The controversial issue - some would say “scandal” - of whether U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions intentionally lied to Congress while under oath in his confirmation hearings, is suffusing news coverage. This will continue in the coming days. Sessions has promised to recuse himself from Russia investigations conducted by the Justice Department. The top Democrats in the House and Senate have both publicly requested that Sessions resign.
Rightly, the press will continue to hammer our elected officials to get to the bottom of the controversy, and the powers that be will be compelled to make decisions regarding Sessions’s continuing service in the face of this pressure.
But in the meantime, a number of other legislative and political news events are happening that will receive far less news coverage. Yet each has the power to produce a huge impact on our lives and on American democracy.
- Attorney General Sessions has backed away from a Justice Department commitment to monitor police departments where abuses have taken place. Just months ago, the department issued a highly critical report on civil rights violations within the Chicago Police Department. A path forward for Justice to work with and review local police departments was set to go, until this week. Attorney General Sessions ended, explaining:
“We need, so far as we can, in my view, help police departments get better, not diminish their effectiveness. And I’m afraid we’ve done some of that. So we’re going to try to pull back on this, and I don’t think it’s wrong or mean or insensitive to civil rights or human rights.”
- GOP leaders in the House have still not revealed their plan is to “replace” the Affordable Care Act. It is not only the House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, who is requesting to see it. U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), said that many in his party would like to see it, too: “I have been told that the House Obamacare bill is under lock & key, in a secure location, & not available for me or the public to view. This is unacceptable.”
- Rick Perry has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate, 62-37, as the Secretary of the Energy Department. Perry once announced his desire to eliminate the Energy Department, and as recently as two months ago, was under the impression that as Secretary he would be an ambassador for the oil and gas industries. He did not know that the nation’s nuclear complex would be under his custody, and that it accounts for roughly two-thirds of the Energy Department budget.
- Earlier this week, Attorney General Sessions reversed the position of the Justice Dept. in a Texas case regarding Voter ID legislation. The DOJ told a federal court to eliminate its earlier claim that discrimination against minority voters was a driving force in the creation of the ID law.
- The Trump administration has not issued a new executive order regarding immigration after its initial order was struck down by the courts. On February 5th, the president said that the national security threat was so urgent and serious that the ruling judge would be to blame if any harm came to Americans.
- The president has proposed increasing spending on the military by $54 billion while also proposing deep cuts to the U.S. State Department and associated foreign aid. On Monday, more than 120 retired generals and admirals wrote a letter to Congress opposing the reductions in funding. The letter quoted the president’s Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, from a previous hearing in front of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. The former four-star general was asked if the U.S. international development budget was a positive for national security. Mattis answered:
“Yes, sir. I would start with the State Department budget. Frankly, they need to be as fully funded as Congress believes appropriate, because if you don’t fund the State Department fully then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately. So I think it’s a cost-benefit ratio. The more we put into the State Department’s diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget as we deal with the outcome of apparent American withdrawal from the international scene.”
- The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate at least 38 programs at the Environmental Protection Agency and cut funding for air and water programs by 30%.
- The President announced in his speech that his tax plan “will provide massive tax relief for the middle class.” But an independent analysis of his tax plan by the Tax Policy Center indicates that most of this benefit would actually go to America’s wealthiest families. A tax benefit of $215,000 would flow to the top 1%. The middle 20% of families would receive a tax cut of only $1,010.
This is a very short list. A ton of actions are unfolding in the early months of the new administration. And whether Americans agree or disagree with these developments, it’s essential for us to keep our eyes on ALL of the issues that matter - beyond just the potential malfeasance being investigated by Congress and intensively covered by the media. It’s hard to keep track of all of this stuff at once. It’s also our responsibility as citizens to do so. We must keep looking out for those stories that aren’t always being showcased on the main stage. They’re all around us.
