(The Center Square) – The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating a study funded by the Biden administration on alcohol guidelines for Americans, as the U.S. Health and Human Services Department prepares to release its five-year dietary guidelines for Americans.

In January, the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking issued a draft report on its findings analyzing the impact of alcohol intake on overall health.

“The risk of alcohol attributable death increases linearly with alcohol consumption,” the report said.

The draft study found that even one drink a week poses a risk of alcohol attributable death for both males and females.

“Even at low levels of consumption, alcohol had a significant impact on the health of individuals 15 to 39 years of age,” the report said.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, slammed the report’s findings and promised a further investigation.

Comer said the report “skewed widely available information about the effects of alcohol consumption on Americans to favor the Biden administration’s predetermined narrative.”

Comer said the study is “duplicative” of another conducted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine at the direction of Congress.

A 2023 World Health Organization report appeared to align with the Interagency Coordinating Committee’s draft report.

“When it comes to alcohol consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health,” the WHO report found.

The reports funded by the federal government were designed to contribute to the upcoming dietary guidelines for Americans, a set of recommendations released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the  U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The guidelines come out every five years.

“The ICCPUD study’s formation outside the transparency of the typical Dietary Guidelines process raises scientific integrity and conflict of interest concerns,” Comer said.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in a May House hearing that the dietary guidelines could be released by August.

“It is imperative that the dietary guidelines are based on rigorous, sound, and objective scientific evidence, efficiently steward taxpayer dollars, and adhere to congressional intent,” Comer said.

The guidelines have been largely unchanged regarding alcohol consumption recommendations since 1990. However, studies limiting alcohol intake in 2020 were rejected by the first Trump administration for inclusion in the dietary guidelines.

The studies were brought back and funded by the Biden administration. 

While Comer is pushing back on new recommendations, it remains unclear which alcohol consumption study will prevail for the final draft of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Kennedy said his guidelines will be shorter than previous administrations and will “tell people, essentially, eat whole food, eat the food that’s good for you.”

• Andrew Rice is an intern reporter and member of the 2025 Searle Freedom Trust and Young America’s Foundation National Journalism Center Apprentice and Internship initiative. 

(The Center Square) – A new fine process is underway for foreign nationals illegally living in the country.

The departments of Homeland Security and Justice announced a new joint federal rule went into effect with a public comment period extended through July 28.

The rule amends existing DHS and DOJ regulations authorizing DHS to issue civil monetary penalties as stipulated by the Immigration and Nationality Act “for aliens who fail to depart voluntarily during the voluntary departure period, willfully fail or refuse to depart after a final removal order … or are apprehended while improperly entering or attempting to enter the United States.”

The current process requires giving illegal foreign nationals 30 days’ notice of intent to fine them before a fine is issued. The rule eliminates the 30-day notice period, authorizes DHS immigration officers to mail fines to illegal foreign nationals who have addresses on record and shortens the appeal process. It also transfers the appeals process from the DOJ Board of Immigration Appeals to DHS.

The fine process applies to “aliens who enter the United States illegally; aliens who ignore removal orders or delay their removal; aliens who do not honor agreements to comply with judges’ voluntary departure orders,” DHS says.

The fines are incremental, including between:

• $100 to $500 for each unlawful entry or attempted entry;
• $1,992 to $9,970 for those who fail to honor a voluntary departure order;
• up to $998 per day for those who willfully refuse to comply with a removal order from a federal judge.

Under federal law, 8 USC 1324d imposes civil penalties for failure to depart. It stipulates that “Any alien subject to a final order of removal who- (1) willfully fails or refuses to-(A) depart from the United States pursuant to the order, (B) make timely application in good faith for travel or other documents necessary for departure, or (C) present for removal at the time and place required by the Attorney General; or (2) conspires to or takes any action designed to prevent or hamper the alien’s departure pursuant to the order, shall pay a civil penalty of not more than $500 to the Commissioner for each day the alien is in violation of this section.”

This provision of the law wasn’t enforced by any administration until the first Trump administration. The Biden administration halted any enforcement of it. The second Trump administration announced it was reinstituting it in May.

As of June 13, ICE has already issued nearly 10,000 fine notices, DHS says.

“For decades, this law has been ignored – not anymore,” DHS said when announcing it was requiring all noncitizens living in the U.S. legally and illegally to register with the federal government in accordance with the law,” The Center Square reported.

“An alien’s failure to depart the U.S. is a crime that could result in significant financial penalty. An alien’s failure to register is a crime that could result in a fine, imprisonment, or both,” DHS warned.

By contrast, those who self-deport using the CBP Home App will receive a $1,000 stipend after they arrive in their home country, confirmed on the app, The Center Square reported.

“Self-deportation is a dignified way to leave the U.S. and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement” agents, DHS said.

Those who self-deport using the app will receive forgiveness of any civil fines or penalties for previously failing to depart the U.S.

They “will also be deprioritized for detention and removal ahead of their departure as long as they demonstrate they are making meaningful strides in completing that departure,” and “may help preserve the option … to re-enter the United States legally in the future,” DHS said.

Qualifying illegal foreign nationals are encouraged to submit their “Intent to Depart” using the CBP Home app here.

(The Center Square) – Most U.S. voters oppose having data centers built in their community and even more oppose the data centers if tax incentives are awarded to have them built, according to a poll released Wednesday morning by Libertas Network.

Overton Insights asked 1,200 registered voters the questions between June 23-26 on behalf of Libertas, which says it focuses on family education and policy reform as it looks to “change hearts, minds and laws to create a freer future.”

Libertas had Overton Insights ask the data center questions upon suggestion from The Center Square.

The poll asked voters specifically if they supported or opposed building new data centers for artificial intelligence in their community with 46% of respondents strongly or somewhat opposing the prospect, 36% strongly or somewhat supporting and 18% uncertain.

Of those that supported building data centers in their community, 69% still supported the idea if tax subsidies or incentives were involved to bring the data centers while 23% or those initially supportive would oppose the idea if those tax breaks were involved.

Data center projects have popped up across the country in recent years with many of those proposals including tax breaks.

The data centers are used to create the computing power for AI and to store the large amounts of information needed for those technologies but the Incentives are often opposed because, despite the large amount of money spent on the buildings, they do not require much staff and they take a large amount of energy.

The average American’s energy bill could increase from 25% to 70% in the next 10 years without intervention from policymakers, according to Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Jack Kemp Foundation.

A least 10 states are currently losing $100 million or more in taxes from data centers, according to an April report from Good Jobs First.

Data centers often require politicians to sign non-disclosure agreements during the proposal process, including keeping the name of the technology company involved along with the details of a project secret.

The secrecy occurred during the process of building a recent Indianapolis data center, according to WFYI, while the names have leaked of developers involved in several Wisconsin data center projects where state lawmakers are asking to create a data center exception to state laws on property tax captures at the sites to lure the projects to the state.

“These data centers are so big and so valuable and such a prize for a community that (state laws capping TIFs) really creates a problem,” said Wisconsin Sen. John Jagler, R-Watertown.

Virginia currently has a backlog of data center projects as they complete interconnection studies to ensure they can safely attach to the energy grid.

Projects needing more than 50 megawatts of power often require transmission-level access, which adds federal oversight from PJM, the regional grid operator for Virginia and 12 other states.