Democrats eye changes to climate spending clawbacks
'Clearly, their idea of a good day is to get up in the morning and try to roll back the opportunity for some clean energy,' said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member on the Finance Committee. 'I think they're going to find that what they really get out of it is higher prices, because they're reducing choices and competition in private markets.'
The Senate advanced the rescissions bill on two procedural motions Tuesday night — with Vice President JD Vance breaking 50-50 ties both times — and will kick off a marathon series of amendment votes as soon as Wednesday. It's not yet clear which, or how many, amendments could get votes.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and fellow appropriators Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted against moving forward.
Collins said in a statement, 'The sparse text that was sent to Congress included very little detail and does not give an accounting of the specific program cuts that would total $9.4 billion. For example, there are $2.5 billion in cuts to the Development Assistance account, which covers everything from basic education, to water and sanitation, to food security – but we don't know how those programs will be affected.'
Republican leaders are hoping to pass the package and send it back to the House, where a previous version passed last month, for a final vote before the weekend.
The legislation needs only a simple majority to pass, and it must get the president's signature by midnight Friday in order to rescind the funds in question.
The legislation, championed by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, would target the United States' fiscal 2025 contributions to multilateral environmental efforts such as the Montreal Protocol and the Clean Technology Fund.
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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democratic socialist in Maryland legislature ready to ‘fight like hell,' says party moving in his direction
BALTIMORE — As self-described 'Democratic socialist' candidates are seeing greater success in races around the country, one Maryland lawmaker who embraces the label believes Democratic Party voters are shifting in his direction. Del. Gabe Acevero, a 34-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America, represents Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly. He was first elected in 2018 — long before Zohran Mamdani and Omar Fateh gained national attention for winning the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City and an endorsement from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minneapolis' mayoral race, respectively. As the electorate becomes younger and more progressive, Acevero said that establishment Democrats should 'be cognizant' of what that constituency wants if it plans to win elections. 'If you look at where our base, where our constituency and where America is trending, we have to focus on working-class issues — from housing to socioeconomic, gender, environmental, justice — and we can't just continue to provide lip service as a party,' he said. 'We have to fight like hell, not just for the policies, but for workers and the working class. And that's what I've been committed to in the legislature and will continue to do so.' Del. Matt Morgan, a Republican from St. Mary's County, said he knows Acevero well and considers him 'a nice guy.' He said it's 'undeniable' that the Democratic Party is shifting in Acevero's direction. And, in fact, 'it's already there,' Morgan said. He thinks the push into socialism is ultimately a losing proposition for Maryland voters. 'Socialism has a 100% failure rate. The more it's implemented in Maryland, the more people are going to leave,' Morgan said. Recent elections in New York and Minnesota are perhaps indications that the word 'socialism' does not carry the same negative connotation among voters today — especially among Generation Z and younger millennials born after the Cold War, according to Flavio Hickel, an associate professor of political science at Washington College. These voters, and others who increasingly identify as 'working class,' believe Democrats 'need to offer a more ambitious, aggressive, and left-leaning' policy vision, Hickel told The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday. 'I don't think mainstream Democrats would regard what [Acevero] said as probably all that offensive or problematic,' Hickel said. 'They just might differ in sort of, the tactics — how far, how quick and how aggressively do we pursue progressive change?' A staff member for the Maryland Democratic Party did not immediately respond to The Sun's request for comment on Acevero's claims that Democrats are moving in his direction. What a Democratic socialist wants in Maryland Acevero's campaign platform has often leaned progressive: police and criminal justice reform, a $15-per-hour minimum wage, single-payer Medicare For All, universal basic income, higher taxes for the wealthy, and support for kids aging out of the foster care system. 'I think, at the time, a lot of people were trying to, essentially, discourage Democratic voters in District 39 from voting for me, because [they thought], 'these are like radical socialist policies,'' said Acevero. 'In actuality, what they are are popular policies that working people in our state want to see enacted, and so we ran a — similar to Zohran [Mamdani] — a people-powered campaign.' Like Mamdani, Acevero has been vocal in his support of Palestinians in the Gaza war against Israel during his time in the state legislature. In 2025, he introduced the Not On Our Dime Act, which would have required the Maryland Secretary of State to remove nonprofit organizations from the state's Registry of Charitable Solicitation if they knowingly engage in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity. That bill was heard in the House Judiciary Committee, but not debated on the floor. Acevero also sponsored a joint resolution in 2024 that would have conveyed to Maryland's congressional delegation that the General Assembly supports a long-term ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. The joint resolution was heard in the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee, but did not advance further. 'I've been very unapologetic' Acevero told The Sun that Democrats 'weren't particularly fond of' him because, prior to his election in 2018, he was an activist with a penchant for holding politicians in both parties accountable. 'I wasn't the darling of the establishment, and I certainly wasn't embraced by the establishment Democrats in District 39,' he said. 'I unseated a two-term incumbent, and I ran on a working-class, progressive agenda that some folks tried to weaponize … using the whole 'Red Scare Socialism' scare tactic.' Acevero alleges establishment figures later hand-picked a candidate to beat him in the 2022 primary, calling his policies 'pie in the sky' or 'radical.' Still, he won. Though he's rounding out his second term, Acevero still isn't necessarily 'embraced' by other Democrats in the General Assembly. Often when he participates in floor debates, he is jeered and his comments — occasionally incendiary — are often called into question. In 2021, he offered amendments to a package of major police reform bills because he felt the settled policy didn't go far enough. Acevero voted against the Democratic redistricting plan later that year because he says he doesn't believe in gerrymandering. He's publicly critical of criminal justice bills that establish mandatory minimum sentences, of which he said: 'Time and again, civil rights organizations have pointed out … it ties judges' hands, but it also disproportionately impacts, you know, Black and Latino people.' 'I've been very unapologetic about the policies that I advocate for and who I am, because I think it's important,' he said, adding that efforts to 'delegitimize Democratic Socialists and their policies [have] never worked.' -----------------
CNN
12 minutes ago
- CNN
Mamdani names a new campaign manager as part of staff expansion
Zohran Mamdani is naming a new campaign manager and hiring additional staff, CNN has learned, as the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor aims both to consolidate support heading into the November general election and to begin planning a potential administration. Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani's chief of staff in the state assembly and the manager of his primary campaign, will become chief adviser, people familiar with campaign operations told CNN. Her new role reflects Mamdani's desire to begin long-term planning – not technically transition work, since he has to win in November first – and thinking through the implementation of his sweeping ideas. She will be succeeded as campaign manager by Maya Handa, who ran the mayoral primary campaign of state senator Zellnor Myrie. Handa has worked for notable local and national progressive figures including former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the locally powerful Working Families Party. Bisgaard-Church, in a statement, told CNN she's 'incredibly proud of the historic campaign we ran in the primary. While our focus now is singularly to ensure Zohran is elected as the next mayor of New York City, I'm excited to take on this new role and continue building toward the future.' Mamdani, who was largely unknown before his primary campaign took off, has held conversations with elected and community leaders whose support he is trying to win, lining up endorsements even as top New York Democrats have declined to back him. His campaign is absorbing supporters and top aides from his former rivals, part of his efforts to unite different camps of progressives and mainstream Democrats. Handa will be joined by Afua Atta-Mensah as political director and Deandra Khan as director of labor and intergovernmental affairs. Atta-Mensah is taking a leave from her position at the group Community Change. Khan was an adviser to the president of 32BJ SEIU, a union of mainly building workers that backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, arguing he was the leader the city needed to deliver for working people in the city. The union has since endorsed Mamdani. A 33-year-old who has never run a staff larger than his state assembly office, Mamdani is hoping to become the chief executive of a city of 8 million people with a nearly $116 billion annual budget and over 300,000 employees. He'll be hoping to do that while radically reworking city operations, from launching government-run grocery stores to trying to make buses free, all while managing complications like union contracts and the massive police force. The staff expansion comes while the candidate himself has been in Uganda for most of the last half of July for another celebration of his wedding. Mamdani this week also expanded his press and communications staff and shifted aides who were in top roles for the primary campaign to other spots internally. Mamdani aides argue this is part of the natural growth and maturation as the campaign moves to a bigger stage, pointing out that no one has left, only more people have joined. In something of a shift since his shocker primary victory, Mamdani himself has adapted his own approach since the primary win, with more of his public time spent standing behind a lectern at set events, while Cuomo, who is staying in the race as an independent, has taken to making low-cost videos out on the streets in the hopes of breaking back through. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, also running as an independent, has spent much of his time mocking both.
CNN
13 minutes ago
- CNN
Powell privately adamant that he will serve out his full term at the Fed
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has told multiple associates and allies that there's no chance he will bow to President Donald Trump's calls for him to resign, vowing to withstand several more months of the president's unprecedented, multi-pronged assault over Powell's refusal to lower interest rates. The top central banker has privately argued that he must stay put for more than just personal reasons — the fate of his chairmanship is now linked with that of the Fed's overall independence, according to people familiar with the discussions. He has said that stepping down now would undermine the institution's longstanding freedom from political interference. 'He feels very strongly that his responsibility is to maintain that independence,' said GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who is among those who have personally questioned Powell over whether he might quit. 'I've asked him, and he says no, that would reduce the independence of the Federal Reserve.' Powell's determination to serve out his term through May 2026 ensures he will remain the target of a White House-led attacks on the Fed, which has faced intensifying pressure to cut interest rates. That coordinated effort has put the central bank's traditionally staid decision-making under intense scrutiny — and raised fresh concerns about the potential economic consequences of meddling with monetary policy for political purposes. A low-key economic expert who did a stint in the George H.W. Bush administration, Powell has earned a reputation over more than a decade at the Fed as studiously non-partisan 'straight shooter' who relies on reams of data to make decisions, according to people who worked with him. His detachment from day-to-day politics, despite what one of the people described as his moderately conservative learnings, helped Powell earn bipartisan support in the Senate when Trump nominated him to chair the Fed in 2017. But the no-frills approach that appealed to Trump in his first term has since become yet another strike against the Fed chair. The president has repeatedly bristled at Powell's unwillingness to engage with his calls to cut rates. And Powell's generally stoic personality has done little to win Trump over. 'I think he's terrible,' Trump said earlier this month. 'It's like talking to a chair. No personality.' Trump has ratcheted up his criticism in recent weeks, openly saying he hopes Powell resigns, accusing him of trying to damage his presidency and insulting him on a near-daily basis as 'stupid,' a 'numbskull' and 'truly one of my worst appointments.' Those attacks have been regularly amplified by Trump aides and close allies, who at some points have spread unfounded rumors that the Fed chair's resignation was imminent. The White House in recent weeks has spent significant time spotlighting the price tag of a renovation project at the Fed, launching investigations into the cost overruns for the $2.5 billion project and suggesting it could be a fireable offense. On Thursday, Trump sought to press the issue by traveling to the Fed to tour the construction, where Powell personally escorted him around. The Fed chair stood by as Trump advocated for rate cuts, at one point laughing awkwardly as the president slapped him on the back and said he'd 'love him to lower interest rates.' 'I just want to see one thing happen,' Trump said later. 'Interest rates have to come down.' Despite the criticism, Trump reiterated that he has no plans to fire Powell — his advisers have warned that doing so would tank the financial markets and spark an economic crisis. But Trump and his aides have instead sought to make Powell's tenure as painful as possible to undermine his credibility and potentially even drive him to quit. Trump allies have homed in on the Fed's pricey renovation, viewing it as a particularly potent weapon. (Trump has pushed his own renovations at the White House, albeit on a much smaller scale.) Still, his allies argue that they can use the Fed project to increase public pressure on Powell by contrasting the hefty spending on the Fed headquarters with everyday Americans' struggles to afford homes — something they point out could be alleviated if the central banker would cut interest rates. 'Every day that Jerome Powell is in Washington is a gift to the president,' said one Trump adviser, who likened the pressure campaign to boiling a frog. 'Either Jerome Powell leaps or he boils.' A Federal Reserve spokesman declined to comment for this article, pointing instead to Powell's prior public pledges to serve the entirety of his term. Yet for all the furor coming from the White House, Powell has indicated to associates that he's keeping his head down. Publicly, he's remained solely focused on carrying out the Fed's work setting monetary policy without consideration of the political reverberations. That approach appeared to pay off at least temporarily on Thursday, with Trump backing off his harshest rhetoric following a conversation with Powell during the Fed construction tour that he described as a 'very productive talk.' 'There's always Monday morning quarterbacks, I don't want to be that,' Trump said afterward, declining to criticize the renovations that he and his aides had previously described as a scandal. 'It got out of control, and that happens.' The détente may not hold much longer, with the Fed widely expected to hold rates steady next week and delay any shift in policy until the fall. That decision is likely to infuriate Trump, who has fixated on cutting rates as a way to further juice the economy ahead of next year's midterm elections. But in both private and public, Powell has shrugged off the political implications, emphasizing the need to stick solely to the economic considerations that have long guided the Fed. 'The best defense for the Fed is to get the policy right,' said Bill English, a Yale professor and former director of the Fed's division of monetary affairs. 'I feel sorry for the guy, but the best he can do at this point is hang tough and do the best job he can on monetary policy.' Outside of Trump's orbit, Powell's resolve to finish his term has won praise from Democrats — including many who had previously criticized him during the Biden era when the Fed kept raising rates to try to combat a surge of inflation. At the time, Powell's insistence on keeping rates higher for longer in pursuit of a so-called economic soft landing prompted consternation among some in the Biden White House and the broader Democratic Party who worried the approach would tip the country into a recession. But former officials have since rallied around him, anxious over the potential fallout should Powell decide to leave. 'He's putting the integrity of the institution above himself,' said Jared Bernstein, who chaired the Biden-era Council of Economic Advisers. 'If I were a 72-year-old guy who's getting verbally abused by the president on a daily basis, retirement would look pretty good. But I really believe that Powell is engaged in protecting the institution.' As for Republicans, some lawmakers wary of damaging the Fed's credibility have encouraged the White House to back off its criticisms, arguing that it'll benefit Trump more when Powell does begin lowering interest rates if it doesn't come amid a cloud of political pressure. Yet until that message breaks through, they're putting their faith in Powell — and hoping he stays true to his word. 'The vast majority of the members of the Senate are smart enough to have been in contact with the markets, they've observed the markets, they know what an impact it would be on the markets should there be any inkling that the Fed was being coerced,' said Rounds, the Republican senator. '[Powell's] in the right position. He's got a very tough position, but I respect him for the position he's taken.'
