Politics

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said Sunday that a debt ceiling agreement is “going to pass,” and that only a small portion of the “most colorful conservatives” in Congress oppose it. Johnson, chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus and a lead negotiator on the debt ceiling, dismissed criticisms from Freedom Caucus members who claim the reported agreement Saturday reached with the White House is a loss for the GOP. The deal, he said, is “fantastic,” and will be passed with a strong majority. “When we say conservatives are against it, I want to make it clear, I don’t know a single one of the mainstream caucus conservatives,” Johnson said Sunday on CNN. “There will be Freedom Caucus members that vote for this package. So when you’re saying that conservatives have concerns, it is really the most colorful conservatives. Some of those guys you mentioned didn’t vote for the thing when it was kind of a Republican wish list.” The deal, struck between House Republicans and the White House, would cut some unused COVID-19 emergency funds, as well as a portion of funds granted to the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act, multiple sources told Fox News and Fox News Digital. The debt limit would be suspended until after the 2024 presidential election. SPEAKER MCCARTHY DEFENDS BUDGET COMPROMISE AS CONSERVATIVES BALK: ‘A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION’ Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., said the agreed deal is far from conservative. “I am hearing the ‘deal’ is for a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit,” Good tweeted Saturday. “IF that is true, I don’t need to hear anything else. No one claiming to be a conservative could justify a YES vote.” Johnson dismissed Good’s criticism in his CNN interview as irrelevant bickering. MCCARTHY TAKES VICTORY LAP ON DEBT LIMIT BILL AS DETAILS REMAIN SCARCE AMONG HOUSE MEMBERS “Let’s be honest, Bob Good will not vote for this thing,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter if Mother Theresa came back from the dead and called him. He’s not voting for it. He was never going to. This is going to pass.” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, detailed his concerns with the debt ceiling agreement Sunday in a series of tweets. This included a criticism of the estimated $4 trillion cost of the agreement, a lack of budget cuts, no work requirements for Medicare, and a failure to include measures for border security. DEM REP IS ‘ANYTHING BUT A CLEAR YES’ ON DEBT CEILING BILL, CALLS NEGOTIATIONS ‘HOSTAGE-TAKING PROCESS’ “There are members of the GOP claiming Democrats got nothing from the ‘deal.’ Oh really?” Roy tweeted as he listed his criticisms. Johnson said he talked to roughly three dozen House Republicans about the agreement with the White House, all of which he claimed supported it. “Everybody I’m talking to understands that when you’re reducing spending, when you’re peeling back the regulatory state, when you are unlocking American energy, when you are getting people back to work, this is a big deal,” Johnson said. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Speaker McCarthy brushed off any concerns that conservative hardliners could move to take away his gavel over the bill, declaring he was “not at all” concerned about that. “We did a conference call with our conference, and over 95% were overwhelmingly excited about what they see. They haven’t had – they’re getting the text today,” McCarthy said. “You’re gonna have Republicans and Democrats be able to move this to the president.” Fox News’ Haley Ch-Sing contributed to this report.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised President Joe Biden for coming to a debt ceiling agreement with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and told senators to prepare for a vote later this week. Schumer made the statement in a “dear colleagues” letter to his fellow Democrats on Sunday. The caucus will meet over the phone to discuss the specifics of the budget deal later Sunday and early this week, he said in the letter. “I salute President Biden for protecting the American economy and delivering for American families by taking the threat of default off the table,” Schumer wrote. “I look forward to seeing the language of the agreement and reviewing it carefully.” “These have been a difficult few weeks given how intransigent and extreme the MAGA Republicans are, but nonetheless we must avoid default and its grave consequences for the American people,” he added. DEBT CEILING AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE REACHED BETWEEN DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS McCarthy also noted a warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the U.S. would not be able to pay its debts beyond June 5 if Congress does not act. McCarthy has vowed that lawmakers in the House will get 72 hours to review the text of the agreement before voting on it, pushing back the Senate process to later this week. SPEAKER MCCARTHY DEFENDS BUDGET COMPROMISE AS CONSERVATIVES BALK: ‘A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION’ Biden’s White House team negotiated with Republican leadership throughout the weekend before announcing an “agreement in principle” on Sunday. The speaker defended that agreement in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” MCCARTHY CITES ‘PROGRESS’ IN US DEBT-CEILING TALKS WITH WHITE HOUSE “Maybe it doesn’t do everything for everyone, but this is a step in the right direction that no one thought that we would be able to today,” McCarthy told host Shannon Bream. “I’ll debate this bill with anybody,” he continued. “Is it everything I wanted? No, because we don’t control all of it. But it is the biggest rescission in history. It is the biggest cut Congress has ever voted for in that process.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Several Republicans remain opposed to the legislation, most of them within the House Freedom Caucus. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, blasted the bill for not cutting the vast majority of Biden’s push to expand the IRS, among other things.
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New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Sunday that he believes “there’s a pathway to win” the GOP presidential nomination and will decide “in the next week or two” whether he’ll run in 2024. “When I start doing something, I’m 120% in,” Sununu said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Pretty soon, we’ll make a decision, probably in the next week or two. And we’ll either be go or no-go.” The remarks come after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., formally declared their presidential candidacies last week, officially challenging the front-runner, former President Donald Trump.  “The money has been lined up, the support’s been lined up. There’s a pathway to win. All that – those boxes are checked. The family’s on board, which is always a big one. I just got to make sure it’s right for the party and right for me,” Sununu, serving his fourth term as New Hampshire governor, told CNN’s Jake Tapper.  GOP GOV CHRIS SUNUNU CLAIMS HIS TRUMP ATTACKS ARE ‘NOTHING PERSONAL,’ CLAIMS THE GOP IS ‘MOVING ON AS A PARTY’ DeSantis, whose long-anticipated announcement was marred by tech problems on Twitter, raised $8.2 million in the 24 hours since entering the race Thursday night, his campaign confirmed. That massive sum far exceeded the amount raised by President Joe Biden over the same period. DeSantis formally launched his campaign Wednesday night during an online conversation with Twitter owner Elon Musk. But the audio stream crashed repeatedly, making it difficult for most users to hear the announcement in real time.  On Thursday, the Republican governor announced plans for a three-state blitz next week featuring at least a dozen stops. He is scheduled to campaign Tuesday and Wednesday in Iowa before a trip to New Hampshire on Thursday, and South Carolina on Friday. DESANTIS TAKES SHOTS AT TRUMP SAYING HE IS ‘RUNNING TOWARD THE LEFT,’ CLAIMS HE IS A ‘DIFFERENT GUY TODAY’ “We are laser-focused on taking Gov. DeSantis’ forward-thinking message for restoring America to every potential voter in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina,” DeSantis campaign manager Generra Peck said. “Our campaign is committed to putting in the time to win these early nominating states. No one will work harder than Gov. DeSantis to share his vision with the country – he has only begun to fight.” DeSantis is casting himself as the only legitimate Republican rival to Trump in the GOP’s crowded primary race, The former president currently holds a big lead in early polls along with a firm grip on a significant portion of the GOP’s passionate base. Yet Trump is plagued by his own baggage, which includes multiple legal threats and a fixation on his 2020 election loss. Sununu has teased a 2024 presidential campaign for months, and has said he will likely decide in the early summer, following the conclusion of New Hampshire’s current legislative session and the signing of the state’s next two-year budget. Sununu supported Trump during the 2016 general election and again as the then-president unsuccessfully ran for re-election in 2020. The governor had a strong working relationship with the Trump White House, including close ties with Vice President Mike Pence. However, Sununu has long pushed back against Trump’s unproven claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen.” He also started stating in early 2021 that the GOP is larger than any one person. Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a recent interview that former President Donald Trump’s allegations about crime purportedly soaring in the Sunshine State were “delusional.”  “Florida’s crime rate is at a 50-year low. That’s just a fact, and it hit a 50-year low during my administration,” DeSantis said during an interview on The Ben Shapiro Show Friday. “It’s hit a 50-year low while crime has been spiking in other places around the country.”  “One of the main reasons families have moved to Florida since I’ve been governor is because of public safety, because they know we’re a law-and-order state. So that’s delusional to say that somehow Florida, you know, has bad crime,” DeSantis continued. “You can see that in the migration patterns. People are leaving high crime areas, and they’re coming here. When the Floyd riots were going on in Minneapolis, I called out the National Guard in Florida immediately. I had state law enforcement deployed. We worked with our local partners. And we said very clearly, ‘You’re not burning cities down here. We’ll put a stop to it if it happens.’ And sure enough, it didn’t end up happening.”  In a TRUTH Social post in March, Trump went after DeSantis on crime and COVID-19.  DESANTIS ARGUES ATTACKS BY TRUMP SHOW ‘HE UNDERSTANDS I’M THE CANDIDATE WHO CAN BEAT HIM’ “Remember, I left that decision up to the Governors! For COVID Death Rates Per State, Ron, as Governor of Florida, did worse than New York,” Trump wrote on March 22. “In Education, Florida ranks among the worst in the Country and on crime statistics, Florida ranked Third Worst in Murder, Third Worst in Rape, and Third Worst in Aggravated Assault. For 2022, Jacksonville was ranked as one of the Top 25 Major Crime Cities in the Country, with Tampa and Orlando not doing much better…”  DeSantis said Florida also enacted legislation to crack down on rioters with tougher penalties and prevent local governments from defunding the police.  By contrast, DeSantis noted that the Trump administration approved the First Step Act, or what he described as the “jailbreak bill.” Trump signed the bipartisan criminal justice measure known as the First Step Act, which expanded early release programs and modified sentencing laws in 2018 amid urging from his son-in-law Jared Kushner. But according to the New York Times, DeSantis and allies considered the bill a point of political weakness for Trump and have planned to center on the matter amid the 2024 GOP nomination fight.  RON DESANTIS SIGNS BILL CHANGING RESIGN-TO-RUN LAW, CLEARING ANY HURDLES FOR 2024 RACE  “It has allowed dangerous people out of prison who have now re-offended and really, really hurt a number of people,” DeSantis told Shapiro on Friday. “So one of the things that I want to do as president is go to Congress and seek the repeal of the First Step Act. If you are in jail, you should serve your time, and the idea that they’re releasing people who have not been rehabilitated early so that they can prey on people in our society is a huge, huge mistake.”  DeSantis also defended his own record on COVID-19, while ridiculing Trump for following the mandates recommended by Dr. Anthony Fauci.  “I think the fact that President Trump gave Anthony Fauci a presidential accommodation on Trump’s last day in office, that was gut punch to millions of people around this country who were harmed by the president’s lockdowns,” DeSantis said.  “I think it’s interesting because he’s been attacking me by moving left,” DeSantis added, noting how Trump has been criticizing the Florida governor for opposing a congressional amnesty bill for illegal immigrants and voting against an omnibus spending package.  “I think it’s odd that he’s doubling down on those positions because those were instances in which his actions did not match his campaign rhetoric,” DeSantis said. 
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Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and his allies boasted the new debt limit agreement will pass, even though details of the actual package still remain scarce among House members as they face a 72-hour time window before an expected vote Wednesday. “This is the biggest set of spending cuts and substantial change from the spending of the last two years for this administration, that is, that is changing the trajectory of the fiscal house here in Washington,” House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told reporters on Sunday morning.  He and Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., McCarthy’s two top negotiators, addressed the media alongside the speaker just hours before the final bill text is expected to be released.  Though touting dramatic cuts to spending in multiple media appearances Sunday, McCarthy was still mum on most of the biggest questions that remain about the bill – namely, whether both sides agreed to freeze nondefense discretionary spending at fiscal 2023 levels or roll them back to 2022.  “But in terms of the fiscal house, you want to understand what’s happening now. We have spending caps in place, spending caps take nondefense discretionary spending down to $704 [billion],” McHenry said. “And we hold vets harmless. So this means that for nondefense, non-veteran spending, there are significant cuts year over year.” DEBT CEILING AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE REACHED BETWEEN DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS Fiscal year 2022 cutbacks on spending, which was something conservative Republicans demanded, would be roughly $130 billion to $150 billion lower than the current level, which was set by Congress last year at around $772.5 billion. McCarthy said when asked about fiscal year spending levels set by the deal, “What this will do is, it increases defense and it increases veterans. If you take nondefense with veterans out it goes below the level of 2022.” However, he brushed off the rumblings of conservatives within his conference, several of whom voiced their disdain for the bill on Saturday night based on the announced agreements and reporting on the details.  MCCARTHY CITES ‘PROGRESS’ IN US DEBT-CEILING TALKS WITH WHITE HOUSE Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, called the deal a “turd sandwich” on Twitter and disputed McCarthy’s claim that 95% of his conference supports it, writing, “I know of more no’s than that already.”  “This ‘deal’ is insanity,” wrote Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. “Not gonna vote to bankrupt our country. The American people deserve better.”  But the speaker brushed off any concerns that conservative hardliners could move to take away his gavel over the bill, declaring he was “not at all” concerned about that. “We did a conference call with our conference, and over 95% were overwhelmingly excited about what they see. They haven’t had – they’re getting the text today,” McCarthy said. “You’re gonna have Republicans and Democrats be able to move this to the president.” He also signaled that he was holding back from giving further details until he could speak with President Biden today – and took shots at the press for reporting details that were leaked on Saturday. “We just want to get back together now that we’ve finalized all the language, make sure both sides agree that the language is what we agreed to as we spoke,” McCarthy said. “So once we have that we’ll post it. Now a lot of our members were reacting to whatever rumor you guys are writing about. Let’s let the members actually read the bill before they make a decision and go forward.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Sunday pushed back against McCarthy on CBS’ “Face the Nation” after the speaker said, “The one thing Hakeem told me, there’s nothing in the bill for them. There’s not one thing in the bill for Democrats.”  “I have no idea what he’s talking about, particularly because I have not been able to review the actual legislative text,” Jeffries said. “All that we’ve reached is an agreement in principle.” DEMOCRATS, GOP TRADE BARBS OVER WHO AMERICANS SHOULD BLAME FOR DEBT CRISIS: ‘IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS’ McCarthy announced to reporters late on Saturday night that both sides had reached an agreement in principle, with the legislative text of the new bill to come sometime on Sunday afternoon. He estimated that it would come in around 150 pages, with a source telling Fox News Digital that it’s expected to be just under that count. A letter sent to House Democrats by Jeffries confirmed the legislative text would come out sometime on Sunday afternoon, and revealed that Biden and McCarthy are scheduled to talk again sometime in the early afternoon. “I have been informed that the agreement will be finalized once legislative bill text prepared by House Republicans has been reviewed by the Biden administration,” the letter said. Top Biden administration officials are scheduled to brief the House Democratic caucus “on all aspects of the agreement to avoid a default” around 5 p.m., Jeffries also wrote.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP No details of the bill were made formally public as of late Saturday night, but pieces of the agreement began seeping through the cracks soon after the announcement was first reported. An internal House GOP memo that outlines messaging points for the deal says McCarthy and the White House have agreed to cut non-defense discretionary spending to fiscal 2022 levels, a key asking point for Republicans. It also claws back billions of unspent COVID-19 pandemic funds and includes permitting reform to speed up approvals for energy and infrastructure projects. 
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday denied making the comments about the debt deal that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recounted earlier on “Fox News Sunday.” McCarthy, R-Calif., defended his budget deal with President Biden against conservative critics, telling anchor Shannon Bream that Jeffries, D-N.Y., had complained to him that Democrats weren’t getting anything in the deal. “Right now, the Democrats are very upset,” McCarthy said. “The one thing Hakeem told me, there’s nothing in the bill for them. There’s not one thing in the bill for Democrats.” Jeffries later appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” and said he had “no idea” what McCarthy was talking about. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO WHERE WE STAND ON THE DEBT CEILING “I have no idea what he’s talking about, particularly because I have not been able to review the actual legislative text,” Jeffries said. “All that we’ve reached is an agreement in principle.” “I talked to him yesterday afternoon, but I haven’t talked to him since that point in time,” he added. McCarthy faced attacks from members of the House Freedom Caucus after unveiling an “agreement in principle” with the White House this weekend. The speaker acknowledged that conservatives may not have gotten everything they wanted from the legislation, but argued Democrats got nothing at all. The deal would claw back some unspent COVID-19 pandemic funds and provide a cut from funding granted to the IRS in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, multiple sources have told Fox News. It would also suspend the debt limit until after the 2024 presidential election. “Maybe it doesn’t do everything for everyone, but this is a step in the right direction that no one thought we would be at today,” McCarthy said. McCarthy said the bill will sit for public review for 72 hours before coming up for a vote in the House on Wednesday. Fox News’ Chad Pergram and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., against slashing the defense budget in order to reach a deal on the debt ceiling.  “Number one, I respect Kevin McCarthy. I want to raise the debt ceiling. It would be irresponsible not to do it. I want to control spending. I’d like to have a smaller IRS. I’d like to claw back the unused COVID money. I know you can’t get the perfect – but what I will not do is adopt the Biden defense budget and call it a success,” Graham told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream. “Kevin said that the defense is fully funded. If we adopt the Biden defense budget, it increases defense spending below inflation – 3.2% increase in defense is below inflation.”  Graham said the “Biden defense budget” would cut the number of ships in the U.S. Navy from 298 to 291 at a time when China is going to increase their Navy by nearly a third.  “The Biden defense budget was a joke before, and if we adopt it as Republicans we will be doing a great disservice to the party of Ronald Reagan. The biggest winner of the Biden defense budget is China because they’ll have a bigger navy; and it will be Putin,” Graham claimed. “There’s nothing in the budget for Biden to help Ukraine win a war that they’re on the verge of driving the Russians out. So I like Kevin a lot, but don’t tell me that the Biden defense budget fully funds the military.”  DEBT CEILING AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE REACHED BETWEEN DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS “The overmatch with China is real. The Biden defense budget makes it even worse for us. I look forward to the details, but if you send me the Biden defense budget to the United States Senate and declare it fully funds the military, you will have a hard time with me,” Graham told “Fox News Sunday.”  “This is sequestration, potentially, 2.0. In 2011, my good friend Mitch McConnell negotiated the deal with Joe Biden that virtually destroyed the Defense Department in the name of raising the debt ceiling. If this is another round of sequestration, not only will I vote no, I will not be intimidated by June 5,” Graham said.  SPEAKER MCCARTHY DEFENDS BUDGET COMPROMISE AS CONSERVATIVES BALK: ‘A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION’ “If you don’t see the connection between Ukraine and China, you’re missing a lot,” Graham said. “We need more defense spending. They’re right about the weapons. We need to increase our arsenal. We have multiple threats. Let’s help Ukraine defeat Putin. End the war on favorable terms in Ukraine, you’ll make China less likely to invade Taiwan. The defense budget that they’re proposing as part of this deal makes it impossible for us to do the things we need to do. You’re reducing defense spending at a time we need more of it.”  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Though the details of the deal remain unclear, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement that President Biden has announced an agreement in principle regarding the debt ceiling and that the agreement will be finalized once legislative text prepared by House Republicans has been reviewed by the Biden administration.  Biden and McCarthy are scheduled to speak in order to complete the agreement no later than 2 p.m. ET. 
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Democrat Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., admitted Sunday he is “anything but a clear yes vote” on the debt ceiling deal, calling the legislative process employed to secure the deal a “ransom note and hostage-taking” process. “Is this really the way we want to do business as a country going forward? This is not how we’re supposed to actually pass legislation in the Congress,” Himes said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”  “So, I hope that we, you know, get through this and then dispense with the catastrophe, the ransom-taking and the hostage and the, you know, the really debilitating qualities of this debt ceiling to get back to legislating the way we were designed to legislate,” he added. Himes stated the debt ceiling bill, for which an agreement was reached Saturday evening, fails to include Democratic priorities. He said the bill may prove to have “traction” among some Democrats given its size, or lack thereof, compared to what the GOP initially wanted. “The obvious point here, and the speaker didn’t say this – the reason it may have some traction with some Democrats is that it’s a very small bill. It’s a very, very small bill,” Himes said.  SPEAKER MCCARTHY DEFENDS BUDGET COMPROMISE AS CONSERVATIVES BALK: ‘A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION’ “Now, you know, had the bill looked anything like what the Republicans passed on the floor, where they rescinded all of the money designed to create an electric battery industry in this country designed to further reduce drug prices, you would have had unanimity against it,” Himes continued. President Biden released a statement shortly after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made the announcement that an agreement was made, with the president strongly urging both chambers to pass the agreement right away.” However, Himes admitted that despite Biden’s push to pass the deal, he is still on the fence over whether he will vote yes come the final vote.  DEBT CEILING AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE REACHED BETWEEN DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS “Well, remember, every day I wake up knowing enough history to know that my job is not to do what the president asks me. In fact, you know, and in a government of divided powers, I regard my role acting as a check and balance on the president very, very seriously,” Himes said.  “I have not made up my mind. The whole enterprise is a corrupt enterprise in terms of legislating this way,” Himes continued “And I’m going to listen to what the president’s and his people’s arguments are. But no, I’m anything but a clear yes vote at this point.” Himes stated he will be looping into a 5 p.m. call today with the Democratic Caucus following McCarthy’s Saturday announcement.  MCCARTHY CITES ‘PROGRESS’ IN US DEBT-CEILING TALKS WITH WHITE HOUSE An agreement in principle was reached between the White House and House Republican leaders that would prevent the government from breaching the debt ceiling and failing to meet all its obligations. The deal would claw back some unspent COVID-19 pandemic funds and provide a cut from funding granted the IRS in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, multiple sources told Fox News and Fox News Digital. It would also suspend the debt limit until after the 2024 presidential election, sources said.  CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP McCarthy said Saturday the deal includes cuts and language aimed at reducing the government’s footprint. The bill text is expected to be released Sunday with a House vote on Wednesday.  Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Liz Elkind, Adam Sabes, Brooke Singman, and Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report. 
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California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s aggressive plans to accelerate green energy projects statewide were dealt a blow by Democrats in the state’s legislature. The California Senate Budget Committee voted 3-0 Thursday to delay consideration of a sweeping climate package Newsom proposed a week earlier that he argued is crucial to achieve his lofty climate goals, local outlet CalMatters reported. The legislation would speed up construction of energy projects, streamline permitting and expedite court reviews of environmental challenges. “Although today we are rejecting the governor’s trailer bill proposals based on process, as seven days is insufficient to vet the hundreds of pages of policy nuance in these proposals, we look forward to working with the administration on all of these critical issues,” Democratic state Sen. Josh Becker, the chair of the committee, said after the vote, according to CalMatters. Becker and other committee members signaled they would be supportive of efforts to cut red tape and ensure swift approval of key green energy projects via amending the California Environmental Quality Act as Newsom proposed. However, legislative procedures would have required lawmakers to fast-track the package to be passed by early June. CALIFORNIA’S GRID FACES COLLAPSE AS LEADERS PUSH RENEWABLES, ELECTRIC VEHICLES, EXPERTS SAY During a press conference Thursday, Newsom reiterated the need for permitting reform in the state. “I was in Patterson, California, a couple of days ago – 13th year they’re working on a solar battery project – 13 years. I mean, it’s absurd. I’m for process but not that nonsense. It’s been abused,” he told reporters at a clean energy event. “We laid out permitting, 11 specific bills last week to reduce permitting time by three years, documents by hundreds of thousands.”  “If we don’t build, democracy is questioned, our capacity to deliver. Why do you think so many of these authoritarians are asserting themselves and their might and their muscle – not just around the world, but in some other parts of this country? It’s because they say we can’t get things done anymore.” REPUBLICANS AIM TO BLOCK CALIFORNIA’S ‘HEAVY-HANDED’ EV MANDATES According to Newsom’s office, his proposal would expedite key projects that “meet the state’s ambitious economic, climate and social goals.” The package would specifically seek to advance hundreds of solar, wind and battery storage projects; rail construction projects; clean transportation projects; and semiconductor factories. Last year, Newsom set goals of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 85%, cutting oil usage by 94%, and deploying vastly more solar and wind capacity over the next two decades. And he is pushing for the state to develop a power grid that is completely reliant on “clean electricity” by 2045. However, his recent permitting reform proposal has received significant pushback from environmental organizations that argue it would decrease protections for wildlife and ecosystems across California. Led by the Defenders of Wildlife, 75 eco groups blasted Newsom for attempting to rush the package through the legislature, in a letter Monday. “Defenders of Wildlife is gravely concerned that the Newsom administration is rushing major policy changes through a closed-door process that effectively sidelines meaningful public engagement and transparency,” Pamela Flick, the California program director at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement.  “While we strongly support investing in climate resilience, it’s imperative that such investments be made in an equitable, transparent manner that does not undermine fundamental environmental laws or proper public process.” 
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy defended his budget deal with President Biden against conservative critics on Sunday. McCarthy, R-Calif., faced attacks from members of the House Freedom Caucus after unveiling an “agreement in principle” with the White House this weekend. The speaker acknowledged that conservatives may not have gotten everything they wanted from the legislation, but argued Democrats got nothing at all. “Maybe it doesn’t do everything for everyone, but this is a step in the right direction that no one thought that we would be able to today,” McCarthy told “Fox News Sunday,” going on to tout that his legislation cuts all funding increases for the IRS in 2023. “I’ll debate this bill with anybody,” he continued. “Is it everything I wanted? No, because we don’t control all of it. But it is the biggest recission in history. It is the biggest cut Congress has ever voted for in that process.” MCCARTHY CITES ‘PROGRESS’ IN US DEBT-CEILING TALKS WITH WHITE HOUSE The deal would claw back some unspent COVID-19 pandemic funds and provide a cut from funding granted to the IRS in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, multiple sources have told Fox News. It would also suspend the debt limit until after the 2024 presidential election. McCarthy says the bill will sit for public review for 72 hours before coming up for a vote in the House. Some members of the GOP caucus expressed frustration with the current state of negotiations, however. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said he was a “hard pass” on the deal as it stands. “A $4 trillion debt ceiling increase? With virtually none of the key fiscally responsible policies passed in the Limit, Save, Grow Act kept intact? Hard pass. Hold the line,” he tweeted. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO WHERE WE STAND ON THE DEBT CEILING Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., described the plan as “utter capitulation” earlier this weekend. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, also laid out criticism of the bill early Sunday morning, saying it does virtually nothing to roll back Biden’s expansion of the IRS. While McCarthy touted canceling the IRS’s $1.8 billion funding expansion in 2023, critics pointed out that it was only a small fraction of the $80 billion in funds the IRS was set to receive in the coming years. McCarthy argued those funding increases could be canceled on a yearly basis if Republicans maintain the majority. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP McCarthy told Fox News that the opposition from the GOP members was not a problem, “because more than 95% of all those in the conference were very excited.” Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
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