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Enough of the ‘tenuous’ Iran nuclear deal — it’s time for Plan B

“Tenuous at best,” is how Iran envoy Robert Malley described to the Senate the prospects for resuming stalemated talks with Iran. Yet, against all evidence to the contrary, the Biden administration clings forlornly to the hope of a new nuclear deal. It is beyond time to move on.

The administration’s intent to rejoin the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal, and use this to pursue a “longer, stronger” follow-on accord, would produce, at this juncture, only a shorter and weaker agreement and give Tehran a financial windfall.

With its policy in tatters, the White House must promptly and publicly not only heed Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-N.J.) explicit calls for it to provide a “Plan B” but actually adopt it as well. This should start with acknowledging that Tehran has killed any effort at serious diplomacy. Then, the administration must act on Malley’s assertion that “we are fully prepared to live with and confront the reality” of no deal, as a new report from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) lays out.

Avoiding “a nuclear crisis in the Persian Gulf” was Malley’s justification for indefinite negotiations. But staying on this course will produce precisely the outcomes the United States wants to avoid. Already perched on the brink of the bomb (as a recent International Atomic Energy Agency report notes), and with Russia’s recent nuclear threats deterring direct U.S. intervention in Ukraine, Iran now has more incentive than ever to keep approaching the nuclear threshold while American diplomats bury their heads in the sand.

Simultaneously, the administration’s inaction in the Middle East and underenforcement of U.S. sanctions, rather than earning Tehran’s goodwill, simply provide Iran with more money and opportunities to destabilize the region, attack U.S. interests and raise the risks of a major conflict.

Left on autopilot, this approach increases the pressure the United States and its partners will have to apply to get concessions from Tehran, while shrinking their window to do so. Years of declining U.S. commitments in the Middle East make matters worse, as America’s partners and Tehran harbor serious doubts about Washington’s willingness to stop Iran’s nuclear and regional aggression.

Plan B’s immediate goal must be to counter these malign activities. The administration should make abundantly clear the United States is recommitting its attention and presence to the Middle East through a Biden Doctrine affirming its readiness to use all elements of national power, including military force, to defend vital U.S. interests in the region, including preventing nuclear proliferation. This also requires reversing the administration’s tendency, echoed in Malley’s testimony, of downplaying U.S. military options for preventing a nuclear Iran.

Though the credibility of a Biden Doctrine needs to be bolstered by updated U.S. contingency planning, joint exercises and enhanced force posture, America also must boost the military capabilities of its willing Middle Eastern partners on the frontlines and work to integrate their efforts more coherently into a regional defense network.

Foremost, this means supporting Israel’s freedom of action, which has borne the heaviest burdens of holding the line against Tehran. The United States should swiftly transfer key weaponry for which Israel already is arranging procurement, including KC-46A refueling tankers, additional F-35 aircraft, precision-guided munitions, and missile defenses.

Building on strategic opportunities created by the Abraham Accords, the Biden administration should find ways to incorporate Israel’s highly capable forces into U.S.-led joint military exercises, operations and maritime security task forces with its Arab partners. Additionally, serious efforts are urgently needed to build an effective region-wide air defense and shared early warning system to counter Iran’s alarming advances in missiles and armed drones. The United States should also explore ways to facilitate the transfer of Israel’s world-class air defense systems to the Gulf.

A potential Middle East summit next month, when the president visits Israel, offers the perfect opportunity to formally announce this strengthened U.S. approach that bears his name and to mend diplomatic fences with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Both of these vital partners have been deeply alarmed by the persistence of Plan A and have begun hedging toward some combination of China, Russia and Iran.

The administration also must enforce sanctions. Stringent penalties on violators of U.S. prohibitions against Iran’s oil exports — for instance, China — would choke off key revenue streams for the Iranian regime. Working with its European allies, the Biden team also should move to censure Tehran for its systematic stonewalling of international atomic inspectors and pursue “snapback” of legally binding United Nations sanctions in response to Iran moving to the brink of nuclear weapons capability.

The White House has said consistently it will move to Plan B if diplomacy fails to secure a JCPOA return. Iran has made clear that will not happen on anything remotely like acceptable terms; the United States must move on as well. 

Ambassador Eric Edelman is a former U.S. undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Gen. Charles Wald, USAF (ret.), served as the deputy commander of U.S. European Command. They co-chair the Iran Policy Project at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA). 

Source: TEST FEED1

Marjorie Taylor Greene knocks Graham for openness to voting on gun legislation

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) criticized Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for his openness to voting on gun control legislation, arguing such measures were going to “hurt the very people that voted for him and put him in office.”

“Here’s the major problem. Why would we have a Republican senator from South Carolina ready to go to vote on radical gun control bills? They’re gonna hurt the very people that voted for him and put him in office. You see, South Carolina is not a blue state. No, South Carolina is a red state,” Greene said during an episode of “MTG Live.”

“There’s a lot of gun owners in South Carolina, and they are not going to be very happy with the senator that they elected and sent to Washington, D.C. to represent their values, to defend their freedoms, and protect their gun rights and uphold the Constitution,” she continued. “They’re not going to like it very much when he’s up here helping Joe Biden pass his communist agenda and go ahead and destroy their Second Amendment rights.”

Greene directed those comments at the South Carolina senator, who is involved in bipartisan Senate negotiations on gun legislation, after he issued a statement following President Biden’s speech urging Congress to take specific actions in response to recent mass shootings.

“I stand ready to vote on ALL the proposals mentioned by President Biden tonight and encourage the Democratic Leader to bring them forward for votes,” Graham tweeted.

“I also stand ready to work across the aisle to find common ground – something that was absent from President Biden’s address to the nation,” he said in a follow-up tweet.

Greene also said of the South Carolina Republican that he “wants to make sure that your tax dollars are helping people in Ukraine to defend themself, but he stands ready to vote for all of Joe Biden’s gun control bills.”

Graham’s office did not provide a comment to The Hill on the matter. 

Graham’s tweets do not indicate which way he would be voting on gun legislation. He made his remarks after Biden that evening called for Congress to expand background checks and ban high-capacity magazines and assault-style weapons.

The nation has been reeling after several high-profile shootings in Tulsa, Okla., Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y. A bipartisan group of senators are working together on gun legislation while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has vowed that a gun package will be voted on this week. 

Democrats will ultimately need 10 Senate Republicans to back gun reform legislation to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to end a filibuster. Senators have acknowledged they need more time on negotiations but said they are making progress.

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Biden signs bill to improve access to mammograms for veterans exposed to burn pits

President Biden on Tuesday signed a bill to provide better access to mammograms for veterans exposed to burn pits as part of nine bills signed into law aimed to improve veterans’ health care.

The legislation aims to ensure that veterans who serve near burn pits get preventative care and requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct breast cancer screenings for women who experience toxic exposures.

The Dr. Kate Hendricks Thomas SERVICE Act was named after Marine Corps Officer Kate Thomas, who served near a burn pit in Iraq and died in April from breast cancer. Biden honored her in remarks at the White House and acknowledged her husband and son, who were at the bill signing.

Biden has been focused on expanding benefits for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and were exposed to toxic chemicals from burn pits. The issue of burn pits strikes a personal note for the president, who believes related chemicals may have contributed to the brain cancer that ultimately killed his son, Beau Biden.

He signed eight other pieces of legislation Tuesday focused on veteran health care, including a bill to improve breast imaging services for veterans regardless of if they’re exposed to burn pits or not, and to compensate veterans who developed cancer and medical conditions from the World War II-era nuclear programs.

“Less than one percent of the population risk everything to defend our nation and our values and everything we hold dear. And you know, the 99 percent of us who don’t, we owe them, we owe them big,” Biden said at the bill signing. “And that’s what today is all about, is paying a debt in my view.”

He called it a “sacred obligation” to prepare those serves in the armed forces and to care for them and their families when they return home.

Lawmakers who attended the bill signing included Republican Sens. John Boozman (Ark.), Susan Collins (Maine), and Joni Ernst (Iowa), and Democratic Sens. John Hickenlooper (Colo.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Ben Ray Lujan (N.M.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), and Jon Tester (Mont.).

“I need glasses. When I look out, the only thing I see is Joe Manchin,” Biden quipped, acknowledging the lawmakers in the audience.

Source: TEST FEED1

FDA panel gives nod to Novavax COVID-19 shot

An outside advisory panel voted overwhelmingly to recommend the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorize a COVID-19 vaccine made by Novavax for use in adults, a move that could lead to adding a fourth vaccine to the U.S. arsenal.

The FDA’s vaccine advisory panel voted 21-0, with one abstention. The FDA does not have to follow the panel’s recommendation, though it often does.

Novavax’s two-dose vaccine was about 90 percent effective at preventing mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 during clinical trials. But critically, the trials were conducted before the omicron variant and panel members expressed concern about whether the efficacy would hold up against the current variants.

Novavax’s vaccine could appeal to people who have been reluctant to receive one of the mRNA vaccines, as it was manufactured using a fundamentally different process. 

“We do have a problem with vaccine uptake that is very serious in the United States, and anything we can do to get people more comfortable to be able to accept these potentially lifesaving medical products is something that we feel we are compelled to do,” said Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine regulator.

But winning over even a small number of eligible people who haven’t yet been vaccinated could be a difficult task and it’s not clear how much success the company will find. The U.S. is not short on doses from any of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines that have been available for more than a year. 

The Maryland-based Novavax secured a $1.8 billion contract from the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed early in the pandemic to scale up research and purchase up to 100 million doses.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Zelensky: Stalemate in Ukraine's war with Russia 'not an option for us'

Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said a stalemate in the war with Russia was “not an option,” adding despite facing an uphill climb “victory must be achieved on the battlefield.”

In a 30-minute interview with the Financial Times, Zelensky said the ultimate goal for Ukraine was to beat back Russian forces and reclaim full control over the country.

“Stalemate is not an option for us — we cannot just go on living in this position and hostilities,” Zelensky told Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf. “The opinion of most of our people is [the goal of] regaining all of our territories, restoring our territorial integrity and the inviable sovereignty of Ukraine.

“This is not just some shallow ranting on my part,” Zelensky added. “It will be a great victory for the people of Ukraine.”

Zelensky has previously said Ukraine will continue to fight until his country has regained its complete independence and pushed Russian forces out.

The Ukrainian president doubled down on the position last month after former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said Ukraine should cede some territory and return to the status quo before the Feb. 24 invasion in the name of peace.

Although western allies have been largely united in supporting Ukraine, some nations have begun to splinter on how to end the war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron drew condemnation after he suggested the West should not “humiliate” Russian President Vladimir Putin and instead give him an “exit ramp” out of the war.

Zelensky told the Financial Times that Ukraine “did not need any alternative” suggested by other world leaders.

“I did not really understand. What is humiliating Russia? Humiliating what?” Zelensky said. “Are we talking about the fact that for eight years they have been killing Ukrainians?”

Ukrainian troops have fought against Russian-backed separatist forces since 2014 in the Luhansk and Donestk regions, both of which Putin declared independent before moving troops into Ukraine in the February invasion.

After more than 100 days of war, Russia has taken about 20 percent of all territory in Ukraine, although Russian troops retreated from areas around the capitol region of Kyiv and also sustained heavy losses.

Heavy fighting continues in the Donbas, the eastern region of the country where Russian forces are focused on seizing the Luhansk and Donestk regions.

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have made little progress toward peace and mostly stalled after atrocities in the cities of Bucha and Mariupol.

Zelensky on Tuesday did not say what his conditions would be but told the Financial Times he was ready to talk with Putin.

“I’m still determined that any war should be ended at the negotiation table,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

America’s seniors are paying for Medicare mismanagement

Inflation and gas prices might be driving domestic political news, but for vulnerable communities hit hardest by diseases such as Alzheimer’s, health care is always top of mind. That concern rapidly can turn to frustration and anger when dealing with Medicare coverage — especially when promising new treatments are stifled by mismanagement in government bureaucracies.

If the Biden administration’s goal is to upset seniors — a key constituency in a pivotal election year — it is certainly succeeding. Despite inflating seniors’ Medicare Part B premiums to account for new drug costs that have not materialized, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) recently announced it won’t lower premiums again until next year, and perhaps not even then. The comedy of errors that led to this announcement is, in fact, a tragedy for seniors hoping to access Alzheimer’s treatments.

When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval last summer for aducanumab (brand name Aduhelm), the first new Alzheimer’s medicine in two decades, it was a watershed moment for millions of patients. This medicine is part of a new class of treatments targeting amyloid beta plaques, one of the root causes of Alzheimer’s disease, rather than merely treating symptoms. It represented hope for patients and loved ones grappling with a devastating disease — and an opportunity to address socioeconomic inequities associated with it. With seniors poised to benefit, and several similar medicines under FDA review, CMS kicked off a process to update Medicare coverage.

But hope quickly shifted to anxiety as exaggerated calculations of the drug’s cost to Medicare contributed to intense pressure on government budgets, and in November 2021, CMS announced a historic spike in Medicare Part B premiums. The agency blamed half of the cost on the impending coverage of new Alzheimer’s medicines, even though it hadn’t completed its coverage analysis for Aduhelm. In other words, it front-loaded this unrealized cost onto seniors, even as inflation reached heights not seen in nearly 40 years.

Then, in April, CMS added insult to injury by restricting Medicare eligibility for these medicines to patients enrolled in certain clinical trials. As a result, only a few thousand patients, rather than a much broader pool of Medicare beneficiaries, stand to benefit from the treatment — massively reducing the potential cost for Medicare. Throughout this process, the Biden administration claimed to be considering how to lower Part B premiums, but ultimately locked them in at all-time highs.

There are several lessons to be drawn from this debacle, and some steps CMS can take to ensure this doesn’t happen again. The first is that CMS should focus on its core responsibility of managing the impact of coverage on programs and leave scientific issues to the FDA. CMS decided to limit coverage, despite the FDA approving Aduhelm using accelerated approval — a process that has been used since 1992 to expedite the availability of drugs combatting life threatening illnesses.

CMS is setting a dangerous precedent by straying out of its lane. It is not the role or responsibility of CMS to question the integrity of the FDA’s scientific process, just as it would be inappropriate for the FDA to analyze Medicare coverage impact, which is CMS’s job.

Furthermore, the decision to restrict coverage casts a shadow of uncertainty over several promising new Alzheimer’s treatments under FDA review. Decisions on lecanemab (Eisai) and gantenerumab (Roche) are expected later this year. Donanemab (Lilly) is in phase 3 trials, with data expected in mid-2023. Going forward, CMS should outline a policy for reviewing data for these medicines as soon as it’s available and — for those with positive outcomes — update coverage to ensure Medicare beneficiaries have timely access to them.

The process is crucial because CMS tends to move very slowly. The agency missed its deadlines for the coverage analysis process in 2021, creating delays that Alzheimer’s patients and their families cannot afford. For now, seniors are left holding the bag. Though CMS claimed it will consider the reduced cost of Alzheimer’s treatments in calculating 2023 payments, it was careful not to promise lower premiums.

Blunders and mismanagement on vital issues such as this surely will contribute to the Democrats’ expected rout in the November midterms. But, for the sake of patients and families, especially those who suffer because of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, let’s hope the aftermath will convince the Biden administration to get it right the next time around.

Mario H. Lopez is president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, a public policy advocacy organization that promotes liberty, opportunity and prosperity for all Americans. Follow him on Twitter @MarioHLopez.

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House Oversight launches investigation into unreported gifts received by Trump

House Oversight Committee Democrats have launched an investigation into the gifts former President Trump received while he was in office, claiming he failed to account for thousands of dollars worth of gifts he received from foreign officials.

According to the committee, the former president appears to have flouted laws that require turning over any gift deemed to be worth more than $415 – a longstanding practice based on the Emoluments Clause of the constitution, which places limits on what the president can receive from foreign governments. 

“Public reporting indicates that President Trump accepted multiple gifts from foreign sources in 2020, yet these gifts do not appear on the Department of State’s public list as required,” Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to the National Archives.

“These revelations raise concerns about the potential for undue influence over former President Trump by foreign governments, which may have put the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States at risk.”

The request comes following an April report in The New York Times detailing how the State Department was unable to track many of the gifts Trump and others in the administration received during their final full year in office.

State Department officials have since told the committee that its gift vault was left in “complete disarray” by the Trump administration.

Yet some of the gifts the prior administration failed to turn over were covered in media reports of their overseas trips. On a trip to India alone, Trump received a bust of Mahatma Gandhi, a marble replica of Gandhi’s ‘Three Monkeys statue,’ and a spinning wheel, along with other gifts.

The Department of State Office of Inspector General has previously documented issues with Trump administration record keeping of its gifts, writing in a report last year that a “lack of accurate recordkeeping and appropriate physical security controls contributed to the loss” of various gifts.

That left them unable to determine what happened to a rare, $5,800 bottle of whiskey given to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019 as well as a 22-karat gold commemorative coin given to another State Department official.

The letter to the National Archives indicates that it may have records “not available to the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol.”

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McConaughey calls for 'real change' on guns in emotional White House appearance

Matthew McConaughey made an impassioned plea at the White House press briefing on Tuesday for “real change” on gun violence, sharing his experience on the ground following the recent school shooting in his Texas hometown of Uvalde.

“How can the loss of these lives matter?” McConaughey asked.

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed by a gunman last month at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

McConaughey highlighted the lives of several children who were killed in the shooting, who he and his wife, Camila, met with in the days following the May attack.

Camila Alves McConaughey sat with a pair of green Converse shoes on her lap belonging to one of the victims, Maite Rodriguez. The 10-year-old girl had hand drawn a heart on the shoes because it “represented her love of nature.”

McConaughey said the distinct shoes were the “only clear evidence that could identify” Rodriguez following the shooting.

“We want secure and safe schools, and we want gun laws that won’t make it so easy for the bad guys to get these damn guns,” McConaughey said.

The father of three urged lawmakers to pass several measures, including requiring background checks on all gun purchases, raising the legal age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21 and instituting national waiting periods for them, and implementing a national red flag system.

“Responsible gun owners are fed up with the Second Amendment being abused and hijacked by some deranged individuals,” the “Dallas Buyers Club” star exclaimed.

“As divided as our country is, this gun responsibility issue is one we agree on more than we don’t. It really is. But this should be a non-partisan issue,” the 52-year-old performer, who last year publicly weighed a Texas gubernatorial run said, before turning his focus to Congress.

“There is not a Democratic or Republican value in one single act of these shooters. None. But people in power have failed to act.”

Republicans and Democrats, McConaughey said, need to see “beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands.”

Lawmakers can’t “truly be leaders” if they’re “only living for reelection,” he said.

“I promise you, America: You and me, we are not as divided as we are being told we are.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said McConaughey met earlier in the day with President Biden. Following his comments, he declined to answer questions from reporters.

McConaughey’s remarks at the White House came a day after the Academy Award winner touched down on Capitol Hill to discuss the same issue with lawmakers.

Sen. Dick Durban (D-Ill.) said in a Twitter post following a talk with McConaughey that he and the actor “agree that gun safety reform is needed.”

In a Monday opinion piece published in the Austin American-Statesman, McConaughey wrote that Americans have a “cultural obligation to take steps toward slowing down the senseless killing of our children.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Tech giants urge DHS to revamp policies for high-skilled visa holders' children

A coalition of U.S.-based tech companies sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking him to revamp the department’s policies for children of high-skilled visa holders. 

In their letter sent on Tuesday, obtained by the Wall Street Journal, the coalition asked the Biden Administration to establish a “more robust aging out policies” in an effort to address the issue of children of long-term visa holders being able to continue as beneficiaries of their parents’ pending green card applications even after they turn 21 years of age.

The coalition noted that more than 200,00 children have grown up in this country under their parents’ protected visa status, which included those who are holders of the H-1B visas. 

The H-1B visa, which is commonly used in the technology industry, runs out when a child turns 21 years of age, meaning that the child has to apply for green card status to be able to work in the U.S, the letter said. 

The letter was signed by tech companies such as Twitter, Uber Technologies, Inc., Amazon, Google, and IBM. 

“Policymakers have recognized the plight of the Dreamers – children brought to the U.S. by their parents, who know no other country and were left without legal status – and have provided interim relief through the DACA program,” the coalition wrote in their letter. “We continue to ask Congress to enact a fair and inclusive solution for these individuals. Now, we urge policymakers to also address the needs of the more than 200,000 children of high-skilled immigrants who risk falling through the cracks of the immigration system.” 

The coalition also encourages Congress to the bipartisan legislation called America’s Children Act, which will create a pathway to citizenship for children of long-term visa holders, often referred to as “document dreamers” and provides a long-term resolution to the issue. 

“We believe in the power of innovation to advance society and create a better tomorrow. Equally, we believe in the values of family and decency,” the letter read. “Policies that will stop the injustice wrought by these “age-out” policies will not only promote all these beliefs we share, but also set the stage for more meaningful reform efforts moving forward.”

University of Texas graduate Athulya Rajakumar, who moved to the U.S. at the age of 5, told the Journal that she is worried about her future due to the policies, citing that her legal status ends in December. 

“I know it sounds crazy, but I haven’t made any plans,” she told the outlet. “I’m just hoping that something will get fixed by then and I can stay.”

The Hill has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. 

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