Uncertainty looms ahead for GOP effort to repeal and replace Affordable Care Act

Alaska Dispatch News

WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans on Friday glumly confronted the wreckage of their seven-year quest to abolish the Affordable Care Act, blaming each other and President Donald Trump for the dramatic early-morning collapse of the effort but finding no consensus on a way forward.

Some GOP lawmakers clung to long-shot hopes that some version of the legislation might be revived and that a deal might yet be struck before the fall. But the Senate's rejection early Friday of a last-ditch, bare-bones proposal to roll back just a few key planks of the law left GOP leaders with few options for uniting their sharply polarized ranks.

Hours later, House Republicans gathered in the Capitol to take stock of the situation. Some raised the prospect of abandoning their long-standing pledge to "repeal and replace" the ACA and instead working with Democrats to shore up weak spots in the law known as Obamacare. But Trump signaled little interest in that approach, leaving many lawmakers baffled about how to proceed.

"I'm not a prophet," said Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., who helped push an earlier version of the repeal bill through the House. "I don't know what comes next."

[Democrats urge investigations into Trump administration efforts to pressure Murkowski]

Politically, the collapse of the repeal effort is potentially devastating for Republicans. It leaves Trump without a significant policy achievement in the critical first six months of his presidency; it casts a pall over the party's coming drives to pass a budget and overhaul the tax code; and it exposes GOP lawmakers to rising anger from their conservative base.

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Drug Task Force to benefit from asset forfeiture case

Andalusia Star News

Last week, the State of Alabama Court of Civil Appeals upheld the condemnation of a home on Snead Street and more than $18,000. The house is expected to be sold and the funds used to provide operating expenses for the 22nd Judicial Drug Task Force.

In October, the county learned that the Drug Task Force would not receive funding from an ADECA grant as it had in the past.

During an October meeting of the DTF board, District Attorney Walt Merrell suggested that the group use asset forfeiture money that was fully adjudicated for things such as rent.

Merrell said he would not disclose how much money was in that fund.

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AMODEI STATEMENT ON NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY ACT PASSING OUT OF COMMITTEE

Washington, D.C. - July 29, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-02) released the following statement after the House Energy and Commerce Committee successfully passed H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017:

“I assume no one is surprised this bill started moving,” said Congressman Amodei. “The fact that the vote out of Committee was 49-4, and not a party-line vote, leads me to suspect this is a sign of things to come in the House. Another fact of note – when attempting to predict the future of this legislation – is the fact that Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry was confirmed in the Senate with a recorded vote of 62-37. We will continue to direct our efforts at providing the best possible protection for Nevadans.”

Sources: a new way of bringing information to our readers...

I've had people who laugh at me for my personal points of view on any given subject. They think I don't have "enough information" or that my "education is lacking" or that my "sources are tainted".

At The Ponder, with thousands of sources of information, we like for our visitors to be the judge.

That's why we constantly post press releases. None of that is going to change. But, now you will have access to our sources. All you have to do is visit the link on the right that is titled: The Ponder News Sources from A-Z

We are going to be posting information from our sources that you can view for yourselves from now on. We want you to know who our sources are, so YOU can be informed.

Stay tuned...

Conflict of Interest?

The US Attorney overseeing the Imran Awan investigation is Steve Wasserman, the brother of Debbie Wasserman Schultz - who hired Awan.

If this isn't a conflict of interest, I don't know what is.

Read about who Imran Awan is by clicking HERE

Burr Reintroduces Bill to Clean up IRS Following Disastrous IG Report

Washington, D.C. - July 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- Following the critical report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) reintroduced a commonsense bill to improve accountability at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). S. 1643, the Ensuring Integrity in the IRS Workforce Act, will bar the IRS Commissioner from rehiring employees who separated from the agency due to substantiated conduct or performance issues. The report, The Internal Revenue Service Continues to Rehire Former Employees With Conduct and Performance Issues, found that hundreds of former IRS employees with documented issues were rehired by the agency in an 18-month span. This is the second TIGTA report finding a widespread practice of rehiring previously fired IRS employees, and is the result of a request from Sen. Burr in 2016 following testimony by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen that the agency had put an end to this practice.

“The rampant abuse at the IRS has continued and thrived for far too long,” said Senator Burr. “Whether it is the rehiring of previously terminated employees or continuing to give bonuses to poorly performing executives who can’t be fired – the delinquency at the IRS must end. It’s exactly actions like this that erode the public’s trust in their government. The American people are sick and tired of Washington at its worst. We have Americans paying the salaries of IRS workers who have repeatedly cheated the very government they took an oath to serve, and a Commissioner who won’t fire bad actors. The time to put a stop to these atrocious practices is now.”

PRICE, HUFFMAN INTRODUCE LOCAL AND INDEPENDENT TELEVISION PROTECTION ACT

Washington, D.C. - July 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- New legislation introduced by Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Jared Huffman (D-CA) would protect local television markets across the country from corporate consolidation by permanently ending the so-called “UHF discount,” an obsolete FCC loophole that the Trump Administration wants to revive to benefit right-wing media conglomerates. If the UHF discount is allowed to go into effect, a series of pending corporate mergers, including one with the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media, would dramatically reduce competition among local TV stations across the country.

“Our democracy depends on a diverse media that can address local needs and serve the public interest,” said Rep. Price.“The FCC’s decision to reinstate the technically obsolete UHF discount is a thinly veiled attempt to fast track mega mergers at the expense of Americans who want reliable and trustworthy news from their local broadcasters. The issue of continued corporate media consolidation isn’t a problem for just Democrats or just Republicans – it’s a problem for anyone who wishes to receive news and other programming from a local broadcaster that isn’t captive to a political or corporate agenda.”

“Preventing monopolies in local media and turning back the tide of corporate consolidation has never been more vital than it is today,” said Rep. Huffman.“In Eureka, California alone, the FCC’s recent decision to reinstate the discredited and antiquated UHF discount means that a single right-wing media owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, will control a majority of the news that my constituents in Eureka see on television, no matter which news broadcast they choose to watch. This is not the Soviet Union: Americans deserve a meaningful choice in their local news, and our Local and Independent Television Protection Act would ensure that every American has access to a variety of local news sources that report on the local – and national – issues they care most about.”

"Local television remains an important source of local news. It's especially important for people of color, Spanish speakers, elderly populations, low-income individuals, and others less likely to have cable TV and affordable internet access. Yet we're not getting the diversity of competing viewpoints and local content that we need from broadcasters because of runaway consolidation, aided and abetted by loopholes like the UHF Discount,”said Free Press Action Fund Deputy Director and Senior Counsel, Jessica J. González. “That discount is a relic of a bygone era, from a time when UHF signals were too weak to reach everyone. With today's technology, these signals are actually stronger than other broadcast channels. Yet the current FCC, despite its supposed focus on getting rid of obsolete technical rules, revived this one to pave the way for mega-mergers proposed by conglomerates like Sinclair. We thank Reps. Huffman and Price for introducing this bill to close that loophole."

As John Oliver recently pointed out, the Sinclair Broadcast Group has “must-run” segments and slanted polls that it requires all of their stations to run.

On April 20, 2017, President Trump’s Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Ajit Pai called a vote to reinstate the UHF discount, which allows television station owners to significantly increase their national reach. Federal law establishes a national television ownership cap to prevent any single company from owning television stations that collectively reach more than 39% of the country, a competition requirement to ensure the continuation of the diverse and local news sources essential to a robust democracy. The UHF discount, by contrast, makes this cap meaningless, letting media companies “discount” UHF stations (channels 14-83) by half when calculating whether the company is subject to the national television ownership cap. With the UHF discountreinstated, a single company can buy enough local TV stations to reach up to 78% of Americans, dramatically increasing their national scope, public influence, and control of household news content.

One day after the FCC’s reinstatement of the UHF discount, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it had entered an agreement to purchase Bonten Media Group for $240 million, expanding its reach in Northern California and elsewhere across the nation. With this purchase, Sinclair will own four of the seven commercial television stations in the Eureka, CA, community. The Trump administration’s reinstatement of the UHF discount is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after a lawsuit was filed by several public interest groups.

Specifically, the Local and Independent Television Protection Act:

· Requires the FCC to act within 90 days to permanently end the UHF discount; and

· Grandfathers any stations owned prior to September 26, 2013, which is commensurate with the FCC’s previous efforts to end the UHF discount.

The legislation is cosponsored by Reps. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Jackie Speier (D-CA).

The legislation is supported by: Free Press Action Fund, Public Knowledge, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Common Cause, and Consumers Union.

MORE HEALTHY OPTIONS IN SCHOOL CAFETERIAS:

Washington, D.C. - July 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- Congressman Bruce Poliquin (ME-02) is reintroducing his bipartisan Fruit and Vegetable Access for Children Act, a bill that will give our children greater access to healthy fruits and vegetables in their school cafeterias.

The bill, which has the support of four Democratic and four Republican original cosponsors, will allow schools to have the option to use the money from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) to purchase additional forms of fruits and vegetables—fresh, frozen, canned, pureed, and dried—expanding the number of nutritious food options for schoolchildren.

Congressman Poliquin released the following statement:

“Our children should have greater access and more nutritious choices when it comes to the foods they eat at their school cafeterias,” said Congressman Poliquin. “As a parent, I believe it’s very important for our kids to have the opportunity to eat healthy fruits and vegetables, such as Maine wild blueberries, all school year round. I’m proud to join with my Democratic and Republican colleagues in pushing this bipartisan legislation forward.”

Said Nancy McBrady, Executive Director of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine, “Maine frozen wild blueberries are an example of an extremely healthy and delicious fruit that is frozen at peak ripeness that locks in its nutritional benefits and can be used all year round. The more options schools—and our children—have for consuming healthy and affordable fruits and vegetables, the better. The Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine is happy to support Congressman Poliquin's bill.”

According to the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, there is overwhelming nutritional consensus that Americans should increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, including fresh, frozen, canned and dried. In its various forms, fruit and vegetables are nutritionally similar. The FFVP, whose goal is to educate children on the foods they eat, ensures school children in low-income areas across the country receive nutritious snacks while learning about the many benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. By including these forms of fruit and vegetables, we ensure they have a comprehensive education.

Congressman Poliquin’s bipartisan bill would allow schools to maximize the value of program dollars. This bill ensures that schools have the options they need to continue to encourage a healthy diet throughout the school year. It gives schools flexibility in the use of their FFVP funds for the well-being of both our children and our schools.

The Megan Rondini Act Introduced

Washington, D.C. - July 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- U.S. Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) filed H.R. 3415, the bi-partisan Megan Rondini Act, requiring hospitals to have a SAFE – Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner –available 24 hours a day/7 days a week, OR to have a plan in place to get that victim to another nearby hospital with a SAFE. The law honors young Texan Megan Rondini who committed suicide after being raped, failed by law enforcement, the University of Alabama, and the hospital.

Megan Rondini was enrolled at the University of Alabama when she was raped by a man from the richest family in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. After escaping her attacker, Megan went directly to the hospital for a rape kit, and contacted the police. The Hospital did not have a SAFE, a nurse or doctor trained in forensic procedure, on staff. The DNA from her rape kit was never properly examined, and its current whereabouts are publically unknown. She was dismissed, ignored, blamed, and forgotten. Feeling like she had nowhere to turn, Megan later took her own life.

“Rape is a crime that destroys the very soul of a victim,” said Congressman Ted Poe. Often times, it is a fate worse than death. A victim must relive their attack over and over again. I filed the Megan Rondini Act to ensure victims of crime have access to assistance and the ability to pursue justice. Hospitals across the country must have a SAFE on staff 24/7 or have a plan in place to get the victim to a nearby hospital that can provide forensic services. The failures that drove Megan to commit suicide must not be allowed to continue in our society. Victims must be given a voice and the ability to have evidence collected and tested to bring them justice. This legislation helps give them both.”

Pelosi Statement on Republicans’ Latest Empty Statement on Taxes

Washington, D.C. - July 28, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement after the White House, Senate and House Republicans released a detail-free joint statement on taxes:

“More than six months into the Trump Administration, and Republicans still have no real details for tax reform. Today’s threadbare joint statement shows Republicans continuing to flounder instead of inviting bipartisan progress on real tax reform for hard-working Americans.

“Republicans latest statement is light on details, but their goals have been clear all along: hand massive tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthiest, paid for on the backs of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the middle class. Republicans will ransack the education and health care of hard-working Americans to fund deficit-busting tax breaks for billionaires.

“Democrats believe we need real tax reform that creates jobs for hard-working Americans and fuels economic growth, while ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share and ending tax breaks for big corporations hiding profits offshore. We will continue to oppose Republicans’ ceaseless trickle-down agenda.”