Hunter’s Baby Mama was Actually on the Payroll

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Until Hunter took her off the payroll and canceled her health insurance after the baby was born….

The former stripper who bore Hunter Biden’s out-of-wedlock child — and who he claims that he has no memory of meeting — was on his consulting firm’s payroll during her pregnancy, text messages retrieved from his laptop reveal.

And the first son made sure she was booted off the company insurance plan months after she gave birth, according to the texts.

The messages, which are contained on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, shed new light on the relationship between him and Lunden Roberts, who gave birth to their daughter Navy Joan Roberts in August of 2018, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Roberts messaged Biden on July 24 of that year to let him know that their child’s due date was Sept. 8. (“Amoeba DD Sep 8, 2018 All Good,” she wrote.), the Mail reported. The message received no response from Hunter.

Fifteen days later, on Aug. 8, Roberts messaged him again.

“Reached out a few times, it’s clear you don’t want to be reached,” she wrote. “Need to talk to you. If you feel the need to reach out, my line is always open. Hope all is well.”

Again, Biden did not respond. Screenshots taken by the Mail showed that message appeared four times, though it’s not clear whether Roberts actually sent the message four times.

That December, Hunter Biden messaged assistant Katie Dodge asking for information about his firm, Rosemont Seneca.

“And just for clarification who is pay roll paid to now and for past nine months?” he asked, adding in subsequent messages, “So when you took what’s her name off and re directed her income did it also End my insurance.”

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“Past nine months has been you, me, Lunden, Hallie, Liz & Erin,” Dodge responded. “But currently only you me & Erin.”

Dodge later reassured Hunter: “No, Lunden’s removal doesn’t jeopardize insurance.”

Roberts slapped Hunter Biden with a paternity suit in May 2019. The suit was settled in March of last year with Biden agreeing to pay an undisclosed monthly sum in child support and health insurance premiums. More here from the NY Post

*** Hunter Biden subpoena seeks info on Burisma, other entities source

Related reading: Dem Lobbyists Under Investigation over Work for Hunter Biden Linked Ukrainian Energy Firm

There is more actually and this deals with Hunter’s salary. It was cut in half because dad was no longer Vice President…..

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter had his salary cut by the Ukrainian energy company that put him on their board while Joe served as President Barack Obama’s vice president — just two months after the end of the Obama administration.

A new book from New York Post columnist Miranda Devine includes an email sent to Hunter on March 19, 2017 — two months after President Donald Trump was inaugurated — that asked the younger Biden to sign a new director’s agreement. The email, sent by Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi, stated that “the only thing that was amended is the compensation rate.”

“We are very much interested in working closely together, and the remuneration is still the highest in the company and higher than the standard director’s monthly fees. I am sure you will find it both fair and reasonable,” the email said.

Prior to the email, while Joe Biden was vice president, Hunter was paid $83,333 a month to sit on Burisma’s board. After the new agreement was signed, his compensation was slashed by half, to $41,500. To be sure, still an exorbitant monthly sum for someone with no qualifications to sit on the board, but far less than the $1 million-a-year salary he was commanding.

The email, published by the Post, contains no documented reason for the pay cut. As Devine wrote, the “only change in circumstance appears to be that Hunter’s father was no longer in office.” Hat tip to The Daily Wire.

Hunter resigned from the board in April 2019 when his continued employment caused headaches for Joe’s presidential campaign.

Devine added that this email, as well as invoices and other emails, were included on the damaged laptop obtained by the Post ahead of the 2020 election. The Post reported on the contents of the laptop, but the story was suppressed by social media platforms and the mainstream media.

America First Must Build a New Shipping Canal for the Supply Chain

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Since 2020 up to now, we in America have suffered through supply chain shortages adding in the matter of ransomware of the Colonial pipeline and now the largest meat processor.

A cyberattack on JBS, the largest meat producer in the world, forced the shutdown of American slaughterhouses, and the closures may be spreading. JBS’s five biggest beef plants in the U.S. halted processing following the weekend attack, equal to one-fifth of all of America’s meat production. Slaughter operations across Australia were also down and one of Canada’s largest beef plants was idled. The prospect of more extensive shutdowns is upending agricultural markets and raising concern about food security as hackers increasingly target critical infrastructure. Livestock futures slumped while pork prices rose. JBS told the White House that the cyberattack, like several previous ransomware assaults, probably originated in Russia.

There are shortages of chicken, chlorine, flour, lumber, computer chips, rare earth minerals like cobalt, rental cars, palm oil, truck drivers, diapers and appliances to list a few. Just imagine the impact of pharmaceuticals via China.

Consider the supply chain dangers if sea shipping was slowed or stopped. Consider the Panama Canal. Why worry?

China is the short answer. And China hates the United States.

In part:

Beijing is currently the second or third largest trading partner with the countries of Central America.  Chinese investment in Central America is present in infrastructure projects in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, and there are plans for further investment in El Salvador and Guatemala.  Excluding a contemplated US $50 billion dollars in a canal project in Nicaragua, Chinese investment in Central American infrastructure has totaled approximately US $2 billion thus far.

In a further demonstration of growing ties between the PRC and the countries of Central America, Costa Rica, Panama, and El Salvador have each broken relations with Taiwan to establish diplomatic ties with China.  Other countries in the region could soon follow suit.

Panamanian “Panda Bonds”

Sino-Central American investment is being actively pursued in Panama.  The country is one of the nations in Latin America that is part of an ambitious program that Beijing has undertaken in the region.

The PRC’s “Silk Road” initiative is a trading and infrastructure plan that aims to connect Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America in the same way that the trade route existed during ancient times.  In addition to this initiative, further Chinese investment in Central America will result from the Panamanian government’s issuance of US $500 million of “Panda Bonds” in 2018.  Panda Bonds are Chinese renminbi-denominated bonds from a non-Chinese issuer that are sold into the Chinese market.  Panama issued them in order to take advantage of China’s lower borrowing costs.

***

China’s advancement in Central America dates back to 2007, when Costa Rica became the first Central American country to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing. Since then, economic relations between both countries have developed, helping to promote China’s regional brand. Economically, China has presented itself as an attractive partner. In 2008, China purchased Costa Rican bonds in excess of $300m, offered the country aid worth $130m, and funded the $105m construction of the Estadio Nacional. Meanwhile, on March 2 Chinese state media claimed that China will finance the expansion of a highway connecting Costa Rica and the Caribbean.

Chinese activity in Costa Rica is not limited to finance. In terms of culture, students at the University of Costa Rica can study Chinese and enrol in Chinese cultural programmes. The Chinese government has also promoted the development of Chinatown in San José, Costa Rica’s capital.

What is the solution?

America First should consider mobilizing a real infrastructure operation that would build a new shipping canal that would be technologically more advances and handle larger ships. Where to put it? Nicaragua.

Really? Yes, beat China at their own game and do it fast. The Nicaragua Canal was proposed and backed by Chinese investors and was to be completed in 2020 at an estimated cost of $50 billion.

Nicaragua Canal Proposed Routes

Can you see the natural location for such a shipping canal?

This would also stabilized Latin American countries with economic space and stem the immigration chaos. This time, don’t give the canal away either. The cost? Perhaps a mere $15 billion and these days that is much less than the Biden administration budget has proposed to spend…that pesky $6 trillion.

Has China placed some military operatives in Latin America to protect Chinese investments otherwise known as debt trapping? Seems a legit question especially when the left-leaning think tank Foreign Policy Magazine explains the context just as recently in June of 2020.

Furthermore, Iranian warships are headed to Venezuela with 7 high speed missile boats on board. Additionally, China continues to make plays in the energy sector in Cuba. More debt trapping? Yes.

The America First Policy Institute needs to do some immediate forecasts for national security reasons. The AFPI, which holds a stellar staff list has one particular section called ‘Center for New Frontiers’.

America was not founded to restore an imagined past, but to move its people into a bright and brilliant future. In this first half of the twenty-first century, the United States stands on the precipice of an array of extraordinary possibilities. Dreams from our yesterdays — interplanetary travel, autonomous vehicles, subterranean transit systems, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, organ regeneration, extraordinary new power sources, and beyond — are poised to enter our tomorrows. The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) will research and develop policies that nurture America’s experimental spirit.

A new infrastructure plan such as a shipping canal is just the cure for future supply chain protections and stabilizing countries in our own hemisphere when other key industries and manufacturing must relocate to either or both Central America and back to the United States.

Fauci Lands Book Deal, What about Wuhan?

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Dr. Anthony Fauci landed a book deal and will be the subject of a documentary featuring his work during the COVID-19 pandemic despite his constant flip-flopping on virus-related topics such as prolonged lockdowns, school reopenings, and the origins of the coronavirus.

“Expect the Unexpected: Ten Lessons on Truth, Service, and the Way Forward,” the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director’s book, will be published by National Geographic Books and available to the public by as early as November 2.

“In his own words, world-renowned infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci shares the lessons that have shaped his life philosophy, offering an intimate view of one of the world’s greatest medical minds as well as universal advice to live by,” the book description on Amazon reads. More book details here.

Dr. Fauci is the highest paid government employee and frankly should be prosecuted that is before he is fired.

*** Fauci said he tested negative for coronavirus Saturday ...

Related reading:

In a newly resurfaced paper from 2012, Dr. Anthony Fauci argued that the benefits of gain-of-function research are worth the increased risk of a potential pandemic-causing lab accident.

The Weekend Australian unearthed a paper Fauci wrote for the American Society for Microbiology in October 2012 in which he argued in support of gain-of-function research. Such research involves making viruses more infectious and/or deadly. Experts have raised the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic could have originated from a potential lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, where gain-of-function experiments on bat coronaviruses have been conducted.

***

Here is a tip sheet for the gigantic number of questions that still need to be asked about the China virus.

Since we don’t trust U.S. media sources and rightly so, it is prudent to go elsewhere in the world and learn what other experts know. Additionally, it is important to add in other U.S. agencies that have a conduit to all things China virus.

Consider the following below:

  1. How about USAID?

    PREDICT is enabling global surveillance for pathogens that can spillover from animal hosts to people by building capacities to detect and discover viruses of pandemic potential. The project is part of USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats program and is led by the UC Davis One Health Intitute.

    PREDICT was initiated in 2009 to strengthen global capacity for detection and discovery of viruses with pandemic potential that can move between animals and people. Those include coronaviruses, the family to which SARS and MERS belong; paramyxoviruses, like Nipah virus; influenza viruses; and filoviruses, like the ebolavirus.

    Working with partners in over 30 countries, the project is investigating the behaviors, practices and ecological and biological factors driving disease emergence, transmission and spread using the One Health approach.

    Through these efforts, PREDICT has improved global disease recognition and has developed strategies and policy recommendations to minimize pandemic risk. Read more here.

  2. From a media source in India in part:This research paper has been published by a newspaper in Australia. It has been said that the discussion of using the coronavirus as a biological weapon started in China in 2015 itself. At that time, scientists of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and senior health officials in China had prepared a research paper, titled “The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bio-weapons”.

    This means that in the year 2019, when the first case of coronavirus came to light in the city of Wuhan, China, a research paper was already prepared 4 years before that and it was prepared by the Chinese army scientists and senior health officers. More details here.

  3. How about a media source from Taiwan?TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Amid concerns about the safety and efficacy of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine, the history of the company’s lab in Wuhan has raised suspicions among biowarfare experts, the U.S. government, and the Taiwanese military over whether it continues to serve as a dual-use biological warfare (BW) facility for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

    In 1993 and again in 1995, China declared the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products (WIBP), the hub of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine development, to be one of eight dual-use BW research facilities under its “national defensive biological warfare R&D program.” Although China has denied having an “offensive” biological warfare program since signing the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), also known as the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), in 1984, the U.S. State Department in 2005 alleged that “China maintains some elements of an offensive [biological weapon] capability in violation of its BTWC obligations” and repeated the same charges in 2010, 2012, and 2014. The .pdf summary is found here –> https://idsa.in/system/files/jds/jds_9_2_2015_DanyShoham.pdf

  4. How about British Intelligence?The former head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Sir Richard Dearlove, said that the question of a lab leak has become an “intelligence issue” in which British spies may need to “incentivise” defectors within the communist country to come forward and reveal the truth of the origin of the Wuhan virus.

    A senior Whitehall security source told the Daily Telegraph — a newspaper with close ties to the ruling Conservative government — that British intelligence investigators are working alongside their American counterparts to uncover the real origin of the pandemic.

    “We are contributing what intelligence we have on Wuhan, as well as offering to help the American to corroborate and analyse any intelligence they have that we can assist with,” said the source.

    “What is required to establish the truth behind the coronavirus outbreak is well-sourced intelligence rather than informed analysis, and that is difficult to come by.”

    Sir Richard Dearlove, who has been a vocal proponent of the idea that the virus emanated from the Wuhan laboratory, said that many scientists refrained from backing the idea out of fear of appearing to side with former President Donald Trump. source

  5. How about Ft. Detrick? That is the location for the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, which by the way is under the supervision of DHS…  NBACC’s 160,000 square-foot facility and 51,927 square feet of lab space includes two centers: the National Bioforensic Analysis Center (NBFAC), which conducts technical analyses in support of federal law enforcement investigations, and the National Biological Threat Characterization Center, which conducts experiments and studies to better understand biological vulnerabilities and hazards. NBACC is committed to maintaining a culture of safety. Its fully accredited, state-of-the-art lab facilities are at the biosafety levels (BSL) 2, 3, and 4, providing the highest standards of safety and experimental capability available. Its BSL-4 accreditation allows NBACC to perform R&D on pathogens for which no vaccine or treatment exists and makes it one of seven such facilities in the United States. NBACC is a partner in the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research at Fort Detrick. This consortium includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration; National Cancer Institute; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Integrated Research Facility; Naval Medical Research Center Biological Defense Research Directorate; U.S. Army Installation Management Command; U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command; U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases; and U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit. As an interagency partner, NBACC coordinates a range of scientific, technical, operational, and infrastructure-related activities that enhance scientific collaboration and productivity. The fact sheet is here.
  6. We have forgotten the Chinese scientists and other operatives working at U.S. universities or other American agencies. Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases
  7. Anyone asking questions of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana? NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana, produced images of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, previously known as 2019-nCoV) on its scanning and transmission electron microscopes on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19 disease, which has grown to be a global public health emergency since cases were first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. RML investigator Emmie de Wit, Ph.D., provided the virus samples as part of her studies, microscopist Elizabeth Fischer produced the images, and the RML visual medical arts office digitally colorized the images.
  8. There is the University of Texas, the University of Alabama and last but not least the University of California at Irvine.

There are likely around thousands that know more but they remain silent. Why?

 

SolarWinds Strikes Again and Again

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Primer: The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) only held one meeting on SolarWinds and none related to the  DarkSide both of which have caused major interruptions in the supply chain and national security. It was last February that the committee hosted a session via WebEx with a few witnesses of which nothing was determined or solved.

The cyberattackers responsible for the SolarWinds hack targeted U.S. organizations again last week, Microsoft said.

The Russian hackers that U.S. intelligence says are behind the SolarWinds breach that previously compromised government networks went last week after government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organizations, said Microsoft Corporate Vice President Tom Burt.

“This wave of attacks targeted approximately 3,000 email accounts at more than 150 different organizations,” Mr. Burt wrote on Microsoft’s blog. “While organizations in the United States received the largest share of attacks, targeted victims span at least 24 countries. At least a quarter of the targeted organizations were involved in international development, humanitarian and human rights work.” More here.

***

Solarwinds Management Tools - Full Control Networks source details

New details are emerging from a cyberattack that hit about 3,000 email accounts and 150 government agencies and think tanks spanning 24 countries, including the U.S., this week.

Microsoft on Thursday evening announced that Nobelium, a Russian group of threat actors that targetted software company SolarWinds in 2020 as part of a months-long hacking campaign, recently attacked more U.S. and foreign government agencies using an email marketing account of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

USAID is aware of the attack, and a “forensic investigation into this security incident is ongoing,” USAID acting spokesperson Pooja Jhunjhunwala said in a statement to FOX Business. “USAID has notified and is working with all appropriate Federal authorities, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA),” Jhunjhunwala said.

***

Source: The revelation caused a stir, highlighting as it did Russia’s ongoing and inveterate digital espionage campaigns. But it should be no shock at all that Russia, in general, and the SolarWinds hackers in particular, have continued to spy even after the US imposed retaliatory sanctions in April. And relative to SolarWinds, a phishing campaign seems downright ordinary.

“I don’t think it’s an escalation; I think it’s business as usual,” says John Hultquist, vice president of intelligence analysis at the security firm FireEye, which first discovered the SolarWinds intrusions. “I don’t think they’re deterred, and I don’t think they’re likely to be deterred.”

Russia’s latest campaign is certainly worth calling out. Nobelium compromised legitimate accounts from the bulk email service Constant Contact, including that of the United States Agency for International Development. From there the hackers, reportedly members of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency, could send out specially crafted spearphishing emails that genuinely came from the email accounts of the organization they were impersonating. The emails included legitimate links that then redirected to malicious Nobelium infrastructure and installed malware to take control of target devices.

While the number of targets seems large, and USAID works with plenty of people in sensitive positions, the actual impact may not be quite as severe as it first sounds. While Microsoft acknowledges that some messages may have gotten through, the company says that automated spam systems blocked many of the phishing messages. Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, Tom Burt, wrote in a blog post on Thursday that the company views the activity as “sophisticated” and that Nobelium evolved and refined its strategy for the campaign for months leading up to this week’s targeting.

“It is likely that these observations represent changes in the actor’s tradecraft and possible experimentation following widespread disclosures of previous incidents,” Burt wrote. In other words, this could be a pivot after their SolarWinds cover was blown.

But the tactics in this latest phishing campaign also reflect Nobelium’s general practice of establishing access on one system or account and then using it to gain access to others and leapfrog to numerous targets. It’s a spy agency; this is what it does as a matter of course.

“If this happened pre-SolarWinds we wouldn’t have thought anything about it. It’s only the context of SolarWinds that makes us see it differently,” says Jason Healey, a former Bush White House staffer and current cyberconflict researcher at Columbia University. “Let’s say this incident happens in 2019 or 2020, I don’t think anyone is going to blink an eye at this.”

As Microsoft points out, there’s also nothing unexpected about Russian spies, and Nobelium in particular, targeting government agencies, USAID in particular, NGOs, think tanks, research groups, or military and IT service contractors.

“NGOs and DC think tanks have been high-value soft targets for decades,” says one former Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity consultant. “And it’s an open secret in the incident response world that USAID and the State Department are a mess of unaccountable, subcontracted IT networks and infrastructure. In the past, some of those systems were compromised for years.“

Especially compared to the scope and sophistication of the SolarWinds breach, a widespread phishing campaign feels almost like a downshift. It’s also important to remember that the impacts of SolarWinds remain ongoing; even after months of publicity about the incident, it’s likely that Nobelium still haunts at least some of the systems it compromised during that effort.

“I’m sure that they’ve still got accesses in some places from the SolarWinds campaign,” FireEye’s Hultquist says. “The main thrust of the activity has been diminished, but they’re very likely lingering on in several places.”

Which is just the reality of digital espionage. It doesn’t stop and start based on public shaming. Nobelium’s activity is certainly unwelcome, but it doesn’t in itself portend some great escalation.

 

Biden’s Connection to no-bid Contract for Endeavor

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Hat tip: On January 20th, 2021, the very day President Joe Biden took the oath of office, Endeavors put out a news release announcing the hiring of Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, a former Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official who also served as a Biden transition advisor on Homeland Security issues.

“This is a no-bid contract, and those should be used in only the most extraordinary circumstances,” said Tom Jones of the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative-leaning watchdog organization.

Andrew Lorenzen-Strait landed his job at Endeavors (formerly Family Endeavors) in January straight off the Biden transition team following a stint with one regional Lutheran refugee contractor, and a little over six months at LIRS, the national organization.

He had spent years in the federal government, at ICE in fact, before hitting on this likely lucrative gig.

FranchiseBlast works with nonprofit Endeavors to enhance ...

EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s office is evaluating a multi-million dollar contract awarded to a Texas company that employs a former Biden transition official, multiple sources with the probe confirm to Fox News.

A DHS IG official tells Fox News the contract, with the San Antonio-based nonprofit Endeavors, is the subject of an ongoing evaluation to look at how “ICE plans to house migrant families in hotels, and how ICE selected a contractor to implement these plans.” The Formal title of the probe is, “ICE’s Contract to House Migrants in Hotels.”

Tens of thousands of migrants are crossing the southern border every month, with nearly 180,000 encountered by Customs and Border Patrol along the Southwestern Border in April 2021.

Thousands of those migrants are now being housed in hotels, thanks to Endeavors. The company recently landed a couple of massive government contracts worth upwards of a half-billion dollars.

On January 20th, 2021, the very day President Joe Biden took the oath of office, Endeavors put out a news release announcing the hiring of Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, a former Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official who also served as a Biden transition advisor on Homeland Security issues.

STEPHEN MILLER CALLS OUT BIDEN FOR $87M MIGRANT HOTEL CONTRACT: THIS ‘LOOKS CORRUPT’

Less than two months after Lorenzen-Strait’s arrival, federal records show endeavors entered into a no-bid contract with the Department of Health and Human Services for up to $579 million and another no-bid with Homeland Security for $87 million.

“This is a no-bid contract, and those should be used in only the most extraordinary circumstances,” said Tom Jones of the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative-leaning watchdog organization. “It’s typical and it’s terrible. Both sides do it. It’s why we have a massive budget deficit and a debt going through the roof…There’s scumminess and swampiness on both sides of this but we need to root that out.”

Endeavors declined to answer questions about the contracts but in a statement to Fox News called Lorenzen-Strait “a valued leader on the Endeavors team. He is a recognized expert in migrant child and family welfare who consulted with a variety of for-profit and nonprofit organizations after he left his career in federal government in May 2019”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to answer our specific questions about the scope of its contract with Endeavors but wrote: “The border is not open, and individuals continue to be expelled under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) public health authority. The families that come into ICE custody will be housed in a manner consistent with legal requirements for the safety and well-being of children and their parents or guardians.”

The Republicans on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra over concerns about the no-bid nature of the contract, for Endeavors, which is sometimes referred to as Family Endeavors.