Biden Hosts Leaders of South American Nations for an Economic Summit
Jeffries vows Democrats will ‘support each other’ as groups threaten to primary anti-Israel progressives
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., indicated Friday his caucus would defend its progressive members even as pro-Israel outside groups threaten to recruit and back primary opponents against those that have been critical of the U.S.’s Middle Eastern ally.
“Outside groups are going to do what outside groups are going to do,” Jeffries said at a press conference Friday. “I think House Democrats are going to continue to support each other.”
Groups like the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have been attacking the progressive “Squad” and other lawmakers who have opposed aid to Israel in its war on terror group Hamas.
Many of those same lawmakers targeted — including Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., among others — have emphatically criticized Israel and its government in the past.
Jeffries’ defense comes after he sent a clear message to AIPAC and other special interest groups that House Democratic leaders would support incumbents.
Jeffries, along with House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., endorsed Omar for re-election over the summer, months after the House GOP majority voted to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee over controversial anti-Israel comments.
“Rep. Omar has been elected by her constituents three times and has consistently stood up for them, including through her service on the House Budget Committee,” Jeffries said in a statement.
“As House Democratic Leader, I vigorously endorse her re-election and stand with her as we battle extreme MAGA Republicans for the future of our nation.”
Both Omar and Ocasio-Cortez tore into AIPAC earlier this week after the group criticized them and others for voting against a resolution to condemn Hamas.
“AIPAC endorsed scores of Jan 6th insurrectionists. They are no friend to American democracy,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X. “They are one of the more racist and bigoted PACs in Congress as well, who disproportionately target members of color. They are an extremist organization that destabilizes US democracy.”
“AIPAC literally ran ads with my face next to Hamas rockets, resulting in a string of threats against my life,” Omar said Wednesday. “When Democratic leadership called them out, they refused to apologize and kept the ads up. What they are doing is insulting and Islamophobic.”
AIPAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Jeffries’ remarks Friday.
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What’s the status of the bill to make daylight saving time permanent
As the end of daylight saving time looms this year, the U.S. Congress is still hung up on whether to make it permanent.
A bill to do so hit a brick wall in the House last year, despite passing the Senate by unanimous consent. The bill, the Sunshine Protection Act, was reintroduced in March by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in the Senate, and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) introduced companion legislation in the House.
“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid. Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done,” Rubio said in a statement on the reintroduction.
So, where is the bill now, and what is the history behind daylight saving time in the U.S.? Here’s what you need to know:
History of daylight saving time in the U.S.
During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson instituted daylight saving. However, he faced backlash from farmers. Congress later got rid of it after the war over the president’s veto. In World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt also instituted daylight saving, but it also was repealed after some states and cities went back to standard time on their own.
In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which made daylight saving time the standard. In late 1973, President Nixon signed an emergency bill turning daylight saving time into law, making it year-round, as a national energy crisis was occurring. It was designed to try and combat the crisis by cutting demand, but people became worried about children’s safety as they went to school in the winter dark. President Gerald Ford signed a bill bringing the U.S. back to standard time for four months of the year in October 1974.
Where we are now
Both the House and Senate versions of the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 haven’t appeared to go far. The Senate bill has been read twice and referred to a committee, while the House bill has only been referred to a subcommittee.
Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill
White House: Ukraine-for-asylum trade was never on the table
The Biden administration is denying a report that officials considered offering permanent changes to asylum laws in exchange for Republican support for aid to Ukraine, an idea that caused instant backlash among immigration advocates.
According to a report by Politico, current and former administration officials have floated the idea of horse-trading reforms that would make it harder for foreign nationals to claim asylum to get GOP lawmakers on board with a new tranche of aid to Ukraine.
The White House flatly denied the story Friday.
“This report is not accurate. As we’ve said repeatedly, Congress needs to take action to support Ukraine and to provide sufficient resources for the border,” said Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesman.
“Our immigration system is broken and only Congress has the power to comprehensively address it, that is why in his first day in office the President presented a comprehensive immigration reform bill to Congress.”
The idea of such a trade prompted shockwaves through the immigration advocacy world, including among congressional Democrats.
“We raise our strong opposition to any emergency supplemental funding bill that seeks to establish new immigration and border policy or authorities. Democrats have rebuilt the legal pathways torn down by the last administration and have advanced bipartisan bills through the House that we would like to see pass the Senate and be signed into law.,” Reps. Nanette Díaz Barragán (D-Calif.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a joint statement.
“However, trying to appease Republicans with bad border policy attached to critical emergency spending or a continuing resolution will not work and is completely inappropriate,” said the lawmakers, chairs of the Tri-Caucus — the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus — as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
In the hours between the report and the White House’s denial, advocates lashed out, incensed over the prospect that the Biden administration would permanently weaken a key humanitarian institution for a transitory gain.
“The administration does need funding for certain items … but what we don’t need are harmful policy changes that will be in law permanently,” said a top immigration advocate on a background call with reporters.
DEVELOPING
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Biden expected to skip COP climate summit, trip to Africa
President Joe Biden plans to skip an upcoming global climate conference in the Middle East and isn’t likely to follow through on his pledge to visit Africa by year’s end, according to two senior administration officials.
Biden is not expected to attend COP28, the U.N.’s climate conference, which begins at the end of the month in Dubai and runs into early December. Neither the trip to Dubai nor Africa had been officially announced by the White House, but there had long been internal discussions and preliminary plans for the president to make both stops.
The senior administration officials, who like others interviewed for this story were granted anonymity to speak freely about private discussions, cautioned that the president’s schedule could change in the weeks ahead. But there are currently no plans for him to travel internationally again for the rest of 2023.
Officials in the United Arab Emirates had expected Biden to attend, according to one person familiar with the conference.
White House aides are balancing demands for the president’s time amid a war in the Middle East that has erupted not far from Dubai. One official said the war is among the factors in deciding the president’s upcoming schedule, but noted that Biden traveled to Tel Aviv last month after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel precipitated the conflict. He also made a secret trip to Ukraine earlier this year amid Russia’s invasion.
There also could be a showdown later this year over government spending that could require Biden to stay in Washington, one of the officials said. The current temporary government spending bill is set to expire Nov. 17 and it is not clear how the new Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, will handle negotiations that could force a government shutdown.
The optics of holding the climate conference in the UAE, a major oil producer, has always been awkward, but dozens of countries plan to use the meeting to push for the world’s first deal to phase out CO2-emitting coal, oil and gas.
Biden attended the first two COP conferences of his term, in 2021 in Scotland and 2022 in Egypt. A year ago, he went to Sharm El-Sheikh on the heels of signing into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed sweeping climate change reforms. He has fewer new tangible green accomplishments this year but could still highlight climate change — an issue that polling suggests is important to many young voters and liberal Democrats — less than a year out from standing for reelection.
“President Biden has led and delivered on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, both at home and abroad. Although we don’t have any travel updates to share at this time, the Administration looks forward to a robust and productive COP28,” a White House spokesperson said.
An appearance in Dubai could have provided Biden with a chance to meet with Arab Leaders against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war and amid fears the conflict could expand in the region. A planned meeting with some Arab leaders last month in Jordan, scheduled to take place immediately after Biden left Tel Aviv, was canceled after an explosion at a hospital in Gaza.
It also appears unclear whether Biden will follow through on his pledge to become the first U.S. president to set foot on the continent of Africa since Barack Obama’s trip in 2015. At a summit of African nations in Washington last December, Biden vowed to visit this year as part of a recommitment of U.S. interest in the continent, which had seen China and Russia expand their influence in recent years.
White House officials had still been debating as recently as earlier this fall which country Biden would visit — Kenya and South Africa were among the contenders — amid a tumultuous year on the continent that witnessed multiple governments overthrown. They considered having the president go after the G-20 meeting in India in September but the planning — though never official — then shifted to pairing it with the COP visit. An aide stressed that the administration’s commitment to Africa remains unchanged.
White House aides believe that the foreign travel will be very limited next year, as the president plans to focus on domestic trips for his reelection campaign.
Next year’s G-7 summit in Italy and the G-20 in Brazil are possibilities but neither has been finalized, nor has a possible return to India to strengthen ties among the Quad countries — India, Japan, Australia and the U.S. The annual NATO summit will be in Washington next year.
Biden does plan to attend a Pacific states summit later this month that is being held in San Francisco.
Go to Source: Politico
A First Title for the Rangers, and a Thrill for the Former First Fan
Buttigieg responds to Johnson’s same-sex marriage views: ‘Maybe we’ll just have him over’
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (D) responded Thursday to a previous anti-LGBTQ statement House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) made.
Johnson wrote in a column CNN uncovered that “[e]xperts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.” CNN said the column was from 2004.
On “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Thursday, Colbert asked Buttigieg about working with someone who would write something like Johnson’s column.
“I’ll work with anybody who can help us get good transportation available to the American people, but I don’t know, maybe we’ll just have him over, ‘cause our little house isn’t that far from the Capitol,” Buttigieg, who is openly gay and married to another man, said.
Buttigieg continued, describing an average day in his home with husband Chasten and their children, complete with daycare pickups, diaper changes and a rush to feed toddlers dinner.
“Everything about that is chaos,” Buttigieg said, “but nothing about that is dark.”
Johnson has faced recent criticism for his previous anti-LGBTQ statements and views since he ascended to the Speakership. Last week, in response to criticism he faced for past statements on same-sex marriage, he described himself as a “rule of law guy.” He also acknowledged that the 2015 Supreme Court opinion in the Obergefell v. Hodges case ruling states must allow and recognize same-sex marriages made it “the law of the land.”
“I made a career defending the rule of law. I respect the rule of law,” Johnson said on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. “When the Supreme Court issued the Obergefell opinion, that became the law of the land, OK.”
Go to Source: Administration News | The Hill
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