Day: January 5, 2023

Just In | The Hill 

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro said Thursday that the drawn-out election for Speaker is “making the Republicans look ridiculous” as the House heads into an 11th round of voting, with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) losing out in the first 10 bouts.  

“I’m angry about it. You know why? They’re making the Republicans look ridiculous. First of all, I like Kevin McCarthy, okay? Why wasn’t this done ahead of time? Why are we doing this in front of the public? We look like a bunch of fools, okay?” Pirro, co-host of Fox News’s “The Five,” said during the program. 

The GOP now has control of the House, with 222 seats compared to Democrats’ 212. But McCarthy has lost each round of votes for Speaker to Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) as around 20 Republicans have repeatedly voted for other candidates, preventing McCarthy from securing the majority needed to win.  

Pirro called out Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who nominated Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) during an earlier vote.  

“And Lauren Boebert, you know, with all due respect, I mean, the women barely won her race. You’re holding out until Kevin falls. What is the alternative? What do you want? What is the option? What can people agree on?” said Pirro, a longtime conservative media personality and a noted supporter of former President Trump. 

“You want the Republicans to vote — to get the Democrats to get a Speaker of the House? Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi saying, let me get some Republicans so that I can be the Speaker? I can put them on committees. This is an embarrassment,” Pirro added, saying “it shouldn’t have happened this way.” 

The House opened its eleventh round of voting on Thursday. The election process will continue until a nominee gets the required majority. 

​Media, News, Fox News, Hakeem Jeffries, House Speaker vote, Jeanine Pirro, Kevin McCarthy, The Five Read More 

Just In | The Hill 

Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.) slammed three of his fellow Florida Republicans on Thursday for drawing out the battle over the Speaker of the House, as they continued to oppose Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid for the leadership position.

Rutherford specifically called out Reps. Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds and Rep.-elect Anna Paulina Luna, who are among the 20 far-right Republicans blocking McCarthy’s Speakership.

“Thanks to @RepMattGaetz, @RepDonaldsPress, & @realannapaulina, congressional offices like mine aren’t able to help our constituents with casework requests while we wait to be sworn in,” Rutherford said in a tweet on Thursday afternoon. “The small minority obstructing the speaker election is causing real consequences for Americans.”

After 10 roll call votes over three days, McCarthy has yet to make any headway among the Republican holdouts, who split their votes between Donalds and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) on Thursday.

The frustration among members comes as McCarthy and his Republican detractors continued to suggest that they were making progress in negotiations, despite the lack of movement on the floor.

House business has remained at a standstill without a Speaker, with new members yet to be sworn in. The incoming chairs for the House Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees also expressed growing frustration over the holdup, after they were blocked from classified national security briefings.

​House, Anna Paulina Luna, Byron Donalds, John Rutherford, Kevin McCarthy, Matt Gaetz, Speaker of the House, Speakership vote Read More 

Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories 

A federal appeals court has blocked efforts by Republican-led states to force former White House press secretary Jen Psaki to testify about efforts by the Biden administration to urge social media firms to take down certain kinds of posts or bar users from posting.

The order on Thursday afternoon from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is another not-so-veiled rebuke to District Court Judge Terry Doughty, who has been overseeing the suit the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana filed last year claiming that the administration’s pressure on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube was so intense that it amounted to censorship.

The three-judge appeals court panel said Doughty failed to give adequate weight to longstanding legal principles calling for depositions of current and former senior government officials to be limited to instances where they are truly essential.

The attorneys general and several private individuals have argued that Psaki’s statements about encouraging social media firms to take down misinformation about the coronavirus and about election fraud are grounds to subject her to questioning, but the appeals judges sharply disagreed.

“The plaintiffs argue that a deposition is required in order to, among other things, illuminate the meaning of these statements. Much of this desired illumination, though, is apparent from the record,” Judges Edith Clement, Leslie Southwick and Stephen Higginson wrote in their joint order. “In a similar vein, the plaintiffs say they need to uncover the identities of government officials and social media platforms mentioned in Psaki’s statements. The record is already replete with such information.”

The 5th Circuit panel also suggested that in the absence of evidence that Psaki herself was interacting with the social media firms or dictating policy, there was little reason to demand her testimony.

“As Press Secretary, Psaki’s role was to inform the media of the administration’s priorities, not to develop or execute policy,” the appeals judges wrote. “Unsurprisingly, then, the record does not demonstrate that Psaki has unique first-hand knowledge that would justify the extraordinary measure of deposing a high-ranking executive official.”

Clement and Southwick are appointees of President George W. Bush. Higginson was appointed by President Barack Obama.

“The central concern of this court is that absent ‘extraordinary circumstances,’ depositions of high government officials should not proceed,” the appeals judges wrote. “That rule is a constant across the decades regardless of who the officials are.”

The federal government has turned over numerous records in the case and depositions of other officials have gone forward, including of an FBI agent who detailed the agency’s interactions with social media companies. Last month, the FBI issued a statement defending its contacts with Twitter, among other social media firms.

“The correspondence between the FBI and Twitter show nothing more than examples of our traditional, longstanding and ongoing federal government and private sector engagements, which involve numerous companies over multiple sectors and industries,” the statement said. “The men and women of the FBI work every day to protect the American public. It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency.”

Psaki, who left the White House in May and now works for MSNBC, declined to comment on the ruling on Thursday. A spokesperson for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey declined to comment.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office said in a statement: “We have no problem with the court’s request. We look forward to obtaining more discovery.”

The appeals court has also placed a hold on three other depositions that Doughty, an appointee of President Donald Trump, approved in the case. In November, the same appeals panel said Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly and White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty did not have to submit to questioning while the appeals court deliberated further on the issue.

​ Read More 

Just In | The Hill 

A federal agency is trying to make it easier for employees to switch jobs without repercussions. We’ll also look at economic concerns among business leaders, as well as how much you spent online shopping last year. 

But first, find out why the House Speaker showdown bodes poorly for raising the debt ceiling. 

Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Someone forward you this newsletter?

FTC unveils proposal to ban noncompete clauses 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday rolled out a proposal to prohibit employers from implementing noncompete clauses that limit workers’ ability to change jobs. 

Noncompetes, which are used in a broad range of industries, make it difficult for employees to work for a competitor or start their own business for a period of time after they leave employment. 

The FTC said that the rule could boost wages by nearly $300 billion per year by giving workers more power to find a new job or using the threat of leaving to demand a raise. 

Between 36 million and 60 million private-sector workers are subject to noncompetes, according to an estimate from the Economic Policy Institute. 

The rule’s introduction stems from a Biden executive order aimed at boosting competition and worker power.  

Still, the proposed rule will face legal challenges from business groups that say the FTC doesn’t have the authority to impose the ban.  

Karl has more here. 

LEADING THE DAY

Consumers spent more than $200B online during holiday season, breaking record 

Consumers spent more than $200 billion online during this past holiday season, breaking another record for e-commerce this season.  

Data from Adobe showed that online shopping from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 yielded $211.7 billion, a 3.5 percent year-over-year increase.  

The five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday contributed
$35.3 billion of that total, but data shows consumer spending was persistent throughout the entire season, according to an Adobe release.  

Shoppers spent more than $3 billion in aggregate on 38 days of the season, on track with what happened last year. But only 25 days of the 2020 season surpassed
$3 billion, the release states.  

The Hill’s Jared Gans breaks it down here. 

HIGH HOPES

Business leaders see profits rising despite recession fears: survey 

Majorities of midsize business leaders expect their sales and profits to increase this year but also believe the U.S. could slip into recession, according to a survey conducted by JPMorgan Chase. 

In an online survey of 791 business owners and executives, 65 percent of respondents said they believe a recession is likely and only 8 percent said they were optimistic about the economy in 2023.  

Even so, 63 percent of business leaders said they expect to see higher sales and 51 percent are expecting higher profits next year despite the dour outlook. Only 14 percent of respondents expected revenue to fall and 24 percent expected profits to fall in 2023. 

“Following the challenges of the last few years, it’s encouraging to see the resilience of small business owners and leaders,” said Ben Walter, CEO of Chase Business Banking, in a Thursday statement. 

“The next economic cycle is always right around the corner,” Walter said. 

Sylvan explains here. 

MAKE OR BREAK

Most manufacturers predict recession in 2023: survey 

Sixty-two percent of manufacturers expect the U.S. economy to enter a recession this year, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).  

The survey also found that 69 percent of manufacturers have a positive outlook for their company, the lowest figure since the third quarter of 2020. They cited struggles in attracting and finding workers, continued supply chain snags and high raw material costs.  

It’s the latest warning sign that the U.S. manufacturing industry is slowing down amid weakening demand and higher borrowing costs stemming from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. 

Karl tells us why here. 

Good to Know

Bed Bath & Beyond (BB&B) reported concerning financial figures on Thursday, warning investors that bankruptcy may be on the horizon, which sent the company’s stock price plummeting. 

Preliminary earnings reported by BB&B showed slowing sales, with the $1.3 billion figure for the third quarter being about a third lower than the year before. The company also noted lower foot traffic through its stores. 

Other items we’re keeping an eye on: 

New York City Uber drivers are striking for a second time after the company blocked a pay raise last year.   

Peloton reached a settlement with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Thursday over its defective treadmills that caused injuries and the company’s failure to report the concerns to the commission. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow. 

​Overnight Finance, Finance, Policy Read More 

Just In | The Hill 

President Biden on Thursday evening made an unexpected trip to the Vatican embassy in Washington to pay his respects to Pope Benedict XVI, who was laid to rest earlier in the day.

The president signed a condolence book, which is formally called the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See. Benedict died at the age of 95 last week.

Biden, who is the second Catholic president in U.S. history, spoke with Vatican officials and then sat down at a desk for several minutes to sign the book, with a photograph of Benedict behind him.

“It’s a great honor,” Biden said to Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Msgr. Seamus Horgan, and Msgr. John Paul Pedrera.

“I used to be your neighbor across the street,” he added, referring to the Vice President residence nearby. 

The U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donnelly attended the funeral on Thursday to represent the U.S., which the White House said is in line with the wishes of the late Pope and the Vatican. 

Biden told reporters Wednesday that he admired Benedict and had an opportunity to spend a couple of hours with him in 2011 when Biden was vice president.

“He was a great and it reminded me of going back to theology class.  We spoke about Aquinas and about ‘Summa Theologica’ and the whole litany.  I found him to be relaxing and very rational,” Biden said.

He also noted that Benedict was a far more conservative Catholic than he is. 

“He was a more conservative view within the Catholic realm than I have and…the present Pope, in terms of his philosophy, his view.  But I admired him. I thought he was a fine man,” the president said.

Benedict’s funeral on Thursday was conducted by Pope Francis, marking the first funeral conducted by a sitting pope for a former pope. Benedict resigned in 2013, becoming the first pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church to resign in nearly 600 years.

​Administration Read More