New York governor, attorney general press pharmacy chains on abortion drug policy

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Attorney General Tish James are pressing three of the country’s largest pharmacy chains to dispense abortion medications in New York and across the U.S., after Walgreens said it would stop offering the drugs in states where Republican attorneys general have threatened legal action.

In a letter Thursday, Hochul and James asked the CEOs of Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS to confirm in writing that the chains will offer the abortion drug mifepristone at their New York pharmacies and through the mail to patients across the state who have a doctor’s prescription.

“Even as access to this medication is under threat elsewhere for political reasons, we remind you that New York’s law is simple,” Hochul and James wrote. “Abortion is legal and protected as a fundamental right under state law, and there are no legal barriers to dispensing mifepristone in New York pharmacies.”

Walgreens, the nation’s second-largest pharmacy chain and owner of New York-based Duane Reade, confirmed last week that it would not dispense abortion pills either by mail or at brick-and-mortar locations in several states where they remain legal.

The company announced the decision after nearly two dozen Republican state attorneys general threatened legal action if it began distributing the drugs, which have become the most popular method of ending a pregnancy in the U.S.

“We urge you not to allow these tactics to intimidate you, and to commit to making this critical medication available as widely as possible, based on a fair and unbiased interpretation of state and federal law,” Hochul and James wrote in their letter to the pharmacy executives.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the state would not renew a $54 million contract with Walgreens in response to the company’s decision. A renewal of the contract, under which Walgreens provides medications to California inmates, was scheduled to take effect May 1.

New York state does not appear to have any active contracts with Walgreens, according to a review of records with the state comptroller’s office.

The FDA announced in January that it would allow retail pharmacies to dispense the abortion pill mifepristone to pregnant people with a prescription, following the release of new data on the drugs’ safety and efficacy. Before then, patients had to get the medication directly from a doctor.

Under the new policy, pharmacies must obtain certification to dispense the medication. Walgreens has said it is working on getting certified in some states, which the company declined to name, but is not yet distributing the pills anywhere.

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'Loaded gun': Intel officials bring TikTok concerns to Hill

The comments came in response to questions from Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who chairs the new House panel on China.

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Biden’s nominee for IRS chief confirmed by Senate

The Senate on Thursday confirmed President Joe Biden's pick to head the IRS, handing veteran federal government official Danny Werfel the high-pressure responsibility of spending a massive new windfall meant to transform the agency amid a fierce GOP offensive against virtually everything it does.

The Senate voted 54-42 to approve Werfel, with the support of six moderate Republicans who said he was a competent manager with the ability to steer the agency in the right direction.

But as Werfel heads over to IRS headquarters at 1111 Constitution Avenue, his time spent before the tax committees on Capitol Hill is far from over: Democrats will look to him to ensure that the $80 billion they handed the agency last year will be used as intended to crack down on wealthy tax cheats and corporations, as well as beefing up a host of other agency operations.

Republicans, meanwhile, have promised to grill Werfel on everything from what they view as the agency's excessive funding to the leak of confidential taxpayer information.

Senate Finance Committee Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a floor speech Wednesday that Werfel can handle the crosswinds, given his stint as acting commissioner of the IRS in 2013 after the resignation of his predecessor over allegations that the agency unfairly targeted conservative organizations who were seeking tax-exempt status.

“For Mr. Werfel to get bipartisan support to lead the IRS at a time when a lot of Republicans would happily mothball the entire agency is a testament to his fairness, his ability to work with both sides and his undeniable qualification for this role," said Wyden.

Werfel, whom Biden plucked from a top job at Boston Consulting Group, had stints at the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Justice Department under Republican and Democratic administrations.

His overriding order of business at the IRS will be managing how the unprecedented $80 billion influx is spent. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had promised to deliver a blueprint for the spending by February, but missed the deadline.

In addition to playing defense with Republicans, lawmakers also want to see improved customer service — an abysmal 250 million of 282 million calls to the taxpayer help line went unanswered in 2021 — and upgrades to the computer systems that lawmakers from both sides consider woefully outdated.

IRS employees have also traditionally had to manually enter information from paper returns number by number, a labor-intensive process that severely bogged down the agency during the pandemic and that Treasury hopes to now fix with new digital scanning technologies.

Republicans, however, say the administration's true intent is to unleash an army of auditors on middle-class taxpayers and small businesses, with Finance Committee ranking member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) saying Wednesday that achieving the agency's collection targets will be impossible without violating Yellen's pledge to not increase audits on those making less than $400,000.

Werfel managed to alleviate at least some of those concerns for the Republicans who voted for him: Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Todd Young of Indiana.

“Danny Werfel showed an openness to different ways to update IRS processes. This is long overdue,” said Cassidy on why he voted for Biden's pick.

Young added that former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who led the OMB under George W. Bush while Werfel was climbing the ranks there, attested to the Biden nominee's competency and non-partisan nature.

Still, Werfel’s bona fides didn’t prove enough to sway most of the GOP conference, with several indicating their no votes were cast out of general frustration with the tax policy charted by Biden and Yellen.

Those skeptical Republicans got an unexpected boost from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who voted against Werfel amid a fierce battle over the administration’s handling of some provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act enacted last year, including those that require components of batteries for electric vehicles to be made in the United States and the opening of new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I hope they come to their senses and do what the bill says that should be done," said Manchin, who nonetheless called Werfel "supremely qualified."

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Biden dumps budget onus on House Republicans in debuting $1.7T plan

President Joe Biden’s third budget and likely campaign blueprint — if and when he announces a reelection run — proposes tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations, the most funding ever for the military and $3 trillion in deficit-slashing policies over a decade.

The government funding proposal, unveiled Thursday by the White House and which has no chance of passing Congress, marks both a campaign pitch and an opening shot at House Republicans who have demanded significant spending cuts. Democrats have been daring Republicans to put their demands in writing as the GOP seeks fiscal concessions in return for helping to lift the debt ceiling later this year.

Biden went the opposite direction, instead proposing a 7 percent increase over current non-defense spending levels in addition to tax increases. And emphasizing that the document has become more a political message than policy, the president is rolling out his funding proposal in Philadelphia, giving him a swing-state backdrop after accepting an invitation from Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle, the Budget Committee’s top Democrat.

Overall, the president seeks more than $688 billion in non-defense funding for the fiscal year that will kick off in October. Biden is calling for a lesser increase for the military and national security programs, requesting about $886 billion for those efforts, about a 3 percent boost.

Democrats were quick to emphasize Biden's plan to reduce the deficit, given Republican vows to unveil a proposal — which they've still not revealed — that would balance the budget within 10 years. House GOP leaders have said they'd do it without touching popular programs like Medicare and Social Security, which make up the bulk of federal spending.

“Congressional Republicans keep saying they want to reduce the deficit, but they haven’t put out a comprehensive plan showing what they’ll cut,” said Shalanda Young, the director of the White House budget office. “Will it be Medicare or Social Security? The Affordable Care Act? Veterans benefits? We don’t know until they put out a plan.”

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said Wednesday night that Republicans have “no timeline” for introducing that plan, and that they're committed to studying Biden’s proposal, which “will take weeks.”

“We are making good progress on our budget resolution,” Arrington told POLITICO.

In the Senate, Democrats are undecided on whether to introduce their own budget, arguing that the onus is on House Republicans to detail their preferred cuts.

“I think we’re going to want the caucus to take a good, hard look at the president’s budget and see if there’s any reason to recommend anything different,” Senate Budget Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said earlier this week.

“The ball is … in the Republicans’ court on that because they’re the ones threatening the economic security of the country with the debt limit antics,” Whitehouse said.

As Republicans wrestle over how to approach entitlements, Biden’s proposed budget aims to extend Medicare’s life by at least 25 years by upping the tax rate on the program for Americans making more than $400,000. It also would close a loophole that has shielded some wealthy business owners and high earners from paying that tax.

The budget would also allow Medicare to negotiate the cost of more prescription drugs, funneling about $200 billion in savings into the program.

Biden’s plan doesn’t offer a similar fix for Social Security, noting that the administration “looks forward to working with the Congress” to ensure “that high-income individuals pay their fair share,” ostensibly by expanding payroll taxes on the wealthy, although Biden hasn’t officially embraced that idea. The budget would provide a $1.4 billion boost, or 10 percent increase, for the Social Security Administration.

Boyle, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, said Republicans’ “biggest opponent … is not any Democrat. The biggest opponent they have is math.”

“Everything else that the federal government does would have to be completely zeroed out and eliminated for them to balance the budget and not touch Social Security, Medicare, defense and veterans,” he said in an interview.

Biden’s third budget is a sharp departure from his first, when he proposed trillions of dollars to buoy the faltering economy amid the pandemic. Now, facing a divided Congress for the remainder of his first term, Biden said he’s looking to build on the major spending legislation that defined his first two years in office — like Democrats’ signature climate, health and tax bill and the bipartisan infrastructure package.

For the Pentagon, the president is calling for $842 billion, a $26 billion or roughly 3 percent hike. The White House is also asking Congress to provide another $121 billion to fund medical programs for veterans, about a 2 percent increase over current spending.

Meanwhile, Republicans are zeroing in on Biden's proposed funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is a 1 percent decrease compared to current levels, given the constant pressures of increased immigration levels at the border. A GOP aide said the president's budget “fails to adequately fund the Department of Homeland Security."

“As the agency with lead responsibility for protecting our nation’s borders, transportation systems and cyber security, this is an unacceptable proposal,” the aide said.

With government funding set to expire in just over six months, lawmakers are already talking about approving military spending levels that go far higher than Biden’s ask. Even when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate during the president’s first two years in office, Congress backed tens of billions of dollars in additional defense funding above the White House’s request.

Selling his policy ideas as a way to drive massive deficit reduction, Biden aims to shave off $3 trillion from the federal budget gap, proposing a new 25 percent tax on billionaires, an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and a quadrupling of the 1 percent tax on stock buybacks that took effect earlier this year.

Democratic leaders also lauded Biden’s proposed restoration of the expanded Child Tax Credit ushered in by the $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package that Congress passed during his first year in office. That popular credit expired at the end of 2021, amid resistance from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

Biden’s fiscal 2024 proposal would also fund a federal-state partnership aimed at expanding free preschool, provide national paid leave and invest $500 million in a new grant program aimed at providing free community college.

Jennifer Scholtes and Burgess Everett contributed to this report. 

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French surveillance system for Olympics moves forward, despite civil rights campaign

The government wants to better monitor suspicious or dangerous behavior, but campaigners fear privacy violations.

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Southwest withholding details on holiday meltdown, senator charges

The top Democratic senator responsible for overseeing the airline industry said Wednesday that Southwest Airlines is withholding information from her committee about how it's handling refunds for customers caught up in its December holiday meltdown, where some 16,000 flights were canceled.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, has been seeking details from Southwest since February, including how many passengers were involved, how many were issued cash refunds versus vouchers for future flights, how many were rebooked and when the airline plans to upgrade its internal systems that caused the debacle. And while Southwest has provided some information, Cantwell says it hasn't been enough.

"We still need Southwest to be more forthcoming with information about refunds," Cantwell said Wednesday, following a meeting with Southwest CEO Bob Jordan. "The follow-up meeting today brought some information up but we still want more information from them.

"We had constituents where it basically took every ounce of us intervening to get refunds. We want a sense of how many more people are there like that," she said. She added later that she isn't interested in "proprietary information."

Jordan, who was speaking at an industry luncheon in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, said he and Cantwell had a "good meeting" and pledged that his staff will "go deeper" to satisfy her concerns.

"I don't want to go through the details. It was a private meeting," Jordan told reporters after the lunch. "And I shared a lot of information with her about where we are in our process. We have time with a senator and her staff, I believe, on Friday, to talk further and understand -- go deeper in terms of the numbers. And I'm hopeful for progress there."

Jordan said that "basically anybody" who dealt with flight issues between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2 was "basically refunded or [we] gave you a travel credit." He said that as "a gesture of goodwill" Southwest gave out free tickets to many passengers affected by delays and cancellations and that the airline is reimbursing customers who had to buy another airline ticket, stay in a hotel, buy a meal or buy a taxi.

"We are covering all those expenses," Jordan said, adding that the total cost was "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars." (The airline said in January it has so far lost $220 million and that it expects more to come due to the residual effects of reimbursements and refunds owed to passengers.)

Southwest plans to release a comprehensive report this month on what led to the meltdown. Jordan said Wednesday that an internal investigation and external investigation by the consulting company Oliver Wyman are "wrapping up" and should be made public in a few weeks.

Cantwell also added that the fallout from the scheduling meltdown "is going to be a big part of" a major aviation policy bill lawmakers are working on, which is due in September.

"Obviously the public is very disgruntled over this issue of cancellation fees and timelines," Cantwell said. "Here's one of the biggest examples of the flying public being let down so we want to know what are the resolutions to this. Did they get their expenses reimbursed and did they get a refund? Or did somebody just shove some frequent flyer miles at them? So we're just digging a little bit more to get those answers."

The Transportation Department is also investigating the matter.

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D.C. crime rollback energizes House GOP efforts to squeeze Dems

Emboldened by their successful bid to block a progressive D.C. crime law, House Republicans are ready to keep testing how tightly they can squeeze Democrats.

While the D.C. rollback might seem to affect only voters in the capital’s metro area, it marks an unexpected triumph for Republicans who've gotten to revive the attacks on rising crime that helped propel them to the majority. And the House GOP has no plans to back off — it will force more tough votes on the Democratic Party in the near future, including a President Joe Biden rule on water regulations.

“If we don’t pick that fight, we don’t win that fight," said Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.).

Democrats insist the effort turned to their advantage, since plenty of their incumbents welcomed the chance to distance themselves from President Joe Biden. Still, Wednesday’s vote ends weeks of Democratic angst over D.C.’s liberal crime bill, a particularly potent subject after their party’s humiliating losses in deep blue New York that ultimately cost them control of the House last November.

In the initial House vote in February, the vast majority of the House Democrats stuck with Biden — only to have him reverse his position, with Senate Democrats lining up behind him. And even as Senate Democrats emphasize that the circumstances surrounding the D.C. bill are unique, they’re also resigned to the reality that there are more disapproval votes to come.

“Unfortunately, the agenda on the Republican side is to just look for division and have investigations,” said Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the No. 3 Senate Democrat. “I would expect them to continue to look for ways to divide people and play politics.”

They won’t have to wait long. Republicans plan to use the same playbook to symbolically reject other Biden administration moves — including a vote this week on a wonky water rule that would cement broad authority for federal agencies to regulate streams and wetlands, an extremely unpopular policy in farm-heavy states.

For much of the House GOP conference, it’s seen as a win-win: A chance to declare their policy position, while putting vulnerable Senate Democrats on the spot in a campaign cycle that heavily favors the GOP. Unlike most bills, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can't block GOP-led policy statements from reaching the floor and they require only a simple majority for passage. That means the chamber's Republicans only need two Democrats to join them to send it to Biden’s desk under full attendance.

On the water rule, for instance, several Republicans have been eagerly predicting they’ll win over Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), two of the most endangered senators up this cycle who both hail from rural states. Manchin, who has not yet said whether he's running for reelection, has already indicated he’ll support the measure, while Tester said Monday he is undecided.

With Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) out due to a medical issue and Manchin a “yes” vote, it’s expected to pass the Senate next week, assuming full GOP attendance. And this time, Biden has threatened to whip out his veto pen, after declining to do so on the crime bill.

"Our farmers and ranchers will be pissed about that," said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.). Summing up the GOP approach generally, he added: “It’s an area that we can have some success. I don’t think it can be our only strategy. But we’re happy."

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said she is optimistic about her chamber passing the water resolution, even if it won’t have the degree of Democratic support that the D.C. crime bill disapproval resolution is expected to garner.

“I would expect Democratic support, I wouldn’t expect it as a lot,” she said.

And there are more disapproval resolutions in the works. Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala) and John Boozman (R-Ark.) have introduced a resolution that would repeal a recent rule from the Department of Veterans Affairs that offered abortion counseling and services in certain cases. Manchin has already signed onto that effort as well.

Manchin and Tester were also the only two Senate Democrats to support a resolution disapproving of a Biden administration policy that enables managers to consider climate change and social goals in retirement investing decisions. But it’s the D.C. crime bill that has drawn the most ire within the Democratic Party.

Biden’s surprise decision to go along with the GOP’s push infuriated many House Democrats who voted against the repeal, some of whom will almost certainly face soft-on-crime attacks from Republicans in their reelection cycles. And it's prompted some in the caucus to wonder if they should support future GOP-led measures even if the White House opposes them.

“Like in any house, in any office, and any household, there can always be better communication,” Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) told reporters, though he stressed an otherwise “unified” relationship with the White House. Democrats had to “navigate what is a hostile environment” with Republican control of the House, he added, noting the potential political potency of the legislation undoing Biden administration policy.

Still, it’s clear some are still feeling burned by the White House.

When House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) brought up the Biden administration's threat to veto the Obama-era water rule measure during a closed-door meeting Wednesday, there were some audible groans in the room, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Across the Capitol, many Senate Democrats largely blame the discord between the D.C. Council and the city’s mayor for the dramatic back-and-forth. Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the measure, only to have the city council override the veto — and then attempt to withdraw its plan earlier this week, in the face of congressional backlash.

“The mayor and the police chief both opposed it, the head of the D.C. Council said, 'OK guys, don’t vote on it, we’ll go back to the drawing board,'” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “So, unfortunately, the whole process has been flawed.”

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