Another deceptively named bill, which profits the logging industry, has been introduced in the House. It's called the "Resilient Federal Forests Act." (H.R. 2936.) The Wilderness Society has a statement opposing it, but not much about it. Some groups I'm less familiar with do lay out the terms of the bill:
http://www.friendsoftheclearwater.org/r ... t-of-2017/
H.R. 2936 would:
Makes road building and logging the highest priority on the National Forests.
Subject millions of acres of roadless wildlands on the National Forests to road-building and logging.
... Do away with the required consultation process between federal agencies regarding protections for species listed under the Endangered Species Act.
This group also link to the text of the bill, but it's very long and complex. You also have to read between the lines and know some background on what's being changed, to see what the GOP is trying to do.
Another group has a more detailed analysis:
http://www.wildcalifornia.org/category/ ... bliclands/
For instance:
The bill gives a free pass to lawless logging by exempting logging plans up to 30,000 acres—nearly 47 square miles—that are developed through a “collaborative process” from having to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). By comparison, under the existing law only logging projects 70 acres or less are exempted from NEPA.
The bill would prohibit temporary injunctions and preliminary injunctions against “salvage” logging projects, virtually guaranteeing that logging will occur before a court can hear a challenge. The bill prevents plaintiffs from recovering attorneys’ fees if they win.
http://thehill.com/regulation/administr ... egulations
White House Budget chief Mick Mulvaney will release on Thursday a report claiming progress on regulatory rollback, a major priority of the Trump administration.
...Critics have charged that some of the regulatory rollbacks have come at a cost to the environment, consumer protections, and health. For example, the Bureau of Land Management is proposing a repeal of a regulation for hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, which the administration says is duplicative, and the Environmental Protection Agency is giving up regulations on oil and gas development in the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservations in Utah.
Republican leadership is not allowing the House to vote on limiting Trump's war authorization powers:
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/34214 ... g-in-house
A push to include a new war authorization in a House spending bill appears to have hit a roadblock, while a separate provision forcing Congress to discuss a new war authorization was stripped from the chamber's annual defense policy bill this week.
That war authorization, passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as a 2002 authorization for the Iraq War have together been used more than 37 times in the last 16 years by the past three presidents to justify military action in 14 countries, including the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
GOP leadership is not pleased with the language, despite the measure being surprisingly backed by both Republicans and Democrats when it was voted into the House defense spending bill in late June..
A shorter piece yesterday, after Ryan stripped the amendment.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/34266 ... democratic
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) blasted Speaker Paul Ryan late Tuesday, saying the Wisconsin Republican "stripped" her Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) repeal amendment in the "dead of night."
Apparently, we can blame Trump (and his threats) that the Senate keeps going back to their deeply unpopular efforts to either repeal Obamacare completely, or replace it with a bill that appeases the Tea Party but bothers moderate Republicans. Meanwhile, there's no effort to work with Democrats, physicians or others to fix Obamacare's flaws. And insurance companies are requesting double digit increases on premiums in the exchanges next year.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... o-his-will
Trump himself had urged Republicans to take up repeal-and-delay legislation, but changed his tune during a lunch with senators at the White House on Wednesday, where he warned them against abandoning the original bill.
...The president appeared to scold Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who sat beside him, saying the Nevadan “wants to remain a senator.” Heller had been among the Republicans holding out against the McConnell legislation. Trump also struck an ominous note for any GOP senator who might vote against a motion to proceed on the legislation, saying that doing so was tantamount to support for ObamaCare.
...CNN also reported that Trump loyalists Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie had been dispatched to add some extra muscle to the effort on Capitol Hill. Lewandowski was Trump’s first campaign manager. Bossie was deputy campaign manager in the final months of the presidential campaign.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... al/534282/
President Trump strongly criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the upper ranks of the Justice Department on Wednesday, telling The New York Times he would never have chosen Jeff Sessions as attorney general if he knew Sessions was going to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
...In the interview, Trump also lashed out at Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, ...Trump told the Times that Mueller would cross a red line if his inquiry “expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia,” and expressed frustration that Rosenstein had recommended that former FBI Director James Comey be fired and then appointed Mueller, who in his role as special counsel is now said to be looking into whether or not that firing amounted to obstruction of justice.
Transcript of the interview is here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/p ... cript.html
There are some things not covered in the news reports. For instance, this sounds like he doesn't necessarily support the pre-existing conditions clause of Obamacare. Though it's hard to tell, sometimes, what he thinks. He's not exactly a coherent, clear communicator.
"Nothing changes. Nothing changes. Once you get something for pre-existing conditions, etc., etc. Once you get something, it’s awfully tough to take it away."
...So pre-existing conditions are a tough deal. Because you are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan. Here’s something where you walk up and say, “I want my insurance.”
And some of his delusions are on display:
"I have had the best reviews on foreign land. So I go to Poland and make a speech. Enemies of mine in the media, enemies of mine are saying it was the greatest speech ever made on foreign soil by a president. I’m saying, man, they cover [garbled]"
Reporter defies the White House's efforts to keep its press briefings from being heard by the public:
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/34282 ... s-briefing
White House reporter Ksenija Pavlovic defied the White House's restrictions on reporters recording live audio coverage by streaming a live recording of a press briefing on Wednesday, the Washington Post reports. Pavlovic, who reports from the White House for her own news site, Pavlovic Today, used the Periscope app to stream the audio from the briefing and shared a link to the feed on her Twitter account.
...The White House has banned live audio and video coverage at every press briefing since June 29.
..."We get to listen to the briefing; they just won't let you listen to the briefing," Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said during his channel's broadcast. "It's the White House rules, not ours."
Sorry to be blunt, but it seems that some Americans are just stupid:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... th-russian
The poll from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling found that only 45 percent of Trump voters said they believe that Trump Jr. went to the meeting, even after he released an email chain proving that he was eager to receive potential dirt from the Russian government on his father's campaign rival Hillary Clinton at the meeting. Thirty-two percent of the Trump supporters said they don’t believe the meeting took place, while 24 percent said they aren’t sure, according to the poll results.
On the topic of Russia in general, 72 percent of Trump voters said stories about Russia are “fake news,” with less than a quarter of the voters thinking that there should be a probe into potential collusion with Russia.
... 77 percent of the Trump voters said they think Trump should stay in office even if the campaign did collude with Russia.
Edits: fixed an error and added a link to the transcript of the interview.