'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what." -- Stephen Fry
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| DAILY SPECIALS |
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| UNIONS |
'AMBUSH ELECTION RULE' COMMENTS: An
Obama-era rule to speed up union elections has "made NLRB
elections more efficient" and should not be scrapped, according to the
left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The group published a letter on the
NLRB's website today; the public comment period closes tomorrow on a December NLRB request for information about whether the rule should be modified or rescinded.
EPI says the rule "[streamlined] the process and [allowed] employees to
vote on a timelier basis" and "modernized rules" for union
elections.
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund, unsurprisingly,
took a different view Monday of what the business lobby calls the "ambush
election rule." Changes requested by the Right to Work Legal Defense Fund
in a letter posted Monday would make it easier for workers to hold
decertification votes and would require unions to hold recertification
elections to maintain a bargaining unit. Read EPI's comments here and the National Right To Work Legal Defense Fund's
comments here. [POLITICO's Morning
Shift, April 17, 2018]
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| ELECTIONS |
|
States, senators meet to prep election
security bill
|
|
Secretaries of
State huddled with senators behind the Secure Elections Act Monday around the
pending legislation.
A legislative
source familiar with the meeting said discussions covered
"implementation of the bill, general election security challenges and
whether further resources are needed to help states be ready." A state
source emphasized clarifications he hoped to see in the final draft.
In the
room: Secretaries of state from California,
Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico and Washington
met with Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
The big
picture: The bill presents a multifaceted
approach to election security, including improving information sharing and
new grants for more secure voting systems. It's probably too late for any new
spending to kick in before the 2018 polls, but if the bill becomes law it
would likely bolster elections after that. [Axios Codebook, April 17]
ELECTION SECURITY:
OVERRATED? - Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson
on Tuesday asserted that the Russian cyber threat to elections has become
overinflated. At a hearing of his panel, Johnson acknowledged that the threat
from Russian President Vladimir Putin was real. But by becoming too alarmed,
the United States is "doing Putin's job for him," he said -
creating the kind of confusion and panic he wanted to inject into U.S.
politics. Johnson said the more worrisome threats include scenarios like one
where hackers take down financial networks. At the same hearing, a top
Homeland Security Department official said Russian hackers probably targeted more states than previously
reported, and that all federal agencies are complying with a DHS directive to ban
Moscow-based antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab software from their networks. [POLITICO's
Morning Cybersecurity, April 25, 2018]
|
CASH FLUSH - Progressive groups announce $30M
mobilization effort: "A coalition of Democratic-aligned
outside groups - Planned Parenthood Votes, SEIU, the Center for Community
Change Action and Color of Change PAC - announced a joint $30 million effort,
called 'Win Justice,' in three states to mobilize infrequent voters ahead of
the November elections. The group will target Florida, Michigan and Nevada,
three states where Democrats hope to hold on to two Senate seats and flip the
third." [POLITICO's Morning Score, April 17, 2018]
 |
| TRUMP HYENAS aka Mitch M & Paul R |
GOP leaders aim to avoid omnibus going into
spending season: Republicans in Congress
are setting aggressive timetables to approve all of the fiscal 2019
appropriation bills by Sept. 30 as they look to avoid a bruising shutdown
battle just ahead of the midterm elections. [POLITICO's Morning
Agriculture, April 19, 2018]
 |
| MITCH MCCONNELL |
EPA OFFICIALS FEAR BEING CUT OFF FROM DATA: As
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt weighs next steps on a scientific transparency
directive announced earlier this year -- which is expected to require that the
raw data for all studies be publicly available and peer-reviewed - members of
Pruitt's staff expressed concern it could block their own use of industry data,
Pro Energy's Annie Snider reports.
Emails between EPA officials obtained by the Union of Concerned
Scientists show that Nancy Beck, the top political official in the agency's
chemicals office, voiced concerns after she received a draft of the not-yet-released
policy on Jan. 31.
Chemicals and pesticides at issue: The
directive in question has origins in legislation introduced by Rep. Lamar Smithduring the Obama administration, but its requirements
would exclude a lot of data about pesticides and toxic chemicals that Beck's
office examines when determining whether a substance is safe or must be
restricted.
"These data will be extremely valuable, extremely high
quality, and NOT published," Beck wrote in an email to an official in
EPA's office of research and development. "The directive needs to be
revised." [Politico’s Morning Agriculture, April 20, 2018]
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told House
appropriators Wednesday that the department is working to tailor digital threat
information for specific industries, rather than providing the data in a
blanket form. "We're really focused on getting more threat information
into their hands and in a tailored way," she said, noting that the needs
of, say, the water sector differ from others. Nielsen also told the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security that she's trying to better
integrate the respective cybersecurity work of DHS's various agencies,
including the Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Science
and Technology division and the National Protection and Programs Directorate.
TSK TSK, NEEDS WORK - The software tools that
DHS uses to protect its most sensitive intelligence systems do not work well
together, according to the DHS inspector general. The department, the IG said,
lacks "documented procedures," "formal training" and
specific measurement metrics for those tools. In an unclassified summary of the
full report, which was dated March 12 but published this week, auditors made
three recommendations to fix these problems. They also issued a recommendation
to the Secret Service regarding that agency's failure to develop a process
"to ensure its employees and contractors complete the required annual
security awareness training."[ POLITICO's
Morning Cybersecurity, April 12, 2018]
THE 100 (AND 50): DHS proposed a $7.7 billion
budget for TSA, which included $74 million to help the agency purchase new
technology like 3D computed tomography scanners. But it's just enough for TSA
to buy about half of the 300 CT scanners it wanted for fiscal 2019. House
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has said he would like to see TSA
purchase the full 300 CT scanners, but fellow Texas Republican and Homeland
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Carter said his friend shouldn't hold his breath. "If I
could give him the whole 300, he'd probably get the whole 300. But, I have to
look at the checkbook and we've got other needs within the checkbook,"
Carter told our Stephanie Beasley. "The recommendation of the president
looks reasonable to me."
SPEAKING OF: McCaul said he's planning to
introduce a version of the Trump administration's proposal to give DHS authority
to track and destroy drones. The House Homeland Security Committee, which does
not oversee DOJ, is planning to introduce a "more narrow version of
this," McCaul told Stephanie. He said he has been working with DHS to
craft the legislation and plans to meet with the Homeland Security secretary
this week. [POLITICO's Morning Transportation,
April 12, 2018]
TOP DOC II - DEFENSE SCIENCE BOARD TACKLES DoD SOFTWARE: The
Pentagon should harness commercial best practices for the development and
sustainment of software, according to a new report from the Defense Science Board.
"Problems associated with software development continue to
plague major DoD acquisition programs," the board finds, contending that
"an iterative approach to software development and sustainment is
applicable to the DoD and should be adopted as quickly as possible."[ POLITICO's Morning Defense, April 11, 2018]
 |
| READ |
 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE |
 |
| EDUCATION |
Overheard on Acela: Teachers’ Union President Plots to Shut Puerto Rico Schools From First Class Car
DEVOS EMBRACES OBAMA-ERA STUDENT AID EXPERIMENT: The
Education Department on Friday gave final approval to the first partnership in
a closely watched experiment that opens up federal student aid for alternative
education programs, such as coding boot camps. Brookhaven College, which is
near Dallas and part of the Dallas County Community College District, is the
first to get the green light for the Educational Quality through Innovation
Partnerships experiment, dubbed EQUIP - nearly two years after the department gave initial
approval to eight schools to take
part in the pilot program.
- The pilot program, which was developed by the Obama
administration, allows traditional colleges to partner with online education
providers, coding boot camps and other alternative programs. The
partnerships are monitored by third-party quality control entities.
- DeVos touted the experiment in a statement, saying it's a good
way to help nontraditional students. "These students
are looking for new, more efficient and lower-cost ways to earn
workplace-relevant credentials, oftentimes while working and raising a
family," DeVos said. "Through these experimental sites, we can
provide students with new options that, until now, existed only outside of the
federal financial aid system." Benjamin Wermund has more. [POLITICO's Morning
Education, April 16, 2018]
 |
| DEMOCRATIC PARTY |
-- SCOOPLET: SENS. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
(D-N.Y.) and CORY BOOKER (D-N.J.) will be the featured speakers June 6 at Run for Something's
first annual "Party for Something" gala. The group, which focuses on
recruiting young, diverse progressives to run for local offices, has recruited
18,000 people to run since launching last year. Their goal: 50,000 by the
midterm elections. [POLITICO Playbook, April 17, 2018]
"Democrats pushing for Pelosi's ouster as
leader stand down -- at least until elections," [POLITICO Huddle, April 17,
2018]
GOP backs away from entitlement reform in
2018: Republicans in Congress, looking toward the
midterm elections, have abandoned the longstanding party goal of reforming
entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid that are major drivers of
the national debt [POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, April 18, 2018]
BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE HIRES K&L GATES: The Business Roundtable has added K&L
Gates to its stable of Washington lobbying firms. Stephen
Martinko, a former chief of staff to House Transportation Committee
Chairman Bill Shuster, will lobby for the trade group on
transportation and infrastructure issues, according to a disclosure filing. The
Business Roundtable spent more than $27 million on lobbying last year and
retains 10 other lobbying firms. [POLITICO Influence, April 6, 2018]
Sentinel Capital Partners has
acquired UBEO
Business Services, a San Antonio, Texas-based provider of
office equipment sales and services. [Axios Pro
Rata: Friday, April 6]
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 commercial or business interest information shared is purely informational, not an endorsement. I have no connection with any such commercial or business interest.
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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