Politics

By Nichola Groom and Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal President Joe Biden’s suspension of tariffs on solar panels from four Southeast Asian nations, a measure aimed at supporting the small domestic manufacturing industry.

    Biden has vowed to veto the legislation, which passed the House of Representatives last week. It is not expected to have enough support to override a presidential veto.

    The United States has been trying to strike a tricky balance between supporting the creation of a domestic solar supply chain while keeping cheap imports flowing to projects needed to move the U.S. away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

    Biden, a Democrat, waived tariffs on solar imports from Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam for two years last June after solar project developers said they would increase their costs and freeze development.

    Panels from the four nations, which host manufacturing facilities owned by Chinese companies, account for about 80% of U.S. supplies. Domestic producers say they cannot compete with the cheap products made overseas.

    The House resolution that passed the Senate was introduced under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a law that allows Congress to reverse federal agency rules. A CRA bill expires if it is not passed within 60 days of its introduction.

    Proponents of the measure say the two-year suspension allows Chinese producers to avoid U.S. trade laws and prolongs an unfavorable market for domestic businesses.

“Developing our solar manufacturing industry is crucial to combating climate change, but we can’t do it if we don’t enforce the trade laws on the books,” Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin said on Wednesday.

    Top clean energy trade groups had called on members of Congress to oppose the measure. The Solar Energy Industries Association projected that its passage would result in cancellation of 14% of the industry’s planned new capacity this year and the loss of $4.2 billion in investment.

Repealing the suspension would “deal a devastating blow to the American solar industry, which will kill jobs, raise energy costs, and decrease our ability to achieve clean energy independence,” a group of senators led by Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen wrote in an open letter published on Tuesday.

    The final Senate vote was 56-41, with nine Democrats voting in favor.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jamie Freed)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan measure to repeal President Joe Biden’s suspension of tariffs on solar panel parts from four Southeast Asia countries passed the U.S. Senate on Wednesday evening.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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By Jack Queen

(Reuters) -Donald Trump denied raping writer E. Jean Carroll in a deposition video played on Wednesday for a Manhattan federal jury, as the former U.S. president sought to defend himself in a civil trial without testifying in person.

Trump, front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said in the October 2022 deposition that the alleged rape in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City decades ago didn’t happen.

“It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” Trump said in the video, hunched over a conference table as Carroll’s lawyers presented documents to him. “It’s just made up.”

Although the deposition footage was not released, portions of the transcript have been filed publicly.

Trump will not be testifying in person, and his legal team told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Wednesday they will not be calling any witnesses.

The trial is in its sixth day and is expected to extend into next week.

Carroll’s civil lawsuit for battery and defamation alleges Trump raped her in the mid-1990s and then tarred her reputation by claiming in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform that the former Elle magazine advice columnist’s case was a “Hoax and a lie.”

Carroll said during three days of testimony and pointed cross-examination that Trump slammed her against the wall in either 1995 or 1996, put his fingers into her vagina and then inserted his penis.

Denying the allegations, Trump accused Carroll of making up the story to drive sales of a 2019 memoir in which she made her claims public.

Trump has not attended the trial.

“I hear we’re doing very well in New York,” Trump said on Wednesday when asked why he was not in court. He spoke to reporters in Scotland where he was playing golf.

The trial has also featured testimony from two women who say Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago.

Former People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff told jurors on Wednesday that Trump cornered her at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in 2005 and forcibly kissed her for a “few minutes” until a butler interrupted the alleged assault.

“It really had a profound effect on me,” Stoynoff said through tears, describing the intense shame and self-doubt she said she felt after the encounter.

Another woman, Jessica Leeds, testified on Tuesday that Trump kissed her, groped her and put his hand up her skirt on a flight in 1979.

(Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Howard Goller)

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(Reuters) – A protracted default on U.S. payment obligations could result in the loss of 8.3 million jobs and a 6.1% reduction in economic output, according to an analysis by the White House Council of Economic Advisers released on Wednesday.

Such an unprecedented default “would likely lead to severe damage to the economy, with job growth swinging from its current pace of robust gains to losses numbering in the millions,” the council said in the report.

Even a more modest, “short” default scenario that is quickly resolved could lead to a loss of 500,000 jobs and a 0.6% reduction in real GDP, the council said.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Andrea Shalal in Washington; and Leslie Adler)

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By Jack Queen

(Reuters) – Donald Trump denied raping writer E. Jean Carroll in a deposition video played on Wednesday for a Manhattan federal jury, as the former U.S. president sought to defend himself in a civil trial without testifying in person.

Trump, front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said in the October 2022 deposition that the alleged rape in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City decades ago didn’t happen.

“It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” Trump said in the video, hunched over a conference table as Carroll’s lawyers presented documents to him. “It’s just made up.”

Trump will not be testifying in person, and his legal team told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday they will not be calling any witnesses.

The trial is in its sixth day and is expected to extend into next week.

Carroll’s civil lawsuit for battery and defamation alleges Trump raped her in the mid-1990s and then tarred her reputation by claiming in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform that the former Elle magazine advice columnist’s case was a “Hoax and a lie.”

Carroll said during three days of testimony and pointed cross-examination that Trump slammed her against the wall in either 1995 or 1996, put his fingers into her vagina and then inserted his penis.

Denying the allegations, Trump accused Carroll of making up the story to drive sales of a 2019 memoir in which she made her claims public.

The trial has also featured testimony from two women who say Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago.

Former People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff told jurors on Wednesday that Trump cornered her at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in 2005 and forcibly kissed her for a “few minutes” until a butler interrupted the alleged assault.

“It really had a profound effect on me,” Stoynoff said through tears, describing the intense shame and self-doubt she said she felt after the encounter.

Another woman, Jessica Leeds, testified on Tuesday that Trump kissed her, groped her and put his hand up her skirt on a flight in 1979.

(Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Howard Goller)

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(Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking said on Tuesday it would hear from former top officials at the failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and the Fed’s Vice Chair for Supervision at separate hearings later this month.

Gregory Becker, the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, and Scott Shay, former Chairman of Signature Bank, will appear on May 16, while Michael Barr, Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve, and the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Martin Gruenberg will be among the witnesses on May 18, the committee said in a statement.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; editing by Christian Schmollinger)

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By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday urged the U.S. Trade Representative and State Department to eliminate investor-state dispute settlement provisions from current and future trade deals and to intervene on behalf of Honduras against a U.S. company’s nearly $11 billion claim against the country.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Trade Representative Katherine Tai seen by Reuters, 33 lawmakers said that investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) systems in trade deals constitute a “problematic corporate handout” that violates countries’ sovereignty and democracy rights.

The letter, led by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, cited the “jaw-dropping sum” sought by U.S. investment company Honduras Prospera Inc last December as its central argument.

The company runs a special economic zone largely on the resort island of Roatan, with administrative and fiscal autonomy, but Honduras’ Congress last year repealed the law that allowed such zones under leftist president Xiomara Castro.

Prospera claims that the repeal violates the terms of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) with the United States and is claiming compensation of “at least several billion U.S. dollars and as high as $10.775 billion” for impairment of its investment.

The Democrats signing the letter said the case could require impoverished Honduras to pay billions of taxpayer dollars to a company that has “weaponized” the dispute settlement provisions.

“We request that you intervene – through a statement of support, amicus brief, and any other means at your disposal – in support of Honduras’ defense in the Prospera ISDS case and to ensure such egregious cases can no longer disrupt democratic policy making by working to eliminate ISDS liability in pre-existing agreements in our hemisphere,” the lawmakers wrote to Tai and Blinken.

The dispute settlement provisions had been a way to protect U.S. firms from abrupt changes in trading partners’ government policies by providing recourse through arbitration.

In the North American Free Trade deal, the legal protections came to be viewed as a de-facto subsidy for U.S. firms investing in Mexico, and much of the ISDS system was eliminated in NAFTA’s successor, U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, launched in 2020.

The letter cited Georgetown University research tallying $27.8 billion in ISDS settlement orders against Latin American governments, with Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico and Ecuador the worst hit.

“The broken ISDS system has time and time again worked in favor of big business interests while infringing on the rights and sovereignty of our trading partners and their people,” the lawmakers wrote.

(Reporting by David Lawder. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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By Pete Schroeder

(Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Banking Committee said on Tuesday it would hear from former top officials at the failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, as well as top U.S. banking regulators at separate hearings later this month.

Gregory Becker, the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, and Scott Shay and Eric Howell, former senior executives for Signature Bank, will appear on May 16. The hearing will mark the first time the former executives have spoken publicly since the March collapse of both firms, which helped set off broader turmoil in the banking sector. On Monday, regulators closed a third firm, First Republic, which then was sold to JP Morgan Chase.

In a separate hearing May 18, top regulators will testify, including Michael Barr, Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve, and the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Martin Gruenberg, the committee said in a statement. The panel will also hear from top regulators for the states of New York and California, which helped oversee the two failed firms.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; editing by Christian Schmollinger)

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(Reuters) – Censured Montana transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr on Tuesday lost a last-minute legal attempt to rejoin debate on the House floor, as a Montana judge rejected her attempt to overturn the legislature’s punishment that silenced her.

Republicans controlling Montana’s House of Representatives on April 26 barred Zephyr, a Democrat, from the House floor, anteroom or gallery for the remainder of the legislative session, which could end as soon as Tuesday night.

The censure was punishment for breaking decorum during debates on transgender bills including one that would deny healthcare treatment for transgender youth.

Zephyr told Republicans they would have “blood on your hands,” prompting them to cut off her microphone, and days later she was later denied floor privileges for encouraging a noisy but peaceful demonstration that disrupted a House session.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana had argued that Speaker of the House Matt Regier and Sergeant at Arms Bradley Murfitt had “unfairly, unjustly, and unconstitutionally” silenced Zephyr’s constituents.

District Court Judge Mike Menahan found the court’s authority was limited due to the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches.

“Even if the Court ultimately finds the House of Representatives, Speaker Regier, and Sergeant at Arms Murfitt acted unlawfully under the facts of this case, it does not have the authority to issue a broad permanent injunction to effectively remove all legislative authority … in relation to a single member,” Menahan wrote in his order.

The ACLU of Montana was considering its options including appeal but acknowledged a practical difficulty considering the legislative session was expected to end Tuesday night or Wednesday, a spokesperson said.

Montana’s governor signed the bill denying gender-affirming care to minors into law on Friday, two days after the House voted to censure Zephyr.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Richard Chang)

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By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are gearing up for their first fundraising events as soon as next week to help kick off their 2024 reelection campaign, according to people briefed on the plans.

Some of the events being planned for Biden include a reception and dinner that could take place in New York City on May 10, the people said.

The final dates for the events could change and the president’s schedule was not finalized as he deals with a debt limit crisis in Washington and a diplomatic trip to the Asia-Pacific region in two weeks.

Harris, meanwhile, is being scheduled for what will likely be her own first fundraising event for the campaign on May 12 in the key swing state of Georgia, according to a person familiar with the matter. She was already scheduled to be in Atlanta for a previously announced event benefiting the state Democratic Party.

The Biden campaign declined to comment.

While Biden has largely focused on his presidential duties since announcing his bid for re-election, his campaign operation is coming to life.

The first events being planned for Biden are designed to be intimate, small-group functions of fewer than 40 high-dollar donors, and are expected to generate some $2.5 million for Biden, according to the sources.

The money is helping the campaign get an early start on building an audience of voters and potential donors online. They’ve already spent $767,000 on Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook and $246,000 on Alphabet Inc-owned Google, according to those companies.

Biden’s campaign in 2020 was the first presidential campaign in history to raise over $1 billion, as he battled incumbent Republican Donald Trump.

His campaign team and Democratic National Committee (DNC) allies expect they may need more this time to reelect Biden, hold the Senate and regain control of the House of Representatives, which Republicans took in the 2022 midterm elections.

“You raised more money for me last time than I raised in my whole life,” Biden told top volunteer fundraisers for his campaign last week in Washington. “It’s because of you I’m standing here, and it’s going to be because of you we win this next time around.”

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in WashingtonEditing by Chris Reese, Matthew Lewis and Jonathan Oatis)

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