Category: What We’re Reading

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

Roll It Back – President Trump has embarked on the most aggressive campaign against government regulation since President Reagan. Use of the Congressional Review Act is the first means the Administration is using to remove existing regulations. Read more in The Washington Post. 

Background Power – Vice President Mike Pence has not been reported as a power player in the Trump Administration, but with the resignation of General Flynn this week (ostensibly for lying to the VP), Pence has emerged as more of a force in the Administation. Read more in The Hill. 

Taxable Concerns – President Trump has been very vocal on changing the border tax, but not all retailers (Trump, Best Buy, Gap) are on board. Read more in The Wall Street Journal. 

Private Market Student Loans – The Education Department is now the sole originator of the federal loans. Bringing private lenders back into the federal student loan program has been a staple of the Republican platform since the Obama administration kicked banks, credit unions, and other financial firms out. Talks about private lenders reentering the markets has emerged, but is this something feasible? Read more in The Washington Post. 

Taxable Concerns – President Trump has been very vocal on changing the border tax, but not all retailers (Trump, Best Buy, Gap) are on board. Read more in The Wall Street Journal. 

DACA Blowback – Trump’s inner circle is apparently torn on how to address DACA and if to include the popular program in any plan to strengthen immigration oversight. Read more in the LA Times. 

Not as Easy as It Sounds? – For most of the Obama’s tenure, Congressional Republicans and other conservatives sought to repeal ObamaCare.  With Republicans now controlling both the White House and Congress, many believed that concerns about the ACA would be tackled immediately at the start of 2017.  However, serious disagreements about how and when to repeal the program and concerns about potential implications of such actions are now emerging.  Read more in Politico (and here) and in The Hill.

The Independent Judiciary – Is an independent judiciary good for the long-term health of the republic? This article reviews the evidence, and investigates whether the judiciary can remain independent despite the highly polarized political environment in the United States. Read more in The Washington Post.

ACA Repeal Players – Republicans are wrestling with the difficult task of how to repeal and replace ­ObamaCare. Here are ten individuals who are likely to play key roles in shaping that process. Read more in The Hill.

Bankruptcy & Student Loans – Student loans are often dubbed the worst kind of debt because they’re notoriously difficult to get rid of — even in bankruptcy. But attorneys across the country are now challenging that conventional wisdom with some success, creating hope for millions of struggling borrowers. Read more in MarketWatch. 

Top 20 – Internships are a critical part of getting a job after college, but what areas are looking for interns and what skills do you need to show to get that internship? Read more in The New York Times. 

Appeal to Selfishness – It will make you more likely to act in an environmentally responsibly way. Read more in The Science of Us. 

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is reading this week.

Nominees – As Trump’s cabinet moves on through the Senate to be confirmed, it is confusing as to who has been confirmed when. Read about the status in The Washington Post. 

Whither Funding? – The appropriations process this year will be a tough slog and there are many variables. There have been accounts of particular concern, like the EPA and NASA Earth Science. How will the House Appropriators handle some of these programs given the rhetoric coming from the Trump Administration? One senior Republican House Appropriator, Rep. John Culberson (R-TX), has committed support to NASA Earth Science. Read more in Science Policy. 

No Mas Sanctuary – Cities refusing to help enforce US immigration law are already under pressure from the Trump Administration, which has threatened to pull federal funding. Now, some could lose state money as well. A Texas bill that would require local municipalities to comply with federal immigration authorities cleared a major hurdle Wednesday when it passed a final Senate vote on party lines…and this isn’t the only state legislature looking at bills like this. Read more in The Wall Street Journal. 

Indivisible Rocking Republicans – Dubbed the liberal version of the Tea Party, the group called “Indivisible” is rocking Republicans through their highly organized tactics and efforts. The group is helping local protesters storm local Congressional offices through physical visits and clogging phone lines (both from constituents and out of state activists). Members are beefing up their physical protection from demonstrators. Founded by former Democratic staffers, who saw first-hand the impact of the Tea Party on the Obama agenda, they are organized, they are strategic, and they are getting Member’s attention. Read more in Politico. 

Crashed – Following remarks by Trump Senior Advisor Kellyann Conway in support of Ivanka Trump’s clothing brand, the Government Ethics website was crashed and was down for several hours on Thursday after it reported a surge in contacts from members of the public. Read more in The Hill. 

Republicans 4 Climate Change – A group of Republican elder statesmen are calling for a tax on carbon emissions to fight climate change. The group, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, with former Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former Secretary of the Treasury, says that taxing carbon pollution produced by burning fossil fuels is “a conservative climate solution” based on free-market principles. Mr. Baker is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Jared Kushner , the senior adviser to the president, and Gary D. Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, as well as Ivanka Trump. Read more in The New York Times. 

Fissures and Cracks – Congressional Republicans are divided over how best to repeal and replace Obamacare, a discussion that highlighted the vast divisions among the GOP rank-in-file as pressure mounts to develop repeal and replacement strategies and mechanisms. Read more in Politico. 

Farm Bust – Soon there will be fewer than two million farms in America for the first time since pioneers moved westward after the Louisiana Purchase. Across the heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other farm commodities brought on by a glut of grain world-wide is pushing many farmers further into debt. Some are shutting down, raising concerns that the next few years could bring the biggest wave of farm closures since the 1980s. Read more in The Wall Street Journal. 

DeVos on Higher Ed – As Education Secretary Betsy DeVos began her first full day on the job Wednesday, college leaders and analysts were watching for signs of where the Trump administration stands on student debt, for-profit regulations and other higher education issues. DeVos, whom the Senate narrowly confirmed Tuesday, has been somewhat vague about her vision for higher ed, although that sector accounts for a significant share of the work of the Education Department. Read more from in The Washington Post. 

GOP Gets Bolder – Congressional Republicans are becoming more critical of President Trump amid the shaky rollout of his executive order on immigration and the lack of clear progress on his legislative agenda. Read more in The Hill. 

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Intolerance of the Left – The recent election showed a sharp divide between the left and the right in the political views and opinions on the direction of the country.  Using Marceline, Mo as the example, The Guardian examines the right’s complaints with the left. Read more in The Guardian. 

Red Post, Blue Post – Facebook is growing as a medium for Americans to see news, but the content of your feed can vary greatly given your political leanings. Read more and see the feeds at The Wall Street Journal. 

DeVos Confirmation Uncertain? – Two Republican Senators announced on the Senate floor Feb. 1 that they plan to oppose the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be the Secretary of Education.  With the Senate currently divided 52 – 48 in Republicans’ favor, the  status of her nomination is rather precarious.  Read more about the situation in Politico and The Hill.

New Funding Fight on the Horizon? – Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley Feb. 1.  After violence caused by outside agitators erupted on the campus before the speech, the event was canceled by the campus police.  The university did not rescind the original invitation when many on campus asked it to do so.  In the aftermath of the cancellation, President Trump tweeted that perhaps federal funding should be pulled from the university for not allowing the expression of opposing viewpoints.  Read more here in Politico and Inside Higher Education.

Dear Mr. President – This is how federal funding for higher education works. The vast majority of federal dollars that flow to colleges and universities arrives in the form of student loans and grants to cover the cost of attendance. Another path for federal dollars to colleges is research grants, money bestowed by entities such as the National Institutes of Health to aid students and faculty pursuing research in the public interest. Read more from the Washington Post.

A Larger Piece of the Pie  – The House’s New Democrat Coalition does not plan to sit by and let the GOP generate all the policy ideas on issues like taxes, infrastructure and cybersecurity. Read more about the Coalition and its agenda from its vice chairman, Rep. Derek Kilmer on Rollcall.

Travel Ban + Science – The Washington Post explores how Trump’s travel ban could hurt science. According to a 2013 report by the National Science Foundation, more than 5 million of the United States’ 29 million scientists and engineers were not born in the United States. All six of the Americans who won Nobel Prizes last year were immigrants. And nearly a fifth of all papers published in scientific journals these days have authors from at least two countries. Read more from the Washington Post here.

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

It’s A What? – A week in to President Trump’s tenure, his Administration has been very active on in the executive action arena issuing Executive Orders and Presidential Memorandum. What’s the difference (not much). Read about the in The Washington Post. 

Working Plan  – New Homeland Security Secretary Mike Kelly has said that for border security more is needed than simply a wall.  Kelly has advocated for growing cooperative efforts with countries as far south as Peru and supports  increased aid for economic development, education and a focus on human rights to combat unauthorized immigration and drug trafficking. Read more in The New York Times. 

Page Down – Trump Administration officials have asked the EPA to remove its climate change page from its website. The page contains links to scientific global warming research and detailed data on emissions. Read more at Reuters. 

Fiscal Solvency – A recent GAO report warned lawmakers that they must take action to trace a broader long-term plan for the country’s finances or the balance sheet will reach a point of instability not seen since the aftermath of World War II. Specifically, the debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio, an indicator of how much the government is spending compared to economic output, would skyrocket within 15 to 25 years to historic levels at 106 percent — a ratio last held in 1946. Deficits were driven by what appropriators have hammered home in numerous floor speeches in both chambers for years: costs for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as interest on the federal debt. And the share of that debt held by foreign entities also increased 9 percent from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2016, to 39 percent at the end of fiscal 2016. Read the report here. 

Reality Check – Many of the sweeping actions President Trump vowed this week through his executive orders and proclamations are problematic, either because they are impractical, opposed by Congress and members of his Cabinet, or full of legal holes. Read more from the Washington Post.

What’s a Block Grant? – Everything you need to know about block grants, which are at the heart of the GOP’s Medicaid plans. President Donald Trump’s administration made explicit last weekend its commitment to this strategy for turning control of the program to states and capping what the federal government spends on it each year. Read more from Governing. 

First Day ACA Executive Action – On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States. True to his word, on his first day in office he issued an executive order addressing the Affordable Care Act. It may not be, however, all that his supporters expected. Read all about it on the Health Affairs blog.

Books Are Up! – Sales of Orwell’s 1984 have skyrocketed in recent weeks. Read more in Bloomberg. 

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

@POTUS – It’s official. Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States, and he officially takes over the @POTUS handle today. President Obama and all of his prior tweets have been moved to @POTUS44. As president, Trump plans on keeping the @RealDonaldTrump account active. Read more in The New York Times.

18 Million – A Congressional Budget Office report revealed that repealing major Obamacare provisions without a replacement plan in place would quickly strip 18 million Americans of their insurance and cause premiums to skyrocket. The number of uninsured people could climb to 32 million by 2026, the report from the nonpartisan office said. Premiums, which would rise by up to 25% initially, would double by 2026. Read more at CNN. 

Complications on Taxes – President-elect Trump criticized Republican border-adjustment measure, which would tax imports and exempt exports, as ‘too complicated’. Read more in The Wall Street Journal. 

Conflict – Trump and Congressional Republicans don’t agree on everything. There are a series of topics and issues where the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans will have some friction as to what to do and how to approach it. Read more in Forbes. 

Protection from Bears – The Senate HELP Committee heard from several nominees this week, including Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos. The hearing had some interesting moments. Read more in The Washington Post. 

ACA Moving Forward – Vanity Fair interviews former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who helped implement the ACA and what the proposed Republican changes could have. Read more in Vanity Fair. 

Common Core – The much derided Common Core is something that President-elect Trump has said must go, but truly how much can be done? Read more at NPR.

EPA Nominee – “Science tells us that the climate is changing, and that human activity, in some manner, impacts that change,” Scott Pruitt told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in the opening statement of his confirmation hearing Wednesday. Read more in The Hill. 

This Has to End in Disaster, Right? – On Thursday through Sunday mornings until February 12, you can take part in “The Museum Workout” at New York’s Metropolian Museum of Art. It’s an 8:30 a.m. fitness class and museum tour by choreographer Monica Bill Barnes and her dance partner Anna Bass. Barnes and Bass pair their sneakers with sparkly dresses, and the tour route and soundtrack come via artist Maira Kalman. At $35, it costs about the same as a SoulCycle class. Read more at The MET.