MORNING MESSAGE
Disaster Recovery Should Heal, Not Divide, Our Communities
Houston has barely begun to recover from Hurricane Harvey as Irma devastates the Caribbean and heads towards Puerto Rico and Florida. Its hard to imagine all the grief, effort, and cost it will take to rebuild from one of these thousand-year storms, much less two. But we better get used to it. Climate science tells us more superstorms are coming. We should learn how to recover from them in a smart, humane way – one that promotes economic and social justice, so people, families and communities can truly heal.
Trump Backs Democratic Plan to Provide Hurricane Relief, Avoid Shutdown
Trump ties 3-month debt cieling extension to Harvey relief. US News & World Report:“Congressional Democratic leaders struck a deal with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to pass a clean debt-ceiling hike and fund the government until mid-December, as well as approve the first installment of emergency relief after Hurricane Harvey. The deal, made over the wishes of GOP leadership, will delay to the end of the year the major budgetary battles that had been expected to occupy lawmakers for most of September. Word of the agreement came shortly after the House voted overwhelmingly to pass a $7.85 billion package to assist with recovery efforts after Harvey – which made landfall in Texas last month as a Category 4 hurricane – devastated Houston-area communities. As recently as Wednesday morning, Senate Republicans planned to attach a debt-ceiling extension to the Harvey aid measure, which would have required the House to vote again before sending the measure on to Trump for his signature. But Trump roiled that strategy by throwing his support behind a plan proposed by Democratic leaders to extend the debt limit for three months.”
15 States Sue Trump to Block DACA Repeal
States Sue To Block DACA Termination, Citing Trump’s ‘Racial Animus’. NPR:“Several states are suing the Trump administration to block it from terminating the program protecting young immigrants known as DREAMers. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the Eastern District of New York, was brought by the attorneys general of 15 states and the District of Columbia. All are Democrats. It follows the administration’s announcement Tuesday that it would phase out the Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said DACA would end in March 2018 unless Congress takes action to salvage it.”
DOJ Allows School Districts to Resegregate
Department of Justice allows resegregation of school districts. The Nation: “Six decades after Brown, federal judges and officials rarely check to see if districts are obeying their orders to desegregate—and in many cases, schools in districts with a history of discrimination against black children have actually grown more segregated under federal supervision. And when the judges do step in, they’ve often sided with the districts where school segregation is getting worse. Leslie Williams and the other parents who have fought these moves have been left wondering how the courts and the Justice Department could have so completely turned their backs on the vision of integrated schools first charted out by civil-rights lawyers and the courts in the 1950s and ’60s.”
Donald Trump Jr. Testifies to Senate Judiciary Committee on Russia
Noose tightens on Russia: Donald Jr. to testify as evidence of collusion mounts. Salon:“Today is a very big day for Donald Trump Jr. He is going to testify before investigators for the Senate Judiciary Committee about his fateful meeting in June of 2016 with a room full of Russians he thought were bearing dirt on Hillary Clinton. This will presumably be the first time Don Jr. has submitted himself to questioning by anyone more aggressive than his father’s pal Sean Hannity, although one can assume his lawyers have been drilling him for some time to ensure he doesn’t screw the pooch and say something incriminating.”
Senate Hearings on Strengthening Obamacare
After failing to repeal it multiple times, the Senate finally held a hearing on Obamacare. ThinkProgress:“Early in the summer, hearings on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) seemed unlikely to ever happen. But with fall swiftly approaching, the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has decided it will hold four, the first of which took place on Wednesday. During this week’s hearing, senators were joined by state insurance commissioners. Wonk-ish health experts guided senators on how best to strengthen the law’s marketplace. Commissioners from blue and red states where the ACA marketplace has succeeded and flailed all unilaterally recommended the government pay cost sharing subsidies to insurers. Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak specifically said the CSR payments are necessary, but only after being nudged by Senator Al Franken (D-MN); the commissioner is ultimately in favor of repealing the health law.”
More from OurFuture.org:
When the Parades Are Over, Who Stands With Unions? Robert Borosage: “The Labor Day parades are over. The bands have packed up. The muscular speeches celebrating workers are finished. And now conservative politicians from Trump on down will revive their systematic efforts to weaken unions and undermine workers. Trump – despite all the populist bunting that decorates his speeches – sustains the deeply entrenched Republican antipathy to organized workers. Their attack is relentless.”
Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action. more »
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