LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 15

A conservative lawmaker who has repeatedly tried to hamstring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is now claiming it hasn’t done enough to clampdown on banking abuses. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) hit out at the agency’s director on Wednesday, accusing Richard Cordray and his staff of incompetence. She said the CFPB should have acted sooner, when Wells Fargo was signing up millions of customers for financial products without their consent. “The only conclusion there is to draw from the Wells Fargo scandal is that CFPB was asleep… Keep Reading

The filibuster could be gone–or at least significantly amended–by Friday, after Democrats gained the votes to hold up the nomination of Neil Gorsuch. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has threatened to hold a vote on amending the parliamentary rule—something that would require the support of all but one of his Republican colleagues. McConnell said on Sunday that Gorsuch will be confirmed to the Supreme Court “this week.” Fox News reported Monday that “senior Republican sources” are claiming “McConnell has the votes” to change Senate procedures.… Keep Reading

Senate Republicans needed to summon the Vice President to cast the tie-breaking vote on legislation crafted to starve Planned Parenthood of money. Mike Pence was the deciding factor Thursday, after two Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting the bill—another Congressional Review Act repeal of a late Obama administration rule. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) did not vote with their Republican colleagues. The legislation passed 51-50. “It is unprecedented that we are here with the Vice President breaking a tie vote on an attack… Keep Reading

Democrats spent little time on Wednesday gloating about Republicans’ recent Obamacare repeal failure and instead blasted the Trump administration for planned cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services. One Democratic legislator after another teed off on Department Secretary Tom Price, in an appropriations subcommittee hearing. They accused him of planning to wreck Obamacare through executive inaction and austerity measures. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said Price was carrying out a strategy articulated by Steve Bannon, the ex-Breitbart editor and White House aide. “I see… Keep Reading

An Obama-era regulation seeking to reduce carbon pollution and slow global temperature increases is next on the chopping block for the Trump administration. Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt told ABC News over the weekend that the President will sign an executive order Tuesday to dismantle the Clean Power Plan. The order will “address the past administration’s effort to kill jobs across this country through the Clean Power Plan,” Pruitt said. He added that the move is “about making sure that we have a pro-growth and pro-environment approach… Keep Reading

A former top financial regulator who served under President Obama has warned that there is “a massive amount of misconduct” that goes unpunished in derivatives markets. Ex-Commodity Futures Trading Commission enforcement chief Aitan Goelman told Reuters on Friday that the body lacks the means to ferret out malfeasance, in the era of computerized trading. “We could do a lot more manipulation cases. We have all these new enforcement tools and this vastly expanded jurisdiction and data,” Goelman said. “But you have to be acutely conscious… Keep Reading

President Trump’s pick to be the United States’ top stock market regulator has been described as a “fox guarding the henhouse.” But the predator analogy might not be appropriate because he would be napping for much of the time, according to ethics rules and his job history. SEC Chair-nominee Jay Clayton would have to recuse himself from a wide range of cases involving heavy-hitters in the financial industry, he admitted on Thursday, before the Senate Banking Committee. As a partner at a well-heeled law firm, Clayton… Keep Reading

A Democratic lawmaker expressed concerns on Tuesday about a well-funded advocacy campaign compromising the independence of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) noted that conservative donors are anonymously spending $10 million on lobbying for Gorsuch’s appointment. He said the initiative raises questions about Gorsuch needing to recuse himself from future cases, should his nomination pass the Senate. Those queries, however, cannot currently be answered, with the money having been given anonymously. When asked by Whitehouse about the source of the funding, Gorsuch… Keep Reading

Fifteen major government departments would see their funding cut, and 19 agencies would be completely eliminated under the proposed budget released by the White House on Thursday. The preliminary document calls for massive spending reductions at the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department, the Agricultural Department, and the Labor Department. All would see more than a fifth of their budget go up in smoke. The cutbacks finance significant spending increases at three departments: Defense (up 9 percent), Homeland Security (up 7 percent), and Veterans’ Affairs… Keep Reading

Congress has voted to jettison Labor Department regulations that limit who can be drug-tested before collecting unemployment benefits from state governments. The Senate on Tuesday passed a resolution under the Congressional Review Act, disapproving of the rule in a 51-48 party line vote. Lawmakers in the House had already advanced the measure, and it now only needs the signature of President Trump before the Obama-era framework is fully scrapped. “It isn’t some fringe or mean-spirited notion that there’s a connection between the use of illegal… Keep Reading

A Washington-based non-profit organization is calling on the White House counsel to determine if one of Trump’s assistants broke laws on self-dealing. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint on Tuesday, alleging that Christopher Liddell–a presidential aide and the Director of Strategic Initiatives–blended governmental duties with his own private interests. In a letter to White House Counsel Donald McGahn, the liberal watchdog group laid out its case against Liddell, and suggested the matter be turned over to the Justice Department for a criminal… Keep Reading