Here’s What’s In, What’s Out of the Debt Limit Bill to Avert US Default

PolitCens Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have been working the phones in an intense push to sell Congress on the 99-page bill that would suspend the nation’s debt limit through 2025 to avoid a federal default while limiting government spending.

The Democratic president and Republican speaker have to win their respective parties’ support for the plan in time to avert a default that would shake the global economy. On Tuesday, lawmakers will begin scrutinizing and debating the legislation, which also includes provisions to fund medical care for veterans, change work requirements for some recipients of government aid, and streamline environmental reviews for controversial pipelines and other energy projects.

The modest deal gives both men wins to tout, with Biden protecting major parts of his agenda from Republican cuts and McCarthy scoring several conservative spending caps and changes to government programs.

McCarthy has pledged that the House will vote on the legislation Wednesday, giving the Senate time to consider it before June 5, the date when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States could default on its debt obligations if lawmakers did not act in time.

But passage of the bill could be a heavy lift. A growing number of hard-line conservatives have already expressed early concerns that the compromise does not cut future deficits enough, while Democrats have been worried about proposed changes to work requirements in programs such as food stamps.

With the details of the deal now released, here’s what’s in and out:

Two-year debt limit, suspension, spending limits

The agreement would keep non-defense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year and increase it by 1% the following year, as well as suspend the debt limit until January 2025 — past the next presidential election.

For the next fiscal year, the bill matches Biden’s proposed defense budget of $886 billion and allots $704 billion for non-defense spending.

The bill also requires Congress to approve 12 annual spending bills or face a snapback to spending limits from the previous year, which would mean a 1% cut.

The legislation aims to limit federal budget growth to 1% for the next six years, but that provision would not be enforceable starting in 2025.

Overall, the White House estimates that the plan would reduce government spending by at least $1 trillion, but official calculations have not yet been released.

Aid for veterans

The agreement would fully fund medical care for veterans at the levels included in Biden’s proposed 2024 budget blueprint, including a fund dedicated to veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances or environmental hazards. Biden sought $20.3 billion for the toxic exposure fund in his budget.

Unspent COVID-19 money

The agreement would rescind about $30 billion in unspent coronavirus relief money that Congress approved through previous bills. It claws back unobligated money from dozens of federal programs that received aid during the pandemic, including rental assistance, small business loans, and broadband for rural areas.

The legislation protects pandemic funding for veterans’ medical care, housing assistance, the Indian Health Service, and some $5 billion for a program focused on rapidly developing the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

IRS funding

Republicans targeted money that the IRS was allotted last year to crack down on tax fraud. The bill bites into some IRS funding, rescinding $1.4 billion.

The White House has said that the deal also includes an agreement to take $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years and use that money for other non-defense programs.

Work requirements

The agreement would expand work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps — a longtime Republican priority. But the changes are pared down from the House-passed debt ceiling bill.

Work requirements already exist for most able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The bill would phase in higher age limits, bringing the maximum age to 54 by 2025. But the provision expires, bringing the maximum age back down to age 49 five years later, in 2030.

Democrats also won some new expanded benefits for veterans, homeless people and young people aging out of foster care. That would also expire in 2030, according to the agreement.

The agreement also would make it slightly harder for states to waive work requirements for SNAP for certain individuals. Current law allows states to issue some exemptions to the work rules on a discretionary basis, but limits how many people can be exempted. The agreement would lower the number of exemptions that a state can issue and curb states’ ability to carry over the number of exemptions they can hand out from month to month.

The agreement would also make changes to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, which gives cash aid to families with children. While not going as far as the House bill had proposed, the deal would make adjustments to a credit that allows states to require fewer recipients to work, updating and readjusting the credit to make it harder for states to avoid.

Speeding up energy projects

The deal puts in place changes in the National Environmental Policy Act for the first time in nearly four decades that would designate “a single lead agency” to develop and schedule environmental reviews in hopes of streamlining the process. It also simplifies some of the requirements for environmental reviews, including placing length limitations on environmental assessments and impact statements.

Agencies will be given one year to complete environmental reviews, and projects that are deemed to have complex impacts on the environment will need to be reviewed within two years.

The bill also gives special treatment to the Mountain Valley Pipeline — a West Virginia natural gas pipeline championed by Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito — by approving all its outstanding permit requests.

Student loans

Republicans have long sought to reel back the Biden administration’s efforts to provide student loan relief and aid to millions of borrowers during the coronavirus pandemic. While the GOP proposal to rescind the White House’s plan to waive $10,000 to $20,000 in debt for nearly all borrowers failed to make it into the package, Biden agreed to put an end to the pause on student loan repayment.

The pause in student loan repayments would end in the final days of August.

The fate of Biden’s broader student loan relief, meanwhile, will be decided at the Supreme Court, which is dominated 6-3 by its conservative wing. During oral arguments in the case, several of the justices expressed deep skepticism about the legality of Biden’s plan. A decision is expected before the end of June.

What’s left out?

House Republicans passed legislation last month that would have created new work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, but that was left out of the final agreement. The idea faced stiff opposition from the White House and congressional Democrats, who said it would lead to fewer people able to afford food or health care without actually increasing the number of people in the workforce.

Also absent from the final deal is the GOP proposal to repeal many of the clean energy tax credits Democrats passed in party-line votes last year to boost the production and consumption of clean energy. McCarthy and Republicans have argued that the tax breaks “distort the market and waste taxpayer money.”

The White House has defended the tax credits as resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars in private-sector investments, creating thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.
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Кулеба назвав три кроки, щоб «зробити Вільнюський саміт успішним»

SocNet Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

Міністр закордонних справ України Дмитро Кулеба звернувся до очільників зовнішньополітичних відомств країн НАТО перед їхньою неформальною зустріччю в Осло. Він означив три кроки, що, на його думку, принесуть успіх майбутнього саміту Альянсу у Вільнюсі.

«Я звернувся до всіх 31 міністра закордонних справ країн НАТО перед їхньою неформальною зустріччю в Осло. Три кроки, щоб зробити Вільнюський саміт успішним: 1) Зміцнення інституційних зв’язків і допомоги між Україною і НАТО; 2) Зробити крок до членства України; 3) Забезпечити гарантії безпеки на шляху України в НАТО», – написав Кулеба у твітері.

У липні у Вільнюсі відбудеться саміт НАТО. Україна очікує отримати більш чітку позицію союзників щодо майбутнього членства в Альянсі.

Генеральний секретар НАТО Єнс Столтенберґ заявив, що приєднання України до НАТО не відбудеться, поки триває війна.
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US Lawmakers Consider Debt Ceiling Deal

CensorBiz Бізнес, Новини, Статті, Суспільство 0 Comment

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are starting Tuesday to consider legislation to suspend the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until early 2025 so it can borrow more money to keep paying the country’s bills.

Both Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who negotiated the debt ceiling deal, are urging its passage and say they think they have the votes to win. But some liberal Democratic lawmakers are complaining that it cuts too much in social welfare spending, while conservative Republicans are grumbling that it trims too little.

First up is a vote Tuesday afternoon in the 13-member House Rules Committee, which typically sets the terms of the debate by the full House, such as whether amendments can be offered on any legislation. Approval by the panel, with nine Republicans and four Democrats, is normally just a procedural step to advance legislation favored by McCarthy to the full 435-member House.

But two of the Republicans named to the committee by McCarthy as he won the top House position in January have already declared their opposition to the increase in the debt limit. That could presage a close tally by the panel on advancing the measure, depending on how the four Democratic lawmakers on the committee vote.

In politically divided Washington, the four Democrats have typically rejected advancing any measure favored by McCarthy and Republicans, but in this case, the debt ceiling agreement was reached by Biden’s negotiators with McCarthy and his associates.

McCarthy said on Monday he was not worried the Rules Committee would kill the bill.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told Congress the measure must pass by June 5, the point at which she says the government will run out of cash to pay its bills and would sustain the country’s first-ever default. Analysts say a default would lead to a cut in the country’s top-of-the-line AAA credit rating, roil world stock markets, and force the government to decide which bills to pay.

Assuming the House Rules Committee advances the legislation, McCarthy has set a full House vote for Wednesday, with the Senate planning to vote later in the week.

Representative Stephanie Bice, a Republican vote counter, said she is confident the measure will pass.

“It is a true negotiation and reflective of divided government,” she told reporters, referencing the fact that Democrats control the White House and Senate, while Republicans hold an edge in the House.

But some hard-right Republicans adamantly rejected any support for the deal and blamed McCarthy for agreeing with Biden on far fewer of the spending cuts than House Republicans had approved in debt ceiling legislation laying out their priorities. 

“Not one Republican should vote for this bill,” Representative Chip Roy, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters outside the Capitol. “We will continue to fight it today, tomorrow, and no matter what happens, there’s going to be a reckoning about what just occurred unless we stop this bill by tomorrow.” 

Another member of the group, Representative Dan Bishop, said he thinks McCarthy should be ousted from the speakership because of his role in the negotiations. 

“I’m fed up with the lies,” Bishop said. “I’m fed up with the lack of courage, the cowardice.” He contended, “Nobody could have done a worse job” in the negotiations with the White House than McCarthy.

The proposal includes waiving the existing borrowing limit until January 2025 and a two-year budget deal that keeps federal spending flat in the fiscal year starting in October and increases it by 1% in the following 12 months into 2025.

Other pieces of the compromise package include a reduction in the hiring of more agents at the country’s tax collection agency, a requirement that states return $30 billion in unspent coronavirus pandemic assistance to the federal government, and extending from 50 to 54 the upper age bracket for those required to work in order to receive food aid.

“The agreement prevents the worst possible crisis, a default, for the first time in our nation’s history,” Biden said at the White House on Sunday. It “takes the threat of a catastrophic default off the table.”

“The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want. But that’s the responsibility of governing,” Biden said in a statement. He called the pact “an important step forward that reduces spending while protecting critical programs for working people and growing the economy for everyone.”

McCarthy, discussing the deal at the Capitol, said, “At the end of the day, people can look together to be able to pass this.”

He told the “Fox News Sunday” show that from Republicans’ perspective, “There’s so much in this that is positive. It will not do everything for everyone, but this is a step in the right direction.”
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У Києві та області оголошено повітряну тривогу

SocNet Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

Близько другої години ночі 30 травня спочатку на Київщині, а згодом і у самій столиці прозвучало сповіщення про повітряну тривогу.

Громадян закликали убезпечитись в укриттях.

У мережі повідомили про рух БПЛА в бік столичного регіону. Інформація від військових з цього приводу не надходила.

Кіровоградська, Черкаська та Чернігівська області станом на 2:00 також охоплені повітряною тривогою.

Протягом минулої доби російські війська завдали двох масованих ракетно-авіаційних ударів по території України. У ніч на 29 травня армія РФ застосувала крилаті ракети повітряного базування Х-101/Х-555 та іранські ударні безпілотники. Українські сили ППО знищили 36 із 40 крилатих ракет та 30 із 38 ударних БПЛА. У понеділок вдень російські війська вдарили крилатими та балістичними ракети «Іскандер» по Києву: 11 з 11-ти ракет були знищені.
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У скандинавських водах плаває російський «кит-шпигун» – The Guardian

SocNet Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

У територіальних водах країн Північної Європи помітили полярного кита-білуга в нашийнику. Як передає The Guardian, місцева влада вважає, що це російський «кит-шпигун». На його нашийнику є напис «Спорядження Петербург 2019».

Повідомляється, що білугу помітили у неділю в територіальних водах Швеції, неподалік її південно-західного узбережжя.

За словами шведських зоологів, південь Швеції – надто теплі води для білуг, зазвичай вони живуть ближче до Полярного кола. Фахівці вважають, що кит заплив на південь у пошуках пари чи компанії, оскільки білуги – дуже соціальний вид.

Це не перша поява білуги у водах Скандинавії. Вперше кит був помічений у Норвегії у квітні 2019 року. Його нашийник був оснащений кріпленнями для відеокамер. Кит був навчений слідувати за кораблями. Імовірно, він міг утекти з тренувальної військової бази або міг бути випущений «на завдання», але дорогою втратив відеокамери.

Про тварину багато писала місцева преса. Йому дали прізвисько Хвалдімір – від норвезького слова hval (кит) та імені російського президента Володимир. Нині Хвалдіміру близько 14 років. Зоологи стверджують, що він не боїться морських суден і доброзичливий до людей. Припускають, що раніше він багато спілкувався з людьми і був добре надресирований.

У 1980-х роках радянська армія розвивала програму навчання дельфінів для виявлення підводних мін. Ця програма була закрита у 1990-х. У 2017 році російський державний телеканал «Звезда» повідомляв про програму навчання китів-білуг, тюленів та дельфінів для використання у військових цілях.
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«Не варто драматизувати ситуацію» – Ігнат про влучання в районі аеродрому на Хмельниччині

SocNet Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

Раніше сьогодні Хмельницька обласна військова адміністрація повідомила, що в результаті удару по Хмельниччині виведено з ладу «п’ять літальних апаратів», а на злітно-посадковій смузі почалися ремонтні роботи
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