Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a disaster emergency over the Potomac sewage spill on Wednesday and requested federal assistance with the cleanup.

The sewage spill has now become the largest in U.S. history, dumping over 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. President Donald Trump has already lashed out at Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for his handling of the spill, saying he is concerned the river winding around the nation’s capital will still stink when America250 celebrations kick off this summer.

Bowser wrote a letter to Trump on Wednesday formally requesting that he issue an emergency disaster declaration, freeing up federal resources to help deal with the spill.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized Trump’s concerns in a press conference on Wednesday. Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Leavitt if Trump is concerned the nation’s capital will «smell like poop.»

TRUMP EPA SLASHES 12 YEARS OFF SEWAGE CLEANUP CRISIS THAT HAS ROCKED CALIFORNIA FOR DECADES

«Yeah, he is worried about that,» Leavitt said. «Which is why the federal government wants to fix it. And we hope that the local authorities will cooperate with us in doing so.»

Leavitt called on leaders in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. to «step forward and to ask the federal government for help and to ask for the Stafford Act to be implemented here so that the federal government can go and take control of this local infrastructure that has been abandoned and neglected by Governor Moore in Maryland for far too long.»

«It’s no secret that Maryland’s water and infrastructure have been in dire need of repair,» Leavitt said. «Their infrastructure has received a nearly failing grade in the 2025 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers. This is the same grade they’ve received, five years earlier. There has been no improvement under the leadership of Governor Moore. He’s clearly shown he’s incapable of fixing this problem, which is why President Trump and the federal government are standing by to step in.»

TRUMP SAYS HE COULD SEND THE NATIONAL GUARD TO MARYLAND TO ADDRESS CRIME

 Repair work continues on the broken section of the Potomac Interceptor, a six-foot-wide sewage pipe that collapsed on January 19, in between the Clara Barton Parkway and the C&O Canal on Feb. 16, 2026 in Cabin John, Maryland (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Moore’s office has pushed back on the administration’s rhetoric surrounding the leak, claiming the federal government has oversight over DC Water, the District’s water and sewer utility. 

«Since the last century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor, which is the origin of the sewage leak. For the last four weeks, the Trump Administration has failed to act, shirking its responsibility and putting people’s health at risk,» a representative from Moore’s office said on Monday. «Notably, the president’s own EPA explicitly refused to participate in the major legislative hearing about the cleanup last Friday.»

Leavitt continued Wednesday that environmentalists should «pray» that local jurisdictions call on Trump to step in and shore up infrastructure and carry out clean up.

President Donald Trump is worried the Potomac River will still stink when America250 celebrations kick off this summer following a sewage leak that dumped millions of gallons of raw filth into the river, according to the White House.  (Saul Loeb/Getty Images/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images)

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«For all of the environmentalists in the room and across the District of Columbia, let’s all hope and pray that this governor does the right thing and ask President Trump to get involved, because it will be an ecological and environmental disaster if the federal government does not step in to help,» she said. «But of course, we need the state and local jurisdictions to make that formal request.»

Read Bowser’s letter to Trump below (App users click here)

Tras las destituciones de Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) y Dina Boluarte (2022-2025), quienes fueron elegidos por votación popular, José María Balcázar fue elegido como nuevo presidente interino del Perú. Su nombramiento se produjo luego de dos votaciones en el Congreso.

Balcázar ganó la segunda elección con 64 votos, un número mayor al que logró acumular María del Carmen Alva, quien sumó 46 y era vista como la favorita. Reemplazará a José Jerí, quien había asumido tras la destitución de Dina Boluarte en octubre pasado y quien fue desplazado de su posición este martes.

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José María Balcázar: su trayectoria, carrera legislativa y escándalos

Balcázar es un abogado, exmagistrado de la Corte Suprema de Justicia y actual congresista por Lambayeque, una región ubicada en la costa norte del país. Tiene 83 años y fue presentado en esta elección por la agrupación Perú Libre, aunque la dejó en 2022. Su salida se produjo junto con otros 9 miembros del bloque luego de una interna.

De acuerdo con distintos medios de comunicación locales, Balcázar es visto como un hombre cercano a Vladimir Cerrón, fundador del partido Perú Libre, que fue condenado por corrupción y en la actualidad está prófugo de la justicia. La carrera parlamentaria del ahora presidente interino comenzó en 2021, como candidato al Congreso por parte del partido mencionado.

Balcázar se graduó como abogado en la Universidad de Trujillo en 1972. En 2005, recibió el grado de Doctor en Derecho y Ciencia Política por la Universidad Pedro Ruiz Gallo. Además de su formación académica, también ejerció la docencia desde 1977. Sin embargo, ha estado relacionado con algunos escándalos. Uno de los más sonados fue su expulsión del Colegio de Abogados de Lambayeque, bajo la sospecha de presunta apropiación de fondos.

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En la actualidad, atraviesa una denuncia constitucional. Esta se basa en la sospecha de estar involucrado en un presunto intercambio de favores con Patricia Benavides, una exfiscal del país. Balcázar es señalado por haber acordado con Benavides votos parlamentarios para que archivara distintos procesos penales en su contra en Lambayeque. Al igual que José Jerí, a quien Balcázar sustituye, la figura del presidente interino en Perú vuelve a estar rodeada de polémica.

Las primeras palabras de José María Balcázar, presidente interino de Perú

Balcázar juró como presidente interino de Perú durante la madrugada de la Argentina. Tras el acto, ofreció un discurso en el que abordó dos de los temas que han estado en la agenda política del Perú en los últimos meses.

El nuevo presidente interino tendrá cinco meses de gestión antes de entregar el poder al próximo presidente electo por votación popular. Ante el Congreso, dijo que asumía “para hacer y reescribir este nuevo Parlamento. Sí es posible construir una nueva democracia, una de verdad. No está funcionando. Si no tiene sus correctivos, va a desaparecer”.

Las dos principales bases de su discurso fueron la transparencia electoral de las próximas elecciones y atender la seguridad. Balcázar dijo que quiere “garantizar que va a haber una transición política y electoral pacífica y transparente” y que aspira a “mantener una pacificación de verdad y que tengamos ministerios aptos para echarle diente a la inseguridad”.

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“En un solo mes podemos hacer muchas cosas. Es solo cuestión de ponerse a trabajar”, dijo Balcázar. Luego, agregó: “No es difícil gobernar a un país. ¿Quién dijo que es difícil? Busquemos a la gente más lúcida, que la tenemos en los partidos políticos, en el Congreso”.

Además de esto, indicó que trabajaría de cerca con el Congreso. “Sin diálogo no hay nada”, dijo. En un encuentro con la prensa, también se refirió de forma breve a la situación económica del país. “La línea macroeconómica del Perú la vamos a mantener. No podemos dar saltos en esa materia”, dijo. En relación con potenciales cambios en el gabinete de ministros, no señaló a ninguno. Aunque señaló que harían una evaluación “para ver quiénes están cumpliendo”.

As Democrats continue to withhold funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), former agency leaders argue their demands for new guardrails would mark the most direct congressional intervention in the agency’s operations — a turn for a post-9/11 agency that has largely defined its own operations.

John Sandweg, a former acting director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a former general counsel for DHS, said Congress has occasionally given ICE instruction but stayed away from managing its operations.

«There had been some congressional mandates, some of them through appropriations, some through authorizing statutes that compelled the creation of this system,» Sandweg said.

Sarah Saldaña, former director of ICE from 2014 to 2017, believes it’s unusual for Congress to get into the weeds of how any agency carries out its mission.

FETTERMAN BUCKS DEMOCRATS, SAYS PARTY PUT POLITICS OVER COUNTRY IN DHS SHUTDOWN STANDOFF

«Congress has a legitimate role in oversight in the expenditure of any taxpayer funds, including ICE’s expenditure, whether it’s proper or not. It has nothing to do with dictating specific operations or tactics,» Saldaña said, while noting she’s not surprised by the attention the agency’s recent tactics have received from lawmakers.

«But Congress doesn’t operate anything. They pass statutes.»

ICE’s operational autonomy has led to its enforcement to look different through the years since its founding in 2003. Especially at its outset, this allowed the agency to wander from its focus, according to Sandweg. But it’s also that flexibility that he believes has allowed President Donald Trump to aggressively push its immigration enforcement operations.

In response to Trump’s ICE crackdown and two deadly encounters between immigration enforcement and civilians, Democrat demands include an end to roving patrols, a ban on mask use and visible identification for agents.

Democrats say they won’t vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes ICE, until those changes are made.

DHS funding lapsed at the end of last week.

ICE originally stemmed from the Homeland Security Act of 2002 — the bill that created DHS as a whole in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Although the agency and its operations were new, the laws ICE was tasked with enforcing had been on the books long before that.

«We’re statutory,» Saldaña said. «We were created after September 11th as a part of all that confusion with respect to intelligence regarding the visa overstays that ended up blowing up the World Trade Center.»

That law charged DHS with assuming many of the country’s existing immigration functions: the Border Patrol program, detention and removal, intelligence, investigations and inspections. But it also came without any operational framework and didn’t even mention ICE by name.

DHS FUNDING BILL FAILS AFTER SCHUMER REJECTS TRUMP’S ICE REFORM OFFER

Smoke pours from the twin towers of the World Trade Center after they were hit by two hijacked airliners in a terrorist attack September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Robert Giroux/Getty Images)

In 2004 spending legislation, lawmakers gave the agency $2.1 billion in funding along with its first congressional directives.

ICE was told to set aside $100,000 for public awareness of a child pornography tipline, $500,000 for reimbursing other federal agencies and their work on recovering smuggled illegal aliens, $3 million for enforcing laws against child labor and a handful of other instructions.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative immigration policy group, explained that ICE officials back then wanted to stay clear of immigration enforcement.

«They wanted to devote resources to child sex trafficking and counterfeit goods and gangs and things like that while not doing routine immigration enforcement,» Vaughan said.

«The ex-customs people in charge, they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re not doing this immigration stuff anymore.’ They wanted to do stuff that was not as politically sensitive,» she said.

Sandweg agreed and described the culture as a kind of internal conflict that stretched into the Obama years.

«It was a bit of a culture war, right?» Sandweg said. «Is it going to be more of this immigration-focused stuff, looking at worksite enforcement and employers who might be cheating? Or is it gonna be more investigating banks for not having adequate money laundering controls and things like that?»

«That second culture took over, the customs culture,» Sandweg recalled.

However, Saldaña disagrees that the agency really ever had another focus other than immigration enforcement.

«There’s always been a clear mandate,» Saldaña said.

«Now, every administration has its own enforcement priorities, which it’s entitled to do. And so there will be memos, executive orders, et cetera, et cetera to shape the mission,» she added.

But it was a frustration with ICE’s operations that eventually got Congress a little more involved.

SHUTDOWN CLOCK TICKS AS SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS DIG IN ON DHS FUNDING DEMANDS

Capitol Hill, left, pictured next to ICE agents, right. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images; Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Frustrated with the lack of enforcement, lawmakers began filling in some of the blanks of what they wanted to see. In 2009, for instance, Congress passed a mandate that ICE had to accommodate no fewer than 34,000 beds for detainees when lawmakers grew concerned the agency was releasing too many people.

In Vaughan’s view, the agency has only recently been asked to flex its muscles to pursue its original goal.

«There has never been a president before Donald Trump who openly valued the immigration enforcement mission as much as he does,» Vaughan said. «There’s no question that ICE has been allowed to do its job the way Congress wrote the laws for them to be able to do it. And they have not had that kind of support and backing before.»

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For now, portions of DHS remain unfunded as lawmakers wrestle over the 10 Democratic demands.

ICE itself, which received $75 billion in funding when Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law in July, is continuing operations in the midst of the government shutdown.