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The Trump administration said in a Texas court filing that it would rewrite an Obama-era rulemaking that dramatically expanded the number of workers covered by federal overtime rules, the latest example of the administration rolling back rules put in place by the previous White House.

Under former President Barack Obama, the Labor Department last year doubled to $47,000 the minimum annual salary threshold a worker must make before he or she can be deemed a "managerial" worker and therefore exempt from federal law requiring that they are paid time and a half after working 40 hours in a week. Business groups sued to overturn the rule, which they said raised the rate far too much. A Texas court struck it down on procedural grounds late last year. The Obama administration swiftly appealed but was unable to resolve the issue before the new administration took over.

That put the legal defense of the rule in the hands of the Trump administration, raising the question of what it would do. During his Senate confirmation hearing in May, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said the overtime rule was due for an update but the Obama administration had raised the minimum too high.

That's precisely what Justice Department lawyers argued in a court filing Friday. They defended the prior administration from charges that it violated the Administrative Procedures Act, which covers federal rulemakings, but also said the current administration would rethink the rule.

"The department has decided not to advocate for the specific salary level ($913 per week) set in the final rule at this time and intends to undertake further rulemaking to determine what the salary level should be. Accordingly, the department requests that this court address only the threshold legal question of the department's statutory authority to set a salary level," the lawyers stated. Restarting the public question process is a prerequisite before the department can overturn it and establish a new threshold.

The Justice Department did not indicate what the administration thought the new level would be.

Business groups applauded the move. "It's great to see a Department of Labor finally taking the time to fully evaluate the impact its regulations will have on businesses. Secretary Acosta has once again proven he is a thoughtful leader who will work in the best interest of the American worker," said Angelo Amador, executive director of the Restaurant Law Center, part of the National Restaurant Association.

Supporters of the Obama rule said the Trump White House should leave well enough alone. "I am deeply disappointed by the Department of Labor's refusal to defend the threshold set by the Obama administration, which would have protected 13 million middle-class workers. The overtime salary threshold has been so low for so long that most employees are not even aware that they're losing out on the pay or the time with their families they have earned," said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif.

Originally posted here:
Trump administration will rewrite Obama-era overtime rule - Washington Examiner

Screenshot by the author of J.A. Boyds tweet

Recently, J.A. Boyd II, a youth pastor for a Baptist church in Newnan GA, tweeted an image of what he proclaimed to be the official White House painting of former US President Barack Obama. Boyds accompanying paean in praise of the painting is a single word: BRUH!!!!

Obama does look resplendent in the beige suit he once famously wore to a press conference in 2014, with just the hint of a smile creasing the area around his mouth. A Dutch artist, Edwin van den Dikkenberg, who has made that portrait in oil, has skillfully apprehended Obamas combination of scholarly aloofness, confidence, and openness to being charmed. In this image there is also the resolute idealism, and curiosity that when I saw him in public appearances would often easily slide into a quizzical grin somewhere between empathic embarrassment on someone elses behalf and outright dismissal as unworthy of further engagement. It is a striking image, but reportedly this is not the official White House portrait.

Still, it made me think about what contemporary artist would do best with this assignment. Of course, I immediately imagined Chris Ofili, the heavily stylized watercolor portraits he made mostly of women in the late 1990s. Ofili would give Obama back that superhero quality that initially imbued his presidency, making him an iconic black man in a tie-dyed dashiki, all coffee-with-milk brown skin and high forehead with gleaming eyes.

Better yet, Mickalene Thomas would transform the cool professor into a funkafied, stone cold, groovy cat reclining on a chaise lounge in the oval office, the walls doused in psychedelic patterns and sparkles. Though Thomas most often employs her powers of bringing her subjects sexiness to the surface with women, she might be talked into doing the same with the former president, turning him into the dancer he sometimes revealed himself to be: giving a little shoulder shimmy and a two-step, gray hair rendered in glitter like an astral field.

Kehinde Wiley is also an option. Of course, his portrait accomplished in the style of courtly painting would gives us the triumphant Obama, the Nobel prize winner, the man to pull us back from the brink of financial meltdown. However, the drawbacks are that such a portrait would only emphasize that confidence that too often was read as haughtiness, and if Wiley works like he usually does the overall physical comportment might look too staged, too stiff.

Dawoud Bey could make a wonderfully intimate photograph of Obama, since they are already familiar with each other after Bey took a picture of the thenpre-gray senator from Illinois back in 2007. His portrait would be staid, quietly dignified, but forthright letting through the weariness and perhaps even the inner fortitude of the man who throughout the tenure of his presidency was consistently publicly called a Muslim terrorist from Kenya.

The artist William Villalongo could actually dig into those African roots, via Obamas father (Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was a Kenyan senior governmental economist), back to a storied past that tends to conflate all the technological achievements made on the continent and shunt them through the legends and accounts of life in Egypt. Villalongo did that digging soon after Obamas historic election, taking an image of the president and making him a kind of celestial mlange with Nefertiti, an Egyptian queen, who along with her husband Akhenaten, anEgyptian Pharaoh, was known for fomenting a profound change in religious practices within Egypt. Despite all the shortcomings of his presidency, such as portrait would affirm the fact that change did indeed occur with his presidency.

Lastly, we could stretch the boundaries of the portrait and instead of a painting or photograph, make it a black-and-white film montage by Steve McQueen, in which there is a long shot of him standing by the window in the White House, peering out in silence while in the foreground a clump of advisers and cabinet members talk among themselves, until Obama turns and walks towards them and the camera and the part like the Red Sea and they are suddenly quiet, waiting for him to speak.

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Which Artist Should Create Obama's Official Presidential Portrait? - Hyperallergic

The Energy Department is gearing up to request information about the agencys energy efficiency rule for air compressors, indicating itcould consider rewriting an Obama-era regulation the Trump administration froze earlier this year.

In a draft copyof a Federal Register filing, DOE officials say they want to collect information related to the efficiency ruling and also delay implementationof the rule later this year while reviewing the details.

In the filing, DOE said it has received correspondence, raising concerns that certain issues and information may not have been fully considered during the original rule making proceeding and also indicating further clarification may be needed to implement the rule as adopted.

The Obama administration finalized its rule for compressors in early January, establishing procedures for testing compressors'energy efficiency and making other technical changes.

The rule was one of several caught up in a regulatory freeze instituted by President Trump after he took office, and administration officials never published the final rule in the Federal Register.

In March, before that freeze ended, DOE said it would continue to postpone efficiency testing procedures for compressors, as well as those for walk-in coolers and freezers, central air conditioners and heat pumps.

Last month, a group of state attorneys general and environmental groups sued over the Trump administrations decision to stop the rule and others from taking effect.

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Energy Department to reconsider Obama energy efficiency rule - The Hill

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A worker assembles a Nissan Altima mid-size vehicle at the company's North America manufacturing plant in Canton, Mississippi.

He said the anemic real wage growth is troubling because it indicates a lack of competition among employers for labor, even in high-skilled positions. In a normal labor market nearing full employment, employers would be forced to increase their wages as labor becomes more scarce.

"In most parts of the economy, even in skilled jobs, we're just not seeing the kind of dramatic real wage growth, sustained real wage growth we need to see," Harris said.

Despite historic lows in the narrow U-3 measure of the unemployment rate, wages haven't increased to Harris' satisfaction. That discrepancy could indicate an increase in the number of Americans leaving the job market altogether, said Harris and Abby McCloskey, a former director of economic policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

"It's really difficult to say we have a healthy labor market if workers aren't getting a raise and if more and more Americans are deciding to leave the workforce," the founder of McCloskey Policy said on "Squawk Box."

The economy is flashing warning signs, McCloskey said, in part because of the effects of various federal benefits programs, such as food stamps, Medicaid and Obamacare, that create a disincentive for Americans to enter the workforce. Her prescription for the Trump administration is to expand the earned income tax credit, a benefit program that eases tax burdens for low- and moderate-income households.

"Aside from broader tax reform," McCloskey said, a more robust earned income tax credit "would be one of the single biggest things the Trump administration could do to boost workforce participation rates and wages."

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Stagnant real wage growth is making me 'a lot more bearish,' a former Obama aide says - CNBC

Former President Obama is involved in discussions about the future of the Democratic Party, sources close to the former president tell The Hill.

Since leaving office, he has held meetings on a by-request basis with a handful of House and Senate lawmakers in his office in Washingtons West End and over the phone.

In recent months, for example, he sat down one-on-one with freshman Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), according to a Democrat familiar with the meeting.

He has also met with and has had phone conversations with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez throughout the spring,according to two sources.

Obamas former political adviser David Simas, whois now the CEO of theObama Foundation, has also been making a string of calls to DNC officials in recent months.

Sources familiar with Obamas meetings with members of Congress declined to offer the names of all of the lawmakers he has met with, saying the sessions were meant to be private.

The DNC source described Obamas chats with Perez as regular check ins.

Obama hasnt had a major public presence on the political stage since leaving the White House.

He doesnt want the focus to be on him, said one source close to the former president. He doesnt want to be out in front.

But the private activity suggests that the former president,who left the White House with a 60 percent approval rating, is quietly doing more to shape the party than is often visible.

The meetings and calls have come at a time when the Democratic Party, still reeling from the stunning 2016 presidential election loss, is searching for leadership.

As the party attempts to rebuild, Democrats find themselves in an identity crisis, still trying to figure out how they lost white working-class voters and the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to President Trump.

A string of disappointing House special election losses has contributed to a sense of unease, and left Democrats questioning some of their leaders particularly House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).

One source close to the former president said that while Obama wants to provide space for new leadership in the party to step in, he also wants to be an available resource for those drafting the Democratic message.

The conversations between Obamaand the lawmakers and party leaders aresaid to vary.

With Perez, the men discussed the outlines of the party's future. With others, he has discussed policy.

Obama known for his ability to reach various segments of the Democratic Party has talked about bridging the partys current divide by explaining policy nuance in story form.

Obama's post-presidency office would not comment for this story.

The former presidentis expected to stay out of the political fray for now, sources familiar with hisplanning say, but he will begin emerging on the fundraising circuit and on the stump for candidates including Ralph Northam, the Democrat running for governor of Virginia, in the fall.

Northam approached the former president who carried the state in 2008 and 2012 with the help of millennials and African-Americans and asked him to get involved.

When Obama does hit the trail, he is expected to keep the debate policy-focused and at least initially he wont be pounding the drum on Trump.

Obama has taken a similar tack when he does weigh in publicly. He does so sparingly, when he feels much is at stake, those around him say.

Last week, for example, as Republicans considered a bill aimed at repealing his signature healthcare law, Obama put out a statement blasting his opponents for putting the American people through pain.

Simply put, if theres a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family this bill will do you harm, he said in the statement. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.

Obama also weighed in on the French election, choosing to endorse the eventual winner Emmanuel Macron over the far-right candidateMarine Le Pen.

While Obama who still lives in Washington remains out of the political spotlight, his post-presidency work has kept him on the road and meeting with world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The meetings have left some Democrats pining for what was during the Obama presidency and contrasting it with Trumps rocky foreign policy relations.

A news story in The New York Times, noting the chumminess in Obamas meetings with foreign leaders, went as far to say, one might be forgiven for thinking that Mr. Obama was trolling President Trump.

Those in Obamaworld say that wasnt the former presidents intent and that his focus is on his foundationand other post-presidency efforts.

He doesnt want to be president or the voice of the Democratic Party, one former Obama aide said. But hell definitely be there to guide folks along the way.

Continued here:
Obama plays behind-the-scenes role in rebuilding Democratic Party - The Hill