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Will the debt ceiling deal actually increase SNAP food stamp eligibility, cost?

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Work requirements for government safety net programs are back in the spotlight as the House readies for a key vote on the debt ceiling deal brokered by President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

In a twist, a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office released late Tuesday found tougher rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that Republicans demanded would actually increase the number of people eligible for benefits, sometimes referred to as food stamps.

The nonpartisan agency estimated the provisions relating to SNAP would add $2.1 billion in direct spending and 78,000 people would gain benefits in an average month.

Top Republicans are calling the CBO report flat-out inaccurate, and McCarthy suggested the agency “double counted” some recipients already exempt from work requirements.

“The estimates are wrong. They’re just wrong,” Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., said in a news conference Wednesday alongside his fellow GOP negotiator Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.

The CBO has not commented on the criticism from Republicans.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, on the other hand, said the CBO development “speaks for itself” as he criticized Republicans for making them one of the focal points in the debt ceiling agreement.

“In terms of the so-called work requirements, which by the way have been in law since 1996, this was a phony, fake talking point injected unnecessarily into this discussion,” Jeffries said at his own news conference alongside House Democratic leadership.

Imposing stricter eligibility rules for SNAP and other federal assistance programs was a major sticking point that held up negotiations even as talks stretched closer to the potential default date. At one point, McCarthy described their inclusion in a final deal as a “red line” for Republicans.

At the same time, progressive Democrats warned of pushback if stricter work requirements were included. Progressive Whip Greg Casar told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott he was leaning no on Wednesday’s vote to approve the bill for that exact reason.

“Many progressives, including me, lean no because the bill does contain taking some folks like 53 and 54 year olds off of their food stamps,” Casar, D-Texas, said.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told ABC’s Scott that she won’t vote yes on the bill because she it’s up to Republicans to “own this vote.”

“They’re the ones trying to come in and cut SNAP,” she said. “They’re trying to come and cut environmental protections.”

Republicans won some changes to SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) but their demand for stricter requirements for recipients of Medicaid and Medicare were taken off the table.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act would increase the age limit for work requirements on able-bodied adults without dependents from 49 to 54 by 2025, though the provision would expire by 2030.

The legislation also includes new exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness and people ages 18 to 24 who are aging out of the foster care system.

Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young said Tuesday the Biden administration was waiting for a USDA analysis on the impact of the SNAP changes, but believed the number of those now exempted would be about the same as those subject to work requirements.

“There’s a very real possibility, when we see the numbers, that the number who are phased in, who have new requirements on SNAP, is offset by the number who will now be covered under the new exemptions,” she said at the White House press briefing.

McHenry defended the new exemptions in his presser with Graves, calling them “thoughtful public policy” and highlighted the bill would cut down the cap for the population states can exempt from work requirements from 12% to 8%.

But the CBO score only added to the furor to the growing number of House Republicans who are opposed to the debt ceiling deal.

“Don’t really want to hear how CBO is wrong on SNAP [because] CBO did this bill a lot of favors, and it’s still a bad deal,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote on Twitter.

“The Biden-McCarthy deal expands welfare,” Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., tweeted. “Heckuva negotiation, guys.”

Nikki Haley slams foreign lobbyists while accepting funds from them

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Despite calling for a ban on foreign lobbying, in which Americans lobby lawmakers and the public for foreign interests, Republican 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has raised tens of thousands of dollars in political donations from foreign lobbyists, disclosure reports show.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under the Trump administration, Haley has recently been campaigning on her opposition to foreign lobbying, saying that embassies — and not private consultants or lobbyist agents — should represent foreign interests in the U.S.

Banning foreign lobbying has been part of her stump speech against aid to foreign countries, especially money she suggests is going to countries whose interests seem to be at odds with those of the United States.

“The first thing we have to do is stop giving money to countries that hate America,” Haley said during a town hall in Iowa in April.

“All these lobbyists that get paid from foreign entities to lobby Congress — outlaw all foreign lobbying whatsoever,” Haley said. “That’s what embassies are for.”

She then took it to Twitter the next day, writing, “Ban all foreign lobbying.”

Later in the month, she told a town hall in New Hampshire, “We will stop lobbyists, foreign lobbyists, in our country. That’s what embassies are for. We are not going to allow Americans to lobby for foreign countries. If an ambassador wants something, an ambassador can ask for it, but no more lobbying of Congress for foreign entities.”

But Haley’s rhetoric hasn’t stopped her from raising funds from supporters that are currently or formerly registered agents working for foreign entities. Under United States FARA laws, as part of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, individuals and entities acting as an agent of a foreign client are required to register with the Department of Justice.

One of Haley’s top fundraisers, Oswaldo Palomo, the managing director of D.C.-based consulting firm Chartwell Strategy Group, is himself a registered foreign agent.

Palomo so far this year has contributed a total of $6,600 to Haley’s joint fundraising committee, which raises money for her presidential campaign and her leadership PAC, Stand for America, according to campaign disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.

According to FARA registration records, Palomo represents a number of foreign entities, including the government of Georgia in Eastern Europe, which he had worked for at least since 2018, and the Social Democratic Party of Romania, one of his more recent clients. Each of those clients pays him between $35,000 and $40,000 each month, and he has reported making contacts with hundreds of U.S. lawmakers in the course of his lobbying, FARA filings show.

Palomo also represents the Israeli cyberintelligence firm NSO Group, and the partially state-owned Chinese information technology company iFLYTEK, and has previously also worked for the government of Kosovo.

Palomo’s work has brought him hundreds of thousands of dollars from each of his foreign clients over the last six months, according to filings.

Despite Haley’s calls for a ban on foreign lobbying, Palomo has been a vocal supporter of the presidential hopeful, often touting her fundraising success.

Like Palomo, David Horton Wilkins, who was U.S. ambassador to Canada under President George W. Bush and is now a registered foreign agent, donated $6,600 to Haley’s joint fundraising committee, according to disclosure filings. Previously a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, the longtime Haley ally led her transition team when she was first elected the governor of South Carolina in 2010.

Now a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough, Wilkins has been a registered agent for the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia for more than a decade, meeting with numerous members of Congress and representing the provinces’ interests over the years, FARA records show.

Another Haley donor, Alexandra Scott Amorosi, whose LinkedIn profile says she worked at the public relations firm Ketchum, is a former registered foreign agent who between 2011 and 2014 represented the Russian Federation, as well as a Russian majority state-owned energy company called Gazprom and the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, providing media relations and communications services, according to foreign lobbying records. She has not renewed her foreign agent registration since 2014.

Haley’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment by ABC News.

Palomo declined to comment when contacted by ABC News, while Wilkins and Amorosi could not be reached for comment.

Although federal election laws prohibit foreign nationals from making donations to U.S. political campaigns, lobbyists who are U.S. citizens representing foreign interests are allowed to do so, and it’s a common practice especially at the federal level.

During the 2020 presidential election cycle, more than $33.5 million in federal political contributions came from foreign lobbyists, including at least $8.5 million from FARA-registered agents, and $25 million from lobbyists who were registered under the Lobbying Disclosure Act while representing foreign clients with U.S. subsidiaries, according to FEC disclosure reports.

“It is not uncommon for presidential contenders to make promises rejecting campaign contributions from foreign lobbyists before ultimately accepting them — though some politicians have refunded money from foreign lobbyists after media backlash,” Anna Massoglia, editorial and investigations manager at the nonpartisan research group OpenSecrets.org, told ABC News.

Even if a candidate swears off campaign contributions directly from foreign lobbyists, those lobbyists may route funds to outside groups like nonprofits or super PACs supporting the candidates, Massoglia said.

Nikki Haley’s husband will be deployed to Africa for much of 2024 campaign

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s husband, Michael Haley, is set to deploy in the coming weeks to Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard, a source familiar confirms to ABC News.

The yearlong deployment would span much of Nikki Haley’s campaign schedule and would be her husband’s second active-duty tour overseas since joining the National Guard in 2006. He first served in Afghanistan in 2013.

Details of the assignment were first reported by The Associated Press.

Nikki Haley’s husband has been a continual part of her campaign since it launched in February, attending the kickoff as well as a number of rallies.

“Our family, like every military family, is ready to make personal sacrifices when our loved one answers the call. We could not be prouder of Michael and his military brothers and sisters,” Nikki Haley said in an emailed statement to ABC News.

“Their commitment to protecting our freedom is a reminder of how blessed we are to live in America,” she said.

Michael Haley, a major in the South Carolina Army National Guard, will remain deployed through spring of 2024.

The pair met in college and married in 1996 and have two adult children, Rena and Nalin.

Wildfires in eastern Canada affecting air quality in major US cities

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Wildfires burning in Canada continue to create hazardous air quality conditions in several states in the northern U.S.

Plumes of smoke from the fires blazing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, began drifting over New York City and the tri-state area on Tuesday, leading to a decrease in air quality, according to the National Weather Service.

Patchy low-level smoke is expected to linger and expand through the region on Wednesday, creating a cloudy haze that will block much of the sunlight, the NWS announced. The smell of smoke will also be present in some areas.

The jet stream, a high-speed, constantly shifting river of air about 30,000 feet into the atmosphere, is carrying the smoke from Nova Scotia through New England and further south in the U.S.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has issued a “code orange” air quality alert through Wednesday night for several counties, signifying unhealthy air pollution concentrations.

At-risk populations, such as young children, the elderly or those with lung and heart disease, should avoid the outdoors through Wednesday, according to the advisory.

The smoke is also affecting northern states such as Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont and Connecticut and is expected to travel as far south as Washington, D.C.

The weather is expected to remain hot and dry on Wednesday, with no rain forecast until Friday at the earliest.

Travel and activity in wooded areas have been banned to prevent the chances of reburn in some of the evacuated neighborhoods due to heavy winds.

Air quality alerts are in effect in the Northeast until midnight Thursday.

Son desperate for answers in wake of Iowa apartment collapse: ‘My dad’s in there and there’s nothing I can do’

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(DAVENPORT, Iowa) — It’s been nearly 72 hours since a Davenport, Iowa, apartment building partially collapsed, possibly trapping two men inside, including resident Branden Colvin.

Colvin’s son, Branden Colvin Jr., said he feels helpless as he waits for answers.

“I know my dad’s in there and there’s nothing I can do … wishing I could just run in there,” Colvin Jr. told ABC News on Wednesday.

Colvin Jr. said he’s not an emotional person, but when he was alone, he said he broke down crying.

“I just want to talk to him, give him a hug, hear his voice, anything,” he said.

The six-story building partially collapsed on Sunday afternoon for unknown reasons.

More than a dozen people evacuated the building at the time and eight people were rescued in the 24 hours that followed.

On Monday, officials said there was no credible information that anyone was missing and the city was moving forward with plans for staging a demolition beginning Tuesday.

Then, on Monday night, a ninth victim, Lisa Brooks, was found alive inside and pulled out of a fourth-story window.

On Tuesday, demolition plans were put on hold as officials announced that five people were unaccounted for, including two men, Branden Colvin and Ryan Hitchcock, who may be inside.

Colvin Jr. said Brooks’ rescue “gave me hope.”

“I’m just trying to stick it out and keep having hope,” he said.

But Colvin Jr. is frustrated with city officials, saying he wants responders to “just go in there and look for these people.”

Officials said Tuesday they were working to determine the best ways to search as the building’s condition worsens.

In a Tuesday afternoon search, several animals were rescued, but no human activity was detected, city officials said.

“The stability of the building continues to degrade,” the city of Davenport said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “The recovery of any unaccounted for individuals remains the priority of the City as operational planning progresses.”

Nearly 2,000 Amazon workers to walk out after return to office

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Nearly 2,000 Amazon workers plan to walk out on Wednesday as the company weathers layoffs and a mandate that corporate employees return to the office.

“Employees need a say in decisions that affect our lives,” said a petition from worker groups Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and Amazon’s Remote Advocacy.

The employee activism follows a series of layoffs in recent months. In early January, Amazon announced plans to eliminate just over 18,000 roles, including impending layoffs announced in November. In all, the company has slashed 27,000 jobs since last fall.

At the outset of this month the company mandated corporate employees return to the office at least three days per week.

The employee petition cited the return-to-work policy and Amazon’s ongoing climate impact as evidence that company leadership is “taking us in the wrong direction.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition had been signed by 1,922 Amazon employees, including 913 in Seattle, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and Amazon’s Remote Advocacy said. The company employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide, according to an annual report released last week.

In a statement to ABC News, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said the company stands by its decision to bring corporate employees back to the office.

“We’re always listening and will continue to do so, but we’re happy with how the first month of having more people back in the office has been. There’s more energy, collaboration, and connections happening, and we’ve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices,” Glasser said.

“We understand that it’s going to take time to adjust back to being in the office more and there are a lot of teams at the company working hard to make this transition as smooth as possible for employees,” he added.

As for employees’ concerns over the company’s climate impact, Glasser said: “We continue to push hard on getting to net carbon zero by 2040, and we have over 400 companies who’ve joined us in our Climate Pledge. While we all would like to get there tomorrow, for companies like ours who consume a lot of power, and have very substantial transportation, packaging, and physical building assets, it’ll take time to accomplish.”

Sales at top tech firms have retreated from the blistering pace attained during the pandemic, when billions across the world were forced into isolation.

Customers stuck at home came to rely on delivery services like e-commerce and virtual connections formed through social media and videoconferencing.

Many tech stocks have surged in recent months, however, due in part to optimism about the potential benefits of artificial intelligence.

Shares of Amazon have climbed almost 30% since March 1.

The walkout among Amazon employees, which appears to be made up predominantly of corporate workers, comes more than a year after warehouse workers at a Staten Island facility established the company’s first-ever union in the U.S.

Warehouse workers, however, have faced difficulty sustaining the momentum. In the months following the victory, labor campaigns were defeated overwhelmingly in elections at two other Amazon warehouses in New York.

Meanwhile, sharp divisions emerged within the Amazon Labor Union, the worker-led union behind the victory, according to previous interviews with four current and former workers at the Staten Island facility.

The walkout petition on Wednesday called for policy changes that would improve conditions for employees throughout the company.

“Our goal is to change Amazon’s cost/benefit analysis on making harmful, unilateral decisions that are having an outsized impact on people of color, women, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable people,” the petition said.

Calling on employees to sign on to the walkout, the petition added: “The more pledges, the stronger our voice.”

AI poses threat of ‘extinction event for humanity,’ US official says

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A top U.S. official for cybersecurity said Wednesday that humanity could be at risk of an “extinction event” if tech companies fail to self-regulate and work with the government to reign in the power of artificial intelligence.

The remarks came a day after hundreds of tech leaders and public figures backed a similar statement that compared the existential threat of AI to a pandemic or nuclear war.

Among the 350 signatories of the statement were Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, the company behind the popular conversation bot ChatGPT, and Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s AI division.

Responding to questions about the joint statement, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly urged the signatories to self-regulate and work with the government.

“I would ask these 350 people and the makers of AI — while we’re trying to put a regulatory framework in place — think about self-regulation, think about what you can do to slow this down so we don’t cause an extinction event for humanity,” Easterly said.

“If you actually think that these capabilities can lead to [the] extinction of humanity, well, let’s come together and do something about it,” Easterly added.

Industry leaders on Tuesday sounded a sobering alarm. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” said the one-sentence statement released by the San Francisco-based nonprofit Center for AI Safety.

Supporters of the statement also featured a range of public figures like musician Grimes, environmental activist Bill McKibben and neuroscience author Sam Harris.

Altman, a top executive within the AI industry, said in Senate testimony roughly two weeks ago that he supports government regulation as a means of averting the harmful effects of AI.

“If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong,” Altman said.

“We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models,” he added, suggesting the adoption of licenses or safety requirements necessary for the operation of AI models.

Like other AI-enabled chat bots, ChatGPT can immediately respond to prompts from users on a wide range of subjects, generating an essay on Shakespeare or a set of travel tips for a given destination.

Microsoft launched a version of its Bing search engine in March that offers responses delivered by GPT-4, the latest model of ChatGPT. Rival search company Google in February announced an AI model called Bard.

The rise of vast quantities of AI-generated content has raised fears over the potential spread of misinformation, hate speech and manipulative responses.

During comments on Wednesday, Easterly described Chinese-backed hackers and artificial intelligence as “the defining challenges of our time.”

Easterly walked a familiar fine line between touting the possibilities of AI and warning against its harms.

“At the end of the day, these capabilities will do amazing things. They’ll make our lives easier and better,” she said. “They’ll make lives easier and better for our adversaries who will flood the space with disinformation who will be able to create cyber-attacks and all kinds of weapons.”

House to vote on debt ceiling deal as lawmakers race to prevent default

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A deal to raise the debt ceiling faces a crucial vote in the House Wednesday night, the next step in averting a potential default now just days away.

The bill, titled the “Fiscal Responsibility Act,” cleared its first major hurdle Tuesday when the House Rules Committee advanced the bill in a 7-6 vote.

It is expected to pass the full House when voting is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m., but frustration in both parties has leaders working around the clock to shore up enough support among their members.

“Today we’re gonna pass the largest cut in American history. It’s just a small step putting us on the right track,” a confident House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters as he entered the Capitol Wednesday.

McCarthy added that “everybody has a right to their own opinion but on history, I’d want to be here with this bill today.”

The vote will be a major test for the speaker, who faces a potential revolt from conservative hard-liners if he fails to get a majority of his conference (112 Republicans) to back the deal.

As of Wednesday morning, 32 House Republicans and counting said they were against the bill.

“If a majority of Republicans are against a piece of legislation and you use Democrats to pass it, that would immediately be a black letter violation of the deal we had with McCarthy … and it would likely trigger an immediate motion to vacate,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said Tuesday on Newsmax.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-N.C., told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that McCarthy’s “lost some trust in how this has been handled.” The speaker brushed off those criticisms Republicans were “outsmarted” by Democrats.

A motion to vacate, under new House rules agreed to by McCarthy during his speakership battle back in January, would allow just one member of Congress to bring up a vote on removing the speaker. A simple majority of the House would be needed to pass such a motion.

Adding another layer to GOP discontentment is a new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that found the deal would actually increase the number of people eligible for SNAP food assistance, and increase the cost by $2.1 billion.

Work requirements for SNAP and other federal assistance programs were a major sticking point for Republicans in the negotiations between McCarthy and President Joe Biden.

McCarthy said late Tuesday the CBO was “totally wrong” and claimed the agency “double-counted.”

Amid the conservative uproar over the bill as cutting far too little, McCarthy announced Wednesday the creation of a bipartisan commission to study the federal budget to look for potential waste to be cut.

On the other side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday House Democrats “will make sure that the country does not default.”

Several progressive Democrats have pushed back against provisions of the bill but two key groups, the 100-member New Democrat Coalition and the 46-member bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, have endorsed the deal ahead of tonight’s vote.

If it passes the House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said his chamber would immediately take it up.

“Once it is the Senate’s turn to act, I cannot stress enough that we have no margin — no margin — for error,” Schumer said in floor remarks Wednesday. “Either we proceed quickly and send this bipartisan agreement to the president’s desk or the federal government will default for the first time ever.”

A potential roadblock will be if a filibuster materializes, which could delay the process for up to a week.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s given his approval on the bill, calling it a “down payment on more progress that’s yet to come.”

“When this agreement reaches the Senate, I’ll be proud to support it without delay,” McConnell said Wednesday.

ABC News’ Trish Turner, Will Steakin, Lauren Peller and Noah Minnie contributed to this report.

Limo company operator sentenced to 5 to 15 years for manslaughter in crash that killed 20

May 31, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(ALBANY, N.Y.) — A limousine company operator was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday in connection to a 2018 crash in upstate New York that left 20 people dead.

Nauman Hussain was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter earlier this month.

Hussain was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for each count of second-degree manslaughter, however, the terms will run concurrently for a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Hussain pleaded guilty to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide in 2021, but the case went to trial after a judge threw out a plea deal reached with Schoharie County prosecutors last fall that would have spared him a prison sentence.

The limousine was driving down a stretch of road when it barreled through an intersection and crashed into a parked Toyota Highlander in the town of Schoharie, about 40 miles west of Albany. All 17 passengers, the driver and two pedestrians were killed in the crash.

Hussain was in charge of day-to-day operations for the company, Prestige Limousine, when a group celebrating a 30th birthday party rented a stretch Ford Excursion SUV on Oct. 6, 2018.

The limo had failed an inspection by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles one month before the deadly crash and the driver did not have the appropriate driver’s license to be operating the vehicle, officials said at the time.

A report by National Transportation Safety Board investigators in 2020 found that one of the brakes was not operational.

After he was found guilty, Hussain’s lawyer said they plan to appeal the verdict.

“He chose profit over people,” prosecutors said at the sentencing hearing. Before sentencing, his lawyer said Hussain would not speak due to the pending appeal.

Prosecutors said Hussain made the conscious decision not to repair the car ahead of the crash and failed to get a second inspection before putting it back on the road.

The defense asked for the mercy of the court ahead of the sentencing.

The incident was the deadliest transportation crash in the U.S. since 2009.