October 2017 - page 2

An ex-associate of Jack Abramoff picked to serve as number two at the Labor Department was approved by a Senate Committee on Wednesday. Patrick Pizzella, nominee for Deputy Labor Secretary, was advanced on a strict party line vote, along with a handful of other Trump administration political appointees. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)–who had grilled Pizzella about Abramoff ties during the confirmation hearing–denounced the nominee before Wednesday’s vote. The lawmaker said that Pizzella was unrepentant about his past and offered “misleading answers” to senate staffers, after…

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A Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday showcased how Senators are considering major reforms to a credit reporting industry dealing with data breaches. The proceedings were the latest in a series following the stunning hack of Equifax earlier this year, which exposed the social security numbers and sensitive information of 143 million Americans. “The credit reporting industry is a threat to each of us personally, but it is also a threat to our national security,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said during the hearing. The lawmaker’s remarks were…

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Environmental regulators are telling local officials that it’s okay for the public to be exposed to radiation equivalent to “5,000 chest x-rays,” according to critics. The EPA issued a public guidance in September, advising local officials to respond to a possible nuclear emergency by claiming that 5,000-10,000 millirems exposure “usually result[s] in no harmful health effects.” The watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said past studies funded by the US government declared that level to be highly carcinogenic. “National Research Council of the National Academy…

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President Trump is attempting to relax healthcare rules by fiat after failing repeatedly to pass an Obamacare-rollback law through Congress. The President signed an executive order on Thursday in an effort to allow the propagation of health insurance plans without key requirements mandated by the Affordable Care Act. “Every congressional Democrat has blocked the efforts to save Americans from Obamacare along with a very small, frankly, handful of Republicans,” Trump said. The White House rolled out its decree at a ceremony featuring an introduction from…

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An already dire economic situation in Puerto Rico is deteriorating after Hurricane Maria, but the territory isn’t getting any consideration from the House Financial Services Committee. Twenty-three bills were before the panel on Wednesday, amid a deregulatory frenzy overseen by Chair Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas). Legislation included proposals that would weaken consumer protections and federal oversight of unscrupulous lenders. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, criticized the decision to not hold hearings to examine recovery efforts in both Puerto Rico and the…

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to take up the case of an ex-coal baron convicted of fraud and conspiracy after the worst mining accident in decades. Justices denied the opportunity to hear the appeal of Don Blankenship, the former Massey Energy CEO found criminally liable for the 2010 disaster at the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine in West Virginia. Twenty-nine workers were killed after explosions rocked the mine. Blankenship was convicted in late 2015 for deceiving federal mining and securities regulators and for willfully violating…

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The deconstruction of President Obama’s environmental agenda continues apace, with the most sweeping regulatory component of the last administration now in the sights of the Trump White House. On Tuesday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt formally proposed a rule to repeal the 2015 Clean Power Plan (CPP) aimed at slowing global warming. “The war on coal is over,” Pruitt said Monday at an event in Kentucky, announcing his intentions.  A former Attorney General of Oklahoma, Pruitt previously sued the Obama administration to kill…

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Equifax is practically a money printing press, and stands to profit handsomely from its recent loss of sensitive data on almost 150 million Americans, according to the Senate Banking Committee. Questions about Equifax executives making insider trades off the recent breach were among others about the credit rating agency’s possible monetization of its system-wide failure earlier this year, lawmakers told now former-CEO Richard Smith. Both Democrats and Republicans railed at Smith at a hearing on Wednesday, likening Equifax to a bumbling protection racket. They lamented…

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