The Tap: Thursday, April 28, 2016

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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.

Review of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #14 of The Tap, which was published on April 30, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) endorsed Donald Trump. He said in a statement, “Donald Trump is the only person who has what it takes to shake up the status quo and entrenched bureaucrats in Washington D.C. I am more and more convinced that he has the ability to reach in and right the wrongs in the Department of Veterans Affairs once and for all.”

• U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) also endorsed Trump, saying, “It’s time for our party to unite behind Donald Trump and focus our time and energy on defeating Hillary Clinton.” Earlier this week, Shuster was elected in Pennsylvania to represent his district as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

• Jeff Weaver, campaign manager for Bernie Sanders, announced that the campaign would lay off more than 200 workers. The campaign said that the layoffs were due to the nature of the campaign itself, as fewer would be needed with fewer states remaining in the primary election. Weaver told CNN, “The calendar is coming closer to the end and there are not that many states going forward ... it's the natural evolution of every campaign.”

• In Wisconsin, prosecutors in the John Doe investigations related to Gov. Scott Walker, which were halted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in July 2015, have filed a request with the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the decision that shut down the investigations. They claim that two of the Wisconsin Supreme Court judges, Justice David Prosser and Justice Michael Gableman, should have been recused from ruling in the case that stopped the investigations because of ties to the groups that were being investigated. Previously, three of the five district attorneys who led the investigation had filed a motion in federal court on December 29, 2015, to overrule the Wisconsin Supreme Court order that the prosecutors turn over the documents seized during the investigation in raids on the offices and homes of those being investigated.

• President Obama made eight nominations to the federal bench. The nominees are Patricia Barksdale, Todd Edelman, William Jung, Philip Lammens, Florence Pan, Regina Rodriguez, Patricia Timmons-Goodson, and Anne Traum.

• The House Armed Services Committee passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 60-2. The bill authorizes $610 billion in defense spending. During the bill’s markup, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) proposed adding an amendment to the bill requiring women to register for the draft. According to The Hill, Hunter, who opposes mandatory registration for women, “proposed the amendment in order to force debate on the issue, not to actually pass it. However, the committee adopted the measure 32-30.”

Congress

• The House passed HR 5019 - the Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2016 by a vote of 411-6. The bill proposes directing “the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise a specified regulation to create a safe harbor for certain publications or distributions of research reports by brokers or dealers distributing securities.”
• The House passed HJ Res 88 - Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to the definition of the term "Fiduciary" by a vote of 234-183. The resolution proposes preventing the Department of Labor from implementing a rule that requires retirement investment advisors to put their customer’s interests first when providing advice.
• Thursday, the House passed HR 2901 - the Flood Insurance Market Parity and Modernization Act by a vote of 419-0. The bill proposes expanding flood insurance options for consumers.

Preview of the day

There were no items for this day in issue #13 of The Tap, which was published on April 23, 2016. See the "Review of the day" tab for more information.