Tag: U.S. Congress

Congress reaches deal on disaster aid

Congress has reached a deal on a “clean” disaster aid bill, after President Trump told lawmakers he would sign legislation even if money tied to the U.S.-Mexico border was dropped from the package.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said on Thursday afternoon that they had reached an agreement on the long-stalled legislation to respond to a recent spate of wildfires, hurricanes and storms.
“We’ve proposed … that we come forth with a clean disaster package, a lot of things off including border security stuff, just disaster, basically. And the president said OK,” Shelby told reporters after a closed-door GOP lunch.

View the complete May 23 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Rising debt imperils Trump, Dem hopes on infrastructure

President Trump and Democrats are in a crunch as they try to pursue a $2 trillion infrastructure package amid rising concerns in some quarters about the deficit and national debt.

While many support the concept of an infrastructure push, members of Congress and outside groups are worried about how to pay for such a massive haul with national debt topping $22 trillion.

“It’s $200 billion a year, so that’s not an easy pay-for. I don’t know how you’d do it without raising taxes,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who chairs the House Budget Committee.

View the complete May 6 article by Naomi Jagoda and Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

Trump’s attempt to strong-arm Congress is actually a sign of his weakness

Suing a committee chairman and his own accounting firm. Telling people who don’t work for him anymore that they can’t testify to Congress. Having his personal lawyer tell the Treasury Department not to release Trump’s tax returns to Congress. These are all actions President Trump has taken against Congress in the past few days, evidence that he’s going full-court to stop lawmakers from investigating him.

It’s an unprecedentedly brazen move for a president. But Joshua Huder, a fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, says it’s actually a sign of Trump’s weakness.

Past presidents have negotiated behind the scenes with Congress when they don’t want to turn over information. They’ve relied on influential allies on Capitol Hill to help make their case. Trump is forced to take the most extreme measures because he doesn’t have enough soft power to do that, Huder argues. As a result, Trump is forcing himself into high-profile legal and political battles he has a real risk of losing.

View the complete April 27 article by Amber Phillips on The Washington Post website here.

Trump vetoes measure ending US support for Saudi-led war in Yemen

President Trump on Tuesday vetoed a measure that would have cut off U.S. military support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen’s civil war, rebuking Congress for a second time this year.

In a statement to the Senate released by the White House, Trump called the joint resolution “unnecessary” and argued it would negatively affect U.S. foreign policy.

The resolution, which would have required Trump to withdraw any U.S. troops in or “affecting” Yemen within 30 days unless they are fighting al Qaeda, reached the president’s desk after it passed the House in a vote of 247-175 earlier this month. The Senate had passed it in a vote of 54-46 last month.

View the complete April 16 article by Rebecca Kheel and Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Secrecy behind Saudi nuclear talks infuriates Congress

Congressional anger is growing over President Trump’s efforts to secure a nuclear energy deal with Saudi Arabia.

Lawmakers first became wary of the plans when the Saudis refused to accept limits preventing them from developing a nuclear weapon.

But that skepticism quickly turned to fury when it was revealed that the Trump administration gave approval for companies to share certain nuclear energy technology with the kingdom without a broader nuclear deal in place.

View the complete April 7 article by Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

The NAFTA Report That Could Do More Damage Than Mueller

With all the coverage of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and still-confidential report, President Donald Trump’s political future does not appear to be closely tied to the Russia investigation. Without ground-shaking conclusions that completely reframed his presidency for the Republican Party and is leadership, there’s never been much chance that the report could lead to him being removed from office.

But there’s another forthcoming report that really could do serious damage to the president, even if there’s been almost no coverage of it so far. It’s a report from the International Trade Commission on the future effects of Trump renegotiated version of NAFTA, which the president calls the USMCA

As the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale reported, the ITC report is set to come out on April 19. And few expect it to show much of an upside for the United States or Trump.

Dale wrote:

At best, experts say, the ITC report expected by April 19 is likely to show a very small positive impact.

View the complete April 4 article by Cody Fenwick on the National Memo website here.

Trump’s border threats complicate trade pact talks

Replacement for NAFTA already faces assortment of challenges on Capitol Hill

The Trump administration’s sales pitch for a new trade deal with America’s northern and southern neighbors has a long way to go, and the president’s threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico does not appear to be helping matters.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday amid renewed concern he may seek to shut down the flow of traffic between the two countries, a move that would by definition make free trade impossible.

The president was still considering closing ports of entry at the southern border because “Democrats are leaving us absolutely no choice at this point,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday, although it was not clear how closing legal ports of entry would stem illegal entry to the country, which the administration has made its premier issue.

View the complete April 2 article by Niels Lesniewski on The Roll Call website here.

President Trump Cannot Hide His Tax Returns From Congress

Introduction and summary

Donald Trump has reneged on a promise he made nearly four years ago to release his tax returns publicly. By keeping his returns hidden, he has broken the precedent every president and major party nominee for president has followed over the past 40 years. His actions also heighten concerns about what he could be hiding.

The new Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has pledged to conduct the kind of vigorous oversight of the executive branch that has been lacking for the past two years. As part of that oversight agenda, House leaders have said that they intend to invoke their authority under the law to obtain Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to review them. Trump’s Treasury Department is threatening to withhold the returns from Congress and take the issue to the courts, where his team reportedly hopes to bog down the request in a “quagmire of arcane legal arguments.”1 But the law could not be clearer: Congress’ tax committees have the authority to obtain Trump’s tax returns on request—and the U.S. Treasury Department has no basis for refusing. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin would be violating the law if he directs the IRS to stonewall Congress. Continue reading “President Trump Cannot Hide His Tax Returns From Congress”

Trump’s North American trade deal at risk of stalling in Congress

President Trump’s effort to rework a major trade deal with Canada and Mexico is showing increasing signs of faltering on Capitol Hill, straining under a variety of angry complaints from lawmakers of both parties who won’t commit to backing the plan.

Trump reached agreement with Canada and Mexico last year to update the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. But Congress must approve the deal, and the White House has been unable to mollify the growing group of critics.

The administration’s goal is to get the pact approved ahead of Congress’s annual August recess. It’s not clear whether that timeline is realistic. But delaying action past Labor Day could greatly increase political risk because of the accelerating presidential campaign.

View the complete March 29 article by Erica Werner, David J. Lynch and Emily Rauhala on The Washington Post website here.

Does Trump understand how the federal budget process works?

President declares he has ‘overruled’ staff on Special Olympics, but it’s Congress who will decide

In a curious statement that defies the realities of the federal spending process, President Donald Trump declared Thursday that “the Special Olympics will be funded” because he has “overruled” his own staff who wanted to cut off the federal spigot to the charity.

The Education Department’s fiscal 2020 spending request proposes eliminating $17.6 million for the Special Olympics, and Secretary Betsy DeVos and other Trump surrogates say the charity simply does not need the federal funds.

They also have lashed out at outraged congressional Democrats.

View the complete March 28 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.