Politics

(Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump has urged fellow Republicans in Congress to shut down the government to thwart the federal prosecutions against him, although any funding lapse was unlikely to stop the cases from being pursued.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are at odds over how to proceed with spending legislation, which must be passed to avert an Oct. 1 shutdown. A small group of hardliners, including Trump’s most fervent supporters, have complicated the agenda for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he pushes a short-term funding plan.

“Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media site late on Wednesday, calling it “the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots.”

The U.S. Justice Department has previously said activities funded by “permanent indefinite appropriations” would continue during any funding lapse.

The Special Counsel’s Office prosecuting Trump and his allies had no formal comment, but it is covered by “the permanent, indefinite appropriation for independent counsels,” according to its latest funding statement.

President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign accused Trump, the leading candidate by far in the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest, of putting his own interests ahead of those of the country.

“Donald Trump is rooting for a government shutdown and couldn’t care less what it would mean for American families,” the campaign said in a statement. Biden, a Democrat, defeated Trump in 2020 and is seeking re-election in 2024.

Trump faces two federal trials, one tied to his attempts to overturn his 2020 loss, as he again seeks the presidency in the 2024 election, and the other over his handling of classified documents.

New York and Georgia are also prosecuting him and a federal shutdown would not affect those cases.

The White House has stressed the independence of the Special Counsel’s Office.

Republicans and Democrats seized on Trump’s plea, with a Trump ally, U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, posting on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Trump Opposes the Continuing Resolution. Hold the Line.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X: “Trump ordered House Republicans to shutdown the government. These people are too extreme to ever be trusted.”

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Howard Goller and Jonathan Oatis)

source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden is establishing a new office of gun violence protection, to be overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris, and is bringing in leading advocates to help run it, officials said on Thursday.

The new office will help implement existing gun safety laws while working with states on the issue, officials said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Leslie Adler)

source

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives late on Wednesday announced they had embraced a framework for legislation providing stopgap funds to avert government shutdowns starting on Oct. 1.

Without prompt action by Congress, existing money to fully operate a vast array of federal programs expires at midnight Sept. 30 with the end of the current fiscal year.

For months, far-right House Republicans have been demanding deeper cuts in federal spending than agreed to in bipartisan legislation this summer.

The 64 members of the House’s “Problem Solvers Caucus” — 32 Democrats and 32 Republicans — issued a statement saying the group had voted to endorse a temporary funding measure that would run through Jan. 11, 2024.

The stopgap funding to keep the lights on throughout the federal government also would grant President Joe Biden his request for a new round of emergency funding for Ukraine in its battle to oust invading Russian forces, as well as new money for helping U.S. communities recover from natural disasters.

It was unclear whether this plan would gain traction in the deeply-divided House.

“The Problem Solvers’ proposal keeps the government open, addresses our nation’s longer-term fiscal health and includes fiscally responsible measures,” said Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer, a co-chair of the bipartisan caucus.

The group’s framework also calls for establishing a new fiscal commission to “stabilize long-term (U.S. budget) deficits and debt,” the statement said.

Between Oct. 1 and Jan. 11, Congress would work to pass and send to Biden the 12 regular appropriations bills to fund the government through Sept. 30, 2024, the caucus said. Funding would be set at the $1.59 trillion level approved earlier this year by the president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Shortly after that deal was struck, McCarthy backed away from it, bowing to demands from a group of about 30 very conservative Republicans who have been seeking an additional $120 billion or so in spending cuts.

The Problem Solvers Caucus plan also calls for new border security controls that would be operational through the end of next year. Details of that plan were not outlined, however.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Michael Perry)

source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress faces a midnight Sept. 30 deadline for passing some sort of temporary funding bill or triggering partial federal government shutdowns beginning on Oct. 1, the start of a new fiscal year.

Here are a few ways Congress might avoid a shutdown:

THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY

House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy could find the sweet spot for a one-month funding deal that his Republicans would embrace.

Passage by the Republican-controlled House, where appropriations bills normally originate, would send the stopgap measure to the Democratic-led Senate. It likely would arrive with a tough border-control measure attached, which Democrats oppose.

President Joe Biden wants his own temporary border security plan enacted instead. So, once the bill arrives in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would be likely to replace the House border security language with Biden’s.

Once the Senate passed its temporary spending bill, the House could vote to accept the Senate changes – possibly hours or minutes before the midnight Sept. 30 deadline. Or the House could reject the proposal, triggering a shutdown.

SENATE JAMS THE HOUSE

If the House appeared unable to produce any sort of government-funding bill by Sept. 30, the Senate could take matters into its own hands.

In this scenario, Schumer would take the “shell” of an already-passed House bill, remove its current language and replace it with a new temporary funding bill, which is known as a continuing resolution, or CR.

That would get around a constitutional requirement that revenue-related bills must originate in that chamber.

The Senate in this scenario would likely act close – but not too close – to the midnight Sept. 30 deadline so that it can pass such a CR and send it to the House with little time to spare. It’s a move known as “jamming” the other chamber.

MCCARTHY ROLLS THE DICE

Unable to get enough far-right conservative Republicans on board, McCarthy could take a big political gamble and send a bill to the House floor that would need Democratic votes to pass. This would anger some House Republicans and possibly prompt them to launch an effort to strip him of his speakership, potentially plunging the Congress into an even deeper crisis.

COALITION OF CENTRISTS

Various moderate-to-centrist lawmakers have been huddling privately to see if they can come up with plans to break the House deadlock.

For example, the “Problem Solvers Caucus” has been mulling a framework that would extend current government funding into 2024 and attach disaster aid, Ukraine aid and some sort of border security measure, according to a House member familiar with the caucus’ work.

THE LONG-SHOT

Members of the House can circulate a “discharge petition” to dislodge legislation from a committee and send it to the full House for a prompt vote.

There are difficult and often time-consuming procedural hurdles that would have to be cleared and the majority party in the House – Republicans currently – is often loathe to buck their leadership by joining the minority party in a revolt.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Marguerita Choy)

source

By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that if elected again he would shift resources from federal law enforcement agencies and send thousands of overseas-based troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Speaking to supporters in Iowa, where the Republican Party’s first nominating contest for the November 2024 election will be held in January, Trump also promised to expand on a travel ban that barred people from several countries with majority Muslim populations during his 2017-2021 presidency.

Calling record illegal U.S.-Mexico border crossings under President Joe Biden an “invasion,” Trump sought to place blame for the problem on the current administration. Biden, a Democrat, is running for re-election and could have a rematch election against the Republican front-runner Trump.

“Upon my inauguration I will immediately terminate every open borders policy of the Biden administration,” Trump said at a rally in Dubuque. “I’ll make clear that we must use any and all resources needed to stop the invasion, including moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas.”

Trump provided few specifics, including on exactly how he planned to expand on any ban imposed on Muslim-majority countries. It was unclear if Trump would face any legal hurdles to implementing such measures.

The Biden administration has defended its border policies, saying it is using the tools available, while calling on Congress to pass laws to fix a broken system. Most people seeking to cross the southern U.S. border come from Central American countries.

Trump’s rivals have stepped up their rhetoric on immigration in recent weeks, promising tough action on crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border in a sign of the importance of the issue to Republican primary voters. About one in six Republicans consider immigration as the most pressing issue facing the country, making it the third most important issue to them after the economy and crime, a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month showed.

Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in an interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell that if elected president he would send the military to the border and authorize the use of deadly force against members of drug cartels.

DeSantis is Trump’s top rival but remains some 40 percentage points behind him in opinion polls.

The Dubuque rally was one of two afternoon stops for Trump in Iowa on Wednesday. His campaign is scheduling a series of visits to the state in the coming weeks, as he seeks to fend off a push there by his primary rivals, some of whom have spent considerably more time in Iowa.

Trump was the only major candidate to skip the annual Faith and Freedom Coalition banquet in Des Moines over the weekend, missing a chance to connect with evangelicals, a critical voting bloc in the state.

(reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Grant McCool)

source

By David Morgan

(Reuters) -U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Republicans will try again to move forward on fiscal 2024 spending legislation on Thursday, with a procedural vote on a defense appropriations bill.

After a 2-1/2 hour closed-door meeting with members of his Republican majority, the California Republican also said lawmakers were “very close” to agreement on a short-term stopgap measure to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30.

He said House Republicans would also begin advancing other full-scale appropriations bills.

“We’re going to be voting tomorrow,” McCarthy told reporters. “I think we made tremendous progress,” he added. “I think we’ve got a plan to move forward.”

His comments provided a rare sign of progress a day after House Republicans were unable to advance the defense bill and the short-term measure, known as a continuing resolution or “CR” due to Republican infighting.

The stalemate raised concerns about the ability of Congress to keep federal agencies afloat, when the 2024 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

The House and the Democratic-led Senate have barely a week and a half to pass a CR or long-term spending legislation that Democratic President Joe Biden can sign into law.

On Tuesday, opposition from five Republicans defeated a vote intended to open debate on a $886 billion defense spending bill.

Those five Republicans were hardliners who wanted assurances that fiscal 2024 appropriations will not exceed a 2022 top line of $1.47 trillion – $120 billion less than McCarthy and Biden agreed to in May.

McCarthy said on Wednesday he had been able to persuade two of the five to change their positions.

But discussions among Republicans have yet to reach a breakthrough on a proposed CR that would keep the government open until Oct 31 while cutting spending and imposing restrictions on U.S. immigration and border policy.

(Reporting by David Morgan, Kanishka Singh and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told a Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday that he runs a nonpolitical department that does not do the bidding of the president or lawmakers.

In his testimony, Garland pushed back against lawmakers who have criticized the Department of Justice (DOJ) for its handling of the indictments of Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

“Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate,” Garland told the House Judiciary Committee.

“I am not the president’s lawyer. I will add I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people.”

Wednesday marked Garland’s first testimony before Congress since two historic firsts: the department’s criminal charges against a former U.S. president and against a sitting president’s adult child.

It also comes a week after the Republican-led House launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, related to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.

The White House has dismissed that probe as politically motivated and unsubstantiated, and the House Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat, Jerrold Nadler, on Wednesday accused Republicans of wasting “countless taxpayer dollars” on investigations into Biden “to find evidence for an absurd impeachment.”

Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Garland last autumn, has twice secured indictments of Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified records and for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has pleaded not guilty to those charges and two other state criminal indictments he faces in New York and Georgia.

Trump has repeatedly verbally attacked Smith, potential witnesses, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the election subversion case, saying that the prosecutions he faces are politically motivated.

Republicans have also been critical of the department’s handling of a five-year-long tax investigation into Hunter Biden, 53.

The younger Biden was set in July to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts and agree to enroll in a program to avert a gun charge as part of a deal with the then-U.S. Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss.

The deal collapsed after a federal judge questioned its terms. Shortly before that, an IRS whistleblower who worked on the criminal tax probe also claimed that the Justice Department stymied Weiss from pursuing more serious tax charges by failing to appoint him sooner as special counsel so that he could pursue the cases in either Washington, D.C., or Central California.

Amid mounting Republican criticism, Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel so that he could continue to investigate and possibly pursue tax charges in other federal districts.

Weiss’ office this month charged Hunter Biden with three counts related to purchase and possession of a firearm while he was using illegal drugs. Hunter Biden intends to plead not guilty.

Republicans on Wednesday grilled Garland about the Hunter Biden case.

“Has anyone from the White House provided direction at any time to you personally or to any senior officials at the DOJ regarding how the Hunter Biden investigated was to be carried out?” Republican congressman Mike Johnson asked.

“No,” Garland said.

The attorney general also defended how the investigation was carried out under Weiss, saying he never “intruded” into Weiss’ work and telling Congress that Weiss always had “full authority to conduct his investigation” as he saw fit and only sought special counsel status recently.

In addition, Garland defended the department against accusations that the Biden case represents an example of a two-tiered system of justice, telling lawmakers the department “treats everyone alike, regardless of party, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of wealth.”

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in WashingtonEditing by Scott Malone, Matthew Lewis and Jonathan Oatis)

source

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told a House committee on Wednesday that Republican threats to defund the FBI would be “catastrophic” if carried out and that the Justice Department did not exist to do anyone’s political bidding.

Garland pushed back against Republican lawmakers who have criticized the Department of Justice for its handling of the indictments of Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

“Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate,” Garland told the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

“I am not the president’s lawyer. I will add I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people.”

Some of Trump’s hardline Republican allies have called for a defunding of the FBI to protest its investigation into and prosecution of more than 1,140 Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn his election defeat.

Garland warned that carrying out that threat would leave the nation “naked” to everything from the “malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party” to “domestic violent extremists.”

“I just cannot imagine the consequences of defunding the FBI,” Garland said. “They would be catastrophic.”

Wednesday marked Garland’s first testimony before Congress since two historic firsts: the department’s criminal charges against a former U.S. president and against a sitting president’s adult child.

It also comes a week after the Republican-led House launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, related to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and as congressional inaction threatens to cause the fourth partial U.S. government shutdown in a decade beginning next month.

The White House has dismissed the impeachment probe as politically motivated and unsubstantiated. The committee’s ranking Democrat, Jerrold Nadler, on Wednesday accused Republicans of wasting “countless taxpayer dollars” on investigations into Biden “to find evidence for an absurd impeachment.”

Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Garland last autumn, has twice secured indictments of Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified records and for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has pleaded not guilty to those charges and to two state criminal indictments he faces in New York and Georgia.

The former president has repeatedly verbally attacked Smith, potential witnesses, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the election subversion case, saying the prosecutions he faces are politically motivated.

Republicans have also been critical of the department’s handling of a five-year-long tax investigation into Hunter Biden, 53.

The younger Biden was set in July to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts and to agree to enroll in a program to avert a gun charge as part of a deal with the then-U.S. Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss.

The deal collapsed after a federal judge questioned its terms.

Shortly before that, an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower who worked on the criminal tax probe also claimed that the Justice Department stymied Weiss from pursuing more serious tax charges by failing to appoint him sooner as special counsel, so that he could pursue the cases in either Washington, D.C., or Central California. Hunter Biden lives in California.

Amid mounting Republican criticism, Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel so he could continue to investigate and possibly pursue tax charges in other federal districts.

Weiss’ office this month charged Hunter Biden with three counts related to purchase and possession of a firearm while he was using illegal drugs. He intends to plead not guilty.

Republicans on Wednesday grilled Garland about the Hunter Biden case.

“Has anyone from the White House provided direction at any time to you personally or to any senior officials at the DOJ regarding how the Hunter Biden investigated was to be carried out?” Republican congressman Mike Johnson asked.

“No,” Garland said.

The attorney general also defended how the investigation was carried out under Weiss, saying he never “intruded” into Weiss’ work and telling Congress that Weiss always had “full authority to conduct his investigation” as he saw fit and only recently sought special counsel status.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone, Matthew Lewis and Jonathan Oatis)

source

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican presidential contender Ron DeSantis pledged on Wednesday to slow America’s transition to electric vehicles, repeal regulations related to environmental, social and governance considerations and dramatically ramp up domestic fossil fuel production if he were elected.

In a speech in Midland, Texas, a city in the heart of oil country, the Florida governor also said he would withdraw the U.S. from global agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change, while increasing production of crude, gas, coal and uranium on federal lands.

Taken as a whole, the plan represents a doubling down on pledges DeSantis and most of his Republican opponents have made on the campaign trail to jettison limits on fossil fuel production and consumption. While the Florida governor had acknowledged that human-induced climate change was real earlier in his career, he has since backed away from that position.

Oil and gas executives are among his top boosters and financial backers, and DeSantis has been meeting with donors this week throughout Texas to refill his campaign coffers.

Among those who have donated to DeSantis are Continental Resources founder Harold Hamm and Dan Eberhart, the head of Colorado-based oilfield services firm Canary.

“We will unleash American energy dominance as a way to stop inflation and achieve $2 gas in 2025,” DeSantis said on Wednesday. The average on Wednesday for U.S. retail gasoline was about $3.88 a gallon.

“We will reverse American decline by reversing Biden’s America last energy agenda, eliminating reliance on hostile nations for energy, and putting the economic interests of Americans before the radical left’s ideological agenda.”

DeSantis’ speech, which is meant to broadly lay out his energy policy, comes as his campaign is in need of a boost. The Florida governor has slid in the polls for months, and he now sits 37 points behind former President Donald Trump, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.

According to the remarks and a factsheet released alongside the speech, DeSantis will “repeal Biden’s EV mandates” and prevent “California and faceless bureaucrats from setting America’s environmental standards.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules that could result in as much as two-thirds of the new vehicle market shifting to EVs, or electric vehicles, by 2032. California is seeking to enforce its own, more stringent rules to reduce vehicle emissions, a plan opposed by congressional Republicans.

DeSantis’ plan calls on pensions and government accounts to eliminate environmental, social or governance considerations, known as ESG, from consideration when making investment considerations, a plan which tracks closely with moves he made as Florida governor.

In addition to expanding fossil fuel production, DeSantis called for significant investments in so-called critical minerals, including the creation of a Critical Mineral Strategic Reserve.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Sabrina Valle, Richard Valdmanis and James Oliphant; editing by Timothy Gardner)

source

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican presidential contender Ron DeSantis pledged on Wednesday to slow America’s transition to electric vehicles, repeal regulations related to environmental, social and governance considerations and dramatically ramp up domestic fossil fuel production if he were elected.

In a speech in Midland, Texas, a city in the heart of oil country, the Florida governor also said he would withdraw the U.S. from global agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change, while increasing production of crude, gas, coal and uranium on federal lands.

Taken as a whole, the plan represented a doubling down on pledges DeSantis and most of his Republican opponents have made on the campaign trail to jettison limits on fossil fuel production and consumption and slash federal regulations. While the Florida governor had acknowledged that human-induced climate change was real earlier in his career, he has since backed away from that position, a shift that was apparent on Wednesday.

“We’ve seen a concerted effort to ramp up the fear when it comes to things like global warming and climate change,” he said.

DeSantis, whose home state of Florida has been struck by multiple powerful hurricanes during his time in office, added that “human beings are safer than ever from climate disasters,” thanks largely to increased access to electricity and power.

He said that under his administration, the federal government would replace the phrase “climate change” with “energy dominance” in key foreign policy and national security documents, though he did not specify which documents in particular would be affected.

Energy dominance was a theme of former President Donald Trump’s administration. Under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, U.S. oil output is expected to hit a record level this year.

Oil and gas executives are among DeSantis’ top boosters and financial backers, and DeSantis has been meeting with donors this week throughout Texas to refill his campaign coffers.

Among those who have donated to DeSantis are Continental Resources founder Harold Hamm and Dan Eberhart, the head of Colorado-based oilfield services firm Canary.

“We will unleash American energy dominance as a way to stop inflation and achieve $2 gas in 2025,” DeSantis said on Wednesday. The average on Wednesday for U.S. retail gasoline was about $3.88 a gallon.

DeSantis’ speech, which was meant to broadly lay out his energy policy, comes as his campaign is in need of a boost. The Florida governor has slid in the polls for months, and he now sits 37 points behind former President Donald Trump, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.

According to the remarks and a factsheet released alongside the speech, DeSantis will “repeal Biden’s EV mandates” and prevent “California and faceless bureaucrats from setting America’s environmental standards.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules that could result in as much as two-thirds of the new vehicle market shifting to EVs, or electric vehicles, by 2032. California is seeking to enforce its own, more stringent rules to reduce vehicle emissions, a plan opposed by congressional Republicans.

DeSantis’ plan called on pensions and government accounts to eliminate environmental, social or governance considerations, known as ESG, from consideration when making investment considerations, a plan which tracks closely with moves he made as Florida governor. He added he would strike a rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission which would require companies to make certain ESG-related disclosures to investors.

In addition to expanding fossil fuel production, DeSantis called for significant investments in so-called critical minerals, including the creation of a Critical Mineral Strategic Reserve.

DeSantis said he would seek to require plaintiffs to pay compensation when they bring spurious litigation against energy projects.

He added that he would repeal rules establishing protections for seasonal streams and wetlands that have upset farmers, a key constituency in the politically key state of Iowa.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Sabrina Valle, Richard Valdmanis and James Oliphant; editing by Timothy Gardner)

source