WASHINGTON (AP) ' The House was headed toward a final vote Wednesday on a sweeping defense bill that authorizes $900 billion in military programs, including a pay raise for troops and an overhaul of how the Department of Defense buys weapons.

The vote comes at a time of increasing friction between the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trumps administration over the management of the military.

The annual National Defense Authorization Act typically gains bipartisan backing, and the White House has signaled 'strong support' for the must-pass legislation, saying it is in line with Trumps national security agenda. Yet tucked into the over-3,000-page bill are several measures that push back against the Department of Defense, including a demand for more information on boat strikes in the Caribbean and support for allies in Europe, such as Ukraine.

Overall, the sweeping bill calls for a 3.8% pay raise for many military members as well as housing and facility improvements on military bases. It also strikes a compromise between the political parties ' cutting climate and diversity efforts in line with Trumps agenda, while also boosting congressional oversight of the Pentagon and repealing several old war authorizations. Still, hard-line conservatives said they were frustrated that the bill does not do more to cut U.S. commitments overseas.

'We need a ready, capable and lethal fighting force because the threats to our nation, especially those from China, are more complex and challenging than at any point in the last 40 years,' said Rep. Mike Rogers, the GOP chair of the House Armed Services Committee.

Lawmakers overseeing the military said the bill would change how the Pentagon buys weapons, with an emphasis on speed after years of delay by the defense industry. Its also a key priority for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the armed services panel, called the bill 'the most ambitious swing at acquisition reform that weve taken.'

Smith lamented that the bill does not do as much as Democrats would like to rein in the Trump administration but called it 'a step in the right direction towards reasserting the authority of Congress.'

'The biggest concern I have is that the Pentagon, being run by Secretary Hegseth and by President Trump, is simply not accountable to Congress or accountable to the law,' he said.

The legislation next heads to the Senate, where leaders are working to pass the bill before lawmakers depart Washington for a holiday break.

Several senators on both sides of the aisle have criticized the bill for not doing enough to restrict military flights over Washington. They had pushed for reforms after a midair collision this year between an Army helicopter and a jetliner killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft near Washingtons Ronald Reagan National Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board has also voiced opposition to that section of the bill.

Heres what the defense bill does as it makes its way through Congress.

Boat strike videos and congressional oversight

Lawmakers included a provision that would cut Hegseths travel budget by a quarter until the Pentagon provides Congress with unedited video of the strikes against alleged drug boats near Venezuela. Lawmakers are asserting their oversight role after a Sept. 2 strike where the U.S. military fired on two survivors who were holding on to a boat that had partially been destroyed.

The bill also demands that Hegseth allow Congress to review the orders for the strikes.

Reaffirm commitments to Europe and Korea

Trumps ongoing support for Ukraine and other allies in Eastern Europe has been under doubt over the last year, but lawmakers included several positions meant to keep up U.S. support for countering Russian aggression in the region.

The defense bill requires the Pentagon to keep at least 76,000 troops and major equipment stationed in Europe unless NATO allies are consulted and there is a determination that such a withdrawal is in U.S. interests. Around 80,000 to 100,000 U.S. troops are usually present on European soil. It also authorizes $400 million for each of the next two years to manufacture weapons to be sent to Ukraine.

Additionally, there is a provision to keep U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, setting the minimum requirement at 28,500.

Cuts to climate and diversity initiatives

The bill makes $1.6 billion in cuts to climate change-related spending, the House Armed Services Committee said. U.S. military assessments have long found that climate change is a threat to national security, with bases being pummeled by hurricanes or routinely flooded.

The bill also would save $40 million by repealing diversity, equity and inclusion offices, programs and trainings, the committee said. The position of chief diversity officer would be cut, for example.

Iraq War resolution repeal

Congress is putting an official end to the war in Iraq by repealing the authorization for the 2003 invasion. Supporters in both the House and Senate say the repeal is crucial to prevent future abuses and to reinforce that Iraq is now a strategic partner of the U.S.

The 2002 resolution has been rarely used in recent years. But the first Trump administration cited it as part of its legal justification for a 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

Lifting final Syria sanctions

Congress would permanently remove U.S. sanctions put on Syria after the Trump administration temporarily lifted many penalties.

Lawmakers imposed economically crippling sanctions on the country in 2019 to punish former leader Bashar Assad for human rights abuses during the nearly 14-year civil war. After Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa led a successful insurgency to depose Assad, he is seeking to rebuild his nations economy.

Advocates of a permanent repeal have said international companies are unlikely to invest in projects needed for the countrys reconstruction as long as there is a threat of sanctions returning.

Lack of IVF coverage

Democrats criticized Johnson for stripping a provision from the bill to expand coverage of in vitro fertilization for active duty personnel. An earlier version covered the medical procedure, known as IVF, which helps people facing infertility have children.

In a video posted to his TikTok account, Vice President Edman Lara congratulated police forces for detaining ex-President Arce, who left office just over a month ago. He said Arce was arrested on alleged embezzlement charges, without giving further information.

A spokesperson for Lara confirmed that the vice president posted the message on his official TikTok account.

Addressing his hundreds of thousands of followers, Lara vowed Arce was just the first of many targets as the new government seeks accountability for alleged corruption at the highest levels.

'We have said it before: Luis Arce will be the first to go to jail, and we are delivering on that promise,' Lara said.

WASHINGTON (AP) ' Oil companies offered $279 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in the first of 30 sales planned for the region under Republican efforts to ramp up U.S. fossil fuel production.

The sale came after President Donald Trumps administration recently announced plans to allow new drilling off Florida and California for the first time in decades. Thats drawn pushback, including from Republicans worried about impacts to tourism.

Wednesdays sale was mandated by the sweeping tax-and-spending bill approved by Republicans over the summer. Under that legislation, companies will pay a 12.5% royalty on oil produced from the leases. Thats the lowest royalty level for deep-water drilling since 2007.

Thirty companies submitted bids, including industry giants Chevron, Shell and BP, federal officials said. The total amount of high bids was down by more than $100 million from the most recent lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, under former Democratic President Joe Biden, in December 2023.

'This sale reflects a significant step in the federal governments efforts to restore U.S. energy dominance and advance responsible offshore energy development,' said Laura Robbins, acting director of the Gulf region for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is part of the Interior Department.

The administrations promotion of fossil fuels contrasts sharply with its hostility to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind. A judge on Monday struck down an executive order from Trump blocking wind energy projects, saying it violated U.S. law.

Environmentalists said the fossil fuel sales would put wildlife in the Gulf at an higher risk of dying in oil spills. Spills occur regularly in the region and have included the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy that killed 11 workers in an oil rig explosion and unleashed a massive spill.

'The Gulf is already overwhelmed with thousands of oil rigs and pipelines, and oil companies are doing a terrible job of cleaning up after themselves,' said Rachel Matthews with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, an industry group, said the takeaway from Wednesdays sale was that the Gulf 'is open.'

While results of individual lease sales may fluctuate, Milito added, 'the real success is the resumption of a regular leasing cadence.'

The industry and Republican lawmakers had complained that the Biden administration conducted only a handful of lease sales in the Gulf ' the largest source of U.S. offshore oil production ' as it moved away from fossil fuels to address climate change.

'Knowing that (another lease sale) is coming in March 2026 allows companies to plan, study, and refine their bids, rather than being forced to respond to the uncertainty of a politically-driven multi-year pause' in leasing, Milito said.

At least two lease sales annually are mandated through 2039 and one in 2040.

Administration officials cited the new, more predictable schedule as a reason for the lower bidding by oil companies. 'They are not pressed to come in all at once,' Robbins told reporters at an online news conference.

The Gulf lease sale supports an executive order by Trump that directs federal agencies to accelerate offshore oil and gas development, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. The sale should unlock investment, strengthen U.S. energy security and create jobs, he said.

But Earthjustice attorney George Torgun said the Trump administration conducted the sale without analyzing how it would expose the entire Gulf region to oil spills, how communities could be harmed by pollution and how it could devastate vulnerable marine life such as the endangered Rices whale, which numbers only in the dozens and lives in the Gulf of Mexico.

The environmental group has asked a federal judge to ensure that the lease sale and future oil sales better protect Gulf communities.

Only a small portion of parcels offered for sale typically receive bids, in areas where companies want to expand their existing drilling activities or where they foresee future development potential. It can be years before drilling occurs.

The drilling leases sold in December 2023 and during another sale in March 2023 are held up by litigation, according to Robbins. A federal court ruled this spring that Interior officials did not adequately account for impacts to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and the Rices whale.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

Spc. Sarah Beckstroms funeral took place Tuesday at the West Virginia National Cemetery in Grafton, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said in a statement.

'The ceremony was deeply moving and reflected the strength, grace, and love of a remarkable young woman and the family and friends who surrounded her,' Morrisey said.

Beckstrom graduated with honors from Webster County High School in 2023 and joined the National Guard several weeks later. She served in the 863rd Military Police Company.

Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe were ambushed as they patrolled a subway station three blocks from the White House on Nov. 26. She died the next day.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who was also shot during the confrontation, has been charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty.

Morrisey has said Wolfe, who remains in a hospital in Washington, is slowly healing and his family expects he will be in acute care for another few weeks.

Federal health officials on Wednesday expanded an outbreak of infant botulism tied to recalled ByHeart baby formula to include all illnesses reported since the company began production in March 2022.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said investigators 'cannot rule out the possibility that contamination might have affected all ByHeart formula products' ever made.

The outbreak now includes at least 51 infants in 19 states. The new case definition includes 'any infant with botulism who was exposed to ByHeart formula at any time since the products release,' according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent illness was reported on Dec. 1.

No deaths have been reported in the outbreak, which was announced Nov. 8.

Previously, health officials had said the outbreak included 39 suspected or confirmed cases of infant botulism reported in 18 states since August. Thats when officials at Californias Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program reported a rise in treatment of infants who had consumed ByHeart formula. With the expanded definition, the CDC identified 10 additional cases that occurred from December 2023 through July 2025.

ByHeart, a New York-based manufacturer of organic infant formula founded in 2016, recalled all its products sold in the U.S. on Nov. 11. The company, which accounts for about 1% of the U.S. infant formula market, had been selling about 200,000 cans of the product each month.

News that ByHeart products could have been contaminated for years was distressing to Andi Galindo, whose 5-week-old daughter, Rowan, was hospitalized in December 2023 with infant botulism after drinking the formula. Galindo, 36, of Redondo Beach, California, said she insisted on using ByHeart formula to supplement a low supply of breast milk because it was recommended by a lactation consultant as 'very natural, very gentle, very good for the babies.'

'Thats a hard one,' Galindo said. 'If there is proof that there were issues with their manufacturing and their plant all the way back from the beginning, that is a problem and they really need to be held accountable.'

ByHeart officials did not immediately respond to questions about the expanded outbreak.

Lab tests detected contamination

The FDA sent inspectors last month to ByHeart plants in Allerton, Iowa, and Portland, Oregon, where the formula is produced and packaged. The agency has released no results from those inspections.

The company previously reported that tests by an independent laboratory showed that 36 samples from three different lots contained the type of bacteria that can cause infant botulism.

Inspection documents showed that ByHeart had a history of problems with contamination.

In 2022, the year ByHeart started making formula, the company recalled five batches of infant formula after a sample at a packaging plant tested positive for a different germ, cronobacter sakazakii. In 2023, the FDA sent a warning letter to the company detailing 'areas that still require corrective actions.'

A ByHeart plant in Reading, Pennsylvania, was shut down in 2023 just before FDA inspectors found problems with mold, water leaks and insects, inspection documents show.

Infant botulism is rare

Infant botulism is a rare disease that affects fewer than 200 babies in the U.S. each year. Its caused when infants ingest botulism bacteria that produce spores that germinate in the intestines, creating a toxin that affects the nervous system. Babies are vulnerable until about age 1 because their gut microbiomes are not mature enough to fight the toxin.

Baby formula has previously been linked to sporadic cases of illness, but no known outbreaks of infant botulism tied to powdered formula have previously been confirmed, according to research studies.

Symptoms can take up to 30 days to develop and can include constipation, poor feeding, loss of head control, drooping eyelids and a flat facial expression. Babies may feel 'floppy' and can have problems swallowing or breathing.

The sole treatment for infant botulism is known as BabyBIG, an IV medication made from the pooled blood plasma of adults immunized against botulism. Californias infant botulism program developed the product and is the sole source worldwide.

The antibodies provided by BabyBIG are likely most effective for about a month, although they may continue circulating in the childs system for several months, said Dr. Sharon Nachman, an expert in pediatric infectious disease at Stony Brook Childrens Hospital.

'The risk to the infant is ongoing and the family should not be using this formula after it was recalled,' Nachman said in an email.

Families of several babies treated for botulism after drinking ByHeart formula have sued the company. Lawsuits filed in federal courts allege that the formula they fed their children was defective and ByHeart was negligent in selling it. They seek financial payment for medical bills, emotional distress and other harm.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

GENEVA (AP) ' The IOC set a target Wednesday of early 2026 to detail a new policy on eligibility in female sports that could see transgender athletes excluded from the Olympic Games.

International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry also stressed the Olympic bodys statutory belief in access to sport being a human right for all people at grassroots and recreational level.

The two-time Olympic champion swimmer created a working group after taking office in June to review 'protecting the female category.'

Coventry won an IOC presidential election where most of the seven candidates promised a stronger policy on gender eligibility. Previously, the IOC only offered guidance to the individual sports governing bodies, who were left to decide on their on rules.

'I am really hopeful that in the next couple of months, and definitely within the first quarter of next year, that we will have a very clear decision and way forward,' Coventry said at a news conference after a meeting of the executive board she chairs.

That timetable could see an IOC policy ' likely on transgender athletes and athletes with differences on sexual development (DSD) ' confirmed at its meeting on the eve of the Milan Cortina Winter Games that open Feb. 6.

The 2028 Summer Games follows in Los Angeles, and President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February, 'Keeping Men Out of Womens Sports,' that could stop funding for organizations which let transgender athletes compete in womens and girls sports.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee in July effectively barred transgender women from competitions, telling its national federations in Olympic sports they had an 'obligation to comply' with the government order.

World governing bodies in top-tier Olympic sports track and field and swimming had already banned athletes who went through male puberty from their womens events ahead of the Paris Olympics.

In Paris 16 months ago, a furor was created around womens boxing and the eligibility of two gold medalists, Imane Khelif from Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan.

World Boxing, the new body overseeing Olympic tournaments, has introduced the SRY gene test, which identifies the Y chromosome found in males. World Athletics and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation also have introduced the tests.

Coventry said Wednesday trying to find a consensus is 'maybe not going to be the easiest thing to do.'

'But we are going to try our best to ensure that when we are talking about the female category, we are protecting the female category and we are doing that in the most fair way,' she said.

It is unclear how many, if any, transgender athletes are competing at an Olympic level of competition.

However, the Olympic Charter which codifies rules for the IOC and Olympic Games states: 'The practice of sport is a human right … without discrimination of any kind in respect of internationally recognized human rights.'

'That stance is never going to change,' Coventry said Wednesday. 'Sport is, at grassroot levels and in any form of recreation, for everybody and you should have access for everybody to partake.'

AP National Writer Eddie Pells in Denver contributed to this report

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ' NASA has lost contact with a spacecraft that has orbited Mars for more than a decade.

Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend. NASA said this week that it was working fine before it went behind the red planet. When it reappeared, there was only silence.

Launched in 2013, Maven began studying the upper Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind once reaching the red planet the following year. Scientists ended up blaming the sun for Mars losing most of its atmosphere to space over the eons, turning it from wet and warm to the dry and cold world it is today.

Maven also has served as a communication relay for NASAs two Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.

Engineering investigations are underway, according to NASA.

NASA has two other spacecraft around Mars that are still active: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in 2005, and Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WASHINGTON (AP) ' President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

Using U.S. forces to seize an oil tanker is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administrations latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The campaign is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.

'Weve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,' Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.'

Trump said 'other things are happening,' but did not offer additional details, saying he would speak more about it later. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, 'Well, we keep it, I guess.'

The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that the seizure was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.

Venezuela has the worlds largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day. Locked out of global oil markets by U.S. sanctions, the state-owned oil company sells most of its output at a steep discount to refiners in China.

The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries, as sanctions have scared away more established traders. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.

Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuelas capital. But he told supporters that the country is 'prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.'

Maduro, flanked by senior officials, said only the ruling party can 'guarantee peace, stability, and the harmonious development of Venezuela, South America and the Caribbean.'

Maduro previously has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.

During past negotiations, among the concessions the U.S. has made to Maduro was approval for oil giant Chevron Corp. to resume pumping and exporting Venezuelan oil. The corporations activities in the South American country resulted in a financial lifeline for Maduros government.

The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American countrys airspace. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details.

The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 87 people in 22 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.

Some legal experts and Democrats say that action may have violated the laws governing the use of deadly military force.

Lawmakers are demanding to get unedited video from the strikes, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders Tuesday he was still weighing whether to release it. Hegseth provided a classified briefing for congressional leaders alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

It was not immediately clear Wednesday who owned the tanker or what national flag it was sailing under. The Coast Guard referred a request for comment to the White House.

Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

A California state agency wont meet Governor Gavin Newsoms year-end deadline to finish long-delayed regulations to protect homes from wildfires, rules that experts say could have limited the destruction of the January Los Angeles firestorms.

At a meeting of the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection on Monday, chair Terrence OBrien said officials would wait until March 2026 to continue work on regulations to require ember-resistant zones, called Zone Zero, around some 2 million houses in high-risk wildfire areas. That means it could be mid-2029 or later before any mandate takes effect for existing homes.

OBrien cited continued disagreement on how strictly to enforce the Zone Zero requirement to remove plants, wood fences and other combustible material within five feet of a home for the ongoing delays. A 2020 law enacted after a series of devastating wildfires originally mandated a January 2023 deadline to complete the regulations. 'That continues to be the challenge we face,' he said at the meeting.

​​'California is committed to getting Zone Zero right, not just getting it done, through rules that reflect what LA fire survivors have told us while balancing resilience to the next fire, the realities of the insurance market and what homeowners can reasonably afford,' Anthony Martinez, a spokesperson for Newsom, said in an email.

Scientific studies have shown that measures to prevent wind-blown embers from igniting a home dramatically increases its chance of survival. Wildfire officials and insurance executives have pushed for a stringent interpretation of the law amid residents pushback against removing lush landscaping, particularly in Southern California.

A similar dynamic led the state in 2023 to put the regulations on hold after missing a January deadline that year to enact the rules. A Bloomberg Green investigation found that the board at that time had refused to ban all combustible materials within Zone Zero while the governors office worried about the cost to homeowners.

In the wake of the LA catastrophe that destroyed 16,000 buildings and killed 31 people, Newsom in February ordered the board to resume drafting Zone Zero and finish the work by Dec. 31. The board issued draft regulations in March that barred landscaping, wood fences and gates and other combustible material within five feet of a house but allowed non-flammable pots containing small plants. Trees were permitted as long as branches were trimmed away from the dwelling.

Over the course of 11 public workshops held this year on the regulations, a group of Southern California homeowners, including some that lost their houses in the Eaton and Palisades fires, fought the draft rules, arguing that well-watered plants in Zone Zero would actually protect their homes and removing landscaping would hurt wildlife.

After proposing draft regulations that only allowed potted plants in Zone Zero, the board appeared to backtrack in October, presenting four Zone Zero options, ranging from banning nearly all combustible material to allowing 'well-maintained plants' within five feet of a home.

At Mondays hearing, the board heard presentations from horticulturalists who favored allowing certain landscaping within the ember-resistant zone. But officials with Cal Fire, the state fire-fighting agency, said a failure to require a strict Zone Zero would put communities at a growing risk of urban wildfires as climate impacts place more homes in high-risk areas.

Some California cities have already implemented their own version of Zone Zero. Following the LA wildfires, Berkeley officials faced opposition from homeowners after proposing strict ember-resistant zone requirements for parts of the fire-prone Berkeley Hills. But over the summer, the city council approved the rules, which will take effect Jan. 1.

WASHINGTON (AP) ' Foreigners who are allowed to come to the United States without a visa could soon be required to submit information about their social media, email accounts and extensive family history to the Department of Homeland Security before being approved for travel.

The notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register said Customs and Border Protection is proposing collecting five years’ worth of social media information from travelers from select countries who do not have to get visas to come to the U.S. The Trump administration has been stepping up monitoring of international travelers and immigrants.

The announcement refers to travelers from more than three dozen countries who take part in the Visa Waiver Program and submit their information to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which automatically screens them and then approves them for travel to the U.S. Unlike visa applicants, they generally do not have to go into an embassy or consulate for an interview.

DHS administers the program, which currently allows citizens of roughly 40 mostly European and Asian countries to travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for three months without visas.

The announcement also said that CBP would start requesting a list of other information, including telephone numbers the person has used over the past five years or email addresses used over the past decade. Also sought would be metadata from electronically submitted photos, as well as extensive information from the applicants family members, including their places of birth and their telephone numbers.

The application that people are now required to fill out to take part in ESTA asks for a more limited set of questions such as parents’ names and current email address.

Asked at a White House event whether he was concerned the measure might affect tourism to the U.S., President Donald Trump said no.

'We want safety, we want security, we want to make sure were not letting the wrong people come into our country,' Trump said.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed changes before they go into effect, the notice said.

CBP officials did not immediately respond to questions about the new rules.

The announcement did not say what the administration was looking for in the social media accounts or why it was asking for more information.

But the agency said it was complying with an executive order that Trump signed in January that called for more screening of people coming to the U.S. to prevent the entry of possible national security threats.

Travelers from countries that are not part of the Visa Waiver Program system are already required to submit their social media information, a policy that dates back to the first Trump administration. The policy remained during Democratic President Joe Bidens administration.

But citizens from visa waiver countries were not obligated to do so.

Since January, the Trump administration has stepped up checks of immigrants and travelers, both those trying to enter the U.S. as well as those already in the country. Officials have tightened visa rules by requiring that applicants set all of their social media accounts to public so that they can be more easily scrutinized and checked for what authorities view as potential derogatory information. Refusing to set an account to public can be considered grounds for visa denial, according to guidelines provided by the State Department.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now considers whether an applicant for benefits, such as a green card, 'endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused' anti-American, terrorist or antisemitic views.

The heightened interest in social media screening has drawn concern from immigration and free speech advocates about what the Trump administration is looking for and whether the measures target people critical of the administration in an infringement of free speech rights.