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Congress inches toward year-end government funding deal

Congressional negotiators are making a dash to scrounge together a bipartisan deal on how to fund the federal government for fiscal 2023, with just weeks on the clock until a looming shutdown deadline.  

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told The Hill on Wednesday that top negotiators on both sides have begun exchanging top-line figures for a potential omnibus funding package, but he added “it’s still an open question” whether Congress will pass such a bill next month. 

“The appropriators are trading, now negotiating, and Shelby and Leahy are engaged, and we’ll see if they can strike a deal,” Thune said, referring to ongoing talks between Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Vice Chair Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). 

Some negotiators say they’re encouraged by the progress, after funding talks slowed down in the weeks leading up to midterm elections amid anticipation over which party would lead Congress next year. But there is rising uncertainty over what funding bill Congress will manage to pass before the year’s end.

Lawmakers have until Dec. 16, when current funding is set to lapse, to pass legislation to keep the government running or risk shutdown. However, negotiators say it’s likely Congress will pass a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), punting the deadline through around Dec. 23, if talks require more time. 

But there is division within the GOP over whether to kick the deadline further to allow the next Congress, when the House will usher in a new Republican-led majority, more sway in setting the new funding levels.

Republicans pushing for a delay in new government spending until the next year say the move is necessary to deny Democrats potentially their last chance at shaping government spending after two years of narrow control in Congress.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is among the senators behind the push, told The Hill on Tuesday that Congress should instead pass a CR that lasts “until early next year, so the newly elected Congress can enact the priorities that the voters elected them to enact.”

That idea has generated pushback from others in the party who say the strategy could hurt funding for key GOP priorities such as defense, however. Others opposing the idea have also cited the coming retirements of Leahy and Shelby as reasons for appropriators to finish their work this year to provide a fresh start for the next Congress.

Some Republicans have also been hesitant to share a position on whether they would support an omnibus in recent days, as they await more details from negotiations. However, Republicans are pressing for spending cuts outside of defense spending in any deal that leaders finalize to gain their support.

“It’s very important that we pass a budget that adequately funds defense, but represents overall a reduction in our spending growth and our debt accumulation,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told The Hill on Wednesday.

“The Democrats just spent this last year cramming through their domestic priorities at a tune of $700 billion that helped programs across the United States,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said Wednesday. “We voted no on that. It was all done through reconciliation and through their priorities. That should be considered when we take a look at, now, spending on national defense.”

Politico reported on Wednesday that House and Senate negotiators agreed on a budget top line of $847 billion for national defense as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023. 

Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) declined comment on the report in remarks to reporters on Wednesday. Shelby also wouldn’t comment on the figure when pressed on the report.

“We’re not completely done yet,” Reed told The Hill.

Source: TEST FEED1

These are the House members who broke from their parties on rail strike legislation

A handful of Democrats and Republicans bucked their parties in votes Wednesday on resolutions to avert a rail strike and provide workers with seven days of paid sick leave.

The first measure, which would institute an agreement to avoid a rail worker walkout next month, passed in a 290-137 vote. It was the same tentative agreement that the two largest rail unions, with the help of the Biden administration, negotiated in September.

Eight Democrats crossed party lines and voted against the bill, and 79 Republicans supported it.

Democratic “no” votes included Reps. Judy Chu (Calif.), Mark DeSaulnier (Calif.), Jared Golden (Maine), Donald Norcross (N.J.), Mary Peltola (Alaska), Mark Pocan (Wis.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Norma Torres (Calif.).

While House Republican leadership did not formally whip votes for the measure, the majority of the conference — 129 members — voted against the bill. Votes in support came from more moderate GOP lawmakers, like Reps. Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), Chris Jacobs (N.Y.) and Fred Upton (Mich.).

The chamber also passed a separate resolution on Wednesday that would allocate seven days of paid sick leave to rail workers per year, responding to the main qualm many workers had with the tentative agreement. Union leaders requested 15 days of paid sick leave, but the tentative agreement presented them with only one more personal day.

House members approved the second resolution in a 221-207 vote, with three Republicans crossing the aisle to vote “yes” with all Democrats present. GOP Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and John Katko (N.Y.) supported the measure.

Part of the Democratic opposition to the first resolution stemmed from the agreement’s lack of paid sick leave. Chu said she could not support the measure unless the resolution allocating seven days of paid sick days were included.

“While the tentative agreement reached in September includes many increased benefits for these rail workers, it includes only one additional personal day for those working around the clock for our nation’s railroads,” Chu said in a statement. “I challenge anyone who has ever woken up with the flu, or been infected with COVID, or had to stay home to care for a sick child, to argue that paid time off is not essential.”

Peltola, who won a special election over the summer and her first full term this month, told NBC News in an interview on Tuesday, “I just don’t think it’s right or fair to expect workers to go to work sick as a dog without being able to have a few days to recover.”

Tlaib sounded a similar note.

“Every worker in America deserves paid sick leave. Rail workers are essential employees and worked hard through a global pandemic without a single paid sick day—this is unconscionable,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Michigan Democrat also noted that four unions had rejected the tentative agreement included in the first resolution.

“If the rail industry wants to avert a national rail strike, then they should provide their employees with guaranteed paid sick leave. As for the Democratic party, if we are going to be the party of the working class, we need to stand with workers every time,” she said.

Other Democrats who voted “no” were opposed to Congress intervening in the rail union’s contract negotiations.

“We should be supporting their fight, and I do not believe that Congress should be dictating the results of a union contract negotiations process,” Torres said in a statement, which also pointed out the lack of paid sick days. “I am aware of, and deeply troubled by, the impact that a national rail strike would have, but I cannot in good conscience undermine our working men and women who are simply seeking dignity and respect.”

“I believe that this is not the time to remove the collective bargaining rights of America’s rail workers. Negotiations should continue!” Norcross wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Norcross also told The Hill that the congressman did not agree with imposing a contract on workers that does not include paid sick leave.

Golden told The Hill that by rushing the bill through the House, “Congress undermines the fundamental bargaining power of workers and unions across the country.”

“The right to bargain for fair wages and humane working conditions is a bright red line for me,” he added.

On the second resolution, Bacon said he voted to provide rail workers with seven days of paid sick leave per year “because ‘quality of life’ is just as important as a pay raise.”

“I think it’s fair that rail workers be offered the opportunity to address the health needs of themselves and their families as they arise. The House of Representatives offers sick and vacation time to all of its employees, and I believe our railroad workers deserve the same,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1

House panel gets Trump tax returns

The House Ways and Committee has received former President Trump’s tax returns, ending Democrats’ multiyear legal battle to obtain the documents, multiple outlets reported on Wednesday.

The reports indicate the Treasury Department has complied with the committee’s request after the Supreme Court last week rejected Trump’s emergency appeal to stop the handover, effectively capping his years-long opposition to the effort.

House Democrats had argued that they needed to probe the IRS’s presidential audits, but Trump’s attorneys repeatedly pushed back and suggested the request was purely political.

Trump in 2016 bucked the tradition of presidential candidates releasing their tax returns, which are kept confidential unless the citizen themself publishes them — or if lawmakers request the documents.

That secrecy spawned the request from the Ways and Means Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), for Trump’s personal tax returns from 2013 through 2018 and those for eight business entities he controlled.

The Hill has reached out to the Treasury Department and the committee for comment.

The former president argued the request was unconstitutional.

A Trump-appointed federal trial judge first dismissed Trump’s suit late last year, a ruling later affirmed by the D.C.-based federal appeals court before the former president asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

Chief Justice John Roberts at the start of the month temporarily blocked the release of Trump’s tax returns for the full court to consider the matter, and with no noted dissents, the justices rejected Trump’s appeal on Nov. 22.

“Why would anybody be surprised that the Supreme Court has ruled against me, they always do!” Trump wrote on Truth Social following the high court’s ruling. 

“It is unprecedented to be handing over Tax Returns, & it creates terrible precedent for future Presidents. Has Joe Biden paid taxes on all of the money he made illegally from Hunter & beyond,” Trump added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Powell: Fed will keep raising rates, but at slower pace

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday the central bank will keep raising interest rates to fight inflation but at a slower pace, signaling a slow-down in rate hikes that have raised costs on new mortgages and car payments to slow the economy.

In a Wednesday speech, Powell said that despite a recent slowdown in price growth officials are looking for “substantially more evidence to give comfort that inflation is actually declining.” 

“Despite some promising developments, we have a long way to go in restoring price stability,” Powell said in a speech hosted by The Brookings Institution.

Powell said the Fed would keep raising interest rates and maintain them at levels meant to restrict the economy until inflation was on track to hit the Fed’s 2 percent annual target. 

But Powell added that the Fed will likely slow the pace of rate hikes as soon as December after previous increases pushed the U.S. economy to the edge of a recession. 

“We have a risk management balance to strike. We think slowing down at this point is a good way to balance the risks,” Powell said.

The Fed began a historically aggressive battle against inflation earlier this year after keeping rates near zero since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Over six consecutive meetings since March, the Fed boosted its baseline interest rate range to 3.75 to 4 percent, including four straight hikes of 0.75 percentage points in its most recent four meetings.

Some federal measures of inflation have shown signs of stabilizing in recent months as the combined toll of high prices and swift rate hikes slow the economy. 

Powell said Wednesday the Fed expects its preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index minus food and energy, to have risen 6 percent over the past 12 months. That would be a 0.2 percentage point drop from September’s 6.2 percent annual increase in core prices. 

Economists expect inflation to keep falling further as the economy continues to slow and runs into headwinds caused by a recession in Europe. But 6 percent annual inflation, Powell added, is still “much too high” and would require the Fed to keep slowing the economy through rate hikes.

“Forecasts have been predicting just such a decline for more than a year, while inflation has moved stubbornly sideways. The truth is that the path ahead for inflation remains highly uncertain,” Powell said.

Some economists and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers have urged the Fed to stop raising interest rates over fears the bank could drive the U.S. into a recession. While many economic forecasters believe the U.S. will experience a mild slowdown in early 2023, others believe the Fed could still avoid a full-blown recession by easing off the brakes of the economy.

Critics of the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes also say the higher rates will do little to solve key sources of higher prices, such as the food and energy shocks created by the war in Ukraine, while putting millions of vulnerable Americans out of work.

Powell acknowledged that the U.S. economy has not yet felt the full impact of the Fed’s previous rate hikes—let alone the ones that lie ahead—and could face a steep slowdown. He said the notorious lags in monetary policy means it “makes sense” for the Fed to slow its rate hikes and assess how much further it needs to go.

Even so, Powell made clear the risks of a recession will not keep the bank from raising rates high enough and keeping them elevated long enough to bring inflation back down to the Fed’s 2 percent annual target.

“It is likely that restoring price stability will require holding policy at a restrictive level for some time. History cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy. We will stay the course until the job is done,” Powell said.

Source: TEST FEED1

House passes bill to avert rail strike

The House passed a bill on Wednesday to avert a railway strike, taking the first major step in avoiding a walkout of workers that would have drastic effects on the U.S. economy as it heads into the holiday season.

The chamber passed the resolution in a 290-137 vote, sending it to the Senate for consideration just over one week out from the Dec. 9 strike deadline. Seventy-nine Republicans supported the measure, and eight Democrats voted “no.”

Lawmakers are now set to vote on a separate measure that would give rail workers seven days of paid sick leave per year, addressing a chief concern unions and progressives had with the agreement.

President Biden on Monday called on Congress to intervene in the impasse that had union leaders and rail workers at odds and brought the U.S. closer and closer to a rail strike, which threatened to cripple the economy and ravage supply chains. 

He huddled with the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday in part to discuss how Congress could help avert the strike.

Shortly after Biden’s plea, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the House would consider such a measure. Congress has the authority to intervene in rail labor disputes in accordance with a 1926 law, titled the Railway Labor Act, as a way to prevent disturbances in interstate commerce.

The resolution passed on Wednesday was a tentative agreement negotiated by the two largest rail unions in September with help from the Biden administration. It provides workers with 24 percent raises over five years and allows them to take time off for medical appointments without being penalized, a key sticking point.

During debate on the House floor Wednesday, Pelosi underscored the dangers that would come with a rail strike.

“Let me be clear: A nationwide rail shutdown would be catastrophic,” she said. “A shutdown would grind our economy to a halt, and every family would feel the strain.”

“Time is of the essence. We must act now,” she added.

The resolution, however, was not immediately embraced by all Democrats. Some liberal lawmakers were initially cool to approving the agreement because of the lack of sick leave benefits. Union leaders had asked for 15 days of paid sick leave, but the tentative agreement only allocated one additional personal day, which sparked displeasure from union workers and some Democrats.

Pelosi’s decision to hold a vote on a separate bill that would give workers seven days of paid sick leave per year, however, assuaged concerns.

“Every worker deserves paid sick leave. I am proud of our efforts to negotiate a deal that guarantees seven days of paid sick leave for our rail workers,” Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement Wednesday morning. “I now urge all my colleagues to stand by workers and vote yes for paid sick leave.”

While a number Republicans were supportive of the tentative agreement, recognizing that there was little time and few other options to avert a strike, some used the moment as an opportunity to criticize Biden and his administration for failing to lead the two parties toward a deal and having to get Congress involved.

The agreement lawmakers approved on Wednesday was the same deal that averted the strike that was set to take place in mid-September. While unions won several concessions not included in previous proposals, the tentative deal did not provide any paid sick days, prompting outrage among rank-and-file workers and liberals on Capitol Hill. 

Biden on Monday called on Congress to force through the deal without any changes, drawing criticism from rail workers and progressives.

Democrats believed that a modified deal wouldn’t win enough GOP support to reach 60 votes in the Senate. Amid the September strike threat, Senate Republicans sought to push through a contract that included fewer labor priorities than the Biden-negotiated proposal.

Democrats changed course after momentum for paid sick leave gained traction among lawmakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and a handful of other Senate Republicans. 

Eight of the 12 rail unions have already ratified contracts with railroads, while the two largest unions were split on the Biden-led deal. Workers at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen voted to ratify it, while train and engine workers at SMART-TD narrowly voted it down. 

All of the nation’s 115,000 rail workers would be set to strike on Dec. 9 without congressional intervention, as railroads refused to budge on the paid sick leave demand. 

As soon as this weekend, railroads would begin winding down some of their services, leaving products stranded and prompting commuter rail line cancellations. 

A national rail shutdown would wreak havoc on strained supply chains and drive up prices, inflicting an estimated $2 billion in economic damage per day, according to the Association of American Railroads.  

Nearly one-third of U.S. freight, including large amounts of fuel, food, water and fertilizer, is transported by rail. Trucking and other modes of transportation don’t have the capacity or infrastructure to take on more cargo.  

Corporate lobbying groups urged lawmakers to intervene this week, warning that they could not afford to allow the strike threat to disrupt the busy holiday season. 

“Shutting down our rail system, even for one day, would have a significant impact on U.S. gasoline supply and could lead to higher prices for American consumers and businesses ahead of the holiday,” American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers told reporters Tuesday. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Corporate profits hit record high in third quarter amid 40-year-high inflation

Corporate profits in the nonfinancial sector hit a record high of $2.08 trillion in the third quarter even as 40-year-high inflation continues to squeeze American consumers.

Profits adjusted for inventories and capital consumption rose $6.1 trillion from the second to third fiscal quarters, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, continuing a red-hot recovery from the flash recession caused by pandemic shutdowns.

Following a two-quarter dip in 2020, quarterly profits have surged by more than 80 percent over the last two years from around $1.2 trillion to more than $2 trillion, adding weight to arguments that the private sector is driving inflation by exploiting consumer expectations to keep prices elevated.

The “Fed should make clear that rising profit margins are spurring inflation,” UBS chief economist of global wealth management Paul Donovan wrote in the Financial Times in November, asking Fed chair Jerome Powell to elucidate this point as he shepherds the U.S. central bank to raise interest rates and slow economic activity.

“Companies have passed higher costs on to customers. But they have also taken advantage of circumstances to expand profit margins. The broadening of inflation beyond commodity prices is more profit margin expansion than wage cost pressures,” he wrote, adding that “resilience in demand has given companies the confidence to raise prices faster than costs.”

Companies in a wide variety of business sectors openly express this confidence on earnings calls with investors, 

“I’m optimistic that with time, the market — and we’ve proven this, I think, over the years that the markets will come back into balance, but it is a function of time. I think in the short term, everyone will squeeze what they can,” Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said during his company’s third quarter earnings call, as transcribed by financial media company The Motley Fool.

Pepsi Co. financial chief Hugh Johnston said on his own company’s third-quarter earnings call that his company “is capable of taking whatever pricing we need.”

Corporate profits are getting scrutiny from Congress.

At a hearing of the economic and consumer policy subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee in September, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said that the dynamics of supply and demand are simply not enough to explain why corporate profits are so high.

“Since early 2021, Americans have been suffering from rising prices caused by global supply chain disruptions and changing demand patterns due to the pandemic. Even combined with traditional supply and demand factors, however, these elements are insufficient to totally explain why inflation remains elevated,” he said.

“There are other factors that contribute to inflation that have not received enough attention. One of those factors is extreme price hikes – in other words, companies raising prices far more than required to offset higher costs even when accounting for shifts in supply and demand, resulting in the highest profit margins we have ever seen in the last 70 years,” he added.

Economic advocacy organizations have been sounding the alarm about the effect of sky-high profit margins on American consumers.

“Today’s record corporate profits mirror what we have been hearing on earnings call after earnings call: Corporations are gleefully reporting that their strategy to burden families with unnecessary price hikes is working,” Rakeen Mabud, economist with the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a Wednesday statement.

“Powerful corporations in concentrated industries will keep prices sky high until lawmakers rein them in,” she added.

Some economists have stressed that while rising corporate profit margins are happening along with inflation, they’re more of a byproduct as well as an ancillary cause than the primary driver.

“I am personally pretty skeptical about the ‘greedflation’ narrative,” Harvard economics PhD student Gabriel Unger, co-author of an influential paper about increasing private-sector markups over the past 40 years, wrote in an email to The Hill in July.

“It’s true that markups (and market concentration) have been rising sharply since around 1980. But over almost this whole period, up until the pandemic, inflation has been historically very low,” he wrote. “So for most of the past 40 years, we’ve had an economy with high and rising markups, and very low inflation. It’s possible that in the absence of the former, inflation might have been slightly lower, but I still think this suggests it’s unlikely that high markups on their own cause an explosion of inflation.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Marjorie Taylor Greene condemns Fuentes, remarks on Trump, Yiannopoulos

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is condemning white nationalist Nick Fuentes and defending former President Trump after a dinner he had with the rapper Kanye West, who now goes by Ye; Fuentes and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

She also reflected on her past interactions with Fuentes and Yiannopoulos, which have resurfaced in the aftermath of the dinner.

Greene spoke at a conference hosted by Fuentes earlier this year, and Yiannopoulos was an unpaid intern in her office this year.

In a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, Greene said that she agreed with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) statement on Friday that Fuentes’s views have “no place in the Republican Party.”

She said she spoke with Trump and talked with people on his staff after news of the dinner broke.

“President Trump had no idea he [Fuentes] was even coming. So that’s unfortunate,” Greene said. 

She said that Trump’s team is making “big changes over who can come in and the vetting process, which I think is smart. Any former president should have that in place.”

Greene said that knowing what she knows now about Fuentes, she would not have spoken at his conference — but does not regret her message to those in the audience.

“I don’t regret talking to the kids that were there because I don’t understand why they follow him. But would I have gone to his event? No,” Greene said. “I’m worried about kids that would follow him. And that’s a shame. … But no, I don’t want to have anything to do with him.”

Greene said that before she spoke at the Fuentes event, her understanding was that it would be a group of 1,000 to 1,200 college students.  

“My thinking was, of course I want to talk to these kids. And I gave, you know, the same speech I gave there as I would anywhere. I’m proud of the speech I gave there. It’s on video. I never said anything wrong,” Greene said.

“What I did find out is I saw some videos of his in the past week because I asked my staff, ‘Can you pull some videos? I don’t even know how to watch this guy,’” Greene said. “And they showed me some videos. I could not believe the stuff he says. I mean, it was shocking.”

Greene wondered who is funding Fuentes, and whether Ye is paying him.

Also present at the dinner with Trump was Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart editor who was banned from Twitter in 2016 in connection with a campaign of racist harassment against actress Leslie Jones. Yiannopoulos was an unpaid intern in Greene’s congressional office earlier this year.  

“I talk to him [Yiannopoulos] occasionally because he actually lives in Rome [Ga.] in the same town I live in,” Greene said. “I had no idea they were going down there [to Mar-a-Lago]. And I found out about it, basically, like everybody else did on Twitter.”

In an appearance with YouTuber Tim Pool this week — before Ye walked off set after being challenged on his antisemitic views — Ye said that he got connected to Yiannopoulos through a producer for far-right radio host Alex Jones. Yiannopoulos said he then brought Fuentes in to join Ye’s fringe political entourage as the rapper plans a 2024 presidential bid.

An NBC News report on Tuesday said that Yiannopoulos, who said in 2020 that he felt “betrayed” by Trump and pledged “vengeance,” had “arranged the dinner ‘just to make Trump’s life miserable’ because news of the dinner would leak and Trump would mishandle it.”

Asked what she thought of the NBC report and the prospect that Yiannopoulos would try to make Trump look bad, Greene said: “I would hope not. I think that’s a shame.”

Greene has endorsed Trump for president in 2024.

Source: TEST FEED1

In historic vote, Democrats pick Jeffries to replace Pelosi as party leader

House Democrats on Wednesday elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to head the party in the next Congress, marking a generational shift after 20 years under the reign of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) while making Jeffries the first Black figure to lead either party in Congress in the nation’s history. 

The shift was no surprise. After Pelosi and her top deputies announced earlier in the month that they would step out of the top three leadership spots next year, Jeffries was one of three next-generation leaders who quickly swept in to solidify their place as uncontested contenders atop the party brass.

One of the other lawmakers, Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), was elected to serve as chair of the House Democratic Caucus after running unopposed. The third prong of the trio, Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), is poised to be chosen as the next Democratic whip on Wednesday. She is also running unopposed.

Clark will replace Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) as the second-ranking Democrat next year, while Aguilar will fill the vacancy left by Rep. Jim Clyburn (S.C.) at the No. 3 spot. 

None of the new leaders faced an opponent, creating the sense that Wednesday’s proceedings were more coronation than election. 

That did nothing to temper the celebratory tone from Democrats.

Jeffries, for his part, insists he hasn’t had much time to reflect on the historic significance of his leadership role, saying he’s focused instead on the Democrats’ transition to the minority and “the solemn responsibility” he’s about to assume. 

“The best thing that we can do as a result of the seriousness and solemnity of the moment, is lean in hard and do the best damn job that we can for people,” he said. 

Other Democrats aren’t being so modest, particularly those in the Congressional Black Caucus, where Jeffries’s rise is being cheered as another major milestone in the long hard fight for civil rights. 

“As an African American, it sends a message out to this country that it’s time for real diversity and inclusion. And there are so many people of color who are capable and competent and can lead,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a 32-year veteran and highly influential member of the Black Caucus. “This will be a great image for people of color, and for Black people and little Black boys to be able to aspire to a position as high as that.”

Jeffries’ ascension means Democrats will have a Brooklyn native leading both the House and the Senate, where Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is poised to remain the majority leader after Democrats held onto their upper-chamber majority in the midterms. 

Jeffries said he has “a great relationship” with Schumer, who spent almost two decades in the House before moving to the Senate. Yet asked if he’s excited to have Brooklyn so well represented in Congress, Jeffries was coy. 

“There’s a lot of excitement in Brooklyn about that,” he said. 

Schumer, for his part, is looking forward to the partnership.

“I can’t wait to talk to my neighbor from Brooklyn four or six times a day like I did with Speaker Pelosi,” the Senate leader said on the floor Wednesday morning.

The votes came after a midterm cycle when Democrats lost control of the House, but performed much better than the polls and pundits had predicted, leaving Republicans with just a slim majority in the next Congress — and creating plenty of headaches for GOP leaders trying to unify their restive conference behind the party’s priorities. 

Jeffries officially launched his bid for Democratic leader one day after Pelosi, in a highly anticipated speech from the House floor, announced that she would not seek a leadership position in the next Congress, putting an expiration date on her historic, two decade reign at the top of the Democratic caucus.

Shortly after, the Speaker’s two lieutenants — Hoyer and Clyburn — also announced they would not seek to remain in the top posts in the caucus, paving the way for a new generation of Democrats to lead the party.

Jeffries has long been seen as a successor to Pelosi. The Brooklyn Democrat has had a rapid rise in the ranks since he arrived in Washington in 2013, becoming co-chair of the caucus’ messaging arm and, later on, chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

He narrowly beat Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) for party chair in 2018 in a tight race, putting him on the path to leader that is just now coming to a headway.

The sitting “big three” in the Democratic caucus quickly endorsed Jeffries to head the party in the House shortly after he announced his bid. Hoyer hailed him as “an effective and historic champion,” and, before Jeffries announced his bid, Clyburn called the New York Democrat “absolutely fantastic.”

Source: TEST FEED1

CNN announces layoffs amid difficult year

Layoffs at CNN are underway.

Network CEO Chris Licht wrote to staff on Wednesday to inform employees the process of letting an unspecified number of staffers go had begun and that more information on who would be affected would be forthcoming.

Licht, who took over as head of the network this summer, initially said he had not planned to administer layoffs during his first year leading the massive global media company.

Then in October, Licht told employees to expect a number of staff changes and cost cutting measures, including layoffs, before the end of the year.

“This is an organization that has had gut punch after gut punch after gut punch,” Licht said during a town hall at the time. “And most of the organizations out there wouldn’t have survived.”

The belt tightening at CNN comes as most all major media companies are bracing for the economic impact of rising inflation, decreasing ad revenue and concerns from investors about the broader economic outlook.

The New York Times reported earlier this year that people familiar with the company’s finances estimated CNN is on track to miss its 2022 profitability target of $1.1 billion by more than $100 million.

The cuts at CNN also come amid recent drops in ratings across cable news more generally but at CNN most acutely.

Licht was hired as part of a massive media merger between CNN’s parent company WarnerBros. and Discovery and has said he does not want his staffers “chasing ratings” but instead “chasing stories.”

One of Licht’s first moves after taking over at CNN was shuttering its highly promoted streaming paid streaming service, CNN+, less than a month after launch, a decision that left a number of staffers at the network unsettled about the company’s future. 

Licht has also ushered out or moved around a number of high-profile front-facing talent that had during former network president Jeff Zucker’s tenure become known for intense criticism of former President Trump.

The new network boss revamped the channel’s morning news program earlier this fall and still has a major hole in primetime to fill at 9 p.m., where CNN has yet to announce a permanent host to replace Chris Cuomo, who was fired last year amid personal and professional conduct scrutiny that ultimately led to Zucker’s ouster. 

Licht said this month any buzz inside CNN that he and the company’s new corporate ownership are trying to pull CNN’s editorial direction to the center is “bullshit” and argued his focus is on improving the network’s journalism. 

During an interview with the journalist Kara Swisher earlier this month, Licht said he takes ownership for any job cuts and its effect on the network.

“Look, these are my cuts,” he said. “I own this. This is my strategy and if I thought that there was a cut that somehow I was getting pushed to do something that I thought would be, in the, not in the interest of this company, I would push back hard, and I’ve not had to do that.”

Source: TEST FEED1