Senate Panel Invites Comey to Testify Next Week and More in Politics Today
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It’s difficult to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in this country and to break through the clutter, so we’re here to make it easier. Here’s what we at Countable are reading today:
1.Senate panel invites Comey to testify next week
The Senate Intelligence Committee has invited ousted FBI Director James Comey to testify next week.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the panel's vice chairman, said the committee sent a request Wednesday morning but has not heard back yet. Warner said the invitation went out with Republican committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr's consent.
Read more at CNBC.
Should Congress set up an Independent Commission on Russia? Weigh in at Countable!
2. Senators Reject Effort To Roll Back Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rule
In a rare victory for environmentalists under President Trump, the Senate rejected efforts to roll back an Obama-era rule limiting methane emissions from energy production sites on federal land.
The vote over the greenhouse gas was close — 49-51 — with Republican Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins coming down against the resolution, which would have repealed the Bureau of Land Management's Methane Waste and Prevention Rule.
Read more at NPR.
3. The $2 Trillion Question in Trump’s New Tax Plan
The Trump administration says a middle-class tax cut is at the center of its tax plan. But doing the arithmetic to figure out what middle-class families would pay is close to impossible.
President Donald Trump’s plan is silent so far on crucial details Americans need to calculate their tax bills, including the personal exemption and the size of the tax brackets.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
4.Trump Wants $800 Billion, 10-Year Cut in Entitlement Programs
White House officials are crafting a fiscal 2018 budget proposal for President Donald Trump that aims to wipe out the deficit through a combination of robust economic growth, steep cuts in certain means-tested entitlement programs and other savings.
Trump would aim to balance the federal budget within 10 years. His plan relies on Congress passing a comprehensive tax overhaul and other policies, such as deregulation. The administration believes these approaches will jump-start the economy, causing economic growth to ramp up to 3 percent in the coming decade, people with knowledge of the plan said.
Read more at Roll Call.
5. West Virginia journalist arrested after asking HHS Secretary Tom Price a question
As Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price walked through a hallway Tuesday in the West Virginia state capitol, veteran reporter Dan Heyman followed alongside him, holding up his phone to Price while attempting to ask him a question.
Heyman, a journalist with Public News Service, repeatedly asked the secretary whether domestic violence would be considered a preexisting condition under the Republican bill to overhaul the nation’s health care system, he said.
Then, an officer in the capitol pulled him aside, handcuffed him and arrested him. Heyman was jailed on the charge of willful disruption of state government processes and was released later on $5,000 bail.
Read more at the Washington Post.
— Asha Sanaker
(Photo Credit: Rich Girard via Flickr / Creative Commons)
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