The Tap: Thursday, November 17, 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 #43 of The Tap, which was published on November 19, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

• Former House Speaker and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich announced his intentions not to hold a cabinet position in the Trump administration. Gingrich, who supported Trump throughout the 2016 campaign and was considered a potential running mate, told McClatchy, “I will not be in the Cabinet. I intend to be focused on strategic planning.” Gingrich told The Washington Post, “I want to be free to network across the whole system and look at what we have to do to succeed.” Gingrich was rumoured to have been a potential pick to head Health and Human Services or the State Department, according to The Post.
• CNN reports that 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney will meet with Trump over the weekend. Romney—who spoke critically of Trump during the 2016 campaign, once calling him a “con man” and a “fraud”—is reportedly being considered as a potential pick for secretary of state, according to CNN. Politico, however, reported that the meeting is more about “making peace” than any possible discussions of Romney serving in Trump’s administration.
• Eva Moskowitz, a charter school advocate and CEO of Success Charter Network, said she would not serve as secretary of education under Donald Trump. Moskowitz’s name had been circulated in the press as a potential cabinet appointee. In a statement, Moskowitz said, “I will work with him and whoever he selects as education secretary.”
• The Trump transition team formally filed the paperwork to begin the transition of power from the Obama administration. Vice President-elect Mike Pence and chief of staff Denis McDonough signed the Memorandum of Understanding, which authorized Trump transition officials to begin visiting select federal agencies and receive briefings from current administrators.
• The Associated Press reports that Donald Trump has offered retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn the position of national security advisor, though it was unknown at the time of the report if Flynn had accepted the position. Congressional approval is not required for the position of national security advisor. Flynn served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014. He has been an outspoken critic of Obama’s foreign policy since leaving office and advised Trump on national security issues throughout the 2016 campaign.
• Judge Rudolph Contreras of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a lawsuit brought by a resident of New Mexico, Steve Michel, against Senate Republicans. The lawsuit alleged that, in failing to consider President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, Senate Republicans deprived his home-state senators “of their constitutional prerogative to vote on the advice and consent of a presidential appointee.” In so doing, Michel argued “that his own vote for United States senators has been diminished as compared to those voters in states with senators ‘with disproportionate power to control Senate action.’” In dismissing the suit, Judge Contreras held that Michel lacked standing to maintain the action because Michel lacked a “concrete and particularlized injury” for which the court could offer relief.
• Former Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine said that he would not run for president in 2020, choosing instead on his 2018 Senate re-election bid. “I've built felt very, very good relations, even in a short time, with Republican members in the Senate and some in the House side. I kind of have a sense of ... the work that needs to be done to improve this branch,” he said.
• Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) will challenge Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the race for House Minority Leader. In a letter to his colleagues, Ryan wrote, "Vote for me and I will dedicate all of my energy to lead us back into the majority. Our constituents deserve nothing less. … Under our current leadership, Democrats have been reduced to our smallest congressional minority since 1929. This should indicate to all of us that keeping our leadership team completely unchanged will simply lead to more disappointment in future elections.”
• Key vote: The House passed HR 5711—To prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from authorizing certain transactions by a U.S. financial institution in connection with the export or re-export of a commercial passenger aircraft to the Islamic Republic of Iran—by a vote of 243-174. The legislation proposes prohibiting financial transactions for the export of aircraft to Iran. Because of the sanctions that were lifted in the nuclear deal with Iran, Boeing and Airbus were able to strike deals to export aircraft to the country.
  • Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), the legislation’s main sponsor, said, “This bill would keep Americans' deposits away from a country that the president’s own State Department calls the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, and which the Treasury Department has designated a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern. How many more red flags need to go up?”
• Key vote: The House passed HR 5982—the Midnight Rules Relief Act of 2016—by a vote of 240-179. This bill proposes amending the Congressional Review Act to allow Congress to disapprove—by a single vote—regulations that federal agencies submit for congressional review within the last 60 legislative days of a session of Congress during the final year of a president's term.
  • Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the bill’s sponsor, said, “This bipartisan bill is about reviving the separation of powers to ensure our laws are written by the Representatives we actually vote for – not unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats who are on their way out the door. Presidents of both parties have made habit of enacting scores of last-minute regulations, with little oversight, to sneak in as much of their agenda as possible before the clock runs out on their time in office. The bill helps ensure this President, and any future president, will be held in check and that their policies have the proper level of scrutiny by both Congress and the American people.”

State

• Delaware State Senator David McBride (D) was selected by Senate Democrats to become the President Pro Tempore. He will replace Patti Blevins (D), who was defeated in the general election. McBride previously served as senate majority leader and has served in the legislature since 1978. Democrats currently hold the majority in the state Senate by one seat.
• Supporters of an initiative to install an automatic voter registration system in Nevada submitted more than 125,000 signatures, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The deadline was November 8, 2016, and was the earliest petition drive deadline to get an initiative on a 2018 ballot. Of the signatures submitted, 55,234 need to be deemed valid by the secretary of state. As an indirect initiated state statute, the measure would first go to the Democratic-controlled Nevada Legislature during its 2017 legislative session. The legislature would have 40 days to either approve the initiative, thus keeping it off the ballot, or defeat or ignore the initiative, thus putting the initiative on the ballot. Proponents of an initiative to require voter IDs failed to turn in signatures by the deadline.
• Four Republicans and one independent qualified by the deadline for the Georgia State Senate special election for District 54. The special election will be held on December 13, 2016. The seat is vacant following Charlie Bethel's (R) resignation in November 2016. He resigned after he was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal (R) to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Conda Lowery-Goodson (R), Chuck Payne (R), Michelle Underwood (R), William Vinyard (R), and Debby Peppers (ind.) will face off in the special election.

Local

• The Cincinnati City Council unanimously approved a resolution calling for the retrial of a white ex-police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man. Former University of Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing fatally shot Samuel DuBose during a routine traffic stop in July 2015. Tensing was fired from the police force and tried on charges of murder. After deliberating for 25 hours, the jury announced that they failed to reach a verdict, and a mistrial was declared on November 12, 2016. The city council requested that Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters “take all steps necessary to pursue a retrial” of Tensing. Deters told The Columbus Telegram that he expects to have a decision on the retrial by November 28, 2016. The next city council election will be held on November 7, 2017. Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and the 65th-largest city in the U.S. by population.

Preview of the day

There were no items for this day in issue #42 of The Tap, which was published on November 12, 2016. See the "Review of the day" tab for more information.