Cory Booker: ‘People Want to Know You Give a Shit'
Cory Booker had been railing against Donald Trump's agenda from the floor of the Senate for three hours when his feet started to go numb. On the lectern he had his cellphone out (against Senate rules), with his family group chat pulled up. Every now and then it pinged with a message of encouragement, or a photo of an absurdly shredded bald dude — the motivational speaker, ultramarathoner, and former Navy SEAL David Goggins — instructing him to 'STAY HARD.'
Booker's family read Goggins' book together back in 2021, his cousin Pam tells me. 'We developed our own internal language, like: 'Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop acting like you're doing something hard. Let's Goggins it out.'… Anytime we thought we were suffering, we'd say, 'Well, have you broken both of your legs and taped them up with duct tape and cardboard and gone and run 10 miles like David Goggins did?''
Booker started shifting from one foot to another as he spoke, rocking back and forth, trying to regain sensation in his lower extremities. By the time he finished speaking, 22 hours later, pillowy puffs of synthetic fiber had gathered in piles around his feet. He'd worn holes in the Senate floor's royal-blue carpet, but he had Goggins'd it out, surpassing the record set by the South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond, who filibustered, but failed to stop, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
By the next Saturday, after shaking each hand and grinning obligingly in every selfie following a town hall in Paramus, New Jersey, Booker sinks into the back of a black SUV, exhausted. 'I had food delivered to my house this morning — fruit and stuff like that, for energy — Amazon says it was delivered, but there was nothing on my doorstep, so I have no food at home,' he says, mournfully. 'I just wanted some fruit to wake up to.' For Booker, a vegan for more than a decade, there will be no pit stop for Jersey's famous Taylor Ham, but we're just about to pass one of Newark's handful of vegan restaurants, and it's still open. He bounds through the door triumphantly — only to be told they've just sold clean out, so he heads to the ice cream shop (also vegan) next door.
You might think by this point in the week, Booker would be tired of talking, but in case you failed to grasp this watching his 25-hour speech, this is a guy who loves to yap. Within a few minutes, he's learned every detail of the ice cream shop owner's backstory, persuaded her to make him his own cookie-dough-filled ice cream flavor (he already had a name in mind: Dough Unto Others), and he's recorded a video message to her husband, telling him, 'We both know you married up!' Booker himself has never been married. A relationship with the actress Rosario Dawson ended in 2022, but the pair remain friendly. After his speech, Dawson posted on Instagram, 'We're so proud of you. Go sleep now.' (Booker ate a banana and went straight into making a live appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show instead.)
At 56, Booker still retains the boyish pluck from back when he was elected the youngest councilman in Newark's history at the time. There, Booker quickly figured out that harnessing the attention of the media was the best option he had to effect change in the city. His first year in office, he set up a tent outside of Garden Spires, a notorious drug- and crime-plagued housing project, where he slept for 10 days, refusing food, and successfully shamed the mayor and landlord into improving conditions.
Booker keeps a map of Newark's Central Ward on the wall of his Senate office in Washington, D.C., beside bookshelves festooned with pop-culture memorabilia. Back in his office at the Capitol a few days after our drive through Newark, he shows off his boxed, mint-condition Lt. Nyota Uhura Star Trek figurine, his Broadway-cast recording of The Wiz ('I was crying, watching the stage in '74. I was only five years old, and they took me back to see it three times'), and The Wall Street Journal's original pointillist portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.
Booker offers me water in a Batman-branded pint glass, and sips from his own Green Lantern one. He talks like a pinball machine, a dizzying, discursive style that ricochets from one point of reference to the next. One question might elicit a 16-minute soliloquy that begins with the birth of his father, weaves through the long arc of American history, and the shorter arc of his own life and political career, name-checking the New York Times writer Ezra Klein, Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, and half a dozen of his congressional colleagues along the way. Printing that answer alone, in full, would take up more than double the amount of space allotted for this interview. So here, edited for length and clarity, are the best bits of Booker's two-part conversation with Rolling Stone.
What was the moment you committed to a marathon speech on the Senate floor?
The fight over the continuing [budget] resolution [and whether Senate Democrats should give Republicans the votes needed]. We had three heated caucus meetings in a row, and the yelling inside got so bad the reporters on the outside were hearing [us], and staff on the outside would be texting: 'You guys need to quiet down.'
When we made that decision [to give Republicans enough votes to pass the budget], I felt so deflated — and then heard from my constituents this eruption of frustration. I went back to my staff, and I said that we need to take some individual action. I'd been hearing that challenge from constituents: 'Take risks! Do something! We don't feel like you're doing enough.'
I'm here because we did unorthodox protests when I was coming up in Newark. When you are technically powerless — when I was a city councilperson, they had all the votes, and [Mayor] Sharpe James was a very powerful person — it forced me to think out of the box.
The speech reminded me of your Garden Spires demonstration in that way.
That was the moment that's most parallel in terms of: I was ready to quit. There was a woman who walked me up and down Garden Spires to get me elected, saying to people, 'This kid just got here, you don't know him, but you know me, this is who we're gonna support.' I wouldn't be here today without her — I think we got into the runoff by just 12 votes.
A year later, she's calling me for help, and I'm telling her I can't help her. [Right now,] a lot of Democrats are saying, 'We don't have the votes, we can't help.'
When I got out to Garden Spires, [that woman], Elaine Sewell, came over to me, and I thought she was going to get mad at me — because we had literally yelled at each other on the phone, and I hung up on her — but she saw me and treated me like the prodigal son, and I realized: I was yelling at her, telling her I couldn't do it, and I didn't even go there. I didn't even show up. That, really, was what she wanted. She just wanted me to show that I cared enough to come out and stand with her, or listen to her, you know? I think people understand that their politicians aren't going to wave a wand [and fix everything]. They want to know you give a shit.
'I'd been hearing from constituents, 'Do something!'' Booker tells Rolling Stone of his record-setting speech.
How did you prepare, physically?
I had the benefit of Chris Murphy's 2016 stand. [Booker stood alongside the Connecticut senator as he held the floor for 14 hours and 50 minutes in protest of the government's inaction on gun control.] I got a lot of data from what I was really facing. I realized the going-to-the-bathroom thing, which was the biggest thing I was obsessed with, was not as hard as being on your feet for 15 hours. It gave me a lot of data to think about: OK, how am I gonna biologically hack myself to make it through? I said, I'm gonna fast until I get to ketosis, because I know that when my liver has burned through all the glycogen, then you shift to burning ketones, you get very focused and a lot of energy — I learned that from my intermittent-fasting days.
I stopped drinking water the night before, and 24 hours of not drinking was too much. I didn't need to do it. By the end, as I felt my hands and leg muscles cramping up, I realized I was definitely dehydrated, and I just started shooting water in the last five hours, saying, 'Screw it about the bathroom thing.' I knew if I made it past the 20th hour, I could go for the record, and that adrenaline would probably pull me through.
Why not filibuster an actual piece of legislation?
The way the modern Senate works is they often will use procedural tactics to never give the opposition a chance to come in, so doing a real filibuster is very, very hard. In the modern Senate, it's very hard to even get control of the floor. I said to my team, 'How did Ted Cruz get control of the floor? How did Rand Paul? Figure out how they got control.' The person in the cloakroom told me, very annoyingly, 'We let [Rand Paul take the floor] because he promised it was only going to be a couple minutes — and he lied through his teeth.… Are you willing to lie to [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune?' I said, 'That's not the way I roll. I'm not going to lie, so let's just let them know that I'm going to take control of the floor and hold it for as long as I possibly can.'
There was this powerful moment where you shouted out Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, and it almost felt like you were trying to resurrect the spirit of bipartisanship from the energy you'd created in the room. Do you have any hope for bipartisanship at this point?
I definitely do. I have enough conversations with Republicans now who will tell me things privately that many won't say publicly. There are people that don't agree with some things that the president's doing, and that shows me that there's potential to stop those things from happening. The only hope we have of stopping some of the big things that I think are most menacing about the Trump administration is to get votes from the other side. You can't get that if you are demeaning and degrading and don't give anybody a pathway for them to do the right thing — a pathway for them to act out of conscience and not necessarily their politics.
'If anything, this last election shows us that who the candidate is matters.'
When you were a member of the Newark City Council, an executive from your own party, Mayor James, threatened and bullied you. Can you relate to your Republican colleagues, those who feel threatened by Trump, on that level?
No. I mean, look: There were definitely really scary times in Newark when cops would warn me, 'We're following you.' My father was always flipped out about, would somebody try to set me up? Like plant drugs in my [car or] whatever. There's a lot of physical fear or worry that I had in my early career — I still remember, when Faith Hochberg, this federal judge, was warning me, 'You are not safe.' She made me connect her with my mother because she just didn't think I was taking the threat seriously enough. One of my supporters hired a former Mossad agent to assess my security. He basically tells him: This guy is screwed. He is being followed. He lives in these projects that don't have any security.
How did Democrats end up in the position they're in today? And how do they get out of it?
There's lots of good autopsies that have talked about a generation of Democrats that have lost their connection to farmers, or certain unions, and the working class. Yet you still had an Obama wave, for example, and then you saw the famous Obama-to-Trump voters. I think that speaks to what is really important, which is: Are we, as a party or as individuals who are running for office, finding ways to make voters believe that we have a vision for them, that we see them and we are standing for them? You have to remember, there are multiple states where Trump won [in November] and the Democratic senator won, so clearly Democratic senators who overcame all of that, their message was: 'Hey, I see you. I'm going to fight for you,' so much so that people ticket-split. If anything, this last election shows us that who the candidate is matters. Clearly, we had great messengers in our party who overcame pretty tough obstacles.
I want to get back to being a party — or at least I want to be a leader that doesn't just talk about what I'm against, but what I'm for. To inspire people about the possibilities for themselves, their families, and our nation. Like, 'Hey, yes, things are really bad right now. I'm going to stand up and do everything I can to stop him from hurting you or violating the democratic principles and ideals that we all should be affirming and fighting for.'
But, even in this period, I think it's important that we center people and stand up for them and let them know that my focus isn't Donald Trump. My focus is you, and that's why I'm fighting. But it is important we're providing a compelling vision for America that gets people to believe, again, in us. Forget Democrats, when I say 'us,' I mean believe in America. Believe that the American dream has meaning.
What does that vision look like to you? Can you be specific?
There's a lot of cynicism now that's growing with Americans feeling like they can't live a better life than their parents, and there's a lot of unfortunate data that backs that up. From 1940 to 1980, there was this massive explosion in the middle class. Social mobility in our country was pretty extraordinary. Now, we're more of a classist, more of a static society than even England. But the technological frontiers of this generation create radical possibilities that our parents couldn't even conceive of.
What do you mean by that?
I believe in the democratizing force of technology — that gaps that we have right now, where education is still so dependent upon what ZIP code you're born in, where access to capital, whether you're an artist or an entrepreneur, is still very based upon 'Do you have the privilege to have a social network?' Our generation has an opportunity to get away from the binary tribalism and get back to the renewal of the American idea, to make it real to people — and more than anything, accessible to people. This is why people like Ezra Klein fire me up, because he's absolutely right in his book Abundance — don't tell me the United States of America is a nation of scarcity! We have the most abundant society on the planet Earth. The issue is not having enough resources. It's allocating them efficiently and effectively.
Abundance has sparked a debate about whether things like zoning regulations and environmental lawsuits — features of Democratic-governed states — hamper American progress. Do you agree with the thesis?
I think it is right on the major thematic conclusions, but, obviously, I read it in a much more sophisticated way from my own experience. [When I was mayor of Newark,] we were in a recession and I've got to grow our economy, I've got to create jobs because the unemployment rate is 20-plus percent, and one of the things I saw as an easy answer was the port area.
In Newark, kids have asthma rates four times higher because the port, the highways, the airport are all there. They breathe in horrible toxins, and around the port, I have all these brownfields, all this fallow land. If we could build acres and acres of warehouses right here, those trucks don't have to idle and drive, you can get [that container-ship cargo] right into the warehouses, it's a win-win. EPA, all of these regulators, were trying to stop me from doing something that would clean up my environment. I still remember having this big fight because they wanted the groundwater standards at my port area to be the same as residential. I'm like, 'That is utterly stupid. We're gonna cap the land, there's no hazard to people working there.' I was furious at the red tape and how much they were trying to slow my sprint. I had to beg, borrow, and threaten, often, to get people to move a lot quicker. So that experience supports the book's conclusion.
Booker's Senate office in D.C. is packed with pop-culture memorabilia.
Happy birthday, by the way. How did you celebrate?
I sat on the Capitol steps for about 12 and a half hours [with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, to protest the GOP budget and its proposed cuts to Medicaid].
I saw that, and it made me wonder if you have any downtime, or have you largely had to sacrifice a personal life for your career?
Especially in my early years, I lived a more one-dimensional life. I have a richer life now than I did as mayor. I didn't understand then that having an enriching personal life makes you better in your service and grounds you more in joy and happiness. Out there on the steps of the Capitol, I had a lot of family members and people close to me. Afterwards, we went back to Hakeem's office, and he generously had a birthday cake for me, and I had some of the people I'm closest to there to tease me, and make me laugh at myself, and love on me.
But I have diverse interests. I love reading. I'm a movie addict.
What was the last thing you saw in theaters?
God, has it been so long that it was Wicked? I'm a huge sci-fi fan and superhero fan, and just a movie fan in general. I came of age in the time of Star Wars, Rocky, E.T. It was my dad who made me such a crazy Star Trek fan. He loved this bold, optimistic view of the future: They banish poverty, they have created a unified Earth, and they're vegetarians. On the bridge of the Enterprise, you've got Asian Americans, African Americans, aliens, and white folks.
And I love music. I wake up and listen to podcasts that give me the news of the day, and then by the time I'm working out, it's whatever music can get me most pumped up.
Like what?
I can pull up my Spotify Wrapped from last year. I think I should give you the honest facts. My top 2024 songs: On top is Beyoncé — 'Texas Hold 'Em,' which I think I played way too much. Bruce Springsteen. Stevie Wonder. Lots of gospel music. Oh, Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love a Bad Name' made it into the top 20. 'The Color Purple,' Cynthia Erivo's song, I played a lot last year.
'When you are technically powerless, you think outside the box.'
You governed Newark through the last economic downturn. What are your fears for similar communities around the country if we do dip into another recession?
It was economic carnage in Newark. We had foreclosures that were epidemic throughout every neighborhood in Newark. We were seeing people losing their homes, losing their jobs. We had to cut our workforce by 25 percent — one out of every four workers in City Hall — because we couldn't print money. We had to live within the budget that we had. For me, as a leader during that period, every day you're just choosing from bad or worse. And you're seeing, everywhere you go, levels of hardship and suffering and struggle. You have people from food banks complaining to you that they're running out of resources.
Right now, there's a lot of talk about tariffs, talk about people's 401(k)'s losing value — we've heard from people who are putting off retirement. It could put people into a financial free fall, pushing them further into relying on payday lenders and other ways to get access to resources, which again just puts people into a debt spiral, causes bad, bad outcomes — from losing housing for children to, frankly, other measures that are painful to think about, or relive.
How did being in Israel on Oct. 7 influence your view on the war in Gaza, and your support for arms sales to Israel?
We were going over to meet with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, because the Saudis were really close to normalizing [relations]. The irony of it — and this is probably pride coming before the fall — but we were talking with this real sense of joy that, for the first time in our lives, we saw a real pathway to a two-state solution. [Benjamin] Netanyahu, we really believed, was going to be boxed in because he desperately wanted normalization with the Saudis — which was the big win — but the only pathway was to commit to an irrevocable path to a two-state solution. That's what we went over there feeling really excited about.
When I left, after the horrors of that day — basically, the State Department surrounded us with security folks and we were in and out of the bomb shelter, and they said, 'We need to get out.' Since then, it's nothing short of a painful reality for my office and myself, seeing the ways Hamas is getting exactly what they want, which is the focus being on Israel as the villain, and not the focus on Hamas and what they're doing, even today, to quell people that are trying to protest against them.
Now, Bernie [Sanders] has brought these resolutions of disapproval [for arms sales to Israel to the Senate floor]. I respect his right to do that. They have no chance of passing in the Senate or the House of Representatives. If anything, they create more division amongst Democrats who, if you polled us, all want a ceasefire and the return of hostages. All of us do. We want a cessation of these hostilities, and we want a pathway back to a two-state solution. I think what he's doing is symbolic, not substantive. We're looking to make a substantive change, and we're going to continue to advocate for that.
Are you going to run for president in 2028?
It would be the biggest malpractice of my life if I didn't tell you I am running for reelection two years before that election. I want to be reelected as a New Jersey senator, and my focus is to let my state know I am 100 percent focused.
What draws you to work in the Senate right now? It can seem like a pretty frustrating and thankless job, especially as a Democrat.
Coming here 13 years ago, I was the only Black person in the caucus, and this was the least diverse place I had ever worked. At the Judiciary Committee, every senator was white, and every staffer behind them was white. But when you leave here, and the night shift is coming in to do the work of keeping up the Capitol were predominantly people of color. As a guy who came out of Newark, I saw how the decisions they were making — like the Crime Bill of '94 — disproportionately impacted communities of color. I was stunned at how little diversity this place had. Being the only senator who lives in a community below the poverty line, I know I've been able to champion issues and causes that weren't being picked up at the time, like founding the Environmental Justice Caucus. Why? Because I know what lead does to children. I know what Superfund sites do.
Why do I love being here? It's as hard as hell. It's frustrating as hell. But I tell my team to always look for singles and doubles — and we get a lot — especially when we are advocating for a constituent that did not get the veterans' benefits they deserve, or what have you. But sometimes you hit home runs — like the child tax credit.
As a mayor, I could show you some of the proudest things that I've accomplished in my life, but that city is 300,000 people. In this job, I can do things that affect the whole state of New Jersey — 9 million-plus — and the nation as a whole. I love this job. I feel like I'm making a big difference, and sometimes the difference you make is just standing up and advocating for issues that not enough people are standing up for.
More from Rolling Stone
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
2024 Election Results Under Scrutiny as Lawsuit Advances
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A legal case questioning the accuracy of the 2024 election is moving forward. The lawsuit, brought by SMART Legislation, the action arm of SMART Elections, a nonpartisan watchdog group, filed the lawsuit over voting discrepancies in Rockland County, New York. Judge Rachel Tanguay of the New York Supreme Court ruled in open court in May that the allegations were serious enough for discovery to proceed. Newsweek has contacted SMART Elections for comment via email. People cast their ballots on the last day of early voting for the general election in Michigan at the Livingston Educational Service Agency in Howell on November 3, 2024. People cast their ballots on the last day of early voting for the general election in Michigan at the Livingston Educational Service Agency in Howell on November 3, 2024. Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images Why It Matters The lawsuit could renew debate about the 2024 election, though it won't change the outcome since Congress has certified the results declaring President Donald Trump the winner. It comes amid unconfirmed reports that voting machines were secretly altered before ballots were cast in November's election. The federally accredited testing lab, Pro V&V, that signed off on "significant" changes to ES&S voting machines—which are used in over 40 percent of U.S. counties—"vanished from public view" after the election, according to the Dissent in Bloom Substack. What To Know According to the complaint, more voters have sworn in legal affidavits that they voted for independent U.S. Senate candidate Diane Sare than the Rockland County Board of Elections counted and certified, contradicting those results. The complaint also cited numerous statistical anomalies in the presidential election results. They include multiple districts where hundreds of voters chose the Democratic candidate Kirsten Gillibrand for Senate, but none voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president. Max Bonamente, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the author of the Statistics and Analysis of Scientific Data, said in a paper that the 2024 presidential election results were statistically highly unlikely in four of the five towns in Rockland County when compared with 2020 results. What People Are Saying Lulu Friesdat, the founder and executive director of SMART Legislation, said in a statement: "There is clear evidence that the Senate results are incorrect, and there are statistical indications that the presidential results are highly unlikely. "If the results are incorrect, it is a violation of the constitutional rights of each person who voted in the 2024 Rockland County general election. The best way to determine if the results are correct is to examine the paper ballots in a full public, transparent hand recount of all presidential and Senate ballots in Rockland County. We believe it's vitally important, especially in the current environment, to be absolutely confident about the results of the election." Max Bonamente said in a paper on the voting data from Rockland County: "These data would require extreme sociological or political causes for their explanation, and would benefit from further assurances as to their fidelity." Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Newsweek: "Statistical irregularities in elections should always be investigated, but the sources of such inconsistencies, which can include error or miscalculation, are not always nefarious. Still, scrutinizing election results can strengthen confidence in elections. Mistakes can happen. "In this case, the drop-off inconsistencies could reflect the idiosyncratic nature of the 2024 presidential election cycle. Alone, statistical comparisons to previous cycles cannot provide definitive proof of wrongdoing. "In any case, it does not appear that any of these inconsistencies would be sufficient to change the outcomes of any of the elections in question in New York state. That does not mean they should not be scrutinized, and any errors, if verified, should be corrected for the historical record. But there is not necessarily any need to invalidate any of these elections in these jurisdictions." What's Next The lawsuit is seeking a full, hand recount of ballots cast in the presidential and U.S. Senate races in Rockland County. A hearing has been scheduled for September 22.


CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
Trump's 'big beautiful' spending bill could make it harder to claim this low-income tax credit
As Senate Republicans debate President Donald Trump's "big beautiful bill", a lesser-known provision from the House-approved package could make it harder to claim a low-income tax credit. If enacted as written, the House measure in the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" would require precertification of each qualifying child for filers claiming the so-called earned income tax credit, or EITC, starting in 2028. Under current law, taxpayers claim the EITC on their tax return — including Schedule EIC for qualifying children. The provision aims to "avoid duplicative and other erroneous claims," according to the bill's text. But policy experts say the new rules would burden eligible filers, who may forgo the EITC as a result. The measure could also delay tax refunds for those filers, particularly amid IRS cutbacks, experts say. More from Personal Finance:Job market is 'trash' right now, career coach says — here's whyWhat a 'revenge tax' in Trump's spending bill could mean for investorsWhat Trump's plan to slash Pell Grant to lowest level in a decade means for you "You're going to flood the IRS with all these [EITC] documents," said Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "It's just not clear how they're going to process all this information." Holtzblatt, who has pushed to simplify the EITC for decades, wrote a critique of the proposed precertification last week. "This is not a new idea, but was previously considered, studied and rejected for very good reasons," Greg Leiserson, a senior fellow at the Tax Law Center at New York University Law, wrote about the proposal in late May. Studies during the George W. Bush administration found an EITC precertification process reduced EITC claims for eligible filers, Leiserson wrote. During the study, precertification also yielded a lower return on investment compared to existing EITC enforcement, such as audits, he wrote. One of the key benefits of the EITC is the tax break is "refundable," meaning you can still claim the credit and get a refund with zero taxes owed. That's valuable for lower earners who don't have a tax bill, experts say. To qualify, you need "earned income," or wages from work. The income phase-outs depend on your "qualifying children," based on four IRS tests. "Eligibility is complicated," and residency requirements for qualifying children often cause errors, said Holtzblatt with the Tax Policy Center. For 2025, the tax break is worth up to $8,046 for eligible families. You can claim the maximum EITC with adjusted gross income up to $61,555 for single filers and $68,675 for married couples filing jointly. These phase-outs apply to families with three or more children. As of December 2024, about 23 million workers received the EITC for tax year 2022, according to the IRS. But 1 in 5 eligible taxpayers don't claim the tax break, the agency estimates. Nine Democratic Senators last week voiced concerns about the House-approved EITC changes in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. If enacted, the updates would "further complicate the EITC's existing challenges and make it more difficult to claim," the lawmakers wrote. Higher earners are more likely to face an audit, but EITC claimants have a 5.5 times higher audit rate than the rest of U.S. filers, partly due to improper payments, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. The proposed EITC change, among other House provisions, still need Senate approval, and it's unclear how the measure could change. However, under the reconciliation process, Senate Republicans only need a simple majority to advance the bill.

Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Ahead of UN climate talks, Brazil fast-tracks oil and highway projects that threaten the Amazon
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Months before hosting the U.N.'s first climate talks held in the Amazon, Brazil is fast-tracking a series of controversial decisions that undercut President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's lofty environmental rhetoric and show widening divisions within his cabinet. The country's federal environmental agency approved plans for offshore drilling near the mouth of the Amazon and rock blasting along another river in the rainforest, while Congress is moving to make it harder to recognize Indigenous land and easier to build infrastructure in the rainforest. These efforts would be controversial in normal times. But on the eve of the COP30 climate summit, environmental advocates say they're undermining Lula's claims to be an environmental defender whose administration has made headway in slowing deforestation in the Amazon. 'What will Brazil show up with at COP30 in November?' asked Cleberson Zavaski, president of the National Association of Environmental Public Servants. 'Will it be, once again, a list of commitments that contradict what the country itself is putting on the table today — such as expanding the highway network and oil exploitation?' Lula pushed controversial drilling project Protecting the environment was a central part of Lula's presidential campaign in 2022, when he ran against President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over increasing deforestation and illegal activities in the Amazon, such as gold mining and land-grabbing. But when Brazil's environmental protection agency rejected the state-run oil company's bid to conduct exploratory drilling in an about 160 kilometers (99 miles) off Brazil's Amazonian coast, Lula supported the company's appeal and in February criticized the agency for taking too long, saying it 'seems like it's working against the government.' On May 19, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources or IBAMA, approved an emergency plan to allow the drilling. A week later, IBAMA approved a rock-blasting operation along 40 km (25 miles) of the Tocantins River to enable year-round navigation, despite criticism from local grassroots organizations. The river, which cuts through the Amazon rainforest, is set to become a critical waterway to ship soybeans, mainly to China. The Federal Prosecutor's Office said the authorization was illegal because it failed to address issues highlighted during the environmental study, and filed a lawsuit seeking to have it overturned. Since taking office in 2023, Lula has argued that Brazil can both further its development while protecting the environment. 'France, the U.K., Norway and the U.S. also produce oil. And Brazil has the cleanest energy mix in the world: 90% of our electricity comes from renewables,' Lula said in an interview to French newspaper Le Monde published last week. Brazil gets most of its own electricity from hydropower and other green energies, while its oil exports, a major source of income for the country, are on the rise. Emails to the president's chief of staff seeking comment were not answered. Congress weakens environmental protections On May 21, the Senate approved sweeping legislation that weakens federal agencies' environmental licensing powers. Among other measures, the bill streamlines review for projects deemed priorities by the federal government, reducing the approval process from three bureaucratic steps to one and imposing a one-year deadline for review. It also elimates reviews for upgrades to existing highways, which could clear the way for to pave the whole of BR-319, a highway that runs about 900 kilometers (560 miles) through the western part of the Amazon. Environmentalists argue that the paving will lead to mass clearing of a pristine area of rainforest. The bill is opposed by Lula's Workers' Party, but it's expected to pass the lower chamber of Congress. Lula could veto all or parts of the bill, but according to press reports he is expected to support of the bulk of the changes with only minor adjustments. Lula has said he has no position on the environmental bill. Meanwhile, Congress has also approved rules that make it harder demarcate Indigenous lands and is moving forward with legislation to weaken licensing rules that, among other impacts. The bill is opposed by Lula's Workers' Party, but according to several press reports Lula will support of the bulk of the changes and will only negotiate minor adjustments. 'It's the perfect combo to wipe out environmental protections and Indigenous land demarcations in the country, accelerate the tipping point of the world's largest tropical forest and set off a carbon bomb against the global climate,' Climate Observatory, a network of 133 environmental, civil society and academic groups, said in a statement. Former U.S. Interior Interior Bruce Babbitt, who sits on the board of the nonprofit Amazon Conservation, said in a statement that the bill 'will lead to massive destruction of the Amazon rainforest. It should be opposed by all Brazilians and friends of Brazil in the international community.' Divisions over the bill appear to sideline Environment Minister The licensing bill has also deepened internal divisions within Brazil's government. Environment Minister Marina Silva said the law will end one of Brazil's crucial mechanisms of environmental protection, but she appears increasingly sidelined in the administration. Local media have reported that Lula's Chief of Staff Rui Costa promised the bill's sponsor that Lula would not oppose changes to licensing rules, and Minister of Transportation Renan Filho said in a social media post that the bill is 'excellent' news that will get the highway project moving. At a press conference last week, Lula praised Silva, calling her 'loyal' and adding that it's normal to have friction between the environmental and other ministries of government. But many see echoes of Lula's previous administration, during which Silva resigned from the same post after being marginalized by the rising influence of agribusiness. João Paulo Capobianco, executive secretary of the environment ministry, reiterated her criticism of the bill in a speech last week, calling it a 'real risk of setback.' He added that Silva is working with Lula's cabinet toward 'a point of convergence between those who seek efficiency — and deserve a response — and the need to preserve the system without dismantling environmental licensing.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at