LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 54

Loretta Lynch’s nomination to become next attorney general on Thursday passed out of committee with nary a peep about her decision to not prosecute Wall Street criminality, as Republicans opposing her attempted to open a second front in their proxy war over President Obama’s executive order on immigration. Lynch was approved by a 12-8 vote, with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) joining their Democratic counterparts on the Senate Judiciary Committee to carry the Brooklyn US Attorney’s nomination to the… Keep Reading

A politically charged decision that left a Texas lizard off the endangered species list has exposed blatant disregard for science at the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), as well as a culture of whistleblower retaliation. Testimony published on Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) shows how supervisors at the FWS bowed to political and industry pressure, bullied employees into abandoning their scientific employees, and punished those who refused to remain silent. Rick Coleman, a former Scientific Integrity Officer at FWS testified that… Keep Reading

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday publicly aired her concerns about the Federal Reserve’s top lawyer, questioning whether he effectively helped Congress kill a key provision of financial reform. Warren said that Fed General Counsel Scott Alvarez’s public disparagement of rules that would have segregated publicly-insured consumer savings from big banks’ derivatives trading indicate he encouraged the central bank to delay the rule’s implementation. The regulation was repealed by Congress late last year before it could take effect next year, as the Fed had previously… Keep Reading

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen waded into a debate over the fairness of trade agreements on Tuesday, saying that outsourcing has caused wages to stagnate, while simultaneously opposing proposals to remedy other countries’ allegedly ill-gotten advantages through currency manipulation rules attached to future deals. Any attempt to address currency manipulation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership could “hamper or even hobble monetary policy,” Yellen said in response to questions before the Senate Banking Committee. “We should be on guard against currency manipulation,” Yellen said after being asked about the… Keep Reading

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell faced off with Conservative lawmakers on Tuesday over the administration’s proposed limits on drilling in places like Alaska. But beneath the fossil fuel-funded outrage coming from the right, a lone Democratic Senator raised criticism about a department policy that amounts to a multi-million dollar annual subsidy to coal barons. “I wanna bring up something that is missing in the budget,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), pressing Jewell during a Senate energy committee hearing on the president’s 2016 department budget… Keep Reading

Progressive groups are calling on supporters to defend disability benefits, as legislation that would roll back the welfare state looks likely to advance in both the House and Senate. The Coalition on Human Needs on Monday urged like-minded organizations to throw their weight behind a Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities lobbying campaign (CCD) after two bills aimed at tightening the screws on recipients of both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and unemployment insurance were introduced on the same day earlier this month. The initiatives, which were… Keep Reading

A high-ranking banking regulator was asked Friday by a pair of Democrats to answer questions about an alleged conflict of interest. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) demanded that Commodities Futures Trading Commission official J. Christopher Giancarlo be forthright about a transaction he conducted in September, months after being confirmed to his position. The pair of lawmakers queried Giancarlo about why he rapidly sold stock in GFI Group, Inc.–a financial services company he had previously worked… Keep Reading

Federal Reserve officials are attempting to convince senators to oppose legislation that would expose the central bank to a rigorous audit, as the driving force behind the bill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), considers pinning it to essential votes. Critics are charging that the Fed’s lobbying effort demonstrates a fear of transparency. It was called “unseemly” and “surprising” late this week by Vern McKinley, an attorney and central banking specialist, who told The Hill that “it almost seems like they’re running scared.” Brian Darling, an aide to… Keep Reading

The billionaire Koch brothers beat back a move to inject more transparency into the duo’s shadowy electioneering activities, after a district court ruled that more disclosures about donors funding a group run by the pair could violate the First Amendment. California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris attempted to force the Koch Brothers’ deep-pocketed political action committee, American for Prosperity (AFP), to reveal information about its donors in accordance with California law. Although the group had skirted the requirement in previous years, the Attorney General, beginning in… Keep Reading

Attorney General Eric Holder has given the Justice Department an opportunity to rewrite his legacy as the lead federal prosecutor who refused to take on some of the most notoriously larcenous bankers in history. Holder said Tuesday that he has given his underlings three months to determine whether they can secure indictments against bankers who are widely believed to have committed fraud while issuing, packaging, marketing and selling the residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) that caused last decade’s multi-trillion dollar global financial meltdown. “I don’t know… Keep Reading