*By J.D. Durkin*
On the day of the overwhelming 402-11 House vote in favor of permanently extending the September 11th Victim's Compensation Fund, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Cheddar she feels good about the bill — H.R. 1327 — and its chances to pass the Senate.
More or less.
The House is one thing. But as John Feal, one of the 9/11 first responders synonymous with the reauthorization effort recently told Cheddar, "The Senate is where bills go to die." Working with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is still the last hurdle to make permanent protections a reality. But Rep. Ocasio-Cortez says there's reason to adopt a trust-but-verify approach.
"I'm actually cautiously optimistic," AOC told Cheddar. "I spoke with some of our survivors, our first responders. And they said they've been actively whipping \[McConnell\]'s support." Several first responders, including Feal, recently sat down with McConnell in his Capitol Hill office to present the Kentucky Republican with Detective Luis Alvarez's NYPD badge.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who met with 9/11 responders and advocates following the House vote Friday, did note the hazards of the bill's next step. "I would hope that \[McConnell\] doesn't use it as a bargaining chip for anything else," she said.
Friday featured a press conference helmed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the main supporters of the bill: Rep.'s Jerry Nadler (D), Carolyn Maloney (D), and Peter King (R), all of New York.
Former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart set an ambitious goal at Friday's press conference: a desired signing ceremony for the bill's passage on Friday, August 2nd. "As far as I'm concerned, that's our deadline," he told Cheddar.
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her government is not ruling out filing a civil lawsuit against Google if it maintains its stance of calling the stretch of sea between northeastern Mexico and the southeastern United States the “Gulf of America.” Sheinbaum, in her morning press conference on Thursday, said the president’s decree to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico is restricted to the “continental shelf of the United States” because Mexico still controls much of the body of water. “We have sovereignty over our continental shelf,” she said.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
President Donald Trump is hitting foreign steel and aluminum with a 25% tax. If that sounds familiar, it’s because he did pretty much the same thing during
President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. to stop minting pennies. His surprise announcement comes after decades of unsuccessful efforts to phase out the 1-cent coin. Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel. Here's a look at some question surrounding Trump's order.
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Brian Bennett, Senior White House correspondent at TIME, discusses Musk's relationship to Donald Trump and how he has such access in the federal government.
