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Haley says DeSantis didn't go 'far enough' with 'Don't Say Gay'

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) on Thursday criticized the so-called Don’t Say Gay measure signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last year, saying it doesn’t go “far enough.”

“Basically, what it said was you shouldn’t be able to talk about gender before third grade,” Haley said at a town hall in Exeter, N.H., according to Fox News. “I’m sorry, I don’t think that goes far enough.”

“When I was in school you didn’t have sex ed until seventh grade. And even then, your parents had to sign whether you could take the class,” she added. “That’s a decision for parents to make,”

Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its opponents, bars classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. The law has faced intense national backlash amid accusations that it stifles free speech and targets the LGBTQ community.

Haley announced her 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday, becoming the first Republican to officially challenge former President Trump for the party’s nomination. DeSantis is widely expected to enter the race as well.

“I think Ron’s been a good governor. I just think that third grade’s too young,” Haley said in an interview with Fox News Digital after the New Hampshire event. “We should not be talking to kids in elementary school about gender, period.”

“And if you are going to talk to kids about it, you need to get the parents’ permission to do that,” she continued. “That is something between a parent and a child. That is not something that schools need to be teaching.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Fox News hosts, execs privately blasted Trump election fraud claims shared on network, court documents show

A court filing made public late Thursday shows top executives at Fox News and leading hosts on the network privately dismissing former President Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the days that followed the 2020 presidential election, expressing worry about how fact checks of the president’s assertions might upset the network’s audience.

Top network hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham in text messages referred to the voter fraud allegations made by Trump and his associates as “insane” while network leadership debated how rebuking those claims on the air might hurt the conservative media giant’s reputation with its viewers, according to the filing. 

Correspondence and testimony from top talent and executives at the network were made public as part of an ongoing defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting System against Fox News and its parent company, seeking $1.6 Billion in damages, for what the voting software company says was Fox’s broadcasting of information about it that the network’s leaders knew were false. 

Fox, in legal filings and public statements, has countered that the president’s allegations about voter fraud were newsworthy but has, so far, unsuccessfully moved to have the case dismissed on First Amendment grounds. 

“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan,” the network said in a statement in response to the revelations. 

The correspondence and testimony made public this week, some of which was redacted and first reported by The New York Times, paints the most detailed accounting yet of how top brass at the nation’s leading cable news channel struggled to cover election fraud claims being put forth by the president of the United States and his allies in the weeks after the election. 

“Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” Carlson wrote in one text message to Ingraham, the court filing shows. 

“Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” Ingraham responded.

Carlson wrote back “it’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it.” 

On Nov. 21, Carlson texted an unidentified Fox employee that it was “shockingly reckless” of Powell to claim the election had been stolen from Trump. 

Attempts to fact-check claims of voter fraud coming from Trump and his associates on air also did not sit well with some leaders at the network, the filing shows. 

On Nov. 9, as the network was broadcasting a White House Press Briefing during which press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was making false statements about voter fraud, host Neil Cavuto cut away, telling his viewers he could not “in good countenance continue to show you this.” 

A Fox News brand team led by executive Raj Shah wrote to network leadership after the episode saying Cavuto’s action represented a “brand threat,” according to the filing.  

On Nov. 12, after Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich published a tweet disputing claims from Trump about Dominion, outlining how elections officials had determined the company did not engage in voter fraud, Carlson sent Hannity the reporter’s tweet saying “Please get her fired … It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” 

The concerns about Trump’s election claims extended to the top levels of Fox’s leadership, the filing shows.  

The day before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox Corp, wrote to Scott saying “it’s been suggested our prime time three should independently or together say something like the election is over and Joe Biden won,” adding it “would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election was stolen.”    

Murdoch wrote on another occasion that claims coming from Rudy Guliani should be “taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.” 

Days after the network was the first to call Arizona for President Biden on election night, a move that enraged the Trump campaign, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott wrote to another network executive criticizing its senior vice president and managing editor in Washington, over how the race call was handled, saying she found it “astonishing,” given it was this executive’s job to “protect the brand.” 

Fox, in a legal filing defending itself also filed this week, argued the network “fulfilled its commitment to inform fully and comment fairly,” on Trump’s election claims. 

A Fox spokesperson said Dominion has “mischaracterized the record, cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context, and spilled considerable ink on facts that are irrelevant under black-letter principles of defamation law.”

Fox’s lawyers have also argued that Dominion has overstated its valuation as it seeks more than a billion dollars in damages.  

“Some hosts viewed the president’s claims skeptically; others viewed them hopefully,” Fox’s filing reads. “All recognized them as profoundly newsworthy.”

A jury trial in Dominion’s case against Fox is expected to begin this spring.

Source: TEST FEED1

Under fire, Rick Scott changes plan to exempt Social Security, Medicare from sunsetting  

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has amended his 12-point Rescue America plan to say that his proposal to sunset all federal legislation in five years does not apply to Social Security, Medicare or the U.S. Navy. 

After taking relentless fire from President Biden, Democrats and even fellow Republicans, Scott has amended Point Six of his plan, which includes the sunset proposal, to make “specific exceptions of Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services.” 

“Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer and Sen. McConnell — As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the U.S. Navy,” Scott states in bolded language, addressing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

In an op-ed published Friday in The Washington Examiner, Scott said Democratic leaders and McConnell played “gotcha politics” with his plan.  

“I have never supported cutting Social Security or Medicare, ever. To say otherwise is a disingenuous Democrat lie from a very confused president. And Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is also well aware of that. It’s shallow gotcha politics, which is what Washington does,” Scott wrote.  

“Everyone outside of Washington perfectly understood what my plan was trying to accomplish, but that hasn’t stopped Washington politicians from doing what they do best — lying to you every chance they get. So, since the folks up here are clearly too confused and disingenuous to get it, I’ll put it down in black and white so they can read it, or have someone read it to them,” he added.  

Biden targeted Scott’s plan at his State of the Union address when he claimed, “some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years,” drawing boos and jeers from GOP lawmakers in the House chamber.  

Scott doubled down on his proposal to sunset all federal programs, insisting in a statement the day after Biden’s speech: “This is clearly and obviously an idea aimed at dealing with all the crazy new laws out Congress has been passing of late.”  

McConnell then on Tuesday disavowed that Senate Republicans would support cuts to Medicare and Social Security as part of negotiations to raise the debt limit or anytime soon.  

“It continues to come up. The president was talking about it in the State of the Union,” he told reporters. “So let me say it one more time. There is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security. Period.” 

McConnell and his allies blamed Scott’s plan, which he unveiled last year as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, for muddling the party’s message in the midterm election. 

McConnell and Scott traded blows over who was to blame for the GOP’s disappointing election performance during a leadership race in which Scott challenged McConnell for the top job.  

Scott argued his party leadership failed to lay out a clear agenda and that hurt GOP candidates.  

In his Friday op-ed, Scott accused the GOP establishment in Washington of being complicit in letting the federal government amass a huge debt.  

“One more inconvenient truth: Washington Republicans are as responsible for the massive increase in our national debt as Joe Biden and the Democrats. Too many Republicans have caved to the Democrats too many times, and the result is a $32 trillion bill that’s about to come due,” he wrote.  

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report — Biden aims to ease China tensions directly with Xi

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

President Biden on Thursday put China on public notice that surveillance balloons and any other high-altitude encroachments into U.S. airspace by China will be destroyed, adding he plans to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the recent incursion, which has strained relations between the two superpowers.

“I make no apologies for taking down that balloon,” Biden said during White House remarks, his first extensive discussion of his orders early this month to use a missile to bring down a Chinese spy balloon as well as three other unidentified aerial objects spotted on consecutive days beginning a week ago.

“We’ll also continue to engage with China, as we have throughout the past two weeks,” Biden said. “We’re not looking for a new Cold War.”

The president said the trio of smaller devices destroyed over Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron were “most likely” research or other equipment without “nefarious” aims, although the government does not know “exactly what these three objects were.”      

U.S. officials privately expect Secretary of State Antony Blinken to use a potential meeting with China’s top diplomat this weekend in Germany to de-escalate tensions over the balloon breach, although a meeting has not been announced between the secretary and Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, who delivers a speech in Munich today (Axios and Voice of America). Wang will end his European tour in Russia (Global Times).

Blinken had been scheduled to meet with Xi in Beijing earlier this month, but canceled when China’s balloon, known to the U.S. military in flight, suddenly became public knowledge as it drifted over Montana on its way to the Atlantic Ocean where it was shot down.

Biden on Thursday said three times that he wants to speak with Xi directly and “get to the bottom of this” (Bloomberg News).

Vice President Harris, who is participating at the Munich Security Conference along with Blinken, said this week that the U.S. shootdown of China’s surveillance balloon should not rupture diplomatic relations with Beijing. “We seek competition but not conflict or confrontation,” she told Politico.

The president is scheduled to be in Europe next week. On Tuesday, he will deliver an address in Warsaw, Poland, to mark a year of war since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. 

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: “Fit for duty” at 80, Biden’s physician says following routine physical exam.

▪ The Hill: ​​The White House brushed off Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s call for mental competency tests for presidential candidates 75 and older. 

▪ Politico: Senior Democrats’ private take on Biden: He’s too old (and Biden might announce his reelection in April).

▪ The Hill: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will leave government to lead the National Hockey League Players’ Association in mid-March.

▪ The Hill: As Biden nears a decision on whether to veto an International Trade Commission ruling to halt imports of the Apple Watch, the company is flexing its lobbying influence. 

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

A Fulton County, Ga., special grand jury investigating efforts by former President Trump and his allies to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia concluded that some witnesses may have lied under oath and recommended that charges be filed. Those witnesses were not identified in the five-page excerpt of the grand jury report made public Thursday, but the known targets in Georgia include former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and 16 Republicans who held a meeting to carry out the fake elector plot by voting to certify the election for Trump.

“A majority of the grand jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it,” the report reads. “The grand jury recommends that the district attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”

The investigation in Atlanta has been seen as one of the most significant legal threats to the former president, given his personal role in pressuring Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss in the state. The Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, said recently that a decision about possible charges was “imminent” and the grand jury concluded unanimously that there was no evidence of voter fraud in the state (The Hill, The New York Times and The Washington Post).

▪ The New York Times: Who is the Georgia prosecutor bringing the case?

▪ The Hill: New poll shows 7 in 10 think Trump intentionally held on to classified documents.

▪ The Atlantic: How to beat Trump in a debate.

Former Vice President Mike Pence hints at a 2024 run: Nikki Haley “may have more company soon” (Politico).

▪ Roll Call: Amid 2024 speculation, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) speaks of racial and partisan splits.

▪ ABC News: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), outspoken about his own party, weighs reelection run.

➤ CONGRESS 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is feeling pressure from Republicans on the panel to slow down the pace of judicial confirmations after Democrats confirmed Biden’s 100th court pick this week. As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton writes, Graham supported 107 of Biden’s nominations in the last Congress, but with less than two years left in Biden’s first term — and Republicans eyeing a chance to win back the White House — conservatives want Graham to slam the brakes.  

Vox: How Biden could surpass Trump’s record on judges.

House Republicans, meanwhile, are turning the U.S.-Mexico border into something of an extension campus, holding multiple hearings and events there to raise alarm about security enforcement, drug trafficking, and immigration policies, The Hill’s Emily Brooks reports. The House Energy and Commerce investigations and health subcommittees held a joint field hearing in McAllen, Texas on Wednesday. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) led a group of freshman House Republicans on a border trip to Cochise County, Ariz., on Thursday. 

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in Yuma, Ariz., next week, and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) wants to hire full-time staff members to be based near the U.S.-Mexico border.

▪ NPR: McCarthy leads first border trip in his new role. Critics call it a photo op.

▪ The Hill: White House hits GOP for “partisan publicity stunts” ahead of border visits.

A new budget report pushing the insolvency date for Social Security to within a decade is prompting fresh unease among senators and an increasing urgency to act, writes The Hill’s Aris Folley. In its latest budget outlook report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund, which pays out retirement and survivors’ benefits, would be exhausted in 2032, a year sooner than the agency previously expected. 

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday expressed concern about the development, telling The Hill it raises the stakes for Congress to act sooner on shoring up solvency for the program. But lawmakers have long been wary about touching Social Security and there has been little visible unity on Capitol Hill on the issue, other than promises from both parties to not touch the popular program, and with public attention higher in recent weeks, a partisan feud has begun to heat up over entitlements on Capitol Hill as both sides clash over how to address the nation’s debt limit.

The bottom line: Both sides of the aisle know that Medicare and Social Security need reforms, but those changes aren’t happening anytime soon.

NPR: How seniors could lose in the Medicare political wars.

After 2011’s near-default, Democrats are rejecting tying budget negotiations to debt ceiling talks while Republicans say that is the only way. The two parties have drawn opposing lessons from the past debt limit standoff (The Wall Street Journal). 

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Wednesday night “checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression,” his chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, said in a statement. “While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks.”

Fetterman, who suffered a stroke last year before winning the Pennsylvania Senate race in a highly competitive contest, was hospitalized earlier this month after feeling lightheaded but his office said tests ruled out another stroke. Senate Democrats on Thursday instantly rallied around Fetterman (NBC News and The Hill).

“Happy to hear @SenFettermanPA is getting the help he needs and deserves. Millions of Americans, like John, struggle with depression each day,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote on Twitter. “I am looking forward to seeing him return to the Senate soon.” 

Senate Banking Committee member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) says he wants Biden to name a Hispanic nominee to the Federal Reserve to succeed Vice Chair Lael Brainard in order to add diversity to the board (Punchbowl News). Brainard is leaving the central bank to lead Biden’s National Economic Council, and economic candidates for the Fed vacancy include Austan Goolsbee, president since January of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Goolsbee first appeared in national news headlines as an economic policy adviser during the presidential campaign of then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). He is a former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (The Wall Street Journal). 

Meanwhile, embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who faces legal questions about the accuracy of his campaign financial disclosure reports and flagrant résumé padding, insisted this week that he will not leave Congress. He suggests he may seek a second term, an idea that gives GOP leaders the shivers. The Federal Election Commission this week told the congressman to identify a new treasurer for his campaign and several affiliated political committees, warning that his failure to do so will bar the groups from raising or spending any money (The Hill).

Here are federal, state and even international entities examining Santos’s actions (The Hill): Nassau and Queens counties in New York, the New York attorney general’s office, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the Brazilian government. House GOP colleagues who consider him a liability and embarrassment say Santos could be pushed out if he’s found guilty of violating the law.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

China on Thursday retaliated against Lockheed and Raytheon for weapons sales to Taiwan, a day after Beijing vowed to take “countermeasures” in response to Washington’s handling of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that entered U.S. airspace in January. The companies will be added to China’s sanctions list, and will be banned from importing, exporting and investing in China. Both companies are also subject to fines “twice the amount” of their arms sales to Taiwan dating back to September 2020, and their senior executives will be prohibited from entering and working in China (CNN). 

As Russia steps up its offensive in eastern Ukraine, weeks of failed attacks on a Ukrainian stronghold have left two Russian brigades in tatters, raised questions about Moscow’s military tactics and renewed doubts about its ability to maintain sustained, large-scale ground assaults. In recent weeks, the Kremlin has rushed tens of thousands more troops, many of them inexperienced new recruits, to the front lines as President Vladimir Putin’s forces seek to demonstrate progress before the anniversary of his invasion on Feb. 24. But Western officials estimate that a large part of Russia’s army is already fighting in Ukraine (The New York Times and The Hill).

▪ International Institute for Strategic Studies: The military balance 2023: analyzing Russia and Ukraine’s military forces and China’s military modernization.

▪ CBS News: Russia’s Wagner chief says no more prison recruits as group’s role in Ukraine war shrinks.

▪ The Washington Post: In wake of Ukraine war, U.S. and allies are hunting down Russian spies.

▪ CNN: Why Ukraine thinks Russia will launch a new offensive from Belarus.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Belarus leader stands by Putin and is prepared to aid more Russian attacks on Ukraine.

The tiny city of Ezrin in Turkey’s southern Hatay province is an oasis of safety and normality while life throughout the region has been overturned by last week’s earthquake. Residents and officials say Erzin suffered no deaths and saw no buildings collapse, and they credit a long-standing determination not to allow construction that violated the country’s codes. Emre Tibikoglu, 39, who has been working for the municipality for six years, said he believed 20,000 people had flocked to Erzin since the earthquake, about a 50 percent increase in the town’s population. 

“We know we are in an earthquake area,” he said, citing the insistence of the current mayor and previous ones not to allow buildings that failed to meet construction codes to be put up. He said that whenever officials realized there were buildings that had been illegally built, they would get them taken down (NBC News).

▪ NPR: The earthquake in Turkey and Syria offers lessons and reminders for disaster response.

▪ Reuters: Syria’s quake response needs outstrip resources, President Bashar al-Assad says.

OPINION

■ Who’s afraid of Black history? by Henry Louis Gates Jr., guest essayist, The New York Times. https://nyti.ms/3xvcvtG 

■ Beauty, lies & ChatGPT: Welcome to the post-truth world, by Subbarao Kambhampati, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3k16mSX

WHERE AND WHEN

📲 Ask The Hill: Share a news query tied to an expert journalist’s insights: The Hill launched something new and (we hope) engaging via text with Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack. Learn more and sign up HERE.

The House will convene for a pro forma session at 10 a.m. 

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the Oval Office at 10:15 a.m.

Vice President Harris is in Germany participating in the Munich Security Conference, where she will join the leaders of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Finland and Sweden. The vice president will meet this evening with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, President Emmanuel Macron of France and host a reception at the Commerzbank with members of the U.S. Congress who traveled to Munich for the conference. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) are among the members of the large U.S. delegation. Harris will deliver a speech to the conferees on Saturday.  

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Germany. He will be in Turkey beginning on Sunday and in Greece next week. The secretary today meets in Munich with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at 4:45 p.m. local time. He will meet at 7:10 p.m. local time with Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

First lady Jill Biden will travel to Valparaiso, Ind., to discuss career-connected learning during a visit to Ivy Tech Community College at 1 p.m. She will be accompanied by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is in Houston this morning where he and Isabella Guzman, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, will meet with the owners of Bismillah Restaurant and Café, followed by the owners of Pronto Printing. They will be joined by members of Congress representing Houstin and Mayor Sylvester Turner (D). Later in Houston, Emhoff and Guzman will join members of Congress and local Jewish community members for a gathering with the owners of Kenny and Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen.  

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ STATE WATCH

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) urged Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to declare an emergency in East Palestine, Ohio, following the controlled release this month of toxic chemicals from derailed train cars (WKBN27). EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Brown and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) visited the community on Thursday to confer with local officials and members of the community. 

Residents who peppered officials with questions at a town hall meeting on Wednesday say they worry about harmful contaminants despite assurances that water is safe to drink and that surfaces and the air are not poisoned. 

Several organizations have petitioned the governor to formally declare a state of emergency and to request Federal Emergency Management Agency funds from the White House. But DeWine on Wednesday downplayed such requests. “The president called me and said, ‘anything you need.’ I will not hesitate to call him if we see a problem, but I’m not seeing it,” DeWine said in a press conference (The Hill).

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost advised Norfolk Southern on Wednesday that his office is considering legal action against the rail operator. Here are the toxic chemicals released after the derailment and the known impacts, short- and long-term (The Hill).

▪ Bloomberg News: Norfolk Southern pledges $1 million for East Palestine, Ohio, as fury grows over the chemical disaster and Biden offers help.  

▪ The New York Times: Chernobyl 2.0? The Ohio train derailment spurs wild speculation.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has been criticized by Republicans in relation to the Ohio train derailment controversies, prompting renewed scrutiny of his department leadership. On Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called for the secretary’s resignation (The Hill).

The Hill: Two dozen Republican-led states sue the EPA over a 2022 regulation that could determine which types of wetlands and streams gain federal protections from pollution.

➤ PANDEMIC & HEALTH 

The administration is mulling continuing to help the uninsured with free COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments through 2024. The initiative represents a bid to quell fears that the most vulnerable Americans could be left without access to care once the government exhausts its ability to purchase vaccines and treatments and shifts responsibility for distributing them to the private market (Politico).

▪ The New York Times: Narcan is safe to sell over the counter, advisers to the FDA conclude.

▪ ABC News: Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine will remain free for all consumers, even those uninsured.

▪ Reuters: Bird flu alarm drives world towards once-shunned vaccines.

Information about the availability of COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots can be found at Vaccines.gov.

Inflation and pressing household expenses are forcing some people to postpone health needs, an emerging trend that has health experts worried that conditions may only worsen. Rising out-of-pocket costs are weighing heavily on the scale, pushing aside tests or procedures when troublesome symptoms emerge. And these days, the grocery list feels more pressing to many families (The New York Times). 

“We are starting to see some individuals who are putting off some care, especially preventive care, due to the costs,” said Tochi Iroku-Malize, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the chair of family medicine for Northwell Health in New York, told the Times. When between going to the doctor or paying for rent and food, “the health issue is no longer the priority.” 

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office has called for greater federal oversight of ethics boards that sign off on scientific studies, finding that for-profit companies have taken an outsize role in approving certain research and questioning whether financial motivations could put human subjects at risk. While the majority of these boards are affiliated with universities, a small number have no affiliation with institutions conducting research, but these independent boards now account for the largest share of reviews of studies involving new drugs and biologics (The Washington Post).

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,117,113. Current U.S. COVID-19 deaths are 2,838 for the week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The CDC shifted its tally of available data from daily to weekly, now reported on Fridays.)

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Kudos to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! Mulling aerial orbs, we posed some trivia questions about balloons in the headlines and in history.

Here’s who rose to the challenge and triumphed: Lou Tisler, Amanda Fisher, William Grieshober, Harry Strulovici, Pam Manges, Patrick Kavanagh, Richard Baznik, Don Swanson, Paul Harris, Jaina Mehta, Terry Pflaumer, Bob Hickerson, Robert Bradley, J.A. Ramos, Mark Roeddiger, Stephen Delano, Randall S. Patrick, J. Jerry LaCamera, Luther Berg, Joe Atchue, Bobby McLellan, Tom Chabot, Eric Truax and Steve James. 

They knew that the U.S. government did not detect a red insignia of the Chinese Communist Party on the balloon spotted publicly over Montana this month. The correct answer was “false.”  

During World War II, Japan released more than 9,000 balloons carrying incendiary bombs in a failed plan to burn down U.S. cities and forests using wind power.

On Tuesday, a federal grand jury indicted a man and woman for conspiring to use Mylar balloons (and other means) to try to destroy a ring of electrical substations around Baltimore.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the federal entity that operates 92 weather balloon sites that conduct daily surveillance of changing conditions (69 locations in the mainland U.S. and 13 in Alaska).

Stay Engaged

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What to know about the chemicals in the Ohio train derailment

The Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio left behind toxic chemicals, leaving many wondering about potential health impacts though officials say it’s safe to remain in the community.

Residents temporarily evacuated because of the release of a carcinogen called vinyl chloride, but on Feb. 8, officials determined they could return, citing air quality monitoring that showed “readings at points below safety screening levels for contaminants of concern.”

Air monitoring is expected to continue, and free water well testing will also be available. 

Vinyl chloride was not the only chemical involved in the derailment. A letter that the EPA sent to the Norfolk Southern Railway Company also listed four others that were contained in cars and tankers that had been derailed, breached or on fire.

Here’s what you should know about each compound:

Vinyl chloride

Vinyl chloride is a colorless gas that burns easily and is unstable at high temperatures, with a mild and sweet odor, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

This cancer-linked substance, which does not occur naturally, is a “volatile organic compound” — a chemical that can vaporize into the air at room temperature and can dissolve in groundwater.

Vinyl chloride is also used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC), an ingredient in many plastics. PVC, however, is not suspected to be carcinogenic, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The institute links vinyl chloride with a heightened risk of a rare form of liver cancer, as well as primary liver cancer, brain and lung cancers, lymphoma and leukemia. 

These effects are thought to be the result of prolonged exposure to the substance.

In the short term, exposure to vinyl chloride can cause headaches, dizziness and loss of consciousness, as well as possible breathing problems and eventual death at high concentrations, said James Fabisiak, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. 

Over a long period of time, it can cause chronic lung problems and autoimmune diseases, in addition to cancer, Fabisiak said. 

While vinyl chloride is generally gaseous, if “it’s held under pressure, like in train car tanks,” it can also dissolve in water, according to John Bucher, former associate director of the National Toxicology Program. 

“We have a chemical that in long-term studies in animals is a very potent carcinogen,” Bucher said. 

This compound, he explained, also has “very poor warning properties” — meaning, it is difficult to smell until it reaches high concentrations. Irritation therefore suggests that exposure is “way above the levels that in long-term studies can cause cancer,” according to Bucher. 

“Of all the chemicals that I’ve seen, potentially in this accident, that’s the one that people should be paying attention to,” he said. 

Nonetheless, Bucher stressed that the possible health impacts in the Ohio derailment case remain uncertain, particularly due to the short-term, high-dose exposure that occurs during such accidents. 

“Most of the industrial chemicals, like these that have been tested for cancer, have been looked at with respect to long-term occupational settings,” he said. 

Some concern has been circulating in the media about the effects of a controlled burn that officials decided to conduct a few days following the derailment. When vinyl chloride burns, one of its byproducts can be phosgene — a chemical warfare agent used in World War I.

But Bucher said he believes the controlled burn in this case was likely a “reasonable solution,” as the temperature “would be warm enough that it wouldn’t form a phosgene cloud.” 

“Otherwise, you’ve got a highly toxic material which you’re going to have to deal with in tanks that are unstable,” Bucher added. 

However, other toxicologists did note health concerns that can stem from the byproducts generated by burning vinyl chloride. 

Keeve Nachman, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that such activity can result in hydrogen chloride and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in addition to phosgene. 

Hydrogen chloride can, at high levels, cause severe respiratory irritation as well as respiratory hyperplasia, which can in some cases precede cancer, Nachman said. Meanwhile, PAHs can be carcinogenic. 

“In order to really make a judgment about whether those effects are likely, we need to have a better understanding of the timing and amount of exposure that people have to these chemicals,” he added.

As far as water contamination is concerned, a ruptured tank of vinyl chloride that flows into a nearby creek does create some cause for concern, according to Bucher. 

“I think it’s prudent that people requested to use bottled water for a while until they can figure out the extent of the situation,” he said. 

Murray McBride, a soil and crop scientist and emeritus professor at Cornell, also noted that if vinyl chloride gets into soil, it can remain for decades and leach into groundwater, possibly impacting people’s wells. 

On Wednesday, the state of Ohio declared that East Palestine’s municipal water is safe to drink, citing testing results that showed no contamination in water from the five wells that feed into the water system. However, residents have expressed fear and concern over the situation. 

Butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate

Butyl acrylate is used in paints, coatings, sealants and adhesives, while ethyl acrylate is used to make paints and plastics, according to the National Library of Medicine. 

Bucher, the retired toxicologist from the National Toxicology Program, described acrylates as “irritating chemicals when you run into them in high concentrations.” 

But in comparison to vinyl chloride, these chemicals have much lower odor thresholds — the point at which people can smell the chemicals, he explained. 

Some acrylates have been studied and shown to be “very weak carcinogens” under high-dose settings in long-term studies, according to Bucher.

“The primary human reaction to the acrylates has been when they’re used in things like nail polish, some of them can cause allergic contact dermatitis,” he said. 

While he stressed that he has no specific knowledge about the Ohio case, Bucher said it is conceivable that in a high-dose exposure situation, people could experience “sensitivity to a number of chemicals.”

Fabisiak said that over shorter periods of time, acrylates can irritate the skin, lungs, eyes and throat. 

There’s some evidence that ethylhexyl acrylate may be carcinogenic, but the data is not as strong as it is for vinyl chloride, according to Fabisiak. Butyl acrylate, however, is unlikely to cause cancer, he added. 

Although butyl acrylate may not pose a threat to humans, McBride said that it can “cause some pretty harmful effects in the environment on ecological systems” and said it may be responsible for killing fish in the area.

“It’s pretty toxic to aquatic and other organisms,” he said. 

Officials have estimated that the chemical spill resulting from the train derailment has killed roughly 3,500 fish.

Isobutylene 

Isobutylene is a gas that is used to make aviation fuel. It is colorless and has a petroleum-like smell, according to the National Library of Medicine. 

Fabisiak said it can have short-term impacts on the central nervous system if large amounts are breathed in. 

He said that it is prone to evaporating. 

Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether

Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether is a colorless liquid with a mild, pleasant odor that can irritate eyes and skin and may be toxic if ingested, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s CAMEO Chemicals database. 

It is used as a solvent to produce paints and varnishes.

Fabisiak said that high levels in the air can cause irritation and central nervous system impacts. 

While this compound can cause the breakdown of red blood cell membranes in some species — leading to cancer — humans are more resistant to this impact, according to Fabisiak. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Social Security's new funding timeline gives Senate some heartburn

A new budget report pulling the insolvency date for Social Security to within a decade is prompting fresh unease among senators and a greater urgency to act.

In its latest outlook report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund, which pays out retirement and survivors’ benefits, would be exhausted in 2032.

Experts say the recent projection from the nonpartisan budget scorekeeper brings the insolvency date within the nation’s 10-year budget window for the first time in decades.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday expressed concern about the development, telling The Hill it raises the stakes for Congress to act sooner on shoring up solvency for the program.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also said he thinks the annual report provides a “push” to ongoing talks around possible fixes, though he’s not raising his hopes just yet.

“I don’t know that I’m predicting success on this in the next few months, but there are good discussions going on,” he said, adding that he’s involved in bipartisan talks looking at the program’s funding issues.

Lawmakers have long been wary about touching Social Security. There has been little visible unity on Capitol Hill on the issue, beyond promises from both parties to not touch the entitlement program.

As public attention around the program’s funds has risen in recent weeks, so too has a partisan feud begun to heat up over entitlements on Capitol Hill as both sides clash over how to address the nation’s debt limit.

“We’re in an environment today where anyone who talks about saving Social Security and Medicare is going to be accused of wanting to cut it,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told The Hill on Thursday.

The White House and other Democrats hammered Republicans for vowing to not raise the roughly $31.4 trillion limit without fiscal reform. The attacks have particularly focused on previous proposals — panned as nonstarters — that some GOP members floated as possible changes to the entitlements, including tightening eligibility requirements.

At the same time, Republican leaders have sought to quell concerns about reforms to the popular program. They’ve ruled out proposals to link the debt limit fight to entitlement reforms and instead shifted their attention to discretionary funding hashed out by Congress every year. 

But there is still appetite among Republicans to tackle the insolvency issue facing Social Security, which led the Treasury Department’s list of top 10 categories for federal spending in fiscal 2022.

“The real drivers here are [that] we have an aging population that’s retiring very rapidly and living a lot longer than any other generation before it. … It’s not fiscally sustainable right now. To me, that’s the underlying problem,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Rules Committee, who has also proposed a commission to find possible fixes.

Recent figures from the CBO estimated a sharp rise in funding for Social Security over the next 10 years. Experts say Congress is losing time to make less painful changes to ensure eligible recipients will still be able to receive their full benefits in the coming years.

“We’ve actually known about the need to make reforms for decades, plural,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in an interview. “And every year that we’ve waited means that those ultimate spending reductions and tax increases are going to have to be larger and more painful, hitting people who can afford them less because we waited.”

Richard Johnson, a senior fellow for the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute, also warned Congress risks having to impose more “dramatic” fixes to help protect the program’s solvency if it waits “until it becomes a real crisis.”

“Let’s say we increased taxes 20 years ago, then all that money would be going into the trust fund, and that would have shored up Social Security,” he said. “Now, you know, we’ve lost those 20 years of increased revenues, and so now to make up the difference, we will be able to contribute more.”

But despite ongoing bipartisan talks, many Republicans and Democrats have been far apart in some proposals offered in recent months, with the parties often divided over whether to focus on adjustments to the tax side that pay into the program or drawing down in benefits. 

“Eventually, we’re gonna have to address it,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told The Hill on Thursday, but he also doubted the chances of seeing the current Congress take on the insolvency threat.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who was elected last year, shared a similar outlook in remarks on Thursday, suggesting Congress is more likely to “wait until the deadline” than act sooner, while also forecasting the impact the coming presidential cycle could have on the political climate.

In addition to Democrats pouncing on the issue in recent months, former President Trump, who is again vying for the Oval Office, has also put pressure on Republicans to avoid touching entitlements, while additionally hitting at GOP competitors for proposed cuts.

“You got two years here that you’re going to have a presidential election,” Mullin said. “And I imagine this will be brought up, because it always is.”

“And anytime it’s politicized, there isn’t going to be a solution,” he said, adding: “I’d hoped we’d set political differences aside and just find a solution to it, but we’ll probably wait until 2031 to actually get serious about fixing it.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Here are the groups looking into George Santos

At least seven state, federal and congressional entities have received formal complaints about or are said to be looking into embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) as he faces mounting questions about his background and finances.

The New York Republican has admitted to embellishing parts of his resume.

Lawmakers in both parties have called on Santos to resign amid the growing controversy, but the congressman insists he has not committed any crimes and has remained intent on serving out his term representing New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

“Let me be very clear, I’m not leaving, I’m not hiding and I am NOT backing down,” Santos wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “I will continue to work for #NY03 and no amount of Twitter trolling will stop me. I’m looking forward to getting what needs to be done, DONE!”

Here are the groups who have received complaints or launched probes into the congressman:

Groups looking into Santos

Nassau County District Attorney

The Nassau County district attorney’s office announced it was looking into Santos in December, days after The New York Times published a report highlighting questionable aspects of the then-incoming congressman’s background.

Since then, more evidence has emerged showing that Santos fabricated parts of his background, including claims about his religion, work history and education.

Asked for an update this week, the district attorney’s office — which is led by a Republican — referred The Hill to its statement from December.

“The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said at the time. “The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress. No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”

U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York

Multiple sources reported in December that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York was looking into Santos’s finances and financial disclosures.

That inquiry now appears to include whether Santos was part of an alleged scheme to steal thousands of dollars from a fundraiser set up for a veteran’s dying service dog.

Last month, U.S. Navy veteran Richard Osthoff and retired police Sgt. Michael Boll told Patch.com that Santos helped raise money through a GoFundMe for a surgery for Osthoff’s dog. But the pair said that once the fund reached $3,000, Santos closed it and disappeared.

Osthoff told Politico earlier this month that two agents, working on behalf of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, had contacted him about the incident. He gave the agents text messages sent between him and Santos in 2016, according to Politico.

Asked about the Politico report earlier this month, Santos said “clearly they talk more to you guys than to my legal team.”

“I can’t give you anything ‘cause they don’t talk to us,” he added.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York declined to comment this week when asked by The Hill if the office has opened an investigation into Santos.

New York State Attorney General

The New York state attorney general’s office confirmed to The Hill that it is “looking into some of the issues that were raised” regarding Santos, but would not say what matters are under scrutiny.

Queens District Attorney

The Queens district attorney’s office told the Queens Chronicle in January that it was reviewing whether District Attorney Melinda Katz (D) has jurisdiction over any allegations against Santos.

“While as a matter of course we do not comment on open investigations, we are reviewing whether Queens County has jurisdiction over any potential criminal offenses,” Katz’s office told the outlet.

Reached for comment this week, the office told The Hill, “Our statement remains the same.”

Brazilian prosecutors

Authorities in Brazil have reportedly reopened a criminal investigation into Santos that dates back to 2008.

A spokeswoman for the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor’s office told The New York Times last month that it planned to formally request that the Justice Department notify Santos of the charges against him.

According to Brazilian court records cited by the Times, Santos in 2008 — when he was 19 years old — stole a checkbook that belonged to a man his mother cared for. Santos then reportedly made illicit purchases totaling almost $700, including a pair of shoes, using the checkbook and a fake name.

He admitted to the crime to police in 2010, according to the Times, and in 2011, a judge approved a charge against him. The court and Brazilian prosecutor told the newspaper the case was still unsettled.

Santos told The New York Post in December, “I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world.”

Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. on Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Groups likely to look into Santos

House Ethics Committee

The House Ethics Committee is widely expected to open an investigation into Santos after receiving two complaints regarding the congressman. The panel, however, has not officially organized yet, so it is unable to launch a probe. 

In January, two New York Democrats — Reps. Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman — filed an ethics complaint against Santos, accusing him of failing to file timely, accurate and complete financial disclosure reports.

The complaint zeroed in on Santos’s claims that he earned more than $1 million in dividends from his company, the Devolder Organization, per year, while noting that his financial data company Dun & Bradstreet estimated the company to have a revenue of $43,688 as of July 20, 2022. 

Asked about the complaint the morning it was filed, Santos said “I have done nothing unethical,” adding that “they’re free to do whatever they want to do.”

In a separate complaint to the Ethics Committee this month, a prospective staffer of Santos’s accused the congressman of sexual misconduct. Derek Myers also requested an ethics probe “into the violation of allowing a volunteer to work in the workplace and offload work from paid staff members onto the volunteer with the promise of future employment.” He posted a copy of the Ethics complaint on Twitter.

Santos said he “a hundred percent” denies the sexual misconduct allegations, calling them “comical.”

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has stopped short of calling on Santos to resign, telling reporters last month, “If there is a concern, and he has to go through the Ethics, let him move through that.”

The Speaker caused a stir last week when he told CNN that the panel was investigating the congressman. Shortly after, however, he walked back the claim and said he meant to say that complaints have been filed about Santos.

“There are questions. I expect them to get answered,” he said when asked if he expects the panel to launch an investigation into Santos.

It is unclear when the Ethics Committee will officially organize and kick off business for the 118th Congress. According to House rules, committees must hold an open meeting at the beginning of a new Congress to establish rules before beginning official business.

In 2021 the panel held the organizational meeting on Feb. 25, in 2019 it took place on Feb. 27 and, in 2017, it occurred on March 9.

Groups that have received a complaint about Santos

Federal Elections Commission (FEC)

The Campaign Legal Center — a nonpartisan ethics watchdog — filed a complaint against Santos with the FEC in January, alleging the first-term congressman and his 2022 campaign committee violated federal campaign finance laws.

The group accused Santos of taking part in a straw donor scheme to hide the sources of a loan he made to his campaign, of purposely falsifying numbers on his disclosure reports and of wrongfully using his campaign funds for personal reasons.

Asked this week if the agency has opened an investigation into Santos, the FEC told The Hill it is “unable to disclose any information about a potential or existing enforcement matter until after the matter has been resolved” because of “the confidentiality requirements surrounding the enforcement process.”

But late last month, The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department asked the FEC to hold off on taking enforcement action against Santos, since prosecutors were working on a similar criminal investigation. The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section made the request, two people familiar with the matter told the Post.

The Justice Department also asked the FEC to hand over any relevant documents, according to the Post.

Source: TEST FEED1

House Republicans turn southern border into second campus

Republicans are turning the U.S.-Mexico border into something of an extension campus for the House of Representatives.

A two-week recess kicked off a flurry of hearings and visits to the border by multiple GOP-led House committees, with more in the works.

Republicans are looking to place blame on the Biden administration for drug trafficking, national security and the humanitarian crisis as migrant encounters at the southern border remain near record highs.

And they think being on location will help build up public disapproval of Democratic policies.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday visited the border in Cochise County, Ariz., with four freshman House Republicans who flipped Democratic-held seats in 2022: Reps. Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.), Jen Kiggans (Va.), and Derrick Van Orden (Wis.).

Speaking from the property of a rancher with the border fence in the background — the location found by GPS coordinates rather than an address —  McCarthy said the GOP activity at the border is aimed at forcing Democrats to pay attention.

“The new majority in Congress, we’re gonna fight to fix this problem. No longer will the Democrats be able to ignore the issue and act like it’s not happening,” McCarthy said. “We will have hearings on the border. It’s the responsibility of all members to attend. Those who come to testify will come from both sides of the aisle.”

The House Energy and Commerce Committee investigations and health subcommittees held a joint field hearing in McAllen, Texas, on Wednesday, arguing President Biden’s border policies have contributed to a public health crisis with fentanyl deaths.

Next Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing near the border in Yuma, Ariz. 

Members of the House Homeland Security Committee will go to El Paso, Texas, next week as part of a “border boot camp,” with a focus on educating freshman members on daily operations of Customs and Border Protection and the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to a committee source. It plans to hold a hearing at the border in March.

Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the new chair of the Homeland Security Committee, wants to hire full-time staff members based on the U.S.-Mexico border. After being selected as chair last month, he told reporters that those staffers will be “sending us real time updates” on issues at the border.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee, which held a hearing in Washington about the border earlier this month, also plans to travel south for oversight activity in the future.

Border hawks are pleased to see Republicans there in person.

“It’s really common sense. It’s what leaders do. They go to the heart of the crisis, whether it’s a hurricane or tornado, a terrorist attack, it doesn’t matter,” Mark Morgan, the former chief operating officer and acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration, told The Hill. “When you physically see it up close and personal, it changes your understanding. It changes your perspective.”

Morgan, who is now a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, talked about the emotional impact of seeing in person Border Patrol agents interact with migrants. And he criticized White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for commenting last year that “it’s not like somebody walks over” the border.

“That is exactly what they do all day long,” Morgan said. “Had she spent 30 seconds at the border — 30 seconds — she would have seen … It would have changed her understanding; it would have changed her perception.”

But Democrats see the activities as little more than publicity stunts.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), whose district encompasses parts of Cochise County, paid his own visit to the border Thursday and criticized the tenor of Republicans’ focus on the border.

“I don’t see this thing as serious, what McCarthy’s doing, parachuting in, doing the photo-op, hanging out with the one rancher and Sheriff [Dannels], taking their word as Bible and moving on,” Grijalva told The Hill on Thursday.

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels is a favorite witness on border issues for the GOP and a frequent guest on Fox News, but he has been accused by Democrats and immigration advocates of espousing an anti-immigrant agenda.

“I would have gone to the cities and the communities that are on the border. I would have him go and sit down with the people in Douglas, sit down with the people in Nogales, sit down with the people in San Luis and Somerton, sit down with the people in Naco, sit down with the people in Sasabe, sit down with the people that do business on that border, sit down with the families that have been there multi-generationally, sit down with them and talk about their needs and their perception of the border,” Grijalva said. 

A White House spokesman on Wednesday dismissed McCarthy’s trip, saying “House Republicans should spend less time on partisan publicity stunts and more time working on solutions.”

And House Judiciary Committee Democrats will not attend next week’s hearing in Yuma.

Ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement subcommittee ranking member Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a joint statement Thursday that there was “no consultation” with Democrats on the hearing, and that many Democratic members had already committed to other congressional delegation trips.

They called it “a brazen act of political grandstanding,” adding, “as a result, Democrats, who have been to the border regularly the last few years, will not attend next week’s performative hearing. Additionally, Judiciary Democrats will conduct their own trip to the border next month where we will hear from the community and government officials on the ground.”

The House Judiciary GOP said in a tweet that was “FAKE NEWS,” and Republicans had been in consultation with Democrats for weeks about the trip — sharing a video of comments from Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in the committee’s first meeting to make the minority aware of a planned trip to the border that week.

“They’re just scared to face the harsh realities of the #BidenBorderCrisis,” the committee tweeted.

Also looming over the in-person border activities is the potential impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Those calling for his impeachment argue that he has not achieved “operational control.”

McCarthy has not committed to impeaching Mayorkas, saying that impeachment will not be “political.” But in November, he called on Mayorkas to resign or face House GOP investigations — warning that it could lead to impeachment. 

But even as they try to draw attention to the border and take aim at Democrats, Republicans face internal disagreement over legislation to address immigration issues. GOP leaders had planned to quickly bring to the House floor a bill that would allow the Homeland Security secretary to turn away migrants in order to achieve “operational control” at the border. 

Objections from moderates like Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) over the legislation being “anti-immigrant” derailed that plan. 

Republicans are now working on border and immigration legislation that will go through a normal committee process.

“We’ve got a lot of ideas inside Congress. It’s different than the Congress before,” McCarthy said at the border Thursday. “We’re just not going to write the bill and put it onto the floor. We’re going to listen to the people that are on the border. We’re going to listen to border agents. We want the very best ideas.”

Rafael Bernal contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Lindsey Graham in GOP hot seat for speedy judicial nominees

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is coming under pressure from conservatives on his panel and outside Congress to slow down consideration of President Biden’s judicial nominees.  

Graham has voted for more of Biden’s nominees than any other Republican on the Judiciary Committee, something that is coming under scrutiny from conservatives after Democrats this week celebrated the 100^th successful confirmation of a Biden judicial nominee. 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Republicans shouldn’t have let Democrats confirm so many Biden nominees to the federal courts when the Senate was evenly split during Biden’s first two years in office.  

“The truth is the leadership squandered a 50-50 Senate. They could have at the committee level made a major push to vote together and to stop at least the circuit court nominees. Every single one of them would have required a discharge petition. We didn’t do that,” Hawley told The Hill.  

“There was no concerted effort made whatsoever,” he added. “Say what you want about [Democratic Judiciary Committee Chairman] Dick Durbin [D-Ill.] but he has not taken his eye off the ball. He’s had help from Republicans.”  

Senate Democrats are well ahead of the pace set by Republicans when they controlled the Senate during former President Trump’s term in office. Senate Republicans didn’t confirm the 100^th judge appointed by Trump until May of 2019 — about three months later than when Biden hit the milestone.  

“I think it’s a good time near the beginning of this Congress to go back and look at the last Congress and compare that to what happened in the previous administration and figure out if we’re needlessly accelerating the pace at which they’re being confirmed,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), another member of the Judiciary Committee.  

Graham told The Hill Thursday that there’s not much he can do to stop Biden’s nominees because Democrats control an 11-10 majority on Judiciary Committee.  

“They got the votes. Elections matter. We’ll fight when it makes sense,” he said. “We were accused of having a conveyor belt” of Trump judicial nominees when Republicans controlled the Senate.  

“This idea you get everything you want and they don’t get what they want when they’re in like circumstance, doesn’t work,” he said. 

Graham said he would “pick and choose” his battles wisely and explained, “I have a habit of trying to honor district court judges,” alluding to the deference he gives to fellow senators who try to fill district court vacancies in their home states with judges who are likely to be palatable to their constituents.  

The New York Times reported at the end of December that Graham had voted for 107 of the 126 Biden nominees that came before the committee, far more often than any other Republican on the panel.  

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) voted for 50 nominees at the committee level, while Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee in 2021 and 2022, voted for 40 and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) voted for 30, according to The Times.  

Lee noted that when Democrats were in the Senate minority under President Trump, “they slowed it down as much as they possibly could, and as a result we didn’t get as many through as we could have.”  

“We’ve got the president using the bully pulpit to mischaracterize Republican senators and their position. We’ve got the president nominating far-left-wing zealots to the bench, many of whom lack the professional qualifications for the job,” he said.  

“It is deeply disappointing to me we have confirmed as many as we have,” he said.  

Lee pointed out that even when Republicans controlled 50 Senate seats during Biden’s first two years in office, Vice President Kamala Harris only had to come to Capitol Hill a few times to break a tie on a judicial nominee.  

“It was very unusual that we even were in a posture where the vice president had to come to break the tie vote. I don’t think we’ve stopped a single judicial nominee thus far. So that is concerning,” he said.  

Carrie Severino, the president of the Judicial Crisis Network, a leading conservative advocacy group that opposes what it views as activist liberal judges, criticized Graham last week after he broke with every other Republican on the Judiciary Committee to advance 12 of Biden’s judicial nominees.  

“If the tables were turned, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where a Democrat would break ranks like this,” Severino tweeted.  

“I hope that what we saw last week is not a preview of what we can expect from Graham as ranking member for the next two years,” she added.   

Graham has since voted against all four Biden nominees to circuit courts and against nine of 20 district court nominees, according to data provided by the Judicial Crisis Network.  

Graham voted against Nancy Abudu, Biden’s nominee to the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals, Rachel Bloomekatz, Biden’s pick for the 6^th Circuit, Anthony Devos Johnstone, Biden’s nominee to the 9^th Circuit, and Julie Rikelman, the president’s choice to serve on the 1^st Circuit.

All four nominees advanced out of committee by party line votes of 11-10.  

Severino, however, took Graham to task on Wednesday for not taking a tougher approach to questioning New Hampshire attorney Michael Delaney, whom Biden has nominated to serve on the 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.  

Delaney has come under fire for representing St. Paul’s School, an elite private high school in New Hampshire, against a lawsuit brought by female student who was sexually assaulted on campus when she was 15.  

“Numerous Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voiced … concerns during the hearing today. But the committee’s ranking member, @LindseyGrahamSC, vigorously and inexplicably defended Delaney,” Severino tweeted.  

“Perplexingly, Sen. Graham emphasized that Delaney was highly recommended by former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte [R-N.H.] Graham preemptively rehabilitated Delaney, noting his letters of support in anticipation of the pointed questions that would follow from his fellow Republicans,” she wrote.  

Other Republicans on the committee including Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) grilled Delaney over his work. 

Hawley slammed Delaney’s effort to strip the young plaintiff’s anonymity in the case, which he called “an attempt to put her squarely into the media spotlight.”  

Cruz said Delaney did “a lousy job representing his client” by adopting such an aggressive legal strategy. 

Graham later told The Hill he was “proud” of Republicans on his panel who ask tough questions of nominees.  

“They’ve asked really good questions. Sen. Hawley has done a great job of questioning nominees,” he said.  

But Graham said he has to pay attention to “reality,” which is Democrats “have 51 votes.” 

He said any delaying tactics employed now against Biden nominees will come back to hurt Republicans when they control the White House.  

“Anything we do, they can do. So when we’re in charge and we want to go faster, anything we do, they’ll do. So this whole Middle East politics with judges needs to stop,” he said.  

Source: TEST FEED1