US Politics in Trump era
Trump Administration Circumvents Congress For Food Benefit Cuts (Again)
The Trump administration is reviving another food benefit cut that Republicans couldn’t get through Congress. Under a new proposal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, states would lose some flexibility to set eligibility standards for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ― commonly known as food stamps ― which would push 3 million people out of the program.
Census Fight Grows as House Panel Backs Contempt and Trump Asserts Privilege
Trump signs executive order freezing pay for federal workers in 2019
President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday that cancels a planned pay increase for federal workers in 2019. Trump previously called the raise, a 2.1% increase set to take effect in January, "inappropriate" and an unrealistic burden on the federal budget. The order also cancels a yearly paycheck adjustment calculated in order with the region of the country where workers are posted.
‘Pouring Salt Into the Wound’ Amid Shutdown, Trump Signs Executive Order Freezing Pay of Nearly 2 Million Federal Workers
With hundreds of thousands of federal employees currently furloughed or working without pay due to the ongoing government shutdown, President Donald Trump delivered another blow to struggling workers on Friday by signing an executive order that will freeze the pay of around two million public employees in 2019.
Trump ignores climate change, offers handouts to timber industry in wildfire executive order
Nowhere in an 1,800-word executive order to address forest management and wildfires — quietly issued on Friday — does President Donald Trump draw a connection between climate change and increased wildfire risk. Instead, critics say it looks like a potential handout to the logging industry. The executive order, titled “Promoting Active Management of America’s Forests, Rangelands, and other Federal Lands to Improve Conditions and Reduce Wildfire Risk,” calls on the secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to reduce “regulatory barriers” to getting rid of “hazardous fuels” that contribute to wildfires.
Trump administration aims to toughen work requirements for food stamp recipients
Trump Administration Mulls a Unilateral Tax Cut for the Rich
The Trump administration is considering bypassing Congress to grant a $100 billion tax cut mainly to the wealthy, a legally tenuous maneuver that would cut capital gains taxation and fulfill a long-held ambition of many investors and conservatives.Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting in Argentina this month that his department was studying whether it could use its regulatory powers to allow Americans to account for inflation in determining capital gains tax liabilities.
Trump takes aim at federal bureaucracy with new executive orders altering civil service protections
Trump Administration Bricked On at Least Half of Its Executive Orders in 2017
In his first year in office, Trump ordered 95 separate reports, performance reviews, instructions, or other activities to be carried out by executive branch agencies. The Intercept has been reviewing these orders for the last year. We found that 48 of the 95 actions were completed, in many cases after the due date stipulated in the order. Federal agencies have yet to complete another 20. In 27 cases, the agency was unresponsive to our requests for information.
4 Horrible Policy Changes Trump Issued This Week While You Weren’t Looking
While the Republican Congress continues to be unable to govern, President Donald Trump is unilaterally making horrible policy changes, using every distraction to get away with it. The Trump administration’s ground-level policy changes continued apace, out of the headlines, from withdrawing from a major international agreement on migration to the repeal of Obama-era rules on wages and methane leaks.
Trump’s Acting Directors Are Quietly Dropping “Acting” From Their Titles
The fight over the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is assumed to be about President Donald Trump’s intent to deregulate finance. But it’s also part of a larger fight about separation of powers and the expanding authority of the executive, made clear by the Trump administration’s use, and abuse, of the law the president relied on to attempt to install Mick Mulvaney as acting director.
Trump signs order to eliminate ACA insurance rules, undermine marketplaces
Right before Harvey, Trump nixed a rule designed to protect cities from flood risks.
Ten days before Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas coast, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to speed up the pipeline for federal infrastructure projects. One component of that Aug. 15 order? Eliminating an Obama-era rule called the federal flood risk management standard that asked agencies to account for climate change projections when they approved projects. That drew condemnation from an odd coalition of scientists, civil engineers, and fiscal conservatives concerned about reversion to the old ways: pouring money into projects that would soon be washed away.
Trump signs order aimed at allowing churches to engage in more political activity
President Trump on Thursday said he would direct the Internal Revenue Service to relax enforcement of rules barring tax-exempt churches from participating in politics as part of a much-anticipated executive order on religious liberties. “For too long the federal government has used the state as a weapon against people of faith,” Trump said, later telling those gathered for the event that “you’re now in a position to say what you want to say ... No one should be censoring sermons or targeting pastors.” The sweep of the measure was significantly narrower than a February draft that several religious groups are pushing.
Trump wants to make it easier to drill in national parks. We mapped the 42 parks at risk.
It’s no secret that oil and gas companies are on the hunt for new places to drill. But the quest for more fossil fuels could heat up in places you might not expect: our national parks. With President Donald Trump’s executive order on energy, federal agencies are now reviewing all rules that inhibit domestic energy production. And that includes regulations around drilling in national parks that, if overturned, could give oil and gas companies easier access to leases on federal lands they’ve long coveted. Weaker regulations could mean oil and gas pollution and spills in pristine national parks.
Stephen Miller: A key engineer for Trump’s ‘America first’ agenda
The 31-year-old top adviser to President Trump began building a conservative foundation as a teen in liberal Southern California. Miller is one of the leading advocates of the executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority nations, and he wrote some of Trump’s most strident campaign speeches. Starting as a teenager, with his frequent calls to the nationally syndicated “Larry Elder Show,” Miller made a name for himself in conservative media circles for his willingness to take controversial stands and act as a champion for those on the right who felt maligned by a culture of political correctness.
Trump suggests only politics could lead court to rule against his immigration order
President Trump denounced arguments against his immigration order as “disgraceful” on Wednesday, a day after three federal appellate judges lobbed critical inquiries at those challenging and defending the plan, and suggested a ruling against his administration would be based on politics and not a fair reading of the law. Trump insisted the order was within his executive powers and “a bad high school student would understand this.”
Donald Trump’s Executive Order Will Let Private Equity Funds Drain Your 401(k)
Donald Trump’s February 3executive order enabling financial advisers to continue ripping off their clients could prove a lifeline for a surprising beneficiary: the private equity industry. The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule would have forced investment advisers in workplace retirement plans like 401(k)s to operate in their clients’ best interests, rather than recommending high-cost, high-risk products that offer the advisers kickbacks and perks.
Trump Supporters Applaud Immigration Order as a ‘Welcome Change’
While President Trump’s order banning immigration from several Muslim countries led to protests at several American airports, the news was often met with satisfaction and approval in those precincts that Mr. Trump carried in the November election. They say they feel safer and view the airport protests and objections as misguided.