May, 26 2016, 02:45pm EDT
Congressional Republicans Usher Through Dangerous and Destructive Energy Bill
Legislation Threatens Public Lands, Props Up Fossil Fuels, and Erodes Bedrock Environmental Laws
WASHINGTON
Following last night's passage of the energy bill, which fell on largely party lines, leadership from both Parties in the House announced its designees to conference the Senate and House energy packages.
The House legislation includes widely condemned provisions that threaten bedrock environmental and public health laws like the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Wilderness Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Equal Access to Justice Act. Additionally, the bill fails to permanently authorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a key provision in the Senate's bipartisan compromise.
In response, Sierra Club's Legislative Director Melinda Pierce released the following statement:
"The American people have waited over a decade for Congress to pass a comprehensive Energy Bill, and thanks to House Republicans' circus, we'll have to wait even longer.
"Make no mistake, we need a 21st century energy bill to tackle the 21st century energy problems we're facing today. But House Republicans have made it clear that they are not interested in engaging in serious policy debates and would rather continue empowering corporate polluters than investing in clean, renewable energy and jobs that allow us to protect our air and our water.
"It is time that House Republicans took their legislating responsibilities more seriously."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
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AOC Launches Bid to Fight Trump as Top Democrat on House Oversight Committee
As ranking member, Ocasio-Cortez said she would balance the committee's focus "on the incoming president's corrosive actions and corruption with a tangible fight to make life easier for America's working class."
Dec 06, 2024
Hoping to help lead a congressional panel that could be in a position to hold President-elect Donald Trump accountable to the American public in the coming years, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday notified her colleagues that she is officially seeking the top Democratic seat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
"I write to you today to seek your support to serve as ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability in the 119th Congress," the New York Democrat wrote in a letter to the Democratic caucus. "This is not a position I seek lightly. The responsibility of leading Democrats on the House Oversight Committee during Donald Trump's second term in the White House is a profound and consequential one."
With Republicans set to take control of the House in January, the committee will be led by a Republican; Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) currently chairs the panel.
But if Democrats win the House in 2026, the top Democrat on the committee would have subpoena power and be in a position to launch investigations into the Trump administration.
Ocasio-Cortez has sat on the committee since taking office in 2019, and was named by Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) to serve as vice ranking member in the current Congress. In her letter to colleagues, the congresswoman said she and Raskin "meticulously planned out the committee's strategy to combat the majority's partisan agenda and amplify the priorities of House Democrats."
"Even in the minority, we have leveraged the committee's substantial talent to empower our membership, derail the majority's attempts to launch baseless impeachment proceedings against President Biden, and defang other efforts by the majority to weaponize the committee's investigatory power for partisan purposes often designed to amplify misinformation," she wrote. "We also successfully experimented beyond the traditional committee process with a series of shadow hearings to educate the public on a range of key issues that cut through the noise of the current information landscape and spoke directly to the American people."
The grassroots progressive organizing group Our Revolution noted that Ocasio-Cortez has garnered attention for her pointed questioning of witnesses in Oversight hearings, including Trump's former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, Tom Homan. In 2019 she confronted Homan, who has been named "border czar" for the incoming administration, about his role in Trump's family separation policy in an exchange that went viral.
"These are the kinds of messages we need EVERYONE to see if we're going to stop Trump and his far-right agenda," said Our Revolution in an email to supporters on Friday. "AOC got into Congress in the first place by primarying the Democratic establishment, so she's not afraid to stand up to her own party. But that also means that it's going to take massive public pressure on Democrats to put her in this role over more senior members of the party."
Ocasio-Cortez will face Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) in the election for ranking member. Connolly has served in Congress since 2008 and previously ran for the chairmanship in 2022.
Raskin, who is running to be ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has not endorsed either colleague.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) offered his support for Ocasio-Cortez on Friday, telling NBC News, "AOC is very collaborative on the committee and helps lift up all members. She has been so passionate about the work of this committee for two years as vice chair, and we need progressives moving into leadership in our Congress and country to enact a working-class agenda. I'm all in for her."
Another lawmaker said the outspoken progressive is "exactly what the committee needs."
"She's phenomenal," the lawmaker told Politico. "She's someone that's gonna take the energy of new members coming in and take on Donald Trump. And I think that's what we need at this point."
On the podcast "Pod Save America," co-host and former Obama administration staffer Dan Pfeiffer expressed excitement over Ocasio-Cortez's leadership bid and called her "probably the best communicator in the Democratic Party right now."
Some establishment Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), suggested to Politico that they would support Connolly.
The Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which has close ties to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), is expected to make recommendations for committee leaders in the coming weeks. The House Democrats will then vote on ranking members.
In her letter on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez said she aims to balance the committee's focus "on the incoming president's corrosive actions and corruption with a tangible fight to make life easier for America's working class."
"I will lead by example by always keeping the lives of everyday Americans at the center of our work," she wrote. "We must do all that we can, now, to mark a different future for the American people—one that inspires us to reject the siren calls of division, corruption, and authoritarianism through a shining example of a government that works for the people, by the people—one that sees their struggles and fights for them, not just the powerful and the wealthy."
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Will Trump Tax Cuts for the Rich Blow a Hole in the 'Rock-Solid Labor Market' Left by Biden?
"If he pursues trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy and implements the proposals to slash public investments that people like Musk have championed, the labor market will surely deteriorate and workers will suffer."
Dec 06, 2024
Job figures released Friday showed that the U.S. labor market rebounded strongly last month following a storm-ravaged October, with the economy adding 227,000 jobs and average hourly earnings rising by a higher-than-expected 0.4%.
But observers warned that the economic agenda of President-elect Donald Trump and the incoming Republican Congress—particularly the massive tax cut package they plan to ram through early next year—could undermine job market progress made under the Biden administration in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis.
"The Biden administration is handing off a rock-solid labor market after their strategic investments strengthened our economy and ushered in the fastest recession recovery on record," said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. "President-elect Trump would do well to continue to invest in the workers and communities that have powered this resilience."
"But if he pursues trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy and implements the proposals to slash public investments that people like [Elon] Musk have championed," Owens added, "the labor market will surely deteriorate and workers will suffer the consequences of these choices."
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, similarly warned Friday that "while Democrats delivered a historic recovery with millions of new jobs under President Biden, Donald Trump and his far-right allies want to take us backward."
"Trump's promises are nothing but a con," said Boyle. "He's pushing middle-class tax hikes while handing massive breaks to his billionaire donors, just like he's done before. Families like mine know the truth: Trump would sell out millions of workers in a heartbeat to line the pockets of the ultra-wealthy. House Democrats won't stand by while Trump sabotages our economy. We'll fight to protect the progress we've made and ensure working families continue to come first."
"Don't let them fool you. His plan of vengeance to deport millions of undocumented workers and impose tariffs will not create jobs."
The U.S. economy has added an average of 173,000 jobs monthly over the past three months, Economic Policy Institute senior economist Elise Gould noted in an analysis of the new Labor Department figures.
"Nominal wage growth held steady at 4.0% over the year," Gould observed. "This rate is in line with the pace of productivity improvement over the last year and a stubborn low labor share of corporate sector income. Importantly, it means that real average wages continue to rise as they have the last 18 months."
The new data came as congressional Republicans and Trump's billionaire-dominated transition team and Cabinet choices continued to map out their agenda for the coming year, with tax cuts at the center.
"Their top objective is to extend the 2017 Trump tax law and prevent $3.3 trillion in tax breaks from expiring at the end of 2025," NBC Newsreported earlier this week, detailing GOP plans to pass a "huge party-line bill" via the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.
A Congressional Budget Office analysis published Wednesday detailed how an extension of soon-to-expire provisions of the 2017 tax law—a measure that disproportionately benefited the rich—would shrink the U.S. economy, bolstering concerns about the potentially damaging impacts of the Trump-GOP agenda.
Prior to the November election, the research firm Moody's Analytics warned that a Republican sweep would likely mean "the economy suffers a recession beginning in mid-2025," resulting in 3.2 million fewer jobs and a higher unemployment rate by the end of Trump's four-year term.
Moody's argued that Trump's push for tariffs, corporate tax cuts, and the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants would broadly harm the economy, driving up inflation and pushing down Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and job growth.
While corporations would likely "navigate things reasonably well" under a Republican-dominated government, Moody's said, ordinary households would "do less well financially."
"The typical American household's real after-tax income is approximately $2,000, or 1.4%, lower by the end of Trump’s term in this scenario than in the baseline," the firm projected.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said in a statement Friday that Trump "was the first president since World War II to leave office with fewer jobs than when his administration started."
"And his disastrous policies will hurt our economy once again," said Heinrich. "Don't let them fool you. His plan of vengeance to deport millions of undocumented workers and impose tariffs will not create jobs. It will not support our manufacturers, farmers, or small businesses. And it certainly will not grow our economy. It will only create an unmitigated disaster for everyday Americans who will struggle to make ends meet."
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'Flawed and Dangerous': US Appeals Panel Upholds Potential TikTok Ban
"This is a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans' access to information, ideas, and media from abroad."
Dec 06, 2024
First Amendment advocates on Friday criticized a U.S. appellate court for upholding a law that would ban TikTok in the United States if its Chinese parent company does not swiftly sell the social media platform used by an estimated 170 million Americans.
Signed by President Joe Biden in April, the law gives ByteDance until January 19 to divest from TikTok. Three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the parts of the law considered by the panel "do not contravene the First Amendment" nor other parts of the Constitution of the United States.
"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data on people in the United States," Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote in an opinion the company is expected to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Responding to the decision on social media Friday, Ashley Gorski, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project, said that "the D.C. Circuit's decision today to uphold the TikTok ban is enormously disappointing. If allowed to stand, it would give the government far too much power to restrict Americans' speech online."
Jameel Jaffer, who was on a friend-of-the-court brief as director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, issued a similar warning after the ruling was released.
"This is a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans' access to information, ideas, and media from abroad," he said. "I hope the D.C. Circuit's ruling won't be the last word—and I doubt it will be."
Kate Ruane, director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Free Expression Project, also looked ahead to the next court fight.
"The D.C. Circuit decision upholding the TikTok ban will immeasurably harm the free expression of hundreds of millions of TikTok users in the U.S. and globally who use the app to create, to share information, to get their news, and promote their businesses," she said in a statement. "We hope the next phase of review of this misguided and overbroad law will be a chance to right this wrong and prevent it from going into effect."
In addition to arguing the law is unconstitutional, attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance "have claimed it's impossible to divest the platform commercially and technologically,"
The Associated Pressreported. "They also say any sale of TikTok without the coveted algorithm—the platform's secret sauce that Chinese authorities would likely block under any divesture plan—would turn the U.S. version of TikTok into an island disconnected from other global content."
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to take office one day after the law's divestment deadline, previously supported banning the platform, but during the latest campaign, he pledged to try to "save TikTok." According toThe Washington Post:
Trump is expected to try to halt the TikTok ban, people familiar with his views on the matter told The Washington Post in early November, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Alan Rozenshtein, a former national security adviser to the Justice Department, said Trump could take any of three actions to help TikTok fend off the ban: persuading Congress to repeal the law, directing his new attorney general not to enforce it, and declaring that ByteDance has satisfied the statute by performing a "qualified divestiture" of TikTok.
Although the president-elect hasn't yet weighed in on the new court decision, on Thursday he shared on his Truth Social platform a post-election overview of how his campaign performed on TikTok.
While Trump may move to preserve TikTok in the United States, civil rights attorney and Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo noted that the court decision's "terrible precedent" is also a concern as he returns to office.
"This will be a test of the U.S.'s ability to shut down access to websites they dislike," Caraballo stressed. "Really bad to do with Trump in office! We could enter a new era of government censorship."
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