Author: PolitCens

Within nine years, half of all new vehicles sold in the United States should be zero-emission cars and trucks, according to an executive order signed by President Joe Biden.  The future of the automobile industry is electric, “and there’s no turning back,” the president said during a White House South Lawn event Thursday afternoon.  Biden’s target includes battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric and fuel cell electric vehicles.  In remarks to reporters after driving an electric Jeep around the South Lawn driveway, the president said that while the United States hesitated to embrace vehicle battery production, “China moved. China now owns the market. So, we just got to get back in the game.”  President Joe Biden signs an executive order on increasing production of electric vehicles after speaking on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Aug. 5, 2021.Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have announced moves to eliminate what Biden called the “short-sighted rollbacks” of near-term fuel efficiency and emissions standards set by the Trump administration.   “They also let the federal tax credit expire, penalizing auto workers, who were at the time selling the most electric vehicles in the world and the United States,” added Biden.  Leading automotive manufacturers are making voluntary commitments in line with the administration’s goals.  Ford, General Motors and Stellantis said in a joint statement Thursday they hope “to achieve sales of 40-50% of annual U.S. volumes of electric vehicles (battery electric, fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles) by 2030 in order to move the nation closer to a zero-emissions future consistent with Paris climate goals.”  In a separate joint statement, automakers BMW, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and Volvo are calling for a ”strong nationwide greenhouse gas emissions standard, continued investments in charging infrastructure, and broad consumer incentives for all electric vehicle purchases.” Notably absent from the automakers’ joint statements, which were also released by the White House, is Japan’s Toyota, the top-selling carmaker in the United States.  “You can count on Toyota to do our part,” Ted Ogawa, the automaker’s North American chief executive, President Joe Biden walks with United Auto Workers Local 600 president Bernie Ricky before he speaks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Aug. 5, 2021.Biden’s actions and the automotive industry’s response are being praised by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which calls transportation the biggest source of climate pollution in the United States.  “The Big Three and other automakers have invested billions of dollars in developing zero-emitting vehicles — a testament to the enormous economic, job and consumer benefits that these vehicles will deliver,” EDF President Fred Krupp said in a statement sent to VOA. “Now, we must all work together to build on that announcement and eliminate pollution from all new passenger cars by 2035, and all new freight trucks and buses by 2040. It’s a goal that’s ambitious but achievable. America can win this race, and our prize will be good jobs, savings at the gas pump for American families, cleaner air and a safer climate.” The American Petroleum Institute (API) said it and its member companies “support transportation initiatives that both reduce emissions and ensure affordable vehicle choices for Americans.” “The best way to accelerate U.S. climate progress is through an economy-wide carbon price policy rather than costly market mandates,” Ron Chittim, the group’s vice president of downstream policy, said in a statement to VOA.  The petroleum industry has pledged to improve the environmental performance of its fuels, contending vehicles powered by modern combustion engines or batteries can produce comparable greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing to retirement.  API, which is the national trade association for the oil and natural gas industry, is also calling for the EPA to evaluate greenhouse gas emissions on a life cycle analysis approach to ensure consistent accounting and a level playing field across various fuel and vehicle technologies.  There are also concerns being expressed that Biden’s goals cannot be met without relying on lithium and several specific rare earth minerals (neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium), which are used for permanent magnets in the drive chains for electric vehicles. Those elements “are mostly available only from China, which has acknowledged its poor track record for environmental protection in its mining and production of these minerals,” according to Pini Althaus, chief executive officer of USA Rare Earth.  “The U.S. must have some level of domestic production or we simply will not be able to reach this goal,” Althaus told VOA in a statement.  The strategic minerals mining company wants the United States to emulate Australia, Japan and South Korea and provide assistance to local producers of these materials.  
 
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A pair of special congressional primaries Tuesday in Ohio could serve as litmus tests for the moods of the Republican and Democratic parties heading into next year’s midterm elections. After the stinging defeat of one of his endorsed congressional candidates in Texas last week, former President Donald Trump’s sway as a kingmaker among Republicans was tested in central Ohio’s 15th Congressional District, where his candidate won. He had endorsed coal lobbyist Mike Carey from among a formidable field of 11 GOP primary contenders for the seat vacated by Republican Steve Stivers in May. Stivers had backed one of three sitting lawmakers in the race — state Rep. Jeff LaRe — for the job. In the Cleveland area, progressives and Democratic centrists are in fierce competition for the 11th Congressional District seat formerly held by Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Democrat appointed as President Joe Biden’s housing chief in March. Former state Sen. Nina Turner, a leading national voice for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns, is the best known among 13 Democrats running in the primary and the choice of Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others. Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown, a centrist backed by Hillary Clinton, influential House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the Congressional Black Caucus, several leading unions and over 100 local leaders, enjoyed a surge in national support in July. The race comes at a pivotal moment for the progressive movement. Centrists have been ascendant in the early months of the Joe Biden era, while the party’s left flank has faced a series of defeats — in New York City’s mayoral race, a Virginia gubernatorial primary and a Louisiana House race. Meanwhile, a contingent of moderates are worried that a leftward drift could cost the party seats in the midterms next year. Biden hasn’t heeded the left’s calls for more aggressive action on certain issues, including voting rights and immigration. That’s left progressive leaders searching for new strategies that can bolster its influence. Turner will add another voice to those efforts, joining Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and a class of younger, relatively new lawmakers who have made it their mission to push the Democratic leadership to the left. But Turner’s history of biting criticism of fellow Democrats no doubt irked her party’s establishment — she once likened supporting Biden to being forced to eat excrement — and has given Brown something to campaign against on the campaign trail. For Republicans, the Columbus-area race emerged as a test of Trump’s influence, particularly after the former president backed the loser in a Texas primary last week. As president, Trump boasted of his sway over politicians’ political fortunes, with a strong record of backing winners. Since he left office, candidates have scrambled to get his endorsement, even lining up at times for reality-show style interviews. All of the candidates in the GOP primary billed themselves as conservatives and many boasted more legislative-branch experience than Carey. State Sen. Stephanie Kunze has spent almost nine years in the Ohio House and Senate, championing legislation to tackle opiate addiction, infant mortality and sexual violence. She had won the endorsement of the GOP in the district’s largest county, Franklin, and of the Value In Electing Women PAC. Sen. Bob Peterson has been a state lawmaker since 2012. A farmer and former president of the Ohio Farm Bureau, he was backed by the powerful political arm of Ohio Right to Life and former Senate President Larry Obhof. On the Democratic side, state Rep. Allison Russo, a health policy consultant, defeated Greg Betts, a former Army officer and decorated combat veteran, for the nomination. Back in the 11th District, Laverne Gore, a business owner, consultant, trainer and community activist, defeated Felicia Ross, a self-described “Jane of all trades,” in the Republican primary. Winners of the August primaries will face off in the Nov. 2 general election. 
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued a new moratorium on evictions that would last until October 3, as the Biden administration sought to quell intensifying criticism that it was allowing vulnerable renters to lose their homes during a pandemic. The new moratorium could help keep millions in their homes as the coronavirus’ delta variant has spread and states have been slow to release federal rental aid. It would temporarily halt evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions and would cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives. The announcement was something of a reversal for the Biden administration after saying that a Supreme Court ruling prevented a moratorium. But the choice to impose a new measure in the face of legal uncertainty was also a win for the progressive lawmakers who pushed the White House to do more to prevent about 3.6 million Americans from losing their homes during the COVID-19 crisis. President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House, Aug. 3, 2021.President Joe Biden stopped short Tuesday afternoon of announcing the new ban on evictions during a press conference at the White House, ceding the responsibility to the CDC. “My hope is it’s going to be a new moratorium,” Biden told reporters. The new policy came amid a scramble by the Biden team to reassure Democrats and the country that it could find a way to limit the damage from potential evictions through the use of federal aid. But pressure mounted as key lawmakers said it was not enough. Top Democratic leaders joined Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who has been camped outside the U.S. Capitol. The freshman congresswoman once lived in her car as a young mother and was leading a passionate protest urging the White House to prevent widespread evictions.  Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., speaks with reporters as she camps outside the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, Aug. 2, 2021.”For 5 days, we’ve been out here, demanding that our government acts to save lives,” she tweeted. “Today, our movement moved mountains.” Administration officials had previously said a Supreme Court ruling stopped them from setting up a new moratorium without congressional backing, saying states and cities must be more aggressive in releasing nearly $47 billion in relief for renters on the verge of eviction. The president said he sought input from legal scholars about whether there were options and said the advice was mixed, though some suggested, “It’s worth the effort.” Biden also said he didn’t want to tell the CDC, which has taken the public health lead in responding to the pandemic, what to do. “I asked the CDC to go back and consider other options that may be available,” he said. The CDC identified a legal authority for the new, different moratorium for areas with high and substantial increases in COVID-19 infections. Biden also insisted there is federal money available — about $47 billion previously approved during the COVID-19 crisis — that needs to get out the door to help renters and landlords.  “The money is there,” Biden said. The White House has said state and local governments have been slow to push out that federal money and is pressing them to do so swiftly. FILE – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks in Venice, Italy, July 11, 2021.Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen briefed House Democrats on Tuesday about the work underway to ensure the federal housing aid makes it to renters and landlords. She provided data so that lawmakers could see how their districts and states are performing with distributing the relief, according to a person on the call.  The Treasury secretary tried to encourage Democrats to work together, even as lawmakers said Biden should act on his own to extend the eviction moratorium, according to someone on the private call who insisted on anonymity to discuss its contents. The CDC put the initial eviction ban in place as part of the COVID-19 response when many workers lost income. The ban was intended to hold back the spread of the virus among people put out on the streets and into shelters. Democratic lawmakers said they were caught by surprise by Biden’s decision to end the moratorium, creating frustration and anger and exposing a rare rift with the administration. The CDC indicated in late June that it probably wouldn’t extend the eviction ban beyond the end of July. Rep. Maxine Waters, the powerful chair of the Financial Services Committee, has been talking privately for days with Yellen and urged the Treasury secretary to use her influence to prod states to push the money out the door. But Waters also called on the CDC to act on its own.  After the CDC’s announcement Tuesday, Waters released a statement thanking Biden “for listening and for encouraging the CDC to act! This extension of the moratorium is the lifeline that millions of families have been waiting for.” 
 
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U.S. President Joe Biden said New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo should resign after a report released Tuesday by the state’s attorney general found that Cuomo had sexually harassed numerous women in violation of federal and state laws, allegations that he vehemently denied. “I think he should resign,” Biden told reporters Tuesday afternoon at a press conference in Washington. Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, said Cuomo allegedly targeted 11 current and former employees of the state government.New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks at a press conference, in New York, Aug. 3, 2021.The probe uncovered a “climate of fear” created by Cuomo’s behavior, which included unwanted kisses, groping, hugging and making unacceptable remarks, James said. She said the investigation also found that the Democratic governor had retaliated against at least one former employee for complaining about his actions. At a news conference in Albany, Cuomo denied any wrongdoing, declaring, “I never touched anyone inappropriately.”  “That is just not who I am, and that’s not who I have ever been,” he added. In March, Biden said Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, should resign if the investigation confirmed allegations of harassment. “I don’t know that anyone could’ve watched this morning and not found the allegations to be abhorrent. I know I did,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House in Washington, August 3, 2021.The nearly five-month investigation was performed by two outside attorneys whom the state attorney general had hired. They spoke to 179 people, including complainants, current and former members of the governor’s office, state troopers, and other state workers. James said the probe was launched because of the “heroic women who came forward.” Shortly after the report’s release, several of Cuomo’s accusers demanded that he resign immediately, including Charlotte Bennett, who tweeted, “Resign, @NYGovCuomo.” The report is expected to be taken into account in an ongoing investigation by the state Legislature into whether there are reasons for Cuomo to be impeached.  New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who authorized the investigation, was one of a growing chorus of state lawmakers calling for Cuomo’s resignation on Tuesday. He said in a statement that the report’s findings point to “someone who is not fit for office.” New York’s U.S. senators, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have been calling for him to step down since last winter. Gillibrand reiterated her demand Tuesday at a news conference in Washington.  The Legislature is also investigating the assistance Cuomo received from top aides to write a book about the coronavirus pandemic, preferential treatment his relatives received during COVID-19 testing last year, and his administration’s decision not to publicly disclose some data relating to nursing home fatalities for several months. Some information in this report is from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
 
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A report by U.S. Republican lawmakers says a “preponderance of evidence” proves the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from a Chinese research facility — a conclusion that U.S. intelligence agencies have not reached. The report, released Monday, also cited “ample evidence” that Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists — aided by U.S. experts and Chinese and U.S. government funds — were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans, and such manipulation could be hidden. FILE – Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, speaks with members of the media outside of the White House, Oct. 16, 2019.Representative Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the report by the panel’s Republican staff. It urged a bipartisan investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that has killed 4.4 million people worldwide.  China denies a genetically modified coronavirus leaked from the facility in Wuhan where the first COVID-19 cases were detected in 2019, a leading but unproven theory among some experts. Beijing also denies allegations of a cover-up. Other experts suspect the pandemic was caused by an animal virus likely transmitted to humans at a seafood market near the WIV. “We now believe it’s time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source,” said the report. “We also believe the preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019.” The report cited what it called new and underreported information about safety protocols at the lab, including a July 2019 request for a $1.5 million overhaul of a hazardous waste treatment system for the facility, which was less than two years old. In April, the top U.S. intelligence agency said it concurred with the scientific consensus that the virus was not human-caused or genetically modified. U.S. President Joe Biden in May ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to accelerate their hunt for the origins of the virus and report back in 90 days. A source familiar with current intelligence assessments said the U.S. intelligence community has not reached any conclusion whether the virus came from animals or the WIV. 
 
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U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has tested positive for the coronavirus, the first senator to disclose a breakthrough infection after being vaccinated. In a statement issued Monday afternoon, the South Carolina Republican said that he “started having flu-like symptoms Saturday night” and went to the doctor Monday morning.  After being notified of his positive test, Graham said he would quarantine for 10 days. “I feel like I have a sinus infection, and at present time, I have mild symptoms,” the 66-year-old Graham said. “I am very glad I was vaccinated because without vaccination, I am certain I would not feel as well as I do now. My symptoms would be far worse.” Graham, who was vaccinated in December, has long been a proponent of vaccination, saying during a visit this spring to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston that “the sooner we get everybody vaccinated, the quicker we can get back to normal.” Graham’s infection comes on the heels of updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance urging even fully vaccinated people to return to wearing masks indoors in areas of high coronavirus transmission, citing the surge of the highly contagious delta variant. Recent analysis has shown that breakthrough cases of COVID-19, with mild or no symptoms, still remain rare. Both congressional chambers have been adopting stricter face covering regulations amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases across the country. The House has returned to a mask requirement, while the Senate has recommended medical-grade face coverings. Graham, who was wearing a mask, did not answer questions from reporters on Capitol Hill earlier Monday, before the statement being issued. Because of Senate votes, Graham was not in attendance at Friday night’s Silver Elephant dinner, the South Carolina Republican Party’s signature annual fundraiser and an event attended by hundreds, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a headlining speaker. 
 
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The Senate convened for a rare weekend session on Saturday, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer encouraging the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish writing their nearly $1 trillion bill so that senators can begin offering amendments.Several senators had predicted that the text of the bill would be ready for review late Friday or early Saturday, but it was not done when the Senate opened for business late in the morning. Nor was it ready when Schumer came to the floor in the early evening.“I’ve been informed the group is working hard to bring this negotiation to a conclusion, but they need a little more time,” Schumer said. “I’m prepared to give it to them.”Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said earlier in the day he understood that completing the writing of such a large bill is a difficult project, but he warned that he was prepared to keep lawmakers in Washington for as long as it took to complete votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure plan and a budget blueprint that would allow the Senate to begin work later this year on a massive, $3.5 trillion social, health and environmental bill.“The longer it takes to finish, the longer we will be here, but we’re going to get the job done,” he said.The bipartisan plan calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years above projected federal levels. A draft bill circulating Capitol Hill indicated it could have more than 2,500 pages when introduced. It’s being financed from funding sources that might not pass muster with deficit hawks, including repurposing untapped COVID-19 relief aid and relying on projected future economic growth.Among the major investments are $110 billion for roads and bridges, $39 billion for public transit and $66 billion for rail. There’s also $55 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure as well as billions for airports, ports, broadband internet and electric vehicle charging stations.A bipartisan group of senators helped it clear one more hurdle Friday and braced to see if support could hold during the next few days of debate and efforts to amend it.Schumer wants the voting to be wrapped up before senators break for their August recess. He said that once the legislative text is finalized, he’ll review it and offer it up as a substitute to the shell bill currently before the chamber. Then, senators can begin voting on amendments.“We may need the weekend, we may vote on several amendments, but with the cooperation of our Republican colleagues, I believe we can finish the bipartisan infrastructure bill in a matter of days,” Schumer said Friday night.But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, predicted, “It’s going to be a grind.”Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks past the chamber as the Senate advances to formally begin debate on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan at the Capitol in Washington, July 30, 2021.Earlier this week, 17 GOP senators joined all Democrats in voting to start the debate, launching what will be a dayslong process to consider the bill. That support largely held Friday during another procedural vote, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., again voting yes to nudge the process along.Whether the number of Republican senators willing to pass a key part of President Joe Biden’s agenda grows or shrinks in the days ahead will determine if the president’s signature issue can make it across the finish line.Cornyn said he expects Schumer to allow all senators to have a chance to shape the bill and allow for amendments from members of both parties.“I’ve been disappointed that Sen. Schumer has seen fit to try to force us to vote on a bill that does not exist in its entirety, but I hope we can now pump the brakes a little bit and take the time and care to evaluate the benefits and the cost of this legislation,” Cornyn said.Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., released a statement on Friday saying they were close to finalizing the legislative text and hoped to make it public later in the day. But Friday came and went without final paperwork.“When legislative text is finalized that reflects the product of our group, we will make it public together consistent with the bipartisan way we’ve worked for the last four months,” the senators said.Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Saturday that negotiators were finalizing the last few pieces, but he had no predictions when it would be ready for senators to have amendments and debate. He said some lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle have panned the bill in some ways, but in the end, it would provide the kind of investment that lawmakers have talked about for years but have been unable to follow through on.“There’s been some of the sense of, well, infrastructure, that shouldn’t be hard to do. If it wasn’t hard to do, why has it taken 30 years to get to this moment?” Warner said.The outcome with the bipartisan effort will set the stage for the next debate over Biden’s much more ambitious $3.5 trillion spending package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including childcare, tax breaks and health care that touch almost every corner of American life. Republicans strongly oppose that bill, which would require a simple majority, and may try to stop both. 
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A pandemic-related U.S. government ban on residential evictions was set to expire at midnight Saturday, putting millions of American renters at risk of being forced from their homes.On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives adjourned without reviewing the tenant protections after a Republican congressman blocked a bid to extend it by unanimous consent until October 18. Democratic leaders said they lacked sufficient support to put the proposal to a formal vote.The U.S. Senate was in session Saturday, but leaders gave no indication they would consider extending the eviction ban. The White House has made clear it will not unilaterally extend the protections, arguing it does not have legal authority to do so.More than 15 million people in 6.5 million U.S. households are behind on rental payments, according to a study by the Aspen Institute and the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, collectively owing more than $20 billion to landlords.Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren on Saturday said that in “every state in this country, families are sitting around their kitchen table right now, trying to figure out how to survive a devastating, disruptive and unnecessary eviction.”Democratic Representative Cori Bush and others spent Friday night outside the U.S. Capitol to call attention to the issue.FILE – Roxanne Schaefer is pictured in her apartment in West Warwick, R.I., July 27, 2021. Schaefer, months behind on rent, was bracing for the end of a federal residential eviction moratorium at midnight Saturday.Bush, who was evicted three times and lived in her car with her two children before her career in politics, spent a sleepless night on the Capitol steps to protest the end of the freeze on evictions.Bush remained outside the Capitol on Saturday afternoon urging Congress, President Joe Biden or the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop the moratorium from expiring.”Today, by midnight, if nothing happens, if no other action is taken from the House, or the Senate or the administration, 7 million people will be at risk for evictions,” the congresswoman said. “I’ve been there myself.”FILE – People from a coalition of housing justice groups hold signs protesting evictions during a news conference outside the Statehouse, July 30, 2021, in Boston.Landlord groups opposed the moratorium, and some landlords have struggled to keep up with mortgage, tax and insurance payments on properties without rental income.An eviction moratorium has largely been in place under various measures since late March 2020. The current ban by the CDC went into effect in September 2020 to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prevent homelessness during the pandemic. It has been extended multiple times, most recently through Saturday.The CDC said in June it would not issue further extensions. The agency declined to comment Saturday.Congress had approved $46.5 billion in rental relief, but only $3 billion has been distributed to renters, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.Biden, who unsuccessfully urged Congress to act, on Friday asked state and local governments to disburse the money immediately because of the moratorium’s looming expiration.Some states chose to extend eviction moratoriums beyond Saturday. Federal agencies that finance rental housing on Friday urged owners of those properties to take advantage of assistance programs and avoid evicting tenants.
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President Donald Trump urged senior Justice Department officials to declare the results of the 2020 election “corrupt” in a December phone call, according to handwritten notes from one of the participants in the conversation.”Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,” Trump said at one point to then-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, according to notes taken by Richard Donoghue, who was then Rosen’s deputy and who was also on the call.The notes of the December 27 call, released Friday by the House Oversight Committee, underscore the lengths to which Trump went to try to overturn the results of the election and to elicit the support of senior government officials in that effort.Emails released last month show Trump and his allies in the last weeks of his presidency pressured the Justice Department to investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud, forwarding them conspiracy theories and even a draft legal brief they hoped would be filed with the Supreme Court.FILE – In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo, Attorney General William Barr speaks during a roundtable discussion in St. Louis.The pressure is all the more notable because just weeks earlier, Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, revealed that the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have overturned the results. Unsubstantiated claims of fraud have been repeatedly rejected by judge after judge, including by Trump appointees, and by election officials across the country.”These handwritten notes show that President Trump directly instructed our nation’s top law enforcement agency to take steps to overturn a free and fair election in the final days of his presidency,” committee chairman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, said in a statement.Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chair of the House Oversight Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, March 11, 2020.She said the committee had begun scheduling interviews with witnesses as part of its investigation into Trump’s effort to overturn the results. The Justice Department earlier this week authorized six witnesses, including Rosen and Donoghue, to appear before the panel and provide “unrestricted testimony,” citing the public interest in the “extraordinary events” of those final weeks.The December 27 call took place just days after Barr had resigned, leaving Rosen in charge of the department during the final weeks of the administration that also included the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in which Trump supporters stormed the building as Congress was gathered to certify the election results.During the call, according to the notes, Trump complained that people were angry and blaming the Justice Department for inaction and said, “We have an obligation to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election.” He claimed the department had failed to respond to legitimate complaints and reports of election-related crime.The Justice Department officials told Trump that the department had been investigating, including through hundreds of interviews, but that the allegations were not supported by evidence. They said that much of the information the president was getting was false, according to Donoghue’s notes.At one point in the conversation, the notes show, Rosen told Trump that the Justice Department “can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election, doesn’t work that way.”Trump responded by saying: “Don’t expect you to do that, just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,” according to the notes.FILE – Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Clark speaks as he stands next to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Oct. 21, 2020.Trump mused during the call about replacing Justice Department leadership with Jeffrey Clark, the then-assistant attorney general of the Environment and Natural Resources Division who also served as the acting head of the Civil Division. Donoghue replied that such a move would not change the department’s position.After The New York Times reported that Trump had been contemplating a plan to replace Rosen with Clark, the inspector general announced that it would investigate whether any former or current department officials “engaged in an improper attempt” to overturn the results of the presidential election.
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A nationwide eviction moratorium is set to expire Saturday after President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress worked furiously but ultimately failed to align on a long-shot strategy to prevent millions of Americans from being forced from their homes during a COVID-19 surge.More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some in a matter of days, as nearly $47 billion in federal housing aid to the states during the pandemic has been slow to make it into the hands of renters and landlords owed payments.Tensions mounted late Friday as it became clear there would be no resolution in sight. Hours before the ban was set to expire, Biden called on local governments to “take all possible steps” to immediately disburse the funds. Evictions could begin as soon as Monday.”There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic,” Biden said in a statement.”Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can,” he said.The stunning outcome, as the White House and Congress each expected the other to act, exposed a rare divide between the president and his allies on Capitol Hill, and one that could have lasting impact as the nation’s renters face widespread evictions.Biden set off the scramble by announcing he would allow the eviction ban to expire, rather than challenge a recent Supreme Court ruling signaling this would be the last deadline. He called on Congress on Thursday to swiftly pass legislation to extend the date.Racing to respond, Democrats strained to rally the votes early Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi implored colleagues to pass legislation extending the deadline, calling it a “moral imperative,” to protect renters and also the landlords who are owed compensation.But after hours of behind-the-scenes wrangling throughout the day, Democratic lawmakers had questions and could not muster support to extend the ban even a few months. An attempt to simply approve an extension by consent, without a formal vote, was objected to by House Republicans. The Senate may try again Saturday.Lawmakers were livid at prospect of evictions in the middle of a surging pandemic.Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the Financial Services Committee chair who wrote the emergency bill, said House leaders should have held the vote, even if it failed, to show Americans they were trying to solve the problem.”Is it emergency enough that you’re going to stop families from being put on the street?” Waters testified at a hastily called hearing early Friday morning urging her colleagues to act.But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the top Republican on another panel handling the issue, said the Democrats’ bill was rushed.”This is not the way to legislate,” she said.The ban was initially put in place to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by people put out on the streets and into shelters.Congress pushed nearly $47 billion to the states earlier in the COVID-19 crisis to shore up landlords and renters as workplaces shut down and many people were suddenly out of work.But lawmakers said state governments have been slow to distribute the money. On Friday, they said only about $3 billion has been spent.By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.Some places are likely to see spikes in evictions starting Monday, while other jurisdictions will see an increase in court filings that will lead to evictions over several months.Biden said Thursday that the administration’s hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled the moratorium would only be extended until the end of the month. 
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Former President Donald Trump suffered a pair of setbacks Friday when the Justice Department cleared the way for the release of his tax records and also disclosed a memo showing he urged top officials to falsely claim his election defeat was “corrupt.”Handwritten notes taken by Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue in December and released Friday by the chair of the House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee paint a damning picture of Trump as he desperately sought to get the department to take the unprecedented step of intervening to try to upend his 2020 election loss.Hours later, the department cleared the way for the Internal Revenue Service to hand over Trump’s tax records to congressional investigators — a move he has long fought.The fact that the Justice Department allowed the handwritten notes concerning the election to be turned over to congressional investigators marked a dramatic shift from actions taken during the Trump administration, which repeatedly invoked executive privilege to skirt congressional scrutiny.Department ‘won’t snap its fingers’The newly released notes detail a December 27 phone call in which Jeffrey Rosen, who was appointed as acting attorney general a few days later, is quoted as telling Trump: “Understand that the DOJ can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election.””Don’t expect you to do that,” Trump replied. “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,” in a reference to Republican lawmakers.Trump’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.FILE – Justice Department attorneys reversed course and said the department had erred in 2019 when it found that the request for former President Donald Trump’s taxes by the House Ways and Means Committee was based on a “disingenuous” objective.The Justice Department ordered the IRS to hand over Trump’s tax returns to a U.S. House of Representatives congressional committee, saying the panel had invoked “sufficient reasons” for requesting it.Reversed courseThe department’s Office of Legal Counsel reversed course and declared the department had erred in 2019 when it found that the request for Trump’s taxes by the House Ways and Means Committee was based on a “disingenuous” objective aimed at exposing them to the public.The Justice Department’s actions will make it easier for congressional investigators to interview key witnesses and collect evidence against Trump.Earlier this week, the Justice Department decided that because of “compelling legislative interests,” it was authorizing six former Trump administration officials to sit for interviews with the House Oversight Committee. These include Rosen and Donoghue, as well as former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who resigned amid pressure from Trump.Also among the six was former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, who became the subject of a Justice Department inspector general’s investigation after news reports said he’d plotted with Trump in a failed bid to oust Rosen so he could launch an investigation into alleged voter fraud in Georgia.In the December 27 call with Rosen, Trump threatened to put Clark in charge, according to the handwritten notes, telling Rosen: “People tell me Jeff Clark is great, I should put him in. People want me to replace DOJ leadership.”‘We are doing our job’Throughout the call, Trump repeatedly pushed false claims that the election had been stolen. “You guys may not be following the internet the way I do,” Trump said.Rosen and Donoghue tried to tell Trump his information was incorrect multiple times.”We are doing our job,” the notes say. “Much of the info you’re getting is false.”A little more than a week later, based on Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen, thousands of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and a group of centrist Republican and Democratic senators said Wednesday they had reached agreement on a new U.S. infrastructure spending package after weeks of wrangling over the details of what to include and how to pay for it.The White House declared that the roughly $1 trillion package, including $550 billion in new allocations, would add about 2 million jobs to the U.S. economy each year for a decade. Many of those will be in construction work to repair the country’s deteriorating roads and bridges, build new broadband connections in rural areas of the U.S. and improve transit and water infrastructure.The U.S. Senate could begin debate on the package Wednesday evening although final passage of the measure could be weeks away.  The White House said the package, one of Biden’s biggest legislative priorities, “will grow the economy, enhance our competitiveness, create good jobs, and make our economy more sustainable, resilient, and just.”While Biden had reached a basic agreement with five Republican and five Democratic centrist lawmakers a month ago, the lawmakers and White House negotiators stalemated over how much to spend on specific types of infrastructure.Republican Senators Rob Portman, center, joined by, from left, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney, announces an agreement with Democrats on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, at the Capitol in Washington, July 28, 2021.The deal, according to the White House, includes the biggest federal investment in public transit ever, $39 billion, to upgrade and expand rail and bus systems, as well as the biggest-ever expenditure for passenger rail service since the creation of the existing Amtrak passenger rail system in 1971.The spending plan calls for significant spending for bridges, clean drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, access for all Americans to high-speed internet, electric vehicle charging stations and improvements for the country’s electric grid.“We now have an agreement on the major issues,” said Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, the lead Republican negotiator with Democrats. “We are prepared to move forward.”  Biden voiced his approval as he toured a truck plant in Pennsylvania. “I feel confident about it,” he said.Biden, six months into his four-year presidency, views the infrastructure package as especially important to show voters that bipartisan deals can be worked out in politically fractious Washington.Portman said the package will be “more than paid for,” although the White House was vaguer in describing the funding.The White House said the deal “will generate significant economic benefits.” It said the package will be paid for with “a combination of redirecting unspent emergency relief funds, targeted corporate user fees, strengthening tax enforcement when it comes to crypto currencies, and other bipartisan measures, in addition to the revenue generated from higher economic growth as a result of the investments.”Now, Biden is planning to advance, solely with the votes of Democratic lawmakers and no Republican support, a more ambitious $3.5 trillion human infrastructure package focusing on child care, tax breaks and health care that touch almost every aspect of American life.  It would be paid for by raising the country’s corporate tax rate and taxes on individuals earning more than $400,000 annually, both of which Republicans oppose. 
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The U.S. Justice Department is warning states that are conducting or considering audits of the 2020 election that they may be using procedures that violate federal protections against voter intimidation and other statutes.  
 
The warning comes as Arizona Republicans continue a controversial review of the 2020 vote count in the state’s largest county while Republican officials in four other battleground states where former President Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden are pursuing similar efforts.  
 
“Election audits are exceedingly rare,” the Justice Department said in new guidance on post-election audits issued on Wednesday. “But the Department is concerned that some jurisdictions conducting them may be using, or proposing to use, procedures that risk violating the Civil Rights Act.”
 
Post-election reviews of ballots have long been part of election administration that is handled by election officials. But audits of the 2020 election drawing the Justice Department’s attention are unofficial and are being pushed by Republican allies of Trump who allege that the election was marred by widespread fraud, costing Trump his reelection.     
 
In addition to Arizona, Republicans in four other states that Trump lost – Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – have been pressing ahead with efforts to review the 2020 election results, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.   
 
“I think the reason we’re issuing this guidance is to tell jurisdictions generally that we are concerned that if they’re going to conduct these audits, so-called audits of the past election, they have to comply with federal law and warning them that they can’t conduct these audits in a way that is going to intimidate voters,” a Justice Department official said.FILE – Maricopa county ballots cast in the 2020 election are examined and recounted by contractors working for Florida-based company Cyber Ninjas at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona, May 6, 2021.In its guidance document, the department outlined two broad concerns about post-election audits.  The first concerns the preservation of election records.  Under federal law, election officials are required to keep voting records for 22 months after an election.
 
“This means that jurisdictions have to be careful not to let those ballots be defaced or mutilated or lost or destroyed as part of an audit,” the Justice Department official said during a press call with reporters.  The official spoke on condition of anonymity.  
 
The Justice Department’s second concern relates to voter intimidation.  Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, it is illegal to intimidate voters or those intending to vote. Examples of voter intimidation cited in the document include taking down the license plate numbers of individuals attending voter registration meetings.  
 
“If a jurisdiction is going to conduct one of these audits it has to do so in a way that’s not going to intimidate voters and deter them from voting in future elections,” the official said.
 
The guidance echoes a warning the Justice Department gave to Arizona Republicans about their post-election audit.    
 
In a letter to a top Republican official, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela Karlan raised questions about plans by GOP-hired auditors to go door to door “to confirm if valid voters actually lived at the stated address.”  The planned canvassing “raises concerns regarding potential intimidation of voters” in violation of federal law, the letter stated.  
 
In response, the Republicans dropped their planned canvassing.  While the Justice Department hasn’t issued similar letters to other states, “we’re keeping a close eye on what’s going on around the country,” the official said.
 
In Pennsylvania, a state Trump lost by more than 80,000 votes, state lawmaker Doug Mastriano this month launched what he called a “forensic investigation” of the 2020 election, requesting information from three counties.  Democrats have questioned the legality of the audit.  
 
In Wisconsin, another state Trump lost, Rep. Janel Brandtjen, chair of the Wisconsin State Assembly elections committee, announced on Monday that her committee will request additional information to ensure a “comprehensive, forensic examination” of 2020 votes.
 
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U.S. Senate negotiators to a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill have reached agreement on the major components of the measure, Republican Senator Rob Portman told reporters on Wednesday. That could clear the way for the legislation to begin moving through the Senate following months of talks. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said a procedural vote on a bipartisan bill was possible as soon as Wednesday night. FILE – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer attends a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 20, 2021.”Senators continue to make good progress,” Democrat Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. Republican Senator Susan Collins, however, cautioned that some details were still being finalized. Another Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, told reporters, “I think that there is a strong, solid number of folks on both sides of the aisle that want to get on to an infrastructure package.” She added that senators will be briefed on the measure being negotiated “in these next hours.” The procedural vote would simply limit debate on whether the Senate should begin considering a bipartisan infrastructure investment bill that is thought to be in the range of $1.2 trillion. On July 21, Republicans blocked such a move, complaining that a bill had not yet been written. Democrats are hoping to pass this month or early next month whatever measure is agreed upon in the bipartisan negotiations. That could help clear the way for Democrats to begin pushing another large spending bill totaling around $3.5 trillion that Republicans are vowing to oppose. 
 
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Republican Jake Ellzey of Texas won a U.S. House seat on Tuesday night over rival backed by Donald Trump, dealing the former president a defeat in a test of his endorsement power since leaving office. Ellzey’s come-from-behind victory over Republican Susan Wright, the widow of the late Rep. Ron Wright, in a special congressional election runoff near Dallas is likely to be celebrated by Trump antagonists who have warned against his continued hold on the GOP. Ellzey was carrying more than 53% of the vote in Texas’ 6th Congressional District with results from almost all precincts reported. Ellzey is a Republican state legislator who finished a distant second to Wright in May, and who only narrowly made the runoff over a Democrat. The seat opened up following the death of Ron Wright, who in February became the first member of Congress to die after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Far from running on an anti-Trump platform, Ellzey did not try distancing himself from the twice-impeached former president. He instead sought to overcome the lack of Trump’s backing by raising more money and showing off other endorsements, including the support of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Trump had endorsed Susan Wright early in the special election, recorded a robocall for her late in the runoff and headlined a telephone rally with voters on the eve of Tuesday’s election. Make America Great Action, a political action committee chaired by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, also made a $100,000 ad buy over the weekend. But the outcome may show the limits of his influence with voters. Republicans have continued making loyalty to Trump paramount since his defeat in November, even as Trump continues to falsely and baselessly assert that the election was stolen. The North Texas district won by Ellzey — who narrowly lost the GOP nomination for the seat in 2018 — has long been Republican territory. But Trump’s support in the district had also plummeted: after winning it by double-digits in 2016, he carried it by just 3 percentage points last year, reflecting the trend of Texas’ booming suburbs shifting to purple and, in some places, outright blue. Ron Wright, who was 67 and had lung cancer, was just weeks into his second term when he died. Susan Wright had also been diagnosed with COVID-19 and at one point was hospitalized with her husband. 
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Four U.S. police officers told a congressional investigating committee in tearful, gripping detail on Tuesday how an angry mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump rampaged into the U.S. Capitol last January 6 in a futile attempt to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in last November’s presidential election.The officers – two on the U.S. Capitol Police force and two with the Washington city police department — said they feared for their lives as about 800 rioters stormed past outmanned law enforcement authorities, taunted them with racial and political epithets, fought hand-to-hand with police, sprayed chemical irritants at them and grabbed for their shields and sidearms.Their testimony came on the first day of public hearings on the deadly mayhem more than six months ago, the worst attack in more than two centuries on the U.S. Capitol, often seen as the symbol of U.S. democracy. Seven Democratic members of the House of Representatives and two Republican lawmakers on a select committee listened raptly to the testimony– along with a national television audience. During the three and a half hour hearing, U.S. Capitol Police officer Aquilino Gonell testified, “The rioters called me a ‘traitor,’ a ‘disgrace,’ and shouted that I (an Army veteran and police officer) should be ‘executed.’”“What we were subjected to that day was like something from a medieval battlefield,” Gonell said. “We fought hand-to-hand and inch-by-inch to prevent an invasion of the Capitol by a violent mob intent on subverting our democratic process.”FILE – In this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of Donald Trump, including Jacob Chansley, right with fur hat, are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington.Gonell said at one point he was crushed by the onslaught of rioters.“I thought, “This is how I’m going to die,’” he said.Washington police officer Michael Fanone told lawmakers, “I was grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country. I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm.”“I was electrocuted again and again and again with a taser,” he recalled. “I’m sure I was screaming but I don’t think I could hear even my own voice.”In the months since the chaos at the Capitol, numerous Republicans, in attempting to exonerate Trump’s admonition to his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn the vote showing he had lost to Biden, have minimized the violence at the Capitol. One lawmaker said the 800 who entered the Capitol were much like tourists, while some Republicans voted against honoring police for protecting the Capitol.  Republican leaders have maintained that the riot is being adequately investigated by law enforcement agencies and other congressional committees, arguing that the latest investigation is simply a political exercise designed to cast the Republican Party in a poor light ahead of mid-term elections next year.Pounding his hand on the witness table, Fanone exclaimed, “The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.”Washington police officer Daniel Hodges, who was crushed between a door to the House floor and a door frame, said one rioter shouted at him, “You will die on your knees!”FILE – In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo a police officer has eyes flushed with water after a confrontation with rioters at the Capitol in Washington.He said police were unable to hold the line against the surge of protesters. He said one rioter “put his thumb in my eye and tried to gouge it out.”As he was pinned in the doorway, Hodges said, “I screamed for help” and “thankfully, more and more police” came to his rescue.U.S. Capitol policeman Harry Dunn, who is Black, said the rioters unleashed vile racial epithets at him after an exchange in which he acknowledged having voted for Biden.“I’m still hurting from what happened that day,” Dunn said. He asked for a moment of silence to remember fellow officer Brian Sicknick, who helped defend the Capitol on January 6, but died of natural causes a day later.One rioter was shot dead by a Capitol policeman during the mayhem, three rioters died of medical emergencies and two other police officers committed suicide in the ensuing days. More than 500 of the rioters have been charged with an array of criminal offenses.FILE – In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo rioters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington.Dunn said the memories of January 6 are “still not over for me, physically and emotionally,” and that he is undergoing psychological therapy.But he had a last thought for the protesters: “You all tried to thwart democracy that day and you failed.”Senate Republicans blocked creation of a bipartisan investigative commission to consider why and how the deadly chaos of January 6 unfolded.Political Divide Widens as January 6 Hearings Begin Republican leadership withdraws participation in probe on U.S. Capitol attackInstead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who heads the Democratic-controlled chamber, appointed the nine members of the House select committee, including two vocal Republican Trump critics, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, over the objection of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.McCarthy had named five Republicans to the panel, but Pelosi, as was her prerogative, rejected two staunch Trump supporter –, Congressmen Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana — as biased against the investigation. McCarthy then withdrew his other three appointments.  As he opened the hearing, the chairman of the panel, Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said, “Some people are trying to deny what happened. To whitewash it. … Let’s be clear. The rioters who tried to rob us of our democracy were propelled here by a lie,” that Trump was defrauded out of a second four-year term in the White House.Trump, to this day, makes unfounded claims that he, not Biden, was the legitimate winner.McCarthy on Monday derided Cheney’s and Kinzinger’s participation on the Democratic-led investigative panel, calling them “Pelosi Republicans.” But Cheney, the daughter of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, rebuffed the claim that the investigation was pointless.“If those responsible are not held accountable,” she said at the outset of the hearing, “and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic.”In the weeks ahead, the investigative panel could subpoena numerous witnesses, possibly including Trump, to testify about what they knew ahead of the confrontation and as it was unfolding.
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Retired U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican known as a consensus-builder in an increasingly polarized Washington, has died. He was 77. Enzi died Monday surrounded by family and friends, former spokesman Max D’Onofrio said. Enzi had been hospitalized with a broken neck and ribs after a bicycle accident near Gillette on Friday. He was stabilized before being flown to a hospital in Colorado but remained unconscious, D’Onofrio said. Enzi fell near his home about 8:30 p.m. Friday, family friend John Daly said, around the time Gillette police received a report of a man lying unresponsive in a road near a bike. Police have seen no indication that anybody else was nearby or involved in the accident, Lt. Brent Wasson told the newspaper. A former shoe salesman first elected to the Senate in 1996, Enzi became known for emphasizing compromise over grandstanding and confrontation to get bills passed. His “80-20 rule” called on colleagues to focus on the 80% of an issue where legislators tended to agree and discard the 20% where they didn’t. “Nothing gets done when we’re just telling each other how wrong we are,” Enzi said in his farewell address to the Senate in 2020. “Just ask yourself: Has anyone ever really changed your opinion by getting in your face and yelling at you or saying to you how wrong you are? Usually that doesn’t change hearts or minds.” Wyoming voters reelected Enzi by wide margins three times before he announced in 2019 that he would not seek a fifth term. Enzi was succeeded in the Senate in 2021 by Republican Cynthia Lummis, a former congresswoman and state treasurer. Enzi’s political career began at 30 when he was elected mayor of Gillette, a city at the heart of Wyoming’s then-booming coal mining industry. He was elected to the Wyoming House in 1986 and state Senate in 1991.  The retirement of Republican Sen. Alan Simpson opened the way for Enzi’s election to the Senate. Enzi beat John Barrasso in a nine-way Republican primary and then Democratic former Wyoming Secretary of State Kathy Karpan in the general election; Barrasso would be appointed to the Senate in 2007 after the death of Sen. Craig Thomas.  Enzi wielded quiet influence as the Senate slipped into partisan gridlock over the second half of his career there.  His more recent accomplishments included advancing legislation to enable sales taxes to be collected on internet sales crossing state lines. He played a major role in reforming the No Child Left Behind law that set performance standards for elementary, middle and high school students.  He fought for Wyoming as a top coal-mining state to receive payments through the federal Abandoned Mine Land program, which taxes coal operations to help reclaim abandoned mining properties.  Enzi sought to encourage business innovation by hosting an annual inventors conference. He also backed bills involving the U.S. Mint but his proposal to do away with the penny was unsuccessful.  Enzi was born Feb. 1, 1944, in Bremerton, Washington. His family moved to Thermopolis soon after.  Enzi graduated from Sheridan High School in 1962 and from George Washington University with a degree in accounting in 1966. He received a master’s in retail marketing from the University of Denver in 1968.  He married Diana Buckley in 1969 and the couple moved to Gillette where they started a shoe store, NZ Shoes. They later opened two more NZ Shoes stores, in Sheridan and Miles City, Montana.  From 1985 to 1997, Enzi worked for Dunbar Well Service in Gillette, where he was an accounting manager, computer programmer and safety trainer.  Enzi served two, four-year terms as mayor of Gillette. He served on the U.S. Department of Interior Coal Advisory Committee from 1976 to 1979. Enzi is survived by his wife; two daughters, Amy and Emily; a son, Brad; and several grandchildren. 
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