Free Republic

Federal agencies across Washington are finding ways to keep funding frozen even after judges last month temporarily blocked the White House’s effort to pause trillions of dollars in federal assistance. FEMA has clawed back $80 million intended to help New York City house migrants. The EPA has paused more than 30 grant programs, including some providing money for schools to buy electric buses. And USAID contractors say hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts have not been paid. Trump officials say the suspensions are lawful and comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, arguing he has broad powers over federal...

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday that President-elect Trump’s picks for his next administration have “got to get their background checks together.” Earlier in an interview, Klobuchar told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl that as a Senate Judiciary Committee member, she and her colleagues on the panel have a role “to look at the FBI background check and is to ask them questions to make sure they’re fulfilling the mission of the department” for Cabinet picks.

Is an imperfect climate bill (Waxman-Markey) better than no bill at all? Al Gore says yes.To bring environment supporters together, Gore will host a nationwide conference call on June 23 at 8 p.m. ET. The purpose, according to his Repower America e-mail sent to a selected audience, is “to build urgency around this bill and make sure it passes. We have to go to the grassroots – we have to continue building support in communities across the nation.”“As this climate legislation moves before the full Congress this summer, we have an opportunity unlike anything we’ve seen yet,” the e-mail concludes.Gore...

The climate battle will be waged in the ornate setting of the U.S. Senate this fall, but for now the fight is taking place in humbler locales like local libraries, college campuses and county fairs as supporters and critics struggle for hearts and minds beyond the beltway. On the heels of campaigns against the climate-change bill launched by oil companies and other opposing interests, unions and environmental groups kicked off a 22-state swing with a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday to sell the bill’s environmental and economic benefits. More may be riding on their ability to rally a grassroots...

By Brad O’Leary(Take the Barack Obama Test!) The crisis in our economy has generated some hysteria over another Great Depression.  Although the United States has weathered other financial crises since 1929, an Obama Presidency has the potential to knock the US economy back in time to the era of Herbert Hoover.  Obama’s promises to “end tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas and give breaks to companies who create jobs with decent wages here”  and his overt disdain for trade agreements, are dangerous.  By taking on the failed protectionist policies of the Hoover Administration, Obama’s trade war would result...

Organized labor this week is warning Senate Democrats not to renege on trade protections included in House climate change legislation that would buffer domestic manufacturers from cheap consumer products made in China and elsewhere. “We need to have global warming legislation that makes sure we don’t create perverse incentives that encourage these energy-intensive industries to leave the United States and invest elsewhere in the world where they don’t have the same environmental costs,” said David Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance. The Blue Green Alliance is a coalition of unions and environmental groups including the Sierra Club, the...