Lawmakers aim to slash climate funds in two spending bills
Annual spending legislation for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 would set discretionary spending at USDA and related agencies at $25.5 billion, which Republican appropriators said would reflect a 4.4 percent decline from this year's level.
While the proposal would hit certain areas especially hard — such as the climate hubs, conservation and urban agriculture — it would increase spending at the Agricultural Research Service and maintain funding to fight animal and plant pests and diseases at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
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The Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture is scheduled to mark up the bill Thursday. Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said in a news release that the measure 'reflects a clear, conservative commitment to fiscal responsibility while ensuring that America's farmers, ranchers, and rural communities remain a top priority.'
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China Commerce Ministry Expert Sees Uncertainty Despite US Truce
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Federal becomes local: The nation's capital finds itself at the center of a Donald Trump maelstrom
WASHINGTON (AP) — The questions came fast to the mayor of the nation's capital, many of them designed to get her to say something harsh about Donald Trump — in particular, the president's freshly announced plan to take over the Metropolitan Police Department and call in the National Guard. But on Monday afternoon, for the most part, third-term Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser didn't take the bait. She calmly laid out the city's case that crime has been dropping steadily and said Trump's perceived state of emergency simply doesn't match the numbers. She also flatly stated that the capital city's hands are tied and that her administration has little choice but to comply. 'We could contest that," she said of Trump's definition of a crime emergency, "but his authority is pretty broad.' 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She watched with open concern for the city streets as Trump finally got his military parade this summer. Her decision to dismantle Black Lives Matter Plaza earlier this year served as a neat metaphor for just how much the power dynamics between the two executives had evolved. Now that fraught relationship enters uncharted territory as Trump has followed through on months of what many D.C. officials had quietly hoped were empty threats. The new standoff has cast Bowser in a sympathetic light, even among her longtime critics. 'It's a power play and we're an easy target,' said Clinique Chapman, CEO of the D.C. Justice Lab. A frequent critic of Bowser, whom she accuses of 'over policing our youth' with the recent expansions of Washington's youth curfew, Chapman said Trump's latest move 'is not about creating a safer D.C. It's just about power.' Where the power actually lies Bowser contends that all of the power resides with Trump, and her administration can do little other than comply and make the best of it. The native Washingtonian spent much of Monday's press conference tying Trump's takeover to the larger issue of statehood for the District of Columbia. As long as Washington D.C., remains a federal enclave with limited autonomy under the 1973 Home Rule Act, she said it will remain vulnerable to such takeovers. 'We know that access to our democracy is tenuous," Bowser said. "That is why you have heard me, and many many Washingtonians before me, advocate for full statehood for the District of Columbia.' Section 740 of the Home Rule Act allows the president to take over Washington's police for 48 hours, with possible extensions to 30 days, during times of emergencies. No president has done so before, said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's D.C. chapter. 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12 minutes ago
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RFK Jr. tours CDC headquarters following deadly shooting
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