
Trans mice and tantrums
It’s not about the mice — or the science … All the news that's fit to Agendize … And we're so popular during budget season.
Three Arizona congressmen are leading the crusade to outlaw any federally funded “transgender” experiments on lab animals.
But “transgender” experiments probably aren’t what you think — and it’s almost certainly not what they think.
The term applies to assorted experiments focused on things like whether the hormone treatments used in gender-affirming care might increase the risk of breast cancer, or make the HIV vaccine ineffective.
Mind you — hormone treatments are used in a wide array of treatments — not just for gender-transition treatment. In fact, researchers concluded that this kind of gender-affirming care is more frequently used by cisgender people. It’s all sorts of useful to better understand how these hormone treatments operate in the body.
However, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, Elijah Crane and Abraham Hamadeh have joined with six other far-right lawmakers to cut funding for “research on animals for the purpose of studying the effects of drugs, surgery, or other interventions to alter the human body (including by disrupting the body’s development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to its biological sex.”
The request came in a letter to the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies chairman Robert Aderholt.
The letter decried “wasteful and disturbing experiments to create ‘transfeminine’ and ‘transmasculine’ lab animals using invasive surgeries and hormone therapies,” according to Crane’s latest newsletter to constituents.
"The transgender animals are then wounded, shocked, injected with street drugs and vaccines, and subjected to other disturbing procedures," he wrote.
To be clear, this isn't about mice. It’s about targeting the science that supports the care of trans people — and lots of other important things.
The weird little riff on “transgender mice” dates back to President Donald Trump’s address to Congress in March, insisting the Biden administration had squandered millions on experiments “making mice transgender.”
Some people thought he might be talking about “transgenic mice.” This refers to laboratory mice into which scientists have inserted genes from another species — including humans. These transgenic studies tackle deep questions on basic biology that you could never ethically conduct in humans.
But the White House later clarified that the president was talking about roughly $8 million in “transgender experiments on mice” that mostly involve studies of hormones.
One was a $445,000 test to determine whether hormones used for gender transition care and other treatments reduce the immune system’s reaction to the vaccine to prevent Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
A second, $2.5-million study focused on the reproductive consequences of steroid hormone administration.
A third $3.1 million study focused on whether estrogens used in gender transition care and other treatments could cause the development of asthma.
Of course, cancelling hormone safety studies is just one bizarre footnote in the bevy of deep cuts in science throughout the federal government.
The National Science Foundation has flat-out cancelled 1,600 grants totaling $1.5 billion. The National Institutes of Health has cancelled $1.8 billion in already awarded grant funding. And Health and Human Services announced the elimination of 20,000 public health jobs. All this was shortly before NIH head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said no scientists have lost their jobs, per the American Journal of Managed Care.
Federal support for scientific research has dropped by an estimated 50%, with grant cancellations and layoffs in almost every area — including huge decreases in support for university-based scientists.
Robert Atkinson, president of the Information and Technology and Innovation Foundation, told the New York Times that by the time the smoke clears, China will become the planet’s leading supporter of research and development on the planet.
“These cuts are the height of self-inflicted harm,” Atkinson told the Times. “If they succeed in these cuts, the result will be slower economic growth, less innovation and new teach startups and even more diminished competitiveness vis-à-vis China.”
So, really, “transgender” mice that aren’t really transgender don’t really amount to much in the scheme of things.
Still, it’s good to see Arizona’s own conspiracy caucus staking out a strong position on the fringe.
The House Appropriations Committee voted on party lines to pass House Republicans’ series of budget bills yesterday, and Democrats aren’t happy with the details baked into the $17.4 billion spending plan.
The full House will vote on the series of bills today.
Gov. Katie Hobbs said she won’t sign it.
During the budget meeting, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton called the plan “a House Republican demand letter translated into bill language, not a real negotiated budget.”
“I believe in this Disney budget as much as I believe in the tooth fairy,” Democratic Rep. Mariana Sandoval chimed in.
The budget that lawmakers actually pass, and that the governor signs, will probably look a lot different. The Senate is on track to drop its separately crafted budget next week.
The budget bills’ sponsor, Rep. David Livingston, acknowledged his caucus has left out the other two-thirds of key stakeholders in the process —the Senate and the governor— but said it’s Hobbs’ fault for not responding to their budget proposal.
Some of the things Livingston & Co. highlighted in the budget include:
5% raises for the Department of Public Safety and corrections officers.
$94 million for infrastructure projects like widening I-10 and making an overpass on State Route 347.
Support for rural hospitals through things like grants for software system upgrades and putting $4.3 million into a fund that helps rural community hospitals.
Income tax cuts for people who adopt children.
Other provisions that won’t sit well with Democrats include:
“Strictly enforcing Arizona's SB1070,” about half of which was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, with $12.9 million for 100 employees on DPS’s gang and immigration intelligence team.
Prohibiting public universities from subsidizing tuition “for students not lawfully present in the United States.” Democrats warn that it would defy the voter-approved Prop. 308 that lets DACA recipients receive in-state tuition.
Implementing work requirements for people who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (which used to be called food stamps). The Department of Economic Security would have to make sure SNAP recipients don’t make too much money every month and post cases of noncompliance on a website.
Sweeping $60 million from the long-term water augmentation fund (which has already been hit with millions in cuts).
But considering this budget is basically dead in the water, we don’t wanna get too deep in the weeds of it.
It’s pretty clear that Congress is hopelessly gridlocked when it comes to solving the big issues of our day.
Meanwhile, state governments are stepping in to deal with artificial intelligence — regulating the industry and its applications in a patchwork of different and sometimes conflicting laws.
In this week’s A.I. Agenda, we look at how President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” budget bill would put a stop to that, barring states from enforcing any laws regulating or restricting the industry for the next decade.
Critics say it’s a dangerous overreach that will let big tech run roughshod over citizens — even some MAGA Republican lawmakers hate it.
But can AI succeed if it’s subject to the whims of 50 wildly different state legislatures?
We crunch the numbers on what states and Congress are doing on AI, and what might be lost if the “big beautiful” budget bill becomes law.
Plus, lots of charts, your first robot purchase and the shifting definition of “model.”
A lot can change in AI in a week. Get the weekly breakdown that helps you understand it all.
Arizona Regents aren’t exactly getting a slow summer.
In this week’s Education Agenda, we previewed their annual meeting to approve budgets for the state’s three universities.
Revenues are mostly looking good. But enrollment is down at two out of three universities, fueled by lower international students thanks to the Trump administration's policies. And UA is still strapped for cash.
Regents also had to break out the thesaurus on their polices, swapping words like “diversity” for “differentiation” to keep the Trump administration happy.
Plus, a jaw-dropping confirmation hearing, vetoed bills, strange press conferences, more budget cuts to schools and budget documents from the Legislature.
And the coolest kids in Arizona are hanging with the governor.
Sign up for the weekly Education Agenda, delivered every Wednesday — even during summer break.
Water is wet, right?
That’s one of the few fundamentals that all sides can agree on.
But sometimes it’s not. And, no, we’re not talking about ice.
In this week’s Water Agenda, we’re talking about “paper water” — the marketplace of buying and selling the rights to water across Arizona.
Sometimes it’s developers buying water rights so they can build new housing. Sometimes it’s a person trying to turn a profit. And sometimes, it’s the city of Tucson for reasons they refuse to disclose.
We dive into the mystery water auction in Tucson, and the weird world of water sales in Arizona.
And get to know old friend / new Water Agenda reporter Arren Kimbel-Sannit. Welcome aboard, Arren!
Plus, the big annual water conference in the Rockies was … less big. We’re past peak snowpack. And aquifers without borders.
For all that and more, sign up for the Water Agenda today.
In case you missed it, Nicole has been pulling overtime on budget reporting duty this week.
On Wednesday, she told you about the leaked documents previewing the budget, and she gave you more political context on Thursday.
That work led a bipartisan duo of lawmakers to cite us at yesterday’s budget hearings.
“This is supposed to be a group project, as the Arizona Agenda has said,” Democratic Rep. Kevin Volk told his colleagues. “As a teacher looking at this very rough draft, I would say you did not understand the assignment for this group project, and I’m concerned you did not take this assignment seriously by taking numerous breaks and delays paid for by Arizona taxpayers.”
“In fact, the Arizona Agenda has mentioned that there isn't some grand bargain going on with (Senate Democrats). They want to take a look at the whole package,” Republican Rep. Matt Gress said at yesterday’s budget hearing. “And in fact, the OSPB director Ben Henderson, threatened the Senate Democrats to say, ‘You better get on board, or else you're not going to have a seat at the table.’”
We haven’t felt so seen since Republican Sen. John Kavanagh tried to ruin our street cred by telling his colleagues in a committee hearing that “My thoughts were really summed up this morning in an online news publication called the Arizona Agenda, which I think we can all agree is not a conservative or Republican publication.”
He then proceeded to read that day’s edition out loud for several minutes.
I hereby green-light any and all lab experiments on Gosar, Crane, and Hamadeh. Leave the fetal pigs alone. The budget mess will just get worse because Republicans can't govern. Midterms next year...vote them out.
Given the extensive quotes, it seems as if you may be having a prob attracting subscribers to the other agendas, so a marketing idea possibility..A package of all the agendas/AA,AI,WA,EA for 'X' dollars a year to run for the first two weeks of July.Independence from ignorance month! Or if already a subscriber to AA and/or TA, maybe a 3 agenda package for a cheap deal. It might get the free subscribers to the other 3 agenda off their duff-like me-to fork over some geetus