by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
House Speaker Paul Ryan
Washington : The US Congress has unveiled a massive bipartisan $1.3 trillion spending package that will keep the government funded until the end of September and has President Donald Trump’s support, the media reported.
But it was not immediately clear whether the proposal will pass Congress in time to avert a government shutdown on Friday at midnight, reports CNN.
Lawmakers on Wednesday night agreed on funding levels for every corner of the government with $700 billion budgeted for defence and $591 billion slated for non-defence spending, but the legislation also include policy riders like a bill that incentivizes state and federal authorities to report more data to the country’s gun background check system called “Fix NICS”.
The rush now was to move the legislation as quickly as possible.
Lawmakers have until Friday at midnight to pass the bill before the government runs out of money.
The House is expected to vote on the plan later this week but the main obstacle will be whether the Senate can move fast enough to avert a shutdown given its rules.
If one lawmaker objects, it could force Senate leaders to run out the clock and even face a temporary shutdown into the weekend, reports CNN.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said that while “no bill this size is perfect”, this one strengthens the country.
“No bill of this size is perfect… And we must reform our broken budget process to return to a regular appropriations process. But this legislation addresses important priorities and makes us stronger at home and abroad,” Ryan said early Thursday morning.
The spending package includes additional money that could be used to fund a controversial New York and New Jersey infrastructure project.
It also contains the Taylor Force Act, which would cut off US aid to the Palestinian Authority until the government there ceases payments to families of terrorists.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : The US Congress has approved a stopgap budget that averts, for now, a partial government shutdown, which had been a strong possibility due to the failure of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to agree on a more comprehensive bill.
The approval came after President Donald Trump met Democratic and Republican congressional leaders on Thursday to negotiate an agreement that would allow federal agencies to continue receiving funding before their allocated budget money ran out on Friday, reports Efe news.
The Senate approved the deal in an 81-14 vote, allowing the government to be financed through December 22, and the House had earlier given its support to the measure in a 235-193 vote, with all the “yes” votes being cast by Republicans and all the no votes by Democrats.
The budget bill is a temporary solution that will now be sent to the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it.
Congress, which had until Friday to approve the law, now has two weeks to work out a budget bill for the next fiscal year.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the temporary measure gives lawmakers “the time we need” to finalize discussions on a long-term budget solution.
After Democratic congressional leaders Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi cancelled a meeting with the president several days ago, they agreed to meet with him in the Oval office on Thursday to narrow their differences.
“We hope we can come to an agreement,” said Schumer.
“Funding the government is extremely important. Helping our soldiers is very important and helping average citizens is very important. So we’re here in the spirit of ‘Let’s get it done.'”
Also on hand for the meeting with the president were the two top Republicans in Congress: House Speaker Paul Ryan and McConnell.
However, after the meeting, Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement that, despite having a “productive conversation… Nothing specific” was agreed to by the participants.
The main stumbling block is the Democratic demand that they will only agree to approve a budget bill if a law is enacted safeguarding so-called Dreamers, young undocumented foreigners brought to this country as children and protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, which was cancelled by Trump.
In September, the President cancelled DACA, which was implemented by his predecessor, Barack Obama, but he gave Congress six months to provide a legislative solution to the Dreamers’ situation.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, World
Washington : Facing an intense scrutiny over the presence of Russian ads on its platform during the 2016 American presidential election, Facebook will finally hand over nearly 3,000 Russian political ads to US Congress on Monday.
According to a ReCode report, along with the Russian ads, Facebook plans to share information about the users those ads targeted and how they were paid for with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“All three committees are investigating the extent to which Russia may have interfered in last fall’s US presidential election,” the report added.
Facebook is facing a probe after disclosing the details about the presence of Russian political ads worth $100,000.
After an extensive legal and policy review, the social media giant recently announced that it would share 3,000 Russian ads with Congressional investigators.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have been invited to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee on November 1 over the Russian probe.
Facebook earlier handed over the details to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating claims of alleged Russian meddling in the election, included copies of the ads and details about the accounts that bought them and the targeting criteria they used.
As the probe into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the election intensifies, Twitter also announced that it has deleted over 200 fake Russian accounts and identified Russia Today of buying bought ads targeted at American users’ accounts.
In a closed-door meeting last week, Colin Crowell, Twitter’s Vice President for Public Policy, met with staff from Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to discuss the issue.
Twitter also shared with committee staff ads that three Russia Today accounts targeted to the US market in 2016.
“Based on our findings thus far, RT spent $274,100 in US ads in 2016. In that year, the three RT accounts promoted 1,823 tweets that definitely or potentially targeted the US market,” Twitter said.
Google has also launched a probe into the role its services could have played in the Russian interference.
“Google is conducting a broad internal investigation to determine whether Russian-linked entities used its ads or services to try to manipulate voters ahead of the US election,” media reports said last week.
—IANS
