LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 7

A top labor regulator could be poised to quietly rule on matters involving past clients. Senate Democrats this week hit out at National Labor Relations Board Member William Emanuel for only disclosing the names of those who recently paid at least $5,000 for his legal expertise. The legislators noted that while these disclosures may satisfy Congressional requirements, President Trump initially made rigorous ethics demands on his nominees. In a January executive order, days after his inauguration, Trump asked appointees to abstain from taking part “in any particular matter…directly… Keep Reading

States that want to force Medicaid recipients to get a job before qualifying for healthcare have an ally in the Trump administration, according to remarks made on Tuesday by the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Speaking to the National Association of Medicaid Directors, Seema Verma gave a nod to the several states across the country that had hoped to enact Medicaid work requirements only to be shot down by the Obama administration. “Those days are over,” Verma said in prepared… Keep Reading

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) called out the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) for not properly gauging the threat of opioid abuse by the elderly. More than 727,000 individuals in the Medicare Prescription Drug program are at risk of opioid addiction, according to some government measures, yet CMS estimated that the at-risk population was only a sliver of that, according to a GAO report released Monday, GAO blamed insufficient data collection at CMS for that massive gap in oversight. “Without expanding and enhancing its data collection… Keep Reading

Republicans are attempting to hurriedly ram major tax reform through Congress. The House Ways and Means Committee started mark-up hearings on Monday, to advance a bill that would re-write the tax code. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) complained at the start of the process about the dearth of any public examination of the proposal in hearings before the influential Ways and Means Committee. Doggett also decried Trump’s refusal to disclose his own financial holdings–a move that would reveal how he personally stands to be impacted by… Keep Reading

House Republicans introduced a $1.5 trillion tax cut proposal on Thursday that would drastically reduce current obligations for some of the wealthiest individuals and firms in the country. The so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has received an endorsement from President Trump, includes tax reductions for most Americans. But benefits fall heaviest on entities at the higher end of the wealth spectrum. Pre-deduction corporate tax rates would be permanently slashed from 35 percent to 20 percent. Other types of businesses, like partnerships and S-corps,… Keep Reading

Federal regulators are considering taking action to stop the acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T. The Justice Department and AT&T aren’t close to an agreement on conditions for the merger, according to a report Thursday morning in The Wall Street Journal. Antitrust Division lawyers are subsequently weighing a lawsuit to block the deal. The telecoms giant wants to purchase Time Warner as a content source for its mobile phone customers. Time Warner–owner of CNN, HBO, and TBS–wants to maximize viewership, as Bloomberg noted. Announced in… Keep Reading

A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission called for an investigation into the agency’s ties with a broadcasting giant. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency appears to be heavily influenced by Sinclair Broadcast Group, claiming: “all of our media policy decisions seem to be custom built for this one company.” “If you look at the series of media policy decisions that has been made by this commission, they all seem to serve Sinclair Broadcasting’s business plans,” Rosenworcel said on Wednesday. She cited a number… Keep Reading

Late last month, without much fanfare, financial regulators voted to relax rules on AIG, the insurance giant synonymous with last decade’s global financial meltdown. The process was done in such hushed tones, according to Democratic Senators, that the decision was first revealed not by the inter-agency body that made it–the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)–but by an industry trade association. “The timing…indicates that insurance industry representatives and others individuals learned of the decision to de-designate AIG before it was announced publicly,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)… Keep Reading

The US government has incurred hundreds of billions of dollars in costs associated with climate change, and damages will increase significantly in the future, according to a new watchdog report. In a study published Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) attempted to measure, for the first time, the economic and budgeting consequences of rising temperatures and extreme weather phenomenon. It found staggering cost increases over the next century in several economic sectors, including healthcare, which could take a half trillion-dollar hit due to more heat-related… Keep Reading

A hallmark of the Obama administration has been blasted by the Treasury Department—for issuing regulations that guarantee Americans’ right to sue misbehaving Wall Street firms. Treasury on Monday released a report criticizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for its forced arbitration rule. The paper accused the CFPB of cherry-picking research during its rule-making process, and of effectively seeking to line the pockets of class action lawyers—despite readily admitting that 69 percent of such sums go to plaintiffs. In July, the CFPB finalized its rule, preventing… Keep Reading

An ex-associate of Jack Abramoff picked to serve as number two at the Labor Department was approved by a Senate Committee on Wednesday. Patrick Pizzella, nominee for Deputy Labor Secretary, was advanced on a strict party line vote, along with a handful of other Trump administration political appointees. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)–who had grilled Pizzella about Abramoff ties during the confirmation hearing–denounced the nominee before Wednesday’s vote. The lawmaker said that Pizzella was unrepentant about his past and offered “misleading answers” to senate staffers, after… Keep Reading