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House Speaker John Boehner signaled Thursday that a compromise is coming with Democrats on immediate cuts in government spending, as Tea Party supporters rallied near the Capitol demanding House Republicans to fight for bigger spending cuts or else just let the government shut down.
Boehner noted that Republicans are fighting for the biggest spending cuts they can get, given that Democrats are in control of the White House and Senate.
Boehner said there’s no agreement yet on how much he and Democrats are willing to compromise in cutting the day-to-day budgets of federal agencies over the coming six months. The GOP House has voted to cut more than $60 billion from this year’s budget, and Democrats have been moving steadily in his direction.
The Ohio Republican has agreed to discuss a compromise of around $33 billion in spending cuts over the next six months—considerably less than Tea Party activists have demanded.
The tentative split-the-difference plan would end up where GOP leaders started last month as they tried to fulfill a campaign pledge to return spending for agencies’ daily operations to levels in place before President Barack Obama took office. That calculation takes into account the fact that the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, is about half over.
Under Biden’s math, the White House is conceding $73 billion in cuts from Obama’s requests, which contained increases never approved by Congress. Republicans originally wanted $100 billion in cuts using the same gauge.
Some tea party-backed GOP lawmakers want the original $100 billion in cuts, and it’s unclear how many of the 87 freshmen Republicans elected last fall will approve of the arrangement between top Democrats and Boehner, who plans to meet with freshman GOP lawmakers.
Both sides said the figure under consideration is tentative at best and depends on the outcome of numerous policy stands written into the bill.
Freshman Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger suggested Tea Part activists to save their powder for bigger fights ahead, including next year’s budget and a must-pass bill to allow the government to borrow more money to meet its commitments. Republicans hope to use that measure to force further spending cuts on the president.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Congress, News Desk | 40 Comments »
Republicans in Congress objected Thursday to the Homeland Security Department’s now-rescinded practice of requiring secretive reviews by political advisers of hundreds of requests for government files under the Freedom of Information Act. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the chairman of a House oversight committee, said the process “reeks of a Nixonian enemies list” and was unacceptable.
The senior official in charge of submitting files for the reviews, Mary Ellen Callahan, acknowledged there had been “management challenges” in the program and said the political scrutiny “at times took longer than anticipated.” But Callahan deflected suggestions by Issa that the process injected political considerations into decisions about federal records the government was turning over to journalists, watchdog groups, or even members of Congress.
Democrats vigorously defended the department and, by extension, the Obama administration. The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said that Issa’s accusations are unsubstantiated.
The Homeland Security Department abandoned its practice of requiring approval by political appointees before some information could be released after the Associated Press investigated the program last year. Since July, political advisers have been afforded three business days to object to the release of information that otherwise could be withheld under nine provisions in the law protecting national security, privacy, or confidential decision-making. If there are no objections, the records can be released.
Issa said some information that was censored in government files should have been released, and he said delays resulting from the reviews of up to three months were unacceptable.
Cummings cited results of a one-year inquiry by the Homeland Security inspector general that found no evidence that political advisers prohibited federal records from being disclosed. Although the inspector general called the previous system an “unprecedented involvement in the FOIA process,” the report concluded that the advisers “had little to contribute.”
This week, Callahan reduced the period for political advisers to review government files to one business day. But the inspector general said even the new, speedier process “is not required by FOIA and seems inconsistent” with the Obama administration’s instructions prohibiting unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Government, News Desk | 2 Comments »
In the shadow of Japan’s struggle to stem radioactive leaks from its stricken nuclear complex, police in white moon suits pull bodies of tsunami victims from an evacuated zone in halting work interrupted by radiation alarms.
The crisis at the plant, which has compelled Japanese officials to increasingly turn to international help in stemming the leaks, has sometimes overshadowed the other disaster wrought by a March 11 tsunami: the decimation of hundreds of miles of northeastern coastline, the displacement of tens of thousands, and the deaths of an estimated 19,000 people.
Efforts to recover the bodies from the 12-mile evacuation zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been slowed by a wasteland of debris, but also by fears of radiation. Police in that prefecture dressed in full radiation suits retrieved 19 corpses from the rubble Wednesday, the police official said.
Each officer wears a radiation detector and must leave the area whenever an alarm goes off—a frequent occurrence that has often dragged the operation to a halt, the official said.
There also are concerns about the disposal of bodies, because Japanese tend to cremate their dead, and fires can spread radiation. The Health Ministry recommends that the bodies be cleaned and those with even small levels of radiation should be handled only by people wearing suits, gloves, and masks.
Radiation concerns also have complicated efforts to bring the plant itself under control. Radioactive contamination in groundwater underneath a reactor has been measured at 10,000 times the government health standard, restricting where crews can work.
Japanese officials are increasingly seeking outside help, including experts in eliminating contaminated water from French nuclear giant Areva. Experts and a robot from the U.S. have also arrived in Japan.
Because of the radiation leaks a mandatory evacuation zone around the plant has been ordered, and authorities have also recommended people in the 20-mile band might want to leave, too.
There were concerns Wednesday that the evacuation zone might need to be expanded after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that radiation levels in a village outside the voluntary band registered at twice the threshold the agency recommends for evacuations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Japan, News Desk | 2 Comments »
Rebels fighting to install Ivory Coast’s democratically elected president began besieging the main city of Abidjan on Thursday after seizing a key seaport overnight, as he vowed to “reestablish democracy and enforce the choice of the people.”
The top military commander of the country’s entrenched ruler fled to the residence of South Africa’s ambassador. But an adviser to longtime President Laurent Gbagbo said he would not step down even in the face of a rebel onslaught on the country’s commercial capital.
The international community declared Alassane Ouattara the winner of the November presidential election, but Gbagbo has clung to power for months. The violence has left at least 462 people dead, and up to 1 million have fled their homes amid the post-election chaos.
United Nations radio announced that the port of San Pedro, 190 miles west of Abidjan, was taken by rebels late Wednesday. Residents said by telephone that soldiers retreated in trucks while firing into the air as the rebels moved in.
Rebels also took Gbagbo’s hometown, the village of Mama, and Yopougon, a district of Abidjan that fervently supports Gbagbo, said a close aide to Ouattara.
Advancing on foot while firing into the air, the rebels set up roadblocks on one of Yopougon’s main thoroughfares and have been battling with police since early Thursday morning, said a local resident.
They have faced almost no resistance but many fear that army troops still loyal to Gbagbo plan to make a final stand in Abidjan, the country’s economic hub and the only place Gbagbo still has power.
Ouattara’s whereabouts were not immediately known. He had been holed up for months in the lagoonside Golf Hotel in Abidjan, protected by United Nations peacekeeping troops.
Ouattara and Gbagbo have vied for the presidency for months, with Ouattara using his considerable international clout to try to financially and diplomatically suffocate Gbagbo. After the final round of diplomatic efforts had failed to remove Gbagbo, the rebels launched a dramatic offensive this week, seizing control of the country from the west, the center and the east.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Africa, News Desk | 3 Comments »
UPDATE: The British government said one of Muammar Qaddafi’s closest confidantes, Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, has resigned after flying to England from Tunisia Wednesday. His departure could open the door for some hard intelligence, though Britain refused to offer him immunity from prosecution.
Libyan officials, who initially denied Koussa’s defection, said he had resigned because he was sick with diabetes and high blood pressure. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Koussa was given permission to go to Tunisia, but the regime was surprised to learn he had flown to London.
The opposition blames Koussa for the assassinations of dissidents in western capitals and for orchestrating the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland and the bombing of another jet over Niger a year later. The links have never been confirmed.
In another blow to the regime, U.S. officials revealed Wednesday that the CIA has sent small teams of operatives into rebel-held eastern Libya while the United States debates whether to arm the opposition.
OUR EARLIER REPORT: The new commander of international military operations in Libya warned Thursday that anyone attacking civilians would be “ill-advised” to continue, and said he would look into a report by a Vatican envoy that air strikes had killed 40 innocent people.
As NATO took over command of all air operations over Libya from the United States, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that President Barack Obama has no additional U.S. military moves in mind, calling it a pick-up ballgame at this point.
Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard said the bloc had already deployed more than 100 fighters and support aircraft to monitor the no-fly zone over Libya and prevent attacks on civilians.
The alliance also had a dozen frigates patrolling the Mediterranean Sea off Libya to prevent weapons shipments from reaching the warring sides.
NATO aircraft had already flown more than 90 sorties since the alliance took over command at 2 a.m. EDT, Bouchard said.
Bouchard said NATO would investigate a claim by the Vatican’s envoy in Libya that air strikes in Tripoli during the night had killed 40 civilians—though he noted that the alleged incident was said to have taken place before NATO took command.
The report by the Fides news agency quoted Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, as saying he had learned that a building in the district of Buslim had collapsed during bombing, killing 40 people inside.
Bouchard said the alliance had very strict rules of engagement, and was very careful in going after any targets.
NATO’s assumption of command comes at a sensitive moment in the war between the rebels and loyalist forces. Muammar Qaddafi’s ground troops have nearly reversed the gains rebels made since the international airstrikes began. The battlefield setbacks have led to increased calls for the international community to supply weapons to the lightly armed rebels.
Speaking in Stockholm, NATO’s Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday that the alliance doesn’t support U.S. and British suggestions that the UN mandate for the international military operation in Libya allows arming rebels.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, North Africa | 1 Comment »
After Ohio lawmakers passed a bill limiting collective bargaining rights for 350,000 public workers across the state late Wednesday, unions and Democrats vowed to put it on November’s ballot as a referendum.
The Senate voted 17-16 to pass the bill and then sent it to Republican Gov. John Kasich for his signature, which is expected this week. The vote followed a day filled with Statehouse demonstrations by about 750 people, who raucously chanted and shouted throughout the process.
The measure affects safety workers, teachers, nurses, and a host of other government personnel. It allows unions to negotiate wages and certain working conditions but not healthcare, sick time, or pension benefits. It gets rid of automatic pay increases and replaces them with merit raises or performance pay. Workers would also be banned from striking.
A ballot challenge would stall implementation of the law that House Speaker Bill Batchelder said “will give control back to the people who pay the bills.”
Gov. Kasich has said his $55.5 billion, two-year state budget counts on unspecified savings from lifting union protections to fill an $8 billion deficit hole.
During House debate, state Rep. Robert Hagan, a Democrat from Youngstown, said the bill wasn’t aimed at saving money, but to “bust the unions.”
Though protests were much larger in Wisconsin, Ohio unions claim they hold the hearts of a majority of voters in their political swing state.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill this month eliminating most of state workers’ collective bargaining rights. That measure exempts police officers and firefighters; Ohio’s does not.
The Ohio bill has drawn thousands of demonstrators, prompted a visit from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and packed hearing rooms in the weeks before the Senate passed the earlier version of the measure. Its reception in the House had been quieter, as unions resolved themselves to its approval and shifted their strategy to the fall ballot.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in National, News Desk | 13 Comments »
Hello!
Random question of the day: If someone asked, “What is your biggest flaw?” in an interview, how would you respond?
This is our daily (except for Sundays) open thread, where you can 1) answer my question, 2) talk about something else, or 3) say something truly encouraging to the commenter before you.
Posted in News Desk, Watercooler Chatter | 141 Comments »
President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for a one-third reduction in U.S. oil imports by 2025, but offered little in the way of new initiatives. The president relied instead on a litany of energy proposals he’s already called for, including boosting domestic oil production, increasing government incentives to promote use of biofuels and natural gas, and mandating more energy efficiency for vehicles.
Obama also offered a nod to nuclear energy as a potential clean energy solution, and urged “those of us” who believe in man-made global warming to “recognize that nuclear power, if it’s safe, can make a significant contribution to the climate change question.” He vowed a thorough safety review of all U.S. plants, incorporating lessons learned from Japan, but said “we can’t simply take [nuclear power] off the table.”
With gas prices on the rise as the president looks toward his reelection bid, the White House wants to regain its footing on domestic issues before public anger over the spike in energy costs take hold. Gas prices have jumped more than 50 cents a gallon this year, reaching a national average of $3.58 a gallon last week, according to AAA’s daily survey.
The president defended himself from criticism of his post-BP drilling moratorium and delay in granting new permits to explore U.S. sources of energy. He said his administration has approved 39 shallow-water drilling permits since imposing new standards last year following the Gulf oil spill, and seven new deep-water drilling permits in recent weeks.
“Right now the industry holds tens of millions of acres of leases where they’re not producing a single drop,” Obama said. “They’re just sitting on supplies of American energy that are ready to be tapped.”
Republicans countered that the claim is misleading. A post on House Speaker John Boehner’s blog summarized a House Natural Resources Committee finding on how the White House formulated the charge:
First, freeze just about any new exploration or development plans in the Gulf (one in the last ten months.)
Then, concoct a brand new term, found nowhere in current law or regulation, called “inactive lease.”
Now, stretch the definition of this term to include whether an exploration or development plan has been approved.
Finally, count up all the leases they haven’t approved for exploration or development, and voila, “look at all those energy companies just sitting on the land they already have.”
First, freeze just about any new exploration or development plans in the Gulf (one in the last 10 months.)
Then, concoct a brand new term, found nowhere in current law or regulation, called “inactive lease.”
Now, stretch the definition of this term to include whether an exploration or development plan has been approved.
Finally, count up all the leases they haven’t approved for exploration or development, and voila, “look at all those energy companies just sitting on the land they already have.”
Republicans blame the spike in prices on Obama’s policies, arguing that the administration has been too slow in approving new permits for oil drilling and calling on the president to open up areas along the Atlantic Coast and near Alaska, where drilling its currently banned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Energy, News Desk | 57 Comments »
For workers imbedded in Japan’s embattled Fukushima nuclear power plant, living conditions carry some of the same challenges faced by quake victims along the country’s devastated northeastern coast: Limited food, limited water, and close quarters for long stretches of time.
Kazuma Yokota, chief of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in the Fukushima prefecture, described Fukushima’s living conditions after spending five days at the plant last week. Yokota told reporters that the conditions are grueling for the hundreds of workers battling radiation leaks and contaminated water at the badly damaged plant, and underscore the complicated layers of Japan’s multi-tiered crisis.
As many as 580 workers at a time pack the halls and offices of a two-story, earthquake-resistant building serving as emergency headquarters at the nuclear power plant. (The building stands about a half mile from Reactor No. 1. Meanwhile, Japanese officials have evacuated citizens living within 12 miles. . . . MORE>>
Read Jamie Dean’s complete Web Extra report.
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