Mediaboss Marketing

Just hours before his first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, a cheery President Trump posed for pictures with roughly 20 Republican attorneys general. "These are some great people here," the president said fully aware that the AGs are in the midst of filing a flurry of lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Why?

"Sometimes it turns out the best way to help President Trump ... is to sue President Trump," Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley explained to Fox News.

Despite the unusual optics of all these lawsuits, the intention of Hawley and the other AGs is to use the suits to block federal regulations, mostly promulgated during the Obama administration but now in effect under Trump's.

In Missouri,this legal tactic centers on an endangered prehistoric fish that has outlived the dinosaurs, the Pallid Sturgeon.It reproduces in river shallows which have become fewer, due to the diking and channeling of the Missouri River. To resurrect the fish population, an Obama-era amendment to the Endangered Species Act allows the feds to designate as critical habitat areas where the fish may not even exist. The amendment was designed to expand ecosystems in order to maximize the endangered fish's ability to spawn.

But some landowners find the amendment intrusive. "This is the key part," said Hawley. "We are an agricultural state. That would mean farmers and ranchers could find themselves unable to farm their land, unable to develop their land." He said it's "absolutely a killer for small businesses and small farms in our state."

Hawley is one of 18 Republican AG's suing to overturn the rule. But they are combining forces to file other lawsuits -- challenging the Obama-era Waters of the United States regulatory plan, as well as overtime rules put in place by the Obama Department of Labor and the coal-crimping Clean Power Plan.

"In West Virginia, we suffered acutely because thousands upon thousands of people were put out of work. A number of those people left the state or are pursuing other employment," said Patrick Morrisey, West Virginias Republican attorney general.

Democratic attorneys general, meanwhile, also are mobilizing, trying to preserve Obama-era climate change regulations and, most recently,targeting Trump's travel ban. That multi-state attack worked, when Washington states Attorney General Bob Ferguson got a federal judge to temporarily block the policy nationwide. After the ruling, Ferguson noted, "We are a nation of laws. Those laws apply to everybody in our country. That includes the president of the United States."

AG's from both parties note filing lawsuits to overturn federal regulations is speedier than internal remedies -- the laborious and slow-moving federal rule-making process. They say the facts of the suits are usually well-known, testimony is usually limited, and judges tend to act quickly.

Republican attorneys general note there's an added benefit to them. The lawsuits are helping to restore the concept of federalism, empowering the states and restoring the balance of power against the executive branch.

Doug McKelway joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in November 2010 and serves as a Washington-based correspondent. Click here for more information on Doug McKelway.

Read the original here:
Republican AGs helping Trump - by suing administration - Fox News

After a month of education meetings and round-the-clock discussions with more than 150 members, House Republican leaders are still trying to work through disagreements with their fellow lawmakers over tax credits, the tax exclusion on employer plans and Medicaid changes.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price are planning to rally public support for their repeal and replace plans Friday in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, a messaging spectacle as a flurry of legislative discussion continues back on Capitol Hill behind closed doors.

Leaders have to please both conservatives and moderates because they cannot depend on Democrats to pick up any slack, creating a delicate balance to prevent loss of any one of their constituencies en masse.

Right now there is a dual track effort underway in the House, two committees working in tandem to find a bill that can assuage conservative concerns but all the while ensuring the proposal actually gets passed across the finish line.

The Ways and Means Committee is expected to work through the weekend to try and structure the refundable tax credits in a way that addresses conservative members' concerns. The Energy and Commerce Committee has made their committee staff available to meet with Republican committee members and answer questions.

Republicans are still working on significant pieces of the legislation, including how to structure tax credits that would help low-income people buy insurance. The issue has been a major sticking point with conservatives, who say refundable tax credits are little more than a subsidy or "Obamacare lite." Moderates, meanwhile, are concerned the tax credits would be available to everyone -- including the wealthiest Americans.

CNN confirmed that one idea being considered is to limit who is eligible for the tax credits so that the richest wouldn't get the money. But that does little to deal with conservative gripes about the plan's basic structure.

House Republicans also plan to discuss overhauling Medicaid this weekend. Under the plan now, the enhanced match for Medicaid expansion would be phased out starting in 2020. That would likely pass in the House, but it's unclear if the more than a dozen expansion-state Republicans in the Senate would agree to it.

But there are limits to what actually can be changed. Republican leaders still have to pay for their Obamacare replacement and give low-income individuals the ability to buy health care. They also must figure out a way to protect patients with pre-existing conditions while scrapping the individual mandate that was intended to help buoy those costs.

The Kentucky Republican wrote a screed against leadership on social media and marched to the House side of the Capitol where he demanded that legislative aides show him the proposal. Aides repeatedly told him it wasn't there.

One senior Republican congressional aide warned that the time for stunts was quickly running out.

"There will come a time very soon where we're going to have to have a proposal. And, whether that be the House proposal or the Senate proposal, we're going to have a proposal and get 218 and 51," the aide said.

"So right now members can do what they're going to do, but that time for fun will end soon and members will be forced to make a very difficult decision very quickly," the aide added.

Following the leaked draft, leaders called in the Trump administration for reinforcements.

On Wednesday Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden and House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady ventured over the Senate to sell their plan in a meeting most senators described as "constructive," but Paul described as a meeting where senators were told to "take it or leave it."

"It's a bad strategy," Paul told reporters Thursday. "I think this strategy's a real poor one and I've already told them, I'm not voting for a new entitlement program. If they want new entitlement programs and they want new government, Obamacare-lite, they can put that separately as a replacement bill, but the repeal bill ought to be a repeal."

Other Republicans say that there is still room to for lawmakers to make changes, but they warn lawmakers not to let perfect be the enemy of the good.

"Anybody that has really good ideas. This is the time to bring 'em. Anybody who thinks that their bill is the only bill that can pass, that's not realistic," House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise said Thursday. "At the end of the day, we're going to repeal Obamacare and replace it."

This story has been updated to reflect additional news.

CNN's Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.

More:
GOP leaders may dare fellow Republicans to vote against Obamacare repeal - CNN

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Jeff Sessions Used Political Funds for Republican Convention Expenses Wall Street Journal (subscription) The Trump administration says Attorney General Jeff Sessions was acting as a then-U.S. senator when he talked to Russia's ambassador at an event during last year's Republican National Convention in Cleveland, but Mr. Sessions paid for convention travel ... How much longer can Republicans defend Trump over Russia?The Week Magazine Sticking With Trump, Republicans Resist Call for Broader Russian InquiryNew York Times Republican Lawmakers Call for Sessions to Recuse HimselfThe Atlantic Daily Beast -Washington Post -Los Angeles Times -Washington Post all 3,806 news articles »

View original post here:
Jeff Sessions Used Political Funds for Republican Convention Expenses - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

The Utah Republican Party earlier had pushed instead the idea of runoff elections to help ensure a majority winner in crowded-field primary elections. But it reversed course saying that solution would be too expensive and take too much time.

Its reversal also came as the party reneged on a deal last weekend. It had pledged to drop its legal challenges of a new election law if the Legislature would pass a runoff election bill. As that bill was moving forward, the party changed its mind and said it would pursue its legal challenges anyway.

It was part of a fight over a new law, called SB54, allowing candidates to qualify for the primary by gathering signatures or through the traditional caucus-convention system.

A possible consequence of SB54 are primary races with multiple candidates, raising the prospect of a winner securing the party nomination with a small percentage of the votes.

Chavez-Houck noted in debate that the Utah Republican Party has already used ranked choice voting in its state conventions. She said it could help voters feel that their votes truly count, even if perhaps they know their top choice may not win.

Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, author of the controversial SB54 who had pushed a runoff election bill at the request of the GOP only to drop it after it broke its deal, has predicted the instant runoff bill has little chance of passage in the Senate.

"There is very little, if any, appetite to pursue instant runoff voting," he said earlier this week. Meanwhile, the House defeated another controversial election provision on Friday.

It voted 26-45 to kill HB314, which would have required that mail-in ballots arrive at a county clerk's office on or before Election Day. Critics argued that it would have prevented about 57,000 votes from counting in last November's election.

Current rules require only that a by-mail ballot be postmarked the day before an election.

Later in the day, that bill was resurrected. The House removed the controversial portion about the mailing deadlines, and passed remaining provisions to require Election Day drop boxes for ballots. The watered-down version passed 64-9.

More here:
After unusual Republican Party support, Democrat passes election-reform bill - Salt Lake Tribune

Resistance to President Donald Trump is cropping up in the most unlikeliest of places: the House GOP caucus.

At least four Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives, some of whom havebeen questioned, booed and heckled at recent town halls by their constituents, publicly called for Trump to release his tax returns in order to review for any potential conflicts of interest that pose a national security risk or violate the Constitution.

Its something I feel very, very strongly about, Republican South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford told RollCall this week. Sanford, along with North Carolina Republican Walter Jones signed a letter from New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell calling onthe chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee to compel the United States Treasury Department to release Trumps tax returns for congressional review.

Disclosure would serve the public interest of clarifying President Trumps conflicts of interest in office, the potential for him to personally benefit from tax reform, and ensure that he is not receiving any preferential treatment from the IRS, the letter stated. We believe the powerful and respected Committees on Finance and Ways and Means have the responsibility to ensure oversight of the executive branch by requesting a review of President Trumps tax returns and moving toward a formal release of these documents to the public

The letter has been signed by more than 140 Democrats in the House.

Ultimately, it isnt about Trumps tax returns. Its about the continuation of a policy thats been in place for 50 years by virtue of tradition. What happens at the federal level has real implications at the state and local level, Sanford said.

Sanford was one of several House Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who calledon Trump to release his tax returns during the presidential campaign. Sanford even sent a letter in late January to Trumps chief of staff, Reince Priebus, on the matter.

Trump defied a more than four-decade-old bipartisan tradition of presidential candidates releasing their tax returns, insisting that he cannot do so while under audit.He has said that the public doesnt care at all about his returns.

But asked, Will you call for the release of President Trumps income tax records? by aregistered Republican at a Pensacola town hall late last month, freshman Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida folded and responded: Absolutely.

Iowa Republican Rep.David Young echoed his Republican colleague at his own recent town hall.You run for president, youre president, you should release your tax returns. Its a distraction and I think the American people should know, the congressmantold a town hall last week, calling the decision a no-brainer.

A poll released during last years presidential campaign found that 64 percent of Republican voters wanted Trump to release his tax returns.

Earlier this week Pascrelltried to get House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-TX, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orin Hatch, R-Utah, to use their jurisdictional authority to push Trump to release his taxes. Pascrell forced a vote on the floor of the House on the issue, but every Republican including Gaetz and Young unanimously rejected the motion. Sanford and Jones, who have taken the most concrete steps to force Trumps hand on tax returns, voted present.

Jones said in an interview with RollCall that Americans need to know about their presidents taxes.

We are not going to be turned back, Pascrell said after his bill failed to gain traction with more Republicans.We have several paths.

Democratic members in the Senate are nowpushing for the returnsunder thesame 1924 law that Pascrell unsuccessfully invoked in the House.Under the law, chairmen of the Congressional tax-writing committees are authorized to confidentially review anyones return including the presidents without that persons consent if they have cause for concern.

Im just watching these Republicans speaking out in the House like Mark Sanford,Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, the leading Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, told RollCall. Wyden recently introduced a bill that wouldrequire presidents and presidential nominees to release their three most recent tax returns.If they dont, Wydens bill would authorize the Treasury to do it for them. The measure has 19 co-sponsors, all Democrats, but so far no action has been taken.

Democrats have saidTrumps tax returns are needed to examine potential financial links to Russian investors in light of Russias interference in last years elections. They also contend the tax returns could help determine whether Trump has conflicts of interests when he takes positions on legislation such as tax proposals.

But Republican committee chairmen Brady and Hatch said in a letter to Wyden that there was no specific allegations of tax-related misconduct against Trump. As a result, they wrote, we strongly believe it would be inappropriate for us to use this authority to access and release the presidents tax returns.

Unlike Republicans in the House, Senate Republicans have surprisingly stuck by Trump and his right to shield his tax returns more than their colleagues in the House. Only Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has somewhat spoken against Trumps position, telling RollCall this week thatany candidate running in 2020 needs to release their tax returns.

See the rest here:
House GOP begin to turn on Trump: Republicans break from party to demand president's tax returns - Salon