MORNING MESSAGE
Resign, Jeff Sessions. It’s Not About Russia, It’s About Justice
There’s
compelling evidence that Sessions committed perjury ... In less than a week,
Sessions and Trump made three moves that selectively bring the weight of law
enforcement down on minorities and the poor. Then, on Thursday, March 2,
Sessions declined to resign over his Senate testimony ... Recusal is not
enough.
Cruel Arrests Of Immigrants Continue
Another
DREAMer detained. The Nation: “On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents in Jackson, Mississippi, pulled over and detained 22-year-old
Daniela Vargas, who had just finished participating in a press conference …
Vargas is not the first DREAMer to get picked up in the new Trump
era—23-year-old DREAMer Daniel Ramirez Medina was detained in the Seattle area
and remains in custody. A San Antonio 19-year-old DREAMer named Josue Romero was
also detained last month, but was released on bond. But Vargas’s case is
important for other reasons … When Obama was in the White House, the safest
place for young undocumented immigrants like Vargas was in the public eye … What
Vargas’s detention shows is that those days are over.”
Immigrant
father of 4 detained while dropping his kids off at school. LAist: “Romulo
Avelica-Gonzalez, an undocumented father of four U.S.-born children, has lived
in this country for more than 20 years. On Tuesday, he was dropping his
daughters off at school, as he does every morning [when he] was detained by
immigration officials … [He] has lived in this country for more than half his
life. His four daughters are Americans …”
GOP Hides ACA Bill
House
GOP leaders predict quick passage of ACA repeal. Politico: “Their
confidence, coming after months of dead ends and false starts, is fueled by the
belief that President Donald Trump has their back — even if some conservatives
currently don’t … Ryan said he plans for the House to hold a vote on the
leadership’s Obamacare alternative in three weeks … Several House Freedom Caucus
and Republican Study Committee members have joined Senate firebrands Rand Paul,
Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in blasting a draft Ryan plan as ‘Obamacare-lite.'”
Republicans
literally hiding the bill. NYT: “…Democrats went from office to office,
hunting for a copy. Lawmakers were told that Republican members of the Energy
and Commerce Committee could inspect the bill on Thursday in the basement of a
House office building. When Democrats arrived, they were directed to a room on
the first floor of the Capitol. The House Democratic whip, Representative Steny
H. Hoyer of Maryland, and Representative Paul Tonko, Democrat of New York, went
to that room, but could not find the bill there.”
The
Hill adds: “[Democrats] note that there have not been hearings about the
plan, something that traditionally happens before legislation is marked up in
committee.”
Sen. Brown To Announce Worker Aid Package
Sen.
Sherrod Brown to propose worker aid legislation in Ohio speech today.
Cleveland.com “Among his recommendations: Raise the federal minimum wage to
$15 … Raise the white collar overtime salary threshold to $47,476 — double the
current level … Require employers to allow employees to earn a minimum of seven
paid sick days. Establish a 12-week paid family and medical leave standard,
administered through a national paid leave fund. Create stronger penalties for
‘wage theft,’… implement a ‘Corporate Freeloader Fee’ on companies whose low
wages result in their workers relying on federal subsidies such as Medicaid and
food stamps.”
Senate
Dems concerned about integrity of jobs data. Bloomberg: “… eight lawmakers,
led by Washington Senator Patty Murray, on Thursday called for a commitment from
President Donald Trump’s administration to stand by ‘essential, independent
work’ particularly of the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which
publishes the monthly jobs report and other regular economic figures. ‘We find
it necessary to seek this commitment because you and representatives of your
administration have expressed a clear skepticism and distrust of, among other
statistics, the monthly unemployment rate and employment reports,’ according to
the letter.”
IRS
could face cuts. NYT: “[Trump] wants to significantly cut the tax agency’s
funding at a time when it has already been bleeding staff and struggling to keep
up with a flood of returns ahead of Tax Day. The plans, revealed this week in
documents associated with the White House budget outline, put Mr. Trump at odds
with his Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who has argued that the I.R.S.
needs more money and a larger staff.”
No
American steel for Keystone pipeline. Politico: “The Keystone XL Pipeline
will not be subject to President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring
infrastructure projects to be built with American steel … ‘The Keystone XL
Pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count
as a new, retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipeline,’ the White House
spokeswoman said … in his address to Congress earlier this week, Trump spoke of
the order in the same sentence as Keystone but carefully described it as
directing ‘that new American pipelines be made with American steel.'”
Drama Over Paris Pact
Decision
imminent on Paris climate pact. NYT: “On one side of that debate is Mr.
Bannon, who as a former chief executive of Breitbart News published countless
articles denouncing climate change as a hoax, and who has vowed to push Mr.
Trump to transform all his major campaign promises into policy actions … On the
other side are [Ivanka] Trump, Mr. Tillerson, and a slew of foreign policy
advisers and career diplomats who argue that the fallout of withdrawing from the
accord could be severe, undercutting the United States’ credibility on other
foreign policy issues and damaging relations with key allies … Mr. Trump wants
to make a decision by next week … in order to announce his executive order to
undo Mr. Obama’s climate regulations in conjunction with his plans for the Paris
deal.”
Trump
budget will gut EPA. Reuters: “The 23-page 2018 budget proposal, which aims
to slice the environmental regulator’s overall budget by 25 percent to $6.1
billion and staffing by 20 percent to 12,400 as part of a broader effort to fund
increased military spending, would cut deeply into programs like climate
protection, environmental justice and enforcement … grants to states for lead
cleanup would be cut 30 percent to $9.8 million … An EPA climate protection
program on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases like methane that contribute to
global warming would be cut 70 percent to $29 million.”
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