Tag: U.S. Senate

Local newspapers wait anxiously for pension funding relief

Crucial retirement savings package appears stuck in the Senate

Local newspapers serving communities from Tampa, Florida, to Walla Walla, Washington, say they’re under the gun from a pension funding “cliff” they face next year that will make them have to rapidly catch up on required contributions, exacerbating their well-documented financial decline.

When relief for some 20 publishers passed the House in May on a 417-3 vote as part of sweeping retirement savings legislation, it seemed like a slam dunk that lawmakers would ride to the rescue in time.

But they haven’t, and advocates say the clock is running out.

View the complete October 7 article by Doug Sword on The Roll Call website here.

Republicans deliver rare rebuke of Trump, slamming his Syria withdrawal decision

Washington Post logoPresident Trump faced a swift torrent of Republican criticism Monday as lawmakers rebuked his plan to withdraw troops from northeast Syria, a move Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said would undermine U.S. national security and potentially bolster Islamic State terrorists.

McConnell (R-Ky.), in a rare public split with Trump, said that a supermajority in the Senate disagreed with the president’s abrupt withdrawal announcement, raising the specter of veto-proof action to oppose the decision.

“A precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime,” McConnell said in a statement Monday. “And it would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorist groups regroup.”

View the complete October 7 article by Toluse Olorunnipa and Seung Min Kim on The Washington Post website here.

Cracks emerge among Senate Republicans over Trump urging Ukrainian leader to investigate Biden

Washington Post logoSeveral Senate Republicans were privately stunned Wednesday and questioned the White House’s judgment after it released a rough transcript of President Trump’s call with the Ukraine president that showed Trump offering the help of the U.S. attorney general to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

One Senate Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said the transcript’s release was a “huge mistake” that the GOP now has to confront and defend — while the party argues at the same time that House Democrats are overreaching with their impeachment inquiry of Trump.

Three other GOP senators complained privately in discussions with The Washington Post that the White House erred by releasing the transcript, arguing that it sets a precedent for future presidents about disclosure of calls with foreign leaders and could be seen as a concession to Democrats.

View the complete September 25 article by Robert Costa on The Washington Post website here.

Federal agency ordered to investigate Homeland Security nominee

What happens next may rest with McConnell

The Department of Energy has been told to investigate allegations of corruption by William N. Bryan, the White House’s nominee for a senior post at the Department of Homeland Security, CQ Roll Call has learned.

Bryan joins a long line of Trump administration nominees who’ve faced controversy. Just this week, the White House withdrew the nomination of Jeffrey Byard to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel told the Energy Department in a letter last month to investigate a whistleblower’s allegations that Bryan used his former position at DOE to funnel business to a private energy company.

View the complete September 19 article by Joshua Eaton on The Roll Call website here.

Senate Confirms Inexperienced Trump Donor As UAE Ambassador

Since it first received diplomatic recognition in 1972, every United States ambassador to the United Arab Emirates has been a career diplomat — until now.

After nearly an 18-month delay, on Tuesday the Senate confirmed Donald Trump’s nominee — wealthy businessman and GOP megadonor John Rakolta, Jr. — to be the nation’s chief representative in Abu Dhabi.

The confirmation came on a 63-30 vote, after almost no discussion on the Senate floor. A handful of Senate Democrats and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine joined with the Republican majority in support.

View the complete September 17 article by Josh Israel on the National Memo website here.

‘The man who sold America’: McConnell’s mountain of political sins catalogued in devastating new profile

AlterNet logoMitch McConnell finally has the power he’s longed for since he was a 22-year-old intern for Sen. John Sherman, but his ruthless march to become Senate majority leader has seen him abandon almost all of his stated principles — and earned him a lot of enemies.

The Kentucky Republican has been unpopular in his home state for years, but this summer has seen his approval rating plunge to 18 percent after MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough tarred and feathered him with the nickname “Moscow Mitch,” and he’s increasingly seen as “the man who sold America,” reported Rolling Stone.

“For so many years, McConnell has seemed maddeningly invincible,” wrote Bob Moser in a lengthy magazine profile. “But now, just a few years after achieving his lifelong goal of becoming Senate majority leader, it appears that every political sin the man has committed on his relentless march to power is coming back to haunt him at once.”

View the complete September 17 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Prospects for Trump gun deal grow dimmer

The Hill logoProspects for a bipartisan deal on gun control legislation have dimmed significantly as President Trump and Democratic leaders appear to be far apart on the key issue of expanding background checks.

Republicans expect Trump to put forward a proposal addressing gun violence later this week, but Democrats predict it is likely to fall far short of what is needed and that they may not vote for it.

Democrats are pressing Trump to agree to a gun control bill already approved by the House, but the president has yet to even signal support for a scaled-down background check bill sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

View the complete September 16 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Senate panel backs special $1 billion military ‘readiness’ fund

NOTE:  The Trump administration’s military budget already gave them more money than the military requested.

Some experts are skeptical that the Defense Department will spend the funds effectively.

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s new Defense spending bill would create a $1.1 billion fund for yet-to-be-determined programs that build military “readiness,” a word that has come to mean just about anything in the Pentagon budget.

The fund, created at a time when military preparedness levels are on the rise after nearly two decades at war, would come with very few strings or stipulations, an unusual move for appropriators who typically guard their power of the purse.

The Pentagon must proportionately divide this money among the military’s active and reservist components’ operations accounts. And Defense Department officials would have to notify Congress about how they’ll spend the money no less than 30 days before they do so. The money could then be spent as planned unless an appropriator objects.

View the complete September 16 article by John M. Donnelly on The Roll Call website here.

Trump rallies to Kavanaugh’s defense after new sexual misconduct allegation surfaces

WASHINGTON — President Trump vigorously defended Brett Kavanaugh on Sunday following a new allegation of sexual misconduct during the Supreme Court justice’s college years, as some leading Democratic presidential contenders raised fresh suspicions that Kavanaugh was untruthful during last year’s Senate hearings leading to his confirmation to the high court.

In an early-morning tweet, Trump called on the Justice Department to “come to [Kavanaugh’s] rescue,” and accused critics of trying to deter the justice from rulings favorable to the administration. The president’s angry ripostes came a day after the New York Times reportedthat a male former classmate at Yale had told the FBI about witnessing an episode similar to, but separate from, an already publicized account by a female classmate, Deborah Ramirez, who said an inebriated Kavanaugh had thrust his penis in her face during a Yale party in the 1980s.

The authors of the New York Times story said Kavanaugh did not speak to them about the newly reported allegation.

View the complete September 15 article by Laura King on The Los Angeles Times website here.

New reporting details how FBI limited investigation of Kavanaugh allegations

WASHINGTON — As Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh prepares for his second year on the Supreme Court, new reporting has detailed how the limits ordered by the White House and Senate Republicans last year constrained the FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct when he was a college freshman.

The FBI was informed of allegations that Kavanaugh, while drunk during his freshman year at Yale, exposed himself to two heavily intoxicated female classmates on separate occasions. The bureau did not interview more than a dozen people who said they could provide information about the incidents.

One of the accounts, reported by Deborah Ramirez, was made public at the time of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. The other, not publicly known until this weekend, was reported by a male classmate who said he witnessed the incident. He unsuccessfully sought to get the FBI to investigate with help from a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who asked FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to look into the allegation.

View the complete September 16 article by Jackie Calmes on The Los Angeles Times website here.