LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 31

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) defeated colleague Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) Tuesday in what was one of the nastier senate primaries thus far this election year. Van Hollen bested Edwards 53-39 for a chance to win the seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). He had the support of many Democrats, demonstrated earlier this month by criticism from lawmakers and the White House in response to a pro-Edwards ad. Edwards had also been attacked by Van Hollen supporters as unqualified and insensitive to the needs… Keep Reading

A critical aid package for Flint, Mich. and other communities affected by water contamination will be considered by the senate as part of a broader water policy bill, according to news trickling out of Capitol Hill on Tuesday. The $220 million measure would authorize $100 million to cities declared emergency areas due to drinking water problems. Rejected last week in the energy policy bill passed by the senate, it was attached to the Water Resources Development Act—an infrastructure funding bill sponsored by Environment and Public Works Committee leaders, Sens.… Keep Reading

The cost of air travel finally fell last year, after the mid-2014 plunge in energy prices intensified scrutiny on airline industry business practices. The average airfare fell in 2015 by 8.3 percent to $363, according to Department of Transportation (DOT) data released Tuesday. The last time prices fell in a comparable manner was in 2009, after the global financial crisis lowered both consumer demand and wholesale energy costs. As early as December 2014, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the Department of Justice and DOT to investigate… Keep Reading

The Obama administration is seeking to fulfill a remaining obligation under the Dodd-Frank Act by proposing rules on risky Wall Street compensation packages. Multiple agencies are set to act in concert to force the largest financial institutions to defer executive bonuses for four years. They will also propose mandating a seven-year window in which “clawbacks” can occur at all banks with over $1 billion in assets. The Wall Street Journal reported the development on Thursday, noting that three year deferrals are “the common industry practice.” If… Keep Reading

A sweeping energy policy bill that was once supposed to include aid for Flint, Mich. passed the upper chamber on Wednesday—sans relief. Senate Democrats, particularly Michigan’s Senate delegation, had hoped to use the Energy Policy Modernization Act, which the Senate approved in an 85-12 morning vote, to advance a $250 million measure that would have provided grants to cities facing emergency water contamination situations like Flint. They were forced to abandon those plans last week, however, following more than a month of relentless obstruction by… Keep Reading

The presidential primaries tilted back toward the frontrunners on Tuesday night, with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump pummeling their competition in New York. The former Secretary of State beat surging Sen. Bernie Sanders 58-42 percent, breaking the democratic socialist’s momentum after a string of seven straight victories. Clinton will take the majority of N.Y.’s 247 delegates, expanding her delegate lead, which already stood at more than 200 at the start of the night. “Today you’ve proved once and again, there’s no place like home,” Clinton told a crowd… Keep Reading

In a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday morning, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) endorsed his colleague Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for President of the United States. Distinguishing himself from fellow Democrats in the Senate, who have nearly unanimously broken toward former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Merkley dismissed the notion of incremental change, and instead threw his support behind Sanders’ call for upheaval. “People know that we don’t just need better policies, we need a wholesale rethinking of how our economy and our politics work, and for whom… Keep Reading

Federal regulators announced Wednesday morning that Dodd-Frank-mandated resolution plans of five “too big to fail” banks were “not credible,” setting in motion a process that could see them broken up in thirty months. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced that plans outlined by the quintet–Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, New York Mellon, and State Street–were inadequate. Because of the joint ruling, the firms are under pressure to revise their so-called “living wills.” The FDIC and Fed… Keep Reading