Monday, Oct. 23
á Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a secret, two-hour visit to the main American air base in Afghanistan on Monday, to meet top Afghan officials.
á The Education Department said its rollback, last week, of 72 special education policy guidance documents will not affect services provided to students with disabilities, whose advocates had expressed alarm at the changes.
á Three weeks
after the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, efforts to pass
even scaled-down gun-control legislation, to ban the manufacturing and sale of
bump stocks have effectively stalled on Capitol Hill.
Tuesday, Oct. 24
á House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight
and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy,
both Republicans, said they will jointly investigate the Justice DepartmentÕs
handling of its 2016 Hillary Clinton investigation. TheyÕre also seeking more
information about the agencyÕs ongoing investigation into campaign associates
of President Donald Trump.
á Congress gave
final approval for $36.5 billion in emergency spending, including $18,7 billion
for FEMA, to pay for ongoing relief from recent natural disasters, including
CaliforniaÕs fires.
á The Senate passed a resolution (S.J. Res. 47) to repeal a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule. The repeal would eliminate consumersÕ rights to file class action lawsuits and to not have to sign binding arbitration agreements.
á The Trump
administration will temporarily delay processing of most refugees from 11
countries identified as high-risk, while resuming refugee admissions for other
countries, government officials said. The changes come at the close of a
120-day ban on most refugees ordered by Trump to allow a review of vetting
processes.
Wednesday, Oct. 25
á A 17-year-old,
pregnant, undocumented immigrant, identified as Jane Doe in court papers, was
allowed to leave a federally funded Texas shelter and terminate her pregnancy,
which had been her desire. The government had blocked the abortion until
ordered to allow it by an appeals court.
á A bipartisan
bill to stabilize Obamacare, the Alexander –
Murray proposal, would cut the federal deficit by $3.8 billion but wouldnÕt do
much to change health insurance premiums for 2018, according to an analysis by
the Congressional Budget Office. It would not substantially change the number
of people who are covered.
Thursday, Oct. 26
á House
Republicans passed a budget bill with no Democrats voting for it, narrowly
overcoming internal GOP dissension to clear a major obstacle in the partyÕs
quest to overhaul the federal tax code. The Senate passed its budget resolution
last week. Passage of the budget was necessary to pass the tax code changes
with a simple majority in the Senate.
á Trump formally
declared the opioid crisis a health emergency, but
failed to call it a Ònational emergencyÓ, which would have prompted the
allocation of federal funding to address the issue. Trump did not otherwise
request any funding to address the crisis.
á The State
Department said it is set to begin implementing new Russia sanctions after
lawmakers in both parties raised questions about the weeks-long delay,
according to a statement today from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman
Bob Corker. At issue is an Oct. 1 deadline to identify entities in the Russian
defense and intelligence sectors that would come under new sanctions passed in
a bipartisan bill that Trump signed in August.
Friday, Oct. 27
á Politico
reported on its investigation of SEC data that shows that corporate civil
penalties are way down under the Trump administration. From February through September,
the SEC, headed by Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton, collected $127 million in
corporate civil penalties in 15 cases, compared to $702 million in 43 cases
from February through September 2016.
á A federal grand
jury in Washington approved the first indictments in the investigation led by
Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The charges are still sealed under orders from
a federal judge.
á Vice reported
that U.S. troop presence in Africa
has increased to 3,500 exercises, programs, and engagements per year, an
average of nearly 10 missions per day, on the African continent.
Saturday, Oct. 28
á
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the
threat of nuclear missile attack by North Korea is accelerating.
Sunday, Oct. 29
á Rep. Adam Schiff told This WeekÕs George Stephanopoulos that the
PresidentÕs power to pardon people is not unlimited. ÒThe president
cannot pardon people if itÕs an effort to obstruct justice, if itÕs an effort
to prevent Bob Mueller and others from learning about the presidentÕs own
conduct. So, there are limitations. If it were truly unlimited, it would have
the effect of nullifying vast portions of the constitution. The president could
tell Justice Department officials and other law enforcement to violate the law
and that if they did, and it was ever brought up, they were brought up on
charges, he would pardon them,Ó Schiff said.