Florida proposal targets transgender bathroom use

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republican lawmakers in Florida this week introduced legislation that could make it a misdemeanor offense for someone to use certain bathrooms that don’t align with their sex at birth, joining conservatives across the country on an issue that opponents say unfairly targets LGBTQ people.

Named the “Safety in Private Spaces Act,” lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced similar bills that require that people use restrooms and changing facilities according to their sex assigned at birth at places like schools and restaurants. Legislators state in the proposal that the aim is to maintain “public safety, decency, and decorum.” Democrats and LGBTQ advocates oppose the idea, claiming it could spur vigilante “potty police” who feel empowered to harass transgender and queer people in facilities across the state.

“The direction that we are trying to go is the right one: We don’t want boys in girls’ bathrooms under the pretense that they’re girls, but they’re not — they’re boys,” state Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R- Melbourne) said Thursday. “And we don’t want girls going into boys’ bathrooms doing the exact same thing.”

Legislators advanced the bathroom bills through introductory hearings along party lines Thursday in the Senate, by a 15-3 vote, and Tuesday in the House, by a 11-3 vote. The proposals come as Republicans in Florida push culture war bills this year focused on how gender identity and sexual identity intersect with parental rights and education.

State lawmakers have either passed or are considering similar “bathroom bills” in Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee. In 2016, North Carolina enacted a similar bill but faced widespread blowback from businesses, the NBA and NCAA and eventually repealed the law.

The administration of Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2022 also enacted a similar policy for the state’s schools that require transgender students to use the bathrooms that correspond to the sex they were assigned to at birth.

Under the Florida legislation, any person 18 years or older could be charged with a second degree felony if they enter a restroom or changing facility designated for the opposite sex and refuse to “immediately depart” when asked by someone else. It also requires local school districts to craft code of conduct rules to discipline students who do the same.

These policies would be enforced at educational institutions, hurricane shelters, substance abuse providers, health care facilities and public accommodations, which by law include lodgings, restaurants, gasoline stations entertainment spaces and more.

There are carve outs in the bill outlining certain instances where someone could be legally allowed to enter a restroom designated for the opposite sex, such as to accompany another person to chaperone a child, elderly or disabled person, for law enforcement purposes or for emergencies.

But those protections are not enough to quell concerns from LGBTQ advocates and Democrats who argue the legislation amounts to harassment for people simply trying to use the restroom. They contend that the proposals would force transgender people to make the “impossible decision” of breaking the law or revealing their private medical information.

“Are we not creating a bathroom patrol where people can stand … and call law enforcement, creating very dangerous situations for trans individuals?” said Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D-Plantation). “I am very concerned about what this does, or the implications or … the consequences of something like this.”

The legislation goes further to require that entities seeking operating licenses in Florida must prove their compliance with standards for restrooms and changing facilities, ensuring they have designated spaces for exclusive use by females or males, or unisex facilities.

Businesses that fail to comply with these rules could face fines up to $10,000 levied by the state attorney general. The misdemeanor tied to using a bathroom of the opposite sex misdemeanor could result in up to 60 days in jail or up to a $500 fine.

Lawmakers, who are advancing the bills, acknowledge that they expect to tweak and update the proposals in future committee hearings.

“There are just places where we should be comfortable to do the business that needs to be done in those spaces,” said Sen. Erin Grall (R-Fort Pierce), who is sponsoring the Senate legislation. “And we need to figure out how to get that right.”

The Senate’s bathroom bill, FL SB1674 (23R), is slated for one additional hearing in the Fiscal Policy committee before it would be eligible for a vote from the full chamber. The House bill, FL HB1521 (23R), is assigned to two additional committee stops.

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Feds: Fugees rapper Pras Michel ran global influence-peddling scheme for cash

Federal prosecutors on Thursday portrayed rap star Pras Michel as a washed-up, money-hungry entertainer who embarked on a brazen secret-influence scheme aimed at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

“The defendant needed money and was willing to do anything to get it, including being an agent of the Chinese government,” Justice Department attorney Nicole Lockhart told jurors during the government’s opening argument in the criminal foreign-agent and campaign-finance case against Michel, a member of the Fugees. “The defendant wanted money and was willing to break any laws necessary to get paid.”

In her half-hour presentation, Lockhart laid out a dizzying series of allegations against Michel, including claims that over a span of about five years he accepted vast sums from Malaysian businessman Jho Low in order to try to shut down an investigation into Low’s alleged role in looting a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund known as 1MDB.

Some of Low’s money went to Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign and an associated super PAC, while other funds helped back an effort in 2017 to get former President Donald Trump to stop the probe into Low, Lockhart alleged.

Jurors also heard that Michel allegedly enlisted a close Trump ally, former Republican National Committee Deputy Finance Chair Elliott Broidy, to aid Low and to advance another purported goal: getting a wealthy Chinese businessperson, Guo Wengui, deported back to China. Low funded those efforts as well, Lockhart said.

Michel made a staggering $88 million off Low between 2012 and 2017, she added.

“Low had money to burn and the defendant was willing to cash in,” Lockhart said.

The trial in federal court in Washington D.C. is a chance for the government to recover from a string of high-profile courtroom defeats it has suffered in recent years as it followed through on promises to crack down on foreign-influence efforts.

Last November, Trump ally and inaugural committee chair Tom Barrack and an aide were acquitted by a federal jury in Brooklyn on charges they acted as unregistered foreign agents for the United Arab Emirates.

In 2019, a federal jury in Virginia convicted a member of the Trump transition team, Bijan Rafiekian, of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Turkey. However, a judge later overturned that verdict and ordered a new trial for Rafiekian, who was a business partner of Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Rafiekian’s case is currently on appeal.

Also in 2019, a jury acquitted former Obama White House Counsel Greg Craig of a felony charge of scheming to mislead the Justice Department about his work for Ukraine.

Justice Department officials have defended the enforcement drive, stressing that despite the setbacks more people involved in lobbying for foreign interests are registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

At the Michel trial Thursday, the entertainer’s attorney, David Kenner of Encino, Calif., passed up the chance to offer an opening statement. He will get another opportunity to do so after the government presents its case.

Michel's defense team has signaled plans to argue that he believed he was working to advance U.S. interests in his dealings related to Guo and in related efforts to free U.S. citizens held by China.

The trial is expected to bring some star power from Hollywood and the political arena to the federal district courthouse near the Capitol. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is likely to testify, along with casino mogul Steve Wynn, Broidy and top figures from the Trump administration such as National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has rejected Michel’s attempts to seek testimony from Trump and Obama, but actors Jamie Foxx and Mark Wahlberg, director Martin Scorsese, and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson have also appeared on lists of potential witnesses for the trial.

In her opening statement, Lockhart glossed over Michel’s fame and his musical career, saying only that he had “a successful music album in the 1990s” but was in need of money by the time the alleged scheme began in 2012. Lockhart also seemed eager to de-personalize the case with any jurors who might recognize Michel. After briefly referring to him by name, she called him “the defendant” over and over again throughout her opening argument.

Whatever Michel’s financial condition at the time of the alleged scheme, there’s no doubt that it became dire following his initial indictment on the campaign-finance charges in 2019 and the addition of the unregistered-foreign-agent charges in 2021.

Last year, Michel sold his interest in the rights in his Fugees’ recordings to a private equity group in order to raise money. He also has sought to fundraise for his defense by offering potential financiers a stake in $75 million the government seized from him — a sum he plans to try to recover if he’s acquitted, Reuters reported.

Lockhart spent a half-hour detailing four conspiracies the government is alleging in the complex case. Jurors seemed attentive during her argument, with some taking notes, but the disparate allegations against Michel may have been difficult to absorb in such a brief presentation.

In particular, jurors may puzzle at the bizarre claim that a hip hop star who supported Obama orchestrated an attempt to influence the Trump administration’s decisions about criminal investigations and foreign policy.

Michel is the highest-profile defendant from outside the political world to go on trial in federal court in Washington since Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens stood trial in 2012 on perjury charges. A jury acquitted him on all counts.

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Biden steps up pressure on Fed to toughen rules for regional banks

The White House on Thursday said it will push to reverse the deregulation of regional banks that was carried out under President Donald Trump, heightening the pressure for swift action in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse.

The Biden administration is urging the Federal Reserve and other independent agencies to toughen rules aimed at reducing banks’ reliance on debt and increasing their cash on hand, according to a White House fact sheet. Those standards, originally put in place after the 2008 financial crisis, were loosened for medium-sized banks in line with a 2018 law.

Yet the details of that law were largely left up to regulators, principally the Fed, to implement, leaving considerable leeway now to tighten rules on banks with between $100 billion and $250 billion in assets.

A White House official told reporters that they believe all the steps they’re pointing to can be accomplished under existing law. Given that the banking agencies — the Fed, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — are structured to act independently of the president, however, the administration can only apply political pressure.

“A lot of these regulators were nominated by this president in part because they share his view of the kind of bank regulation we want to see,” the official said. “We’re hopeful that they take these steps,” but they have the flexibility to apply the rules as they see fit.

The campaign for tougher rules demonstrates how quickly the political climate for larger banks has shifted since the stunning demise of SVB and fellow regional lender Signature Bank. The change is all the more striking because just a few years ago regional lenders secured bipartisan support for the law that lightened their oversight in comparison to megabanks like Goldman Sachs or Bank of America.

Scrutiny on the banking sector could also blunt efforts by those global giants to head off even tougher rules that the Fed was already contemplating before SVB's demise.

The Bank Policy Institute, which represents both megabanks and large regional firms, hit back.

“It would be unfortunate if the response to bad management and delinquent supervision at SVB were additional regulation on all banks that would impose meaningful costs on the U.S. economy going forward,” BPI President Greg Baer said in a statement. “This has a strong feeling of ready, fire, aim.”

The White House announcement comes just weeks after former Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard joined the administration as Biden’s top economic policy adviser. She served as the lone Democrat on the Fed’s board during much of the Trump era and dissented against most of the regulatory overhaul that happened during that time.

Among the changes advocated by the White House: making regional banks subject to stress testing annually, under which the government requires them to game out how they might fare under severe economic scenarios.

They also urged the FDIC to shield community banks from bearing the costs of replenishing the deposit insurance fund after the failure of SVB and Signature Bank, something Chair Martin Gruenberg signaled he was open to in hearings this week.

Regulators and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen agreed to back uninsured depositors at both failed firms, fearing runs at other similar institutions — moves expected to cost the FDIC nearly $23 billion.

“Community banks play a really important role in a lot of communities, we think it’s important to preserve that model,” the White House official said. “They were not to blame for the actions that resulted in the interventions.”

That, coupled with statements by Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr that he doesn’t intend to raise loss-absorbing capital requirements for small banks indicates that they may be shielded from the bulk of the blowback.

Both Gruenberg and Barr were grilled by lawmakers at hourslong hearings this week in both the House and the Senate, where they indicated that tougher rules for regional banks are in store.

Barr, who was nominated by Biden and confirmed last July, is conducting a review of what went wrong in the Fed’s oversight of SVB, with a report expected by May 1 that will recommend regulatory and supervisory actions.

In its fact sheet, the White House also backed early moves by regulators toward requiring large regional banks to hold long-term debt that could be “bailed in” as equity in case of failure.

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Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to five new charges

NEW YORK — Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the cryptocurrency platform FTX, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to additional charges alleging that he committed bank fraud and bribed Chinese officials.

Bankman-Fried, who flew from his parents’ home in California where he is under house arrest, appeared in a Manhattan courtroom and entered the plea in response to the five new charges that federal prosecutors recently unveiled. He now faces a total of 13 criminal counts.

His attorney, Mark Cohen, indicated that he plans to challenge the new charges, which prosecutors filed after Bankman-Friend was extradited from the Bahamas.

In the newest charge, prosecutors alleged on Tuesday that the former billionaire bribed Chinese officials after his trading firm, Alameda Research, was locked out of trading accounts on two of China’s crypto exchanges.

After the officials received an initial $40 million payment and unlocked the accounts, Bankman-Fried directed his employees to transfer “tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to complete the bribe,” according to court documents.

Bankman-Fried nervously nodded and smiled at reporters as he entered the courtroom. He did not answer questions.

Cohen said he plans to challenge the charges based on extradition rules.

Because extradition treaties are cooperative agreements between two countries, both countries must agree to the charges and rules surrounding the surrender of a defendant. Cohen could argue that federal prosecutors skirted Bahamian authorities when bringing the additional charges. Bankman-Fried did not challenge his extradition, but handed himself over to U.S. authorities in December.

His criminal trial is scheduled to begin in October.

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Feds target alcohol pricing in new antitrust probe

The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into the largest U.S. alcohol distributor, Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, over practices related to how wine and liquor are priced and sold around the country, according to three people with knowledge of the probe.

The FTC is investigating Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits for possible violations of the Robinson-Patman Act, a 1936 law prohibiting suppliers from offering better prices to large retailers at the expense of their smaller competitors, according to the people.

The agency is also investigating the company under Section 5 of the FTC Act, to determine whether the company has engaged in a wide array of conduct including any unfair, deceptive or anti-competitive business practices, according to the people. While Southern Glazer is the only known target of the probe, the agency is seeking wide-ranging information on wine and alcohol sales by distributors and retailers around the U.S., according to the people.

The investigation is in the early stages, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential matter. FTC investigations can stretch on for years and are often closed without the agency taking any action. Any case would have to be brought either in federal court or the FTC’s in-house administrative court, and, if successful, the agency could get an order prohibiting the offending business practices.

The FTC recently opened a similar investigation into Pepsi and Coca-Cola involving pricing in the soft drink market.

The FTC declined to comment. Southern Glazer did not respond for comment.

The alcohol investigation is yet another sign that the Biden administration is expanding its efforts to rein in big companies and flex its antitrust powers, in the technology world and beyond. That includes the world’s biggest tech firms, such as Apple and Google, and more traditional companies like Southern Glazer.

According to a December 2022 Forbes report, Southern Glazer is the 11th largest privately held company in the U.S., with around $25 billion in revenue and distributing over 7,000 different brands of alcohol, wine, beer and other beverages. Republic National Distributing Company, the second largest alcohol distributor, which is not known to be a target in the probe, had 2022 revenues of around $12 billion, according to Forbes. Combined, the two companies account for the bulk of U.S. alcoholic beverage distribution.

The Robinson-Patman Act, aimed at promoting a level playing field between small retailers and large chain stores, has been largely dormant for more than 20 years.

The law was enforced regularly for decades by the FTC, then all but abandoned more than 20 years ago. The agency’s last case under the law was a settlement with spice company McCormick. Prior to that its most recent case was from 1988 against book publishers including Simon & Schuster and Random House. The move away from Robinson-Patman enforcement came amid increasing focus at the FTC and Justice Department on harm to consumers, namely higher prices, rather than harm to competitors.

The FTC however wants to revive enforcement. The agency’s chair, Lina Khan, as well as Democratic commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, have, since they joined the agency, stated their intention to bring more cases under the law.

The FTC has “been looking closely at the Robinson-Patman Act,” Khan said at an event on Monday. “We’re looking closely at areas where we might be able to do that in short order.”

President Biden, in his 2021 executive orderon competition policy, specifically called out the need to stop “unlawful trade practices in the beer, wine, and spirits markets, such as certain exclusionary, discriminatory, or anti-competitive distribution practices, that hinder smaller and independent businesses or new entrants from distributing their products.”

In its investigation, the FTC is seeking detailed sales data on thousands of brands of alcohol and wine sold around the U.S. by both Southern Glazer and its competing distributors, according to the people. The probe includes questions about pricing and benefits Southern Glazer offers to retailers including quantity-based discounts, rebates, promotions, as well as marketing, warehousing, merchandising and other services.

The agency is also asking about the competitive dynamics in the retail market for wine and alcohol and how Southern Glazer allocates wine and alcohol between different retailers, including whether and how it limits distribution to certain customers, the people said.

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Russia seeking munitions from North Korea, Kirby says

Russia is seeking to acquire more munitions from North Korea to bolster its war on Ukraine, the White House revealed on Thursday.

The development comes as Moscow has sought help from other countries such as Iran as it continues to expend equipment and ammunition on the battlefield.

In a briefing with reporters, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Vladimir Putin would likely send food to Pyongyang in exchange for the munitions.

“We remain concerned that North Korea will provide further support and Russia's military operations against Ukraine and we have new information that Russia is actively seeking to acquire additional munitions from North Korea,” he said.

Russia is exhausting its stores of ammunition while locked in an inch-by-inch battle for territory in Ukraine’s south and east. The battle for Bakhmut, a town in the Donbas, has slowed any Russian advances, requiring forces to expend their ammo and artillery before reaching more consequential areas.

The assistance from North Korea would help Moscow’s forces refill its stockpiles ahead of an expected offensive by Ukraine in the spring.

In December, the Biden administration accused Pyongyang of providing battlefield rockets and missiles to the Wagner Group, a pro-Russian mercenary outfit that’s conducted the bulk of the fighting in Bakhmut.

The possible Russia-North Korea deal was allegedly brokered by Slovakian arms dealer Ashot Mkrtychev, leading the administration to sanction him on Thursday.

“Schemes like the arms deal pursued by this individual show that Putin is turning to suppliers of last resort like Iran and the DPRK,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement, using an acronym for the official name of North Korea: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

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Republican lawmakers override veto of transgender bill in Kentucky

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday swept aside the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill regulating some of the most personal aspects of life for transgender young people — from banning access to gender-affirming health care to restricting the bathrooms they can use.

The votes to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto were lopsided in both legislative chambers — where the GOP wields supermajorities — and came on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session. The Senate voted 29-8 to override Beshear’s veto. A short time later, the House completed the override on a vote of 76-23.

As emotions surged, some people protesting the bill from the House gallery were removed and arrested after their prolonged chanting rang out in the chamber. The protesters, their hands bound, chanted “there’s more of us not here” as they waited to be taken away from the Capitol.

Nineteen people were arrested and charged with third-degree criminal trespassing, Kentucky State Police said. Officers gave each person “the option to leave without any enforcement action or be placed under arrest,” said Capt. Paul Blanton, a police spokesperson.

Republican House Speaker David Osborne later said it was a decision by state police to remove and arrest protesters.

“I think it’s unfortunate that it reached that level and certainly they were given, as I’ve been told since then, multiple opportunities to either quiet their chants or to leave voluntarily,” Osborne said.

The bill’s opponents framed the issue as a civil-rights fight. Democratic Rep. Sarah Stalker declared: “Kentucky will be on the wrong side of history” by enacting the measure.

The debate about the transgender bill will likely spill over into this year’s gubernatorial campaign, with Beshear’s veto drawing GOP condemnation as he seeks reelection to a second term. A legal fight also is brewing. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky reaffirmed that it intends to “take this fight to the courts” to try to preserve access to health care options for young transgender people.

“While we lost the battle in the legislature, our defeat is temporary. We will not lose in court,” said Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.

In praising the veto override, David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, said the bill puts “policy in alignment with the truth that every child is created as a male or female and deserves to be loved, treated with dignity and accepted for who they really are.”

Activists on both sides of the impassioned debate gathered at the statehouse to make competing appeals before lawmakers took up the transgender bill following an extended break.

At a rally that drew hundreds of transgender-rights supporters, trans teenager Sun Pacyga held up a sign summing up a grim review of the Republican legislation. The sign read: “Our blood is on your hands.”

“If it passes, the restricted access to gender-affirming health care, I think trans kids will die because of that,” the 17-year-old student said, expressing a persistent concern among the bill’s critics that the restrictions could lead to an increase in teen suicides.

Bill supporters assembled to defend the measure, saying it protects trans children from undertaking gender-affirming treatments they might regret as adults. Research shows such regret is rare, however.

“We cannot allow people to continue down the path of fantasy, to where they’re going to end up 10, 20, 30 years down the road and find themselves miserable from decisions that they made when they were young,” said Republican Rep. Shane Baker at a rally.

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Biden to visit Mississippi on Friday after deadly tornado

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Rolling Fork, Miss., on Friday, the White House announced on Wednesday, following the deadly tornado that ripped through the Mississippi Delta last week.

The storm left 25 dead and dozens injured after it tore through several towns in one of the poorest regions in the U.S. On Sunday, the White House issued an emergency declaration for the state, making federal funding available to the counties hit hardest by the storm.

On Friday, Biden will meet with first responders and state and local officials in Rolling Fork, a town of 2,000 that saw homes and buildings reduced to rubble. The will demonstrate Biden’s “commitment to supporting the people of Mississippi as long as it takes,” the White House said in a statement announcing the trip.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell visited the state on Sunday, two days after the tornado struck.

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Taiwan’s president is coming to America. Political bickering awaits.

The arrival of Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen in the U.S. on Thursday is highlighting a divide between the White House and China hawks in Congress over how strongly to show support for the self-governing island that China claims as its own.

The Biden administration — loath to inflame already tense relations with China — is downplaying the visit, carefully noting that Tsai is making a private trip and stressing that she is not meeting with any administration officials. But an increasingly vocal group of lawmakers are arguing the U.S. needs to do more to support Taiwan and — by extension — Tsai.

Supporting Tsai’s visit is a way for the U.S. to “stand with Taiwan amid growing threats from [Chinese President] Xi Jinping, and we must ensure Taiwan has the weapons and training it needs to protect itself against growing CCP military aggression,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Michael McCaul, using the acronym for the Chinese Communist Party.

Tsai is stopping in the U.S. on both ends of a Latin America trip. She’ll be in New York for one day Thursday to receive a leadership award from a conservative think tank and will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles on April 5.

It’s Tsai’s seventh such trip to the United States since she became president in 2016, but this one comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated over the spy balloon that recently transited the U.S. and China’s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Her visit is making even starker the growing divide between lawmakers who argue for protecting Taiwan at all costs, and an administration that is trying to rein in China without completely derailing a relationship that is already at its frostiest level in decades.

Beijing is calling the visit an affront to U.S.-China relations and a provocation. “The trip is not so much a ‘transit,’... but the U.S. egregiously conniving at and supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday. The spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhu Fenglian, added that Beijing will “take measures to resolutely counter” any meeting between Tsai and McCarthy.

Asked Wednesday about McCarthy’s plan to meet with Tsai, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said: “We leave it to Speaker McCarthy to talk to his schedule, his agenda and what he intends to do or not do, particularly in relation to this transit.” Taipei is cooperating by not releasing any details of Tsai’s U.S. schedule.

McCarthy is one of a band of lawmakers who argue the Biden administration isn’t doing enough to show its support for Taiwan. And they’re demanding that the U.S. provide whatever military and diplomatic support necessary to prevent Beijing from attempting to annex the island. Over the past two years, they’ve drafted legislation proposing everything from establishing formal U.S. diplomatic relations with Taiwan to lending U.S. military equipment to Taipei in the event of “preemptive aggression” by China.

The Biden administration “isn’t being strong enough in its support of Taiwan,” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.). “Prioritizing U.S.-Taiwan arms sales and training programs today is a prerequisite to deter a PRC attack on Taiwan in the near future.”

That sentiment is bipartisan. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, said the administration needs to expand and strengthen U.S. defense and economic ties with Taiwan, and deliver long-promised weaponry.

The upcoming meeting between McCarthy and Tsai is a prime example of the dynamics. McCarthy had originally announced a plan to visit Taiwan, prompting Beijing to warn that such a trip “could undermine China-U.S. relations or peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” It was a clear reminder that China responded to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August with days of live-fire aerial and naval drills around the island.

McCarthy responded by saying “I don’t think China can tell me where I can go.” The Biden administration refrained from weighing in. “I’m not aware that the Speaker’s office has announced any planned travel. … They are going to make their own decisions,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in January.

It’s not clear what prompted McCarthy to compromise with the California meeting (and his office didn’t respond to a request for comment). But the White House is clearly worried that Beijing might respond to Tsai’s presence in the U.S. with another surge of threatening military activity around Taiwan. Beijing “should not use this transit as a pretext to step up any aggressive activity around the Taiwan Strait,” Kirby at the National Security Council said on Wednesday. The White House has had “multiple diplomatic discussions with Beijing” about Tsai’s visit to avoid that from happening, Kirby said.

Those discussions haven’t calmed Beijing’s bluster. Tsai’s visit “could lead to another serious, serious, serious confrontation in the China-U.S. relationship,” the chargés d’affaires in the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., Xu Xueyuan, told reporters on Wednesday. ”Those who play with fire will perish by it,” Xu warned.

Lawmakers do have lapsed promises from the Biden administration to point to in their arguments for more action on Taiwan. Deliveries to Taiwan of billions of dollars in U.S. arms are backlogged due to supply chain issues related to the pandemic and exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict.

“We are already within the window of maximum danger and we need all hands on deck to deter Xi Jinping’s malign designs on Taiwan,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on China, stressing the need to get weapons to Taiwan quickly.

The White House didn’t respond to requests to comment for this story. But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that a task force launched in September to untangle snarls in weaponry supply chains is making progress.

Another argument from the lawmakers: Biden’s messaging on Taiwan is confusing to the point where it may be increasing the risk that China invades Taiwan.

Four times since August 2021 Biden has stated that the U.S. would deploy U.S. military forces to defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion attempt. And in every case, aides have walked back comments that appear to reverse the longtime policy of “strategic ambiguity” regarding U.S. willingness to defend Taiwan. That has “managed both to provoke the Chinese and to leave Taiwan without any assurance of American support, a dangerous scenario,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

A transition to an explicit U.S. policy of guaranteed military support for Taiwan to fend off a Chinese attack — what Cotton calls “strategic clarity” — has backers in Taiwan. “Dictators are prone to misjudge situations because they are biased,” said independent Taiwan legislator Freddy Lim. International support for Taiwan “must be clearer for China to understand at a glance,” Lim said.

Other Taiwanese observers have less charitable views of congressional interest in Taiwan. In the U.S. “Taiwan is already a political football,” said Andrew Nien-Dzu Yang, a former Taiwan defense minister and adjunct assistant professor at National Sun Yat-sen University. The intense U.S. focus on the island reflects how “Taiwan is a bargaining chip for the United States,” Yang said.

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Congress appropriated $500M for workers. Democrats can’t agree on whether to spend it.

Congress appropriated nearly $500 million last year to help American workers whose jobs have been sent overseas. But two powerful Democrats disagree over whether that money can or should be spent, leaving relief for tens of thousands of workers in limbo.

The disagreement between Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is just the latest symptom of congressional gridlock on trade policy that has allowed multiple programs — from worker relief funds to tariff exemption programs for manufacturers and developing nations — to expire in recent years. Ending the relief payments would deal a blow to President Joe Biden’s trade policy that has sought to make international commerce easier on middle- and low-income Americans.

The dispute over the funding for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) — a Department of Labor program that provides income support, job retraining and other relief for victims of outsourcing — centers on language in the omnibus spending package that Congress passed last December. The bill included new funding for TAA, but did not explicitly reauthorize the program, which expired earlier in the year.

According to two Appropriations Committee aides involved in the talks, $500 million in funding was included in the draft in hopes Democrats and Republicans could reach a deal to extend the TAA program, but they failed to do so. In the rush to pass the final bill, the appropriations provision was not altered, and aides felt it was not necessary to do so because the program was not authorized. The aides were granted anonymity to discuss confidential policy negotiations.

While stressing that the senator supports TAA in principle, Murray’s office believes the program remains expired and the money cannot be spent without authorizing language. After the bill was signed and Murray became chair of the Appropriations Committee, she called DOL to relay that information and request the agency not restart processing applications for TAA aid.

“The appropriations bill that passed at the end of the year said the program ended, that’s the way it was written,” Murray said in a brief Capitol Hill interview on Monday. She declined to comment on the language from her own committee allocating nearly $500 million to the program, reiterating that the bill “specifically said that the program was ended” and that “is all I’m going to say.”

Wyden, one of Murray’s senior Democratic colleagues whose committee oversees the TAA program, is challenging that interpretation.

Wyden and House Democrats tried for months to get an agreement with Republicans to authorize the program for another year. Republicans insisted throughout negotiations that the Biden administration would need to commit to new trade talks overseas to get the TAA payments restarted — a demand the White House dismissed. Though they never reached a deal on that language, Wyden says that having money appropriated for the program is enough for DOL to reopen TAA again.

“I believe the omnibus extended TAA for a year,” Wyden said in a Capitol Hill interview on Monday, adding he was not aware of Murray’s guidance to DOL. “The text of the law is clear,” he added later. “The Biden administration should use that authority to deliver workers the benefits they are owed.”

DOL declined to weigh in on the legal debate between the senators, but has so far complied with requests from Murray and her staff that the agency keep the program frozen. An agency spokesperson confirmed that the program “remains in termination status” and that DOL “may not conduct new investigations or issue certifications of eligibility for new groups of workers.” A separate fact sheet put out by the agency says more than 24,000 workers have pending applications that DOL cannot investigate.

If lawmakers and DOL do not attempt to use the $500 million, the TAA program will phase out after the remaining workers in the program — roughly 7,000, according to the DOL fact sheet — finish receiving their benefits. Congress could renew the program, potentially in the year-end spending bill, but Republicans have shown no desire to drop their demand for new free trade talks and Biden’s team hasn’t budged either.

The situation is angering labor unions, like the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, who wrote to DOL earlier this month, saying that “tens of thousands of workers are currently awaiting determinations of their petition for TAA support.” Other labor groups, including the United Steelworkers and AFL-CIO, also sent similar letters.

The issue, say congressional aides involved in the omnibus negotiations, goes back to the year-end crunch to finalize the spending package. As Wyden and trade lawmakers negotiated on TAA, appropriations lawmakers wrote in the $500 million in case lawmakers arrived at a deal to reauthorize it. That deal never materialized, but the $500 million provision was not altered in the rush to finish the package before the winter holidays. The mixup was an “artifact of the timing,” as one Appropriations Committee aide put it, stressing that it was Republican opposition — and not Murray — that ultimately killed the program.

Wyden’s office and the unions say that DOL should push forward regardless and spend the $500 million appropriated to the program, pointing out that executive agencies often spend appropriated funds on expired programs without explicit reauthorization. In particular, they point to a footnote in the Government Accountability Office’s guidance on appropriations law that says Congress “appropriates huge sums each year to fund programs with expired authorizations.”

But the Appropriations Committee staff says that argument doesn’t apply to TAA.

“There’s longstanding case law and precedent on this issue about when appropriation is sufficient to extend authorization of the program,” said one committee aide involved in the spending negotiations last year. “Everybody understood ahead of the omnibus that was not the case here.”

Additionally, the aide said the committee would not push DOL to reopen the program because it could poison upcoming spending negotiations with Republicans that need to be completed by the end of this year.

“While not our preferred policy outcome, we will stand by those negotiations,” the committee aide said, “because they are very delicate and we want to have a good process in [fiscal year 2024] as well.”

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Sanders serves strong cup of joe to Starbucks bigwig

After months of steadily amping up pressure on Starbucks and its longtime leader, Howard Schultz, Sen. Bernie Sanders finally got his chance Wednesday to grill the coffee executive over the company's hardball response to union organizing at its stores.

"Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country,” said Sanders (I-Vt.), who heads the Senate committee that handles labor issues, at a hearing where Schultz was the main attraction. "What is outrageous to me is not only Starbucks' anti-union activities and their willingness to break the law, it is their calculated and intentional efforts to stall, stall and stall."

Schultz, who stepped down earlier this month as interim CEO, spent hours defending the company he has steered — off and on — since the 1980s. He repeatedly denied allegations of union busting, trading barbs with Sanders and Democrats in the process, and tried to depict a company worth emulating rather than denigrating.

Here are five takeaways from Wednesday’s hearing:

Starbucks isn't budging

Schultz may no longer be holding the reins, but he made clear he does not believe the company has done anything illegal in its effort to quell a unionization drive that gained steam in 2021 and rippled across hundreds of Starbucks stores in 2022.

“Starbucks Coffee Company unequivocally — and let me set the zone for this very early on — has not broken the law,” Schultz said at the outset of Wednesday’s hearing before repeating variations of that declaration numerous times throughout the proceedings.

The National Labor Relations Board is prosecuting more than 80 complaints, covering 278 unfair labor practice charges, against the company. NLRB judges have handed down a smattering of rulings that Starbucks did break federal law, though the company appears intent on appealing such decisions for as long as it takes.

“We’re confident those allegations will be proven false,” Schultz said. “Starbucks has not broken the law.”

Republicans (reluctantly) came to Starbucks’ defense

GOP members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee members were willing to go to bat for Starbucks, even though the company has allied itself with progressive causes over the years.

“There’s some irony to a non-coffee-drinking Mormon conservative defending a Democrat candidate for president and perhaps one of the most liberal companies in America,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said. “That being said, I also think it’s somewhat rich that you’re being grilled by people who have never had the opportunity to create a single job.”

(Schultz never ran for president, though he did flirt with the idea in both the 2016 and 2020 cycles. And in 2019 he said he had disaffiliated with the Democratic Party for ideological reasons.)

Romney was one of several Republicans who said they disagreed with some of Starbucks’ political stances but nonetheless felt it was being villainized by Democrats and union supporters.

Schultz: Blunt rhetoric, but no laws were broken

During the hearing, senators of both parties got Schultz to confirm a number of facts about Starbucks and its response to the unionization drive — much of which will eventually make its way into legal filings.

The former CEO confirmed that workers at unionized stores were not extended certain compensation benefits granted to non-union stores, that it has opposed having collective bargaining negotiations done over Zoom and that Schultz told one worker “if you hate the company, you could work somewhere else.”

Schultz said that Starbucks believes labor law prohibits it from unilaterally changing employee compensation at unionized stores and that the company has pushed for in-person talks out of safety concerns for managers involved — though the NLRB has argued otherwise. He also said that his comments to that worker, which were at a company event, may have been “misinterpreted” and were not intended as anti-union intimidation.

He also said that there was nothing wrong with Starbucks telling workers that it believes they would be better off without unionizing.

“We have consistently laid out our preference without breaking any law,” he said.

Unions rile up Mullins

For the second time in a month, first-year Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) got into a spirited back-and-forth during a hearing related to unionization — this time with Sanders.

Mullin accused Sanders of being hypocritical in lambasting the wealth of Schultz and other business leaders when he himself has profited from the American system.

“If you can be a millionaire, why can't Mr. Schultz and other CEOs be millionaires and be honest, too?"

Sanders took issue with Mullin’s estimate of his net worth and said that he had “made more misstatements in a shorter period of time than I have ever heard."

A few weeks earlier Mullin had a testy exchange with Teamsters union President Sean O’Brien, and the senator said during that hearing that his disdain for unions was born out of personal experience with how they treated him when they attempted to organize the plumbing business he ran.

Expect to hear a lot more about the NLRB’s fairness

Starbucks has accused staffers at the labor agency of being biased against it and colluding with the union in several elections. An agency official, Rachel Dormon, went to the coffee company with concerns last year and the information she provided has helped it challenge the results of at least one union vote.

“The NLRB is facing its own credibility crisis,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the top Republican on the HELP Committee. “Are NLRB employees weaponizing the agency against American employers to benefit politically connected labor unions?”

The NLRB has denied Starbucks’ allegations, though House Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) issued a subpoena last week to Dormon for information on the matter.

In the midst of Wednesday's hearing, House Democrats revealed that the NLRB has opened an inquiry into issues surrounding the subpoena. Republicans assailed the probe as an attempt to intimidate Dormon for coming forward, and the development will likely ratchet up tensions between the NLRB and conservative lawmakers.

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