“The real purpose of the opposition is to minimize the amount of money the ruling party will have stolen from the people at the end of its term.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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| TRUMP |
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| WHITE HOUSE |
SEND IT UP, SEND IT THROUGH: The Rail Customer Coalition sent a letter to the
White House urging the administration to nominate Martin Oberman to the Surface
Transportation Board, noting that two other committee-approved nominees would
not be confirmed until a fifth and final nominee was approved. Oberman, a Democrat,
is the former chair of Illinois' Metra commuter rail board. [POLITICO's Morning
Transportation, June 27, 2018]
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| VETERANS |
HOUSE DELAYS LABOR-HHS-EDUCATION MARKUP: House appropriators postponed markup on its
Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, originally scheduled for today, POLITICO's
Kaitlyn Burton reports. "The markup, which had
been rescheduled for
Tuesday, is now slated to be held sometime after the upcoming July Fourth
recess, [a committee] aide said," she writes. "Subcommittee ranking
member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) suggested after an earlier postponement that the
delay was related to Republican reluctance to debate the bill in the midst of a
backlash over White House immigration policy. But aides to majority Republicans
said it had to do with scheduling problems rather than larger disputes."
More here.
[POLITICO's Morning Shift, June 26, 2018]
Chorus of concern in Congress: Some
lawmakers added their voices to the opposition, cautioning that while China's
intellectual property practices need to be addressed, tariffs aren't the right
approach.
HOUSE PASSES CFIUS OVERHAUL: Speaking
of... In a 400-2 vote, the House on Tuesday passed a bill that would overhaul the CFIUS process by expanding the
types of transactions the committee can monitor and potentially block. The bill
would also direct the administration to begin a continual process of
identifying emerging technologies that should be subject to restrictions under
U.S. export control regulations.
The legislation, known as the Foreign Investment Risk Review
Modernization Act, could become a stand-in for the actions the administration
wants to take against China. The bill would go some distance toward limiting
the ability of Chinese firms to acquire or merge with U.S. companies if a
national security threat were determined. It would also potentially put more
U.S.-made goods that have military uses under the close watch of the U.S.
export control system.
The Senate passed its version of the bill last week as part of
annual defense legislation. The two bills will have to be reconciled in
conference.
One added complication: The Senate version of
the bill contains a measure that would effectively reverse a seven-year ban on
Chinese telecom giant ZTE from doing business with U.S. suppliers. Trump
opposes that language, but lawmakers have been enthusiastic about pushing back
against the administration's decision to backtrack on what would have been a
death sentence for the Chinese firm.
The White House on Tuesday further explained its opposition to
the ZTE language in the defense bill, saying the provisions would undermine
"the very purpose of the relevant export control regulations."
"A statutory bar on relief would eliminate key incentives
for ZTE or any other company to come into compliance with U.S. export controls,
even if it is in the national security interest of the United States to
maintain these incentives," the Office of Management and Budget said in a
follow-on statement of administration policy. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, June 27, 2018]
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| U.S. AGRICULTURE |
ITALIANS TAKE AIM AT U.S. FOOD PRACTICES: As the
future of U.S nutrition programs is debated in Washington, representatives from
the foundation of pasta maker Barilla visited New York last week to put many of
these debates in a global context. Since Barilla's foundation encourages
consumers to eat more plant-based foods to improve their health and the
planet's health, they're spreading the word about their work through a report,
releasing a book this week and hosting a fall conference.
Talking sustainability by the numbers: Luca Di
Leo, a spokesman for Barilla, told your host that the group is updating a 2017
study it previously collaborated with The Economist showing that the U.S.
ranked 21st out of 34 countries in terms of overall food sustainability. Di Leo
said that's because the U.S. sets aside little land for organic farming.
"Quite a large land is devoted to biofuels," he said. "On the
nutritional side, the meat consumption is very high." He also called out
the nation's poor dietary standards and overconsumption of sugar. The group plans
to present its most recent data at a conference in Milan in November.
Talking sustainability with a book: On
Thursday, the foundation is also publishing the book "Nourished Planet:
Sustainability in the Global Food System" with Food Tank's Danielle
Nierenberg, which explores sustainability success stories from around the world
— like urban farmers in Nairobi who developed vertical gardens and a project in
Egypt that cut grain waste from nearly 50 percent to nearly 5 percent. It also
had some surprising facts about the rates of soil erosion compared with
regeneration: In Iowa, it's eroding 10 times faster than it's regenerating. In
Europe, it's three to 40 times faster. In China, it's 30 to 40 times faster.
What's next? On Sept. 28, the Barilla
Foundation is holding an international forum in New York City to talk more
about food and nutrition. [POLITICO's Morning
Agriculture, June 26,2018]
Dairy farmers also reached out to Trump by
letter telling him they're at risk of losing their
share in the Mexican market if the administration doesn't lift its tariffs on
steel and aluminum, Doug reports. More than
60 dairy groups from 30 states signed the letter, which notes that Mexico
imports around $400 million in American cheese. Under NAFTA, the U.S. has
become the largest foreign supplier of dairy to Mexico. The groups didn't call
on Trump to lift restrictions on Canada, which has long drawn the ire of
farmers and legislators due to its high tariffs on dairy products. [POLITICO's
Morning Agriculture, June 27, 2018]
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ZTE's on-again, off-again penalty
upends the trade game
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Last week, Chinese
telecom manufacturer ZTE paid $1 billion to the Commerce Department to settle charges it
sold banned technology to Iran and North Korea. Until the Trump
administration intervened, that penalty was way tougher: a ban on the
company's access to U.S. tech exports that would likely drive ZTE out of
business. The Senate has voted to restore the original punishment, using an
amendment to a must-pass defense appropriations bill.
What happens if
that bill makes it into law is anyone's guess — from what ZTE's next steps
are to how exactly the government might return that billion dollars.
"The nitty
gritty of this is hard to imagine because nothing like this has happened
before," said Brian Fleming, a lawyer for Miller & Chevalier
specializing on trade-based regulatory issues and former counsel at the
Department of Justice.
ZTE has
legal options: Paying the fine does not take the
original penalty off the table — geopolitics does not have a "no
backsies" rule. There are, however, some constitutional issues that may
work in ZTE's favor.
Would
Trump veto the NDAA? The
National Defense Authorization Act, the defense bill the Senate used to ZTE's
penalties, is the yearly budget and priorities package for the military. It
hardly ever gets vetoed; American leaders don't try to sabotage the military
budget. But Trump has shown a penchant for brinksmanship.
Why it
matters: No matter what, said Fleming, the United
States has done considerable harm to its bargaining power: "Reversing
the White House deal could be a big credibility problem. But the White House
deal has already done that" — it reversed things first.
Meanwhile, although there's no telling whether the ZTE deal
rollback will survive the legislative process (the Senate's version of the
NDAA has to be reconciled with the House's), the Senate is gearing up for a
showdown.
"How exactly
does helping save #ZTE give us leverage in broader negotiations with China?
Giving in to their demands doesn’t create leverage, it emboldens them to see
us as bluffers," tweeted Sen.
Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) last week. [Axios
Codebook, June 26, 2018]
|
AUTOMAKERS TO TRUMP: WE DON'T WANT YOUR PROTECTION: Trump
is pushing his administration to speed up its investigation into foreign-made
cars and impose tariffs as high as 25 percent, a move the White House says
would encourage domestic investment and support U.S. workers. The only issue?
Automakers don't want his help.
Because of the intricate and global nature of automotive supply
chains, foreign and domestic brands alike are concerned that tariffs meant to
help them would only end up backfiring, disrupting sales and hurting their
bottom lines. So in an effort to head off tariffs before they are put in place,
industry groups and automotive companies are banding together to launch what
they describe as an educational and advocacy push to show that tariffs would
ultimately cause more harm than good.
And the effort spans more than just the automotive sector:
Industries like agriculture and consumer products that are concerned about
being hit with retaliatory duties if car tariffs go into effect are also
joining in.
"We don't want to attack the administration per se,"
said Jennifer Thomas, a vice president of the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers, which has taken a leadership role in organizing opposition.
"We don't want to take that sort of aggressive tactic, but we want to be
clear on the wisdom of tariffs. We don't think tariffs are the right
approach."
A magnifying effect: Opponents are
concerned that car tariffs could have far deeper impacts than Trump's steel and
aluminum duties. The U.S. imported some $360 billion in cars, car parts and
engines last year, compared to $29 billion in steel and $18 billion in
aluminum.
"This would widen the trade war tenfold," said Rufus
Yerxa, a former trade official who now leads the National Foreign Trade
Council. "It's a whole different ball game from steel." Read the full
story here. [POLITICO's Morning Trade, June
27, 2018]
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| CYBER SECURITY |
TRUMP, SENATE AT ODDS OVER DEFENSE CYBER
PROVISIONS — The Trump administration on
Tuesday objected to several cyber provisions in a fiscal 2019 defense policy
bill (S. 2987),
saying a number of them intruded on existing executive branch authorities. One
provision would establish a cybersecurity strategy that states the U.S.
government alert other countries when possible if their networks are used to
carry out an attack by a third country; if the notified country doesn't take
action, the U.S. would retain the right to act unilaterally. A statement of
administration policy says the White House "strongly objects" to that
provision because it would potentially alert adversaries to U.S. targets.
Another bill provision, the policy statement says, "would prevent DOD from
responding to the types of significant cyber attacks and malicious cyber
activities to stop attacks in circumstances where attribution may not be
feasible or immediately apparent." Yet another provision, the
administration contends, would prevent the secretary of the Energy Department
from exerting traditional authority over cybersecurity. [POLITICO's Morning
Cybersecurity, June 27, 2018]
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| READ |
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| Russian interference in the 2016 election |
• Apollo Global Management and Värde Partners completed
their purchase of a 40.5% stake in OneMain
Financial (NYSE: OMF), the Evansville, Ind.-based subprime
lender spun off by Citigroup after the financial crisis, at $26 per share
from Fortress Investment Group. http://axios.link/Zs0G [Axios Pro Rata, June 26, 2018]
⛽ Warburg Pincus and Ouro Preto Óleo e Gás (backed
by EIG Global Energy)
have made bids for a group of mature, shallow-water oilfields being sold by
Brazil’s Petrobras for
around $1 billion, per Reuters. http://axios.link/344d [Axios
Pro Rata, June 27, 2018]
• UST Global, an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based digital
services provider, raised $250 million from Temasek. http://axios.link/Fz3D [Axios Pro Rata, June 27, 2018]
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| CANDIDATES |
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STEPHEN
MILLER
Policy Aide |
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| U.S. SUPREME COURT |
FREE TO GO? Some
people facing federal charges of tax obstruction might get off the hook thanks
to a Supreme Court rulingin March (Marinello v. United States)
that made it much harder for the government to convict someone of the crime.
Richard Zuckerman, principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice
Department's Tax Division, told attendees at a tax forum in New York that
"addressing tax obstruction charges that predate Marinello is
'an ongoing process' involving dismissal of some charges at both the trial and
appellate levels," Tax Notes reported. "Other cases require
examination of the record to determine whether objections have been preserved
and whether the evidence would support the conviction even after applying the Marinello standard,
he said." The department is also taking "a very conservative
position" on opening obstruction cases, Zuckerman said. [POLITICO's
Morning Tax, June 25, 2018]
MORE THAN WORDS — The Supreme Court ruling late
last week in Carpenter v. United States, which determined that the government
must get a warrant to obtain cell site location information, has broader
implications for digital privacy, according to an attorney who filed a friend
of the court brief in the case. "By recognizing that individuals can
retain an expectation of privacy — and Fourth Amendment protection — in personal
information held by third parties, the Court provided a strong signal that
Americans will not lose that constitutional protection now that they
communicate their most personal information in emails or texts stored on third
parties' servers, rather than letters delivered by the post office and kept at
home," said Andy Brown, a lawyer at Mayer Brown, in a statement emailed to
MC. "And that medical information collected and stored in apps remains
just as protected as when it was kept in a diary among many other examples."
[POLITICO's Morning Cybersecurity, June 25, 2018]
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| SCREEN |
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.
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