law.

Significant? Well, if the appointments were done contrary to the law, odds are every decision made by each of the appointees was made without legal authority, including the decisions to award nearly $26 billion in research grants, among which were several to Eco-Health of Wuhan fame. Also every contract approved by the illegal appointees, every personnel decision, including hiring and firing, and every policy-making decision.

In other words, NIH now faces the prospect of having to redo pretty much everything since December 13, 2021. That will be spelled C-H-A-O-S. As a Republican aide told journalists earlier today, “it’s unprecedented.”

IN CHINA, WAR STARTS IN KINDERGARTEN: Daily Caller News Foundation’s Phillip Lenczycki reports the Chinese military is now training legions of kindergarteners how to kill and destroy.

Now, if memory serves, it was only recently that China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, ordered his military to be prepared for war by 2027. Two potential targets come immediately to mind: Taiwan and its chief protector, the U.S. So these children will be all of 9 years old, but they’ll have four years of training under their belt, which is a good bit more than the average Russian draftee serving in Ukraine gets.

WHAT HEEL-AND-TOEING A RACE CAR TAUGHT ME ABOUT GOD: Reading scripture, studying philosophy, or digging deeply into evolutionary biology are not the only paths to discovering important stuff about God and man. Believe it or not, downshifting on a race track can do it, too.

THE WEAPONIZATION OF LONELINESS: Gen Z is the loneliest generation ever and digital technology has the potential to abolish the private realm entirely. Combine these two realities and you will understand why Stella Morabito wrote “The Weaponization of Loneliness” and why individual political liberty faces its greatest potential peril ever in the coming decades.

BIDEN CORRUPTION RUNS DEEP INTO DHS BUREAUCRACY: Back in 1995, the early days of the Gingrich Revolution when Republicans took the House majority for the first time in more than 40 years, talk of “defunding the Left” was widespread. And then it wasn’t. And the Left’s legions of non-profit activist groups have received hundreds of billions of tax dollars in the decades since.

Had Republicans not lost their nerve on defunding the Left in 1995, Andrew Kerr of the Washington Free Beacon would not be reporting today that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has completely lost track of nearly 100,000 migrant children brought illegally into this country since 2021, all the while doubling the government’s spending on migrant care contracts going to left-wing non-profits:

“The massive increase in grants is attributed primarily to more than $5 billion in no-bid contracts doled out to three companies, a practice Democrats such as Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D.) and Vice President Kamala Harris decried during the Trump administration. Among the companies that benefited from the Biden administration’s largesse: the San Antonio-based nonprofit Family Endeavors, which inked a $579 million no-bid contract with the Office of Refugee Resettlement in March 2021.

“That just so happens to be two months after the charity hired Biden transition adviser Andrew Lorenzen-Strait. Family Endeavors received the funds to provide housing for migrant children at a facility in Pecos, Texas, though the group lacked any prior experience caring for immigrants, the Washington Examiner reported. The Office of Refugee Resettlement doled out an additional $1.34 billion to Family Endeavors in 2022.

“Family Endeavors also received an $87 million contract from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March 2021 to provide temporary shelter for immigrant families. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General later found that the charity had wasted $17 million of those funds on unused hotel rooms.”

If you want to know the likely fate of many of those 100,000 lost migrant kids, check out “The Sound of Freedom,” the most watched movie of the July 4 holiday, besting even the latest Indiana Jones sequel.

FIVE REASONS TO SEE ‘THE SOUND OF FREEDOM:’ The Washington Stand’s Meg Kilgannon didn’t want to go see this latest release from the folks behind “The Chosen.” But after seeing Jim Caviezel’s portrayal of Tim Ballard, the man who refused to look the other way from the child trafficking horrors exploding across this nation, she’s glad she went. I suspect you will be as well.

AN ODYSSEY LIKE NO OTHER: Remember Odysseus? Took him 10 years to make it home to Ithaca from the Trojan War and he was the only one of his mates to make it. Being the sole survivor was one thing Greek king had in common with the lone sperm cell from your father that helped make you you.

But the Cyclopes in “The Odyssey” were nothing compared to the giant challenges faced by sperm cells seeking to fertilize an egg and start the creation of a new human being. You need not agree with everything in this HillFaith post to appreciate the incredible complexity of becoming a baby human, as depicted by the Nucleus Medical Media and evolutionary biologist Jonathan McLatchie.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION RULING GETS QUICK RESULTS: Looks like somebody at Columbia University wants to appear to be complying with the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruling.

‘TOLERANT’ LEFT AIMS DEATH THREAT BARRAGE AT LORIE SMITH: She’s the determined website designer who stood up for her right not to be be forced to speak ideas with which she disagrees. The Supreme Court’s 303 Creative v. Elenis decision upheld her right and that of every American.

So now, Smith tells The Epoch Times, her reward is a sudden surge in the intensity of the steady flow of harassment she has received for the seven years that led to the June 30 victory for the First Amendment. The surge includes death threats to Smith and members of her family.

AMERICAN HEROES THEN AND NOW: If you’re not familiar with web site designer Lori Smith and postal carrier Gerald Groff, you should be because we all owe them thanks for having the guts and courage to stand up and fight the good fight all the way to the Supreme Court.

DOD GETS MACED: The South Carolina Republican wonders why the Pentagon suddenly and with little concrete explanation terminated a multi-million dollar contract for developing a system to manage the defense department’s huge travel operations.

BILL BARS SALTY UNIONS: Well, actually the proposal introduced by Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) makes it illegal for unions to insert organizers under the guise of being regular employees. It’s called “salting” a targeted non-union company’s workforce to promote employee dissatisfaction, encourage formation of a union, confront management, etc.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY? Is the Bible still relevant in America and western societies? Predictions of the demise of biblical influence are common, including, strangely enough, among people who continue to cherish the best-selling book in human history.

But the folks at the Colson Center — the finest legacy of the famous Watergate-Conspirator-Turned-Christian-Apologist — who produce the “What Would You Say” video series, make a compelling case that, if anything, the Bible’s influence is growing. Don’t miss the comments on atheist Tom Holland’s assessment.

AT LEAST THEY LEFT THE CHINA ALONE: Three retiring Republican Senators were able to take home more than $1.5 billion in earmarks for multiple projects in their home states, thanks to the 2022 Omnibus Spending Bill, according to Open the Books.

The departing trio was joined by three other Republican Senate incumbents and one Republican representative in dominating the top 10 of earmarkers. But not to worry, because overall Democrats in Congress got more money in earmarks than Republicans???

DOD ABOUT TO GO MORE WOKE: President Joe Biden’s choice of Gen. CQ Brown as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff promises to make the U.S. military less prepared for combat, at least judging by the videos released today by the American Accountability Foundation.

$200 BILLION IN COVID WASTE: The Inspector-General at the Small Business Administration (SBA) has found an estimated $200 billion in COVID-19 relief funds lost to fraudsters.

But that’s just the beginning because Mike Ware, the SBA IG, claims to still have “tens of thousands” of leads likely to produce more confirmed fraud.

Somewhere, Willie Sutton is kicking himself and wondering why he wasted all that time at the banks when the real money to be stolen was there for the taking in the federal bureaucracy.

CAN CONGRESS CONTROL LEVIATHAN? Not unless it quickly adopts the recommendations of two experts on the Administrative State from the Foundation for American Innovation. (FYI: Epoch was having technical difficulties this evening that may linger a bit. If so, please try again in a little while).

Another great read on the Administrative State is one I think Glenn has previously recommended, but it warrants another boost: “Is Administrative Law Unlawful?” by Prof. Philip Hamburger.

LET THE FIRE FALL: Some Instapunditeers no doubt already know about the Yosemite Firefall, but I didn’t until I watched this video on HillFaith.

Whether you view it as evidence of God’s fine-tuning of the universe or an illustration of the incredible capabilities of natural processes, this one ought to make your day a good bit brighter. You are welcome!

DOES CRT ENCOURAGE TEEN SUICIDE? Suicide and homicide are both way up since 2007. Maybe we should be asking if teaching Left-wing fairy tales like CRT and global warming as fact in public schools just might, maybe, perhaps might possibly have something to do with it? I’m from out of town and all, but shouldn’t we at least consider the obvious that is hiding right out in front of us all?

IT CAN NOW BE REVEALED: Issues & Insights has disclosed the toughest job in the Biden White House. Trust me, it’s not one you would ever want.

BEST AND BRIGHTEST: President Joe Biden’s man to fight the Monkeypox battle says officials should support policies that encourage the “joy” of multiple same-sex orgies, the Washington Stand’s Ben Johnson reports.

And in a related development, the Prophet Isaiah offered this analysis: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet  and sweet for bitter!”

PLUS: The great Don Surber’s latest column on Substack focuses in on a Daily Guardian expose of a federally funded public school teachers meeting devoted to ways of protecting trans kids from … their parents.

ARE WE WITNESSING THE DEATH OF AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES? House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) says it’s happening right in front of us. Civil liberties advocates agree.

THE SOUND OF FREEDOM: The issue of child trafficking is about to get a huge boost, thanks to Angel Studios. Angel is one of the creative energies behind “The Chosen,” the hugely popular and most-successful-ever crowd-funded TV series about the life of Jesus Christ.

In “The Sound of Freedom,” actor Jim Caviezel, who famously portrayed Jesus in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ,” plays Tim Ballard, a man devoted to his mission of rescuing children from the horrors of child trafficking.

This preview clip on HillFaith is absolutely gripping. As Caviezel explains at the end of the video, “The Sound of Freedom” is another crowd-funded effort and the international release is July 4, the perfect day for a monumental film.

YOU REPORT TO ME, MAYBE: If the President appoints you to a cabinet secretary position, under the Constitution, you must answer to him directly. Unless he delegates that duty to a subordinate, which is typically what happens.

The result is, according to former Office of Personnel Director (OPM) and dynamics of bureaucracy (no, that’s not an oxymoron!) expert Donald Devine, even cabinet secretaries have trouble reaching the Chief Executive. And then we wonder why the executive branch bureaucracy acts like a foreign occupation force when a Republican is in the White House or there is a Republican congressional majority.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I worked for President Reagan under Devine at OPM.