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Budowsky: Women are going to be the superstars of the midterms

Tom Bonier, CEO of data and polling firm TargetSmart and a nationally respected elections expert, recently wrote a guest op-ed in the New York Times titled: “Women are so fired up to vote, I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

It seems likely that when the midterm votes are counted, women will be viewed as the superstars of the 2022 elections, rallying in large numbers, with high turnout, after enormous voter registration.   

This will include women of all ages, races, religions and political ideologies. This will include principled female conservatives and Republicans who will battle with their votes for the soul not only of our country but, in the case of moderate and principled conservative Republicans, of their party. 

It is fine to criticize far-right Republicans, but President Biden and Democrats should reach out to moderate and moderately conservative independents, as well as moderate and principled conservative Republicans, to join them for this one election, at this one moment. 

This would make an outstanding prime-time address for the president, going the distance supporting the movement to register all voters, but female voters especially, to lift our country with decency and protect our country from extremism. 

And — this is critically important — every reference to “MAGA Republicans” should be accompanied by an equal, or greater reference, extending Democratic hands to moderate Republicans and principled conservatives who publicly or privately would vote to protect the GOP from falling into the hands of extremism. 

With one of the most important midterm elections in a century rapidly approaching, major events that explain what is happening are in progress across the landscape of American politics. 

Biden and Democrats have enacted an impressive range of major initiatives that have elevated the president’s political standing and the performance of Democrats in match-up polling, a trend I have emphasized in recent columns.  

It is imperative to inform voters, again and again and in depth, of these important initiatives, which will lower the cost of prescription drugs, improve health care for veterans and other Americans, combat gun violence, protect Earth from climate change and create American jobs that will help rebuild our nation and restore our technological leadership. 

Former President Trump has succeeded in dominating the Republican Party, leading to countless nominees for state and federal office who are far to the extreme right compared to historic Republicans and conservatives. Many outright deny the results of the 2020 presidential election. Others aggressively threaten retribution against those they treat as political enemies, including moderate Republicans, if they win the 2022 midterms. 

In one of the most politically and legally radical and consequential events in modern history, the Supreme Court, defying five decades of legal precedent, overturned Roe v. Wade and destroyed the constitutional right to abortion for women. 

As I and numerous other analysts have been suggesting for months, the backlash from women and other aggrieved groups has been dramatic and powerful. There is now an extraordinary surge of women, young people and others, outraged and alarmed by the movement to the far right by Trump, Republicans and the Supreme Court, registering to vote in the coming midterms. 

Bonier is right. An internet search for stories about “female voter registration” will find numerous stories documenting a significant rise in voter registration from women,  young people and others who are outraged, fearful and alarmed by the consequences of electing a far-right Republican Congress operating alongside a far-right Supreme Court majority. 

By working with women’s groups, Democrats can turn a trend into a wave by mobilizing female Hollywood stars, female teachers and workers, female athletic stars and courageous female veterans. 

Women will be the midterm superstars if they register and vote as though the future of our country depends on it. It does.  

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. 

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Democrats highlight contentious Pennsylvania Senate primary ahead of Oz, McCormick reunion

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is launching a mobile billboard around Pittsburgh reminding voters of the contentious GOP Senate primary in Pennsylvania as Republican nominee Mehmet Oz and former candidate David McCormick reunite for an event on Wednesday. 

The billboard, which was first seen by The Hill, highlights McCormick’s criticisms of Oz during the primary earlier this year. 

“Has flip-flopped on every major issue we’re talking about in the campaign,” reads one McCormick quote hitting Oz. 

Another quote says Oz has been “part of the Hollywood machine for decades,” while another calls Oz a “phony” and accuses him of having “absolutely no credibility.” 

 “As Oz and McCormick hold an event together, we’re happy to remind Pennsylvanians how McCormick really feels, in his own words,” DSCC spokesperson Patrick Burgwinkle told The Hill. 

Oz and McCormick are set to appear alongside each other for a national security panel near Pittsburgh hosted by Trump-era State Department spokesperson under Morgan Ortagus. While the event is not a campaign event, it marks their first appearance together since the contentious primary earlier this year. 

The intraparty contest was marked by a myriad of attacks from the two Republicans. McCormick ended up losing to the celebrity doctor by less than 1,000 votes after a recount took place. 

“It’s now clear to me with the recount now largely complete that we have a nominee,” McCormick said when he conceded in June. “Tonight is really about all us coming together.”

Pennsylvania’s Senate race is gearing up to be one of the most closely watched races of the midterms. Oz is facing off against Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) in the general election. Recent polling shows Fetterman leading Oz. The non-partisan Cook Political Report recently moved the race’s rating from a “toss-up” to “lean Democratic.” 

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When big was not bad: Lessons from Congress’s decisions not to enact antitrust reform

One of the most important decisions facing Congress as it returns from its recess is whether to enact legislation that would impose antitrust liability on large companies without requiring any showing of wrongful conduct. Members evaluating these proposals should remember that Congress has rejected similar efforts in the past. Prominent examples include the Concentrated Industries Act initiated by Lyndon Johnson to bolster his later-abandoned presidential reelection campaign, the Industrial Reorganization Act, first introduced by Philip Hart in 1972, and the congressional inquiry recommended by the Carter administration.

All of them would have found companies in violation of the antitrust laws simply for being persistently large. None was enacted into law for reasons that still resonate today.

One of antitrust law’s central conundrums is that companies can grow large and even achieve market dominance in one of two ways. On the one hand, companies often succeed because they are more innovative — that is, by building the proverbial “better mousetrap” or, in the words of the landmark Alcoa decision, “by virtue of superior skill, foresight and industry.” In other words, their expansion may be the result of successfully competing on the merits. Congress should design laws to encourage this type of conduct. On the other hand, a company’s expansion may be the product of harmful actions that deviate from the type of business rivalry that benefits all of society, conduct that the law should be designed to suppress.

The challenge is how to devise rules that separate the wheat from the chaff. Rules that penalize companies that succeed because of pro-competitive conduct that benefits society run the risk of discouraging them from undertaking the type of innovation that long has been the hallmark of the U.S. economy. To again quote the words of Alcoa, “The successful competitor, having been urged to compete, must not be turned upon when [it] wins.” Any other rule threatens to disincentivize precisely the type of innovation and entrepreneurial risk-taking on which our nation’s continued growth and innovative edge depends.

Antitrust law traditionally has solved this problem by finding violations only when companies engage in conduct that causes harm through means other than competition on the merits. The precise contours of what falls within this category are a subject of enduring debate. 

What is so radical about the current antitrust proposals under consideration is that by removing conduct as a relevant consideration, they would punish companies without considering whether their size resulted from attempts to evade or frustrate competition or from the type of beneficial rivalry that drives economic growth. These proposals would render what normally would be the critical question would be rendered irrelevant, and consumers would pay the cost in higher prices and less innovation.

In short, enactment of these proposals would mark a return to the structuralist paradigm that held sway with courts through the 1960s and that based antitrust liability purely on companies’ size without considering the conduct that led to that structure. Thankfully, legislative efforts to enshrine that approach in statutes failed, allowing for its eventual rejection by the judiciary in favor of a conduct-based analysis better designed to foster business acumen and innovation. The structuralist school of thought has been disavowed by essentially every mainstream judge, scholar and antitrust advocate, and by the 1970s, support for it had collapsed.

Any legal regime that treats large companies as violating the antitrust laws without any evaluation of their conduct would represent a return to a long-superseded perspective that all-too-often punished businesses simply for being successful. Enacting such legislation would ignore the negative effect on innovation that led Congress to reject similar proposals in the past. Worse yet, it risks removing a key cornerstone of U.S. economic success at a time when every American business is facing a global market that is becoming increasingly competitive, one in which countries skew the playing field in favor of their own companies.

Congress would do well to heed the well-known admonition that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it and not to allow the heat of the “techlash” moment to overshadow lessons that are as important now as they were then. The innovation that serves as the foundation for our country’s future prosperity depends on it.

Christopher S. Yoo is the John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science and the founding director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition at the University of Pennsylvania.

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The Hill's Morning Report — GOP midterm angst; states plan for COVID surge

States and cities are trying to get ahead of an anticipated autumn and winter surge in COVID-19 infections with entreaties to the public to roll up their sleeves for the newest booster doses targeting the most infectious omicron spinoffs that are now in wide circulation.

Modified COVID-19 boosters developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, approved by the government last month, are designed to fortify immune responses against the BA.4 and BA.5 strains while remaining effective against the original coronavirus, according to scientists.

The Food and Drug Administration says the newest jabs are advised at least two months after getting the most recent booster or primary vaccination. The FDA approved Pfizer’s updated booster for anyone 12 and older and Moderna’s version of the booster shot for anyone 18 and older. The newest doses are expected to reach health departments, pharmacies and stores beginning this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises those who have contracted COVID-19 to consider waiting three months after testing negative before getting a tailored booster dose.  

▪ CNBC: Where to find the new omicron-specific COVID-19 boosters, from Walgreens and CVS to local pharmacies and clinics.

▪ The Hill: The White House stresses a need for additional COVID response funds from Congress as federal appropriations run low.

▪ NBC News: New boosters look a lot like the old ones. Doctors worry that could lead to errors.

Jabs, which are free for now, will be available beginning Wednesday in Washington, D.C., throughout Maryland (locator info HERE), and in Virginia beginning on Sept. 14, for example (WUSA9). 

Many governors and public health officials throughout the country are working to spread the message about boosters (both the new and older versions) because they are still not widely embraced. To date, just 32 percent of the U.S. population chose to receive a booster dose to pump up immunity if they got an earlier jab, according to the Bloomberg News tracker.

“This new bivalent booster shot is another important tool in our toolbox,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said last week. “While federal guidance has made it confusing at times for people to know if and when they’re eligible, everyone 12 and older will be able to get to this new shot.”

On Tuesday, top White House health officials said the public will likely need annual COVID-19 boosters, which people can add to their appointments to obtain seasonal flu shots. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden who is leaving government in December, said it’s “becoming increasingly clear” that a COVID-19 jab will need to be received annually, assuming no “dramatically different variant” crops up (The Hill). 

“Barring any new variant curveball,” said White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha, “for a large majority of Americans, we are moving to a point where a single annual COVID shot should provide a high degree of protection all year.”

Biden’s written invitation to get boosted was succinct on Tuesday: “Winter is not that far away. The past two years, we have seen COVID-19 cases and deaths soar. It does not have to be that way this year. If you are 12 and older, go get your new COVID-19 shot this fall.”

Related Articles

▪ Leana S. Wen, The Washington Post: The updated booster shot is a reset for how to manage COVID-19.

▪ The Washington Post: 10.5 million children globally lost a parent or caregiver because of COVID-19, according to a new study. 

▪ Las Vegas Review-Journal: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) tests positive for COVID-19. 

▪ Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,048,217. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 342, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

▪ The Hill: The administration awarded a $20 million contract to AmerisourceBergen to expand distribution of monkeypox treatments and vaccines.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ POLITICS

What feud? That was the message Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) tried to convey on Tuesday after a week of seemingly simmering tensions with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the GOP’s faltering chances to retake the Senate majority this fall.  

Scott, the chairman of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, penned a scathing op-ed late last week calling it “treasonous” for Republicans to be “trash-talking” the quality of the party’s stable of Senate candidates ahead of the midterms. However, he told reporters that McConnell was not the target of his ire, despite the leader’s comments critical of the party’s “candidate quality.”

“I said people that do anonymous quotes to the liberal media,” Scott said on Tuesday. “People are doing anonymous quotes and trashing our Republican candidates” (The Hill).

Nevertheless, the ongoing feud has taken on a life of its own. Republicans on Capitol Hill were particularly unenthusiastic about discussing the back-and-forth upon returning to the Capitol on Tuesday from the August recess. When pressed whether it was problematic for the party, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), himself a member of GOP leadership, simply responded “yes.” Others said even less. 

“I have complete confidence that [Scott] wants to do what we all want to do, which is win the majority back,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a McConnell ally, told reporters (Punchbowl News).

The chances for Republicans to win back the majority after a two-year stint in the minority have grown slimmer in recent weeks and months as a number of Trump-backed candidates have struggled to keep up financially and in the polls with a number of Democratic incumbents. 

Alexander Bolton, The Hill: Senate Republicans point fingers as majority hopes slip.

One of those states is Pennsylvania, where Mehmet Oz has been unable to make a dent in the lead created by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D). On Tuesday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) appeared at a campaign event alongside the GOP’s Senate nominee in Philadelphia, criticizing Fetterman’s continued refusal to debate the ex-television doctor and cardiologist after suffering a stroke in May. 

“If John Fetterman were elected to the Senate, and he’s not able to communicate, if he’s not able to engage with the press, if he’s not able to engage with his colleagues, he would not be able to do his job,” Toomey said. “It’s just not plausible” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

▪ The Hill: Oz says he would have certified Biden’s win over former President Trump.

▪ Washington Examiner: Toomey stays out of Pennsylvania governor’s race, declines to endorse state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R).

▪ Salena Zito: The realities of covering Fetterman. 

▪ Julia Manchester and Caroline Vakil, The Hill: Nevada could cost Democrats their Senate majority. 

On the House side, The Hill’s Emily Brooks spoke with Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who cautioned against any thinking on the GOP side that flipping the majority is a “done deal.” However, he argued against the conventional wisdom that the Supreme Court’s decision reversing Roe v. Wade has handed Democrats a boost and a potential lifeline to keep hold of the lower chamber. 

“There are only two countries on the face of the planet that are that onerous with their abortion laws, and that’s China and North Korea,” Emmer said, referring to the House-passed bill that would codify Roe. “Again, I hope they center their elections on that one issue.” 

Philip Bump, The Washington Post: What we don’t know about the effect of abortion on the midterm elections. 

Meanwhile, a federal judge’s ruling to allow a special master to examine documents and items collected by the FBI during the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate could have a greater effect on the midterm elections. 

As The Hill’s Brett Samuels notes, Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision is likely to slow the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified materials removed from the White House and stored at his residence. Additional time allows Trump to publicly describe the documents probe as partisan. 

▪ The Washington Post: Some seized documents from Mar-a-Lago detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that only the president, some Cabinet members or near-Cabinet level officials could authorize other government officials to know the contents. 

▪ The Hill: Florida judge throws Trump, DOJ curveball with special master decision.

▪ Mychael Schnell, The Hill: Five things to know about Cannon, the judge who granted Trump a special master.

▪ NBC News: Legal experts on Tuesday described Cannon’s ruling as a deeply flawed and unworkable mess.

That process could be prolonged even further if prosecutors appeal Cannon’s ruling. Former Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday told Fox News that if the Justice Department’s potential appeal is not expedited, it could take “several months” for a decision. He added that Cannon’s call was incorrect.

“The opinion I think was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it,” Barr told the network. “It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways. I don’t think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up, but even if it does, I don’t see it fundamentally changing the trajectory.” 

“I think the fundamental dynamics of the case are set,” Barr added. “The government has very strong evidence of what it really needs to determine whether charges are appropriate” (Insider).

▪ Rebecca Beitsch and Mike Lillis, The Hill:  Five things to watch as a special master looks at FBI’s seized Trump documents. 

▪ The Associated Press: Trump-backed Geoff Diehl to take on state Attorney General Maura Healey (D)  in Massachusetts governor race.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ CONGRESS 

The Democratic push to include language to codify same-sex marriage in the must-pass government spending bill hit bipartisan speed bumps on Tuesday as influential lawmakers involved in the codification effort criticized the plan.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has tasked with winning the needed 10 Republicans to put the same-sex marriage bill over the finish line, said on Tuesday that attaching it to a continuing resolution to fund the government by month’s end is not her “preferred path” to passage. 

“That is not the Senator’s preferred path as she would like to see it taken up sooner,” a Baldwin spokesperson said. “The Senator’s goal is to pass the Respect for Marriage Act and she will do whatever it takes to get there” (Politico).

Adding to the issues, Republicans are steadfast against the idea. Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.), one of the two Senate GOP members working with Baldwin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on winning bipartisan support for the same-sex marriage bill, told reporters that attaching it to the continuing resolution is a “non-starter.”

At least four Senate Republicans — Portman, Tillis, Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — back the legislation. Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.), who is considered the most endangered GOP senator up for reelection this fall, continued to give mixed signals on Tuesday over whether he would support it (NBC News).

Aris Folley, The Hill: Congress confronts funding deadline.

Elsewhere, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) broke with Biden’s on Tuesday over his plan to forgive $10,000 in federal student loan debt for most borrowers, calling it “excessive.”

“I just respectfully disagree on that,” Manchin told reporters. “I think there’s other ways. When people were calling me from back in West Virginia, I would give them all the options they had that would reduce their loan by going to work in the federal government.”

The president’s plan would forgive the $10,000 for those making less than $125,000 annually and $20,000 in loans for Pell Grant recipients under the same income threshold (The Hill).

The Hill: Farmers are eager for Senate to vote on migrant worker bill.

➤ ADMINISTRATION

Biden on Tuesday said he would see Chinese President Xi Jinping in November at the Group of 20 summit to be held in Bali if his counterpart attends. “If he’s there, I’m sure I’ll see him,” the president said during a Cabinet meeting (CNBC). Both Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin plan to attend the conference of economic powers.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been knocked in some quarters for adopting a lower profile in comparison with some of her predecessors when it comes to showy public dissections of the state of the U.S. economy. She will deliver a Thursday speech in Detroit about the administration’s economic agenda, in which she is expected to skewer the fossil fuel industry while championing a new law that incentivizes electric vehicles and the ongoing shift away from dependence on fossil fuels for transportation (The Hill).

OPINION

■ Do “Trump judges” exist? We’re about to find out, by Noah Feldman, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/3Ropd5Q 

■ Owning up to America’s COVID-19 pandemic failures, by William A. Galston, columnist, The Wall Street Journal. https://on.wsj.com/3TPqPao 

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet on Friday at 9 a.m. for a pro forma session and return to work in the Capitol on Sept. 13.

The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. and will resume consideration of the nomination of John Lee to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the 7th Circuit.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9 a.m. ​​Biden and first lady Jill Biden at 1:30 p.m. will welcome former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama to the White House for the East Room unveiling of their official White House portraits. 

Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend the Obamas’ portrait event at 1:30 p.m.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 2:45 p.m.

🖥  Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://thehill.com/hilltv, on YouTube and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the “Rising” podcast here.

ELSEWHERE

➤ INTERNATIONAL

British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Tuesday began her tenure as the United Kingdom’s new leader with big promises and a brief address from No. 10 Downing St. In between a downpour and initial steps to put a government together, she vowed to cut taxes to spur economic growth, bolster Britain’s National Health Service and “deal hands on” with its energy crisis, though she offered few details about how she would implement those policies. She is expected to unveil her energy plans on Thursday. According to the news media in Britain, Truss, 47, a one-time accountant and former foreign secretary who finds herself in a pressure cooker domestic environment, plans to cap energy bills. The cost to taxpayers of that step could cost the equivalent of $116 billion (The Associated Press).

Biden congratulated Truss during a Tuesday phone call and in a White House tweet. 

“I look forward to deepening the special relationship between our countries and working in close cooperation on global challenges, including continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression,” he said.

Ukraine: In a report on Tuesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency called on Ukraine and Russia to agree to a demilitarized safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and detailed a range of damage the site has sustained. It described the “high stress and pressure” under which Ukrainian staff are working at the site. “The current situation is untenable and the best action to ensure the safety and security of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and its people would be for this armed conflict to end now,” the report stated. The Wall Street Journal describes details of the 14-member IAEA team’s white-knuckle mission. 

➤ TRANSPORTATION

Labor Day weekend marked a major moment in the recovery from COVID-19 as nearly nine million people passed through the nation’s airports — the first time a holiday weekend surpassed pre-pandemic air travel levels, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The agency announced on Tuesday it screened 8.76 million passengers between Friday and Monday, which was 102 percent of the Labor Day weekend passenger volume in 2019. TSA screened nearly 2.48 million passengers on Friday, the second highest single-day total since the start of the pandemic (The Hill).

A massive U.S. freight rail strike looms. Roughly 115,000 rail workers could walk off the job as soon as Sept. 16 if they don’t ratify a new contract with railroads (The Hill).

➤ STATE WATCH

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced on Tuesday that it was targeted in a cyberattack over the weekend. According to officials, unusual activity was detected over the weekend and that the source was “likely criminal” ransomware. They added that the district’s email system and some other technological services were disrupted a day earlier (The Hill).

In California, tens of thousands of residents were without power despite the state’s narrow avoidance late Tuesday of rolling blackouts as power demand smashed all-time records during a heat wave (NewsNation, KCRA3 and Reuters). Rolling outages still remain possible.

Education: Schools are back in session and students are facing severe learning losses. States are directing billions of dollars toward tutoring and other interventions to reverse pandemic declines in reading scores (The Wall Street Journal).

THE CLOSER

And finally … National Geographic presents a series of photos highlighting the fanciful work of graphic designer Darren Pearson, who “paints” with light and captures his colorful creatures and fantastic beasts in cameras using a slow shutter speed in the desert. He works only at night. What sparked his imagination were iconic black-and-white photographs of Pablo Picasso taken by Gjon Mili in 1949 in which the artist is seen filling the air with his subjects using light instead of paint. 

Life magazine recounted the story behind Picasso’s rapidly imagined, freehand “light paintings” of centaurs, owls and human profiles HERE, and many of the photos were shown in 1950 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Pearson’s contemporary homage in the upcoming October issue of National Geographic can be seen HERE.

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Five things to know about Aileen M. Cannon, the judge who granted Trump a special master

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon shot into the spotlight on Monday after granting former President Trump’s request for an independent mediator to examine materials the FBI recovered during a search at his Mar-a-Lago residence last month.

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, made the divisive decision after hearing arguments from the ex-president’s lawyers, who pushed for the special master, and attorneys from the Department of Justice (DOJ), who said the former president’s claims of privilege were unwarranted.

She ultimately ordered that a special master be appointed to determine what seized materials are protected by attorney-client and executive privilege. The ruling also directed the DOJ to temporarily stop using the retrieved materials for “investigative purposes” in an effort to “uphold the value of the special master review” — effectively pausing the department’s investigation.

Cannon, who sits on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, is now tasked with choosing a special master to sift through the more than 11,000 documents and asked both sides to provide a list of possible contenders for the job by Friday. The DOJ, however, can still appeal the ruling.

Here are five things to know about Cannon.

Trump appointed, bipartisan approved

Trump nominated Cannon to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in April 2020. At the time, she was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, working in the criminal division of the appellate section.

The Senate confirmed Cannon on Nov. 12, five days after major networks called the 2020 election for President Biden, in a bipartisan 56-21 vote. Twelve Democrats supported her appointment, and 23 senators did not vote.

During her confirmation process, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked if she had “any discussions with anyone — including, but not limited to, individuals at the White House, at the Justice Department, or any outside groups — about loyalty to President Trump.” 

Cannon responded “no” in writing.

Member of the Federalist Society

Cannon has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2005, according to a judicial nominee questionnaire she submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2020. The group is made up of conservative and libertarian lawyers, law students and scholars.

Cannon said she joined the Federalist Society when she was a student at the University of Michigan Law School. She was asked during her confirmation process about why she joined the group.

“I did so because I enjoyed the diversity of legal viewpoints discussed at Federalist Society meetings and events,” Cannon responded in writing.

“I also found interesting the organization’s discussions about the constitutional separation of powers, the rule of law, and the limited role of the judiciary to say what the law is—not to make the law,” she added.

Six of the nine justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court — all of whom were nominated by Republican presidents — are members of the Federalist Society, in addition to a number of GOP senators.

Cannon ruled in the Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez threats case

Cannon is not new to presiding over high-profile litigation. In April, the federal judge sentenced a man to 18 months in prison for making threats against Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Paul Hoeffer, 60, pleaded guilty in February to interstate transmission of threats to injure and admitted to threatening to kill the two congresswomen in March 2019 and November 2020. He also threatened a district attorney in Illinois.

But the 18-month sentence from Cannon was significantly shorter than the 3 1/2 years of prison time prosecutors had asked for. And it was more than a year shorter than the minimum punishment under federal sentencing guidelines, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Hoeffer’s legal team requested a shorter sentence because their client was diagnosed with cancer.

Cannon had signaled support for a special master

Cannon’s ruling did not come as a total surprise — the judge days earlier said it was her “preliminary intent” to install a special master to sift through documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

“The court hereby provides notice of its preliminary intent to appoint a special master in this case,” Cannon wrote in a court filing on Aug. 27, before either side presented their arguments at a hearing.

The New York Times called the pre-argument signal “unusual.”

In that same filing, she also scheduled a hearing to take place at a federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, rather than the location in Fort Pierce, Fla., where she usually conducts business, according to the Times.

From Colombia to the Southern District of Florida

Cannon — who was born in 1981 in Colombia — made a number of stops in the legal world before landing at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

After receiving a bachelor of arts degree from Duke University in 2003 and earning her juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 2007, Cannon began clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Des Moines, Iowa, where she worked for a year. The bench was Republican-appointed, according to the Times.

She then moved to Washington, D.C., to be an associate attorney at the corporate law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where she worked for three years, before taking a job as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Source: TEST FEED1

Yellen will vow to ‘rid’ US from ‘dependence on fossil fuels’ in Detroit speech

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will call out the fossil fuel industry in a Thursday speech on the Biden administration’s economic agenda to be delivered in Detroit, Mich., where oil and gas companies have long held influence in the U.S. auto manufacturing sector.  The visit to Detroit comes on the heels of the Democrats’ passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes $14.2 billion worth of subsidies for electric vehicles meant to wean the auto industry off of gasoline in an effort to reduce U.S. transportation emissions that are contributing to a rise in global temperatures. 

“We will rid ourselves from our current dependence on fossil fuels,” Yellen’s prepared remarks say. 

“Our plan — powered by the Inflation Reduction Act — represents the largest investment in fighting climate change in our country’s history. It will put us well on our way toward a future where we depend on the wind, sun, and other clean sources for our energy,” her remarks continue. 

Yellen’s speech will also emphasize the role that private capital can play in addressing climate change, putting her generally in line with the economic, social and corporate governance (ESG) movement. The ESG movement in the financial sector pursues environmental and social equality objectives through divestment practices and getting board members with particular political views elected to company boards. 

“By mobilizing private capital, the clean energy tax credits implemented by Treasury will propel our economy and workers to a leadership position in the fastest growing markets and technologies of today and the future, with positive spillovers to the rest of the world. And in the process of boosting domestic clean energy production, the law will support our energy security and insulate us from the type of fossil fuel-driven energy volatility that we’ve seen in the past year,” her remarks say. 

Republicans at the state level have been mobilizing to block ESG practices, which they view as harmful to their economies, with various initiatives in states like West Virginia and Texas that include a blacklist of financial firms that “[boycott] energy companies” and a request for documents from certain institutional investors on Wall Street. 

Texas state Sen. Bryan Hughes (R), whose State Affairs Committee sent letters to asset management giant Blackrock and three other firms asking for information on ESG practices, said in an interview with The Hill that he is concerned about corporate power advancing a “left-wing agenda.” 

“You know how it goes. Blackrock comes to Company X and says we own however many million shares in your company, and if you want us to vote for your directors and your compensation, then you better do what we say,” Hughes said.  

“It’s one thing for that power to exist, but when we see a handful of firms control this amount of the stock market and we see them moving in lockstep using that power for this left-wing agenda, it’s just something we’ve never seen in America,” he said. 

Blackrock previously stated it does not boycott fossil fuel companies, but CEO Larry Fink has said that he believes capitalism can change the way societies operate. 

“Capitalism has the power to shape society and act as a powerful catalyst for change,” he wrote in a 2022 open letter to CEOs, adding that “companies perform better when they are deliberate about their role in society” and that “the relationship between a company, its employees, and society is being redefined.” 

However, critics of ESG say that the institutional requirements of the private sector — namely, short-term returns on investment — make it a haphazard strategy for dealing with a problem as urgent and large-scale as climate change. 

The main international proposal for emissions reductions to address climate change is a carbon tax — an idea that has repeatedly failed to gain political traction in the U.S. 

But even economists who support the carbon tax, including Yellen, are still neglecting the role that direct public investment, rather than industry-specific private sector investments, should play in climate change mitigation, critics say.

“These economists offer no support for increases in public investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency, thereby surrendering the power of the public sector, amounting to 35 percent of GDP in the U.S. and higher shares elsewhere, to push the clean energy transformation forward at the most aggressive possible rate,” University of Massachusetts economist Robert Pollin wrote in a 2020 book titled “Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal.”

In an interview, Pollin said that the IRA represents a step forward but is still too focused on the private sector. 

“The IRA is almost entirely geared toward incentivizing private investment. Between federal, state and local governments, we’re talking about $7 trillion of public spending. Why not take a tiny slice of that and do things like investing in, say, retrofitting every single public building to raise energy efficiency standards, or investing in 100 percent renewable energy to supply public buildings, or having public sector purchases of electric vehicles for public transportation significantly?” 

Transportation sector emissions reductions resulting from the IRA constitute the smallest segment of reductions overall, beaten out by improvements in agriculture, electricity, industry and building technology, according to an analysis of the law by climate think tank Energy Innovation Policy and Technology. 

Over the next eight years, transportation emissions are expected to drop due to the IRA by about 21 million metric tons’ worth of carbon dioxide, compared to a reduction of 610 million metric tons in the electricity sector and 113 million metric tons in the agriculture and waste sector, according to the think tank. 

Wall Street analysts say it’s still too soon to tell how the IRA will affect individual companies in the auto sector, since the legislation has yet to be interpreted by regulatory agencies. 

“It’s too soon to say what impact the Inflation Reduction Act will have for Tesla,” analysts for Goldman Sachs wrote in a Monday note. “A lot will depend on guidance from the government about how the law will be interpreted. However, we note that the IRA does seek to encourage a North America based EV [electric vehicle] supply chain and Tesla has more local manufacturing than average.”  

“We believe this will be a positive for Tesla to potentially qualify for at least partial credits on some vehicles over time (and Tesla could potentially benefit as well in our view from incentives for solar, batteries, charging, and commercial vehicles),” they wrote. 

While voting for the IRA, congressional Democrats from Michigan have expressed doubts about how exactly the EV tax credits meant to shake up the auto industry were designed. 

“Let me say that the consumer tax credit was certainly not written in a way that I would write it or want it to be,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said in an August briefing to local reporters in Michigan. “And I know Sen. [Gary] Peters feels the same way. There’s a lot of wonderful things in here for us on EV production and clean energy manufacturing, but this is the one area for me that was very, very concerning.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Congress confronts funding deadline

Congress is staring down a critical stretch of time to cinch a funding bill to prevent a government shutdown before September comes to a close.Lawmakers are already armed with a list of political land mines they have to carefully navigate — from an energy permitting proposal to Ukraine and COVID-19 funding — or risk blowing past the Sept. 30 deadline. 

They are again this year expected to pass a continuing resolution (CR), which would allow the government to remain funded at the previous fiscal year’s spending levels to buy enough time for a deal.

So far, the House has passed six of the 12 annual appropriation bills for fiscal 2023, which begins Oct. 1, but leaders have yet to indicate when they’ll bring the remaining funding bills to the floor or if it will happen at all.

Funding talks are moving even slower in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority and need GOP support to pass such measures. 

One issue that could stand in the way of a government funding bill has to do with a fast-tracking federal energy permitting agreement reached by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other Democratic leaders in exchange for Manchin’s support of a long-sought reconciliation bill that passed over the summer. 

A potential standoff could come in the form of Democratic leaders in the House facing pressure from liberals who are demanding the permitting agreement be kept out of a CR, arguing that it would weaken environmental reviews.

And while a proposal by Manchin, aimed at speeding up energy projects that could set up a two-year maximum timeline for environmental reviews, enjoys some GOP support, it’s not guaranteed Republicans would vote to pass it as part of a CR.

As Republicans railed against a Democratic effort to pass their signature party-line reconciliation bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, over the summer, a few also vowed to withhold support for a short-term CR including any so-called sweeteners for Manchin.

In comments to The Hill on Tuesday, Manchin pushed back on claims he struck a “side deal.”

“There was never a side deal. It was all part of it, it just didn’t fit in reconciliation,” Manchin said.

Even if Democrats get the entire caucus to support the CR, 10 GOP votes are needed to bypass a filibuster.

Other funding issues could also sideline government funding proposals.

A White House request for more than $47 billion in emergency funding could make efforts to reach a bipartisan deal on a short-term funding bill more difficult. The request calls for $13.7 billion to help address the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as funding to bolster the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, monkeypox and disaster relief.

Republicans have shown support in the past for Ukraine funding and disaster relief. However, previous Democratic-led pushes for coronavirus funding have hit roadblocks amid staunch GOP opposition for the lack of specified plans to pay for it. There has also been pushback by some vulnerable Democrats who saw certain proposals posing risks for winning back competitive seats in their primaries.

Adding to the pressure in the Democratic-led Congress includes an end-of-month deadline for the Food and Drug Administration’s user fee program, as well as a shortage of legislative time in the current session to tackle outstanding priorities such as protecting same-sex marriage. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Farmers are eager for Senate to vote on migrant worker bill

Tensions are growing between the agriculture industry’s top Washington lobby group and some producers over an immigration bill that could make it easier to employ migrants in the food production industry. 

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has expressed opposition to the House-passed Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA), but many growers are eager for the Senate to take up the bill, which they say would help tackle food inflation. 

“Throughout the development of the FWMA in the House, AFBF has pointed to several key areas in which the legislation conflicts with AFBF policy. Provisions concerning the [Adverse Effect Wage Rate Rule (AEWR)], the expansion of [the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA)] to H-2A [temporary agricultural visas], caps on year-round visas, and the inclusion of e-verify only for agriculture without adequately reforming H-2A first are the main issues of concern,” an AFBF spokesperson told The Hill. 

AFBF director of government affairs Allison Crittenden told Politico in July that the bill’s expansion of MSPA protections to temporary migrant workers would expose ranchers and farmers to “frivolous litigation.” 

The MSPA protections, which would essentially allow migrant workers to sue over labor violations, are a major sticking point for Senate negotiations. 

But a new study by the American Business Immigration Coalition shows that MSPA lawsuits are uncommon — of 513,137 farms with hired workers from January of 2020 to July of 2022, only 34 farms were sued in 36 court cases. 

That means that only 0.006 percent of farms have been party to such a lawsuit over the last two-and-a-half years. 

And the American Business Immigration Coalition study concluded that the potential increase in MSPA lawsuits would be negligible, as migrant workers under H-2A guest worker visas make up only 11 percent of the farm workforce. 

Still, the FWMA is a study in competing political priorities. 

At its core, the bill is a compromise solution crafted between immigration reform advocates and representatives of rural, agricultural districts. 

The first House-passed version of the bill was crafted in part by moderates from both parties, like longtime immigration reform advocate Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and former Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.). 

But it also paired progressive immigration advocates like Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and staunch agricultural district conservatives like Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.). 

Support from diverse political backgrounds gave the bill’s sponsors hope that it could cut through Congress’s inability to find immigration compromise, but Democratic Senate leaders are wary of risking the bill to a filibuster vote. 

Few, if any, of the bill’s supporters expect it to come to a vote before November’s midterm elections — some are hopeful the Senate may vote on it during the lame duck session after the election. 

Still, frustration is growing, particularly as the Farm Bureau’s opposition endangers an already-tenuous path to 60 votes in the Senate. 

“This is not a new issue for me and for and for my industry, agriculture. We’ve been in this for 20, 25, 30 years. And if everybody would give up a little bit about a little bit of what they want, then we will all get a lot of what we need,” said Charles Wingard, vice president of field operations at WP Rawl, a major produce grower based in South Carolina. 

The bill itself balances the needs of migrant workers, large and small producers, long-term and seasonal workers, and of newly arrived foreign labor versus undocumented workers with years of experience on American farms. 

Under the bill, the guest visa process would be streamlined and many undocumented workers would get a chance to regularize their status, potentially taking the first step toward a path to citizenship. 

While the need for a steady stream of qualified labor is a constant throughout the food production industry, there are a plethora of factors that affect the specific needs of farmers, distributors, packers and ranchers. 

For instance, dairy farms require year-round labor that’s not covered by the seasonal visas, which means the dairy industry employs a disproportionate number of undocumented workers. 

Another distinction is that producers on the East Coast are generally more likely to employ more recent arrivals who’ve applied to the H-2A program, while West Coast producers are more likely to rely on long-term undocumented employees. 

While the bill’s sponsors have long clamored to simplify immigration processes for agricultural workers, post-pandemic food inflation and food security concerns have added urgency to pass the bill. 

“Now when you sit in an office in Washington within 30, 40 miles — you take a 30-mile radius around DC – with millions of people that can’t feed themselves, they need rural America to be successful. They need U.S. farmers to have access to labor so we can continue to allow Americans to feed Americans,” said Wingard. 

The Farm Bureau spokesperson said the lobbying organization shares that sense of urgency, with caveats. 

“It’s important the Senate continues these bipartisan discussions to ensure a Senate ag labor solution does not include provisions that would harm American farmers and ranchers,” said the AFBF spokesperson. 

“There is a sense of urgency from Farm Bureau and other agricultural stakeholders to finally accomplish ag labor reform. However, it’s also critically important the legislation that is put forward in the Senate addresses these issues in a substantive manner,” added the spokesperson. 

Still, many state and local Farm Bureaus are bucking the national group’s opposition to the bill, citing different policy priorities between large, medium and small farmers. 

“Any large organization, and the Farm Bureau is no different, is going to capitulate to the requests of its largest donors,” said Shay Myers, the CEO of Owyhee Produce, an onion grower in Oregon and Idaho. 

And national political sentiment plays a factor, as many congressional Republicans view immigration and the border as key electoral issues. 

While Republicans are keen to use immigration as a cudgel against Democrats ahead of November, often intermingling border and immigration policy, Myers said many of their constituents in agriculture see a clear division between the two issues. 

“I feel like the Republican Party is maybe a little bit more right of center than the voting bloc that they actually are trying to represent,” said Myers. 

And Myers warned that agriculture ultimately depends on the availability of a skilled workforce. 

“Without immigrant workers, without these ag workers, these guest workers, we don’t put food on the American table. And that’s just an open secret. And we need to realize that that’s the case and fix the problem,” said Myers.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Senate Republicans point fingers as majority hopes slip

Republicans are playing the blame game as they watch their chances of winning back control of the Senate shrink two months before Election Day.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is citing “candidate quality” as a reason why GOP hopes are fading, an implicit criticism of former President Trump and his support for several controversial GOP candidates who are faltering in polls.

Trump, for his part, for weeks has been setting the stage to blame McConnell if Republicans fail to win back the Senate at a time when they are widely expected to win the House majority.

The finger-pointing goes beyond the nation’s two most powerful Republicans, too.

McConnell’s remarks doubled as a not-so-subtle critique of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and its leader, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who has also been at loggerheads for much of the year with the Senate GOP leader.

Scott has come under scorching criticism himself for vacationing on a luxury yacht off the Italian coast during the August recess and for his expensive attempt to expand the NRSC’s online donor pool.

Under his leadership, the committee raised $181.5 million by the end of July but spent 95 percent of it, leaving it with far less cash on hand than the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), according to a New York Times analysis.

For his part, Scott last week fired back at fellow Republicans “trash-talking our Republican candidates,” calling it an “amazing act of cowardice” and “treasonous.”

It’s not the best backdrop for Republicans to return to Washington, and senators getting back to work on Tuesday sought to play down the internal frictions.

Scott told reporters after the Senate GOP leadership meeting that his Sept. 1 op-ed in the Washington Examiner accusing fellow Republicans of undermining “the conservative cause” was not aimed at McConnell but instead anonymous Republican sources who have criticized Senate GOP candidates in the media.

“I said people that do anonymous quotes to the liberal media,” he said. “People are doing anonymous quotes and trashing our Republican candidates.”

Asked if he was referencing McConnell, Scott replied: “No.”

Other Republicans in the meeting said  McConnell and Scott did not talk about their public spat.

“It’s a non-issue, everybody is focused on November,” insisted Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.).

One Senate Republican strategist said Scott’s scathing criticism of Republicans was an attempt to deflect blame from his own track record.

“He’s embarrassed he was caught on an Italian vacation 100 days from the most consequential election in a decade and he’s reaching for someone to blame other than his travel agent,” said the source.

The strategist said the Times’s in-depth report on the NRSC’s fundraising woes “raises more questions than anything Republicans have seen thus far” about the Democrats’ money advantage and called it a “serious cause for concern.”

McConnell declined to answer a question about his public clash with the NRSC chairman as he walked from the Senate floor to his office Tuesday afternoon.

But Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), one of McConnell’s deputies on the GOP leadership team, said he’s concerned that Democrats have substantially more cash on hand at the DSCC.

“It concerns me a lot that Democrats are going to vastly outspend Republicans across the board, but as long as we have enough money to tell our story and defend our position, we’ll be fine,” he said, noting “there are multiple sources of funds for elections,” such as individual campaign committees and super PACs.

Cornyn, however, downplayed the public feud between McConnell and Scott.

“I think we all want the same thing. We want to get the majority back and that’s what I’m focused on. And I think both of them, that’s what they both want to do,” he said.

Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide, said Senate Republican powerbrokers are positioning themselves in case their battle to win back the majority falls short.

He said he couldn’t ever remember a Senate Republican leader and the Senate GOP campaign arm chairman engage in such open warfare before.

“Seeing them battle like this, publicly, is not helpful,” he said. “Ultimately I think it’s a lot of noise with regard to what’s actually going to happen in the election, but it definitely makes Republicans look like they’re in disarray.”

More broadly, Senate Republicans are concerned that Trump’s legal troubles are consuming too much of the national spotlight, diverting public attention from what they want to make the 2022 midterm election about: President Biden’s economic record.

The polling and political handicapping website FiveThirtyEight now gives Democrats a 69 percent chance of keeping their Senate majority.

Political handicappers now rate retiring Sen. Pat Toomey’s (R) Pennsylvania Senate seat as a likely Democratic pick-up because of the struggles of celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, the GOP nominee.

The Cook Political Report rates the Pennsylvania Senate race as leaning Democratic, while FiveThirtyEight rates it as a likely Democratic win.

Meanwhile, Republican candidates in other battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia and Ohio are seen as underperforming, either by making costly gaffes or falling behind fundraising expectations.

In Georgia, former NFL star Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate nominee, has committed a string of gaffes, such as a false claim that he had worked as an FBI agent and a head-scratching argument that federal money spent on limiting pollution will allow “our good air” to “float” over to China and be replaced by “China’s bad air.”

Walker is one of several candidates, along with Republicans Blake Masters in Arizona and J.D. Vance in Ohio, who were backed by Trump. Plenty of Republicans will blame the former president’s influence if they fail to win back the Senate given high inflation and gas prices and Biden’s faltering approval ratings.

GOP strategists still think they’re favored to win in Ohio and feel confident of their chances in Georgia, predicting that incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s voter mobilization work will help turn out Republicans and carry Walker to victory.

But the remarks by McConnell and Scott, along with Trump’s unceasing criticisms of his party’s Senate leader, signal the finger-pointing may continue if the GOP has a disappointing Election Day.

“McConnell is basically hedging his bets in case things don’t go right,” Darling said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Document on foreign nation's nuclear capabilities found by FBI at Mar-a-Lago: report

FBI agents who searched former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home found a document detailing a foreign government’s nuclear capabilities and other military defenses, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The document containing the nuclear information was found during the Aug. 8 search that was authorized by an FBI affidavit that has now been released with redactions. The sources did not disclose to the Post the identity of the foreign government.

The Post had reported in August that the FBI was searching in part for documents containing nuclear information, something Trump later dismissed as a “hoax.”

The search took place more than a year and a half after Trump’s departure from office and uncovered 100 classified documents.

Some of the documents seized by the FBI in its raid of Mar-a-Lago were reportedly cleared on a need-to-know basis rather than being open to specific members of the government with high-level security clearances, according to sources who spoke to the Post.

Documents at the same level of security as the ones flagged by the Post’s sources are normally locked in a secure facility where their location is able to be tracked.

The 100 found during the Mar-a-Lago search were added to a total of 300 classified documents that have been retrieved since Trump left office in 2020.

The others were found when boxes of records were sent to the National Archives and Records Administration and later in response to a further probe by investigators. A judge on Monday verified Trump’s request to appoint a special master to review the documents found in the Mar-a-Lago search, meaning that an independent person will look into the information being assessed by the courts.

The Hill has reached out to Trump, the FBI and the Justice Department for comment.

Source: TEST FEED1