Politics

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Agriculture Department announced Thursday it is making available $759 million in grants and loans to enable rural communities to access high-speed internet, part of the broader $65 billion push for high-speed connectivity from last year’s infrastructure law.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and White House senior adviser Mitch Landrieu unveiled the grants during a visit to North Carolina.

There are 49 recipients in 24 states. One is North Carolina’s AccessOn Networks, which will receive $17.5 million to provide broadband service to 100 businesses, 76 farms and 22 educational facilities in the state’s Halifax and Warren counties. Both counties are rural and have predominantly Black populations.

“Rural America needs this,” Vilsack said. “Rural America deserves this.” He made the announcement in front of John Deere equipment, noting that rural areas tend to be where the electricity for cities is generated and where city dwellers and suburbanites go for vacations.

The announcement and visit to North Carolina, a state with an open U.S. Senate seat, come as President Joe Biden and other top Democratic officials are trying to sell their achievements to voters before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Landrieu, the infrastructure coordinator and former New Orleans mayor, told reporters on a Wednesday call that the Biden administration has already released $180 billion for various infrastructure projects.

The administration is specifically targeting support for small towns and farm communities, places that generally favor Republicans over Democrats.

“Rural communities are the backbone of our nation, but for too long they’ve been left behind and they have been underrecognized,” Landrieu said. “We all know how essential the internet is in order to access lifesaving telemedicine, to tap into economic opportunity, to connect with loved ones, to work on precision agriculture and so much more. That’s just beyond unacceptable that that’s not available to rural America.”

Vilsack said he and Landrieu would “learn firsthand” from people in North Carolina about the opportunities internet access can create. They met with state and local officials including North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper at Wake Technical Community College. They will also hold a town hall in Elm City.

Cooper attributed the broadband advances to the pandemic shutdowns that made people more reliant on the internet.

“It tossed us into the future by about a decade — we had to make something good out of something bad,” he said. He added that 1 million of the state’s residents have been on the wrong side of the digital divide, something the build-out will help to correct.

Neither candidate in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race — Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd — was slated to appear at the events.

Vilsack said that past trips show how broadband connectivity is starting to make a difference. While in Nevada this summer, he heard from people in the town of Lovelock who plan to use the improved internet to enhance their emergency responder services and tourism opportunities as well as help high school students who are earning college credit online.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voters are being asked to reduce the authority of the governor and other state officials and give legislators a bigger say in how the state regulates businesses, protects the environment and preserves residents’ health.

A proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution on the Nov. 8 ballot would make it easier for the Republican-controlled Legislature to overturn regulations written by state agencies and boards — those under the control of the governor but also others in the executive branch of state government. At issue are rules as varied as which shots are required for children attending school and how often hotels must clean guest rooms.

Business groups and advocates of smaller government view the measure as reining in unelected bureaucrats. But in the fall campaign’s final weeks, abortion rights advocates have begun warning that it is another attempted power grab by far-right legislators.

The November vote comes three months after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed amendment to eliminate state constitutional protections for abortion and give lawmakers authority to more tightly regulate or ban the procedure. Those who oppose the regulation amendment have repurposed the “vote no” yard signs from the abortion vote for their fall campaign.

“I’m saying it loud and clear: We need you to vote no on that amendment,” Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said after casting an early ballot Tuesday. “It clearly is a violation of the separation of powers and would create chaos all across the state.”

Republican leaders hold veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate but have not always been able to override Kelly’s vetoes. Republicans pushed for the constitutional change after months of battling her over the coronavirus pandemic.

“When you are in a supermajority in the Legislature, but you do not control the apparatus of administrative regulation, executive orders and administrative actions are going to be one of the most potent ways the executive can carry out their policies,” said David Adkins, CEO of the Council of State Governments and a former Kansas state senator, who along with his group is not taking a position on the measure. “And so this is a pushback by the Legislature.”

The Legislature has a joint committee that reviews regulations, but if lawmakers object to one, their most effective tactic is to raise a stink and push the agency to back off. They also can pass a bill overturning the rule, but the governor can veto it.

“We can tell them that we don’t like what they’re doing,” said state Rep. Barbara Wasinger, a Republican from western Kansas and the joint committee’s vice chair. “And they can just look at you and say, ‘Don’t care.’”

November’s proposed amendment would allow the Legislature to nullify agency rules or parts of rules with a simple majority vote in both chambers, with no option for the governor to veto the move.

Kelly and fellow Democrats have been the most vocal critics. State Treasurer Lynn Rogers said Wednesday that the measure would strip agencies of their independence from lawmakers.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican seeking to unseat Kelly in the November election, backs the measure even though it would apply to his office. Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s spokesperson said Thursday that he’s supporting it, because “it makes the most sense” for lawmakers to have that power over policy. Another statewide elected Republican, Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, hasn’t taken a public position.

While the measure would apply to a host of boards and commissions, it’s not clear how it would effect the elected State Board of Education, whose 10 elected members oversee the K-12 public school system. The Kansas Supreme Court decades ago ruled that the board can set policy on its own, without legislators’ permission, yet lawmakers still enact education policy regularly. The board has not taken a position on the proposed amendment.

Kansas law used to give the Legislature the power to revoke or rewrite agencies’ rules, but in 1984, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the practice violated the state constitution’s separation of powers.

In most states, legislators review agencies’ regulations, but their power to block or repeal them varies widely. Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, New Jersey and Nevada have provisions in their state constitutions to allow the Legislature to invalidate regulations.

In Colorado, agency rules are temporary unless lawmakers vote to extend them. In Illinois and Wisconsin, joint legislative committees can block rules, though in Wisconsin, enforcing the decisions can require court rulings.

In Kansas, clashes between legislators and agencies sometimes focus on fears that regulators are too eager to extend their reach.

Early in 2020, lawmakers expressed concern about an existing state health rule requiring beauty shops, nail salons and skin-care providers to have separate sinks for hand-washing and services for clients. And a longstanding Kansas law exempting hair braiders from state regulation resulted from anger over a state board telling two women known as the Braiden Maidens that they couldn’t work the Kansas City-area Renaissance Festival without a license.

Supporters of the proposed amendment say lawmakers probably would use the new power sparingly, when agencies clearly do something the Legislature didn’t intend. Business groups backing it say they don’t have particular regulations in mind.

But Democrats and other critics are uneasy, saying GOP lawmakers and business groups could target rules for controlling air and water pollution or worker safety regulations.

And, with support from vaccine opponents, a few Republicans this year sought to strip the state health department of the power to revise its regulations to require new vaccines for children enrolling in school or day care. The proposed constitutional amendment would save them the trouble of passing such a law and getting past a governor’s veto: They could instead work to nullify any additions to the department’s list of shots.

“It’s open season on the administration’s ability to run the government,” said Joan Wagnon, a former state revenue secretary and Kansas Democratic Party chair who helped form a new anti-amendment group, Keep Kansas Free. ___

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman’s rocky debate performance fueled concern inside his party on Wednesday, as leaders assessed whether it would significantly shift a race that could decide control of the U.S. Senate and the future of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Appearing on stage five months after his stroke, Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s 53-year-old lieutenant governor, struggled to complete sentences, and he jumbled words throughout the hourlong televised event.

That was no surprise for medical professionals, who noted that the format, including time limits on answers, was the opposite of what a person recovering from a stroke would need to support his communication. And for those who have known Fetterman for years, the debate was a reminder that he was never a smooth orator — even before the stroke.

But with so much hinging on his campaign, some Democrats expressed concern that Fetterman’s appearance at Tuesday night’s debate was a mistake. While he would have been criticized for skipping the forum, they felt that might have been better than exposing him in such a difficult environment — for a performance that his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, can exploit in ads and social media clips in the closing days of the contest.

“In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have debated,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, said in an interview. “But the key is he is recovering from a stroke.”

“The only way to recover from this,” he added, “is for John to go out in public as much as possible, to be seen, to be interviewed, and do as much as he can to let people know that he’s ready to take office.”

In fact, Fetterman was appearing at a rally later Wednesday in Pittsburgh with musician Dave Matthews. He’s also expected to attend a dinner Friday night in Philadelphia for the state Democratic Party headlined by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

His campaign did not respond to an interview request on Wednesday. It said Fetterman had already raised more than $2 million since the end of the debate in what campaign manager Brendan McPhillips called “a gigantic show of support for John and his debate performance.”

During the debate, the Democratic Senate contender refused anew to commit to releasing his medical records, but independent experts consulted by The Associated Press said Fetterman appears to be recovering remarkably well.

“In my opinion, he did very well,” said Dr. Sonia Sheth, of Northwestern Medicine Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in suburban Chicago, who watched the debate. “He had his stroke less than one year ago and will continue to recover over the next year. He had some errors in his responses, but overall he was able to formulate fluent, thoughtful answers.”

Still, the debate was difficult to watch for Brooke Hatfield, a Maryland speech pathologist who has worked extensively with stroke patients.

“Putting a timer on someone adds pressure to a system that is already working hard,” Hatfield said. “Ultimately it’s important to remember that changes in communication are different than changes in intelligence, reasoning and other cognitive skills.”

For now, the political implications of the debate are unclear.

The Pennsylvania contest represents the Democratic Party’s best opportunity to flip a Senate seat currently held by Republicans, who are aggressively challenging Democratic incumbents across Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire. Any shift in Pennsylvania, where at least 639,000 mail votes have already been returned, could imperil Democratic efforts to keep the Senate, which they hold by the narrowest of margins.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told CNN on Wednesday that the debate was “hard to watch, frankly.”

But he said voters have a “stark choice” between Fetterman and Oz, a heart surgeon and TV personality.

Other U.S. senators have experienced strokes, but none faced fiercely competitive contests so quickly. Both Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., disclosed this year that they had suffered minor strokes. Van Hollen is likely to easily win reelection in his deeply Democratic state this year, and Lujan isn’t on the ballot again until 2026.

Former Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., had a serious stroke in 2012 and would go on to lose his reelection four years later.

Over the years, many other senators have faced questions about their age. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa would be 95 at the end of his next term, assuming he wins reelection on Nov. 8.

Fetterman’s campaign and other Democrats sought to focus Wednesday on Oz’s comments about abortion during the debate. The Republican said he wanted abortion access decided by “women, doctors, local political leaders,” a comment that suggested he believed there was a role for public officials in determining whether women can obtain the procedure, which remains legal in Pennsylvania.

Fetterman’s new ad focuses on Oz’s reference to “local political leaders,” repeating the phrase three times in a 30-second spot.

“Oz would let politicians like Doug Mastriano ban abortions without exceptions,” the narrator says, referring to the state’s polarizing Republican candidate for governor. “Oz is too extreme for Pennsylvania.”

Biden shared the new ad on social media.

The White House would not say whether Biden watched the debate. But press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden has found Fetterman to be “just as capable as always” to govern.

“In his conversations that he’s had with Lt. Gov. Fetterman, he finds the lieutenant governor to be a strong and authentic advocate for the middle class,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that the president “finds him incredibly impressive.”

Meanwhile, Oz on Wednesday was attending an event in the state capital with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate. Oz avoided Fetterman’s health at the event, as he did during the debate, focusing instead on crime.

“I vow here and now that, as a U.S. senator, I’ll do the right thing for our communities,” he declared. “Amongst them, I’m going to let police do their jobs. I want our prosecutors to do their jobs.”

But the debate was on the minds of many voters.

Barbara Orr, a psychotherapist and registered Democrat who supports Fetterman, said she and a group of like-minded friends who watched the debate were saddened and nervous, but unswayed from their decision to vote for him.

Her “heart hurt for him,” she said, and she worried that voters who weren’t familiar with the candidates might take away a bad impression.

“Unfortunately, people who don’t know what he stands for and haven’t heard him elsewhere might think he’s not smart,” said Orr, who lives in Lampeter.

She added: “I’m hoping some people at least pulled their empathy pants on and realized that he’s trying to recover from something.”

Democratic voter Frank Mallon, a 61-year-old driving instructor who lives in suburban Philadelphia, said Fetterman “came across as not being sure of himself.”

“Yes, I do know about the disability,” Mallon said. “Do I think that everyone who watched that debate knows about his disability? No, I don’t.”

He said he’d still vote for Fetterman.

Fetterman’s allies noted that he also had performed poorly in a primary debate earlier in the year before the stroke.

“It needs to settle with people for a minute. People on the Democratic side were terrified about what was going to happen,” said Jamie Perrapato, executive director of Turn PA Blue. “His performance was actually better than I expected.”

Meanwhile, it’s unclear how many Pennsylvania voters were paying close attention.

Bonnie Chang, a telecommunications retiree from Doylestown who describes herself as a liberal Fetterman supporter, didn’t tune in.

“I was so fearful I did not watch the debate,” Chang said. “First of all, Oz is a TV guy. He has honed his skills. … I think Fetterman is in a no-win situation. He’s recovering from the stroke.”

“I’m willing to give him time to recover.”

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Peoples reported from New York. AP writers Carla K. Johnson in Washington state; Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; and Seung Min Kim in Washington, D.C., contributed.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman came forward Wednesday to accuse Herschel Walker, the anti-abortion Republican running for U.S. Senate in Georgia, of encouraging and paying for her 1993 abortion — an accusation that came just weeks after a former girlfriend said he did the same for her in 2009.

Walker dismissed the newest allegation as “foolishness” and “a lie,” similar to his vehement denials earlier this month of the abortion alleged to have happened 13 years ago.

“I’m done with all this foolishness. This is all a lie, and I will not entertain any of it. I also did not kill JFK,” Walker said in a statement later Wednesday.

The second accuser, identified only as “Jane Doe,” spoke to reporters via an audio Zoom call arranged by her lawyer, Gloria Allred. The woman alleged that Walker, a former college and professional football star making his first bid for public office, pressured her into an abortion and paid for one after she became pregnant during their six-year relationship while he was married to his first wife.

“The reason I am here today is because he has publicly taken the position that he is ‘about life’ and against abortion under any circumstances when, in fact, he pressured me to have an abortion and personally ensured that it occurred by driving me to the clinic and paying for it,” the woman said. She said she was not revealing her identity because she fears “reprisals against myself, my family and my livelihood.”

“I do not believe that Herschel is morally fit to be a U.S. senator and that is the reason why I am speaking up and providing proof,” she said.

She said partisan allegiances were not a factor in her decision to come forward. She called herself a registered independent and said she voted twice for Donald Trump, the former Republican president who has endorsed Walker.

The second round of abortion allegations against Walker returned the issue to the forefront of the campaign in the final two weeks before the Nov. 8 elections. Walker is competing against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a tight race that could help determine party control of the Senate.

Walker, campaigning Wednesday in north Georgia, seemed to blame Democrats for the latest accusation, much as he did the first, saying in a written statement that they “will say and do anything to hang on to power.”

“Well, I’m Herschel Walker, and they picked the wrong Georgian to mess with,” Walker wrote.

Allred, speaking to reporters in her Los Angeles office, detailed, among other items, cards that she said Walker gave her client and a hotel receipt from Minnesota. Allred played audio of what she described as a telephone message that Walker allegedly left her client in 1992 after he had arrived in Europe as part of the U.S. Olympic bobsled team.

A notable women’s rights lawyer, Allred has represented several clients who have accused powerful men, including Trump and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, of sexual assault and harassment.

When The Daily Beast broke the story this month of the first abortion allegation, Walker insisted he had no idea who could make such a claim, but that was undermined by a follow-up report in which the woman identified herself as the mother of one of his children. The child was born two years after the 2009 abortion.

Her evidence included a $575 receipt for an abortion, along with a get-well card signed by Walker and a personal check for $700 from the multimillionaire celebrity athlete. The check is dated five days after her abortion receipt.

On Wednesday, Jane Doe said Walker gave her cash to have an abortion after she told him she was pregnant. She alleged that she first went to a clinic alone but was unable to go through with an abortion. She said Walker was “upset” when she told him and he insisted they return the following day. She said he drove her to the clinic that day, waited in the car while the procedure occurred and then took her to fill prescriptions.

Allred declined to discuss the cost or any records of the alleged abortion, “at least at this time.”

Walker’s responses to The Daily Beast’s stories evolved from absolute denials to suggesting the signature on a get-well card wasn’t his to suggesting he did send the woman money but that he didn’t know it was to cover an abortion.

Doe said she heard Walker’s denial that he ever signed anything with a lone initial “H,” as the get-well card was signed. She said she knew that wasn’t true because he had signed cards to her that way.

The first woman has not been identified publicly, asking that her name not be used out of concern for her privacy. She said she is a registered Democrat who is speaking out because of what she called Walker’s hypocrisy over abortion rights.

She has spoken to multiple media outlets, revealing herself to be the same woman who filed a paternity suit for child support in New York family court. She has also alleged that Walker encouraged her to end their second pregnancy, though she refused, and that Walker has seen their son only a handful of times.

Walker’s campaign has since shared with NBC News texts between his current wife and the woman acknowledging his relationship to the child.

Walker promised to sue The Daily Beast after its initial story on the abortion claim was published Oct. 3. As of Wednesday afternoon, Walker had not confirmed that he has taken any legal action against the outlet.

The reporting has put Walker on the defensive both about his claims of being a family man and his previous support for a national abortion ban, without any exceptions. That’s a notable position because the Supreme Court in June ended a constitutional right to an abortion and Congress has been discussing federal legislation to set a national regulation.

During the primary campaign, Walker was consistent about his absolute opposition to abortion. He repeated that approach after winning the nomination but has since shied away from it, trying to turn the issue back on Warnock by suggesting the Democrat supports no limits on abortion access.

In their lone debate, Walker denied his previous position and said he has settled on backing Georgia’s new state law that bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they’re pregnant. That law includes exceptions for pregnancies involving rape, incest or threats to a woman’s life or health.

Walker has been dogged throughout his campaign with intense scrutiny of his past.

He’s been accused of repeatedly threatening his ex-wife’s life, exaggerating claims of financial and business success, suggesting he’s been a sworn law enforcement officer and overstating his role in a for-profit program that is alleged to have preyed upon veterans and service members while defrauding the government.

After a story by The Daily Beast in June, Walker acknowledged the existence of three children he had not previously talked about publicly, including the son of the woman who first accused Walker of urging her to have abortions.

More than 1.1 million Georgia voters have cast ballots so far ahead of Election Day, either by mail or through advance in-person voting that began Oct. 17 and continues through Nov. 4. That is about 50% higher than at this point in 2018, the last midterm election.

With a Libertarian nominee also on the ballot, it remains possible that neither Warnock nor Walker attracts the required majority to win outright. In that case, the two would meet in a Dec. 6 runoff.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to return to Iowa ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms, to headline a rally for Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Trump’s organization announced Wednesday.

The event, set for Nov. 3 in Sioux City, the hub of Iowa’s conservative northwest, comes as Trump has continued to tease interest in a White House comeback campaign as he has campaigned around the country for Republican candidates.

Returning to Iowa, where the 2024 Republican presidential caucuses are scheduled to launch the GOP nominating sequence, would likely further stoke speculation of Trump’s future.

“In order to make our country successful, safe and glorious again, I will probably have to do it again,” Trump said in Robstown, Texas, on Oct. 22.

The Iowa event is part of Trump’s rally tour in the home stretch of the 2022 campaign. It is also expected to include stops in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Republican candidates in Iowa don’t appear to need much of a boost from Trump.

Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has swamped her Democratic challenger in fundraising and leads comfortably in polls, is heavily favored to win her second full term. Though seven-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley appears to be facing his most serious challenge for reelection, the 89-year-old still leads in a race where national Democrats have spent no money advertising on behalf of retired Admiral Michael Franken.

It would be Trump’s second trip to Iowa since the 2020 election, coming a year after he drew thousands to the Iowa state fairgrounds in Des Moines. It also comes as other would-be 2024 Republican contenders, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Trump administration appointees Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo, have visited the state on behalf of Iowa Republicans in recent weeks.

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ATLANTA (AP) — Judge orders Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump, to testify in Georgia election probe.

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NEW YORK (AP) — With time running out before the election, President Joe Biden highlighted his administration’s push to crack down on so-called junk fees that banks and other companies charge their customers. The announcement comes after months of high inflation have eaten away at Americans’ savings and made the economy the top issue for voters.

Biden was joined by Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the nation’s financial watchdog agency created after the Great Recession. The bureau is targeting overdraft fees charged by banks as well as bad check fees, which are levied against a bank customer when a check isn’t valid.

The bureau’s guidance would make it illegal for banks to charge an overdraft fee on a transaction when a customer’s account shows a positive balance at the time of a purchase, or when they withdraw money from their account.

Prior to the pandemic, banks collectively charged their customers roughly $15 billion in overdraft and bounced check fees, according to a bureau estimate. The bureau estimates that its new enforcement push on junk fees will save Americans roughly $3 billion in fees annually.

“These steps will immediately start saving Americans collectively billions of dollars in fees,” Biden said.

Roughly two weeks away from the midterm elections, Biden is using public events to show how his administration is trying to reduce costs for families. That push comes as high inflation — averaging 8.2% over the past year — has been a drag on the president’s approval rating and put Democrats at a disadvantage with voters.

Back in 2021 as the economy emerged from the pandemic, Biden tried to minimize the risks of lasting inflation. But continued pandemic shutdowns and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have pushed up prices globally, a challenge that the U.S. is primarily trying to address by having the Federal Reserve raise interest rates.

Banks have long been criticized for the high fees they charge customers when their accounts go temporarily negative. Relenting after years of public pressure, banks have reined in their overdraft fee practices. Most notably, Bank of America reduced its overdraft fee from $35 to $10. Other banks have instituted changes to their policies so customers cannot overdraft their accounts, or are given repeated warnings that they need to bring their accounts current before a fee is charged.

The banking industry responded that it was taking steps to reduce fees on customers before the White House stepped in.

“These changes were made without regulatory or legislative intervention,” said Lindsey Johnson, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association, the trade and lobby group for the nation’s biggest retail banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

The CFPB is also targeting bounced check fees, which occur less frequently nowadays because Americans have largely moved away from writing paper checks and largely use peer-to-peer payment platforms like Zelle, Venmo, PayPal and CashApp. These fees are typically between $10 and $19, according to the bureau, and are charged to the customer depositing the check.

“Charging a fee to the depositor penalizes the person who could not anticipate the check would bounce, while doing nothing to deter the originator from writing bad checks,” the bureau said in a statement.

The bureau did not have an estimate of how much Americans pay in bad check fees, because banks do not publicly disclose those figures in regulatory filings.

Biden also highlighted a number of other fees the administration plans to go after, which include resort fees, processing fees for concert tickets, and various fees charged by airlines.

“We’re just getting started,” Biden said.

The White House’s push is also a public display of support for the CFPB days after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the way the bureau is funded is unconstitutional. The conservative-leaning court ruled that because the CFPB receives its funding from the Federal Reserve and not through Congressional appropriations, the way the bureau writes its rules and regulations is unconstitutional.

The court case, which could wind up in the Supreme Court, is the latest in a long list of conservative and Republican challenges to the bureau’s structure. Within hours, Republicans attacked the bureau’s announcement.

“It’s no surprise that an out-of-control and unaccountable agency — which the Fifth Circuit recently ruled is unconstitutional — has chosen to sidestep the congressionally mandated rulemaking process to change the rules of the road,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania and the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, in a statement.

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Reporter Josh Boak in Washington contributed.

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ATLANTA (AP) — A judge on Wednesday ordered former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to testify before a special grand jury that’s investigating whether President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to sway Georgia’s results in the 2020 election.

Meadows, a former GOP congressman, is a key figure in the investigation. He traveled to Georgia, sat in on Trump’s phone calls with state officials and coordinated and communicated with outside influencers who were either encouraging or discouraging the pressure campaign.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation last year into actions taken by Trump and others to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the state. Meadows is just one of several associates and advisers of the Republican former president whose testimony Willis has sought.

Because Meadows doesn’t live in Georgia, Willis, a Democrat, had to use a process that involved getting a judge where he lives in South Carolina to order him to appear. First, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, signed off on a petition certifying that Meadows was a “necessary and material witness.”

Now, Circuit Court Judge Edward Miller in Pickens County, South Carolina, has honored McBurney’s finding and ordered Meadows to testify, Willis spokesman Jeff DiSantis confirmed.

Meadows attorney Jim Bannister told The Associated Press that his client was “weighing all options,” including appeals.

“Nothing final until we see the order,” he said.

Willis has been fighting similar battles — mostly with success — in courts around the country as she seeks to compel Trump allies to testify. But an appeals court in Texas has indicated it may not recognize the validity of the Georgia summonses, and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after a federal appeals court last week ordered him to testify.

In the petition seeking Meadows’ testimony, Willis wrote that he attended a Dec. 21, 2020, meeting at the White House with Trump and others “to discuss allegations of voter fraud and certification of Electoral College votes from Georgia and other states.”

The next day, Willis wrote, Meadows made a “surprise visit” to Cobb County, just outside Atlanta, where an audit of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes was being conducted. He asked to observe the audit but wasn’t allowed to because it wasn’t open to the public, the petition says.

Meadows also sent emails to Justice Department officials after the election alleging voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere and requesting investigations, Willis wrote. And he took part in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which Trump suggested that Raffensperger, the state’s top elections official and a Republican, could “find” enough votes to overturn the president’s narrow loss in the state.

According to a transcript of the call with Raffensperger, Meadows said Trump’s team believed that “not every vote or fair vote and legal vote was counted. And that’s at odds with the representation from the secretary of state’s office.” He goes on to say he hopes they can agree on a way “to look at this a little bit more fully.”

Raffensperger disputed the assertions, addressing Trump, “We don’t agree that you have won.”

After the election, Meadows was widely seen in the White House as a chief instigator of Trump’s fixation on the election, passing along debunked conspiracies about fraud that other officials were forced to swat down. He pushed one theory that people in Italy had changed votes in the U.S. with satellite technology, a claim that former Justice Department official Richard Donoghue labeled “pure insanity.”

On the legal front, in a court filing this week, Meadows’ lawyer Bannister argued that executive privilege and other rights shield his client from testifying.

Bannister asserted in a filing that Meadows has been instructed by Trump “to preserve certain privileges and immunities attaching to his former office as White House Chief of Staff.” And Willis’ petition calls for him “to divulge the contents of executive privileged communications with the President,” Bannister wrote.

Meadows previously invoked that privilege in a fight against subpoenas issued by the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Meadows has been fighting investigations into the violent 2021 insurrection since last year and has so far avoided having to testify about his role and his knowledge of the former president’s actions. He turned over thousands of texts to the House Jan. 6 committee before eventually refusing to do an interview.

The House held Meadows in contempt of Congress for defying the subpoena, but the Justice Department declined to prosecute.

Special grand juries in Georgia cannot issue indictments. Instead, they can gather evidence and compel testimony and then can recommend further action, including criminal charges, in a final report. It is ultimately up to the district attorney to decide whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.

Grand jury secrecy is “paramount” in South Carolina, Bannister wrote. Because the special grand jury is expected to ultimately issue a public report, ordering Meadows to testify would violate his state right to privacy, Bannister argued.

McBurney, the Fulton County Superior Court judge, has made clear in rulings on other attempts by potential witnesses to avoid or delay testimony that he considers the special grand jury’s investigation to be a criminal proceeding. He has also stressed a need for secrecy for the panel’s workings.

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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Jill Colvin and Meg Kinnard in New York contributed.

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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s electorate will soon cast decisive votes on something state lawmakers have craved, a ballot measure fiercely resisted by the governor that would let the legislature call itself into special session on topics of its choosing.

If the proposed constitutional amendment is ratified Nov. 8, it would shift more power toward the state’s Republican-dominated legislature, continuing the evolution of a stronger legislative branch begun decades ago. With a Democrat currently in the governor’s chair, that matters more than it might in times of undivided government.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has bluntly called the proposal a “power grab” by rival GOP lawmakers in the legislature and said it would disrupt the traditional separation of powers.

“No branch should be too strong,” Beshear said in a video aired Monday night on Kentucky Educational Television. “Yet the legislature wants to give itself more power so that it could call itself into session to change an executive branch decision over the most minute thing.”

Republican lawmakers say the measure would fix an imbalance that leaves the legislature powerless to act most of the year, unless called back into session by the governor.

“What if we said to the judicial branch: ‘You can’t meet for eight months of the year?’” Senate President Pro Tem David Givens said on the same KET program. “That’s effectively what’s been done to us.”

Currently, Kentucky is among 14 states where only the governor can summon the legislature into special session, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

If Kentucky voters approve the measure, the legislature could be called back under a joint proclamation by the House speaker and Senate president. Lawmakers also could choose topics for such sessions, which could last no more than 12 days. Governors, meanwhile, would retain their authority to convene special sessions.

It’s a potentially far-reaching measure that would enable lawmakers to meet in regular session longer into the year — though the total legislative days would remain the same: 30 in odd-numbered years and 60 days in even-numbered years.

Now, regular sessions end in early spring. Extending the end date of regular sessions would require super-majority support in each chamber.

“There may be times when there’s nothing pressing on the front end of a session, where we don’t necessarily need to go in for an extended period of time,” House Speaker David Osborne said on KET. “We may go in and do a few things, recess, come back later in the year where there may be more pressing issues to tackle.”

The measure comes after what GOP lawmakers said was a backlash against pandemic-related restrictions Beshear applied to businesses and gatherings in 2020, seeking to contain COVID-19. Lawmakers basically were relegated to the sidelines, unable to take action on the governor’s orders until their next regular session the following year.

“I argue that this goes to the basis of checks and balances,” Givens said Monday night. “That’s really what this is about. When you think about the fact that for eight months of the year, we have no ability to act.”

Pushing back against claims of a power play, Osborne said he also proposed the constitutional measure when the state had a Republican governor, Matt Bevin.

Critics say the proposal would move the General Assembly closer to a full-time legislature, making it more difficult for many people to consider running for the House or Senate. They say the current system — requiring consensus among the governor and legislators — works. They point to this year’s special session that passed relief aid for flood-ravaged eastern Kentucky.

“If we collectively all sit down and have this conversation, we can accomplish what we want to accomplish within the confines of what we have right now,” Democratic Rep. Jeffery Donohue said on KET.

The proposal’s opponents include Eric Hyers, the governor’s 2019 campaign manager and adviser to his reelection effort for 2023. Hyers formed an issues committee seeking the measure’s defeat.

“Special legislative sessions should be called for rare instances that need emergency action, like natural disasters,” Hyers said. “This amendment would instead allow politicians to call special sessions to pass their pet projects and issues.”

Responding to claims there would be no limits on what lawmakers might do in special sessions, Givens said legislators will answer for their actions when running for reelection. “Those are our limits,” he said.

A special legislative session in Kentucky costs up to roughly $68,000 per day. House and Senate members receive $188.22 in salary per each day they’re in session, with leadership receiving between $216 and $235. Lawmakers also receive $170.50 per day for expenses and 62.5 cents for each mile driven to the Capitol.

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The ballot measure is Constitutional Amendment 1. A “yes” vote on Amendment 1 would give the legislature the additional scheduling flexibility, including the power to bring itself back into session for a limited time.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — They dodge. They hedge. And, yes, they sometimes even fib — or at least flip-flop.

Presidential aspirants dreaming of the White House while running for reelection to congressional or state posts often face an uncomfortable question: Whatever your higher hopes — and the timing they might demand — will you commit to serving out a full term for the folks who vote for you now?

Some, like Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, evade the question, as he did at a Monday night debate. Rather than answer directly whether he might leave the state, he took a dig at both President Joe Biden and his own Democratic opponent, Rep. Charlie Crist, whom he called “the only worn-out old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture.”

Others, like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, leave wiggle room, saying her “plans” are to serve for four more years.

Not so long ago, there also was Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who famously pledged, “I will serve out my full six-year term,” only to announce his presidential bid 13 months later. He had just won his seat when he made the vow and wasn’t facing imminent reelection.

It’s always a high-stakes question, though, and one that often makes for awkward answers — especially when political circumstances are ever-shifting.

“You don’t run for president unless you’ve got completely unabashed ambition. Some people hide it better than others,” said Reed Galen, deputy campaign manager for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign against Obama. He’s co-founder of The Lincoln Project, a GOP group opposing former President Donald Trump, who himself is poised to seek the presidency again in 2024.

DeSantis’ carefully crafted dodge at Monday’s debate both sidestepped the question and offered a chance to swipe at Biden, the oldest president in history. DeSantis is favored for reelection and may mount a 2024 presidential run as a GOP primary alternative to Trump.

Amid speculation that she could mount her own White House bid, Noem recently told The Associated Press, “I am running to be reelected as governor. My plans are to stay here for four years. Absolutely. That’s what I want to do.”

Still another future possible presidential contender, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, spent Tuesday in Iowa — which will kick off the 2024 GOP primary. Haley campaigned with Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is heavily favored to win reelection, but noted only that she expects to decide whether or not to run by January.

“If it looks like there’s a place for me, I’ve never lost a race,” said Haley, who was also U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration. “I’m not going to start now.”

Others have taken a different tack. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared last weekend that he would serve his full four-year term should he win reelection, as expected. That’s despite Newsom sparking speculation about a 2024 presidential run should Biden not seek reelection, running ads slamming Republican leadership in Florida and Texas.

Arizona Republican governor candidate Kari Lake has vowed to serve “eight years” as governor amid chatter she could be a vice presidential candidate for Trump.

But even seemingly ironclad responses don’t always hold up.

Obama was elected to the Senate in 2005 and told NBC in January 2006 that he’d serve his full term, adding “I will not” run for president in 2008. He kicked off his presidential bid in February 2007 and eventually bested onetime Democratic primary favorite Hillary Clinton — who herself had forgone a possible presidential run four years earlier, saying she would serve her full term as New York senator.

Democrat Martin O’Malley was Maryland’s governor for eight years until 2015, then ran unsuccessfully for president. He suggested governors going back to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton saw their presidential aspirations hurt their popularity back home, where voters “can be resentful and twice as hard on a candidate that they’ve grown up with and that they’ve seen.”

“What we call it here in Maryland is the crab pot effect,” O’Malley said. “When one crab’s trying to escape out of the pot, the other ones will pull him back in.”

While running for Senate in Texas in 2018, Democrat Beto O’Rourke slammed incumbent Republican Ted Cruz for having spent so much time traveling outside the state running for president in 2016. O’Rourke also committed then to serving a full term if he won, even as Cruz didn’t hide his post-Trump administration White House aspirations.

Cruz was reelected — and then O’Rourke mounted a brief 2020 presidential bid.

Cruz may again seek the White House in 2024. O’Rourke, meanwhile, is now running for Texas governor against Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, who himself could run for president in two years.

Potential presidential campaign can scramble home-state politics even before they get off the ground.

In 1998, George W. Bush was cruising to reelection as Texas governor and hadn’t formally announced a widely anticipated 2000 presidential run. But his family campaigned hard for Republican Rick Perry — then seeking the lieutenant governorship in a tight race — so that the governorship would remain in GOP hands if Bush eventually left for the White House.

Bush later did just that and Perry succeeded him and served as governor for 14-plus years, eventually mounting two unsuccessful White House bids of his own in 2012 and 2016.

Ray Sullivan, who worked on both Bush’s and Perry’s campaigns, said Perry was a “hard, definitive no” on running for president until late summer 2011. But then he began to see support building and had close friends and relatives urging him to jump into the White House race.

Perry announced that August but dropped out by January, reflecting how little groundwork his team had been able to do because of the condensed decision-making process, Sullivan said.

“We did not give ourselves enough time to fully prepare for the rigors of a presidential campaign,” he said. “And running for president is, physically, emotionally, mentally, the most taxing thing that a human being can do.”

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Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Hiawatha, Iowa, and Steven Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.

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