Congress
Cassidy plans to keep pushing foreign pollution bill
Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy says he will use part of his remaining time in Congress to lobby for passage of legislation that would put a price on certain polluting imports.
“I’d like to try to get it done this Congress,” said Cassidy, who over the weekend lost his chance to compete in a run-off GOP primary after running afoul of President Donald Trump and his supporters. “But if not, I’m comfortable that there will be somebody who would be interested in pushing it. Now that folks understand the concept, they have very much gotten into it.”
The bill, would slap a tariff on certain products because of their impact on the environment, including greenhouse gas emissions — a goal with bipartisan support. Conservative advocates have called the proposal and those like it a slippery slope toward a domestic carbon tax.
But in an interview this week, Cassidy said six Senate Republicans have been meeting about the policy in a sign of growing interest. He declined to name the members of the group outside of himself and co-sponsor Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), but said the lawmakers engaged represent a “spectrum of our caucus.”
“I can’t tell you that they’re all ready to go to the floor. But they’re all very much interested in the concept and understand the objectives. They have gotten to the point where they realize that we are paying for China not adhering to environmental standards,” Cassidy said.
He will have to triage his priorities now that his time in Congress has been involuntarily cut short: Cassidy said Tuesday he has met with aides about “what do we think we can complete, what can we pass off.”
Cassidy has been aggressive in advocating for his pollution fee, though, including asking Trump administration nominees and officials whether they would consider the concept. Last month, during an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, he pressed Energy Secretary Chris Wright to reaffirm his support for a pollution-related import tariffs.
Wright stopped short of a full endorsement but said he shared Cassidy’s “passion” for ensuring American manufacturers are not disadvantaged by adhering to stricter pollution standards than countries like China.
“I share absolutely your mission and want to continue to work with you on your particular mechanism for the way to achieve that, but you and I are very aligned on this issue, and it is important,” Wright said.
Josh Siegel contributed to this report.
Republicans are preparing to remove Secret Service funding from their party-line immigration enforcement bill, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private discussions.
Both people stressed that the decision isn’t final — and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday morning that talks are still ongoing. But the expected decision comes as the Trump administration has struggled to sell GOP senators on the money, part of which would go toward President Donald Trump’s ballroom project.
Senate Republicans plan to discuss the matter at a closed-door lunch Wednesday afternoon.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded Senate Republicans fire the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, after she ruled this weekend that Republicans could not include funding for the White House ballroom in an immigration enforcement bill.
Trump accused MacDonough of thwarting his agenda and urged Republicans to “get smart and tough,” escalating his long-running attacks on procedural hurdles inside Congress.
“Shockingly, Republicans have kept the very important position of ‘Parliamentarian’ in the hands of a woman, Elizabeth MacDonough, who was appointed, long ago, by Barack Hussein Obama and a vicious Lunatic known as Senator Harry Reid, who ran the Senate for the Dumocrats with an ‘iron fist,’” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced?”
Obama did not have a say in MacDonough’s appointment in 2012.
The broadside came just days after MacDonough ruled that a provision allowing roughly $1 billion in White House and Secret Service security funding tied to Trump’s ballroom project could not be included in Republicans’ reconciliation package under Senate rules.
The decision was a significant setback for Republicans, who had hoped to pass the funding with a simple majority vote as part of a broader immigration and border security package. MacDonough determined that the provision requires 60 votes in the Senate, all but dooming the idea.
On Monday, Semafor reported that Trump called Senate Majority Leader John Thune, urging him to fire MacDonough.
Trump and his allies have argued the ballroom itself would be funded through private donations, while administration officials sought federal funding for related security upgrades, including hardened infrastructure, drone detection systems and Secret Service facilities.
On Tuesday, Trump defended the project amid mounting criticism from Democrats and skepticism from some Republicans over using taxpayer dollars for a project the president initially framed as privately financed.
During a tour of the construction site, Trump insisted the effort was “a gift to the United States of America” and said donors — not taxpayers — were paying for the ballroom itself.
Speaker Mike Johnson refused to rule out whether individuals convicted as part of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol would be eligible to receive money from the Trump administration’s new “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — or say whether he would oppose a scenario where they would qualify.
“We don’t know any of the details of that settlement fund,” Johnson told reporters at a news conference Wednesday morning, pointing to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s testimony before the Senate. “He said they are setting up a fund to compensate all Americans who have been the subject, the target, of lawfare or weaponization of the federal government.”
In a Tuesday hearing intended to cover the president’s budget request for the Justice Department, Blanche also refusedto say whether those who assaulted Capitol Police would be eligible for money in the newly-created account. He said the payouts would be determined by members of a commission overseeing the fund, who are selected by the attorney general and have yet to be named.
“He did not say who will be eligible,” Johnson said of Blanche. “I’m not going to comment on that until it comes up.”
The $1.8 billion account was announced on Monday as part of a settlement with President Donald Trump in his lawsuit against the IRS. Trump had sued for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns. Democrats quickly cast it as a slush fund intended to enrich allies of the president, and even Senate Republicans have signaled skepticism.
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