Cabbage News Network Week #7

Status of cabinet picks and other appointments: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/politics/donald-trump-administration.html. No new confirmations this week.

Friday 3/3

• DHS considering plan of separating women from their children at the U.S. border (source).

Sunday 3/5

• DJT accuses Obama of "wiretapping" phones, wants an investigation, so far there is no supporting evidence for any such thing (source).
  
• ICE using detainees as slave labor (source) - note, not new, source is a lawsuit originally filed in 2014, but a judge raised it to class-action status this week.

Monday 3/6

• DJT signs executive order for new travel ban to replace the one struck down by the courts - this one is essentially the same as the old one except Iraq is not on the list of banned countries and there is a delay for going into effect (starts 3/16) so as to not catch people mid-travel (source) - direct comparison of old vs new orders - and it's immediately challenged in court).
  
• U.S. supported Kurdish forces cut-off last road to ISIL capital (source).
  
• GOP introduces their Obamacare replacement plan (source) - note this still hasn't been formally introduced in Congress yet, committees are working on their separate bits of the bill, which in theory will then be put together into a single bill to vote on. So far it's cleared 2 committees.
  
  • Attacks on the plan from the right
  • Attacks from health providers
    
  • White House planning on discrediting CBO analysis of the plan before it even offers one (source).
    
  • Where GOP legislators stand on the bill - consider this your "who to call" list.
    
  • Tons of sites offer more detailed analysis of the plan, I'm not going to try and link them, they're out there if you want them
    
  • Not surprisingly the legislation would break most of DJT's health related promises (source)
  
  
• TSA planning more intrusive "pat-downs" and expects travelers to complain to the police (source) - dear TSA, if your procedures weren't indistinguishable from sexual assault you might not have this problem.

Tuesday 3/7

• Pruitt hiring climate change skeptics for EPA (source)

Wednesday 3/8

• DJT may deploy ground troops to the Mideast (source) - and a smaller unit going directly to Syria.
  
• Mexico cancels sugar exports to U.S. (source).

Thursday 3/9

• Pruitt denies that CO2 a leading contributor to climate change (source) - note: it is, this claim may be an excuse to end EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases.
  
• Border crossings from Mexico have dropped (source).

Friday 3/10

• Tillerson ditching the media for diplomatic trip to Asia (source).
  
• DOJ assigning more judges to immigration backlog (source).

Legislative action this week

• Legislation awaiting DJT's signature
  
  • Repeal rule favoring Federal contractors that comply with labor laws https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hjres37
    
  • Repeal BLM rule on expanding public input on natural resource management planning https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hjres44 - BLM summary of this rule (note doing nice summaries like this will probably become illegal if the Regulatory Integrity Act passes) - News about the change.
    
  • Repeal of two rules regarding school accountability and reporting requirements https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hjres57 and https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hjres58 - News about these.
    
  
  
• Legislation passed in the House, awaiting Senate
  
  • Scrub Act - creates a commission whose job it is to look for regulations to repeal https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr998
    
  • Regulatory Integrity Act - prohibits agencies from advocating for new rules https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr1004
    
  • OIRA Act - expands regulatory review process https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr1009
    
  • repeal of rule requiring employers to keep records of workplace injuries https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hjres83
    
  • Law requiring a lactation room in public buildings https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr1174
    
  • DOD Appropriations - keeps DOD running https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr1301
    
  • Several laws changing litigation rules, of most interest is probably https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr985 making class action lawsuits more difficult - more about this and some of the other proposed laws about litigation - of that list, 985, 720, and 725 have passed the House
  
  
• Legislation passed in the Senate, awaiting House
  
  • Repeal of a rule requiring transit authorities to consolidate planning organizations in the same metro area https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/s496 - this one from a DEM, Senator Duckworth doesn't want Chicago to have to cooperate with Indiana or Wisconsin.
    
  • NASA Authorization Act - keeps NASA running https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/s442
    
  
  
• Legislation advancing in the House
  
  • MLK, Jr. NHP Act - upgrades and expands the MLK Jr. National Historic Site to a National Historic Park https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr267
    
  • approval to increase the capacity of the Fontenelle Reservoir https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr648 - this would pull more water from the Colorado River for irrigation in Wyoming
    
  • Law establishing an earthquake warning system for the Pacific Northwest https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr654
    
  • Law raising the price cap on FEMA disaster recovery projects from $130k to $500k https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr1214
    

Map of the week:

• Job growth (and losses)