The U.S. should spend fewer dollars a year to help the world meet its climate goals — a response to Biden at the United Nations General Assembly in September
It is something that Biden has raised repeatedly in speeches to other world leaders, including during the United Nations General Assembly in September.
“My administration is working with Congress to deliver over $11 billion a year to international climate finance in order to meet our global responsibility,” Biden said at the time.
Democrats, meanwhile, understand that the government spending bill likely represents their last chance to enact Biden’s ambitious domestic plans until the next presidential election. The fraught final weeks of 2022 may also be their best opening to bypass the incoming GOP House by honoring Biden’s $37 billion request for new aid for Ukraine, which some conservatives oppose and which could be added to the government spending bill. The omnibus bill needs to be rushed through to fund police departments and help the US compete with China, among other priorities, according to Democratic leaders. Republicans point to Biden’s new climate and health care law as an example of the increase in domestic non-defense spending.
The United States is the world’s largest economy and largest cumulative emitter of greenhouse gas pollution. China emits more than any other nation each year, although it has done more over time to warm the planet.
The United States, like other countries, is required to submit a report every two years to the United Nations documenting progress on its climate goals. The reports were not filed by the Trump administration.
An analysis from the World Resources Institute, which works to advance international climate action, estimates that a “fair share” for the U.S. of the big economies’ $100 billion pledge would be somewhere between $40 billion and $47 billion annually, taking into account the size of its economy and its historic contribution to global warming.
Compared to the other countries involved, the U.S. invests a lot of money in terms of total dollars, but a comparatively small amount relative to the size of its economy.
The White House’s 2023 budget proposal is going to be hard forbiden to meet this 11 billion-climate-change-promise
But as a UN report laid out earlier this month, the pledge still is many times lower than the full amount needed to tackle the immense, global challenges posed by the climate crisis.
The administration hopes to use appropriated funding from Congress and money from federal development agencies.
The White House asked Congress for $5.3 billion in funding in its 2023 budget request in March, which would be enough, in combination with anticipated development finance money, to meet the president’s pledge. It’s a big jump from what Congress has done in the past.
Administration officials hope the second half will come from sources that use financial instruments like loans and insurance to advance U.S. policy goals abroad.
The first hurdle that Biden has to contend with is Congress. Passing any funding bill requires 60 votes to clear the Senate. That means Democrats need to convince some Republican lawmakers to join them.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, denounced the White House’s proposal as “another pipe dream of liberal activism and climate extremism.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/08/1132980254/its-going-to-be-hard-for-biden-to-meet-this-11-billion-climate-change-promise
Climate Policy Issues in the Biden-Bisn-Covid-Benard Framework and the Senate Appropriation of a Complete Security and Security Package
Since the budget was released this spring, the administration’s challenges have only gotten worse. Inflation has remained stubbornly high, and economists worry that an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve could lead to a recession.
Government development agencies are one source of funds for Biden’s pledge. The agencies that lend money and look for a return on investment are the Export-Import Bank and International Development Finance Corporation.
The DFC and the Export-IM Bank rely on fees and returns they make on their loans and other programs to support their work.
It’s possible that these agencies could scale up their spending on climate-focused programs to help meet the president’s pledge, according to Bella Tonkonogy of the Climate Policy Initiative, a nonprofit policy research organization.
But Tonkonogy warned that it isn’t just about whether the government can find the money. The agencies might not be able to quickly identify and vet quality projects.
“That will require working differently — from developing comprehensive climate strategies, to building up staff capacity, to partnering with other agencies,” Tonkonogy said.
The House passed a version of it this year which gives the military a 4.6% pay raise, gives new support to NATO and retools US air power and land defense efforts. It also rescinds a Covid-19 vaccine requirement for service members, a move that Biden has opposed.
Emergency assistance to NATO ally Ukraine and other countries has been boosted in a sweeping package that includes funds for disaster assistance, more help for veterans and more money for the Capitol Police.
But while White House officials have deferred to — and explicitly sided with — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s opposition to rescinding the mandate, the inclusion of the provision in the final compromise agreement underscores a reality that played out behind the scenes in recent days. Democrats said that the GOP priority was necessary in order to get the policy bill across the finish line. White House officials quietly acknowledge that the vaccine language won’t be a problem for the bill’s passage.
The Senate is expected to vote first to approve the deal this week and then send it to the House for approval before government funding runs out on December 23. The bill would prevent the government from shutting down at the end of the fiscal year.
Schumer said there is still a lot of work to be done, pointing to the NDAA, confirmation of more of Biden’s judicial nominees and funding the government.
The government funding standoff gripping Washington ahead of the Friday’s shutdown deadline is the first indicator of a new power dynamic that will return the capital to a governing cold war between congressional Republicans and a Democratic White House.
Republicans think they have a mandate from the voters to stem domestic spending on issues like Covid-19, climate change and other priorities of the president’s administration. The GOP lawmakers in the House want to use their new power right away even though Democrats control the House until the last minute.
It’s an early glimpse of the paralysis that could result from divided government with neither side having the power to fully deliver on promises they made to voters in last month’s midterm elections, when Republicans won the House and Democrats retained control of the Senate.
The government will be forced to shut down or suffer badly damage to the economy because of the disagreements over funding social programs. After Republicans regained control of Congress, the government shutdown threat that was a regular holiday tradition during the Obama administration will return. In Donald Trumps administration, there was a 35-day government shut down because of a dispute over his demand for border wall funding, leaving many federal workers without paychecks and putting services on hold.
McConnell, who is the leader of the Senate GOP, said he is close to a deal on a spending bill. McConnell said that needs to be finished no later than December 22, noting that they “intend to be on the road going home” on December 23 ahead of the Christmas holiday.
Their stance helps explain why McConnell last week gave a grim prognosis for a deal with Democrats on a big funding bill, commenting, “We don’t have agreements to do virtually anything. … We’re running out of time because we don’t have an agreement in place on how much to spend.
His comments, while offering a glimpse of how he plans to preside over a confrontation with the White House, also offered insight into how the GOP House could make McConnell’s life more complicated next year as he tries to manage his party in the Senate.
But a senior Biden administration official warned last week that even a funding deal that lasted a year would have “disastrous” consequences for key programs.
The new congress is going to be a political exercise: Reply to Sanders and Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union”
On Sunday, Sen. Sanders said Republicans were attempting to block Democrats from taking part in the new GOP House of Representatives effort to slash spending on vital social programs.
“Republicans see it as an opportunity to hold us hostage and get demands that, under normal circumstances, they would not,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“They want to cut Social Security, they want to cut Medicare, and they want to cut Medicaid”, the Senator told Dana Bash.
Biden sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin up to Capitol Hill last week to brief senators on the war in Ukraine. The Republicans left the meeting complaining that the secretaries spent lots of time lobbying for an omnibus spending bill.
“It was a waste of their time. John Kennedy said it was not a good idea. He said that Chuck Schumer had asked why the spending bill was necessary. “I knew as soon as Chuck said that. … this is just a political exercise,” Kennedy said.
John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters last week that he would be singing to each other if you brought your Christmas carols.
The most productive time on Capitol Hill is after the election, and before Republicans take over the House of Representatives.
The new Congress will be sworn in on January 3. Republicans will then be in charge of the House, and Democrats will have a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate. Lawmakers will have to start from scratch on anything that isn’t finished by this month as everything changes in the new Congress.
Rather than pass a dozen funding bills in turn, lawmakers are poised to roll all the spending bills for the massive federal government into one bill that could approach or exceed $1.5 trillion.
Biden proposed $5.8 trillion to be spent in the upcoming fiscal year. Congress signed a different continuing resolution in September to avoid a shutdown.
It’s not yet clear who will lead Republicans in the House next year, much less how they would react to an immediate funding fight if only a short-term spending bill can get through by January.
Republicans, particularly in the House, plan to use the nation’s borrowing limit as a bargaining chip to force spending cuts next year. The current debt ceiling of $31.4 trillion will likely be reached in the coming weeks, which means raising it will be a major fight early in 2023.
How much do the government spend than it takes in? This is from a CNN Business report Monday: “For fiscal year 2023, which started in October, the government is running a deficit of $336 billion, which is $20 billion narrower than the comparable year-ago period.”
Trump Taxes and the Declines of Funding: Do The Republicans Stop Investigating the December 6, 2021, Insurrection?
When the Republicans take control of the House in January, they will stop investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection. GOP lawmakers will investigate the committee’s activity.
The committee, which has Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, will issue a report on December 21. Also look for the committee to recommend the Department of Justice prosecute Trump or members of his inner circle.
Meanwhile, Jack Smith, the newly appointed special counsel, has been busy ramping up a pair of criminal probes involving the former president, all of which could explode into public view if charges are ultimately brought. Smith has some work that is up to date.
When the Republicans take control of the House, they will have a lot of time to spare and probably not want to conduct a Trump tax investigation.
It was already reported by The New York Times that some tax information of Trump would be made public. Since Democrats obtained them in order to scrutinize IRS audit policy, it is possible that a political cost will be incurred by simply releasing the returns. Read more about Trump’s taxes.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/politics/congress-deadlines-funding-what-matters/index.html
An Overview of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill: What Will Congress Do next? – Reply to Leahy’s Call for Action
It is a bipartisan idea to make major clarifications to election law so that there is no chance of another January 6, 2021. The bill is designed to guard against Insurrection 2.0.
The bill must now go to the Senate to be approved before it can go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. As soon as Thursday, the Senate could vote.
If the Electoral Count Act can pass, it could be slipped into that massive spending bill. It hasn’t gotten much attention, but this could be a good example of lawmakers working together.
A framework deal for a broader spending bill was announced on Tuesday evening, signifying a breakthrough in the negotiations, but there is still more work to be done for lawmakers to finalize the fine print.
The choice of course is clear. We can either do our jobs and fund the government, or we can abandon our responsibilities without a real path forward,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a statement. The American people will be in the best interest of the omnibus appropriations bill. I want to thank Vice Chairman Shelby and chair DeLauri for the partnership and hard work they did on this legislation, which is the product of months of hard work. The Senate should take up the bill and pass it.
The announcement did not delve into specific details of what the agreement encompasses, but marks a major breakthrough as lawmakers work to fund the government before the end of the year.
What do Republicans really want to do during the first half of the 20th century? Congressional opposition to a spending package that would extend the child tax credit
The Republicans argue that the Democrats have spent too much during their time in power and have done more to increase inflation than any other party.
Democrats counter by saying those measures were necessary to help the country recover from the devastating impact of the pandemic as well as to tackle other critical priorities. Democrats say that money to be spent on Covid, health care and climate should not mean there should be less money for domestic spending next year.
There is some opposition to this larger spending plan, though. For example, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of California earlier this week slammed Democrats for trying to rush the package through Congress.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin warned about the prospects of the government funding fight moving into next year. “That would just invite more negotiating obstruction,” said Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. The fiscal year started on October 1. Let’s get this job done this year, do it before Christmas.”
He said that people will want to fund the government until there is a full-year deal in place.
If the two sides can’t come to an agreement on a year-long bill, Democrats will not agree to a stopgap bill until new Congress starts.
Schumer wants senators to put together a permanent spending plan so they can direct funds to the military, aid to Ukraine and other domestic priorities.
The stopgap measure will extend funding for another week – until Friday, December 23 – to give congressional negotiators time to finalize a broader, full-year government funding deal with new topline spending levels.
In order to extend the enhanced child tax credit, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates pushed hard. Their priority was to make the credit more refundable so more of the lowest-income families can qualify. The tax policy center estimated that nearly 19 million children won’t receive the full $2,000 benefit this year because their parents earn too little.
Reply to the Wyden Report on the Children’s Tax Credit, the Research and Development Credit and the Restricted Budget Problem in the Senate
The chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, vowed to fight with every ounce of his strength over the issue.
“The number one interest of companies today is for trained and educated workers. You make investments like the Child Tax Credit and you give the employers the chance to get more of what they want. So the two of them – the Child Tax Credit, the Research and Development Credit – I support both, very, very strongly,” he said.
There is a lot of expiring tax policy that needs to be ended, which enjoys bipartisan support, but as is usually the case, there is a price to be paid for it. I am not aware of it at the moment.
The top line is about 1.7 trillion dollars, but no one would talk about it. Shelby said the exact allocations to the different government agencies are still being negotiated.
A bipartisan agreement for a full year of funding was difficult to get amid disagreement between the two parties about how much money should be spent on domestic priorities.
“They want to raise the spending, bring more inflation, create more ‘wokeism’ in the legislation they want to pass through it and not even give members an opportunity to read it or see it,” he said.
The Senate Finance Committee Appropriately Approved in a Massive, Full-Year Fiscal Funding Measure to Ensure the Fair Treatment of Black Communities
The president submits the budget for the fiscal year, which begins in a few weeks. Congress then works to hash out what items will stay and what will go.
Lawmakers early Tuesday unveiled legislative text of a massive full-year government funding bill that Congress hopes to pass to avert a shutdown at the end of the week.
Senate leaders are aiming to take procedural steps to pass the bill by Thursday and then send it to the House, where it is expected to be adopted, and then to President Joe Biden for his signature before the Friday deadline.
Enhance retirement savings: The bill contains new retirement rules that could make it easier for Americans to accumulate retirement savings – and less costly to withdraw them. Among other things, the provisions would allow penalty-free withdrawals for some emergency expenses, let employers offer matching retirement contributions for a worker’s student loan payments and increase how much older workers may save in employer retirement plans.
However, the bill, which runs more than 4,000 pages, left out several measures that some lawmakers had fought to include. An expansion of the child tax credit, as well as multiple other corporate and individual tax breaks, did not make it into the final bill. Neither did legislation to allow cannabis companies to bank their cash reserves – known as the Safe Banking Act. Also, there was also no final resolution on where the new FBI headquarters will be located.
The FBI’s future headquarters location was the subject of a dispute that delayed the bill’s release. Maryland lawmakers have argued that ensuring predominately Black communities get their fair share of federal investments should be more thoroughly considered as part of the selection process. The headquarters should be in Prince George’s County, a majority-Black county. Virginia is competing for the headquarters.
The Emergency Assistance Package to Ukraine in the Light of the December 6, 2001 U.S. Senate Appropriations Act (Aug. 1997)
The spending package includes about $45 billion emergency assistance to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion, according to Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It would be the biggest American infusion of assistance yet to Ukraine, above even President Joe Biden’s $37 billion emergency request, and ensure that funding flows to the war effort for months to come.
Emergency disaster assistance: The bill would appropriate more than $38 billion in emergency funding to help Americans in the west and southeast affected by recent natural disasters, including tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. It would aid farmers, provide economic development assistance for communities, repair and reconstruct federal facilities and direct money to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, among other initiatives.
Overhaul of the electoral vote counting law: A provision in the legislation aims at making it harder to overturn a certified presidential election, in a direct response to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
The bill would make it clear that the vice president is the one in charge of certifying the electoral result. It also would create a set of stipulations designed to make it harder for there to be any confusion over the accurate slate of electors from each state.
The maximum grant award for the coming school year would be raised by $500. Since the 2010-2011 school year, this would be the largest boost. Many students from lower-income families get Pell grants in order to pay for college.
The money would include over $50 billion to address higher inflation and more than $2 billion for critical services for veterans and their families.
The bill also would allocate $5 billion for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund, which provides additional funding to implement the landmark PACT Act that expands eligibility for health care services and benefits to veterans with conditions related to toxic exposure during their service.
The summer EBT program would be beefed up in order to aid people who are poor, according to Share Our Strength. If families have children who are eligible for the free or reduced-price school meal, they would be provided a $40 grocery benefit per child each month.
It would also change the rules governing summer meals programs in rural areas. The delivery service would let children take food home, instead of having to eat it at a specific site and time.
Families that have had their food stamp benefits skimmed since October 1 would be helped by the bill. It would provide them with retroactive federal reimbursement of the funds, which criminals steal by attaching devices to point-of-sale machines or PIN pads to get card numbers and other information from electronic benefits transfer cards.
A 30% increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant would be provided by the legislation. The grant can be used to help low-income families pay for child care.
Help to pay utility bills: The bill would provide $5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Combined with the $1 billion contained in the earlier continuing resolution, this would be the largest regular appropriation for the program, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Home heating and cooling costs have skyrocketed this year, while applications for federal aid to pay the bills have fallen.
The package would provide an additional $556 million for the Environmental Protection Agency, bringing its funding up to $10.1 billion. Years of flat funding have led to an increase in support for enforcement and compliance, as well as clean air, water and toxic chemical programs.
The 6.4% funding boost for the National Park Service will restore 500 of the staff positions that were lost over the past decade. The agency wants to be able to handle significant increases in visitors.
The US Capitol Police receive additional funding. The bill would provide an additional $132 million for the Capitol Police for a total of nearly $735 million. It would allow the department to hire up to 137 sworn officers and 123 support and civilian personnel, bringing the force to a projected level of 2,126 sworn officers and 567 civilians.
The legislation would give an increase in homeless assistance grants. It would serve more than 1 million people experiencing homelessness.
The package also would funnel nearly $6.4 billion to the Community Development Block Grant formula program and related local economic and community development projects that benefit low- and moderate income areas and people, an increase of almost $1.6 billion.
Plus, it would provide $1.5 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which would lead to the construction of nearly 10,000 new rental and homebuyer units and maintain the record investment from the last fiscal year.
The Safe Banking Act of 2018 and its Implications for the U.S. Cannabis Industry and the American-Peripheral Correspondence
Some lawmakers have raised bipartisan concerns that China’s national security laws could force TikTok – or its parent, ByteDance – to hand over the personal data of its US users. Republican governors have been leading the way in introducing state-level restrictions on using TikTok on government-owned devices.
It was left out of legislation that would have made it easier for licensed cannabis businesses to accept credit cards. Known as the Safe Banking Act, which previously passed the House, the provision would prohibit federal regulators from taking punitive measures against banks for providing services to legitimate cannabis businesses.
“The bitterness of winter has descended on Eastern Europe, and if our friends in Ukraine hope to triumph Russia, America must stand firmly on the side of our democratic friends abroad,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The choice is clear, and that’s why Leahy was against that approach in releasing the bill. We have two choices; we can either do our jobs or abandon our responsibilities.
McConnell said the GOP’s negotiations were a success. He framed the longer-term spending bill as a victory for the GOP, even as many will undoubtedly vote against it. He said Republicans were successful in increasing defense spending far beyond Biden’s request while scaling back some of the increase Biden wanted for domestic spending.
Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement that neither side got everything they wanted in the deal. She urged Congress to send it to the President without delay, saying the measure is good for our economy, our competitiveness and our country.
A Democratic aide to the congressional delegation to the House of Representatives 1996-97: A spending bill to the White House in 1996 after a year of historic progress
The spending on non-defense programs will increase by about 6%. That number includes a 22% increase for VA medical care to help pay for an expansion of health care services and benefits to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their service. There are environmental advocacy groups who don’t like funding increases for agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency that don’t keep up with inflation.
A Senate Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations said Schumer worked to incorporate language in the spending bill ensuring the General Service Administration conduct “separate and detailed consultations” with lawmakers representing the Maryland and Virginia sites to get their perspectives.
The package of spending that is supposed to be done in the summer is three months late. It was supposed to be done by the start of the fiscal year.
In 1996 the Senate finished work on the budget year’s final day and that is when the last time Congress enacted all its spending bills. Then-President Bill Clinton signed it that same day.
The Senate is supposed to pass the spending bill by the end of this week, according to Sen. Rick Scott. “It’s insane.”
Many of his colleagues are dissatisfied with the process, McConnell said. He cited national security considerations as the reason for wanting to pass the bill and said failure to do so would create confusion and uncertainty in the army while China invests in new research and weapons.
President Joe Biden on Thursday signed a $1.7 trillion federal spending bill that includes a number of administration priorities and officially avoids a government shutdown, ending what he called a “year of historic progress.”
Biden wrote that it would invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery, and get crucial assistance to Ukraine.
The White House received a bill from Congress on Wednesday. The bill was delivered to the President for his signature by White House staff on a regularly scheduled commercial flight,” a White House official told pool reporters.
It’s at least the second time this year that an important bill has been flown to Biden for his signature. While on a trip to Asia in May, a bill authorizing about $40 billion in aid to Ukraine was carried by a staffer who was already scheduled to travel to the region. Biden signed the bill while overseas.
The package includes emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies, an amendment to the electoral vote-count law, protections for pregnant workers, and a ban on TikTok.
It also will provide a boost in spending for disaster aid, college access, child care, mental health and food assistance, more support for the military and veterans and additional funds for the US Capitol Police, according to Leahy’s summary and one from Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. And the legislation contains several major Medicaid provisions, notably one that could disenroll up to 19 million people from the nation’s health insurance program for low-income Americans.