Tag: Wilbur Ross

Lydia Ortiz WASHINGTON — For all his talk about judges not being political actors beholden to a president, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and his conservative colleagues on the Supreme Court may hand President Trump one of the biggest political victories of his administration: the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. It also happens to be a coup with profound implications for American democracy. At issue in Department of Commerce v. New York, which the justices considered on Tuesday in an 80-minute hearing, is not the legality of inquiring on the census form about people’s citizenship status. As Justice Neil Gorsuch put it, “It’s not like anybody in the room is suggesting the question is improper to ask in some way, shape or form.” Instead, the case is about administrative process. But those skeptical conservative justices were nowhere to be found on Tuesday. An analysis by census officials found that nearly 6 percent of households with at least one noncitizen, or roughly 6.5 million people, would go uncounted with a citizenship question on the 2020 census. During Tuesday’s arguments, the conservative majority showed little interest in the fact that Mr. Ross ignored the expertise of the United States Census Bureau, which had warned that the citizenship question would lead to significant undercounts because immigrants may be wary of participating. The conservative justices also seemed unbothered that Mr. Ross lobbied hard to get other federal agencies to provide a pretext for his plans — an effort “to obtain cover for a decision” that was already made, as one federal judge phrased it. Or as Justice Elena Kagan said on Tuesday, Mr. Ross was “shopping for a need” for the citizenship data. Federal law, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “grants the president broad discretion to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States.” So it may come to pass that, no matter how ugly the underlying evidence or how antithetical this change is to an “actual enumeration” of everyone in the United States, the justices will once again let the administration have its way.

Tom Brenner for The New York Times WASHINGTON — Linda E. McMahon, one of five women in President Trump’s cabinet and the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, stepped down on Friday as the head of the Small Business Administration, the White House announced. One of Mr. Trump’s most prolific donors during the 2016 presidential campaign, Ms. McMahon joined the administration early in Mr. Trump’s term and avoided the kinds of scandals and high-profile attention that many of her cabinet colleagues endured during the last two years. With Ms. McMahon by his side at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Mr. Trump praised her as a “superstar” who had done much to improve the operation of the Small Business Administration. “Just so smooth. She has helped so many people in the world of small business.” In recent weeks, Ms. McMahon was thought to be a contender to replace Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, once he departs the government. In a statement, Ms. McMahon said that she was proud of the work she had done in government. “The focus that we have put on supporting women entrepreneurship, veteran businesses and rural development has been particularly rewarding for me,” she said in the statement put out by the Small Business Administration. A business executive who turned her attention to politics later in life, Ms. McMahon ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in Connecticut in 2010 and again in 2012. Her expected departure from the administration was first reported by Politico. People familiar with Ms. McMahon’s thinking said she was expected to take a position at the America First PAC, the political action committee supporting Mr. Trump’s re-election.

Greenbelt, Maryland (CNN)The current "political environment" is so toxic that a large number of minorities may not reply to the 2020 Census, the Trump administration admitted in court Thursday, even without the addition of a controversial question asking about citizenship status. "That has nothing to do with the citizenship question per se," Gardner told a federal court in Maryland. "They may be less inclined to trust the government" or the Trump administration. Judge George Hazel probed Gardner's logic to see if he was conceding a key argument for the plaintiffs who want the question nixed: that the citizenship question would contribute to a less accurate count and the resulting disenfranchisement. "It seems like the macro environment is going to exacerbate the impact of the citizenship question," Hazel said. At the end of the day, it's entirely possible that the plaintiffs will be right," Gardner said. But it's also possible, he added, that "the macro environment is just so challenging" that minorities and non-citizens would not respond anyway. "Secretary Ross was a banker and the notion that he came up with this on his own is preposterous," said Denise Hulett, an attorney representing the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, one of the plaintiffs. Gardner, the government attorney, said conversations about the issue were a normal part of the policy-making process, and that Ross had ultimately and reasonably decided to include the question based on a request from the Justice Department. Judge Hazel appeared to bristle at a suggestion he wait for the Supreme Court to decide a separate lawsuit over the citizenship question before issuing his ruling.

Accusations of insensitivity swirl after Trump aides went on camera seemingly indifferent to the plight of furloughed federal workers during the partial government shutdown. CNN's Abby Phillip has the latest. #CNN #News

Image Good Wednesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. investigation should be a “first step” before she agrees to testify. [Read the story] • President Trump falsely charged that Democrats had sought to time the allegation against Judge Kavanaugh to obstruct his confirmation. [Read the story] • China said it would impose tariffs on an additional $60 billion of United States imports. But Beijing is running out of American goods to target. But he risks putting his party’s congressional candidates in a bind. [Read the story] • Mr. Trump’s legal team is expanding, and it has a problem: It is still partly in the dark about the extent of his legal exposure in two federal investigations. [Read the story] • The Trump administration effectively reversed a regulation designed to prevent methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, from escaping into the atmosphere during oil and gas operations. [Read the story] • In a victory for advocates of campaign finance transparency, the Supreme Court refused to block a trial judge’s ruling that required some nonprofit groups that place political advertisements to disclose the names of their contributors.

Image Good Thursday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. • The Food and Drug Administration put electronic cigarette makers on notice to prove they can keep their devices away from minors. [Read the story] • A year after Puerto Rico, the Trump administration is preparing for a test of its ability to do better during Hurricane Florence. [Read the story] • Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island defeated a liberal challenger in a Democratic primary election, but she remains vulnerable in November. [Read the story] • Lawmakers dismissed a new White House effort to punish foreign election meddling as inadequate. [Read the story] • Scott Pruitt is in discussions to work as a consultant to the Kentucky coal mining tycoon Joseph W. Craft III. [Read the story] • Members of Congress pressed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to impose limits on the sale of certain technologies to Chinese companies amid human rights abuses. [Read the story] • The income of the median American household has finally rebounded from the damage caused by the 2008 financial crisis.

Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey) Today in 5 Lines After reimposing sanctions against Iran, President Trump warned in a tweet that “anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States.” On the sixth day of Paul Manafort’s trial, his former deputy, Rick Gates, described how Manafort skirted taxes and used offshore companies to accept millions of dollars from Ukrainian businessmen. The Trump administration is expected to unveil a proposal that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become citizens, according to NBC News. Forbes reported that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross stole millions of dollars throughout his career as an investment banker. Missourians are voting on an amendment that would outlaw mandatory union fees. The Races We’re Watching Keep an eye on the special election in Ohio’s 12th district, where President Trump won comfortably in 2016. The race has come down to Trump-backed Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O’Connor, and recent polling shows it as a tossup. If O’Connor wins, it’ll be a good sign of things to come for Democrats in November. In Kansas, the Republican gubernatorial primary is one to watch. Against the recommendations of senior party officials, Trump endorsed Kris Kobach over current Republican Governor Jeff Colyer in a tweet on Monday. (Mark Leibovich, The New York Times Magazine) ‘Our Politics Is Fashion’: Welcome to House of Bijan, the luxury men’s clothing store where former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort spent more than $500,000 in five years—using wire transfers from a foreign bank.

Over the last few weeks, we've been reporting on a number of swampy conflicts of interests and ethics lapses by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news…

Exports of Chinese high-tech manufactured goods are top of Ross’s list. In America’s case, it is certainly the latter. Protectionist tendencies never really went away. If the struggle between the US and China merely leads to a trade war, the world can consider itself lucky. A second phase, in which investment in higher education allows the economy to compete in sectors hitherto the preserve of the developed west, is well under way. China is not remotely interested in an international division of labour where the west does the clever stuff and it is left with the cheap end of the market. “Trade is more than an economic concept; and trade wars are not just protectionism,” the two Hardings say. Even before the arrival of Trump, trade barriers were quietly going up, with 7,000 protectionist measures introduced since the financial crisis. But the prime reason why the US is running such a sizeable trade trade deficit is that the opening of the global economy has allowed US corporations to outsource production to where it is cheaper, which is why the rust belt has been hollowed out. The fear that Beijing could pull the plug on the US economy at any time by dumping its US holdings made previous administrations nervous.

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