Tag: U.S. Congress

Acting director of national intelligence threatened to resign if he couldn’t speak freely before Congress on whistleblower complaint

Washington Post logoThe acting Director of National Intelligence threatened to resign over concerns that the White House might attempt to force him to stonewall Congress when he testifies Thursday about an explosive whistleblower complaint about the president, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The revelation reflects the extraordinary tensions between the White House and the nation’s highest-ranking intelligence official over a matter that has triggered impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

The officials said Joseph Maguire, who was thrust into the top intelligence post last month, warned the White House that he was not willing to withhold information from Congress, where he is scheduled to testify in open and closed hearings on Thursday.

View the complete September 25 article by Greg MIller, Shane Harris and Karoun Demirjian on The Washington Post website here.

To pay for Trump’s wall, a hurricane-wrecked base in Puerto Rico loses funding

Washington Post logoSALINAS, Puerto Rico — When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico two years ago, it smashed through the National Guard training base here, sending the plaques that Maj. Gen. José J. Reyes gathered over his U.S. Army career into the howl of an unforgiving wind.

The base, known as Camp Santiago, emerged from the storm much like the rest of the island: damaged, shocked and determined to recover against dim economic odds.

So when Reyes helped secure $331.5 million for the base from the Pentagon’s treasured construction budget, officials thought Maria’s clouds had come with a silver lining.

View the complete September 19 article by Paul Sonne on The Washington Post website here.

‘This is science’: Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg testifies before Congress

Appearing on Capitol Hill for the second straight day Wednesday, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg told U.S. lawmakers she did not want them to listen to her.

“I want you to listen to the scientists,” Thunberg said in her testimony before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, where she appeared with other youth leaders. “I want you to unite behind science. And then I want you to take action.”

Instead of prepared remarks, Thunberg submitted a 2018 report on global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned about the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C that researchers say is likely between 2030 and 2052 if it continues at the current rate.

View the complete September 18 article by Dylan Stableford on the Yahoo News website here.

Corporations step into gun control void

The Hill logoSome of the nation’s largest corporations are stepping into the gun control void, adopting new restrictions on sales in the absence of action by Congress and the White House.

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said Tuesday it would no longer sell certain types of ammunition, end all handgun sales and ask customers not to carry guns openly in its stores.

Kroger, another mega-retailer, quickly followed suit, urging its customers to leave their guns at home before shopping.

View the complete September 5 article by Scott Wong and Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Trump and Netanyahu Put Bipartisan Support for Israel at Risk

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — By pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel into barring an official visit by the first two Muslim women in Congress, President Trump is doubling down on a strategy aimed at dividing the Democratic Party and pushing some Jewish voters into the arms of Republicans.

But people in both parties warn that over the long term, the president could further erode bipartisan support for Israel, which has long relied on the United States as its most important ally.

In the run-up to his 2020 re-election campaign, Mr. Trump has spent months attacking the two freshman Democrats, Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, angering the Democratic Party as he seeks to paint Republicans as Israel’s only true friend in Washington.

View the complete August 16 article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg on The New York Times website here.

Foreign aid funds put on hold for review

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration has temporarily frozen and ordered a review of several key foreign aid funds that Congress has already approved, in a move that critics fear could lead to another attempted rollback of foreign aid.

The Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development on Saturday, notifying them of the action, which took effect one minute before midnight that day.

The OMB asked the agencies for a balance sheet of foreign aid projects that have not yet been funded. Michael P. Duffey, the associate director for national security programs at OMB, wrote that no more money can be obligated from those funds until three days after OMB receives the numbers, a process that could take days if not weeks.

View the complete August 5 article by Carol Morello and Karoun Demirjian on The Washington Post website here.

Politicians’ Efforts to Undermine Providers Are Imperiling Women’s Health

Center for American Progress logoJeni R., at 21 weeks of pregnancy, visited her OB/GYN for a prenatal checkup and was devastated to learn that her pregnancy was not viable.1 Her options were to either terminate the pregnancy or wait for the inevitable miscarriage. She and her partner chose the former. However, because Jeni lived in Texas—a state with some of the most restrictive and intrusive abortion bans in the country—she was forced to overcome a number of medically unnecessary and intentionally cruel hurdles to get the care she needed. This included being forced to listen to a provider recite a medically inaccurate script about the harms of abortion; waiting for two days after getting counseling before returning for the procedure; and receiving approval from two different doctors before getting the procedure.

Sadly, Jeni’s story is not unique: Women across the United States face increasingly difficult, even insurmountable, barriers to receiving comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion care.2 In addition to erecting cost and other logistical barriers to accessing care, these restrictions purposefully interfere with the patient-provider relationship, dictating when, where, and how providers can interact with their patients.

The patient-provider relationship is a cornerstone of clinical care. In order for providers to administer personalized and quality care, they must establish effective communication with their patients, create an environment of trust, collaboratively engage their patients in decision-making, and safeguard their patients’ confidentiality and privacy.3In fact, when patients trust that providers are acting in their best interest, they are more likely to adhere to treatment recommendations and continue care with the same provider. Patients must also trust that providers are protecting their health information, as this allows them to more openly share sensitive information that providers can use to determine the best diagnosis and provide appropriate counseling.4 Any actions that undermine a provider’s ability to create a safe, private, and trusting environment will ultimately lead to poorer patient health outcomes.

View the complete July 17 article by Osub Ahmed on the Center for American Progress website here.

Debt limit may be reached before end of August recess, Mnuchin says

Treasury secretary formally notified Congress of the uncertainty on Friday

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin put his request on paper for Congress to act on the debt ceiling before the August recess, writing to congressional leaders Friday that there’s a chance Treasury could run out of cash in early September.

“Since there is a reasonable uncertainty in projecting government cash flows, it is impossible to identify precisely how long extraordinary measures will last,” Mnuchin wrote in his four-sentence letter, referencing accounting maneuvers Treasury can engage in to carve out room under the $22 trillion debt limit. Continue reading “Debt limit may be reached before end of August recess, Mnuchin says”

America is woefully unprepared for cyber-warfare

From hacks to misinformation campaigns, its adversaries are winning in the virtual battleground

War in cyberspace is fully on, and the United States is losing it, according to about two dozen national security experts.

The U.S. military is increasingly adept at mounting cyberattacks in places like Russia and Iran, but America’s computers are almost completely defenseless. Without strong protections, offensive attacks can be invitations for disaster instead of deterrents.

“I believe we are in a declared cyberwar,” said Michael Bayer, a longtime Pentagon adviser who led a recent review of Navy cybersecurity. “It is aimed at the whole of society and the state. I believe we are losing that war.”

View the complete July 11 article by John M. Donnelly and Gopal Ratnam on The Roll Call website here.

Congress Refuses To Spend Millions For Trump’s Revision Of Census Forms

The Democratic congressman who oversees funding for the Census Bureau said on Tuesday that he will block Trump from wasting millions of dollars to reprint the 2020 census survey in order to rig it for Republicans.

Trump lost a Supreme Court case challenging his attempt to insert a question about citizenship into the census, which would undercount millions of black and Latino residents and unduly benefit the Republican Party. Despite the ruling — and even though the printing process on the census forms has already begun — Trump has continued pushing for the question to be included.

“It seems like the Trump Administration will stop at nothing in its efforts to undermine the completion of a fair and accurate 2020 Census,” Rep. José E. Serrano (D-NY) said in a statement.

View the complete July 9 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.