MORNING MESSAGE
Ashley Bennett
On Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a historic housing bill, the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act. This bill is an important step forward in our fight to guarantee housing for all, and to close the wealth gap between Black and white Americans. I have been homeless myself, and experienced housing instability my whole life. Together with other People’s Action members from around the country who are directly affected by our nation’s housing emergency, I met with Senator Warren’s team on Capitol Hill last December to discuss this bill. We liked what we heard, but there were certain parts of the legislation we definitely wanted to improve. We shared our stories, gave feedback to the Senator’s team, and have worked with them for three months to improve this bill. This new version reflects what’s possible when grassroots leaders like us get to be at the table, and participate in the creation of policy that impacts our lives.
Black Caucus, Progressives Back Warren Housing Bill
Warren’s affordable housing bill is now backed by Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. Boston Globe: “Senator Elizabeth Warren is reintroducing her ambitious legislation to create millions of new affordable housing units and help tackle ongoing housing segregation and the yawning wealth gap between white and black Americans. And, this time around, the presidential aspirant has more noteworthy new supporters for the bill. Representative Ayanna Pressley, one of the most prominent freshmen in Washington, is among the new backers of Warren’s American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, which is also being introduced Wednesday in the House by a group led by former Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond, whose district includes most of New Orleans. Also signing on to the Warren bill for the first time: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, one of Warren’s rivals in the crowded Democratic presidential primary field. ‘For too long, skyrocketing rents and housing costs have pushed home ownership out of the reach for families across the Massachusetts 7th and beyond,’ Pressley said in a press release. She called Warren’s bill a ‘critical step towards making housing more affordable and reversing decades of discriminatory policies that have denied black and brown families access to neighborhoods with decent paying jobs, high performing schools, and a chance at upward mobility.’”
Senate Poised To Rebuke Trump
GOP heads for unprecedented clash with Trump. Politico: “After more than two years of keeping his veto pen capped, Trump is going to have to put it to use — twice — courtesy of Republicans. In a remarkable bit of timing, the Senate will hold two votes this week placing GOP senators at odds with the president on foreign and domestic policy, likely forcing the first vetoes of his presidency. On the border resolution in particular, Trump has painted the vote as Republicans either standing with him on the border wall or supporting Democrats. But Senate Republicans claim the double-barreled veto fights, on legislation to curtail the U.S. role in Yemen’s civil war and block Trump’s national emergency declaration on the southern border, aren’t intended to be a personal condemnation of Trump. The White House has sent mixed and, at times, dueling messages about how it will handle an emboldened Republican Conference increasingly willing to defy the president. The president himself has told allies that he does not want to be ’embarrassed’ by a Senate vote on the national emergency resolution that garners over 60 votes and that he’s content to sign a veto on his signature campaign issue. And at the same time, he was making overtures to fence-sitting senators on Wednesday trying to pull them in his direction, including a midday call to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) about his emergency reforms while Lee dined with his colleagues. Yet in that call the president said he would not support compromise emergency reform legislation that might have won over a number of conservative skeptics and prevented a big vote against him. Lee read the call out to a Senate GOP that suddenly saw few ways out of a vote whose implications are almost entirely political.”
Senate Cuts Off U.S. Support To Yemen War
Senate rebuffs Trump with vote cutting off U.S. support in Yemen. Politico: “The Senate on Wednesday gave President Donald Trump’s foreign policy yet another vote of no-confidence, approving a resolution to cut off U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s bloody civil war. Seven Republicans joined all members of the Democratic Caucus in backing the bill, which senators viewed as an opportunity not only toreassert Congress’ authority to declare war, but to rebuke the Trump administration over its posture toward Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. ‘I think Republicans are just growing thin with Trump’s foreign policy, and they are more willing now to break with him now because they see his foreign policy getting more bizarre as time goes on,’ Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a chief sponsor of the Yemen War Powers resolution, said in an interview. The White House has dispatched top Pentagon and State Department officials to Capitol Hill to convince lawmakers that the U.S. should remain involved in the conflict — but to no avail, as the War Powers measure will soon reach the president’s desk. Trump has already threatened to veto it.”
Beto O’Rourke Enters Presidential Campaign
Beto O’Rourke enters the 2020 presidential campaign. NYT: “Beto O’Rourke, the 46-year-old former Texas congressman whose near-miss Senate run last year propelled him to Democratic stardom, announced on Thursday that he was running for president, betting that voters will prize his message of national unity and generational change in a 2020 primary teeming with committed progressives. His decision jolts an early election season already stuffed with contenders, adding to the mix a relentless campaigner with a small-dollar fund-raising army, the performative instincts of a former punk rocker and a pro-immigrant vision to counteract President Trump’s. ‘This moment of peril produces perhaps the greatest moment of promise for this country and for everyone inside it,’ Mr. O’Rourke said in a video announcing his candidacy, released hours before a planned three-day tour of Iowa was set to begin on Thursday morning.”
Trump Shutdown Stalled Software Fix Of Boeing Jets
Trump’s shutdown delayed necessary software patch On Boeing 737 MAX. Crooks and Liars:“You knew, right? Somehow, you just knew Trump had something to do with this latest disaster. Rachel Maddow did a riveting segment of her show on the reasons behind the Boeing 737 crash in Ethiopia — and how the general corruption and incompetence of the Trump administration contributed to the disaster. She disclosed how over the last six months, airplane pilots of domestic flights have been describing the same problem with the plane. You know, the planes you and your loved ones travel on, in American airspace. We have a former Boeing executive as the acting secretary of defense. Well, the good news is, it turns out that Boeing has in the works a software fix that they believe will address that problem in these planes. Good. The Wall Street Journal had the scoop on this this afternoon and where it ends is not good. But here is where it starts, quote, ‘Boeing is making an extensive change to the flight control system in these 737 MAX aircraft, going beyond what many industry officials familiar with the discussions anticipated. The change would mark a major shift how Boeing originally designed a stall prevention feature in the aircraft. The company spokesman confirmed the update would use multiple sensors and data feeds in the stall prevention system instead of the current reliance one one sensor and prompted investigation results indicated that erroneous data from a single sensor that measures the angle of the plane’s nose caused the stall prevention system to misfire and a series of events put the aircraft into a dangerous dive.”
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