The Turner Blog

This Week in Washington…

Posted on February 27, 2014. Filed under: Uncategorized |

TOP 5 STORIES THIS WEEK

• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel unveiled his department’s $496 billion proposed budget, which would reduce the Army’s size and eliminate an entire class of Air Force jets.
  Look ahead: Hagel acknowledged that “readiness is not the same standard” as a result of the reductions.
• House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., unveiled an overhaul of the U.S. tax code, which would involve major changes for both individuals and businesses.
  Look ahead: The Joint Committee on Taxation found that Camp’s proposed tax-code overhaul could help to spur economic growth, but the measure has virtually no chance of being acted on this Congress.
• Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed legislation that would have allowed businesses to deny service to gay people on the basis of religious beliefs.
  Look ahead: Lawmakers in a number of other states are weighing similar “religious liberty” measures.
• The Health and Human Services Department announced that 4 million people have obtained private insurance coverage using the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
  Look ahead: The administration has conceded that it may fall short of the goal of 7 million sign-ups by the end of open enrollment on March 31.
• The Ukrainian parliament appointed Arseny Yatsenyuk to serve as prime minister and named an interim government to serve ahead of presidential elections on May 25, amid concerns about potential Russian interference.
  Look ahead: Russia has guaranteed the safety of deposed, fugitive Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who faces mass-murder charges in the deaths of protesters.

WHITE HOUSE

• President Obama is weighing options for the disposition of the NSA’s phone surveillance programs—three that would relocate the data to phone companies or another government agency, and one that calls for a total abandonment of the program.
• During a visit to St. Paul on Wednesday, Obama called for $302 billion in surface transportation improvements, to be funded in part by $150 billion generated from the proposed closure of “unfair” business tax loopholes.
• Obama will launch his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, a government task force designed to improve educational and economic opportunities for black and Hispanic young men.
• The president and House Speaker John Boehner discussed an array of issues during a White House meeting this week—including the war in Afghanistan, immigration reform, and the Affordable Care Act—but little progress is expected.
• The unity that had defined the National Governors Association’s annual meeting dissolved after a gathering at the White House, when Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal blasted the president’s effort to raise the minimum wage, prompting sharp criticism from Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy.
• Despite warnings from the Chinese government about potential diplomatic fallout, President Obama hosted the Dalai Lama at the White House on Friday.
• The administration has reopened the White House Political Office, which will function as a clearinghouse for election-related information and requests and advise the president on his support of Democratic candidates in 2014.
• Regulations proposed by the White House and the USDA would gradually eliminate advertising of sugary drinks and junk foods in schools—a shift that has the support of the beverage industry.

CONGRESS

• House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., unveiled an overhaul of the U.S. tax code, which would reduce the number of tax brackets from seven to two and lower the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent.
• House Democrats filed a discharge petition Wednesday in hopes of forcing a vote to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour.
• House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will meet Friday with committee chairs to begin crafting an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has delayed a vote on wage-increase legislation at least until the Senate returns from its next recess on March 24.
• Republican senators have placed holds on the president’s selections, but Majority Leader Harry Reid’s deployment of the nuclear option has reduced the efficacy of such tactics.

POLITICS

• Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed legislation that would have allowed businesses to deny service to gay people on the basis of religious beliefs.
• Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., is expected to challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, offering Republicans a chance to test the impact of the Affordable Care Act at the polls.
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter—signed by 636 organizations—to Speaker John Boehner indicating its support of using the House Republican Conference’s “Standards for Immigration Reform” as “guideposts for action” on the issue.
• U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled Texas’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional but stayed his decision, pending the adjudication of expected appeals.
• Former President Clinton campaigned for Alison Lundergan Grimes, telling the crowd that “it makes a big difference” who wins the race between the Kentucky secretary of state and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
• Citing health concerns and frustration with Congress’s ineffectiveness, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., announced plans to step down at the end of the session.
• Priorities USA Action Executive Director Buffy Wicks wrote this week to top contributors that the super PAC is not actively seeking donations this year, and instead urged donors to support House Majority PAC and Senate Majority PAC.
• In a handful of the most contested Senate contests this cycle—including Arkansas, Louisiana, and North Carolina—the AFL-CIO has conducted a cost-benefit analysis and the results are in: There just aren’t enough union members in those states to make it worth the investment of scarce resources.
• Leaders of United We Dream, a network of immigrant youth organizations, plan to pressure Obama to use executive action to aid undocumented immigrants—including broadening the application of the deportation deferrals he introduced in 2012.
• In an interview, Attorney General Eric Holder said that his state counterparts are not obligated to defend state bans on same-sex marriage if they deem these to be discriminatory.

BUDGET & ECONOMY

• Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen delivers the semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Senate Banking Committee on Feb. 27—an appearance that was postponed due to inclement weather.
• Under Yellen, the Fed is expected to end its reliance on the 6.5 percent unemployment threshold, and could look to the Summary of Economic Projections for its guidance on benchmark interest rates.
• Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo told a conference of the National Association for Business Economics that while alternative options exist, “monetary policy action cannot be taken off the table as a response to the buildup of broad and sustained systemic risk.”
• The G-20’s annual summit concluded Sunday with an agreement that developed economies would maintain their easy-money policies, and emerging markets would seek to rein in inflation.
• A survey released Monday by the Consumer Federation of America and the American Savings Education Council reveals that just 68 percent of Americans are saving a portion of their earnings, down from 73 percent in 2010.
• The number of Americans who lagged on their mortgage payments dropped to 6.39 percent of loans at the close of 2013, the lowest rate since the first quarter of 2008.

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

• Colorado regulators signed off on the first state-level controls on methane release from oil and natural-gas drilling operations.
• Several Supreme Court justices—including, at one point, swing vote Anthony Kennedy—cast skeptical eyes on the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse-gas permit requirements for large industrial polluters.
• Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate State Department’s hiring practices for contracting firms used to complete environmental impact assessments.
• Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has been named chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works’ Subcommittee on Oversight.
• Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer said a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline should take public health effects of oil-sands extraction into account.
• Supporters and opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline pressured Secretary of State John Kerry to take their side in the debate before he weighs in on the project.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel unveiled his department’s $496 billion proposed budget, acknowledging that “readiness is not the same standard” as a result of the reductions.
• Secretary of State John Kerry increased pressure on China and the Association of South East Asian Nations to resolve tensions over the South China Sea.
• The Ukrainian parliament appointed a new prime minister and named an interim government in the wake of the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych.
• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand convened a hearing on the relationship between military sexual assaults and suicide and posttraumatic stress disorder.
• President Obama told the Afghan president, who has refused to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement, that the U.S. is preparing for a full military withdrawal from the country.
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government wants to delay turning over all of its chemical weapons until mid-May.

HEALTH CARE

• HHS announced that ACA private-plan enrollment on the exchanges has reached 4 million.
• The administration released proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage plans Friday. Reductions to the payment rates are included in the Affordable Care Act, but insurers and lawmakers had urged the White House to avoid any cuts this year. However, shares of Humana and other insurance companies rose Monday as concerns eased over proposed regulations.
• As enrollment on the health care law’s insurance exchange for the individuals and families accelerates ahead of the March 31 deadline, small-business owners remain slow to choose plans on their dedicated exchange.
• Maryland’s ACA exchange continues to flounder, causing the state to replace prime contractor Noridian Healthcare Solutions with Optum/QSSI.
• A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services actuarial report predicted that 65 percent of small businesses will see premiums increase under the Affordable Care Act. The findings give ammunition to GOP opponents of the law; Democrats argue that the projections do not take federal subsidies into account.
• The new Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control annual report released by the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services found that investigations have recovered a record $4.3 billion in fiscal 2013, and $19.2 billion over the last four years.
• The latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found that overall consumers prefer higher premiums and broader provider networks, but the target market for the ACA—those uninsured or currently purchasing their own coverage—favors lower cost and a narrower network of providers.

EDUCATION

• Some congressional Republicans are touting legislation that pushes back against the Obama administration and the Common Core state standards.
• The Education Department released optional guidelines for how schools can work to protect student data.
• The White House rolled out a proposal that would ban junk-food advertising from school campuses.
• Colleges need to boost fraud protections for financial aid on distance-education programs, according to an Education Department audit.
• It is unclear whether the Education Department’s college-affordability lists have led to universities slowing the rate of tuition increases.
• Complaints, reported to the Education Department, against colleges that are tied to race and ethnicity increased more than 35 percent between 2009 and 2013.

TECHNOLOGY

• The House passed a bill allowing cell-phone unlocking, which lets customers switch providers without buying a new phone, but it kept in place a ban on bulk unlocking.
• Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox went offline, losing about 6 percent of all bitcoins in circulation, in total worth more than $350 million—but many bitcoin investors still don’t want any kind of bailout.
• Republican lawmakers plan to introduce a bill to “eradicate” a Federal Communications Commission study on print and broadcast journalism newsroom decisions.
• Verizon is investigating possible data-security breaches at two retailers, which could be similar to the massive data breach at Target in November and December. Verizon would not say which companies may have been hit.
• Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for access to higher-speed access for Comcast subscribers, making it the first time an online company has effectively had to pay for access to customers of a broadband provider.

OTHER NEWS

• Researchers are working toward the “de-extinction” of several species, including the woolly mammoth and the passenger pigeon.
• A California couple unearthed 1,427 gold coins minted between 1847 and 1894—while the face value of the coins is just $27,000, experts believe the collection could fetch as much as $10 million due to their rarity and condition.
• Scholars have been transfixed by the Voynich manuscript since its 1912 discovery, but have been unable to discern the work’s provenance or its meaning—if it has one.
• Researchers have determined that a zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in Western Australia is the oldest known piece of Earth, at 4.4 billion years old.

QUOTES

• “I told the president, next game I have him. Just remember, I may be a white boy, but I can jump.” — Vice President Joe Biden, on playing basketball with President Obama (CNN)
• “These guys never go away. Hatred never, never goes away. The zealotry of those who wish to limit the franchise cannot be smothered by reason.” — Biden, on voter-ID laws in Southern states (The Hill)
• “I’m sorry, I’m losing you, we have a technical difficulty.” — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo when asked if he was considering running for president (New York Observer)
• “It should be a conversation in every community, in every town hall, in every church group, and every PTA program to put pressure on the governors and legislatures to say, ‘This is not acceptable.’ ” — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who criticized Republican governors for refusing to expand Medicaid under Obamacare (The Hill)
• “There is not going to be one low-carbon solution. There are going to be multiple low-carbon solutions. We need all the arrows in the quiver, and that is why we will continue to invest across the board in our different fuels and, of course, efficiency and other technologies.” — Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, on the government’s “all of the above” approach to climate policy
• “Little has been done in this Congress, with 57 bills passed into law. That is not Heinz packaged varieties, it is the laws passed by the Congress.” — Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., in a statement announcing his retirement (release)
• “I’m sorry you had to unmask me. I’m really Kevin Spacey in disguise. Not too many people knew that.” — Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, to actor Seth Rogen, during a Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee hearing (National Journal)

CHARTS AND GRAPHICS

• Gallup charts House Speaker John Boehner’s recovering popularity after the federal government shutdown.
• Quartz tracks the dwindling popularity of orange juice.
• Pew maps outgoing and incoming remittances across the world.
• The Washington Post charts the shifting U.S. obesity rates by age.
• The Wall Street Journal graphs why recent good news in the housing market isn’t very meaningful.
• The Wall Street Journal maps projected 2018 home prices.
• TechCrunch visualizes acquisitions by Apple, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook over the past 15 years.
• National Journal maps the state of same-sex marriage in the United States.

Future events

• Friday, Feb. 28 – The White House will hold its first-ever Student Film Festival, highlighting the administration’s commitment to get high-speed Internet connectivity and educational technology into classrooms, at 3:30 p.m. in the East Room.
• Wednesday, March 5 – The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal 2015 and the Future Years Defense Program at 9:30 a.m. in 216 Hart. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey are scheduled to testify.
• Thursday, March 6 – The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on U.S. Central Command and U.S. Africa Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal 2015 and the Future Years Defense Program at 9:30 a.m. in G-50 Dirksen.
• Friday, Feb. 28 – The Atlantic Council will hold a discussion, “Mexico’s Political Reform and Electoral Transformation: What are the Global Lessons?” at 9 a.m. at 1030 15th St. NW.
• Friday, Feb. 28 – The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence will hold an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act; urge Congress to extend background checks to include online purchases and gun-show sales; and release a report on the impact of Brady background checks, at 9:30 a.m. in HVC-215.
• Friday, Feb. 28 – The Cato Institute will hold abriefing, “The Fed’s 100th Anniversary and the Case for a Centennial Monetary Commission,” at noon in B-318 Rayburn.
• Friday, Feb. 28 – The Center for American Progress will hold adiscussion, “Housing Finance Reform: What Does It Mean for Rental Housing?” at 12:30 p.m. at 1333 H St. NW.
• Monday, March 3 – The Peterson Institute for International Economics will hold a discussion on economic sustainability and reform challenges facing the Danish and other “welfare states” in the 21st century, at 11 a.m. at 1750 Massachusetts Ave. NW.
• Tuesday, March 4 – The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee will hold ahearing on the nominations of Stanley Fischer to be a member and vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors; and Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard to be members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors at 10 a.m. in 538 Dirksen.
• Tuesday, March 4 – The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative will hold adiscussion, “The Role of Global Banking in the U.S. Economy,” at 2:30 p.m. at 1225 I St. NW.
• Thursday, Feb. 27 – The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Center for Clean Energy Innovation will hold an “Energy Innovation on the Hill” reception at 5 p.m. in HVC-201.
• Monday, March 3 to Tuesday, March 4 – Energy Biz holds the 2014 Securing Power Forum at 1330 Maryland Ave. SW.
• Thursday, Feb. 27 – The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies will hold a discussion, “U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Regional Security Dilemma,” at 4:30 p.m. at 1619 Massachusetts Ave. NW.
• Thursday, Feb. 27 – The Center for Strategic and International Studies will hold a Schieffer Series Journalist Roundtable discussion, “National Security and Foreign Policy Flash Points,” at 6 p.m. at 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW.
• Sunday, March 2 to Tuesday, March 4 – The American Israeli Political Action Committee will hold its 2014 Policy Conference at 801 Mount Vernon Place NW.
• Monday, March 3 to Tuesday, March 4 – The Federation of American Hospitals will hold its annual public policy conference at 2660 Woodley Rd. NW.
• Thursday, Feb. 27 to Saturday, March 1 – The Education Department will hold a meeting of the National Assessment Governing Board at 2500 Calvert St. NW.
• Tuesday, March 4 – The House Education and the Workforce Committee will hold a hearing, “Raising the Bar: The Role of Charter Schools in K-12 Education,” at 10 a.m. in 2175 Rayburn.
• Friday, Feb. 28 – The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute will hold a book discussion on It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens at 9 a.m. at 1899 L St. NW.
• Friday, Feb. 28 – The Bipartisan Policy Center will hold a discussion on a new report, “Cybersecurity and the North American Electric Grid: New Policy Approaches to Address an Evolving Threat,” at 9 a.m. at 1225 I St. NW.
• Tuesday, March 4 – Georgetown University’s Institute for Law, Science, and Global Security will hold a conference, “International Engagement on Cyber: Developing International Norms for a Safe, Stable, and Predictable Cyber Environment,” at 8 a.m. at 37th and O streets NW.
• Tuesday, March 4 – The Washington, D.C., Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association will hold the fifth annual Cybersecurity Summit at 8 a.m. at 1001 16th St. NW.

 

 

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