Tag: government organizations – us

Corporate America celebrates debt ceiling deal and urges Congress to quickly pass legislation | CNN Business

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CNN
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Leading business groups are praising President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for forging a bipartisan agreement to raise the debt ceiling, and they are calling for Congress to pass the legislation before the government suffers a devastating default.

“With the US at risk of defaulting in less than 10 days, there is no time to spare. We urge members of Congress to give the legislation their strong support,” Josh Bolten, the CEO of the Business Roundtable and former chief of staff to President George W. Bush, said in a statement on Sunday.

Bolten applauded the agreement for not only raising the debt ceiling through January 1, 2025, but for making a “down payment” on permitting reform and taking steps towards putting America on a “more sustainable fiscal trajectory.”

Suzanne Clark, president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a separate statement that by reaching a compromise, Biden and congressional leaders have “shown they can come together on a bipartisan basis and act in the best interests of our country.”

“Members of Congress must finish the job and send the bill to the President’s desk to be signed into law without delay. The gravity of this moment cannot be overstated,” said Clark, who added the Chamber will consider this a “key vote” for lawmakers.

The National Association of Manufacturers, the largest manufacturing trade group in the nation, congratulated Biden, McCarthy and their lawmakers for reaching an agreement.

“Defaulting on our debt would create economic chaos, harming manufacturing workers and their families and jeopardizing our leadership in the world,” NAM CEO Jay Timmons, who previously worked as a senior aid to Republican officials, said in a statement. “Congress should act quickly to pass this agreement and to demonstrate to Americans and to the world the continued strength of our institutions and our democracy.”

Big bank CEOs are also pressing lawmakers to green light the debt limit deal.

The Financial Services Forum, a trade group whose members include Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, issued a statement Tuesday praising the efforts of Biden and McCarthy and urging Congress to adopt the agreement.

“Responsible and timely action will preserve the full faith and credit of the United States and our nation’s important position of global economic leadership,” Financial Services Forum CEO Kevin Fromer said in the statement.

Biden and McCarthy reached an agreement Saturday, but the deal isn’t done yet. Party leaders in Washington are working furiously Monday to convince holdouts to back the compromise legislation that would avert default. Still, prospects for passage of the bill are rising as many centrist Democrats said they would back the bill, and Republicans said they believed that they would be able to carry the support of the majority of their House conference.

The House vote is expected to take place Wednesday.

– CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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May 30, 2023
Republican tries to scuttle debt limit bill in House Rules Committee as pressure grows on key swing vote | CNN Politics

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Rep. Chip Roy accused House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday of cutting a deal that could complicate negotiators’ efforts to pass a bill to raise the US debt ceiling this week.

But McCarthy’s allies quickly refuted the Texas Republican, underscoring the tension ahead of a key meeting of the House Rules Committee on Tuesday – and putting new pressure on a conservative holdout, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has yet to take a position on the plan.

Roy contended that McCarthy cut a hand-shake deal in January that all nine Republicans on the powerful panel must agree to move any legislation forward, otherwise bills could not be considered by the full House for majority approval. That would essentially doom the debt ceiling bill since Roy – who sits on the panel – and another conservative committee member are trying to stop the bill from advancing.

“A reminder that during Speaker negotiations to build the coalition, that it was explicit both that nothing would pass Rules Committee without AT LEAST 7 GOP votes – AND that the Committee would not allow reporting out rules without unanimous Republican votes,” Roy tweeted.

Senior GOP sources acknowledged that there was an agreement for seven Republican committee members to agree to move forward in order to advance a bill to the floor, but they flatly dispute that there was a deal for all nine to sign off for legislation to advance.

“I have not heard that before. If those conversations took place, the rest of the conference was unaware of them,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota. “And frankly, I doubt them.”

The dispute is significant because Roy sits on the committee – which is divided between nine Republicans and four Democrats – as does GOP Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina. Both men have emerged as leading foes of the bipartisan debt limit bill to avoid a June 5 default, arguing it does little to rein in government spending.

A third conservative who sits on the panel – Massie – has been mum about how he plans to handle the rule vote in committee. McCarthy agreed to name all three men to the panel as part of the promises he made during his hard-fought speaker’s victory – all to give more power to conservatives on committees, including on Rules, which is typically stacked with the speaker’s closest allies.

If Massie were to join Roy and Norman and vote against the rule at Tuesday’s meeting, he could effectively stall the measure in committee.

But in January, Massie told CNN he was reluctant to vote against rules to stop bills in their tracks.

“I would be reluctant to try to use the rules committee to achieve a legislative outcome, particularly if it doesn’t represent a large majority of our caucus,” Massie said at the time. “So I don’t ever intend to use my position on there to like, hold somebody hostage – or hold legislation hostage.”

Democrats on the committee may also vote for the rule, sources told CNN, and that would ensure it has the votes to advance to the floor. But if Massie were to oppose the rule, only six Republicans would be in favor of it, complicating McCarthy’s efforts to bring the plan to the floor since he previously agreed to only take up bills with the backing of seven committee Republicans.

Massie’s office declined to comment on how he may vote on Tuesday, and neither Roy nor the speaker’s office responded to requests for comments on the Texan’s assertion.

But Republicans close to McCarthy refuted the notion that bills could only advance with unanimous GOP support in the committee.

“I’m a rules guy,” Johnson said. “And when I checked, there wasn’t a rule that something has to come out of Rules Committee unanimously. Now Chip is a rules guy too. So I think he’s going to understand that, that this is a majoritarian institution, and that ultimately, we’re going to serve Americans the best way that the majority of us know how – that’s going to be to pass this bill.”

Other McCarthy allies agreed.

“I don’t know what Speaker McCarthy agreed to, but that has not been something that any of us were familiar with,” Rep. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma said. “I think that comment was that it had to be unanimous to come out of the Rules Committee to go to the floor is the tweet that I read. And I think that is inaccurate, at best, but I don’t know because I wasn’t in the room. I don’t know how you would have something like that functionally work.”

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May 29, 2023
Biden and McCarthy lean on holdouts in both parties to pass debt ceiling deal | CNN Politics

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Party leaders in Washington are waging an urgent campaign Monday to convince Democrats and Republicans to get behind compromise legislation that would avert a first-ever national default, with each side proclaiming victory following marathon talks.

Prospects for passage of the bill, based on the agreement struck between President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, grew Sunday as many centrist Democrats fell in line and Republicans maintained confidence that they would be able to carry the support of the majority of their House conference in a pivotal vote expected Wednesday.

In both parties’ sights are those in the political middle, who leaders are wagering will swallow some provisions they disagree with in order to suspend the federal borrowing limit through January 1, 2025 – after the next presidential election – and avoid default. The bill caps non-defense spending, temporarily expands work requirements for some food stamp recipients and claws back some Covid-19 relief funds.

The release of the bill text Sunday evening amounted to a consequential moment for both Biden and McCarthy, whose political futures could hinge on their ability to pass the legislation while also selling it as a victory for their respective parties.

Speaking from the White House on Sunday, Biden hailed the agreement as critical to preventing economic disaster.

“It’s a really important step forward,” he said from the Roosevelt Room. “It takes the threat of catastrophic default off the table, protects our hard-earned economic recovery, and the agreement also represents a compromise – which means no one got everything they want, but that’s the responsibility of governing.”

The president shrugged off concerns from some Democrats who worry he gave away too much in his negotiations with Republicans.

“They’ll find I didn’t,” he said.

In a private call Sunday with House Democrats, Biden’s briefers defended their dealmaking with McCarthy, going into detail about what they had prevented from being added to the bill, according to multiple sources. They argued they stopped Republicans from pushing even stiffer work requirements and beat back efforts to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and gut and gut Biden’s signature 2021 infrastructure law.

After those briefings, many Democrats signaled that they were willing to support the plan simply because there’s no other viable option to avoid default, lawmakers told CNN.

“It’s not a victory, but it’s a lot better (than) what might have happened if there were default,” one Senate Democrat told CNN after an evening briefing.

Members of two major centrist groups – the New Democrat Coalition and Problem Solvers Caucus – are expected to largely support the plan, according to multiple sources. That represents roughly 100 Democrats, which could be enough to offset the losses from members of the hard-right who are furious over McCarthy’s dealmaking.

Several members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus have already harshly criticized the plan, vowing to try blocking it from passage.

McCarthy has insisted to House Republicans that Democrats “got nothing” in the negotiations, and he worked to amplify government spending caps and new work requirements for food stamps as critical wins long sought by the GOP.

But like Biden, McCarthy acknowledged the agreement required concessions from both sides.

“It doesn’t get everything everybody wanted,” McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol on Sunday. “But, in divided government, that’s where we end up. I think it’s a very positive bill.”

For McCarthy, the first big test will come Tuesday in the House Rules Committee, a panel that must adopt a rule to allow the bill to be approved by a majority of the House. To win the speakership, McCarthy agreed to name three conservative hardliners – Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky – to the committee, a major concession since usually the powerful panel is stacked with close allies of the leadership.

Norman and Roy have emerged as sharp critics of the debt limit deal so far, while Massie was quiet while waiting for bill text to be released. If all three voted against the rule in committee, that would kill the bill – unless any Democrats vote to advance the rule.

McCarthy’s allies sought to play down the conservative revolt.

“When you’re saying that conservatives have concerns, it is really the most colorful conservatives,” Rep. Dusty Johnson said on “State of the Union.”

Passing the bill through the House will not be the final step. The package must also clear the Senate, where any single senator could stall progress for several days. On Sunday, a handful of powerful Senate Republicans had raised concerns about the deal’s defense spending during a Senate GOP conference call, a source on the call said.

But with the support of Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and expected backing of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, several Senate sources say there is a high likelihood there’ll be 60 votes to break a filibuster attempt. The timing of the final votes in the Senate could slip into Friday or the weekend.

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May 29, 2023
White House and House Republicans strike agreement in principle to raise debt ceiling, sources say | CNN Politics

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Washington
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The White House and House Republicans have an agreement in principle on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and cap spending, multiple sources familiar with the negotiations told CNN.

The text of the deal will be reviewed overnight by both sides to ensure it lines up with the tentative agreement.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

White House and House GOP negotiators are racing to finalize a deal to raise the nation’s debt limit with time running perilously short and the risk of a first-ever US default growing.

There have been some signs that talks have progressed in recent days, and negotiators were hoping to announce an agreement as soon as Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden spoke by phone Saturday evening, and House GOP leaders were planning to brief all members on the state of negotiations later in the evening, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

A source with knowledge of the negotiations told CNN on Saturday that a provision to impose new work requirements for certain social safety net programs remains a final sticking point.

Republicans have been pushing this issue hard, saying beneficiaries of programs such as food stamps with no dependents should be forced to follow new rules. Democrats, however, have cast that idea as an attack on poor people.

It’s unclear how the negotiators could come to an agreement, but the source told CNN the issue needs to be resolved before a deal can be reached.

McCarthy arrived at the US Capitol on Saturday morning after his top Republican negotiators, Reps. Garret Graves of Louisiana and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, had worked late into the night drafting the final details of a deal from the speaker’s office.

“I feel closer to an agreement now than I did a long time before, because I see progress. But listen, this is not easy in any shape or form. But that doesn’t back us away from it,” McCarthy told reporters.

The California Republican said he’d like to hold a vote on a debt limit bill as soon as Tuesday, which would mean negotiators would need to announce a deal and send legislative text to lawmakers by Saturday.

Asked by CNN if he was confident he could get the full House GOP Caucus behind him following an agreement, McCarthy said: “Do you ever think you’re going to get every single member to vote for it? I didn’t get every single member to vote for the first one. I didn’t get every single member to vote for me for speaker.”

But McCarthy maintained he’d be able to get the majority of House Republicans on board, telling CNN, “I don’t think I’ll have any problem with that.”

White House officials were generally optimistic about the state of negotiations Saturday afternoon. One official told CNN that negotiations were ongoing and echoed Biden’s remark on Friday that they were close to a deal.

While nothing is final, negotiators have made some progress on the work requirements provision for certain social safety net programs, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN earlier Saturday.

Spending cuts on domestic programs were another issue that negotiators had worked to sort out late Friday night, but It’s unclear if the dispute has been fully resolved.

Energy permitting reform, which aims to cut down the time it takes for new projects to get approved, remains a high priority for Graves. The issue pits environmentalists against the oil and gas industry and has divided congressional Democrats.

McHenry said earlier Saturday that he and Graves had returned to McCarthy’s office, where they are meeting virtually with the White House. Friday’s negotiations broke off in the early morning hours Saturday.

McHenry said negotiators have a “very narrow set of issues that has to be dealt with” before they can reach a deal, which he said was still “hours or days away.”

People involved in the process said earlier they felt confident the issues could be resolved in a timely manner.

It’s unclear when the final bill text will be released, and the process of turning a framework into an actual bill can be laborious. New issues could easily crop up at each step along the way, and each step has the potential to be time-consuming, running out the clock ahead of the debt limit deadline early next month.

The two sides, however, have been trying to firm up the legislative text as they’ve gone along in a bid to speed up that process.

“House Republicans have a bill that we passed out of the House to raise the debt ceiling. So we have legislative text that is wide and complete. And so that is a helpful baseline when you’re getting into a window like this,” McHenry said Saturday.

Selling the deal to members will be no small task, with stiff opposition expected from both the left and right. That means it’s going to require an intense whipping operation – and support from both sides of the aisle – to get the bill over the finish line.

The pressure on negotiators is intense as the US steadily inches closer to the possibility of a default and the threat of economic catastrophe.

In a major development Friday that will give lawmakers more time to reach and pass a deal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Congress must address the debt ceiling by June 5 or the government will not have enough funds to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time. Previously, Yellen had estimated that the earliest possible date a default could occur was June 1.

McHenry said the Yellen’s new date “clarifies that our timeline is very tight.”

“House Republicans asked for clarification. Chip Roy and Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds and Dan Bishop, among others, asked for clarification on Secretary Yellen’s math. She updated her math. Obviously, it was a good request. And I think it clarifies our window for us to actually achieve the deal,” he said Saturday.

Debt limit predictions, however, aren’t clear-cut. Rather than a set-in-stone deadline, it is more of a best-guess estimate, which makes it harder to know exactly how much time Congress has to act to avert potential financial catastrophe.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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May 27, 2023
FBI director to meet with House Oversight chair in coming days about internal document | CNN Politics

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FBI Director Christopher Wray and House Oversight Chairman James Comer are scheduled to meet in the coming days as the Kentucky Republican continues to escalate his investigation into President Joe Biden’s business dealings, a spokesperson for the FBI told CNN.

The meeting comes after Comer threatened to hold Wray in contempt of Congress if the agency refuses to comply with a subpoena for an internal document that an unnamed whistleblower alleges shows then-Vice President Biden was involved in a criminal scheme with a foreign national, according to a letter Comer sent Wray on Wednesday.

“I received word that the FBI director is committed to meet with me next week in Washington and we can discuss this,” Comer said on Fox News Wednesday night. “But, nothing’s going to change with respect to holding him in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t turn over the document.”

The White House has previously slammed the unverified claim against Biden, calling it another one of Republicans’ “unfounded politically-motivated attacks.”

The ranking Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, described the allegations as “recycling unsubstantiated claims floated by Senate Republicans.”

“Given Chair Comer’s commitment to ‘dismantle’ the FBI, it’s no surprise that he would rely on these unverified tips to attack President Biden in one more baseless partisan stunt,” Raskin said.

Comer said that Wray has denied multiple requests from him and Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, whom the whistleblower first told of their allegations, to speak on the phone. However, an FBI spokesperson told CNN the meeting between Wray and Comer had already been scheduled by the time FBI received Comer’s Wednesday letter.

In the letter, Comer outlined his frustrations over previous meetings his staff has held with the FBI and offered more specifics about the form he is looking for to help the agency accommodate the subpoena.

Comer specified the form, an FD-1023, dated June 30, 2020, said the foreign national allegedly paid $5 million to receive the desired policy outcome, based on unclassified and legally protected whistleblower disclosures.

The form in question, an FD-1023, is a document the FBI uses to memorialize meetings or information gathered from confidential sources. The document typically would include allegations from the source, including information not verified by the FBI.

A spokesperson for the FBI told CNN that “the FBI’s mission is to protect the American people. Releasing confidential source information could potentially jeopardize investigations and put lives at risk. The FBI remains committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests on this matter and others as we always have.”

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May 24, 2023
A man told officers at the CIA headquarters gate, ‘I’m here and I have a gun,’ law enforcement source says | CNN

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A man now under arrest walked up to the CIA Headquarters’ gate Tuesday and allegedly said, “I’m here and I have a gun,” a law enforcement source told CNN.

Uniformed federal officers turned him away and notified Fairfax County, Virginia, police of his description, the source said Wednesday.

He later was arrested and charged with felony possession of a firearm on school property, police said. He was identified as Eric Sandow, 32, of Gainesville, Florida.

Sandow said he was headed to the CIA and had an AK-47 and another weapon in his vehicle as he was arrested Tuesday at Dolley Madison Preschool in McLean, Virgnia, after he trespassed on school grounds around 11 a.m., police said.

The preschool is less than 1.5 miles from CIA Headquarters and about a 10-minute drive to major Washington, DC, landmarks, including the National Mall.

“He requested access to the (preschool) building facilities to use the restroom, which was denied by school staff,” Dolley Madison Preschool said in a statement Wednesday. “At no point did he gain physical entrance to the school building.”

Fairfax County police were then called to the scene. “While speaking with him, he made statements he had weapons inside his car located on school property,” the police department said Wednesday in a statement.

“Officers searched the car and found two weapons, an AK-47 and a pistol, along with magazines and ammunition.”

Sandow was arraigned Wednesday morning in Fairfax County General District Court, a court official said.

He was being held Wednesday without bond, police said. It was not immediately clear whether Sandow had legal representation.

“It does not appear he was acting in conjunction with anyone else,” Fairfax County police said. “Sandow did not make any threats and the weapons never left the vehicle.”

Sandow does not appear to have a lengthy criminal history, public records show. He was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery in 2014 and did not declare a political party with his voter registration.

Law enforcement lauded an alert person who summoned them Tuesday to the day care.

“We’re grateful to the community member who did the right thing and called us,” police said. “We’d like to remind our community to report suspicious activity as you never know what you may prevent by making that call.”

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May 24, 2023
White House expands its playbook for responding to mass shootings in the year after Uvalde | CNN Politics

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When news broke of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, one year ago, President Joe Biden was on his way back from Tokyo following a major international summit.

Biden watched the news unfold on Air Force One, feeling, like others, horrified and heartbroken for the families, and deciding in that moment to speak upon returning to the White House, a White House official told CNN.

Moments after landing, a somber Biden – who had been in the Obama White House during the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School – walked into a briefing in the Oval Office and prepared an address he delivered that evening in the Roosevelt Room.

“I had hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again,” Biden said as he started the speech. He later visited Uvalde.

Over the last year, Biden has signed legislation called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law and implemented two dozen executive actions to try to reduce gun violence. And on Wednesday, Biden will again deliver remarks to mark the one-year remembrance of the Uvalde shooting.

But in that same time span, hundreds more mass shootings have gripped communities nationwide.

Mass shootings have become so common in the United States that the White House has framed their approach as akin to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s hurricane response. Behind the scenes, administration officials have been developing ways in which the federal government can respond in the short and long term after a mass shooting, recognizing the physical, mental and economic ramifications.

“I think we’ve learned that the needs of these communities are really intense, and they also last long after the immediate hours and days after a mass shooting. If a hurricane devastates a community, you get that immediate White House response, but you also get FEMA deployed on the ground to provide direct services and support to survivors,” one source told CNN.

This recognition of the long after-effects of mass shootings has prompted discussions within the White House about additional measures, including earlier this month, when Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice gathered the first meeting of Cabinet officials and senior staff to discuss steps forward in responding to mass shootings, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

The reality officials were up against in that meeting came into sharp focus again less than 24 hours later, when another mass shooting unfolded – that time, in Allen, Texas.

“I don’t think we could feel more urgency than we did on [that] Friday. I think people feel this very deeply. We now work with so many communities that have experienced shootings. It’s devastating, of course, when another gets added to the list,” the source told CNN.

The Buffalo, New York, shooting last year at a local grocery story was an example of a tragedy that had unanticipated effects as it left a mostly Black community without a crucial grocery store for a period of time.

“For too long, when we’ve thought about mass shootings and gun violence in general, we’ve only thought about the individuals hurt or killed. What this administration does is certainly attend to survivors and the families of those who have been hurt, but they have a realization that a mass shooting or gun violence in general ripples through the community,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told CNN.

An operation kicks into gear within the walls of the White House the moment an alert pops up of a potential mass shooting.

The White House Situation Room and the National Security Council work with the Justice Department and other law enforcement, as well as the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, to track down information and gather the facts as they emerge. Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall will then brief Biden on what’s known about the situation and the weapon used, according to a White House official, acknowledging that it can be a fluid situation.

The Domestic Policy Council, meanwhile, assesses patterns and whether there are new lessons to be gleaned and considered in policy making. And the intergovernmental affairs team also races to reach out to the mayor’s office or other local officials to provide a point of contact at the White House.

Biden’s advisers keep him updated along the way. But the exasperation felt by White House officials after each mass shooting has been reflected in Biden’s statements, which have started with: “Once again.”

In an op-ed this month, Biden touted the work done by this administration, but called on Congress to do more.

“But my power is not absolute. Congress must act, including by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring gun owners to securely store their firearms, requiring background checks for all gun sales, and repealing gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability,” he wrote.

White House officials have also been sober about the political realities Democrats face with the current makeup of Congress, where Republicans in control of the House have rejected Biden’s calls for an assault weapons ban. Even when both chambers of Congress were controlled by Democrats during the first two years of Biden’s term, an assault weapon ban gained little traction, in part because of a 60-vote threshold necessary to advance bills through the Senate.

After three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville in March, Biden asserted that he’s done all he can to address gun control and urged members on Capitol Hill to act.

Many Republicans in Congress, including those in positions of leadership and in the Tennessee delegation, had either been reluctant to use the deadly violence in Nashville as a potential springboard for reform or they outright rejected calls for additional action on further regulating guns, arguing that there isn’t an appetite for tougher restrictions. Some Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, slammed House Republicans for their disinterest.

Advocacy groups have welcomed Biden’s executive actions and the administration’s response in the wake of a shooting, but stress there’s room for more.

“It’s part of what moves the needle. Seeing the movement at the federal level is encouraging,” said Mark Barden, co-founder and CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund. “It’s something. It’s not everything. It’s not enough. We certainly need more.”

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May 24, 2023
Ron DeSantis spells out possibility to cement ‘7-2 conservative majority’ on Supreme Court | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Ahead of an expected White House bid in the coming days, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spelled out the possibility to build a “7-2 conservative majority” on the US Supreme Court.

The Republican pointed to four justices – three appointed by Republican presidents – who he believed are poised to leave the bench during the next eight or nine years, during a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando on Monday.

“If you look over the next two presidential terms there is a good chance that you could be called upon to seek replacements for Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito. And the issue with that is you can’t really do better than those two. They are the gold standard for jurisprudence, so you gotta make sure that we are appointing people as close to that standard as possible,” DeSantis said, referring to two conservative stalwarts.

Alito is 73, Thomas is 74.

DeSantis also highlighted what he sees as a potential opportunity to replace conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, 68, or liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 68, to cement a conservative majority for years. The court currently has a 6-3 conservative supermajority.

“If you replace a Clarence Thomas with someone like a Roberts or somebody like that then you’re actually gonna see the court move to the left, and you can’t do that. I also think if you look over those eight years, you very well could be called upon to replace Chief Justice John Roberts, and perhaps even, someone like Justice Sotomayor,” DeSantis said.

“So, it is possible that in those eight years we would have the opportunity to fortify justices Alito and Thomas, as well as actually make improvements with those others and if you were able to do that then you would have a 7-2 conservative majority on the Supreme Court that would last a quarter century, so this is big stuff,” he added.

As governor, DeSantis spoke about tilting the Florida Supreme Court to a conservative majority, with the help of age limits.

“We have age limits for justices,” DeSantis said. “The minute I got elected to office, three of the four liberal justices were off the court, because of age. So, I was able in my first term of office to replace three liberal justices with three conservative justices.”

He teased another judicial appointment this week to replace a retiring conservative justice.

“I will have ended up doing seven appointments throughout my tenure,” DeSantis said. “Judicial activism in Florida is now officially dead.”

Like all federal judges, Supreme Court justices are appointed for life.

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May 23, 2023
Yellen warns Congress again that default could be just days away, but others forecast a little more time | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reinforced her warning to Congress that it has only a little time left to address the debt ceiling before the nation defaults on its obligations.

It is “highly likely” that the agency will not be able to pay all of its bills in full and on time as soon as June 1, Yellen wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday.

“With an additional week of information now available, I am writing to note that we estimate that it is highly likely that Treasury will no longer be able to satisfy all of the government’s obligations if Congress has not acted to raise or suspend the debt limit by early June, and potentially as early as June 1,” she wrote.

Yellen’s latest missive to Congress comes as White House and House GOP negotiators continue trying to hammer out a deal before the so-called X-date, when the nation would default.

McCarthy, who is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden on Monday, said “nothing is agreed to,” though there have been some good discussions. Among the sticking points is the depth of spending cuts.

The speaker said that the package has to come together this week for the House to pass it and move it to the Senate.

Yellen has spent much of May laying out the seriousness of a potential default, which would be a first for the US. She has said it could unleash a global economic recession and financial upheaval, as well as hurt millions of Americans who rely on federal government payments, including Social Security recipients, federal workers and Medicare providers.

Several other analyses back up Yellen’s forecast that the X-date could arrive in early June, though they don’t necessarily think it’s as early as June 1.

“Our projections show Treasury able to get to June 14 before exhausting its cash, but there is no room for error and this date can change,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist for Oxford Economics, wrote in a report Monday.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs on Friday said the agency faces “clear risk of missing payments” on June 8 or June 9.

Wells Fargo analysts said they are a bit more optimistic than Yellen that Treasury could get to June 15. The secretary has said that the odds are “quite low.”

But they added that their confidence has been shaken by earlier forecast misses that underestimated the need for financing and the size of budget deficits. They noted that even in the best-case scenario, Treasury will not have a lot of funds on hand in the first half of next month.

“Put another way, a fifty-fifty chance of an early June default in the absence of a debt ceiling increase is still very concerning and highlights the clear risk of hitting the X date in early June,” they wrote in a note.

If Treasury can continue paying the bills into the middle of next month, then it’s likely the government won’t default until later in the summer. The agency will get another injection of funds from second quarter estimated tax payments, which are due June 15, and from $145 billion in an “extraordinary measure” that becomes available at the end of that month.

Treasury had $60.7 billion in cash on hand as of Friday, according to federal data. The amount bounces around as the agency takes in revenue and makes payments, but the balance has declined from $238.5 billion at the start of the month, when the coffers were relatively flush from tax collections in April.

Ever since the US hit its borrowing cap in January, Treasury has been forced to rely on cash and extraordinary measures to pay the bills until Congress addresses the debt ceiling. The agency had about $92 billion remaining in extraordinary measures as of Wednesday, down from around $220 billion at the end of January.

This headline and story have been updated with additional information.

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May 22, 2023
Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, enters the 2024 GOP primary | CNN Politics

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CNN
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South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott on Monday formally entered the Republican presidential primary, promising to take on “the radical left” and bring faith and conservative, business-friendly policies to the White House, as he seeks to upend a contest that has so far been dominated by coverage of former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to enter the fray in the coming days.

The most prominent Black figure in the Republican Party, Scott addressed supporters at his alma mater, Charleston Southern University, in his hometown of North Charleston.

“I’m the candidate the far-left fears the most. You see, when I cut your taxes, they called me a prop. When I refunded the police, they called me a token. When I pushed back on President Biden, they even called me the ‘n-word,’” Scott said. “I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. The truth of my life disrupts their lies.”

Following the announcement, Scott heads to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – states he frequented on his “Faith in America” tour in the run-up to his announcement – before returning to the Hawkeye State next week for GOP Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual “Roast and Ride” gathering.

Scott, 57, is no stranger to pathbreaking campaigns. In 2010, he became the first Black Republican elected to the US House of Representatives from South Carolina in more than a century. Years later, after being appointed to his Senate seat (he won a special election to retain the seat), Scott made history as the first Black US Senator from his native South Carolina.

Ahead of his entry into the presidential race, senior campaign officials briefed reporters on their view of the path forward, acknowledging he will need to win over support from Trump and DeSantis, but vowing – in a veiled dig at both – that his candidacy will strike a more optimistic tone and condemn the culture of victimhood and grievance that, as his aides described it, has taken over both parties.

“Our party and our nation are standing at a time for choosing,” Scott said. “Victimhood or victory? Grievance or greatness? I choose freedom and hope and opportunity.”

Trump and his team will avoid going after Tim Scott for now, two sources close to the former president told CNN. The directive from Trump has been to stay away from attacks on the South Carolina senator at the moment.

Last week, the Trump-aligned super PAC, MAGA, Inc., weighed in on Scott’s looming announcement, but used it to level an attack on DeSantis, not Scott.

The former president used that approach on Monday as he wished Scott “good luck” while taking a shot at DeSantis.

“Good luck to Senator Tim Scott in entering the Republican Presidential Primary Race. It is rapidly loading up with lots of people, and Tim is a big step up from Ron DeSanctimonious, who is totally unelectable. I got Opportunity Zones done with Tim, a big deal that has been highly successful. Good luck Tim!,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

The South Carolina senator received a boost on Sunday, less than 24 hours before his kick-off event, when news broke that his colleague Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, planned to endorse him.

“I think he’d be a great candidate. I’m excited about it. I’ve been encouraging him,” Thune previously told CNN. “I think he’s getting a lot of encouragement from his colleagues. He’s really well thought of and respected.”

Cory Gardner, the former Republican senator from Colorado and leader of Scott’s aligned super PAC, also argued that his old colleague posed a unique threat to liberal Democrats.

“I think they’re terrified of him, and he’s right to say that, because he defies every narrative they have,” Gardner said. “And this is exciting for conservatives who believe that they have a candidate who carries their values, can implement their values and do so in a way that will make all Americans proud.”

In pictures: Presidential candidate Tim Scott

A senior campaign official said Scott will continue to invest resources and time in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, as the campaign ramps up.

Though Scott hails from South Carolina, they won’t count on it as a firewall, according to one senior campaign official, who emphasized Scott will have to compete as a top-tier candidate in other early primary and caucus states like New Hampshire and Iowa.

Even before the official launch, Scott revealed plans to pluck from his deep campaign coffers – with millions now transferred over from his Senate account – through a series of big-dollar ad buys in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The initial $5.5 million TV ad buy – including broadcast, cable satellite and radio – will air statewide starting Wednesday and run through the first GOP debate in August.

During the same period, Scott will also launch a seven-figure digital ad campaign.

“The biggest thing going for Tim Scott right now is $22 million in the bank. He is getting ready to spend $6 million in Iowa and New Hampshire that will garner tremendous name ID, and it’s gonna be a key factor that many of the other candidates are not doing right now,” said Dave Wilson, a South Carolina conservative strategist and former president of the Palmetto Family Council.

Though he is only officially entering the race now, Scott has already gotten caught in the churn of the campaign season. Shortly after announcing an exploratory committee last month, he was tripped up by questions over his position on a potential national abortion ban.

After initially sidestepping the matter and refusing to say whether he would back a 15-week ban, Scott told WMUR he would support restrictions beginning at 20 weeks. Days later, though, Scott said in an interview with NBC News that he “would literally sign the most conservative pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress.”

Pressed on what precisely that meant, given he had applauded DeSantis for signing a six-week ban in Florida, Scott demurred – saying it was a decision for the states to make.

“I’m not going to talk about six (weeks) or five or seven or 10,” Scott said.

Back at the senator’s home church near Charleston, there are hundreds of worshipers that see him most weekends.

“I’ve heard him talk about hope and opportunity for 25 years. It’s who he is. It’s a part of his story. And so I don’t think he’s going to change,” said Greg Suratt, founding pastor of Seacoast Church.

“I think a misconception that people might have about him is that his niceness, his humility, translates as weakness. And they don’t know the Tim Scott I know, I would like to kind of see it as an iron fist in a velvet glove,” Suratt added, noting that even people who disagree with his politics tend to like him as an individual.

Scott’s faith and his humble beginnings will be a central theme in his campaign, an aide said. Scott grew up in a single parent household in North Charleston, where his mother worked long hours to keep their family afloat.

“Think about the kid whose grandmother has to open the stove to heat the home in the middle of the winter. I think to myself, it kind of feels like that now,” Scott said at a town hall in New Hampshire this month. “So many people with our energy prices doubling in just the last couple years, are experiencing a crisis similar to the one that I had when I was just a kid.”

On his listening tour, Scott said that between the ages of 7 and 14, he “kind of drifted,” failing world geography, civics, English and Spanish in his freshman year of high school. But through the “tireless” encouragement of his mother and mentor, the late John Moniz, a Chick-fil-A manager, Scott says he was able to graduate from Charleston Southern University. He would eventually open his own insurance agency affiliated with Allstate.

Scott credits Moniz with teaching him that anyone can “succeed beyond their circumstances” if they take responsibility for themselves – a message he repeated in North Charleston.

“John taught me that anyone, from anywhere, at any time, can rise above their wildest expectations and imagination,” Scott said after giving roses to Moniz’s widow and his own mother at the beginning of his speech. “But first, I had to take responsibility for myself. He told me in the most loving way possible to look in the mirror and to blame myself.”

Scott’s political career began in 1995, when he ran in a special election to the Charleston City Council, winning a seat he would keep for nearly 15 years. After one term as a state lawmaker, Scott won a US House seat representing South Carolina’s 1st district.

Fellow presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley then appointed Scott to the US Senate in 2012 to fill a vacancy left by Sen. Jim DeMint’s retirement. He retained the seat in a 2014 special election, was re-elected to a full term in 2016 and later won for a third time last year.

“To every single mom who struggles to make ends meet, who wonders if her efforts are in vain, they are not,” Scott said after being appointed by Haley.

During his time in the Senate, Scott has amassed a strictly conservative voting record, but has also led bipartisan police reform talks alongside New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat.

Those talks have gone on for years now, beginning in the summer of 2020 with then-California Sen. Kamala Harris also involved, but hopes for a comprehensive deal were effectively abandoned in 2021. (The conversations reportedly continue, but there is no legislation currently in the offing.)

In 2017, his “Investing in Opportunity Act,” which had some Democratic support, was included in the controversial Republican tax cut bill. The provision called for the establishment of “Opportunity Zones,” which would create tax incentives for businesses that invested in parts of the country struggling with poverty and stalled economies.

“I was one of the lead authors of the Republican tax reform bill that slashed taxes for families, brought jobs and investment back from overseas, and created my signature legislation, the ‘Opportunity Zones,’ that’s brought billions of dollars into the poorest communities that have been left behind,” Scott said in his speech. “That was just one bill. Imagine what we could do with an entire agenda.”

Still, Democrats in South Carolina welcomed Scott to the race with harsh words about his political record – and an attempt to tie him to the GOP’s far right.

“We know how dangerous Tea Party extremist Tim Scott is,” South Carolina Democratic Party chair Christale Spain said in a statement. “From promising to sign the most conservative abortion ban possible as president, to doubling down on his role as ‘architect’ of the 2017 GOP tax scam that pushed tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working families, Scott has proven himself to be just as MAGA as the rest of the 2024 field.”

Though Scott has expressed more openness to working with Democrats than most Republicans in Washington, he also owns one of the most conservative voting records in Congress. He rarely broke with Trump during the latter’s presidency, though he did criticize Trump’s response to White supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

“What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority,” Scott told Vice News at the time. “And that moral authority is compromised.”

Scott largely backed off that line, though, after a meeting with Trump in the White House.

“(Trump) was certainly very clear that the perception that he received on his comments was not exactly what he intended with those comments,” Scott told CBS News.

This story has been updated with additional reporting and reaction.

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May 22, 2023
8-year-old migrant girl who died in US Border Patrol custody was treated for flu several days before her death, authorities say | CNN

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CNN
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An 8-year-old migrant girl who died in the custody of US immigration authorities last week was treated for flu-like symptoms for several days prior to her death at a Texas hospital, according to authorities.

The girl, Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez, a citizen of Panama, died Wednesday in a Harlingen, Texas, hospital, just eight days after her family was taken into custody by US Customs and Border Protection in Brownsville, Texas, the agency said in a news release Sunday. Members of her family, including her parents and two siblings, are all citizens of Honduras, says the news release.

According to CBP records, Reyes was medically assessed on May 10 and did not complain of any illnesses or injuries at the time. However, her family did report a medical history, including chronic conditions of sickle cell anemia and heart disease, according to the news release.

It was not until four days later, on May 14, that Reyes’ mother took her to a treatment area after the girl complained of abdominal pain, nasal congestion and a cough, the release says. At the time, Reyes tested positive for Influenza A and was given several medications, including Tamiflu and Zofran. CBP says she was also given acetaminophen and ibuprofen. She had a temperature of 101.8 degrees, according to the release.

The girl and her family were then taken to the US Border Patrol Station in Harlingen, per agency protocols, CBP said. The Harlingen station is “designated for cases requiring medical isolation for individuals diagnosed with or closely exposed to communicable diseases,” CBP said in the release.

The girl was again assessed by medical personnel after she and her family arrived in Harlingen on May 14. She was given medication for three days, the agency said.

CBP said medical records show Reyes’ mother brought her to the Harlingen medical unit three times on Wednesday. During the first visit, the girl had complained of vomiting, was given Zofran and instructed to hydrate and return as needed.

During the second visit, Reyes complained of stomach pains, according to the release. CBP medical personnel wrote in their records that she was stable and instructed her mother to follow up if needed, the release said.

Reyes’ mother brought her daughter to the medical unit for the third time around 1:55 p.m. CT, according to the release. She was carrying her daughter, who seemed to be having a seizure and then became unresponsive. Medical personnel gave the girl CPR and called for emergency medical help, CBP said.

Emergency medical personnel took the girl and her mother to the Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. Reyes was pronounced dead less than an hour later, at 2:50 p.m. CT, the release said.

An autopsy was performed on the girl by the Cameron County Medical Examiner’s office Friday but an exact cause and manner of death is still pending, according to the release.

In a statement released Sunday, CBP acting commissioner Troy Miller said “we are deeply saddened by the tragic death” and announced a series of actions intended to “reinforce existing policies and continue to ensure appropriate care for all medically fragile individuals.”

The agency has reviewed and will continue reviewing cases of “all known medically fragile individuals” in custody and, along with the agency’s medical services contractor, will review services rendered to in-custody individuals, “especially those who are medically at-risk,” Miller says in the statement.

“The Department of Homeland Security’s Chief Medical Officer will immediately initiate a review of medical care practices at CBP facilities and ensure the deployment of additional medical personnel as needed,” says Miller.

He added that CBP would make the results of the investigation public.

The girl’s parents have been released from immigration custody and will be headed to New York to meet up with family, the Honduran Foreign Ministry previously told CNN.

Once in New York, the family plans to attend their immigration court hearings and request asylum, according to the ministry.

The Honduran Foreign Ministry is working to help the Reyes family with the transfer of their daughter’s body to New York, where she will likely be buried, the ministry said.

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May 21, 2023
Biden and McCarthy to discuss debt ceiling Monday as staff-level talks resume | CNN Politics

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Hiroshima, Japan
CNN
—

Staff-level discussions over the debt ceiling and budget between the White House and congressional Republican will resume Sunday evening after President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke by phone in the afternoon, according to a White House official.

Biden and McCarthy will meet later on Monday, the official added.

McCarthy said the phone call with Biden, who was aboard Air Force One returning to Washington from Japan, was “productive.”

In an 18-minute gaggle with reporters at the US Capitol, the California Republican said that while the timing of the meeting was still being worked out, it was likely to be Monday afternoon. It is not expected to include other congressional leaders.

McCarthy’s more optimistic tone comes after the president had issued a stark warning earlier Sunday that congressional Republicans could use a national default to damage him politically and acknowledged that time had run out to use potential unilateral actions to raise the federal borrowing limit, as the deadline to reach an agreement neared.

Characterizing GOP proposals as “extreme” and warning they couldn’t gain sufficient support in Congress, Biden said he wasn’t able to promise fellow world leaders gathered in Hiroshima, Japan, for Group of Seven talks that the US would not default.

“I can’t guarantee that they will not force a default by doing something outrageous,” he said at a news conference before he left for Washington.

Biden’s remarks were the latest indication that talks between the White House and congressional Republicans remained far apart.

Republicans have been seeking spending cuts in the federal budget in exchange for their support to raise the nation’s borrowing limit. On Sunday, Biden acknowledged “significant” disagreement with Republicans in some areas, insisting that while he’s willing to cut spending, tax “revenue is not off the table” as part of the deal.

McCarthy, in an interview Sunday with Fox News, disagreed with that characterization, saying Biden previously told him that tax increases were “off the table” and that he wouldn’t agree to them.

“He’s now bringing something to the table that everyone said was off the table,” the California Republican said. “It seems as though he wants to fault more than he wants a deal.”

At his news conference, Biden said that much of what Republicans have proposed “is simply, quite frankly, unacceptable.”

“It’s time for Republicans to accept that there’s no bipartisan deal to be made solely, solely on their partisan terms. … They have to move, as well,” the president said.

Pressed on whether he would be to blame for a default scenario, Biden said that based on what he’s offered, he should be blameless but conceded that “no one will be blameless” as he suggested some of his political rivals could be encouraging a default to sabotage his reelection efforts.

“I think there are some MAGA Republicans in the House who know the damage it would do to the economy, and because I am president, and a president is responsible for everything, Biden would take the blame and that’s the one way to make sure Biden’s not reelected,” he said.

McCarthy, in turn, blamed what he called the “socialist wing of the Democratic Party” for driving Biden’s goals in the negotiations.

“The president keeps changing positions every time Bernie Sanders has a press conference. He gets reactive and he shifts,” the speaker said as he arrived at the US Capitol in Washington on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Biden’s top national security aide told CNN that the stalled debt ceiling and budget negotiations have not undercut American leadership abroad or undermined the G7 summit as it came to a close Sunday.

“When you look at the totality of the last three days, it’s actually a reflection of and an exclamation point on the way in which President Biden has led on the world stage. People understand democracies, and they understand that there are moments in domestic politics when you have got to look at the home front,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Biden in his news conference addressed the possibility of using the 14th Amendment to continue US government borrowing in the absence of a deal, suggesting he has the power but not the time to utilize the unilateral action.

“I think we have the authority. The question is, could it be done and invoked in time that it could not – would not be appealed?” Biden asked, calling the question of whether an appeal could be solved before the default deadline “unresolved.”

Pressed by CNN’s Phil Mattingly to clarify whether he thought he could invoke the 14th Amendment as a serious and tangible option, the president made clear that maneuver would not be successful given the short window remaining.

“We have not come up with unilateral action that could succeed in a matter of two weeks or three weeks. That’s the issue. So it’s up to lawmakers. But my hope and intention is to resolve this problem,” he said.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said Sunday a potential invocation of the 14th Amendment would be a “dodge.”

“The president needs to show leadership. ‘OK, House Republicans, American people, you’re concerned about spending, I will meet you there. As opposed to finding a dodge that tries to work its way around,” Cassidy said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated Sunday in an interview with NBC News that June 1 was a “hard deadline” for the US to raise the debt ceiling or risk defaulting on its obligations.

But Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said there may be some leeway.

“The June 1st date was probably, according to Secretary Yellen, the earliest possible date,” the Pennsylvania Republican told CBS News, adding that “we do have enough cash flow” to “pay the interest on our debt.”

“We’re going start to see the state tax revenues come in the second week of June, so I think we’re OK on that,” Fitzpatrick said.

Biden had originally planned to stop in Australia and Papua New Guinea after the G7 summit in Hiroshima, but he canceled those portions of the trip amid the debt ceiling talks.

On Saturday, Rep. Dusty Johnson, a McCarthy ally and chair of the centrist Main Street Caucus, confirmed that the White House had made an offer seeking to cap future spending at current levels, which Johnson called “unreasonable.”

“The paper that the White House provided was a major step backward. And it undermined all the progress that was made Wednesday and Thursday. … It has endangered negotiations,” the South Dakota Republican said.

On Sunday, McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol that GOP Reps. Garrett Graves of Louisiana and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina would begin conversations again with White House staff “so we can walk them through literally what we’ve been talking about.”

Before news broke of the talks resuming, McHenry told CNN that he was “not at all” optimistic a deal could come together.

“I’ve been pessimistic for a while, and something needs to change,” he said Sunday morning.

Graves said both sides had “made a lot of progress in understanding one another’s positions, in understanding red lines” and that the negotiators were closer than when they had started.

He said there were still discussions to be had over ancillary topics such as work requirements and permitting reform, but “the numbers are the baseline.”

“The speaker has been very clear: A red line is spending less money, and unless and until we’re there, the rest of it is really irrelevant,” the Louisiana Republican said.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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May 21, 2023
Could the Fed raise rates again in June? | CNN Business
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A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.

New York
CNN
—

Will the Federal Reserve hike interest rates at its next meeting in June — for the 11th time in a row — or pause? Wall Street seems to be betting on the latter, but it was a topsy-turvy journey to that consensus last week.

What happened: The Fed’s meeting earlier this month fueled hopes that it was done with rate hikes, at least for now. Then, a slate of economic data last week came in stronger than expected.

Retail spending rebounded in April after two months of declines, suggesting that consumers are still spending despite tightening their purse strings. Jobless claims declined more than expected for the week ended May 13, staying below historical averages.

Traders saw a roughly 36% chance last Thursday that the Fed will raise rates by another quarter point in June, up from around 15.5% on May 12, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Then, Fed Chair Jerome Powell weighed in mid-morning Friday. In a panel with former Fed head Ben Bernanke, Powell said that uncertainty remains surrounding how much demand will decline from tighter credit conditions and the lagged effects of hiking rates. Traders pared down their expectations to about a 18.6% chance that the central bank will raise rates next month, as of Friday evening.

Experts seem to agree that the Fed is unlikely to raise rates again in June. “The absence of any such preparation [for a raise] is the signal and gives us additional confidence that the Fed is not going to hike in June absent a very big surprise in the remaining data, though we should expect a hawkish pause,” Evercore ISI strategists said in a May 19 note.

Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, also expects the Fed to hold rates steady in June. But that decision isn’t set in stone, and the Fed will likely monitor three key factors in making its decision, he said. Those are:
The debt ceiling. President Joe Biden and congressional leaders have maintained that the US will likely not default on its debt. But if such a scenario were to happen, it could have catastrophic consequences for the economy and financial markets that would require the Fed wait for the crisis to be resolved before taking action.

Evolving financial conditions. The collapses of regional lenders Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic have accelerated the tightening of credit conditions. While that has complicated the Fed’s plan to stabilize prices, it also could benefit the central bank by doing some of its work for it by slowing spending.

Delayed impact. The Fed’s interest rate hikes flow through the economy with a lag. So, it will take some months for the full effect of its aggressive tightening cycle to show up in the economy. That means the Fed could want to take a pause to monitor the continuing impact of what it has already done.
The Fed has also maintained that its actions are data dependent, meaning it will keep close watch on economic data that comes in before it’s due to announce its next rate decision on June 14.

Some key data points set for release before then include the April Personal Consumption Expenditures price index (that’s the Fed’s preferred inflation metric), May jobs report, the May Consumer Price Index and May Producer Price Index. (The latter two reports are due on the two days the Fed meets.)

If these data points show considerable weakening in the labor market or continued declines in inflation, that helps make the case for a pause. But signs of a robust economy with little to no signs of slowing down could mean the Fed has more room to tighten — and that it could take that opportunity.

Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman, 64, will step down from his role within the next 12 months, he said Friday at the bank’s annual meeting.

“The specific timing of the CEO transition has not been determined, but it is the Board’s and my expectation that it will occur at some point in the next 12 months. That is the current expectation in the absence of a major change in the external environment,” Gorman said.

Gorman, who is one of the longest-serving heads of a US bank and largely responsible for helping lead a sweeping transformation of the company after the 2008 financial crisis, became CEO in January 2010.

He will assume the role of executive chairman for “a period of time,” Gorman said, adding that the board of directors has three senior internal candidates in the pipeline to potentially take over as the next chief executive.

Read more here.

The June 1 ‘X-date’ — the estimated point at which the US Treasury could run out of cash — is fast approaching. For JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, another key date is already here.

The chief executive told Bloomberg earlier this month that he has held a so-called “war room” weekly to prepare the bank for the possibility the United States defaults on its debt. He plans to meet more often as the X-date approaches, and then meet every day by May 21, he said, adding that the meetings will eventually ramp up to take place three times a day.

“I don’t think [a default] is going to happen, because it gets catastrophic,” Dimon said. “The closer you get to it, you will have panic.”

Debt ceiling negotiations appeared to be going in a positive direction for most of last week. Both President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the United States is unlikely to default on its debt and seemed optimistic about the path to a deal.

But debt ceiling talks between the White House and McCarthy’s office have hit a snag, and negotiators put a pause on the talks, multiple sources told CNN Friday.

While that doesn’t mean the negotiations are falling completely apart, or that the country is headed for a default, it does pose more challenges for the stock market, which has stayed relatively resilient despite debt ceiling worries starting to slowly creep in.

Dimon said in the same Bloomberg interview that he’d “love to get rid of the debt ceiling thing” altogether.

The debt ceiling situation “is very unfortunate,” he said. “It should never happen this way.”

Monday: JPMorgan Chase investor day.

Tuesday: April new home sales. Earnings from Lowe’s (LOW).

Wednesday: May Fed meeting minutes.

Thursday: GDP Q1 second read, April pending home sales, mortgage rates and weekly jobless claims. Earnings from Costco (COST), Dollar Tree (DLTR) and Best Buy (BBY).

Friday: April Personal Consumption Expenditures and May University of Michigan final consumer sentiment reading.
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May 21, 2023
George Santos names himself treasurer of his campaign committee | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Rep. George Santos has named himself the treasurer of his campaign committee, marking the latest twist in a monthslong saga over puzzling filings his campaign has made with federal regulators.

The new filing, made late Friday afternoon with the Federal Election Commission, comes a little more than a week after federal prosecutors unveiled a 13-count criminal indictment, charging the New York Republican with wire fraud, fraudulently obtaining Covid-19 unemployment benefits and lying about his personal finances on forms he submitted to the US House of Representatives as a candidate. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Santos defended the move Saturday, saying it was to “ensure compliance.”

“My intent is to operate above reproach,” the freshman lawmakers said on Twitter. “We will continue to build our campaign around professionals with subject matter expertise.”

He added that FEC records will be updated to reflect the change.

Questions long have swirled about the identity of Santos’ campaign treasurer. This year, Santos’ campaign named a new treasurer identified as Andrew Olson, but federal and state records did not show anyone with that name serving as the treasurer of any other federal committees or any political committees operating in New York state.

At the time that Olson was added as treasurer, the address associated with him and Santos’ campaign was that of a mixed-use apartment and commercial building in Elmhurst, New York, where the congressman’s sister had resided until earlier this year.

Earlier this month, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington watchdog group, lodged a complaint with the Federal Election Commission questioning Olson’s existence and asking the agency to investigate whether the campaign had potentially violated campaign finance laws with filings that listed that person as treasurer.

Political committees are not allowed to raise or spend money without a treasurer. Candidates legally can serve as the treasurers of their own campaigns, but it is rare for them to do so.

In his short time in Washington, Santos’ campaign filings have faced intense scrutiny. They range from questions about dozens of campaign expenses listed at $199.99 – a penny below the threshold for which campaigns are required to retain receipts – to confusion about who was filing the treasurer’s role.

On January 25, for instance, Santos’ campaign listed a Wisconsin political consultant as replacing the congressman’s longtime treasurer Nancy Marks. But the consultant’s lawyer said the campaign had done so without his authorization, and that his client had turned down the job.

Then, on January 31, Marks informed the FEC that she had resigned. Later that day, Olson’s electronic signature first appeared on a Santos report.

Santos has argued in the past that the filings were not his responsibility.

“I don’t touch any of my FEC stuff, right?” he told CNN back in January. “So don’t be disingenuous and report that I did because you know that every campaign hires fiduciaries.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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May 20, 2023
8-year-old girl dies in US Customs and Border Protection custody | CNN

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CNN
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An 8-year-old girl died while in US Customs and Border Protection custody in Harlingen, Texas, the agency said Wednesday.

The girl and her family were in custody at a CBP facility when she “experienced a medical emergency,” the agency said in a news release Wednesday night, without providing details.

“Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead,” the release said.

The Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating her death, as is consistent with protocol, CBP officials said.

The child’s death comes days after an unaccompanied Honduran 17-year-old housed at a Florida shelter died while under the care of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to a congressional notice obtained by CNN last week.

Last week, immigration officials said in a court filing that surging migration coupled with the termination of Title 42 “is overwhelming U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities, risking widespread health and safety risks to migrants, government employees, and the public.”

Detention facilities along the US-Mexico border surpassed capacity after an uptick in migrant crossings ahead of the expiration of Title 42, a Covid-era border restriction that was lifted last week.

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May 17, 2023
Angry lawmakers accuse Fed of inaction in insider trading investigation | CNN Business

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CNN
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Congressional lawmakers grilled Federal Reserve Inspector General Mark Bialek Wednesday over possible insider trading among Fed officials in 2020, accusing the nation’s central bank of inaction.

The heads of the Boston and Dallas Federal Reserve banks retired early in 2021 after trades they made before and during the pandemic came to light. Bialek said his investigation into any potential legal violations from the trades is “ongoing.”

A separate investigation by Bialek last year found no wrongdoing stemming from trades by a financial adviser on behalf of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s family trust and by former Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida.

Bialek told members of a Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy that he was limited in what he could disclose because it would impede his ability to “conduct a thorough, independent investigation” into the former regional bank heads’ trades.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, interrupted: “You have had a year and a half,” she said. “This is not strong oversight. In fact, it is not even competent oversight.”

As Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the subcommittee pointed out, Bialek, who has served in his role since 2011, is appointed by members of the Fed’s Board of Governors, whom he is tasked with investigating. Bialek told lawmakers there was no conflict of interest and that he was still able to conduct fair, independent investigations. Warren, among others, said she was unconvinced.

“It looks like, to anyone in the public, that you gave your boss a free pass,” she said. “The Fed continues to stonewall Congress, stonewall the public on the underlying information about these trades. This is not acceptable.”

The Office of Inspector General declined to comment Wednesday night.

After Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March, Warren and Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida introduced a bill to require a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed inspector general to the Fed Board of Governors.

A separate Fed investigation into SVB’s collapse, not involving Bialek, faulted Fed supervisors. Scott on Wednesday said he lacked confidence in Bialek’s ability to investigate those Fed supervisory lapses.

“Somebody at the Federal Reserve that was responsible for these banks for supervision clearly did it wrong,” he said Wednesday, referring to bank collapses since 2008. “The average person in America pays for all this.”

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May 17, 2023
Federal judge calls out judicial panel’s handling of 2011 ethics complaints against Clarence Thomas | CNN Politics

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Leaders of the policy-making body for the federal courts repeatedly failed to inform its full membership of complaints raised by lawmakers and watchdog groups about Justice Clarence Thomas’ pattern of nondisclosure on his financial reports more than 10 years ago, a sitting federal judge testified to a Senate panel on Wednesday.

In 2011, the Judicial Conference received a number of complaints from lawmakers and watchdog groups about Thomas after media reports revealed that he failed to disclose income his wife earned between 1998 and 2003 from The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

The complaints asked the conference to refer the matter to the US attorney general to probe whether the justice’s behavior ran afoul of a federal ethics law. Thomas quickly amended his reports when the allegations were brought to his attention, leading the body to conclude that no further action was needed.

But US District Judge Mark Wolf, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, said on Wednesday that the full Judicial Conference did not receive notice of the complaints sent to leaders of the conference and therefore couldn’t decide how the body should act on them.

“This concerned me because the issues raised by the letters were serious,” Wolf said in testimony to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee looking into court ethics.

“Pursuant to established conference policies and procedures, if the committee (on financial disclosures) had considered the letters, my colleagues on the Judicial Conference and I should have been informed of them in its reports to the Conference, even if the committee was not recommending any action by the Conference,” he said.

“Such information would have afforded me and the other members of the conference the opportunity to discuss and decide whether there was reasonable cause to believe Justice Thomas had willfully violated the act and, if so, to make the required referral to the attorney general,” Wolf added.

The decade-old complaints have reentered the spotlight amid recent reports about Thomas’ decision to not disclose years of luxury travel and expensive gifts that were paid for by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, as well as a real estate deal he and his family cut with the donor.

Those reports have fueled similar calls by lawmakers and watchdog groups for the Judicial Conference to refer the justice to the attorney general for potential violations of the ethics law, and CNN has reported that Thomas intends to amend his financial disclosure forms to reflect the 2014 real estate deal.

They’ve also put the Judicial Conference, which among other things handles financial disclosure forms submitted by justices and federal judges, in the hot seat. When the 2011 complaints were made, Wolf was serving on the conference, which is comprised of a small selection of federal judges from various courts around the country.

Earlier this week, the conference defended its decision more than 10 years ago to not refer Thomas to the DOJ to investigate allegations that his pattern of nondisclosure on his financial reports broke federal law.

Roslynn Mauskopf, the conference’s secretary, explained its reasoning in a letter Monday to Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate Judiciary subcommittee looking into court ethics, noting that Thomas “immediately amended his reports” after the issue was raised with the justice.

“The then-chair of the committee, the Honorable Bobby R. Baldock, reviewed the January 2011 allegations and the amended reports and concluded that the reports were properly amended and that no further action was warranted,” Mauskopf wrote.

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May 17, 2023
Florida teacher says she is under investigation after showing 5th grade class Disney movie with gay character | CNN

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A fifth-grade teacher said she is being investigated by the Florida Department of Education after she showed her students “Strange World,” a 2022 animated Disney movie featuring a character who is biracial and gay.

Jenna Barbee is a teacher in Hernando County’s Winding Waters K-8 school. “I am the teacher that’s under investigation with the Florida Department of Education for indoctrination for showing a Disney movie,” Barbee said in a TikTok post over the weekend.

In the post, Barbee explained she played the Disney movie to a class which was partially full after a day of standardized testing. She also said she had previously-signed permission slips from all the parents, allowing the students to watch a movie rated PG.

According to Barbee, a parent then complained and reported her to the state Department of Education.

The parent who reported her, who is also a member of the Hernando County School District Board, complained to the principal about the movie not being appropriate for students, according to Karen Jordan, spokesperson for Hernando County Schools. Jordan also provided CNN with a copy of the announcement from the school district to parents.

“Yesterday, the Disney movie ‘Strange World’ was shown in your child’s classroom,” the school district said. “While not the main plot of the movie, parts of the story involves a male character having and expressing feelings for another male character. In the future, this movie will not be shown. The school administration and the district’s Professional Standards Dept is currently reviewing the matter to see if further corrective action is required.”

The complaint is part of Florida’s controversial legislation, signed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, banning certain instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom. DeSantis and other supporters pushed the measure as a form of “parental rights,” while opponents said it tried to erase LGBTQ people from schools and dubbed the law “Don’t Say Gay.”

The law initially banned instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade or in a way deemed not age-appropriate for all other grades, but it has since been expanded to limit such information all through high school. Teachers who violate the state policy can be suspended or have their teaching licenses revoked.

Disney was among those who spoke out against the law last year, spurring DeSantis and Florida Republicans to retaliate against the entertainment company by targeting their control over the land in and around its theme parks.

The animated film “Strange World,” released last year, told the story of a family of explorers and starred the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid and Lucy Liu. The movie also featured Disney’s first-ever out-gay character, voiced by comedian Jaboukie Young-White.

On May 9, Barbee addressed the school board members during public comment at a meeting. In attendance was the parent who had complained, school board member Shannon Rodriguez, she acknowledged during the meeting.

“A school board member, an elected official of power, who was supposed to be nonpartisan, is allowed to present to the public that she is Christian and that God appointed her to the board. And yet it is indoctrinated that I showed a Disney movie. I’m a first-year teacher,” said Barbee.

The teacher told district board members the movie was in no way sexual and was tied to the current lesson plan of the environment and ecosystems.

Barbee claimed in the meeting Rodriguez “came to my school took me away from my students to tell me how bad and wrong I was.”

At the end of the school board meeting, Rodriguez said she called the state department of education regarding the incident, which prompted the state investigation. She said her daughter is in Barbee’s class.

She said at the district meeting Barbee broke school policy because she did not get the specific movie approved by school administration and said the teacher is “playing the victim.”

“It is not a teacher’s job to impose their beliefs upon a child: religious, sexual orientation, gender identity, any of the above. But allowing movies such as this assist teachers in opening a door, and please hear me, they assist teachers in opening a door for conversations that have no place in our classrooms,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said “as a leader in this community, I’m not going to stand by and allow this minority to infiltrate our schools … God did put me here,” she said.

CNN has reached out to Rodriguez and Hernando County School District and the Florida Department of Education for comment.

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May 15, 2023
Mysterious rumblings were recorded in Earth’s stratosphere | CNN

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Giant solar balloons were sent 70,000 feet up in the air to record sounds of Earth’s stratosphere — and the microphones picked up some unexpected sounds.

The stratosphere is the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere, and its lower level contains the ozone layer that absorbs and scatters the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, according to NASA. The thin, dry air of the stratosphere is where jet aircraft and weather balloons reach their maximum altitude, and the relatively calm atmospheric layer is rarely disturbed by turbulence.

Daniel Bowman, principal scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, was inspired in graduate school to explore the soundscape of the stratosphere after being introduced to the low-frequency sounds that are generated by volcanoes. Known as infrasound, the phenomenon is inaudible to the human ear.

Bowman and his friends had previously flown cameras on weather balloons “to take pictures of the black sky above and the Earth far below” and successfully built their own solar balloon.

He proposed attaching infrasound recorders to balloons to record the sounds of volcanoes. But then he and his adviser Jonathan Lees of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, “realized that no one had tried to put microphones on stratospheric balloons for half a century, so we pivoted to exploring what this new platform could do,” Bowman said. Lees is a professor of Earth, marine and environmental sciences who researches seismology and volcanology.

The balloons can take sensors twice as high as commercial jets can fly.

“On our solar balloons, we have recorded surface and buried chemical explosions, thunder, ocean waves colliding, propeller aircraft, city sounds, suborbital rocket launches, earthquakes, and maybe even freight trains and jet aircraft,” Bowman said via email. “We’ve also recorded sounds whose origin is unclear.”

The findings were shared Thursday at the 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Chicago.

A recording shared by Bowman from a NASA balloon that circled Antarctica contains infrasound of colliding ocean waves, which sounds like continual sighing. But other crackles and rustling have unknown origins.

Listen to the sounds of the stratosphere

Solar balloons captured a multitude of sounds in the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere, including colliding ocean waves — as well as sounds with unidentified origins.

Source: Daniel Bowman/Sandia National Laboratories

In the stratosphere, “there are mysterious infrasound signals that occur a few times per hour on some flights, but the source of these is completely unknown,” Bowman said.

Bowman and his collaborators have conducted research using NASA balloons and other flight providers, but they decided to build their own balloons, each spanning about 19.7 to 23 feet (6 to 7 meters) across.

The supplies can be found at hardware and pyrotechnic supply stores, and the balloons can be assembled on a basketball court.

“Each balloon is made of painter’s plastic, shipping tape, and charcoal dust,” Bowman said via email. “They cost about $50 to make and a team of two can build one in about 3.5 hours. One simply brings it out to a field on a sunny day and fills it up with air, and it will carry a pound of payload to about 70,000 ft.”

The charcoal dust is used inside the balloons to darken them, and when the sun shines on the dark balloons, the air inside them warms up and becomes buoyant. The inexpensive and easy DIY design means the researchers can release multiple balloons to collect as much data as possible.

“Really, a group of high schoolers with access to the school gym could build a solar balloon, and there’s even a cellphone app called RedVox that can record infrasound,” Bowman said.

Bowman estimated that he launched several dozen solar balloons to collect infrasound recordings between 2016 and April of this year. Microbarometers, originally designed to monitor volcanoes, were attached to the balloons to record low-frequency sounds.

The researchers tracked their balloons using GPS, since they can travel for hundreds of miles and land in inconvenient locations.

The longest flight so far was 44 days aboard a NASA helium balloon, which recorded 19 days worth of data before the batteries on the microphone died. Meanwhile, solar balloon flights tend to last about 14 hours during the summer and land once the sun sets.

The advantage of the high altitude reached by the balloons means that noise levels are lower and the detection range is increased — and the whole Earth is accessible. But the balloons also present challenges for researchers. The stratosphere is a harsh environment with wild temperature fluctuations between heat and cold.

“Solar balloons are a bit sluggish, and we’ve wrecked a few on bushes when trying to launch them,” Bowman said. “We’ve had to hike down into canyons and across mountains to get our payloads. Once, our Oklahoma State colleagues actually had a balloon land in a field, spend the night, and launch itself back in the air to fly another whole day!”

Lessons learned from multiple balloon flights have somewhat eased the process, but now the greatest challenge for researchers is identifying the signals recorded during the flights.

“There are many flights with signals whose origin we do not understand,” Bowman said. “They are almost certainly mundane, maybe a patch of turbulence, a distant severe storm, or some sort of human object like a freight train — but it’s hard to tell what is going on sometimes due to the lack of data up there.”

Sarah Albert, a geophysicist at Sandia National Laboratories, has investigated a “sound channel” — a conduit that carries sounds across great distances through the atmosphere — located at the altitudes Bowman studies. Her recordings have captured rocket launches and other unidentified rumblings.

“It may be that sound gets trapped in the channel and echoes around until it’s completely garbled,” Bowman said. “But whether it is near and fairly quiet (like a patch of turbulence) or distant and loud (like a faraway storm) is not clear yet.”

Bowman and Albert will continue to investigate the aerial sound channel and try to determine where the stratosphere’s rumbles are originating — and why some flights record them while others don’t.

Bowman is eager to understand the soundscape of the stratosphere and unlock key features, like variability across seasons and locations.

It’s possible that helium-filled versions of these balloons could one day be used to explore other planets like Venus, carrying scientific instruments above or within the planet’s clouds for a few days as a test flight for larger, more complex missions.

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May 11, 2023
FDA advisers vote unanimously in support of over-the-counter birth-control pill | CNN

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CNN
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Advisers for the US Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Wednesday in support of making the birth-control pill Opill available over-the-counter, saying the benefits outweigh the risks.

Two FDA advisory panels agreed that people would use Opill safely and effectively and said groups such as adolescents and those with limited literacy would be able to take the pill at the same time every day without help from a health care worker.

The advisers were asked to vote on whether people were likely to use the tablet properly so that the benefits would exceed the risks. Seventeen voted yes. Zero voted no or abstained.

Opill manufacturer Perrigo hailed the vote as a “groundbreaking” move for women’s health.

“Perrigo is proud to lead the way in making contraception more accessible to women in the U.S.,” Murray Kessler, Perrigo’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are motivated by the millions of people who need easy access to safe and effective contraception.”

The FDA doesn’t have to follow its advisers’ advice, but it often does. It is expected to decide whether to approve the over-the-counter pill this summer.

If it’s approved, this will be the first birth-control pill available over the counter in the United States. Opill is a “mini-pill” that uses only the hormone progestin.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Dr. Margery Gass of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine thanked the FDA for its consideration of switching Opill to an over-the-counter product.

“I think this represents a landmark in our history of women’s health. Unwanted pregnancies can really derail a woman’s life, and especially an adolescent’s life,” she said.

The FDA has faced pressure to allow Opill to go over-the-counter from lawmakers as well as health care providers.

Unwanted pregnancies are a public health issue in the US, where almost half of all pregnancies are unintended, and rates are especially high among lower-income women, Black women and those who haven’t completed high school.

In March 2022, 59 members of Congress wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf about OTC contraception.

“This is a critical issue for reproductive health, rights, and justice. Despite decades of proven safety and effectiveness, people still face immense barriers to getting birth control due to systemic inequities in our healthcare system,” the lawmakers wrote.

A recent study showed that it’s become harder for women to access reproductive health care services more broadly – such as routine screenings and birth control – in recent years.

About 45% of women experienced at least one barrier to reproductive health care services in 2021, up 10% from 2017. Nearly 19% reported at least three barriers in 2021, up from 16% in 2017.

Increasing reproductive access for women and adolescents was a resounding theme among the FDA advisers.

“We can take this opportunity to increase access, reduce disparities and, most importantly, increase the reproductive autonomy of the women of our nation,” said Dr. Jolie Haun of the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and the University of Utah.

Dr. Karen Murray, deputy director of the FDA’s Office of Nonprescription Drugs, said the agency understands the importance of “increased access to effective contraception” but hinted that the FDA would need more data from the manufacturer.

Some of the advisers and FDA scientists expressed concern that some of Perrigo’s data was unreliable due to overreporting of “improbable dosing.”

Murray said the lack of sufficient information from the study poses challenges for approval.

“It would have been a much easier time for the agency if the applicant had submitted a development program and an actual use study that was very easy to interpret and did not have so many challenges. But that was not what happened for us. And so the FDA has been put in a very difficult position of trying to determine whether it is likely that women will use this product safely and effectively in the nonprescription setting,” she said. “But I wanted to again emphasize that FDA does realize how very important women’s health is and how important it is to try to increase access to effective contraception for US women.”

Ultimately, the advisers said, they don’t want further studies of Opill to delay the availability of the product in an over-the-counter setting.

“I just wanted to say that the improbable dosing issue is important, and I don’t think it’s been adequately addressed and certainly leads to some uncertainty in the findings. But despite this, I would not recommend another actual use study this time, and I think we can make a decision on the totality of the evidence,” said Kate Curtis of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Curtis said she voted yes because “Opill has the potential to have a huge positive public health impact.”

Earlier in the discussion, Dr. Leslie Walker-Harding of the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital said the pill is just as safe as many other medications available on store shelves.

“The safety profile is so good that we would need to take every other medicine off the market like Benadryl, ibuprofen, Tylenol, which causes deaths and people can get any amount of that without any oversight. And this is extremely safe, much safer than all three of those medications, and incorrect use still doesn’t appear to have problematic issues,” she said.

Dr. Katalin Roth of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences also emphasized the safety of the pill over the 50 years it has been approved as a prescription drug in the US.

“The risks to women of an unintended pregnancy are much greater than any of the things we were discussing as risks of putting this pill out out over-the-counter,” she said. “The history of women’s contraception is a struggle for women’s control over their reproduction, and we need to trust women.”

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May 10, 2023