TODAYS TOP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Saturday, December 29, 2018 3A
GOP and Dems trade
blame for shutdown
J. SCOn APPLEWHITE I Associated Press
With reporters seeking comment, Republican Senator Pat
Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture
Committee, departs after he opened and closed a brief
session of the U.S. Senate amid the partial government
shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27.
BY ZEKE MILLER,
JILL COLVIN AND
LISA MASCARO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
partial government shut
down will almost certainly
be handed off to a divided
government to solve in the
new year, as President Don
ald Trump sought to raise
the stakes Friday and both
parties traded blame in the
weeklong impasse.
Agreement eludes Wash
ington in the waning days of
the Republican monopoly
on power, and that sets up
the first big confrontation
between Trump and newly
empowered Democrats.
Trump is sticking with his
demand for money to build
a wall along the southern
border, and Democrats, who
take control of the House on
Jan. 3, are refusing to give
him what he wants.
Trump worked to escalate
the showdown Friday, reissu
ing threats to close the U.S.-
Mexico border to pressure
Congress to fund the wall
and to shut off aid to three
Central American countries
from which many migrants
have fled.
“We will be forced to
close the Southern Border
entirely if the Obstruction
ist Democrats do not give us
the money to finish the Wall
& also change the ridiculous
immigration laws that our
Country is saddled with,” he
wrote in one of a series of
tweets.
The president also sig
naled he was in no rush to
seek a resolution, welcoming
the fight as he heads toward
his own bid for re-election in
2020. He tweeted Thursday
evening that Democrats may
be able to block him now,
“but we have the issue, Bor
der Security. 2020!”
Incoming acting chief of
staff Mick Mulvaney said
Trump had canceled his
plans to travel to Florida to
celebrate New Year’s at his
private Mar-a-Lago club.
The shutdown is forcing
hundreds of thousands of fed
eral workers and contractors
to stay home or work without
pay, and many are experienc
ing mounting stress from the
impasse. It also is beginning
to pinch citizens who count
on public services. Gates
are closed at some national
parks, the government won’t
issue new federal flood insur
ance policies, new farm loans
will be put on hold beginning
next week, and in New York,
the chief judge of Manhat
tan federal courts suspended
work on civil cases involving
U.S. government lawyers,
including several civil law
suits in which Trump himself
is a defendant.
The Smithsonian Institu
tion also announced that
museums and galleries popu
lar with visitors and locals in
the nation’s capital will close
starting midweek if the par
tial shutdown drags on.
With another long holiday
weekend coming and nearly
all lawmakers away from the
Capitol there is little expecta
tion of a quick fix.
“We are far apart,” White
House press secretary Sarah
Sanders told CBS on Friday,
claiming of Democrats,
“They’ve left the table all
together.”
Mulvaney said Democrats
are no longer negotiating
with the administration over
an earlier offer to accept less
than the $5 billion Trump
wants for the wall. Demo
crats said the White House
offered $2.5 billion for bor
der security, but that Senate
Democratic leader Chuck
Schumer told Vice Presi
dent Mike Pence it wasn’t
acceptable.
“There’s not a single Dem
ocrat talking to the president
of the United States about this
deal,” Mulvaney said Friday
Speaking on Fox News and
later to reporters, he tried to
drive a wedge between Dem
ocrats, pinning the blame on
House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi.
“My gut was that
(Schumer) was really inter
ested in doing a deal and
coming to some sort of com
promise. But the more we’re
hearing this week is that it’s
Nancy Pelosi who’s prevent
ing that from happening,” he
said, alleging that if Pelosi
“cuts a deal with the presi
dent of any sort before her
election on January 3rd she’s
at risk of losing her speaker-
ship, so we’re in this for the
long haul.”
Pelosi has all but locked up
the support she needs to win
the gavel on Jan. 3 and there
is also no sign of daylight
between her and Schumer in
the negotiations over govern
ment funding.
Mulvaney added of the
shutdown: “We do expect this
to go on for a while. ”
Democrats brushed off the
White House’s attempt to cast
blame.
“For the White House to
try and blame anyone but
the president for this shut
down doesn’t pass the laugh
test,” said Justin Goodman, a
spokesman for Schumer.
Pelosi has vowed to pass
legislation to reopen the nine
shuttered departments and
dozens of agencies now hit by
the partial shutdown as soon
as she takes the gavel, which
is expected when the new
Congress convenes.
Pelosi spokesman Drew
Hammill added that Demo
crats “are united against the
President’s immoral, inef
fective and expensive wall”
and said Democrats won’t
seriously consider any White
House offer unless Trump
backs it publicly because he
“has changed his position so
many times.”
“While we await the Presi
dent’s public proposal, Demo
crats have made it clear that,
under a House Democratic
Majority, we will vote swiftly
to re-open government on
Day One,” Hammill said in a
statement.
But even that may be dif
ficult without a compromise
because the Senate will
remain in Republican hands
and Trump’s signature will
be needed to turn any bill
into law.
“I think it’s obvious that
until the president decides
he can sign something — or
something is presented to
him — that we are where we
are,” said Sen. Pat Roberts,
R-Kan., who opened the Sen
ate on Thursday for a session
that only lasted minutes.
Trump had said during his
campaign that Mexico would
pay for his promised wall,
but Mexico refuses to do so.
It was unclear how Trump’s
threat to close the border
would affect his efforts to rat
ify an amended North Ameri
can free trade pact.
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EPA targets Obama
crackdown on mercury
from coal fired plants
BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON —
The Trump administra
tion on Friday targeted
an Obama-era regula
tion credited with help
ing dramatically reduce
toxic mercury pollution
from coal-fired power
plants, saying the benefits
to human health and the
environment may not
be worth the cost of the
regulation.
The 2011 Obama
administration rule,
called the Mercury and
Air Toxics Standards,
led to what electric utili
ties say was an $18 bil
lion clean-up of mercury
and other toxins from the
smokestacks of coal-fired
power plants.
Overall, environmental
groups say, federal and
state efforts have cut mer
cury emissions from coal-
fired power plants by 85
percent in roughly the last
decade.
Mercury causes brain
damage, learning dis
abilities and other birth
defects in children, among
other harm. Coal power
plants in this country are
the largest single man
made source of mercury
pollutants, which enters
the food chain through
fish and other items that
people consume.
A proposal Friday
from the Environmental
Protection Agency would
leave current emissions
standards in place. How
ever, it challenges the
basis for the Obama regu
lation, calculating that the
crackdown on mercury
and other toxins from coal
plants produced only a
few million dollars a year
in measurable health ben
efits and was not “appro
priate and necessary” — a
legal benchmark under
tv
J. DAVID AKE I Associated Press
The Dave Johnson coal-fired power plant is silhouetted
against the morning sun in Glenrock, Wyo., July 27.
the country’s landmark Clean
Air Act.
The proposal, which now
goes up for public comment,
is the latest Trump admin
istration move that changes
estimates of the costs and
payoffs of regulations in argu
ing for relaxing Obama-era
environmental protections.
It’s also the administra
tion’s latest proposed move
on behalf of the U.S. coal
industry, which has been
struggling in the face of com
petition from natural gas and
other cheaper, cleaner forms
of energy. The Trump admin
istration in August proposed
an overhaul for another
Obama-era regulation that
would have prodded elec
tricity providers to get less
of their energy from dirtier-
burning coal plants.
In a statement, the EPA
said Friday the admin
istration was “providing
regulatory certainty” by
more accurately estimat
ing the costs and benefits of
the Obama administration
crackdown on mercury and
other toxic emissions from
smokestacks.
Hal Quinn, head of the
National Mining Associa
tion, charged in a statement
Friday that the Obama
administration had carried
out “perhaps the largest
regulatory accounting fraud
perpetrated on American
consumers” when it calcu
lated that the broad health
benefits to Americans would
outweigh the cost of equip
ment upgrades by power
providers.
Sen. Tom Carper of Dela
ware, the top Democrat on
the Senate’s Environment
and Public Works Commit
tee, condemned the Trump
administration’s move.
The EPA has “decided to
snatch defeat from the jaws
of victory” after the success
ful clean-up of toxins from
the country’s coal-plant
smokestacks, Carper said.
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