Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has put forth legislation amending the International Bridge Act of 1972 that would ​​expedite the presidential permitting process for all international bridges and land ports of entry.

The bipartisan bill from Cruz and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., will expand on legislation previously written by Cruz and passed into law that streamlined permits for international bridges in Eagle Pass, Laredo and Brownsville.

The new bill will streamline all permits for international bridges and ports of entry for Mexico and Canada.

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In a news release, Cruz discussed how this new bill has been a top priority for him.

“This bill builds on and expands our success in securing presidential permits for four major international bridge projects in South Texas by streamlining the approval process for all future international bridges along the Texas–Mexico border,” Cruz said in a news release.

Cruz strongly urged his colleagues “to pass this bill so it can be sent to the President for signature.”

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Lujan said in a news release that he was proud to introduce bipartisan legislation that would deliver real investments to New Mexico.

“Ports of entry and international bridges are vital to the economic success of our border communities, supporting trade, business, and tourism,” Lujan said. “Yet, new border crossings are too often held up by the presidential permit process.”

Dr. Victor Treviño, Mayor of the City of Laredo, thanked both senators for putting this bipartisan bill together that strengthens the northern and southern border.

“This bill marks a critical step toward modernizing the development and expansion of cross-border infrastructure by bringing much-needed efficiency and predictability to the presidential permitting process—an essential reform for communities like Laredo, which continues to be on the front lines of international commerce as the #1 Port of Entry in the United States,” Trevino said in a news release.

Trevino also urged Congress to pass this bill so that President Donald Trump can sign it.

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The bill also includes a bar on future administrations from considering environmental documents, including documents created as part of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Cruz’s office for comment.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation on Monday which he said makes it “crystal clear” that only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in elections in his state.

“I just signed off on a joint resolution to make it crystal clear under the Texas Constitution that if you are not a citizen of the United States of America, you are not allowed to vote in Texas,” the governor said in a video posted to X.

Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell, a Republican, introduced Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 37 in January, and in the resolution, he proposed a constitutional amendment clarifying that voters in Texas elections must be citizens of the U.S.

Prior to the resolution, the constitution prohibited people who are under the age of 18, along with those who were determined mentally incompetent by a court or who were convicted of a felony, from voting in elections.

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But the amendment proposes adding a line to the classes of people who “shall not be allowed to vote” in Texas, which reads, “persons who are not citizens of the United States.”

Birdwell’s joint resolution was approved by the state senate in April, then by the state house in May.

Abbott signed the joint resolution on Monday, but it still has one more step. In fact, Texas citizens will have the final say in November on whether the state constitution can be ratified to include the requirement in the state constitution.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Abbott’s and Birdwell’s offices for comment.

Last month, a federal judge blocked an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that would require documentary proof of citizenship before being allowed to register to vote.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia handed down the order in response to lawsuits filed by three separate groups of plaintiffs over five different provisions in a March 25 Trump executive order relating to election integrity. While Kollar-Kotelly dismissed requests to block three of the provisions, requests to block two other provisions pertaining to a proof of citizenship requirement for voters were granted. 

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The first blocked provision sought to compel the Election Assistance Commission to amend standardized national voter registration forms to require documentary proof of citizenship. The second sought to require federal agencies offering voter registration to people on public assistance to “assess” the individual’s citizenship status before doing so.

“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections. Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would affect many of the changes the President purports to order,” Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton-appointee, wrote in her order. “No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”

Meanwhile, 25 states, including Texas, are considering some form of proof-of-citizenship legislation, according to the Voting Rights Lab, which is tracking such legislation. In total, 15 state constitutions have explicit prohibitions against non-citizen voting.

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

I didn’t recognize the “917” New York number that called me.

But there was no question about who phoned after they left a message.

The caller on the voicemail was utterly unmistakable.

They didn’t say their name.

They didn’t have to.

“Chad, you’re the only one who missed me,” croaked the voice.

FORMER NY DEMOCRATIC REP CHARLIE RANGEL DEAD AT 94

It carried the sleekness of a stone crusher working over basalt in a West Virginia quarry.

The voicemail was from the late Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y. And he was essentially calling to assure me that he wasn’t dead.

After all, I was apparently the only member of the congressional press corps who noticed that the New York Democrat hadn’t voted nor been anywhere near the U.S. Capitol in several weeks.

There was no article in Roll Call. Nothing in Politico. No statement from his office.

Rangel just wasn’t around.

So I called and wound up speaking to his communications director Hannah Kim and chief of staff George Henry.

I inquired if Rangel was all right. They assured me he was. But they didn’t quite give me the full story. That was for Rangel to do.

And then Rangel himself called — from his sickbed — so I could hear his signature jackhammer-chopping-through-the-asphalt-of-Manhattan voice to prove to this reporter he was still among the living.

“I wanted you to hear it from me,” said Rangel.

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It was 2012. Rangel was out because of a back injury and a viral infection, which made it difficult for him to stand for long periods of time. From 2008 through late 2010, I dogged Rangel through the halls of Congress on a daily basis as the veteran congressman grappled with an ethics scandal. The ethics case culminated in the House censuring Rangel, permanently smudging his record as a war hero, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

First elected to the House in 1970, Rangel’s star had dimmed after the ethics scandal. But in 2012, any information about an elderly, legendary congressman like Rangel was newsworthy. So, as a reporter on the Capitol Hill beat, I appreciated the phone call as he described the excruciating pain that beset him.

It’s possible the Ethics Committee investigation and censure by the House were more agonizing for Rangel than the back problem. Rangel was so confident that he didn’t violate House rules that he referred himself to the Ethics Committee.

Rangel started to feel the ethics heat in 2008. He used his position as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to solicit funds for a school in his name at City College of New York. He failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes or rental income on a villa he owned in the Dominican Republic. 

A rent-controlled apartment in Harlem doubled as a campaign office. He improperly parked his broken-down, 1972 silver Mercedes-Benz in the garage of the Rayburn House Office Building. The House prohibits lawmakers from using the garage for storage. The Benz lacked plates, wasn’t registered and apparently hadn’t been driven in about four years. A Falls Church, Virginia, towing company lugged the car out of the garage on Sept. 19, 2008.

Video of the tow-truck hauling away the Mercedes-Benz from Rayburn would have made a juicy story the next morning on TV. But Rangel caught a break.

Sort of.

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Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., summoned then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to Capitol Hill that night. The U.S. economy teetered on the verge of an epic financial collapse. By nightfall, it was clear just how bad the nation’s economy was. Everyone temporarily forgot about Rangel. In fact, the inoperable Benz may have been in better shape than some American car companies at that moment.

But the House Ethics Committee was investigating Rangel. An inquiry started in 2009 and culminated in his censure on the House floor in 2010. The House voted 333-79 to discipline Rangel. A somber Rangel presented himself in the well of the House chamber, hands folded in front of him as though he were about to receive Communion. Pelosi doled out her admonition from the dais and lightly rapped the gavel.

“He violated the public trust,” said then-Ethics Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

It was the first censure of a House member in 27 years.

Years later, I half-jokingly told Rangel that he could blame me for his problems with the Ethics Committee.

As stated earlier, it was Rangel who believed his actions were beyond reproach. So he sent himself before the Ethics Committee to review his conduct.

I entered the Capitol one morning in 2008 and discovered his longtime aide, Emile Milne, wandering the basement. I asked Milne what he was looking for. He waived an overstuffed envelope at me.

“The Ethics Committee,” said Milne.

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This was the actual “self-referral” to the Ethics Committee. And Milne was the courier of a dossier Rangel would use to defend himself.

I knew exactly where the Ethics Committee was located in those days in the Capitol catacombs. So I escorted Milne to the door.

As I said, I told Rangel he could blame all of his problems on me.

Between 2008 and 2010, I staked out Rangel somewhere at the Capitol nearly every day. The day Pelosi summoned him to her office. The day Pelosi removed him as Ways and Means Committee chairman. The day he spoke at length on the House floor to defend himself against the allegations after the ethics panel formalized its inquiry.

One night, a scrum of reporters caught Rangel in the hallway off the House floor and pelted him with a barrage of questions. Rangel briefly answered. Then deflected. He then decided he had enough as scribes fired questions at him with the speed of a Gatling gun.

Rangel sighed, exasperated at what to do.

“Sergeant Charles B. Rangel. 85718162!” hollered Rangel. “And that’s all I’m going to say about it!”

It’s unclear if the other reporters understood what just happened. But I did.

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Rangel served in the Army during the Korean War. He was wounded in the back by shrapnel and eventually led dozens of men out of a firefight and to safety. Multiple soldiers died, and others were taken prisoner. Rangel received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with valor.

Rangel survived that day. But back on Capitol Hill, the news cycle had effectively taken Rangel prisoner. So he complied with the terms of the Geneva Convention. A prisoner of war is only compelled to provide enemy captors their name, rank and serial number. And after absorbing heavy fire from the press corps, Rangel had only one option.

It’s notable that someone with Rangel’s military record and Army service passed away on Memorial Day.

In August 2008, Rangel published his autobiography entitled “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since.” The book chronicles how a high school dropout joined the Army and was wounded on the battlefield. Rangel chose to continue — eventually winding up in Congress as one of the most important lawmakers of the last 50 years. But Rangel then faced one of the harshest punishments Congress could dole out. It cost him his chairmanship and upended his reputation.

But Rangel was often philosophical about his fate and transgressions in Congress. He argued that despite the trouble, he still hadn’t had a bad day since that fateful battle in Kunu-ri, Korea in late 1950.

Back in 2012, I may have been the only one who noticed that Rangel was absent when he was suffering from a back issue and viral infection.

But I certainly won’t be the only one today.

President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he will pardon a former Virginia sheriff convicted of taking more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs within his department. 

In a Truth Social post, Trump said Scott Howard Jenkins, 53, of Culpeper, Virginia, was supposed to report to jail Tuesday but “instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”

Jenkins, the former sheriff of Culpeper County, was convicted last year of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. He was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison.

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In his post, Trump said the former sheriff and his wife have been “dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden” Justice Department.

“In fact, during his trial, when Sheriff Jenkins tried to offer exculpatory evidence to support himself, the Biden Judge, Robert Ballou, refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade,” Trump wrote. “As we have seen, in Federal, City, and State Courts, Radical Left or Liberal Judges allow into evidence what they feel like, not what is mandated under the Constitution and Rules of Evidence.”

“This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail,” he added. “He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’ This is why I, as President of the United States, see fit to end his unfair sentence, and grant Sheriff Jenkins a FULL and Unconditional Pardon.”

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Federal prosecutors alleged Jenkins accepted cash bribes and bribes in the form of campaign contributions from co-defendants Rick Rahim, Fredric Gumbinner and James Metcalf, as well as at least five others, including two FBI undercover agents.

In exchange, Jenkins appointed the people paying the bribes as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law-enforcement position, and issued them official Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office badges and credentials, authorities said.

None of the payers were trained or vetted and did not render any legitimate services to the sheriff’s office, prosecutors said. 

In April, Jenkins said he hoped that Trump would intervene in his case. 

“I truly believe if I could get an hour of time with someone in the administration and lay out some facts with my attorney and I really believe if they could hear the other side which I couldn’t get in front of the jury — I believe wholeheartedly in the president,” he said during a webinar hosted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. “I believe if he heard the information, I know he would help if he knew my story.”