“Words can be twisted into any shape. Promises can be made to lull the heart and seduce the soul. In the final analysis, words mean nothing. They are labels we give things in an effort to wrap our puny little brains around their underlying natures, when ninety-nine percent of the time the totality of the reality is an entirely different beast. The wisest man is the silent one. Examine his actions. Judge him by them.” ― Karen Marie Moning
TRUMP
Generics
lobby's message to Trump: Follow through on your State of Union pledge. The
Association of Accessible Medicines sent a letter to the president on Wednesday
praising his commitment to lower drug prices and urging him to help pass the
bipartisan CREATES Act - H.R. 2212 (115) and S. 974 (115). The bill would make it harder for branded
and generic drug companies to use FDA safety programs known as REMS to block
cheaper competition from generic and biosimilar medicines. It has been floated
as a pay-for if Congress can get a deal to pass a new spending bill. The
branded drug lobby opposes the bill. Both FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and
HHS Secretary Alex Azar have criticized the use of REMS to block generic drug
competition. [POLITICO Pulse, February 1, 2018]
 |
PRE-SCHOOL
& CHILD CARE
|
CCSSO, EIGHT CHIEFS LAUNCH PRE-K NETWORK: The
Council of Chief State School Officers, or CCSSO, is launching an initiative
with eight states to boost access to high-quality early learning programs. The
Promoting High-Quality Pre-kindergarten network will be led by Mississippi
State Superintendent Carey Wright, who has led that state's push to implement statewide
pre-kindergarten programs.
- "Early childhood education is
going to be the great equalizer in our nation," Wright told Morning
Education. "This is a good time to have this conversation nationally to
ensure kids get a leg up. We're sharing what we know works best over the next
18 months. [At the end], I would hope that we could craft a roadmap ... for not
only improving access, but also the quality of programs across states."
- The other states involved are Maine, New York, Colorado,
Tennessee, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Minnesota. State
chiefs in the network have committed to working toward the quality standards benchmarks set by the
National Institute of Early Education Research, which encourage states to adopt
early learning standards, limit class size to 20 children and require lead
teachers to hold at least a bachelor's degree, among other benchmarks.
- "Everybody is going to create their own path to get to
these indicators," said CCSSO Interim Executive
Director Carissa Miller. [POLITICO's Morning
Education, February 1, 2018]
 |
| CARTER PAGE |
Who
Is Carter Page?
President Trump could decide as soon as Friday to release a controversial GOP memo on
FBI surveillance.
Prepared by Rep. Devin Nunes,
the four-page memo reportedly alleges
that the FBI mishandled a request for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
warrant on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page by relying on information
from an unverified dossier on
Trump's ties to Russia compiled by former British intelligence agent
Christopher Steele.
In a rare public move, the FBI
said in a statement that it has "grave concerns" over
the memo, while Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee voted against its
release and prepared a counter-memo.
At the center of the
controversy is Page, a colorful foreign policy expert with business ties to
Russia who advised Trump's campaign.
Here's what to know about Page,
his involvement with the Trump campaign, and why he may have been the focus of
an FBI investigation.
What are the key events in the
Carter Page controversy?
January
2013: At an energy conference in New York, Page meets with Victor
Podobnyy, according to court documents. The two
exchange contact information and have several more meetings discussing energy
policy, where they also exchange documents on that subject.
Jan. 26, 2015: Pobodnyy
and two other Russians are charged with
working as agents for Russian intelligence in New York. Court records include a
transcript of a recorded conversation in which Pobodnyy talks about trying to
recruit someone identified as Male-1, which BuzzFeed later reveals to be Page.
"I think he is an idiot," Pobodnyy says in the transcript.
December 2015: Feeling
that the Trump campaign aligns with his ideas on Russia, Page asks Ed Cox, chair of
the New York state Republican Party, to recommend him as an advisor. He is
brought on right away. “Anyone who came to us with a pulse, a résumé and seemed
legit would be welcomed,” a campaign official tells the Post later.
March 21, 2016: Trump meets with the editorial board of
the Washington Post.
Asked about his foreign policy team, he names, among others, Page and George
Papadopoulos, who later pleads guilty to lying to the FBI about
contacts he had with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential
campaign.
July of 2016:
• Page joins a group dinner of
Trump campaign national security advisors, including then-Sen. Jeff Sessions,
at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington. He later testifies that he
casually told Sessions about an upcoming trip to Russia during the dinner.
• Page spends three days in
Moscow, where he gives a talk at the New Economic School that is critical of
American policy toward Russia and favorable toward Russian President Vladimir
Putin. The speech interests FBI investigators, who have kept an intermittent
eye on Page since the Pobodnyy case, reportedly prompting their first looks at
the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.
• Former British intelligence
agent Christopher Steele approaches an FBI
agent with information he has uncovered about Trump's relationship with Russia
while doing opposition research on behalf of the Democratic National Committee
and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Summer 2016: The
FBI and the Justice Department obtain a FISA warrant to
monitor Page's communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court judge that there is probable cause to believe Page is acting
as an agent of a foreign power, namely Russia.
December 2016: Trump
attorney Don McGahn writes Page to
"immediately cease" saying he is a Trump advisor. “You were merely
one of the many people named to a foreign policy advisory committee in March of
2016 — a committee that met one time,” McGahn writes. “You never met Mr. Trump,
nor did you ever ‘advise’ Mr. Trump about anything. You are thus not an
‘advisor’ to Mr. Trump in any sense of the word.”
Jan. 10, 2017:
• In sworn testimony at his
confirmation hearing, Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions testifies that he
is "not aware of any" communication between the Trump campaign and
the Russian government during the campaign.
• BuzzFeed News publishes the full
unsubstantiated dossier detailing President Trump's alleged ties to Russia and
claiming the Russian government may be blackmailing him. The dossier alleges
that former campaign manager Paul Manafort used Page as an intermediary with
the Russian government and that Page attended a secret meeting at the Kremlin
in July of 2016.
Feb. 12, 2017: In
an eight-page letter to
the Justice Department's civil rights division, Page calls the Russia
investigations "frivolous" and says they are "among the most
extreme examples of human rights violations during any election in U.S. history
since Dr. Maritn Luther King Jr. was similarly targeted for his anti-war
views."
March 2, 2017: Amid
concerns about his January testimony and newly revealed meetings with
the Russian ambassador, Sessions announces he will recuse himself from any
investigations related to the Trump campaign.
April 11, 2017: The
Washington Post first reports on the
existence of the FISA warrant on Page from the summer of 2016. In an interview,
Page again compares the surveillance to the FBI's eavesdropping on King.
"This confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically
motivated government surveillance,” he says.
May 7, 2017: In
an angry nine-page letter to
the Senate intelligence committee, Carter says he had only "brief
interactions" with Pobodnyy in 2013 and calls requests for more information
a "show trial" based on "the corrupt lies of the Clinton/Obama
regime."
Oct. 18, 2017: During
five hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sessions
is grilled about his
contacts with Russians during the campaign. When asked if any surrogates from
the Trump campaign had contact with the Russians, he responds: "I did
not — and I’m not aware of anyone else that did. I don’t believe that it
happened."
Oct. 30, 2017: In
wide-ranging interview MSNBC's Chris Hayes, Page discusses Papadaopoulos'
guilty plea, admitting that he was on campaign email chains with Papadopoulos
about Russia. “I genuinely hope, Carter, that you are innocent of everything,
because you are doing a lot of talking," Hayes says.
Nov. 2, 2017: During
six hours of closed-door testimony with the House intelligence committee,
Page testifies that he
told Sessions about his trip to Russia ahead of time. During the testimony,
Page invokes the Fifth Amendment when asked to produce documents that could
potentially be relevant to the investigation.
Nov. 3, 2017: In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper,
Page says that the fact he told Sessions about his upcoming trip to Russia was
a "nothing event" made "totally in passing." He adds that
Sessions was not the only one on the campaign that he told before he took the
trip. "I mentioned it to a few other people," he says.
Jan. 29, 2018: The
House Intelligence Committee votes along party linesto
publicly release a classified memo overseen by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes
which criticizes the FBI's handling of a FISA warrant on Page, alleging that
relied too heavily on information in the Steele dossier. In a rare public
statement, the FBI says it has "grave concerns" about
the memo. [TIME Politics, February 1, 2018]
 |
| EPA |
Update on EPA pesticide rule-making: The EPA by the end
of fiscal 2018 intends to issue a notice of proposed rule-making to solicit
input on revisions to two pesticide rules: agricultural worker protection
safety standards and the certification/training of pesticide applicators.
That's according to Jackie Mosby, director of EPA's Office of Pesticide
Programs, told NASDA members. The agency will be changing minimum age
requirements in both rules, among other revisions. [POLITICO's Morning
Agriculture, February 1, 2018]
GONE FISHING: EPA will ask the
National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider its decision that the controversial pesticide chlorpyrifos
jeopardizes endangered salmon, Pruitt said Wednesday. The agency chief said he
will ask the Commerce Department to initiate consultation under the Endangered
Species Act, Pro's Annie Snider and Catherine Boudreau report . "I'm ... going to send a Section 7 letter back to
Commerce on this issue with respect to chlorpyrifos to say that there needs to
be a consultation because we have usage data, frankly, that wasn't considered
and impacted the ... decision in that case," Pruitt said. [POLITICO's
Morning Energy, February 1, 2018]
 |
| ENVIRONMENT |
WOTUS, YOU MISS ME? The ink had barely dried
on EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's signature after his agency issued a final
rule to delay the Obama administration's Waters of the U.S. rule when
environmental groups vowed to challenge the move in court. At least three
groups are promising legal action when a stay issued by Court of Appeal for the
6th Circuit is lifted (and allowing the Obama-era rule to go into effect): the
National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council and American
Rivers.
"EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is racing the clock to deny
protections for our public health and safety. It's grossly irresponsible, and
illegal - and we'll challenge it in court," Jon Devine, senior attorney at
NRDC, said in a statement.
Courtroom fault lines: The Administrative
Procedures Act will serve as the legal battlefield. Challengers are likely to
take shots at the rule over its short comment period - 21 days, including the
Thanksgiving holiday. Others will also take issue with the use of the phrase
"effective date" and the agency's decision to make the rule effective
immediately rather than waiting the typical 30 days after it runs in the
Federal Register.
'Certainty' is in the eye of the beholder: Underlying
the procedural arguments is a fundamental disagreement about what makes for
"certainty." The Trump administration, along with the industry groups
that back it, say the delay rule would provide "certainty" - without
it, the country would be a patchwork of different definitions when the
appellate court's hold lifts for the 37 states not covered by a North Dakota
District Court stay.
Those for and against: "Today's
announcement is part of a measured and thoughtful process to provide regulatory
certainty to farmers and ranchers while the agencies continue the important
work of withdrawing and rewriting the unlawful 2015 WOTUS rule," American
Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement.
But environmentalists and proponents of the Obama rule say the
delay would undercut "certainty" since it would leave in place the
muddled approach to Clean Water Act jurisdiction that all sides have complained
about for more than a decade. [POLITICO's Morning
Agriculture, February 1, 2018]
 |
| ENERGY |
One little-noticed byproduct of Congress' recent tax reform
package is about to free up tens of billions of dollars for electric and gas
utilities - and could play a vital role in the anticipated build-out of energy
infrastructure. Pro's Darius Dixon reports that thanks to the bill's massive reduction in corporate tax rates,
the "deferred" money utilities have collected from customers for
years - set aside to pay future years' taxes for projects like transmission
lines and power plants - will now be open for other investments, such as
modernizing and strengthening pipelines and the electric grid.
"The windfall is expected to set off a debate in dozens of
states about how to spend the money - and whether some of it
should go to reducing customers' rates. It's also stirring interest among
environmental groups, which could push to use a chunk of the cash to build wind
or solar projects or retrain displaced coal workers," Darius writes. David
Springe, executive director of the National Association of State Utility
Consumer Advocates, tells Darius: "This is where all the money is. That is
why the utilities really care."
The deferred money in question is separate "from
the immediate boost to earnings that utilities will see from the cut in their
corporate income taxes," Darius reports. For instance, New Jersey-based
PSEG estimates it will have at least $1.8 billion
in its deferred tax pool to spend on rate cuts or infrastructure upgrades, and
bigger utilities have amassed even larger sums. American Electric Power's
regulatory filings list $4.4 billion , while NextEra Energy's sits
at $4.5 billion. The Edison Electric Institute estimates that deferred tax
balances across the power industry alone total around $165 billion, although it
is not yet known how much of that is "excess" under the new tax rate.
Others figures will likely start rolling out over the next several weeks as SEC
filings are reported. [POLITICO's Morning
Energy, February 1, 2018]
WHERE'S THE 'HOMEWORK GAP' STUDY?: A
coalition of education groups is asking the Institute of Education Sciences for
a study on students' access to online education materials at home - one, they
say, the Every Student Succeeds Act compelled the agency to produce by last
June. IES is the statistics and research arm of the Education Department.
- "Many students ... especially those living in rural and
high-cost communities, lack access to the connectivity
needed to complete assigned homework and make use of the increasing educational
resources and tools available online," the coalition wrote in a letter to IES Acting Director Thomas
Brock. "The study, including the required examination of student habits
related to digital learning outside the classroom and the barriers they face in
accessing those resources, will help policy makers identify the best ways to
ensure all students can connect with broadband services and be on a path for
success after graduation."
- The letter was signed by the Schools Superintendents
Association, the National Rural Education Advocacy Consortium, the National
Association of State Boards of Education, the Consortium for School Networking
and others. [POLITICO's Morning Education,
February 1, 2018]
"If the debt
ceiling isn't raised by the first half of March, CBO said, 'the government would be unable to pay its
obligations fully, and it would delay making payments for its activities,
default on its debt obligations, or both.'" [POLITICO Playbook, February 1, 2018]
 |
| CANDIDATES |
NOTE: The news sources here vary. Not all sources have the same credibility, but in an effort to share some different perspectives, they are included here. This compendium itself cannot claim to be unbiased. Please take into consideration where these different perspectives originate in assessing their value. Thank you
NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as a "community service" announcement. These again are shared for their varying perspectives.
Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post. Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse. They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended
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