Agencies face budget curbs in $1 trillion bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a weekend deadline to avoid a government shutdown, a combative Congress appears on track to advance a massive $ 1 trillion- plus yearend spending package that curbs agency budgets but drops many policy provisions sought by GOP conservatives.
Lawmakers reached a tentative agreement Monday on the measure. It chips away at the Pentagon budget, foreign aid and environmental spending but boosts funding for veterans programs and modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The measure generally pleases environmentalists, who succeeded in stopping industry forces from blocking new clean air rules and a new clean water regulation opposed by mountaintop removal mining interests. House Republicans appeared likely to win concessions that would roll back administration efforts to ease restrictions on Cuban immigrants on traveling to the island and sending cash back to family members there.
On spending, the measure implements this summer’s hard- fought budget pact between President Barack Obama and Republican leaders. That deal essentially freezes agency budgets, on average, at levels for the recently completed budget year that were approved back in April.
Drafted behind closed doors, the proposed bill would provide $115 billion for overseas security operations in Afghanistan and Iraq but give thePentagonjusta1percent boost in annual spending not directly related to the wars. The Environmental Protection Agency’s budget would be cut by 3.5 percent. Foreign aid spending would drop and House lawmakers would absorba6percentcuttotheir office budgets.
Congress: Negotiators OK $662B defense bill
WASHINGTON ( AP) — Congress is pressing ahead with a massive $662 billion defense bill that requires military custody for terrorism suspects linked to al-Qaida, including those captured within the U.S. Lawmakers hope their last-minute revisions will satisfy President Barack Obama and erase a veto threat.
Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees announced late Monday that they had reached agreement on the policy-setting legislation that had gotten caught up in an escalating fight on whether to treat suspected terrorists as prisoners of war or criminals.
Responding to personal appeals from Obama and his national security team, the lawmakers added language on national security waivers and other changes that they hoped would ensure administration support for the overall bill.
“ I assured the president that we were working on additional assurances, that the concerns were not accurate,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., who spoke to Obama last week, told reporters at a news conference. “That we’d do everything we could to make sure they were allayed, and met.”
The White House had no immediate comment late Monday, and it was unclear whether it would hold firm on its veto threat.
Occupy leaders plan to continue blockades
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Heady with their successful attempts to block trucks and curb business at busy ports up and down the West Coast, some Occupy Wall Street protesters plan to continue their blockades and keep staging similar protests.
Thousands of demonstrators forced shipping terminals in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., to halt parts of their operations Monday and some intend to keep their blockade attempts ramped up overnight.
At least one outside observer who has followed political movements for decades said the port blockades were an indicator of the disruptive activities likely to continue for months and right until next year’s presidential elections.
The movement, which sprang up this fall against what it sees as corporate greed and economic inequality, focused on the ports as the “ economic engines for the elite.” It comes weeks after police raids cleared out most of their tent camps.
Protesters are most upset by two West Coast companies: port operator SSA Marine and grain exporter EGT. Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owns a major stake in SSA Marine and has been a frequent target of protesters.
Judge to hear case over pregnancy pill
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in Brooklyn is poised to hear arguments today over whether the federal government is acting constitutionally in its decisions over the access teenage girls are given to morning- after contraceptive pills.
The arguments come just a week after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled scientists at the Food and Drug Administration and announced that the pills would only be available without prescription to those 17 and older who can prove their age. President Barack Obama said he supported the decision regarding a pill that can prevent pregnancy if taken soon enough after unprotected sex.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups have argued that contraceptives are being held to a different and non-scientific standard than other drugs and that politics has played a role in decision making. Social conservatives have said the pill is tantamount to abortion.
Judge Edward Korman was highly critical of the government’s handling of the issue when he ordered the FDA two years ago to let 17-year-olds obtain the medication. At the time, he accused the government of letting “political considerations, delays and implausible justifications for decision-making” cloud the approval process.
In court papers prior to Wednesday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Landau said the government had complied with Korman’s orders by lowering the cutoff for over-the-counter sales of the drug from 18 to 17.
Survey: 12 percent drop in homeless vets
WASHINGTON ( AP) — Homelessness among the nation’s veterans declined by about 12 percent during a oneyear period ending January 2011, the Obama administration says.
Officials said the drop is a sign of progress and that the administration is on track for reaching President Barack Obama’s goal of eliminating homelessness among veterans by 2015.
In all, there are nearly 67,500 homeless veterans, according to a survey that thousands of communities around the country help to administer each January. More than 76,000 homeless vets were counted in the prior year’s survey.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan attributed much of the drop to getting more veterans to participate in a voucher program that greatly subsidizes their housing costs. While Congress has regularly increased funding for the voucher program, thousands of veterans were not taking advantage of the help.
“At the time we came into office in 2009, even though we had about 20,000 of those vouchers available; fewer than 5,000 veterans were actually using them and had successfully moved from the streets or shelters into permanent housing,” Donovan said.
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