Politics

By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, met for about four hours on Thursday with the congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Thomas was seen entering the meeting room used by the House of Representatives select committee for its interviews just before 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). She departed at about 1:45 p.m. EDT, having left the room multiple times to huddle with her lawyer.

The panel’s chairperson, Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, told reporters Thomas was answering some questions and had reiterated her belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.

Her attorney, Mark Paoletta, said she had answered all of the committee’s questions.

“She was happy to cooperate with the Committee to clear up the misconceptions about her activities surrounding the 2020 elections,” he said in a statement.

“As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas had significant concerns about fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election. And, as she told the Committee, her minimal and mainstream activity focused on ensuring that reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated. Beyond that, she played no role in any events after the 2020 election results,” Paoletta said.

Thomas, who is active in conservative political circles, attended a rally Trump held shortly before thousands of his supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.

At the rally, Trump gave an incendiary speech repeating his false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud, and he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol.

A committee spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The committee had been scheduled to hold a public hearing on Wednesday, but postponed it because of the threat to Florida by powerful Hurricane Ian.

The postponement raised the possibility that a recording of Thomas’ statements to the panel could be included in the next public hearing.

Thompson said he did not yet have a date for the rescheduled hearing, but that it would take place before the mid-term elections on Nov. 8.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; Editing by Will Dunham and Bill Berkrot)

source

By Paul Grant and Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration on Thursday changed its guidance on who qualifies for federal student loan forgiveness, hours after six Republican-led states filed a challenge to its student debt cancellation program.

President Joe Biden said in August that the U.S. government will forgive $10,000 in student loans for millions of debt-saddled former college students, keeping a pledge he made in the 2020 campaign for the White House.

The decision from the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday affects Federal Family Education loan (FFEL) borrowers – whose loans were issued and managed by private banks but guaranteed by the federal government – and does not allow them to consolidate their loans and qualify for debt relief.

Earlier, the department’s website advised these borrowers that they could consolidate these loans into federal direct loans and qualify for relief.

On Thursday, the department changed the language to: “As of Sept. 29, 2022, borrowers with federal student loans not held by ED cannot obtain one-time debt relief by consolidating those loans into Direct Loans.”

According to federal data, more than 4 million borrowers still have commercially-held FFEL loans.

It was not immediately clear what led to the decision.

“As recently as yesterday, the site said they were working on a solution for these borrowers,” Betsy Mayotte, president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, tweeted. “This is a gut punch, to say the least.”

Earlier on Thursday, in a lawsuit, Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and South Carolina asked the court for an immediate temporary restraining order pausing the student debt relief program.

The lawsuit argued that when FFEL borrowers consolidate their old loans into federal direct loans, private banks essentially lose business.

The lawsuit comes two days after conservative group Pacific Legal Foundation filed a federal lawsuit with the intent of stopping Biden’s student loan cancellation plan.

On Monday ,the Congressional Budget Office said Biden’s plan to cancel some student loan debt will cost $400 billion.

Critics of the plan raised concerns over its inflationary impact, while the White House said it was fiscally justified because the federal deficit was on track to drop by $1.7 trillion reduction in the current fiscal year compared with the prior year. The smaller deficit is largely due to the end of many COVID-19 aid programs and unexpectedly higher revenues.

As of June 30, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans. About $430 billion of that debt will be canceled, the CBO estimated. The CBO previously projected that some of the funds canceled by Biden’s action would eventually have been forgiven anyway.

(Reporting by Paul Grant and Nandita Bose; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Deepa Babington)

source

PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — In a show of defiance, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday, hours after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris flew home from a visit to South Korea during which she emphasized the “ironclad” U.S. commitment to the security of its Asian allies.

It was the third round of missile launches by North Korea this week, extending a record pace in weapons testing as it accelerates a push to expand its arsenal and pressure Washington to accept it as a nuclear power.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean missiles were fired nine minutes apart from an area near the city of Sunchon, just north of the capital, Pyongyang, and flew toward waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. It didn’t immediately release more details.

Japan’s military said it also detected a launch. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, while Harris was in Japan, and fired one before she left Washington on Sunday.

Harris earlier capped her four-day trip to Asia with a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and a stop at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean Peninsula, where she addressed the threat posed by the increasingly hostile North.

There are also concerns that North Korea may conduct a nuclear test, which would move the country closer to being acknowledged as a full-fledged nuclear power. Visiting the DMZ has become something of a ritual for American leaders hoping to show their resolve to stand firm against aggression.

At the DMZ, Harris went to the top of a ridge, near guard towers and security cameras. She looked through bulky binoculars as a South Korean officer pointed out military installations on the southern side. Then an American officer pointed out some of the defenses along the military demarcation line, including barbed-wire fences and claymore mines. He said American soldiers regularly walk patrols along a path.

“It’s so close,” Harris said.

Harris then visited one of a row of blue buildings that straddle the demarcation line, where an American officer explained how the buildings are still used to conduct negotiations with North Korea. Sometimes they pass messages back and forth and sometimes they use a megaphone, he said.

“That’s high tech,” Harris joked, before adding, “We’ve stepped into history.”

“It’s still going,” the colonel said.

Harris agreed. “The past and present are happening every day.”

She then walked out of the building and up to the demarcation line. On the North Korean side, two figures dressed in what appeared to be hazmat suits peeked out from behind a curtain in a second-floor window. Then they disappeared back inside.

Harris described the North Korean missile launches as provocations meant to “destabilize the region” and said the United States and South Korea remain committed to the “complete denuclearization” of the North.

“I cannot state enough that commitment of the United States to the defense of the Republic of Korea is ironclad,” she said.

“In the South, we see a thriving democracy. In the North, we see a brutal dictatorship,” she said before flying out of the border on a U.S. military helicopter.

Earlier, Harris met with President Yoon at his office in Seoul and reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend the South with a full range of its military capabilities in the event of war, Yoon’s office said.

They expressed concern over North Korea’s threats of nuclear conflict and pledged an unspecified stronger response to major North Korean provocations, including a nuclear test.

Harris and Yoon were also expected to discuss expanding economic and technology partnerships and repairing recently strained ties between South Korea and Japan to strengthen their trilateral cooperation with Washington in the region. Their meeting also touched on Taiwan, with both reaffirming their countries’ support for “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait, according to Yoon’s office, which didn’t elaborate.

In every meeting, Harris tried to lay to rest any fears that the United States was wavering in its commitment to protect its allies, describing American partnerships with South Korea and Japan as the “linchpin” and “cornerstone” of its defense strategy in Asia.

Yoon, who took office earlier this year, had anchored his election campaign with vows to deepen Seoul’s economic and security partnership with Washington to navigate challenges posed by the North Korean threat and address potential supply chain risks caused by the pandemic, the U.S.-China rivalry and Russia’s war on Ukraine. But the alliance has been marked by tension recently.

South Koreans have decried a new law signed by President Joe Biden that prevents electric cars built outside of North America from being eligible for U.S. government subsidies, undermining the competitiveness of automakers like Seoul-based Hyundai.

During their meeting, Harris told Yoon that Washington will try to address South Korean concerns as the law is implemented, Yoon’s office said.

Scott Snyder, an analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the dispute over electric vehicles has swiftly become a firestorm that U.S. officials cannot ignore, although there may not be a simple solution.

“It’s taking on a level of urgency that’s making it into a political problem that requires management,” Snyder said. “I don’t know that it’s going to be easy for the Biden administration to do that.”

After meeting Yoon, Harris, the first woman to serve as U.S. vice president, held a roundtable with female leaders on gender equity issues.

“If we want to strengthen democracy, we must pay attention to gender equity,” said Harris, who also raised the issue with Yoon.

There are indications North Korea may up its weapons demonstrations soon. South Korean officials said last week that they detected signs North Korea was preparing to test a ballistic missile system designed to be fired from submarines.

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was to train with South Korean and Japanese warships in waters near the Korean Peninsula on Friday in the countries’ first trilateral anti-submarine exercises since 2017 to counter North Korean submarine threats, South Korea’s navy said Thursday.

U.S. and South Korean officials also say North Korea is possibly gearing up for its first nuclear test since 2017. That test could come after China holds its Communist Party convention the week of Oct. 16, but before the United States holds its midterm elections Nov. 8, according to Seoul’s spy agency.

Nuclear diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea remains stalled since 2019 over disagreements on easing crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions against the North in exchange for the North’s disarmament steps.

source

By Andy Sullivan

(Reuters) – Glen Ullin, North Dakota, was first in line for money to replace its leaky water pipes before Washington cut funding by one-third this spring. The reason: Congress is yet again diverting money to pet projects known as “earmarks.

Advocates say these earmarks allow lawmakers to direct money where they believe it is needed most.

But they leave less money for everybody else.

Water projects in West Virginia, Alaska and Oklahoma will get more than twice as much money this year as last, thanks to earmarks secured by their congressional representatives.

That leaves states like North Dakota that did not get earmarks unable to fund as many projects as they had anticipated — even as President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law has secured $50 billion more for that purpose.

“Earmarks are a problem I wish people could see. It’s just quite drastic — winners and losers,” said DeAnn Ament, who heads North Dakota’s public-finance authority.

Earmarks serve as legislative “sweeteners” that build support for major bills by allowing lawmakers to steer federal dollars to projects in their districts, bypassing the bureaucracies that usually distribute federal aid.

A series of corruption scandals and concerns about wasteful spending prompted Congress to abolish earmarks in 2011. But as partisan funding battles led to repeated government shutdowns over the following decade, some lawmakers pushed for their return, arguing they could build support for the massive spending bills that keep government running.

NEW SAFEGUARDS

Democrats included new safeguards when they brought earmarks back last year. Lawmakers have to post their requests online and certify that they do not have a financial stake in the projects they propose. Earmarks are capped at 1% of discretionary spending, and cannot go to for-profit entities.

The annual government spending bill Biden signed in March included 4,983 earmarks, ranging from $133 million to upgrade port facilities in Alabama to $4,000 to buy a vehicle lift for the Huntington, West Virginia, police department.

That money was not distributed evenly: Alaska and Vermont pulled in more than $300 worth of earmarks per resident, according to a Reuters analysis, while North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana got no earmarks at all.

Congress increased the overall funding to some programs to cover the costs of earmarks.

That’s not the case with the two Environmental Protection Agency programs that fund local drinking-water and wastewater projects.

Congress provided $2.76 billion for the 2022 fiscal year, a slight increase over the prior year. But that included $841 million in earmarks, which reduced by 30% the amount available to state-run funds, which weigh criteria like affordability and health risks when they decide which projects to support with grants and low-interest loans.

Some states say that is not a problem.

The infrastructure law provides an additional $3.8 billion each year for water projects over the next five years, along with money to remove lead pipes and tackle “forever chemicals” that have emerged as a new environmental concern.

That means even states like North Dakota and Arkansas that did not secure water-system earmarks will have twice as much money this year, the Reuters analysis found.

“We’re doing much better than previous years,” said Chris Colclasure, who heads Arkansas’ natural-resources office.

Others say the cuts will have a lasting impact.

“Those projects that got the earmarks really did jump in front,” said Keith McLaughlin, head of Colorado’s water-development authority. Even with the extra infrastructure dollars, his state’s water funds will probably run out of money in the coming year, he added.

Earmarks allow local governments to bypass those state-run funds.

In New Jersey, several towns that would be normally too affluent to qualify for state grants secured earmarks anyway.

Saddle River, a New York City suburb where the median household income is two and a half times the national average, won a $1.1 million earmark to build a sewer line to a new housing development. The town would not qualify for a grant through the existing state program and did not apply for low-interest financing, according to a state official.

Saddle River did not respond to a request for comment. Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer, who helped secure the earmark, said he believed it was his duty to steer as much federal aid as possible back to his district.

“The more of our federal tax dollars that we get back to Jersey towns, the less our towns and families have to carry the burden in local taxes,” he said in a statement.

That wasn’t an option in North Dakota, whose congressional delegation did not submit any earmark requests this year or last.

Republican Senator Kevin Cramer said he has asked to ensure that states like his don’t get less funding if they do not secure earmarks. The state’s other senator, Republican John Hoeven, said he has been able to adequately fund North Dakota’s needs without earmarks.

That would have been the case for Glen Ullin, located 54 miles (86.9 km) west of Bismarck, had North Dakota gotten he same amount of money it did last year.

The city ranked first on the state’s list of eligible projects, due to the poor condition of its water system and a median household income that is half the national average.

State officials said they planned to award the city a grant of $2.2 million and a low-interest loan to cover the remainder of the $4.5 million project.

In May, the state learned it would only get $7 million for its drinking-water fund, down from $11 million the prior year.

That forced it to slash its grant for Glen Ullin to $1.4 million. Glen Ullin probably won’t qualify for infrastructure dollars because those are distributed using different criteria, officials say.

The city has scaled back its plans. Backhoes could start digging up some streets next spring to install new pipes, but nobody knows when they’ll be able to finish the job.

“Of course it’s not fair. But I wouldn’t be whiny about it,” said Vicki Horst, the city auditor. “We’ll keep working and see what we can do.”

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate was aiming to finish work on Thursday on a bill that would eliminate the threat of federal agency shutdowns on Saturday by extending expiring federal funding through Dec. 16, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

“With a little more good-faith negotiation between Democrats and Republicans, I am hopeful that today’s the day we’ll finish passing a continuing resolution to fund the government,” Schumer said in a Senate speech.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan)

source

By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) -An election worker in a western Michigan town has been charged with two felonies after allegedly inserting a flash drive into a computer containing confidential voter registration data during an election in August, local officials said on Wednesday.

At the Aug. 2 primary, an election worker was seen inserting a USB drive into the computer used to administer the election at a precinct in Gaines Township in Kent County, according to a statement by county clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons.

The incident highlights the so-called “insider threat” risk that has increasingly worried election officials, especially in battleground states like Michigan where falsehoods about systemic voter fraud in the 2020 election have spread most widely.

“This incident is extremely egregious and incredibly alarming. Not only is it a violation of Michigan law, but it is a violation of public trust and of the oath all election workers are required to take,” Lyons said in the statement.

Chris Becker, the county’s prosecuting attorney, said he had charged the election worker, James Donald Holkeboer, with falsifying election records and using a computer to commit a crime. If convicted, he could face up to nine years in prison.

Holkeboer could not be immediately reached for comment.

While Lyons did not name Holkeboer, she said the incident involved one of the “everyday citizens trained and certified by clerks to work the precincts and absentee county boards” and was not an employee of the county or Gaines Township.

The election worker was seen by a witness at a precinct in Gaines Township inserting a USB drive into the Electronic Poll Book, the computer used to administer the election. The poll book contains voter registration data, including confidential information barred from release under Michigan laws.

Lyons said the breach did not impact the outcome of the August primary as it occurred after the files had already been saved to the precinct’s encrypted system. She said the poll book is not connected to any tabulation equipment or the internet.

There have been a series of security breaches related to voting equipment in Michigan following the 2020 presidential election, with supporters of former President Donald Trump and his baseless claims about widespread voter fraud seeking access to tabulators in various locations in the state.

Last month, Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, appointed a special prosecutor to oversee the criminal investigation her office had kicked off into the security breaches. She sought to step back from the probe because her Republican challenger in November’s election, Matt DePerno, was among the nine individuals facing possible charges.

A spokesperson for Michigan’s Secretary of State said the breached equipment in Gaines Township has been decommissioned and will not be used in the November general election.

“While our elections remain secure and safe, we take seriously all violations of election law and will continue to work with the relevant authorities to assure there are consequences for those who break the law,” Angela Benander said in an emailed statement.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate could pass a temporary government funding bill as soon as Thursday, which would avert partial government shutdowns that otherwise would begin on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday.

“With cooperation from our Republican colleagues, the Senate can finish its work of keeping the government open as soon as tomorrow. There is every reason in the world to get to ‘yes,’” Schumer said in a Senate speech.

Once the Senate approves the bill that would extend government-wide funding through Dec. 16, the House of Representatives is expected to promptly take up and pass the bill.

There is strong bipartisan support in the Senate for the measure, which cleared a procedural hurdle late on Tuesday on a 72-23 vote.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Richard Cowan; Editing by Nick Macfie)

source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate could pass a temporary government funding bill as soon as Thursday, which would avert partial government shutdowns that otherwise would begin on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday.

“With cooperation from our Republican colleagues, the Senate can finish its work of keeping the government open as soon as tomorrow. There is every reason in the world to get to ‘yes,’” Schumer said in a Senate speech.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Richard Cowan)

source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he had spoken with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis the prior day about Hurricane Ian, adding that the federal government had met every request for help from the coastal state.

Biden also warned oil companies not to use the storm as a pretext to raise gasoline prices, which spiked earlier this year under pressure from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Do not, let me repeat, do not…use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people” Biden said, speaking at a White House event on hunger. “This small temporary storm impact on oil production provides no excuse for price increases at the pump, none,” he added.

After days of preparation, Hurricane Ian on Wednesday began lashing Florida’s Gulf Coast with powerful winds and drenching rain, prompting authorities to warn residents to hunker down as the eye of the Category 4 storm lurked just offshore.

Biden described the hurricane as incredibly dangerous and urged Florida residents to obey all warnings related to it.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Leah Douglas and Alexandra Alper)

source

By Richard Cowan, Moira Warburton and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday night to move forward with a stopgap funding bill that would avoid a government shutdown on Saturday, after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cut a controversial energy-permitting provision from the critical spending bill.

The bill has several more legislative steps before it passes, but Tuesday’s 72-23 vote is an indicator it has the bipartisan support needed to become law.

The vote occurred after Schumer, a Democrat, pulled a measure from the bill that would have made significant changes to energy project permitting, at the request of its author, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who accused Republicans in a statement of “allowing politics to put the energy security of our nation at risk.”

The change, made just a half an hour before the scheduled vote, meant the bill had enough support in the Democratic-controlled Senate to go ahead with a procedural vote to begin limited debate.

That move puts it one step closer to avoiding a partial government shutdown, a potential embarrassment for Democrats just six weeks before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake.

“Senate Republicans have made very clear they will block legislation to fund the government, if it includes bipartisan permitting reform, because they’ve chosen to obstruct instead of work in a bipartisan way,” Schumer said.

The bill, a continuing resolution known as a “CR” which would extend overall government funding through Dec. 16, had faced days of resistance over Manchin’s energy permitting reform measure.

Earlier on Tuesday, the chamber’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell had called on his fellow Republicans to reject the measure if it came to a vote with Manchin’s proposal to reform energy permitting, calling it a “partisan poison pill.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic climate hawk who also opposed the proposal, applauded the lack of permitting reform in the spending bill.

“In the midst of the horrific climate crisis that we face, the last thing we need is a side deal which would build more pipelines and fossil fuel projects that would have substantially increased carbon emissions,” he said in a statement after the vote.

The spending provisions that remain in the stopgap bill include $12.3 billion in new money to help Ukraine turn back Russia’s invasion, House of Representatives Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, said in a statement.

This includes military and economic assistance. In addition, it authorizes President Joe Biden to direct the drawdown of up to $3.7 billion for the transfer to Ukraine of excess weapons from U.S. stocks.

Amid reports of Russian forces threatening the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and Russian President Vladimir Putin hinting he might use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the legislation would appropriate $35 million “to prepare for and respond to potential nuclear and radiological incidents in Ukraine,” according to a bill summary.

Congress has resorted to this kind of last-minute temporary spending bill in 43 out of the past 46 years due to its failure to approve full-year appropriations in time for the Oct. 1 start of a federal fiscal year, according to a government study.

MANCHIN’S PERMITTING BILL

Manchin’s proposal would have sped up approvals of fossil fuel projects like natural gas pipelines but also for electricity transmission lines needed to bring power from wind and solar farms to cities.

“A failed vote on something as critical as comprehensive permitting reform only serves to embolden leaders like Putin who wish to see America fail,” Manchin said in a statement.

His legislation included permitting reform provisions and directs $250 million from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act to “improve and accelerate reviews for designated projects,” including the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Manchin’s home state of West Virginia.

But lawmakers from both parties opposed it.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said he had not been included in Manchin’s negotiations on legislation speeding up government consideration of Equitrans Midstream Corp’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which would pass through his state.

“We should pass a continuing resolution that is free of the unprecedented and dangerous MVP deal,” Kaine said.

Some Democrats and environmentalists also had opposed, fearing it would spark more development of fossil fuel projects at a time when the effects of climate change from carbon emissions are accelerating.

While Republicans normally favor quicker government reviews of fossil fuel projects, they have been angry at Manchin since he helped Democrats pass a bill this summer addressing climate change and lowering some healthcare costs.

Still included in the stopgap bill is a five-year renewal of Food and Drug Administration user fees being collected from drug and medical device companies to review their products and determine whether they are safe and effective, the bill summary showed.

The law authorizing the collection of fees expires on Friday.

The last time Congress allowed funding to lapse was in December 2018, when Democrats balked at paying for then-President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall, leading to a record 35-day impasse and a partial government shutdown.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Moira Warburton; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Katharine Jackson and Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Scott Malone, Mary Milliken, Sandra Maler and Chris Reese)

source