Biden reverses Trump last-minute attempt to freeze $27.4 billion of programs

President Biden on Sunday sent a letter to congressional leaders reversing former President Trump Donald TrumpKelli Ward rejects request for Arizona GOP race audit Gun sales on the rise amid pandemic uncertainty, Biden's vow for gun reform Top Trump impeachment lawyer Bowers leaves team: reports MORE's last-minute attempt to freeze $27.4 billion in government programs.

Trump had moved, with less than a week left in his term, to freeze the billions in federal funding using a budget maneuver called rescission.

“I am withdrawing 73 proposed rescissions previously transmitted to the Congress,” Biden said in the letter.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 73 budget reductions that Trump had called for were spread across almost every Cabinet-level agency and mostly lined up with his proposed cuts to domestic program spending in the 2021 federal budget that were rejected by Congress.

Trump had sent a letter to congressional leadership on Jan. 14 asking for the rescissions, including for the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities and the Peace Corps.

Several Democrats in Congress, including House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro Rosa DeLauroCapitol Police chief apologizes, admits to department's failures in riot House Republicans vow not to support spending bills that repeal Hyde Amendment Democrats eye bill providing permanent benefits of at least K per child MORE (D-Conn.), dismissed the president’s requests for cuts right before Biden’s inauguration.

The former president had previously signed the $2.3 trillion government funding bill in December, which included the most recent COVID-19 relief package, but had expressed dissatisfaction, saying he would ask for “wasteful items” to be removed.

Comments

Biden says K-12 education isn't working — calls for free pre-K to "grade 14"

President Joe Biden on Wednesday praised the nation's K-12 education system for fueling America's economic growth for almost a century. But, he stressed, that system may no longer be sufficient as the foundation for future prosperity. Mr. Biden's American Families Plan is taking aim at an issue that has bedeviled economists as well as millions of families struggling to stay afloat financially: A high school diploma is no longer enough to secure a middle-class life. Under the White House proposal, the nation's K-12 system would be expanded on both ends — from free pre-kindergarten education through a "grade 14," funding two years of schooling before kindergarten and two years of post-high school education through free community college. There's plenty of economic research that links rising high school graduation rates throughout the 20th century to faster U.S. economic growth. For example, broadening education help women enter the workforce and enabled men ...

Wray: FBI deemed Jan. 6 attack domestic terrorism

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that officials have classified the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by former President Trump Donald TrumpProsecutors focus Trump Organization probe on company's financial officer: report WHO official says it's 'premature' to think pandemic will be over by end of year Romney released from hospital after fall over the weekend MORE's supporters as domestic terrorism. "That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism," Wray told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Wray said the FBI has received more than 270,000 tips from Americans that have helped the bureau identify the numerous people who allegedly participated in the attack. ADVERTISEMENT "Citizens from around the country have sent us more than 270,000 digital media tips. Some have even taken the painful step of turning in their friends or their family members,” ...

Matt Gaetz's ex-girlfriend to cooperate with federal authorities in sex trafficking investigation

Washington (CNN) Federal authorities investigating alleged sex trafficking by GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz have secured the cooperation of the congressman's ex-girlfriend, according to people familiar with the matter. The woman, a former Capitol Hill staffer, is seen as a critical witness, as she has been linked to Gaetz as far back as the summer of 2017, a period of time that has emerged as a key window of scrutiny for investigators. She can also help investigators understand the relevance of hundreds of transactions they have obtained records of, including those involving alleged payments for sex, the sources said. News of the woman's willingness to talk, which has not been previously reported, comes just days after the Justice Department formally entered into a plea agreement with Joel Greenberg, a one-time close friend of Gaetz whose entanglement with young women first drew the congressman onto investigators' radar. CNN reported last week that investigators were pressing for the...

Politics Now - USA

Search This Blog