Archive by Author

Six takeaways on Cassidy Hutchinson’s explosive testimony

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol heard from its first White House witness Tuesday, scheduling a last-minute hearing and promising bombshells from Cassidy Hutchinson.

Hutchinson, a special assistant to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, had a front-row view of Jan. 6, operating at the intersection of both the White House and Trump campaign efforts to keep the president in power.

Here are six takeaways.

Testimony adds to possible legal case against Trump

The picture painted by Cassidy’s testimony was one of a president repeatedly warned that his effort to overturn the election was illegal and could lead to violence.

The evidence that he ignored signs of danger and pressed ahead, stirring up his supporters with baseless claims of a stolen election, strengthens the committee’s case that Trump knowingly engaged in criminal conduct in order to stay in office.

But whether the Justice Department believes the evidence against Trump and his inner circle is enough to support an indictment remains to be seen.

It’s unlikely that any single piece of information revealed Tuesday could be considered a smoking gun, but the sum total is compelling evidence that the Trump White House had some foreknowledge of the potential for chaos on Jan. 6 and even the risk that encouraging it would be criminal.

Hutchinson revealed that Meadows and Giuliani met on Jan. 2, and afterwards the White House chief of staff told her “things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone warned her that if Trump were allowed to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable.” And sometime after the attack, both Meadows and Giuliani asked Trump for pardons, Hutchinson revealed.

It’s unclear how much of the information the DOJ had been privy to, or if the department is investigating the latest damning allegation the committee leveled on Tuesday, when it showed intimidating messages witnesses had received from unnamed Trump allies before testifying to congressional investigators.

“[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow,” reads one message the committee displayed during the hearing. “He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”

Top White House staff knew violence was coming 

Hutchinson said she first began to get worried about Jan. 6 four days prior, when she was escorting Trump campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani out of the White House.

He asked if she was excited for Jan. 6.

“We’re going to the Capitol. It’s going to be great. The president’s going to be there. He’s going to look powerful,” Giuliani replied.

When Hutchinson took her concerns to Meadows, he offered his comment about the potential for things to take a negative turn: “There’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know. Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6,” Meadows said, per Hutchinson.

Hutchinson also told the committee about a conversation she had with then-Director of National Security John Ratcliffe, saying he didn’t want to be involved with any of the post-election strategies.

“He felt it was dangerous for the president’s legacy,” she said. “He had expressed to me that he was concerned that it could spiral out of control and potentially be dangerous, either for our democracy or the way that things were going for the 6th.”

Meadows was no check on Trump’s explosive temper 

Hutchinson testified that Meadows barely looked up from his phone when she and Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, went to warn him of all the weapons spotted among Trump’s supporters.

Trump initially wanted his security to scrap the metal detectors on site – his armed supporters didn’t want to forfeit their weapons to get into the secured area and it was interfering with this size of his crowd.

Before and during the rally, Trump demanded to head to the Capitol alongside his supporters – something his legal team expressly advised against. Meadows, however, repeatedly told Trump that he was working on getting him to the Capitol. 

Trump got in his motorcade only to be informed the Secret Service had determined it wasn’t safe. He then tried to grab the steering wheel and lunged at the head of his security detail.

At other points throughout the day, Meadows also pushed back as others, including Cippilone.

Cipollone burst into Meadows office shortly after rioters entered the Capitol, determined to get some kind of response from Trump.

“He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat,” Meadows said.

“Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood is going to be on your f’ing hands,” Cipollone responded.

He approached Meadows again minutes later amid the news of rioters chatting ‘Hang Mike Pence,” telling the chief of staff they needed to do more.

“You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” Meadows responded.

Republican lawmakers further implicated

The committee has already detailed the actions of a number of sitting Republican lawmakers who had joined Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results. On Tuesday, new revelations emerged further entrenching several of those lawmakers in the events of Jan. 6. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Hutchinson testified, called her in the middle of Trump’s speech at the Ellipse. He was “frustrated and angry,” she said, because Trump had just promised the crowd that he would join them in their march to the Capitol — a scenario the White House had ensured McCarthy would not happen. 

“‘You told me this whole week you aren’t coming up here. Why would you lie to me?’” Hutchinson said, relaying McCarthy’s message. “I said, ‘I’m not lying. I wasn’t lying to you, sir. We’re not going to the Capitol.’ And he said, ‘Well, he just said it on stage, Cassidy. Figure it out.’”

The episode suggests that McCarthy, who is scrambling to remain in Trump’s good graces as he seeks the Speaker’s gavel next year, was highly concerned about the protests on Jan. 6, even as he joined with most House Republicans in voting to overturn the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. 

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another stalwart Trump defender, also surfaced during Tuesday’s proceedings. Jordan had called Meadows during the Capitol attack, Hutchinson said, but Meadows was with Cipollone trying to convince Trump to call off his supporters. She answered the phone instead, she said, and delivered it to Meadows in the White House dining room, where the topic was focused on Pence’s safety. 

“They had a brief conversation. And in the crossfires — you know, I heard briefly, like, what they were talking about,” Hutchinson said in pre-recorded testimony aired Tuesday. “But in the background I had heard conversations in the Oval Dining Room with the — at that point talking about the hang Mike Pence chants.”

Committee highlights witness tampering – and asks for others to come forward 

Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) noted that Hutchinson is not the only one to face pushback after cooperating with the committee.

Without identifying who else has been contacted, one witness told the committee that they have been reminded that “Trump does read transcripts.”

“What they said to me is as long as I continue to be a team player, they know I’m on the right team. I’m doing the right thing. I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World,” the witness relayed to the committee.

Another witness got a call saying, “He wants me to let you know he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”

The committee did not specify who “he” is.

“It’s a crime to tamper with witnesses, it’s a form of obstructing justice,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said after the hearing. “The committee won’t tolerate it, and we haven’t had the chance to fully investigate it or fully discuss it, but it’s something on our agenda.”

Chair Bennie Thomson (D-Miss.) also reissued a prior call for those who might have information to step forward.

“Because of this courageous woman and others like her, your attempt to hide the truth from the American people will fail,” he said in reference to those who have defied the committee.

“And to that group of witnesses, if you’ve heard this testimony today and suddenly you remember things you couldn’t previously recall, or there are some details you’d like to clarify, or you discovered some courage you had hidden away somewhere, our doors remain open.”

Investigators build momentum heading into July

Tuesday’s hearing came as a surprise. 

The House had left Washington last week for a long July Fourth recess, and Thompson had said the next public airing wouldn’t happen until lawmakers returned next month. The long break had raised concerns among some Trump critics that the panel would lose some of the narrative steam it had built with its five hearings over the course of June.

The last-minute rescheduling caught Washington off guard, heightened the expectations that explosive testimony was forthcoming — and raised the burden on the committee to deliver it.  

Hutchinson, who was not only a poised witness but also revealed a steady string of damning new evidence, delivered the goods the panel had promised. Even allies of the former president were forced to acknowledge that her testimony created plenty of new headaches for Trump and his defenders. 

“A stunning 2 hours,” tweeted Mick Mulvaney, who served as acting chief of staff under Trump. 

Mulvaney pointed to the day’s most explosive revelations, including new indications that Trump knew the crowd on Jan. 6 was heavily armed; that a pair of top aides — Meadows and Giuliani — had requested presidential pardons; and the investigators have evidence suggesting Trump’s team has tampered with witnesses. 

“That is a very, very bad day for Trump,” Mulvaney said. 

Hutchinson’s testimony lends the investigative panel a good deal of momentum heading into the next series of hearings in July, which promise to offer more bombshell disclosures from her closed-door depositions and dig deeper into the witness tampering allegations. 

The panel is also racing to secure the cooperation of Cippolone, who has so far declined to be deposed. Based on what Hutchinson has revealed of his interactions with Trump on Jan. 6, Cippolone could prove a crucial witness. 

Mychael Schnell contributed.

Source: TEST FEED1

Energy & Environment — Feds set to hold oil and gas lease sales this week

The Biden administration is gearing up for new oil and gas drilling, while the G-7 is also putting out messaging that’s favorable to natural gas.

This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Subscribe here. 

Interior set to hold first oil lease sales under Biden

The Biden administration is set to hold lease sales for new oil and gas drilling on public lands this week will implement new regulations for producers.   

• Why it’s important: The oil auctions will effectively be the administration’s first, since the only other lease sale it has held was tossed in court on environmental grounds.
• Where it’s happening: The administration is expected to auction off parcels of federally owned land for drilling in seven Western states: Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado.

When it announced the sales in April, the Interior Department said it was shrinking the overall land it was making available by 80 percent compared to the total amount of land it originally considered for the sale.

The department also announced that it would hike fees that oil companies pay to the government for the oil they extract, raising royalty rates from the 12.5 percent imposed on previous sales to 18.75 percent for the new sales.

In a statement from the time, the department said that the changes would help with “addressing deficiencies” in the program.

Not expected to impact oil supply: The lease sales are not expected to immediately impact the country’s oil supply, since it takes more than four years on average from the time they acquire their leases for companies to begin producing oil.

• However, at a time when many Americans are struggling with skyrocketing gasoline prices, the optics of the sale could matter.

No one is too pleased: Neither industry nor green groups are particularly pleased with the sales, as industry wanted more land and fewer stipulations while many climate hawks wanted no lease sales at all.

Frank Macchiarola, the senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, said he’s glad the administration is holding the sales but didn’t like the smaller size or other stipulations.

“We are concerned about the reduction in available parcels, we’re concerned about royalty rate increases, we’re concerned that the administration’s approach … is limited at a time when we really need something bold,” he said.

Meanwhile, the administration’s decision to hold lease sales at all has irked left-wing environmentalists who note that locking in more oil and gas drilling will worsen climate change.

“Why are they having these lease sales given the climate impacts that the Biden administration itself recognizes?” asked Michael Freeman, a senior attorney at Earthjustice.

Read more about the upcoming sales here

G-7 endorses natural gas investments

The Group of Seven (G-7) countries are endorsing investments in natural gas as many seek to reduce their dependence on Russian fuels.

• In a communique issued on Tuesday, the group, which is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S., also backed increased deliveries of the fuel.
• “In this context and with a view to accelerating the phase out of our dependency on Russian energy, we stress the important role increased deliveries of [liquified natural gas] can play, and acknowledge that investment in this sector is necessary in response to the current crisis,” their statement said.  

The G-7 nations elaborated that in some cases, government investment in the gas sector can be “appropriate as a temporary response.” 

The support for the fossil fuel comes as Russia has moved to cut off gas supplies to several countries when they have refused to pay for it in Russian rubles.   

Some backlash: The endorsement miffed climate advocates, who argue that the countries should be moving more toward energy sources that don’t contribute to global warming.

• “Climate activists will not sit idly by while our tax dollars lock in another generation of extraction,” said a statement from Kate DeAngelis, international finance program manager for Friends of the Earth U.S.
• “The G-7 countries are failing as true climate leaders by abandoning their Glasgow commitments and holding up LNG as an energy response,” DeAngelis said.

So what else was in there? The G-7 memo also included the idea of putting a previously discussed price cap on Russian oil, saying that the group may do so by banning services that help Russian oil travel by sea, unless the oil is purchased below a certain price.

“As for oil, we will consider a range of approaches, including options for a possible comprehensive prohibition of all services, which enable transportation of Russian seaborne crude oil and petroleum products globally, unless the oil is purchased at or below a price to be agreed in consultation with international partners,” the statement said.

Additionally, the countries said they hope to create an international “Climate Club” by the end of this year.

Read more about the memo here

WHAT’S IN YOUR HOUSE’S GAS? 

Natural gas used for powering household stoves, furnaces and water may contain levels of cancer-linked compounds that are toxic to residents when leaked, a new study has found.

• The research, published in Environmental Science & Technology on Tuesday, investigated the composition of greater Boston’s “unburned” household gas, or the gas that comes out of kitchen stovetops when switching on the appliance.
• While sampling natural gas supplies in more than 200 homes, the authors detected varying concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — known not only to be carcinogenic, but also to generate secondary air pollutants such as particulate matter and ozone.

Though most related research has focused on methane — the primary component of natural gas — and its impacts on climate change, the degree to which other air pollutants are present in natural gas at household “end use” remains largely unexplored, according to the study.

From December 2019 through May 2021, researchers collected 234 unburned natural gas samples from 69 kitchen stoves and building pipelines across the Boston region, according to the study.

Within these samples, they detected 296 unique chemical compounds — 21 of which are designated by the federal government as hazardous air pollutants.

Read more here from The Hill’s Sharon Udasin

WHITE HOUSE REJECTS USING FEDERAL LANDS FOR ABORTIONS 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday warned that there could be dangerous ramifications to providing abortion services on federal lands in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade.

• State of play: The Biden administration has come under pressure from progressives to take tougher actions in response to Roe v. Wade’s overturning, including considering the use of federal land in states opposed to abortion to provide the service. 
• However: Jean-Pierre said it doing so could put those providing and getting the service at legal and physical risk. 

“With this proposal — we understand the proposal is well intentioned, but here’s the thing: It could actually put women and providers at risk. And importantly, in states where abortion is now illegal, women and providers who are not federal employees, as you look at the federal land, could potentially be prosecuted,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One.

“As we understand why they would put forward this proposal, there’s actually dangerous ramifications to doing this,” she added. 

Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), have called on the Biden administration to use federal land to create places where people can receive abortions in states that restrict them. 

Read more here from The Hill’s Alex Gangitano

FLINT INDICTMENTS DIDN’T FOLLOW PROPER PROCEDURE, COURT SAYS

Michigan’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the indictment of former Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and several other officials in connection with the contamination of water in Flint was improper because the grand jury consisted of a single judge.  

The high court unanimously overturned the indictments against Snyder and eight others, including former health director Nick Lyon. The one-judge Genesee County grand jury overstepped its legal authority by issuing the indictments, the court wrote.   

While state statutes “authorize the use of a one-man grand jury to investigate, subpoena witnesses, and issue arrest warrants, those statutes do not authorize that one-man grand jury to issue an indictment initiating a criminal prosecution,” the court wrote in a 6-0 decision.

• The decision remands the case against the nine officials to the Genesee Circuit Court.
• Snyder is due to testify separately in a lawsuit against two companies that advised the city during the water crisis. The former governor is expected to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. 

“The Citizens of Flint should know that these cases are not over. Public commentary to the contrary is presumptive and rash. Our reading is that the Court’s opinion interprets the one-man grand jury process to require charges to be filed at the district court and include a preliminary examination,” Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud said in a statement. 

So what’s next for the prosecution? “Our team is prepared to move forward through that process. We relied upon settled law and the well-established prosecutorial tool of the one-man grand jury, used for decades, to bring forward charges against the nine defendants in the Flint water crisis. We still believe these charges can and will be proven in court.” 

Read more about the development here

QUOTE OF NOTE

An area of dissension between the White House and its external environmental justice advisors has been the administration’s support for carbon capture and nuclear energy projects.

Peggy Shepard, co-chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, told The Hill for a profile that these types of projects “shouldn’t be supported by the government.” She added that the administration’s support for them “makes us doubt their understanding of the issues.” 

Read more about Shepard’s activism and work with the Biden administration here

ON TAP TOMORROW

The House Appropriations Committee will mark up budget legislation for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency  

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Oil producers usually tame soaring prices by turning on the taps. Here’s why that may not work this time (CNN)
• California’s drought means less water to go around. Who is winning the pursuit for water — and who is losing? (The San Francisco Chronicle) 
• Private Investors Betting on Clean Energy Despite Market Selloff (The Wall Street Journal) 
• Pa. waited more than 2 years to test wells after finding nearby contamination. Now this neighborhood wants answers. (Spotlight PA) 
• City rejects $500 million in asphalt bids over pollution concerns (Chicago Sun-Times)

💦 One more thing: John Oliver talks about western water

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Energy & Environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.  

VIEW THE FULL EDITION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

On the Money — Companies take risk with abortion policies

Most big corporations are willing to take a legal risk by helping employees travel to access abortion services amid a tight labor market. We’ll also look at the U.S. effort to tackle food shortages, the Biden administration’s first oil leases and Americans’ increasingly pessimistic view of the economy.  

But first, read about the most recent bombshells to come out of Tuesday’s Jan. 6 hearing.  

Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Some companies will pay for travel for abortion care

The nation’s largest companies are pledging to cover employees’ travel expenses to access abortion services, deciding an additional benefit for workers in a tight labor market outweighs the threat of legal action from states that have criminalized abortion.  

Walt Disney, Comcast, PayPal, Nike and other major employers announced those benefits on Friday, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and upended a near 50-year precedent that guaranteed the right to abortion. Several other top employers implemented similar policies after the draft ruling was leaked last month.   

• Companies are taking a risk, as they could face lawsuits from states or, in Texas, from anti-abortion activists under a state law that empowers citizens to enforce abortion restrictions. 
• Employers could defend themselves by citing a federal law that blocks states from placing mandates on employer-sponsored health plans, but it’s unclear how those lawsuits would play out in court.  
• They’re under pressure to provide strong health benefits amid a tight labor market, where more than 11 million jobs remain unfilled and employers struggle to attract workers.  

The context: While dozens of major companies have publicly announced that they’ll reimburse employees to travel out of state for an abortion, most have opted against weighing in on the abortion debate itself, continuing a longstanding trend.  

Karl has more here.

FIGHTING FOR FOOD

US, allies to give $4.5B to address global food security 

President Biden and international allies will contribute $4.5 billion to address global food security, the White House announced at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit on Tuesday. More than half of that commitment will come from the United States. 

Biden will announce $2.76 billion in additional funding from the U.S. to help protect over 47 countries that are considered to have the world’s most vulnerable populations, and mitigate the impacts of the war in Ukraine on growing food insecurity and malnutrition. 

• Up to 40 million more people could be pushed into poverty as a result of the war in Ukraine, and 20 million in the Horn of Africa could face starvation by the end of the year, according to the White House. 
• The funding includes $2 billion for emergency interventions and $760 million for sustainable near-term food assistance for vulnerable countries. 

The Hill’s Alex Gangitano has more here. 

THE LEASE THEY CAN DO 

Biden administration to hold its first oil drilling lease sales on federal lands 

The Biden administration is set to hold lease sales for new oil and gas drilling on public lands starting this week and, for the first time, it will implement new regulations for producers.   

• The oil auctions will effectively be the administration’s first, since the only other lease sale it has held was tossed in court on environmental grounds.  
• But neither industry nor green groups are particularly pleased with the sales, as industry wanted more land and fewer stipulations while many climate hawks wanted no lease sales at all.  

The Hill’s Rachel Frazin tells us what to expect here. 

PRICE PAIN 

Americans’ views of economy worsen as gas prices rise: Gallup 

The American public’s views of the economy are declining as gas prices rise, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.  

• Two-thirds of Americans surveyed in the poll conducted earlier this month said that gas prices are causing a moderate or severe financial hardship on their household.  
• That figure marks an increase of 15 percentage points from the 52 percent who said the same in April and is among the highest Gallup has found when posing the question during periods of gas price increases since 2000.  

The average national price of gas was about $4.88 per gallon as of Tuesday, a slight drop from the record high of just above $5 recorded earlier this month, according to the American Automobile Association. 

Here’s more from The Hill’s Jared Gans. 

Good to Know

House Democrats pointed the finger at corporate landlords for climbing rental costs during a hearing on housing Tuesday, leading Republicans to accuse the majority of trying to deflect blame for record inflation. 

Democratic lawmakers at a House Financial Services subpanel Tuesday blamed private equity firms for the “predatory purchasing” of single-family homes in bulk and jacking up rent and fee prices, exacerbating a housing crisis they argued predates the pandemic. 

Here’s what else we have our eye on: 

• Airbnb announced Tuesday that its temporary ban on house parties and events will now be permanent. 
• E-cigarette giant Juul argued in court documents filed on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had overlooked a mountain of data that it had included in its application that demonstrated its products’ benefit to public health.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow. 

VIEW FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

Live results: Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Colorado, N.Y., S.C., Utah

The Associated Press is following the election in South Carolina, Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, New York and Utah.
Follow the live results below.

South Carolina

Illinois

Mississippi

Oklahoma

Colorado

Nebraska

New York

Utah

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats unveiling 'Transgender Bill of Rights'

A group of House Democrats on Tuesday announced they would move to codify federal protections for transgender people.

The proposal, dubbed the “Transgender Bill of Rights,” would codify the Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision that protects employees against discrimination for being gay or transgender.

The proposal would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to explicitly include protections for gender identity and sex characteristics, expand access to gender-affirming care and ban conversion therapy.

It would also require the attorney general to designate a liaison dedicated to overseeing enforcement of civil rights for transgender people and invest in community services to prevent anti-transgender violence.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and co-chair of the Transgender Equality Task Force, said in a statement that the resolution would ensure transgender people can lead “full, happy lives.”

“As we witness Republicans and an extremist Supreme Court attack and roll back the fundamental rights of trans people across our country, and as state legislatures across the country target our trans community with hateful, bigoted and transphobic attacks, we are standing up and saying enough is enough,” Jayapal said.

Jayapal introduced the proposal alongside Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Marie Newman (D-Ill.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). The bill has 84 other cosponsors.

The bill’s proponents cited Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion that the court should also consider overturning some of its other precedents decided under the same substantive due process protections at the heart of Friday’s decision, like rights to same-sex marriage and contraception.

The Bostock decision was not mentioned in Thomas’ concurring opinion and involved a different legal question.

But Thomas’ opinion has caught the eye of many Democrats who believe the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is poised to roll back rights extended to LGBTQ people in past cases.

Democrats supporting the bill also pointed to research from the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, showing state legislatures have proposed more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills in the last year.

The bill is supported by more than 30 organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Education Association.

“While some politicians are targeting our community with discriminatory legislation, we are grateful that the members House of Representatives are sending this message to us – and especially to transgender youth – that they affirm our lives and value the contributions we make to our country,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the National Center for Transgender Equality’s executive director. “We deserve to live as who we are without sacrificing our safety, access to health care or enduring violence and discrimination.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Health Care — White House rejects using federal land for abortion

As officials work on reaching out to convince parents of kids under 5 to get vaccinated, Elmo got his COVID-19 vaccine today. 

Today in health care, the White House is not on board with an idea pushed by some Democrats to try to allow abortions on federal lands. We’ll also look at what the administration is saying about access to abortion pills.

Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Big ‘ramifications’ to abortion idea, White House says

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday warned that there could be “dangerous ramifications” to providing abortion services on federal lands in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade.

Pressure to do more: The Biden administration has come under pressure from progressives to take tougher actions in response to Roe v. Wade’s overturning, including considering the use of federal land in states opposed to abortion to provide the service. 

But Jean-Pierre said it doing so could put those providing and getting the service at legal and physical risk. 

• “With this proposal — we understand the proposal is well intentioned, but here’s the thing: It could actually put women and providers at risk. And importantly, in states where abortion is now illegal, women and providers who are not federal employees, as you look at the federal land, could potentially be prosecuted,” she told reporters on Air Force One.
• “As we understand why they would put forward this proposal, there’s actually dangerous ramifications to doing this,” she added. 

Calls from progressives: Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), have called on the Biden administration to use federal land to create places where people can receive abortions in states that restrict them. 

Read more here.

Becerra stops short of lawsuits to shield abortion pills

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Tuesday stopped short of saying the Biden administration would sue in a bid to stop states from banning abortion pills, saying the details are still being worked out on actions on that front.

“We will certainly assert and defend our legal authorities,” Becerra told reporters at a press conference when asked about filing lawsuits through the Department of Justice. 

“What exactly that translates into depends on what a state tries to do,” he added.  

When pressed by a reporter about conservative states that have already put into effect sweeping abortion bans that include bans on abortion pills, Becerra said the department had to “investigate and then enforce.” 

“We have to make sure we collect the evidence but we are intent on protecting people’s rights under the law,” he said. 

Big picture: Protecting access to abortion pills is seen as one of the main ways that the Biden administration can seek to protect abortion access in conservative states that are enacting bans on the medical procedure. 

Read more here.

TEXAS COURT BLOCKS ENFORCEMENT OF PRE-ROE ABORTION BAN

A Texas court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the state’s long-dormant pre-Roe v. Wade abortion ban that had suddenly been reinstated after Roe was struck down on Friday, a move that will allow some clinics to resume the practice. 

• A Texas district court granted a preliminary injunction in response to a lawsuit from activist groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
• The injunction and lawsuit relate to a 1925 abortion ban that was removed from the books following the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, as courts interpreted it to be repealed and unenforceable.
• But in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe’s constitutional right to an abortion, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said the 1925 ban was back in effect and that prosecutors could choose to immediately pursue criminal charges against abortion providers 

Takeaway: Prior to Friday’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion was available in Texas up to six weeks’ gestation. Since then, all abortions in the state have ceased. The injunction will allow abortion up to six weeks of pregnancy to resume at some clinics. 

Read more here.

JUUL SAYS FDA OVERLOOKED KEY DATA IN APPLICATION

E-cigarette company Juul argued in court documents filed on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had overlooked a mountain of data that it had included in its application that demonstrated its products’ benefit to public health, and said the decision to ban the product was based on “deeply flawed reasons.” 

• In the court documents, Juul said it had included more than 110 scientific studies and more than 125,000 pages of data and analysis that showed its e-cigarettes offered “substantial public-health benefits.”
• “Instead of praising a significant public-health victory, FDA denied JLI’s applications for arbitrary reasons and demanded that retailers remove all JUUL products from their shelves or face immediate action,” Juul wrote in its argument, further claiming that the FDA’s decision could not be “squared” with science. 

Last week, the FDA announced it was banning Juul from marketing and selling it products. Products from the company that are already out on the market would have to be removed, per the agency’s decision.  

Read more here.

Panel favors updating COVID vaccines for omicron

An expert advisory vaccine panel for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday voted in favor of recommending updated COVID-19 vaccines specifically designed to combat the omicron variant. 

• Among the voting members of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), 19 voted in favor of recommending an omicron-specific booster while two voted against the endorsement.
• The FDA is not required to follow the committee’s recommendations, though the agency usually does. 

Several members of the vaccine panel reasoned that the likely benefits of an omicron-specific vaccine — possibly a bivalent shot — outweighed the possible risks. 

Still some debate: During the meeting, however, members brought up several possible points of contention regarding the recommendation. 

Some members argued that approaching the COVID-19 pandemic like it was the flu with seasonal boosters was not the right path, pointing out that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been shown to mutate faster than the influenza virus. 

Read more here.

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Gen Z is influencing the abortion debate — from TikTok (Washington Post) 
• Defining “life-threatening” can be tricky in abortion law exceptions (Axios) 
• When Brazil banned abortion pills, women turned to drug traffickers (The New York Times)

STATE BY STATE

• Republicans Are Sending Abortion Back to the States. But D.C. Isn’t a State. (Politico) 
• Californians can vote to add abortion to the state’s constitutional rights (NPR)  
• Iowa governor seeks to revive Iowa’s 6-week abortion ban after Roe v. Wade overturn (Des Moines Register)

OP-EDS IN THE HILL

• What is actually killing Americans and how to solve it 
• President Biden’s unintended war on cancer patients 
• Gun legislation provision puts drug supply chain profits over patients

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you tomorrow.

READ THE FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

White House details monkeypox vaccination strategy

The White House on Tuesday said it plans to send out tens of thousands of vaccine doses immediately as the nation tries to head off a growing monkeypox outbreak, amid fears that the country is undercounting cases because of insufficient testing.  

Administration officials ​said the vaccine strategy will focus on protecting those most at-risk of monkeypox, and will use a tiered distribution system to prioritize vaccines for areas with the highest numbers of cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed about 300 cases of monkeypox in the U.S., though the actual number could be higher.  

The administration plans to allocate 296,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine over the coming weeks, which is the only Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccine specifically for monkeypox.

Of those, 56,000 doses that are in the Strategic National Stockpile will be allocated immediately. Over the coming months a combined 1.6 million additional doses will become available, the White House said.

The CDC is recommending that the new vaccine doses be provided to individuals with confirmed monkeypox exposures and presumed exposures, rather than only those who have a confirmed case.

This includes those who had close physical contact with someone diagnosed with monkeypox, those who know their sexual partner was diagnosed with monkeypox, and men who have sex with men who have recently had multiple sex partners in a venue where there was confirmed monkeypox, or in an area where monkeypox is spreading.

Health officials said close contact, and sexual contact in particular, appear to be the primary drivers for this outbreak. 

“As case counts and the number of jurisdictions with cases increases, the need for medical countermeasures, including vaccines, continues to rise,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters during a media briefing Tuesday.

“The administration’s current strategy is focused on containing the outbreak by providing vaccines to those most in need to prevent further spread of monkeypox in the communities most impacted, and as additional supply becomes available, we will further expand our efforts making vaccines available to a wider population,” Walensky said. 

The virus has been disproportionately spread among gay and bisexual men, though health authorities and LGBTQ advocacy groups have repeatedly stressed that monkeypox does not differentiate between those who are gay or straight and that everyone should stay aware and informed on the risks of the virus.

When monkeypox cases began cropping up around the U.S., federal health authorities said there were about 72,000 doses of Jynneos in the Strategic National Stockpile, a paltry amount compared to the more than 100 million doses of ACAM2000, an older smallpox vaccine.

Local and state governments have so far expressed a preference for the newer Jynneos smallpox vaccine due to concerns over the possible side effects associated with ACAM2000. 

According to the White House, the Jynneos vaccine will be allocated using a four-tier distribution strategy that prioritizes jurisdictions with the highest case rates of monkeypox.

Within each tier, doses of Jynneos will be allocated based on the number of individuals at risk for monkeypox who also have a contraindication to ACAM2000, such as those with HIV.

Source: TEST FEED1

Equilibrium/Sustainability — Notre Dame overhaul embraces climate focus

The city of Paris will be resurrecting the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral — scorched by a devastating blaze in 2019 — with a climate-forward cooling system that incorporates both technology and trees.   

“A city like ours can no longer think outside of climate change,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said at a Monday news conference, according to The New York Times.

While officials plan to leave the stone square in front of the cathedral mostly intact, they said they will be removing fencing to merge the area with surrounding parks while planting 30 percent more vegetation in the area, according to the Times.  

The redesign will also involve transforming an existing parking lot under the main square into an underground walkway that leads to the banks of the Seine River and houses an archeological museum, the newspaper reported.

And on particularly hot days, a cooling system will send a thin sheet of water cascading down the square in front of Notre Dame, which is expected to lower temperatures by several degrees.

Paris City Hall is investing $53 million in reviving the cathedral, which officials hope to partially reopen in 2024 — just in time for the city to host the Olympic Games, the Times reported.

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Today we’ll look at the presence of cancer-linked compounds in household natural gas and see how Atlantic hurricanes are growing in size and frequency. Then we’ll look at how a global chemical shortage means a worsening rise in U.S. food prices.

Cooking, heating gas may have dangerous pollutants

Natural gas used for cooking and heating may contain cancer-linked compounds that are toxic to residents when leaked, a new study has found.  

• The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, investigated the composition of Greater Boston’s “unburned” household gas, or the gas that comes out of a kitchen stovetop when switching on the appliance.
• The authors detected varying concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — which are known not only to be carcinogenic, but also to generate secondary pollutants such as particulate matter and ozone.     

Not just methane: Most related research has focused on methane — the primary component of natural gas — and its considerable effects on climate change, the authors noted.  

Instead, the scientists chose to explore the degree to which other air pollutants are present at household “end use.”  

Just like pizza sauce: “Natural gas is mostly methane like pizza sauce is mostly tomatoes,” lead author Drew Michanowicz, a visiting scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told reporters prior to the study’s release.  

“There’s other trace ingredients in pizza sauce. You need salt, oregano, pepper,” he said, drawing a comparison to the VOC additives. 

What did they find? From December 2019 through May 2021, the researchers collected 234 samples from 69 kitchen stoves and building pipelines across the Boston region.  

• They detected 296 unique chemical compounds — 21 of which are designated by the federal government as hazardous.
     
• One VOC that appeared in 95 percent of samples was benzene, whose wintertime concentrations were nearly eight-fold greater than those of summertime.    

Concerning, but impacts are unclear: “Benzene is concerning because it’s a known human carcinogen,” Michanowicz said. 

“Because of that, it’s strongly regulated,” he added, noting that the levels in these samples were relatively low. 

Michanowicz reiterated that their study did not assess associated health effects and that more research needs to occur.  

What does industry say? Jake Rubin, senior director for public relations at the American Gas Association, acknowledged that “combustion emissions from gas ranges, ovens and cooktops can contribute to some degree to emissions of recognized pollutants.” 

He insisted, however, that “there are no documented risks to respiratory health from natural gas stoves from the regulatory and advisory agencies and organizations responsible for protecting residential consumer health and safety.”  

Precautionary measures: Even prior to determining precise health impacts, the researchers said there are proactive measures residents can take to minimize potential harm.  

Increasing filtration and ventilation within the home is an effective step, as is fixing indoor gas leaks, according to co-author Zeyneb Magavi, of the Boston-based Home Energy Efficiency Team.  

An intimate connection: “A fossil fuel pipeline literally ends where a kitchen begins,” Michanowicz said.  

“Cooking over a natural gas flame is probably the most intimate connection with climate change that we never think about,” he added. 

To read the full story, please click here.

Atlantic hurricanes growing in power and number

Two potential tropical storms are forming in the Gulf of Mexico, one of which is headed for Texas. 

While neither is likely to form a full-blown hurricane, they are an overture to what is likely to be a busy, destructive Atlantic hurricane season. 

Two to watch: The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is monitoring two storm systems in particular this week.

• The spinning disturbance — currently called Potential Tropical Cyclone Two — is now 320 miles east of Trinidad and will hit Venezuela and the Windward Isles over the next two days, the NHC predicted.
• Another system of showers and thunderstorms is drifting toward Texas, which has about a 30 percent chance of becoming a full-fledged named tropical cyclone, according to the NHC.

The systems are unlikely to form hurricanes, but if they progress to named tropical storms, these will be named Bonnie and Colin, respectively, NBC News reported. 

Trouble for the Eastern Seaboard: Hurricane frequency is increasing in the North Atlantic, according to a study published on Monday in Nature Climate Change. 

This year is predicted to be the seventh straight year of above-average numbers of Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, our colleague Zack Budryk reported last month.

• The Atlantic increase contrasts with the pattern in every other ocean basin, where hurricane incidence has declined, the Nature study found.
   
• But those storms that do emerge are getting worse, according to the scientists. 

Less in number, worse in scale: “Even though cyclones are getting fewer, those that do form are now feeding more energy from the warming atmosphere, so that’s why they’re getting more intense,” Savin Chand of Australia’s Federation University told CNN.

CLIMATE’S ROLE IN HURRICANES DANGEROUSLY UNCLEAR

We still don’t know to what extent human-caused climate change is behind the increase in tropical cyclones — which makes us more vulnerable to them, according to a study in the inaugural edition of Environmental Research: Climate.

• “We really don’t have a comprehensive overview or detailed inventory of what impacts climate change is having today,” co-author Friederike Otto of Imperial College London said in a statement. 
• “Understanding the role that climate change plays in these events can help us better prepare for them,” said lead author Ben Clarke of the University of Oxford.

Chemical shortage means higher food prices

A worldwide shortage of chemicals resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is interfering with spring planting for farmers in the U.S. 

That means already rising food prices are likely to keep increasing, putting Black Americans at particular risk, CNBC reported.

Shortage in the fields: Soaring prices and limited supplies of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and fertilizers are leading to bottlenecks in U.S. crop production, even as the world grain supply reels from the interruption of exports from Ukraine, Reuters reported. 

“This is off the charts. Everything was delayed, delayed, delayed,” the owner of an Indiana agricultural supply store told Reuters. 

Shortage at the plant: A particular vulnerability in the global chemical supply chain is the enormous BASF plant in Germany, a primary supplier of key herbicides and fertilizers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

• The plant — which is heavily dependent on Russian gas for heat, power and as a source of chemical precursors — is now facing the possibility of a shutdown as Moscow tightens supplies, according to the Journal. 
• “We’ve never faced such a situation before. It’s difficult to imagine,” chief company economist Peter Westerheide told the Journal. 

Shortages on the shelves: Any constriction of crop yields means rising food prices, and interruptions in fertilizer supplies are already pushing up costs at the grocery store, according to the nonprofit Poynter Institute. 

• Those rising prices are particularly damaging to Black families, who are more likely to live in zones of scarce or expensive groceries, CNBC reported. 
• Their wealth also tends to significantly trail that of white families, while Black incomes tend to be disproportionately spent on daily needs, according to CNBC. 

For Black families, any further rise in prices “is going to be extremely devastating,” William Darity Jr. of Duke University told CNBC.

Turbine construction may harm marine life: study

The construction of offshore wind turbines may be damaging the hearing of porpoises and seals, scientists warned in a new study. 

The study, published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, examined how heavy-duty equipment used to drive steel supports into the seafloor — called “pile drivers” — may be too noisy for these animals.  

Why seals and porpoises? “They are acoustically sensitive and among the most common marine mammals in shallow western European waters, a center of the rapidly expanding offshore wind farm industry,” co-author Jakob Tougaard, of Denmark’s Aarhus University, said in a statement. 

• The study comes a day after U.S. developers reached an agreement with environmentalists to protect another species: The rare North Atlantic right whale, The Associated Press reported. 
• This agreement requires decreasing pile driving noise, as well as reducing vessel speeds to prevent collisions, according to the AP.   

Change may be needed: The Danish scientists urged governments to revisit existing noise regulations, which rely on U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service data from seven years ago.  

• The regulations were established by exposing animals in captivity to noise levels that create a “temporary threshold shift”— or the lowest noise that can temporarily reduce hearing, according to the study.  
• This threshold can then be used to extrapolate what levels could cause permanent damage, the authors explained.     

So what’s wrong? Different species have different hearing abilities, while some discrepancies exist between predicted and measured noise thresholds, the authors observed.  

For example, they found differences between the impact of low frequency noise on seals and high frequency noise on porpoises.   

Going forward: The authors called for further research dedicated to measuring the impacts of noise on these species, so that they receive the protection they need.

Toxic Tuesday

Roundup case continues to court, Texans call for more stringent environmental protection and an online meal-kit service is in trouble.

SCOTUS rejects Bayer challenge to weedkiller case 

• The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a bid from Bayer AG to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, Reuters reported. The decision upheld a ruling that awarded $87 million to plaintiffs in a California lawsuit, according to Reuters. 

Texans demand more environmental regulation 

• Dozens of Texans demanded the state environmental regulator to do more to prevent pollution of their land, air and water, The Texas Tribune reported. “We’ve been taught that pollution is not good for our health and growing brains,” a nine-year-old resident told the commission, questioning why the regulator “keeps permitting plants that pollute our air and water.”  

Instagram meal company faces allegations of tainted food 

• Meal kit service Daily Harvest — which rose to prominence by using Instagram influencers to hype its products — is suffering a backlash after several people became seriously ill from one of its products, which the company has now voluntarily recalled, CNN reported

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you tomorrow.

READ FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

NFL recommends Deshaun Watson be sidelined for at least a year: reports

The NFL has recommended a season-long suspension for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who recently settled 20 of 24 civil lawsuits filed against him for various sexual misconduct claims.

Hearings started Tuesday over what type of disciplinary action the star quarterback should face. The hearing will consider whether Watson violated the league’s personal conduct policy.

USA Today reported on Monday that league officials notified former federal judge  Sue L. Robinson, who is serving as the disciplinary officer for the hearing, about its recommendation on Watson’s case. 

A source also told the newspaper that Robinson plans to review documentation from the league’s investigation into the matter as well, adding that she will listen to arguments from attorneys of the league and its player’s union, the NFLPA. 

When asked about the recommendation, a league spokesperson declined to comment to The Hill. 

In the lawsuits, twenty-four women who worked as massage therapists accused Waston of exposing himself, touching them with his penis, or kissing them without their consent during scheduled appointments through the years 2020 and 2021. 

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Watson, 26, booked more than 60 massage appointments within a 17-month period and obtained non-disclosure agreements from his former team, the Houston Texans, for the massage therapists to sign as well. 

One of the 24 women who had previously sued Watson also filed a lawsuit against the Texans on Monday, alleging the team provided Watson with resources to enable his behavior, calling his behavior “disturbing,  and predatory,” ESPN reported. 

Watson, who sat out of the 2021 NFL season due to ongoing allegations, was traded to the Cleveland Browns in March for multiple draft picks. Recently, two separate grand juries in Texas declined to indict Watson on the sexual assault allegations against him, meaning the star quarterback won’t face any criminal charges. 

If Robinson rules in favor of the league’s recommendation, Watson’s legal counsel and the NFLPA are expected to appeal the decision, but according to the league’s collective bargaining agreement, Goodell has all of the say on the final decision of any possible punishment for Watson, USA Today noted. 

The Hill has reached out to the NFLPA for comment.

Source: TEST FEED1