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“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.” ― Theodore Roosevelt


MARIJUANA





— California’s pot czar is being squeezed between lobbyists for the cannabis industry on one side, and cities and law enforcement on the other, who are battling over a proposal to allow marijuana deliveries in municipalities that have banned pot sales. [LA TIMES, Essential Politics, September 17, 2018]








- MEANWHILE, TWO PROMINENT MEDIA MEN who lost their jobs following misconduct allegations returned this past week in prestigious publications. Former "The Takeaway" host John Hockenberry, who has been accused of sexual harassment and workplace abuse, wrote nearly 7,000 words on his "Exile" in Harper's. And former Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi, who was acquitted of sexual assault but has faced widespread misconduct accusations from more than 20 women, wrote "Reflections from a Hashtag" in the New York Review of Books. [Morning Media, September 17, 2018]









NATO



Readout of Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis’ Meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White provided the following readout: 

Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday at the Pentagon to discuss the implementation of key outcomes from the July NATO Summit in Brussels and plan for the October Defense Ministerial.

The leaders discussed a broad range of defense issues and agreed to work together in consultation with NATO allies on fairer burden sharing, readiness and mobility.  

Secretary Mattis thanked Secretary General Stoltenberg for continuing to encourage allies to meet their Wales Pledge commitments by 2024 and increase their contributions toward NATO’s collective security. [U.S. Department of Defense, September 14, 2018]



JUDICIAL MATTERS          





JUDGE GIVES DEVOS ANOTHER CHANCE TO JUSTIFY DELAY OF 'BORROWER DEFENSE' RULES: A federal judge said he's giving Education Secretary Betsy DeVos another chance to justify her delay of Obama-era student loan regulations known as "borrower defense to repayment." U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, who last week ruled that the Trump administration had illegally delayed the rules, formally struck down the delay in a ruling Monday night. But he declined to allow the rules to immediately take effect, giving DeVos until Oct. 12 at 5 p.m. to come up with a potential new justification for postponing the regulations.
— In granting the extra time, the judge said he was weighing the "harm to student borrowers" caused by further delay against the "threat of disruption" to the for-profit education industry. Moss said he was concerned about "regulatory vertigo" if he were to allow the Obama-era rules to take effect immediately only to potentially block them in the coming weeks based on a separate challenge from a California for-profit college group.
— The judge on Monday also ordered an expedited process for considering that challenge, brought by the California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools, to the substance of the 2016 regulations. Moss signaled that he wants to resolve the group's motion for a preliminary injunction against the rules by his new Oct. 12 deadline, scheduling a Oct. 9 hearing to discuss the CAPPS case.

— Moss noted that it's a "close call" as to whether the Trump administration will be able to come up with a legally sound justification for delaying the regulations. The Education Department's initial explanation cited "serious concerns" about the legality of the rules based on the lawsuit brought by CAPPS, an explanation that Moss ruled was insufficient. Read the full ruling here. [POLITICO's Morning Education, September 18, 2018]






GIFFORDS PAC LAUNCHES NEW AD IN MINNESOTA: The Giffords PAC has launched a new ad in Minneapolis that features Bob Mokos, a former Air Force pilot, criticizing Rep. Jason Lewis (R-Minn.) for taking contributions from the gun lobby. The new ad is part of a $1.3 million campaign in Minneapolis. Lewis is running against Angie Craig. In addition to the Minneapolis ads, the Giffords PAC is running ads in VA-10 and CO-06, which blast the records of Reps. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) and Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) on gun control. [POLITICO Influence, October 3, 2018]



U.S. MILITARY








MURRAY BILL ON WOMEN'S RETIREMENT SECURITY: On Wednesday night Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) introduced legislation that would extend to defined-contribution pensions spousal protections that exist in defined-benefit pensions. The bill would also amend minimum participation standards to allow certain long-term part-time workers to join pension plans, and would provide grants to community organizations to promote women's financial literacy. [POLITICO's Morning Shift, September 13, 2018]

DRONE BALANCING ACT: Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Tuesday that attaching language to the FAA bill to allow DHS and DOJ to intersect drones is still a point of discussion. "It's part of negotiation," he said. Thune said Commerce was trying to work with other committees with jurisdiction as well as advocacy groups to address civil liberties and privacy concerns. "I think there are always those concerns ... but what we're trying to do is balance the important, you know, public safety and national security interests that are being voiced by the other committees and that we're well aware of," he said. Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have argued against the counterdrone language riding on the bill, saying it should instead move to the floor as a standalone measure to allow robust debate.
As for the overall FAA bill: "We're down to I think one sheet of issues," Thune said. He added: "A lot of this negotiation has been occurring with our staffs. We've been working with the House staff and [Transportation Chairman Bill] Shuster's involved in all this, too. So it's a process where I think at least in terms of the underlying differences that we have between the House and Senate bills, we're trying to work through those and get to an agreement." [POLITICO's Morning Transportation, September 19, 2018]

HOUSE TO VOTE ON PANDEMIC PREP BILL TUESDAY — A final version of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2018, H.R. 6378 (115), is due for House vote on Tuesday according to staffers for sponsor Susan Brooks . The bill would reauthorize and boost funding ceilings for HHS programs to develop responses to pandemics and biological threats, like the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which supports private sector development of new drugs and vaccines. The money has helped drugmakers respond to Ebola, pandemic flu and drug-resistant bacteria. The bill would also require that within a year of passage, HHS's assistant secretary for preparedness and response convenes a meeting exploring how genomic engineering can be used both in U.S. countermeasures and in national security threats. [POLITICO's Prescription Pulse, September 24, 2018]

SENATE COULD VOTE TODAY ON MASSIVE SPENDING PACKAGE: The Senate will vote as early as today to approve a mammoth funding bill for the Pentagon and a spate of domestic agencies, according to Senate Appropriations chief Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). The package, H.R. 6157 (115) , takes in the fiscal 2019 Defense and Labor-HHS-Education titles. It also includes stopgap funding for all other federal agencies that don't have a full-year budget by Oct. 1 — which would avoid a dreaded fall shutdown. Sarah Ferris and Anthony Adragna have more. [POLITICO's Morning Education, September 18, 2018]
HASC'S SMITH, OTHER DEMS, INTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO BAN LOW-YIELD NUKES: House Armed Services ranking Democrat Adam Smithhas joined other Democrats to introduce the bicameral Hold the LYNE — or Low-Yield Nuclear Explosive — Act.
The bill would prohibit development or deployment of a low-yield nuclear warheads for submarine-launched ballistic missiles. It comes the week after Congress approved a funding measure that would provide $65 million to develop such a weapon.
The legislation stands little chance of advancing this Congress, but it signals the issue will be an important priority for Smith and other Democrats, who hope to retake the House in this fall's elections. [POLITICO's Morning Defense, September 19, 2018]


Bipartisan legislation from Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Mike Doyle, H.R. 1320 (115), to rewrite how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission assesses user and annual fees on the industry, which fund 90 percent of the agency's budget. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, September 25, 2018]



INDIGENOUS AMERICANS 















GEORGE WASHINGTON

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SIEGE OF YORKTOWN

The Revolutionary War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783. The treaty, however, merely confirmed what had become a fait accompli two years earlier, thanks to the courage of thousands of American soldiers and their French allies.
The fate of the United States was decided in Yorktown, Virginia, 236 years ago this month. On these fields, Gen. George Washington and his Continental Army, with the help of an allied French army commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau, besieged 9,000 British and Hessian troops under the command of Lord Charles Cornwallis from September 28 through October 19, 1781.
According to some sources, as Lord Cornwallis’s men put down their arms, a British band began to play a song entitled “The World Turned Upside Down.” With significant help from the French, the Americans had achieved victory over the most powerful empire on earth, and the world had indeed been turned upside down.








ANOTHER ONE: The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has issued a second report this week concerning subagency supervision. An audit showed that the department's failure to identify an office to oversee the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program contributed to the Coast Guard's confusion about its implementation. According to the IG report, the service "will continue to struggle to develop regulations for its transportation worker ID card program until it establishes more comprehensive oversight," our Stephanie Beasley writes. [POLITICO's Morning Transportation, October 3, 2018]

FIRE UP THE PHONES: The Department of Homeland Security will be much faster to alert state officials of malicious cyber-activity this election season compared to 2016, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has vowed. “Now we know who to call,” she said Tuesday at a conference hosted by The Washington Post, referring to state and local officials. “Now we have everybody on speed dial.” It took roughly a year for DHS to notify officials in 21 states that their IT systems had been scanned by Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign. But DHS can react much quicker this go-round thanks to network sensors and “pre-deployed” incident response teams, Nielsen said. [CyberScoop, October 3, 2018]


WHAT WE STILL DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE DATA BREACH — While Facebook representatives discussed their advertising transparency efforts, the company continued to face mounting questions over the scope of its latest breach, which gave hackers access to the accounts of roughly 50 million users. While Facebook reps are briefing U.S. officials this week with additional details — in addition to a briefing at the Department of Homeland Security last week, according to the agency — they've yet to publicly disclose the answer to key questions, such as how many U.S. users were affected, who perpetrated the hack and what was targeted, among others. [POLITICO's Morning Tech, October 4, 2018]


ENERGY INITIATIVE AFOOT — The Department of Homeland Security and the Energy Department announced a new "Pipeline Cybersecurity Initiative" Wednesday evening that gathers experts from multiple agencies and industry to discuss threats and risks to natural gas. Karen Evans, the head of DHS's new Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response, said the initiative "will leverage the unique expertise of DOE, DHS, TSA, and other federal agencies to support the efforts of the Oil and Natural Gas Subsector Coordinating Council to address the threats to our nation's pipelines." Krebs said the initiative will combine the resources of those agencies to create a better understanding of cyber risks in the sector.
The announcement comes one day after a meeting between DHS, DOE and the industry council. "This meeting and the ones to follow will build upon the expanded cyber security measures in the recently updated Pipeline Security Guidelines and our collaboration with the (DHS's) National Risk Management Center to minimize the consequences of an attack or disruption," said TSA Administrator David Pekoske. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, October 4, 2018]


CISA NEARLY DONE, CELEBRATION ENSUES — The Senate finally passed a bill renaming the main DHS cybersecurity wing, drawing cheers and jubilation across the land from the department and the legislation's long-suffering congressional backers. A slight amendment to the legislation (H.R. 3359) means it has to go back to the House, where Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul originally proposed it, for another quick vote. Then it's off to President Donald Trump's desk, where he's expected to sign the measure.
Gone will be the incomprehensible National Protection and Programs Directorate — a name that DHS officials and even the vice president said inhibited the department's cyber work. Undersecretary Chris Krebs will now oversee, instead, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that will be elevated from a headquarters function with responsibility over both those subjects and an emergency communications division. "CISA will define our nation's leading cybersecurity agency as a standalone operational organization clearly tasked with deploying DHS' cybersecurity and infrastructure security missions," said Rep. John Ratcliffe, chairman of the Homeland Security cyber subcommittee. "By delineating CISA into three divisions, we can ensure that undersecretary Krebs will have ongoing and enhanced success in carrying out the existing authorities provided in law."
Krebs tweeted: "This will go a long way in our ability to defend the nation against #cyber threats." Getting the bill through took a big push from lawmakers, the Trump administration and heavy-hitting industry groups like the Chamber of Commerce and BSA | The Software Alliance. "It is ridiculous that DHS needs an act of Congress to rename and reorganize an agency wholly within its jurisdiction," said Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, who ultimately shepherded the bill through his chamber but whose attempts to attach it to other legislation fell through. "Nevertheless, I am glad the Senate passed the CISA bill to help the agency recruit talent and focus its efforts on protecting the homeland from cyber-attacks." [POLITICO's Morning Cybersecurity, October 4, 2018]



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