Daily Update | September 5, 2018
Special Counsel Robert Mueller will accept some written answers from President Trump. The ACLU has sued DHS, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies to find out whether the government plans to thwart or surveil indigenous and environmental activists who oppose the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The EPA’s Office of Inspector General determined that the EPA failed to properly justify increased security costs. President Trump again raised a threat to the broadcast licenses of TV stations that air news programming that he dislikes.
TRUMP: INVESTIGATIONS & LITIGATION
Special Counsel Robert Mueller will accept some written answers from President Trump (NYT).
IMMIGRATION
Documented and undocumented immigrants are dropping out of federal aid programs, even those for which they are eligible, for fear of a future rule change that would mean it might make them ineligible for a green card (Politico).
CIVIL RIGHTS
The ACLU has sued DHS, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies to find out whether the government plans to thwart or surveil indigenous and environmental activists who oppose the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline (ACLU).
JUSTICE & SAFETY
The situation in Yemen should lead the U.S. back to a constitutional foreign policy, writes Sen. Rand Paul at The Hill.
The White House said that it is closely monitoring an imminent major Syrian regime attack on rebel holdouts in Syria’s Idlib province (Politico).
A NAFTA deal is still within reach, writes Inu Manak at Cato.
- President Trump will test his high-pressure negotiating style as U.S.-Canada NAFTA talks resume (WSJ).
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The EPA’s Office of Inspector General determined that the EPA failed to properly justify increased security costs (The Hill, Politico).
- The cost of security for former EPA chief Scott Pruitt more than doubled in his first 11 months on the job (NYT).
REGULATION
President Trump’s decision to eliminate the scheduled cost-of-living adjustments for federal employees is likely illegal, writes Sam Wice at the Yale J. on Regulation.
The CFPB released an interpretive and procedural rule to implement and clarify the partial exemption from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act adopted in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (Ballard Spahr).
President Trump’s pressure on Google threatens government manipulation of search results, writes Faiza Patel at Just Security.
The FCC is looking to remove a majority of wireless providers that participate in the Lifeline program, which would affect 70 percent of the 10.7 million Americans who receive service under the program (Ars Technica).
President Trump’s attacks on tech companies are rattling Silicon Valley (The Hill).
Google has submitted written testimony ahead of its Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the company’s ongoing efforts to combat foreign influence operations (The Hill).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced that it will begin to create a framework to guide organizations on how they can protect the information of individuals using their products or services (The Hill).
The House passed bipartisan legislation to codify a key cybersecurity program at DHS (The Hill).
President Trump again raised a threat to the broadcast licenses of TV stations that air news programming that he dislikes (Politico).
Senior executives at the DOE may be pushed into new jobs (WaPo).
The House passed a bill that would allow the DHS secretary to block the agency from working with foreign tech companies whose products or services are believed to pose a potential threat to the U.S. (The Hill).
The debate over the Affordable Care Act began anew, once Vice President Pence stated that Republicans would repeal the Act if they retained control of Congress (WaPo).
REMOVAL FROM OFFICE
In chastising Attorney General Sessions for prosecuting two Republican legislators, the President crossed a line, report Peter Baker and Nicholas Fandos in the New York Times.
RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
Authors who wrote about Russian election interference were subject to online harassment, most likely by Russian trolls (Lawfare).