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What’s the status of abortion bans across the country a month after Roe overturned?

More than one month has passed since the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in striking down Roe v. Wade. 

Justice Samuel Alito said in his majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June that Roe was “egregiously wrong” from the start, and the issue of abortion rights should be returned to the states. 

After the ruling, trigger laws banning or severely restricting abortion went into effect in more than a dozen states automatically or after certification from state officials. But several states’ laws have been blocked in court while they await legal processes to play out. 

Meanwhile, abortion rights advocates scored a major victory on Tuesday when voters in in Kansas rejected a ballot question that would have amended the state constitution to say that it did not protect abortion rights. 

Here’s the status of abortion bans throughout the country. 

Alabama 

Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a bill into law in 2019 that banned abortion in almost all cases, except for when the life of the mother is at risk. There are no exceptions for cases of rape and incest. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law from being enforced that year, but it was lifted after Roe was overturned. 

Arizona 

A century-old law that went into effect at the start of the 1900s before Arizona became a state bans abortion except for when the mother’s life is at risk. State Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) has said he plans to enforce the ban and asked a court last month to lift an order against it that has been in place since shortly after Roe was decided in 1973. 

Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed a 15-week abortion ban into law in March and has insisted that it takes precedence over the total ban. 

Almost all clinics across the state ceased providing abortion services after the Supreme Court ruling over fear of facing charges. 

Arkansas 

State Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R) certified Roe’s overturning on the day the court announced the decision, triggering the state’s law banning abortion except to save the life of the mother in medical emergencies. 

Georgia 

A federal appeals court allowed Georgia’s six-week abortion ban to go into effect last month after a lower court had previously blocked the law. The state bans abortions after an ultrasound can detect a fetal heartbeat, which is before many women know they are pregnant, with exceptions for rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother. 

The law also updates the definition of “person” to include an embryo or fetus at any stage of development. 

Idaho 

Idaho’s abortion law banning the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy is set to go into effect on Aug. 25. Exceptions would exist for rape, incest and saving the mother’s life, but rape or incest victims would have to provide a copy of a police report to a physician performing the abortion. 

Doctors could still face prosecution for performing an abortion if a patient is suffering from severe preeclampsia and could be considered to have had performed an abortion for treating an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage complications. 

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the state’s law, arguing that it should not be enforced in cases where an abortion is necessary for medical emergencies. 

Iowa 

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in June, shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe, that the state constitution does not protect abortion, overturning a 2018 state supreme court ruling. 

Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) requested in late June that Iowa courts lift an injunction against a 2018 state law she signed to ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, about after six weeks of pregnancy. 

The state currently restricts abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. 

Kentucky 

A state appeals court judge allowed Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban to go into effect on Monday while legal arguments over the law occur after a lower court temporarily blocked it in late June. The law includes exceptions to the ban to protect the life or health of the mother but not for rape or incest. 

Louisiana 

Louisiana’s abortion ban was reinstated again on Friday after being paused and restored multiple times. The law includes exceptions for the life of the mother but not for rape or incest. An exception also exists for pregnancies that are “medically futile,” meaning the fetus would not survive on its own after birth. 

A preliminary injunction issued July 21 against Louisiana’s trigger law allowed the state’s abortion clinics to provide abortions for about a week before the ban was put back in place. 

Michigan 

A judge issued a temporary order on Monday blocking state prosecutors from enforcing a 1931 abortion ban that only includes exceptions for protecting the mother’s life. The judge extended the order at least two weeks on Wednesday, according to The Detroit News. 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, have said they do not plan to enforce the ban, but some county prosecutors are attempting to enforce it in their counties. Both are up for reelection this November. 

Mississippi 

The state’s 15-week abortion ban was the subject of the Dobbs case that saw Roe overturned, but the state also has a trigger ban that took effect one week into July. The last remaining abortion clinic in the state, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, relocated to New Mexico one day before the ban took effect after a judge refused to temporarily block the ban. 

The law permits exceptions for saving the life of the mother and pregnancies resulting from rape that is reported to law enforcement but not for incest. 

Missouri 

Missouri was one of the first states to ban abortion through a trigger law after Roe was overturned. The only exception is in cases of medical emergency, according to the Kansas City Star. 

North Dakota 

A judge temporarily blocked the state’s trigger law from taking effect on Wednesday, allowing North Dakota’s one remaining abortion clinic to continue operating for now. The ban restricts abortions unless the procedure is necessary to save the mother’s life and for rape and incest. 

The legal dispute is centered on whether state Attorney General Drew Wrigley (R) correctly took the necessary steps for the law to go into effect based on when the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs was official. Wrigley told The Hill that the law would take effect on Aug. 26. 

Ohio 

A state law banning most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected about six weeks into pregnancy took effect after Roe was overturned. The ban includes exceptions for saving the life of the mother and to prevent a “serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment” of a major bodily function of the mother. 

Oklahoma 

Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed a bill into law banning abortion at conception in late May, before the Supreme Court’s decision came out. Physicians are only allowed to perform an abortion if it is necessary to save the mother’s life, or if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest that is reported to law enforcement. 

South Carolina 

Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed legislation that banned most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected last year. The law allows exceptions for medical emergencies and in cases of rape or incest. 

A judge declined to block the law from going into effect late last month as the state Supreme Court considers a challenge to it from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, Reuters reported. 

South Dakota 

The state’s trigger law banning abortions except for when the life of the mother is at risk went into effect immediately after Roe was overturned. Gov. Kristi Noem (R) said in late June that she brought forward a bill to ban telemedicine appointments that women can use to obtain prescription abortion pills online. 

Tennessee 

Current state law bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected after a federal court lifted an injunction against the law in the aftermath of Roe being overturned. 

The Tennessean reported that a trigger law that will ban all abortions will take effect on Aug. 25. The law will not include any exceptions for rape or incest. It will also only provide an “affirmative defense” instead of an exception for doctors who perform abortions to save the life of the mother, to be used after having been arrested for performing an abortion. 

Texas 

The Supreme Court declined to block Texas’s six-week abortion ban in September as it was set to consider the Dobbs case. The law includes exceptions for medical emergencies but not rape or incest. 

The Texas Supreme Court ruled last month that the state can also enforce a 1925 law that opens abortion providers to fines and lawsuits, The Texas Tribune reported. A trigger law banning most abortions, except those to save the mother’s life, will take effect on Aug. 25. 

Utah 

Utah’s trigger law took effect immediately after Roe was overturned by was temporarily blocked three days later. The ban would include exceptions for rape or incest or the fetus having a severe fetal “brain abnormality,” along with protecting the life of the mother. 

Abortion is currently allowed up to 18 weeks into the pregnancy. 

West Virginia 

A judge blocked the state’s 150-year-old abortion ban last month in a preliminary injunction as a case on the merits of the law proceeds. The state legislature is in the process of developing a bill to ban abortion in light of the legal uncertainty of the old law. 

In the meantime, abortion is legal in West Virginia through 20 weeks of pregnancy, but only one clinic currently operates in the state. 

Wisconsin 

Wisconsin has a 173-year-old abortion ban on the books that restricts the procedure except to save the mother’s life. Gov. Tony Evers (D) and state Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) announced a lawsuit in late June to challenge the ban, and Evers announced he plans to grant clemency to any doctors charged under the ban. 

But abortion providers stopped offering the procedure after Roe was overturned. 

Wyoming 

A state trigger law was set to take effect late last month before a judge temporarily blocked it following a lawsuit claiming it violates the state constitution. The law includes exceptions for rape and incest and to protect the mother’s life or physical health, according to the Cheyenne-based CBS affiliate KGWN. 

Abortion remains legal up to the point of viability while the legal challenge plays out.

Source: TEST FEED1

Reconciliation package includes $4B for western drought resilience

The reconciliation package slated for a congressional vote this weekend includes $4 billion in new funding for the drought pummeling the western U.S.

The package, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, includes the new funding specifically for the Bureau of Reclamation to address the 22-year drought, the worst to hit the region since the year 800, according to a statement from Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Mark Kelly (D-Az.).

“The Western United States is experiencing an unprecedented drought, and it is essential that we have the resources we need to support our states’ efforts to combat climate change, conserve water resources, and protect the Colorado River Basin,” the senators said in a statement.

“This funding in the Inflation Reduction Act will serve as an important resource for Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado, and the work we’ve done to include it will help secure the West’s water future.”

A Senate source familiar with the funding confirmed to The Hill the $4 billion is new funding.

After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) came to an agreement on a climate and tax package, questions remained about Sinema’s stance. 

CNN reported this week that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) wanted $5 billion in drought funding to be added to the package.

Sinema spokesperson Hannah Hurley said that the additional drought funding played a role in the senator’s agreement to the deal.  

A source familiar with the negotiations said that numbers between $0 and $5 billion for drought resilience were on the table, and that Bennet, Kelly and Cortez-Masto were integral getting the $4 billion figure.

The announcement comes as the drought takes an increasing toll on the region, causing two of the nation’s largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, to plunge to record lows.

On Thursday evening Sinema confirmed her support for the reconciliation package, securing a majority in the 50-50 Senate.

It is unclear if Sinema was part of the group of western senators that developed the provision.

Rachel Frazin contributed. 

Source: TEST FEED1

BA.5 becomes most prominent COVID strain in the U.S. – here are its symptoms

The new BA.5 COVID-19 variant has quickly become the most prominent strain of the virus in the U.S., accounting for almost 86 percent of cases, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The BA.5 omicron subvariant, first detected in South Africa, now dominates COVID-19 cases in every region of the country after initially spiking in the U.S. in June. BA.5 made up 85.5 percent of cases for the week ending on July 30, the CDC noted.

BA.5 infections are associated with many familiar symptoms, notably a lingering cough, nasal congestion and sore throat.

A prominent symptom, especially in younger populations, is extreme fatigue. This fatigue, which can often leave the patient feeling as though they can’t get out of bed or climb a flight of stairs, lasts as long as two weeks, said Dr. Sergio Segarra, chief medical officer at Baptist Hospital in Miami.

Loss of taste or smell, previously tell-tale symptoms of a COVID infection, have become less prevalent with the newer variants.

Reports from current infections have echoed early reports from South Africa which suggested that many patients experienced “severe fatigue, but no loss of taste or smell,” said Dr. Lauren Ferrante, a Yale Medicine pulmonologist.

In the pediatric population, cases also tend to present with gastrointestinal symptoms.

Health care workers are seeing fewer hospitalizations with BA.5, and fewer cases involving severe lung damage and reactive pneumonia as the disease mutates.

“In general, this BA.5 is milder,” Segarra said.

The BA.5 variant has demonstrated an unmatched ability to infect those who are vaccinated or who have immunity from previous infections, however.

“BA.5 is much more contagious than prior strains,” Segarra said. “We went from contact precautions to airborne in a relatively short period of time.”

Natural immunity from other variants, including previous omicron subvariants, is diminishing more quickly as the COVID-19 virus continues to mutate, and vaccine immunity is preferred, Segarra said.

Experts are urging the public to get booster doses until vaccines specifically developed to target BA.5 are available.

“If you’re in an eligible population, I would not wait to get that boost,” Segarra said. “That will be what could potentially keep you from dying.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Equilibrium/Sustainability — Oregonians mad homes labelled 'high risk' for wildfire

Angry reactions from homeowners have caused Oregon state officials to withdraw a map deeming 80,000 structures at high risk from fire, The Associated Press reported. 

The state map — which aimed to quantify where Oregon’s wildfire risk was highest for planning purposes — led to heated responses from some Oregonians, according to the AP. 

The proposed map came after September 2020 fires destroyed 4,000 homes, OregonLive reported. 

“This is more about climate change evangelism than it is about actually protecting people from the risks that are out there,” Medford, Ore., farmer Brandon Larsen told officials during a comment period. 

“I’m sitting in a place here right now where I’m overlooking several hundred acres that are irrigated, they’re green year-round and yet they’re in ‘high’ or ‘extreme’ risk category. They’re never going to burn,” Larsen said, according to the AP. 

The “extreme” or “high” risk designations would have required homeowners like Larsen to take additional measures to protect homes and communities from wildfires — like clearing 100-foot areas of “defensible space” and cutting low-lying tree limbs. Home homeowners also worried the designations could impact their insurance coverage and property value. 

State officials were at pains to emphasize that the forecasts weren’t a judgment of an individual homeowner preparedness. 

“The map is the risk of wildfire occurrence and there are certain things you just can’t impact,” agency spokesman Derek Gasperini said, according to the AP. “You can’t affect the weather, you can’t change the fact that you live in a hot and dry climate.”  

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 start with China’s decision to end collaboration on climate with the U.S., followed by a look at how the Democrats’ proposed climate deal could boost the solar industry. Then we’ll see why California’s carbon offset program is faltering and explore how climate change is making kids less physically fit.   

China cuts climate cooperation over Pelosi visit 

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that the country would stop cooperating with the U.S. on both climate and military matters in response to
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) trip to Taiwan, our colleague Chloe Folmar reported for The Hill.  

A long list of retaliatory cancellations and suspensions: The suspension of talks on climate change were one of eight “countermeasures” announced by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.  

• The ministry accused Pelosi of disregarding “China’s strong opposition” to her trip. 
• Beijing is also ending collaboration on illegal immigrant repatriation, legal assistance on criminal matters, transnational crime and counternarcotics.   

A fraught visit: Pelosi and a delegation of House Democrats visited Taiwan this week, where they discussed security issues with government officials as part of a trip to the region. 

• China’s foreign affairs spokesperson said that Pelosi’s visit “gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and defies the “one-China principle,” Folmar reported.  
• Beijing also moved to “adopt sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family members,” according to state press agency Xinhua, which described her trip as an “egregious provocation.”   

A climate setback: A 2014 climate deal between the U.S. and China — struck by President Xi Jinping and then-President Obama — was seen as “a turning point” in global efforts to combat climate change, according to The Associated Press. 

• The Xi-Obama deal led to the 2015 Paris Agreement, an international treaty in which almost every country pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  
• Seven years later in Glasgow, Scotland, cooperation between the U.S. and China helped minimize obstacles to another climate deal.    

World’s biggest polluters: China and the U.S. are the world’s top two polluters, collectively generating almost 40 percent of global fossil fuel emissions, the AP reported.  

While China agreed in Glasgow to work with the U.S. “with urgency” to curb emissions, the country did not agree to accelerate its transition away from coal, according to the AP. 

China sizzles: Despite its decision to cease climate collaborations with Washington, Beijing acknowledged this week that global warming is making the country hotter and wetter, according to Communist Party-run English newspaper China Daily. 

• Xiao Chan, deputy director of the country’s National Climate Center, said that this year’s high-temperature intensity — which includes average temperature, range and duration — is the third strongest since 1961, China Daily reported. 
• “China, which is vulnerable to climate change, has experienced a faster temperature rise than the global average,” Yuan Jiashuang, deputy director of the National Climate Center, told China Daily. 

Climate stimulus could bring clean energy boom 

Wind, solar and electric vehicle production would receive an enormous boost under the Democrats’ proposed climate deal, according to a new study from Princeton University. 

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act would lead to a nearly threefold increase in wind power generation and a nearly fivefold increase in solar by 2026, the report found. 

Digging in: This legislation, negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), includes $369 billion in energy and climate stimulus spending. 

That sum could make now the ideal time for homeowners to consider installing solar energy, Bloomberg reported. 

Cutting emissions, creating jobs: A summary of Princeton’s analysis by infrastructure news site Utility Dive found that the bill would: 

• Cut national greenhouse gas emissions by about 40 percent below 2005-levels — estimates in line with those of other researchers. 
• Create at least 1.4 million new jobs and — by cutting air pollution — avoid 3,600 American deaths per year by 2030.  

Smaller package, smaller impacts: The emissions cuts, job growth and reduction in deaths are all substantially smaller than those Princeton had projected for Biden’s original Build Back Better program last September. 

Based on Princeton’s data for the two packages (as calculated by Equilibrium) the new package would produce: 

• 44 percent fewer jobs 
• 30 fewer tons of avoided emissions 
• 88 percent fewer avoided annual deaths 

Big deal moving: The original deal was proposed in September, but stalled in the Senate after opposition from Manchin and Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.).

• Sinema agreed late Thursday evening to the Inflation Reduction Act worked out between Manchin and Schumer. 
• That gives the Democrats enough votes to pass the bill through the budget reconciliation process.

Fires put forest offset program at risk of collapse

Wildfires are threatening to wreck a key part of California’s climate mitigation plans: the trading of carbon “offsets” pulled from the atmosphere into the state’s forests. 

The ravages of destructive fire have destroyed enough of the state’s “buffer pool” of forests that California’s offset programs are at risk of insolvency, according to a study published on Friday in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. 

• The findings call into question the use of forest-based financial tools to counterbalance the emission of planet-heating greenhouse gases.   
• “Fossil CO2 emissions have permanent consequences, but carbon stored in trees won’t last forever,” Danny Cullenward of climate research nonprofit CarbonPlan said in a statement. 

The scientists cautioned that any fossil fuel emissions dependent on California’s existing forest offset program need to stop now, as those forests cannot be guaranteed to remain standing. 

Gambling with uncertainty: California’s forest carbon offset program requires companies to guarantee that their trees — and the carbon that makes them up — would remain intact and out of the atmosphere for 100 years, according to the state’s Air Resources Board. 

Forecasting doom: Making such a promise is no longer a safe bet, the team found. Forest losses in just a decade have brought the program to the point that a single disease- or insect-related die-off would wreck the program. 

• “In just 10 years, wildfires have exhausted protections designed to last for a century,” said co-author Oriana Chegwidden, of CarbonPlan. 
• “It is incredibly unlikely that the program will be able to withstand the wildfires of the next 90 years, particularly given the role of the climate crisis in exacerbating fire risks,” she added. 

There were already concerns: Previous studies by CarbonPlan already suggested that the math around California’s forest offset program doesn’t work, as ProPublica reported last year. 

CarbonPlan’s findings at the time showed that the state had allowed companies to create tens of millions of “ghost credits” that generated no actual climate benefits.   

In reality, these credits enabled companies to produce tens of millions of tons of additional greenhouse gas pollution, according to ProPublica. 

Burning buffers: California’s forest offset program depends on an intact “buffer” of trees that can be substituted for losses in the forests that companies have paid to protect. 

This can be thought of as a form of tree-based “self-insurance” for the loss of other tree-based assets. 

• These backup landscapes have lost nearly 20 percent of their carbon in just a decade, the Frontiers study found. 
• If those forest stocks cannot be guaranteed to remain standing, that would wreck the assumption of “permanent” storage that the whole system rests on.  

Broader alarm: “The problems we observe here aren’t unique to the California program and raise broader concerns about the integrity of offsets’ permanence claims,” concluded co-author Freya Chay, of CarbonPlan. 

Climate change reducing kid’s physical fitness: study 

Rising global temperatures — fueled by climate change — are making children less physically fit and more obese than ever before, a new study has found. 

And it’s a two-way street: Physical fitness is also key to tolerating those higher temperatures. A less-active lifestyle is putting kids at greater risk of suffering from heat-related health problems, according to the study, published in the journal Temperature on Friday. 

• Some such issues include dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. 
• “As the world warms, children are the least fit they have ever been,” author Shawnda Morrison, an environmental exercise physiologist at Slovenia’s University of Ljubljana, said in a statement. 

Failing children’s health: Today’s climate change policies are failing to address child health needs, according to Morrison. 

• Children’s aerobic fitness is 30 percent lower than that of their parents at the same age, Morrison found.  
• Most kids are failing to meet the World Health Organization’s guidelines of partaking in about an hour of physical activity each day. 

Making exercise fun: “It is imperative that children are encouraged to do daily physical activity to build up, and maintain, their fitness, so that they enjoy moving their bodies and it doesn’t feel like ‘work’ or ‘a chore’ to them,” Morrison said. 

To read the full story, please click here. 

Follow-up Friday

In which we revisit some issues we’ve covered over the past week.  

Kentucky to face high costs following deadly floods 

• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said the state would need “significant dollars” to rebuild from the damage caused by last week’s deadly rains, our colleagues Tobias Burns and Rachel Frazin reported. Floodwaters washed over eastern Kentucky, killing 37 people and destroying critical infrastructure, as we previously covered.      

Water scarcity rattles both sides of the Atlantic  

• The United Nations warned this week that America’s two biggest reservoirs have dwindled to “dangerously low levels” due to climate change. Across the Atlantic, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne declared Friday that France is confronting its “most severe drought” in history, according to The Washington Post, and the source of England’s River Thames has dried up for the first time ever, The Guardian reported. 

These cities show how to fight heat on municipal level 

• Rising urban heat levels are making it dangerous to do all sorts of outdoor activities, like playing cricket. But by using tactics like planting trees all over, employing fountains for evaporative cooling, painting buildings white and repurposing ancient infrastructure and cooling techniques, some cities are ahead of the curve in keeping citizens safe, CNN reported. 

ICYMI​

🚴 Check out the Photos of the Week.

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

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Source: TEST FEED1

How the battle over the Democrats' climate, tax and health bill will play out 

Senate Democrats are girding themselves for a battle royal with Republicans over a 700-plus-page bill that will reform the tax code, tackle climate change, lower drug costs and reduce the deficit in hopes of delivering what would become President Biden’s centerpiece legislative achievement.  

While the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that Democrats enacted last year was a bigger bill in terms of dollars spent, the Inflation Reduction Act will deliver on what Democrats have promised for years.  

It would require profitable corporations to pay more in taxes, reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change, lower the price of many prescription drugs and preserve the affordability of Affordable Care Act health plans.  

The legislation will move under special budget reconciliation rules that will allow Democrats to avoid a GOP filibuster and pass it with a simple majority. But to stay in compliance with the reconciliation rules, the legislation must be strictly focused on spending, revenues or the federal debt limit.  

Significant policy changes that have only a tangential impact on spending or revenues are violations of the Senate’s Byrd Rule — named after former Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).

Saturday’s schedule

Senators say there are a lot of unanswered questions heading into the debate but they have a general idea of how it will play out over the weekend.  

 The Senate will convene at noon on Saturday and hold a vote at 12:30 pm on a motion to discharge a nominee to serve as assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency out of committee. This will serve as an attendance vote to make sure all 50 members of the Democratic caucus are present.

Eighty-two-year-old Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who has missed weeks of votes at the Capitol after falling and breaking his hip in June, is expected to be back on the floor for votes. 

At some point later in the day, the Senate will vote on the motion to proceed to the Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected to break down strictly along party lines.  

Leaders on Friday said they expected all 50 Senate Democrats and all 50 Senate Republicans to be present for the opening vote, which means Vice President Harris will be on hand to break a 50-50 tie. Harris also voted to break the tie on the motion to proceed to the American Rescue Plan in March of last year.  

That would then trigger up to 20 hours of debate on the bill, which could stretch late into the evening or past midnight Saturday. The 20 hours of debate would be evenly divided between the parties.  

At some point, Schumer will have to finish negotiating some of the provisions of the bill that were still unresolved Friday afternoon, such as money requested by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to improve her state’s drought resiliency.

GOP strategy

Republican senators said earlier in the week that they intended to use their full allotment of 10 hours to speak on the bill, which would likely mean stretching debate time into Sunday.  

But Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said Friday that his Republican colleagues are now eager to speed up the debate so they can move more quickly to offering amendments to the legislation. 

“There will probably be an interest in getting to amendments fairly quickly,” he said, predicting that amendment votes could begin as soon as Saturday afternoon.  

Still, Thune didn’t rule out the possibility that Senate Republicans may try to drag out consideration of the massive bill by forcing the clerks to read its text out loud on the floor for several hours or use other procedural delays.  

“Yet to be determined. I don’t think we know for sure the answer to that because any member can do that,” he said.  

Senators are allowed up to 20 hours of debate time but they can yield some of that back. 

Then senators would begin voting on an open-ended series of amendments, a process known as a vote-a-rama. 

‘Like Hell’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking member of the Budget Committee, on Friday vowed to make the process as painful as possible for Democrats.  

“What will vote-a-rama be like? It’ll be like hell,” Graham declared. “They deserve this.” 

He said centrist senators such as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sinema are “empowering legislation that will make the average person’s life more difficult at a time they can’t afford higher gas taxes.  

Senate Republicans estimate requiring votes on between 40 and 50 amendments. 

Their goal will be to inflict as much political damage as possible on vulnerable Democrats running for re-election in November such as Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Maggie Hassan (D-Ariz.).  

Senate Republicans say they will force Democrats to take tough votes on border security, energy prices, crime prevention, inflation.  

“Expect to see amendments on all of those things,” said Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).  

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) says he plans to offer an amendment related to the Title 42 health order that bars migrants from staying in the country to await the processing of asylum claims.  

Lankford introduced a bill with Sinema, Manchin, Kelly, Hassan, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and several Republicans in April to delay the end of the Title 42 order until the Biden administration produced a comprehensive plan to secure the border.  

A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from lifting Title 42 in May.  

Republicans hope they can pressure vulnerable Democrats to vote with all 50 members of the GOP conference to adopt an amendment to the bill that will make the rest of the legislation unpalatable to the rest of Senate Democrats. But they acknowledge it’s a long-shot strategy.  

They predict that Democratic leaders will offer side-by-side amendments to give vulnerable Democratic senators such as Kelly and Warnock political cover not to vote for any of the Republican ones.  

At the end of the vote-a-rama, Schumer will offer a substitute amendment that will make any final changes he wants to add to the Inflation Reduction Act and strip out any amendments that have may have become attached during the vote-a-rama that would imperil final Senate passage or endanger the bill’s prospects in the House.  

Manchin-Sinema pressure

Republicans are trying to pressure Manchin and Sinema to oppose the final wrap-around amendment so that some amendments have a chance of being included in the final bill.  

“The question for both Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema is if any of these amendments succeed at the end, will you or will you not vote for the wrap-around amendment,” Thune said. “I think we kind of expect the Democrats to fall in” with their leaders’ wishes.  

The vote-a-rama will be capped by a final vote on the legislation, which if successful would send it onto the House and then Biden’s desk.   

Schumer admitted Friday that he still doesn’t know exactly what to expect in terms of when senators will take up the motion to proceed and when the amendment votes will begin or end. But he feels confident he has final votes to pass the bill in the next few days.    

“We’re feeling pretty good,” he said. “I’m pleased we have reached an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act that I believe will receive the support of the entire Senate Democratic conference.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Nadler holds 9-point lead over Maloney in New York primary: poll

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) leads Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) by 9 percentage points in New York’s 12th Congressional District primary, according to an Emerson College Polling/Pix11/The Hill survey released Friday.

The survey found that 40 percent of very likely Democratic primary voters plan on voting for Nadler in the New York primary, which is slated for Aug. 23, compared to 31 percent who said the same for Maloney.

Attorney Suraj Patel received 11 percent, while 17 percent of respondents said they were undecided.

When the poll factored in undecided respondents who were asked to say which candidate they were leaning toward, that shifted Nadler’s support among primary voters to 47 percent and shifted support for Maloney to 35 percent. It also shifted support for Patel, who reached 17 percent support.

While Maloney’s support has stayed the same since respondents were last polled in May, Nadler has gained the most ground, seeing his support increase 19 percentage points. Patel also saw a jump of 7 percentage points since the last poll. 

“Male voters are overwhelmingly breaking in support of Nadler for Congress over Maloney; 46% to 22% compared to May when Maloney led this group 26% to 22%. On the other hand, female voters are statistically even; 38% support Maloney and 36% support Nadler which is down from May when Maloney led 35% to 20% among women,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling.

Nadler and Maloney are going head-to-head in the state’s 12th Congressional District in an awkward member-on-member primary following New York’s redistricting. 

The primary is especially notable given that the two Democrats occupy top leadership positions. Nadler is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee while Maloney is the chair of the House Oversight Committee. 

The pair both made headlines earlier this week after they declined to say whether they thought President Biden should run for reelection in 2024, though both later said they would support him if he decided to. 

The White House said that Biden plans to make a bid in 2024. 

The Emerson College Polling/Pix11/The Hill survey was conducted between Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 with 1,000 very likely Democratic primary voters surveyed. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Source: TEST FEED1

As momentum shifts, can Democrats defy history?

It’s likely there will be a wave in the upcoming midterm elections, but it may not be a red one. If Democrats work hard to organize, mobilize and educate voters about what is at stake, they may be able to defy conventional wisdom.

They must make this election about a contrast between an out-of-touch extremist radical MAGA Republican Party and a Democratic Party that’s fighting for practical solutions.

Several things have happened in the last few weeks that suggest Democrats may be in a much better position than history would portend.

The latest happened this week in Kansas with voters rejecting an amendment that would have removed abortion rights protections from their State Constitution. Importantly for Democrats, voter turnout on this referendum blew all expectations out of the water. Nearly 1 million Kansans voted in the primary elections. That’s more in line with voter turnout typically seen in a general election.

Kansans proved that letting Americans keep their rights to make their own decisions about their health care is not only popular in polls, but at them, and that voters would show up to protect those rights and their freedom in November. 

But what about the economy, gas prices and inflation, which continue to be top issues of concern for voters? Things may be getting better on that front too.

The economy’s fundamentals continue to be strong as employment is still at historic highs. According to new numbers released Friday, the unemployment rate has dropped to 3.5 percent, a half-century low.

The recent contraction of the economy was not welcome news, but many economists say that the robust labor market is keeping recession at bay. But what really is boosting Democratic moods is the breakthrough Inflation Reduction Act, which promises to reduce inflation, increase health care affordability and help fight the climate crisis. If this bill passes with only Democratic support and voters start to feel some easing of the pressure on their pocketbooks, they will give Democrats credit for doing something.

It also will give Democrats a much-needed boost with younger voters hungry for a real substantive fix to the climate crisis, which this bill jumpstarts. And it will allow Democrats to further contrast their approach with their do-nothing-but-blame-Democrats Republican counterparts. 

The Senate is also about the pass the PACT Act,  which expands benefits for burn pit victims sickened in Iraq and Afghanistan, after it was blocked by some Republicans. 

Two other events have surfaced that will allow Democrats to make this crucial contrast with Republicans in the upcoming midterms. The Jan. 6 committee hearings have put Trump’s egregious behavior front and center and crystalized his dereliction of duty and betrayal of his oath of office. Importantly, it was not Democrats who were describing his actions; it was Trump’s own supporters, former staffers and even members of his family. While these hearings may not have changed many Republican minds, polls show they have hurt Trump with independent voters.

Additionally, Trump is inching closer to announcing another run for president, and he may do so before the midterm elections. He is starting to make appearances and speak to his base. His speech to the American First Political Action Conference was a dark image of America riddled with the old grievances of a stolen election. He posted that it is not a matter of whether but when he will announce another run.  

The more Trump sucks up the energy, oxygen and attention between now and November, the better it will be for Democrats. He stands as a stark reminder that the destruction of our democracy would be imminent if his MAGA supporting, Big-Lie believing acolytes take over Congress.

The effects of Republican overreach on issues such as abortion, guns and marriage, the danger of election deniers holding powerful positions, in addition to the Democrats’ recent legislative successes and the recent drop in gas prices are shown in the latest generic ballot polls. In the Senate, Democrats have consistently held the lead in races in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Hampshire. In seven of the last nine polls, Democrats hold the advantage on the general ballot, by anywhere from two to seven points.

It will still be an uphill battle for Democrats to keep the Senate and hold the House in November. But there are cracks in the conventional wisdom that Democrats, as the party of an unpopular first-term president, will necessarily see huge losses.

The political momentum has shifted ever so slightly. If Democrats can maintain that momentum, they have a real chance to defy history.   

Maria Cardona is a longtime Democratic strategist, a principal at Dewey Square Group, a Washington-based political consulting agency, and a CNN/CNN Español political commentator. Follow her on Twitter @MariaTCardona.

Source: TEST FEED1

French scientist admits to joke tweeting picture of chorizo, not ‘space telescope image’

A French scientist apologized for a joke he posted on Twitter, in which he claimed a photo of a chorizo was that of a star. 

Etienne Klein, who is the research director of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, posted a photo last week that he claimed was of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. 

The telescope sent back its first full-color image showing the deepest view of the universe ever seen last month, after reaching its destination almost 1 million miles from Earth earlier this year. 

Klein pointed to the level of detail in the image he posted and said that a “new world” is being revealed. 

But he commented on his post about an hour later to reveal the joke, saying that modern cosmology states that no object from “Spanish charcuterie” exists outside of Earth. 

After receiving some comments critical of the joke, Klein commented that it was meant for amusement. 

“Let us learn to be wary of arguments from authority as much as of the spontaneous eloquence of certain images,” he said. 

On Wednesday, Klein posted a real image of a few galaxies located 500 million light years away that the telescope took. He also apologized for the joke, saying he wanted to urge caution about images that appear to speak for themselves.

Source: TEST FEED1

NY mayor's office blasts Abbott for bussing migrants to the city

The spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Friday over his bussing of migrants from the southern border to cities including New York.

“@GovAbbott’s continued use of human beings as political pawns is disgusting,” tweeted Fabien Levy. “NYC will continue to welcome asylum seekers w/ open arms, as we have always done, but we still need support from DC.”

Abbott released a statement earlier in the day announcing the arrival of the first group of migrants who were bussed from Texas to New York.

“I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” Abbott said of Adams.

Abbott and Adams have clashed multiple times over immigration issues, as Abbott has attempted to draw the attention of northern Democratic politicians to the Texas-Mexico border.

“As law enforcement agents along the Texas-Mexico border respond to thousands of illegal crossings each and every day, putting their lives on the line for Texans and for all Americans, the crisis demands the attention of not only the Biden Administration, which is responsible for securing the border, but of leaders across the country,” the governor, who is up for reelection this year, wrote earlier this week in a letter to Adams and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Migrants will be bussed to both cities from the southern border and dropped off there rather than staying in Texas.

“In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” Abbott said on Friday.

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats add stock buyback tax, scrap carried interest to win Sinema over

Democrats are including a tax on stock buybacks to make up for the revenue lost in their climate change package to win over Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), whose vote is a necessity to advance a centerpiece of President Biden’s economic agenda. 

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday that the buyback tax will raise $74 billion, more than making up for the loss of a $14 billion tax on carried interest and a $55 billion tax on depreciation costs that were mandated by Sinema. 

“I believe strongly in [closing] the carried interest loophole. I have voted for it. I pushed for it, I pushed for it to be in this bill. Sen. Sinema said she would not vote for the bill, not even move to proceed, unless we took it out. So we have no choice,” Schumer said.  

Still, Schumer expressed confidence that all Democrats would support the stock buyback tax and noted that it’s particularly popular with progressive lawmakers. 

“I hate stock buybacks,” Schumer added. “I think they are one of the most self-serving things that corporate America does. Instead of investing in workers and in training and in research and in equipment, they don’t do a thing to make their company better and they artificially raise the stock price by just reducing the number of shares. They’re despicable. I’d like to abolish them.” 

The concessions to Sinema were tax breaks favored by the private equity industry and the U.S. manufacturing sector. 

Democrats needed to ensure that they could replace that tax revenue to fund their green energy and health care policies and significantly reduce the federal deficit, a key priority for centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who privately negotiated the initial deal with Schumer. 

“We have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision, protect advanced manufacturing, and boost our clean energy economy in the Senate’s budget reconciliation legislation. Subject to the Parliamentarian’s review, I’ll move forward,” Sinema said in a statement Thursday evening.   

Carried interest is a way that hedge fund and private equity fund managers get paid for managing investments on behalf of their investors. It is taxed at a preferential rate of 23.8 percent — well below the top tax rate of 37 percent — and this has long been criticized as an unfair perk for the rich. 

Executives at investment firms KKR, Goldman Sachs, Apollo Global Management and the Carlyle Group make up several of Sinema’s top campaign donors, according to nonpartisan research group OpenSecrets. 

Some of Sinema’s aides have landed on K Street. Alyssa Marois, Sinema’s former legislative director, lobbies for HSBC Bank. Former Sinema policy adviser Kate Gonzales is a lobbyist at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck whose clients include British private equity firm C5 Capital.  

Sinema also insisted that the 15 percent minimum tax exclude companies that take advantage of accelerated depreciation — deductions that allow firms to pay a low tax rate when they make large capital investments, such as buying new equipment.  

A last-minute lobbying blitz from manufacturers — which most often lean on accelerated depreciation to expand their operations — appeared to shift Sinema’s position on the minimum tax, a proposal she voiced support for last October.  

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce teamed up with the U.S. Chamber and the National Association of Manufacturers to run ads pressuring Sinema to change course. Sinema privately asked business groups this week if the proposal was “written in a way that’s bad” according to the Arizona Chamber, CNN reported. 

“Tell your senators and congressmen to say no to taxes that would devastate Arizona manufacturers,” one TV ad told Phoenix and Tucson area residents this week.    

The stock buyback tax, which would reap tens of billions from the nation’s largest corporations, is the most recent proposal to draw criticism from big business groups.  

“Unfortunately, the new excise tax on stock buybacks will only distort the efficient movement of capital to where it can be put to best use and will diminish the value of Americans’ retirement savings,” Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement Friday. 

Share repurchases by S&P 500 companies are on track to surpass $1 trillion this year for the first time. Large corporations make up the bulk of stock repurchases, and they’ve ramped up their buybacks in recent years to boost their stock price and reward shareholders. 

Apple said in April that it would buy back as much as $90 billion in company stock. Last month, Morgan Stanley announced $20 billion in new buybacks, while Nike approved a new $18 billion buyback program. 

Prominent Democrats have criticized the wave of buybacks that stemmed from Republicans’ 2017 tax law. They say that companies should use their cash reserves to create more U.S. jobs and pay their workers more.  

Wall Street analysts said Friday that a 1 percent tax on share repurchases would likely slow down the buyback trend and prompt more companies to hike their dividends instead.  

House Democrats included a 1 percent buyback tax in their $2.2 trillion reconciliation package passed last year. At the time, it was estimated to bring in $124 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. 

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) previously floated a 2 percent tax, arguing that buybacks benefit the wealthiest shareholders at the expense of workers.  

“Corporate stock buybacks further enrich already wealthy CEOs and major shareholders while helping them dodge their fair share of taxes. They’re one more way in which corporations, billionaires and the other ultra-wealthy play by their own set of tax rules,” Brown and Wyden said in a 2021 statement released along with their legislation. 

A write-up on the buyback tax included in the House-passed version of the Build Back Better Act by law firm Skadden Arps criticized the measure for being too broad. It described the language in the bill as “broad enough that the tax might be triggered by certain acquisitions, split-offs and other transactions.” 

“If the provision is enacted as drafted, publicly traded corporations will need to consider the excise tax in weighing the overall costs and benefits of their stock repurchase programs and in evaluating other corporate transactions that may involve ‘repurchases.’ As a general matter, the excise tax would make it more costly to engage in stock buybacks of all forms,” the authors of the article wrote in 2021. 

Source: TEST FEED1