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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is staking out this week as the time to obstruct Republicans’ still-secret health care legislation. Speaking to reporters, a Democratic aide revealed that beginning Monday night, Democrats would withhold consent on nearly every GOP request in the Senate. That tactic could slow down Senate business, including committee work. “If Republicans won’t relent and debate their healthcare bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn’t expect business as usual in the Senate,” Sen. Schumer said.…

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A case for Ronald Reagan conservatism, it wasn’t. The Republican head of a congressional panel offered substantive ideological criticism of President Trump’s proposal to privatize the US air traffic control system. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), chair of the House appropriations subcommittee on transportation, said on Thursday that he was concerned the Trump administration is working to establish an unaccountable “corporate monopoly.” “I’m concerned that the proposal would reduce or even eliminate, frankly, the public’s voice in something as critical as our national air traffic controller,” Diaz-Balart said.…

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving to further delay implementation of a rule that would limit the release of methane—a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to the warming of the planet. In a notice of proposed rulemaking set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, the agency is seeking to grant fossil fuel drilling industries a two-year reprieve from complying with the regulation. The two-year delay would likely be followed by an action to completely eliminate the rule. Approved in 2016 by…

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President Trump applied more pressure on an already rushed and secretive effort to pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act before the Fourth of July recess. During a White House meeting Tuesday with a group of Senate Republicans, the President was asked what his timetable was for signing a new healthcare bill. “As soon as we can do it,” Trump responded. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already set-up a fast track for a repeal bill. Last week he invoked Rule 14, which…

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As Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin has significant influence over how tax policy is crafted and enforced. But he doesn’t think that sway should be used to ask for more contributions from modern day aristocrats. “The super-rich have plenty of gimmicks so that they don’t need to pay the estate tax,” Mnuchin said at a Senate Budget Committee hearing. He was asked by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about Trump’s plans to fully abolish the tax. Mnuchin had hit out against the estate tax just beforehand, when asked…

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Maryland and Washington, DC sued President Donald Trump on Monday, charging the Commander in Chief with improperly accepting foreign payments and gifts in violation of the US Constitution. Attorneys General in DC and Maryland–Karl Racine and Brian Frosh–brought the suit. It marks the first time ever that government bodies have sued a sitting President for betraying the Emoluments Clause. The plaintiffs allege that, despite handing off the Trump Organization to his sons two be managed, Trump is still very much involved in its operations, and, therefore, receiving…

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Neil Gorsuch issued his first Supreme Court opinion on Monday, delivering a decision limiting the scope of a law protecting consumers from abusive debt collection practices. Gorsuch wrote that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) only applies to agencies working on behalf of creditors, and that it’s legal for banks to attempt to collect on defaulted debts that they have purchased. Keeping with Supreme Court tradition, the rookie Justice’s debut opinion was short—just thirteen pages long—and relatively uncontroversial in the legal world. There were…

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