Tag: Trump Administration

Trump fetal tissue ethics board urges rejection of nearly all research proposals

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A new advisory board, created to review the ethics of proposed fetal tissue research grants, is urging the Trump administration to block government funding for nearly all of the applications — essentially seeking to ban support for most such scientific work.

The recommendation that the National Institutes of Health withhold funds from all but one of a slate of 14 research proposals means that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who has the final say, would need to buck the will of a board he convened — and of social conservatives crucial to President Trump’s political base — for the projects to get federal support.

The board sent its advice in a report to HHS on Tuesday, less than three weeks after the announcement of its members, two-thirds of whom are outspoken opponents of abortion, fetal tissue research or both. The group has operated in secrecy, with even its own members unaware of who else was in it until the end of July, when it held a single, day-long virtual meeting, most of it closed to the public. Members were required to sign nondisclosure agreements about their deliberations. Continue reading.

Mnuchin Admits White House Held Back Assistance for Hungry Kids

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday admitted the coronavirus relief package Republicans released in late July as an initial offer to House Democrats did not include enough aid for food assistance programs, even as children go hungry in the United States.

Mnuchin made the comment on CNBC after host Jim Cramer asked whether there was any room for the Trump administration to increase their coronavirus aid offer to reach a deal with Democrats, as negotiations in Congress are currently stalled.

“I listened to the speaker over the weekend. She’s right. We started low on food, we realized there’s a lot of kids out there that — there’s an issue,” Mnuchin said, saying that adding more aid for food programs could be a “compromise” the Trump administration is willing to make. Continue reading.

Trump blasted for naming ‘war criminal’ and Iran-Contra convict Elliott Abrams as Iran envoy

AlterNet logoFollowing the resignation Thursday of State Department Iran envoy Brian Hook, President Donald Trump named as his replacement current special representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams, a notorious warmonger and supporter of Latin American death squads who was convicted in 1991 of withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal.

“Like most Trump appointees, he is not fit for the position, and will continue to hurt U.S. interests by enacting a failing strategy that will only succeed in spreading chaos and misery.”
—Sina Toossi, National Iranian American Council

Abrams will now serve in both roles simultaneously, alarming anti-war groups who say someone with a record as blood-stained as his “should be barred for life from government positions and recognized as the war criminal that he is.” Continue reading.

Minnesota Natural Wonder Is On Trump Team’s Hit List To Despoil

Trump administration action that could spoil a Minnesota wilderness with acidic damage for centuries would benefit the landlord of the president’s children.

Former President Jimmy Carter signed a law more than four decades ago to prohibit mining in the Boundary Waters, a pristine wilderness. With more than 1,000 lakes, it stretches almost 200 miles along the U.S.-Canada border in Minnesota.

Now the Trump administration is preparing to sully this land forever—to the benefit of the billionaire Chilean landlord of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Continue reading.

With Census Count Finishing Early, Fears of a Skewed Tally Rise

New York Times logoWith 60 million households still uncounted, the bureau said it would wrap up the survey a month early. Critics called it a bald move to politicize the count in favor of Republicans.

WASHINGTON — With the Trump administration’s decision to end the 2020 census count four weeks early, the Census Bureau now has to accomplish what officials have said it cannot do: accurately count the nation’s hardest-to-reach residents — nearly four of every 10 households — in just six weeks.

The result is both a logistical challenge of enormous proportions that must take place in the middle of a pandemic, and yet another political crisis for the census, historically a nonpartisan enterprise. The announcement, which came Monday evening, immediately generated sharp criticism.

On Tuesday, four former directors of the Census Bureau issued a statement warning that an earlier deadline would “result in seriously incomplete enumerations in many areas across our country,” and urged the administration to restore the lost weeks. The directors, who served under Democratic and Republican presidents, also urged Congress to assemble a trusted body of experts to develop standards for assessing the quality of the bureau’s population totals. Continue reading.

‘Irregularities’ found in the Trump administration’s contract for company used to collect coronavirus data: report

AlterNet logoTeleTracking Technologies, a Pittsburg-based company known for developing software that hospitals use to track the status of patients, was awarded a multi-million-dollar contract from President Donald Trump’s administration to collect COVID-19 data from hospitals in the U.S. — and National Public Radio is reporting that it found “irregularities” in the “process” that gave TeleTracking the contract.

According to NPR reporters Dina Temple-Raston and Tim Mak, NPR’s investigation found that “the Department of Health and Human Services initially characterized the contract with TeleTracking as a no-bid contract. When asked about that, HHS said there was a ‘coding error’ and that the contract was actually competitively bid. The process by which HHS awarded the contract is normally used for innovative scientific research, not the building of government databases.”

According to the NPR reporters, Carrie Kroll of the Texas Hospital Association “didn’t give it a second thought” when, in April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it would be using TeleTracking as an option for collecting data on COVID-19. But she “balked” after “the HHS suddenly announced, in July, that hospitals could no longer report COVID data through the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), but would instead, be required to do so through the HHS-TeleTracking system or their state health departments,” Temple-Raston and Mak explain. Continue reading.

Why Are We Paying Moderna Twice For An Unproven Vaccine?

Moderna, a relatively new biotech firm, generally is seen as the U.S. frontrunner in developing a coronavirus vaccine.

It trails several Chinese companies.

Based in Cambridge, MA, Moderna should certainly get an award for milking the government.

It doesn’t matter if the vaccine works. Moderna already was paid twice over. Continue reading.

Trump Appointees Let Aviation Firms Keep Money That Was Supposed To Assist Workers

This spring, as the coronavirus spread and international travel bans grounded flights, Gebrish Weldemariam got a layoff letter from his airline catering job at Dulles International Airport.

He’d been working as a driver making more than $18 per hour for Flying Food Group, ferrying in-flight meals between the company’s kitchen and gated planes waiting on the tarmac. Between overtime at the airport and a part-time job driving buses on the side, Weldemariam felt that times were good. Last fall, with his wife expecting a fourth child, the family bought a house not far from the airport, allowing him to be nearby to help care for his oldest son, who has Down syndrome and needs constant attention.

“I have kids. I have a mortgage. I have two car loans,” Weldemariam said. “That’s why I work hard.” Continue reading.

About 4,000 federal employees say they contracted the coronavirus at work — and 60 have died

Washington Post logoAbout 4,000 federal employees are seeking disability compensation on grounds that they contracted the novel coronavirus at work, while survivors of 60 deceased employees are seeking death benefits for the same reason.

The total number of claims is expected to increase to 6,000 within weeks, according to a report that amounts to one of the first accountings of the pandemic’s impact on the health of the federal workforce.

The report by the Labor Department’s inspector general assessed coronavirus-related trends in workers’ compensation programs including the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, which covers the 2.1 million employees of executive branch departments and agencies plus the 630,000 employees of the semi-independent U.S. Postal Service. Continue reading.

America’s global standing is at a low point. The pandemic made it worse.

Washington Post logoUnder Trump, the United States retreats from collaborative leadership at a time of global crisis

America’s standing in the world is at a low ebb. Once described as the indispensable nation, the United States is now seen as withdrawn and inward-looking, a reluctant and unreliable partner at a dangerous moment for the world. The coronavirus pandemic has only made things worse.

President Trump shattered a 70-year consensus among U.S. presidents of both political parties that was grounded in the principle of robust American leadership in the world through alliances and multilateral institutions. For decades, this approach was seen at home and abroad as good for the world and good for the United States.

In its place, Trump has substituted his America First doctrine and what his critics say is a zero-sum-game sensibility about international relationships. America First has been described variously as nationalistic, populistic, isolationist and unilateralist. The president has demeaned allies and emboldened adversaries such as China and Russia. Continue reading.