WASHINGTON (AP) — There has been a doubling of petitions by workers to have union representation during President Joe Biden’s administration, according to figures released Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board.
There were 3,286 petitions filed with the government in fiscal 2024, up from 1,638 in 2021. This marks the first increase in unionization petitions during a presidential term since Gerald Ford’s administration, which ended 48 years ago.
During Trump’s presidency, union petitions declined 22%.
President Joe Biden said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press that the increase showed that his administration has done more for workers than his predecessor, Donald Trump, the current Republican nominee who is vying to return to the White House in November’s election.
“After the previous administration sided with big corporations to undermine workers — from blocking overtime pay protections to making it harder to organize — my Administration has supported workers,” Biden said. “Because when unions do well, all workers do well and the entire economy benefits.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is relying heavily on union support to help turn out voters in this year’s presidential election. But Trump with his push for tariffs on foreign imports has a blue collar appeal that has for some unionized workers mattered more than his record his office.
Just 16% of voters in 2020 belonged to a union household. Biden secured 56% of them, compared to Trump getting 42%, according to AP VoteCast. The margin of support in union households in this year’s election could decide the outcome of potentially close races in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Workers have also become more empowered to report what they judge to be unfair labor practices. The National Labor Relations Board said its field offices received a total of 24,578 cases last fiscal year, the most in more than a decade.
DALLAS (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred met for their only debate Tuesday night, trading attacks over abortion and immigration in a closely watched race that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S. Senate.
Nationally, Democrats view Texas as one of their few potential pickup chances in the Senate this year, while Cruz has urged Republicans to take Texas seriously amid signs that the former 2016 presidential contender is in another competitive race to keep his seat.
From start to finish in the hourlong debate, Cruz sought to link Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris at nearly every opportunity and painted the three-term Dallas congressman as out of step in a state where voters have not elected a Democrat to a statewide office in 30 years.
Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator if elected, hammered Cruz over the state’s abortion ban that is one of the most restrictive in the nation and does not allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The issue is central to Allred’s underdog campaign and his supporters include Texas women who had serious pregnancy complications after the state’s ban took effect.
Pressed on whether he supports Texas’ law, Cruz said the specifics of abortion law have been and should be decided by the Texas Legislature.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a U.S. Senate debate with Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Dallas. (Shelby Tauber/Texas Tribune via AP, Pool)
“I don’t serve in the state Legislature. I’m not the governor,” he said.
Cruz later blasted Allred over his support of transgender rights and immigration polices of President Joe Biden and Harris, accusing him of shifting his views on border security from the positions he took when he was first elected to Congress in 2018.
“What I always said is that we have to make sure that as we’re talking about border security, that we don’t fall into demonizing,” Allred said.
Allred accused the two-term U.S. senator of mischaracterizing his record and repeatedly jabbed Cruz for his family vacation to Mexico during a deadly winter storm in 2021 that crippled the state’s power grid.
The two candidates closed the debate by attacking each other, with Cruz painting an Allred victory as a threat to Republicans’ grip on Texas.
“Congressman Allred and Kamala Harris are both running on the same radical agenda,” Cruz said.
Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, left, speaks during a U.S. Senate debate with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Dallas. (Shelby Tauber/Texas Tribune via AP, Pool)
Allred, meanwhile, cast himself as a moderate and accused Cruz of engaging in what he described as “anger-tainment, where you just leave people upset and you podcast about it and you write a book about it and you make some money on it, but you’re not actually there when people need you.”
The last time Cruz was on the ballot in 2018, he only narrowly won reelection over challenger Beto O’Rourke.
The debate offered Allred, a former NFL linebacker, a chance to boost his name identification to a broad Texas audience. Allred has made protecting abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign and has been sharply critical of the state’s abortion ban. The issue has been a winning one for Democrats, even in red states like Kentucky and Kansas, ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to strip away constitutional protections for abortion.
Cruz, who fast made a name for himself in the Senate as an uncompromising conservative, has refashioned his campaign to focus on his legislative record.
What to know about the 2024 Election
Allred has meanwhile sought to flash moderate credentials and has the endorsement of former Republican U.S. Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.
The two candidates alone have raised close to $100 million, according to the most recent reports from the Federal Election Commission. Tens of millions more dollars have been spent by outside groups, making it one of the most expensive races in the country.
Despite Texas’ reputation as a deep-red state and the Democrats’ 30-year statewide drought, the party has grown increasingly optimistic in recent years that they can win here.
Since former President Barack Obama lost Texas by more than 15 percentage points in 2012, the margins have steadily declined. Former President Donald Trump won by 9 percentage points in 2016, and four years later, won by less than 6. That was the narrowest victory for a Republican presidential candidate in Texas since 1996.
“Texas is a red state,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. “But it’s not a ruby-red state.”
President Biden on Sunday announced $600 million in aid for areas affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene as he toured Florida’s St. Pete Beach region that was damaged by the storm.
“This is all a team effort, folks. it made a big difference,” Mr. Biden said. “And it saved lives. But there’s much more to do, and we’re going to do everything we can to get power back in your homes, not only helping you recover, but to help you build back stronger.”
Mr. Biden thanked local officials, first responders and healthcare workers for their help, and emphasized that “in moments like this, we come together, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. … We are one United States.”
He also said he knew “how devastating it is to lose your home,” as years ago his Delaware home was struck by lightning and was damaged. News reports from that time said the strike resulted in a small fire in the kitchen that was contained within 20 minutes.
Energy Secretary Granholm also spoke, along with a few local officials.
Mr. Biden’s visit to Florida offers him another opportunity to press Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to get lawmakers to provide more funding before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has said the issue will be dealt with after the election.
Mr. Biden departed early Sunday morning, with FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell among those traveling aboard Air Force One.
Biden announces more than $600 million in aid
“I think Speaker Johnson is going to get the message that he’s got to step up, particularly for small businesses,” Mr. Biden told reporters on Friday as he and Harris met with aides to discuss the federal response to hurricanes Milton and Helene. Biden and Johnson have yet to discuss the matter directly.
In Florida, Mr. Biden announced $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas affected by the hurricanes to improve the resilience of the region’s electric grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.
“We are one United States”
Mr. Biden spoke of government relief efforts “from state and local to FEMA to us, Coast Guard Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense, just to name a few.
“FEMA has delivered 1.2 million meals over 300,000 liters of water, 2 million gallons of fuel, and so far, we’ve installed 100 satellite terminals to restore communications in impacted areas, so families can talk to contact their loved ones to be sure everything’s okay, and be able to reach out for help as well.
“Speaking of help, so far, we opened 10 disaster recovery centers in Florida with more to come. So people can have one stop to meet with officials, get the federal help they’re entitled to.” He said direct, immediate financial aid was available including no-interest loans, mortgage relief and more.
For a fuller list of disaster relief programs, residents can go online to disaster assistance.gov, or call 1-800-621-FEMA.
Recent hurricanes and the government response have added another layer to the presidential race
With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response had been lacking, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. And Mr. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.
Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including incorrectly saying that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.
Mr. Biden has said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of false claims in recent weeks but that he has the “biggest mouth.”
Homeland Security chief warns FEMA is running out of relief funds
The president is pressing for swift action by Congress to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.
But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for the time being and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the lame-duck session after the election.
Harris, DeSantis trade accusations about storm response
Also percolating in the background are tensions between Harris and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. As Helene barreled toward Florida last week, the Democratic vice president and Republican governor traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.
Harris’ office last week suggested that DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had called and grumbled that she hadn’t been involved in the federal government’s response before she became the Democratic presidential nominee.
Mr. Biden, for his part, said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted.
“He’s been very cooperative,” Mr. Biden said about DeSantis. He added, “We got on very, very well.”
DeSantis said Saturday that he had no details about the president’s visit.
During Sunday’s visit, Biden called the storm recovery “a team effort, folks. It made a big difference and it saved lives. But there’s much more to do. And we’re going to do everything we can to get power back in your homes, not only helping you recover, but to help you build back stronger.”
“Earlier this morning, I did an aerial tour of St. Petersburg and the battered coastline,” said Biden. “I flew over Tropicana Field and … the roof is almost completely off. But, thank God, not many people were injured. I spoke to first responders were working around the clock. I also met with small business owners here and homeowners who have taken a real beating [with] back-to-back storms. And they’re heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up.”
President Joe Biden speaks following a briefing by federal, state, and local officials in St. Pete Beach, Fla., during a tour of areas affected by Hurricane Milton, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024.
President Biden on Sunday announced $600 million in aid for areas affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene as he toured Florida’s St. Pete Beach region that was damaged by the storm.
“This is all a team effort, folks. it made a big difference,” Mr. Biden said. “And it saved lives. But there’s much more to do, and we’re going to do everything we can to get power back in your homes, not only helping you recover, but to help you build back stronger.”
Mr. Biden thanked local officials, first responders and healthcare workers for their help, and emphasized that “in moments like this, we come together, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. … We are one United States.”
He also said he knew “how devastating it is to lose your home,” as years ago his Delaware home was struck by lightning and was damaged. News reports from that time said the strike resulted in a small fire in the kitchen that was contained within 20 minutes.
Energy Secretary Granholm also spoke, along with a few local officials.
Mr. Biden’s visit to Florida offers him another opportunity to press Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to get lawmakers to provide more funding before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has said the issue will be dealt with after the election.
Mr. Biden departed early Sunday morning, with FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell among those traveling aboard Air Force One.
Biden announces more than $600 million in aid
“I think Speaker Johnson is going to get the message that he’s got to step up, particularly for small businesses,” Mr. Biden told reporters on Friday as he and Harris met with aides to discuss the federal response to hurricanes Milton and Helene. Biden and Johnson have yet to discuss the matter directly.
In Florida, Mr. Biden announced $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas affected by the hurricanes to improve the resilience of the region’s electric grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.
“We are one United States”
Mr. Biden spoke of government relief efforts “from state and local to FEMA to us, Coast Guard Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense, just to name a few.
“FEMA has delivered 1.2 million meals over 300,000 liters of water, 2 million gallons of fuel, and so far, we’ve installed 100 satellite terminals to restore communications in impacted areas, so families can talk to contact their loved ones to be sure everything’s okay, and be able to reach out for help as well.
“Speaking of help, so far, we opened 10 disaster recovery centers in Florida with more to come. So people can have one stop to meet with officials, get the federal help they’re entitled to.” He said direct, immediate financial aid was available including no-interest loans, mortgage relief and more.
For a fuller list of disaster relief programs, residents can go online to disaster assistance.gov, or call 1-800-621-FEMA.
Recent hurricanes and the government response have added another layer to the presidential race
With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response had been lacking, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. And Mr. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.
Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including incorrectly saying that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.
Mr. Biden has said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of false claims in recent weeks but that he has the “biggest mouth.”
Homeland Security chief warns FEMA is running out of relief funds
The president is pressing for swift action by Congress to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.
But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for the time being and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the lame-duck session after the election.
Harris, DeSantis trade accusations about storm response
Also percolating in the background are tensions between Harris and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. As Helene barreled toward Florida last week, the Democratic vice president and Republican governor traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.
Harris’ office last week suggested that DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had called and grumbled that she hadn’t been involved in the federal government’s response before she became the Democratic presidential nominee.
Mr. Biden, for his part, said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted.
“He’s been very cooperative,” Mr. Biden said about DeSantis. He added, “We got on very, very well.”
DeSantis said Saturday that he had no details about the president’s visit.
During Sunday’s visit, Biden called the storm recovery “a team effort, folks. It made a big difference and it saved lives. But there’s much more to do. And we’re going to do everything we can to get power back in your homes, not only helping you recover, but to help you build back stronger.”
“Earlier this morning, I did an aerial tour of St. Petersburg and the battered coastline,” said Biden. “I flew over Tropicana Field and … the roof is almost completely off. But, thank God, not many people were injured. I spoke to first responders were working around the clock. I also met with small business owners here and homeowners who have taken a real beating [with] back-to-back storms. And they’re heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up.”
President Joe Biden speaks following a briefing by federal, state, and local officials in St. Pete Beach, Fla., during a tour of areas affected by Hurricane Milton, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024.
President Joe Biden announced $612 million in recovery aid for areas stricken by hurricanes Milton and Helene as he surveyed the aftermath of Milton in Florida.
“This funding will not only restore power, but will make the region’s power system stronger and more capable and reduce the frequency and duration of power outages while extreme weather events become more frequent,” Biden said Sunday during a stop in St. Pete Beach.
Biden said Friday that the damage from Milton alone could be around $50 billion based on early assessments. Sunday’s funding announcement will go toward six Department of Energy projects to strengthen the region’s electric grid, according to the White House.
The trip is part of an effort by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for the presidency in the Nov. 5 election, to assure voters that they are maximizing the government’s disaster response and counter claims by former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, that the administration isn’t doing enough.
Milton is the second storm to strike Florida in recent weeks, bringing new devastation to a state still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which caused a swath of damage across the southeastern US. Harris was visiting North Carolina on Sunday for stops including a campaign rally.
The relief funds will be distributed through the Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships Program. Projects slated to receive some of the funding include $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power & Light.
President Joe Biden announced $612 million on Sunday for six projects to improve electric grid reliability in areas hard-hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton.Biden is expected to detail those resiliency efforts during a visit to St. Petersburg, Florida, which is recovering from back-to-back disasters.Taken together, the storms knocked out power for more than 8 million people in less than two weeks, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ahead of Biden’s trip Sunday, the tracking website PowerOutage.us said more than one million people across the Southeast were still without electricity. The White House says a massive restoration effort is ongoing. “Fifty thousand power line workers from 43 states and the country of Canada have stepped up,” President Biden said on Friday. The Biden administration’s push to shore up the electric grid comes as disruptions are on the rise. The research group Climate Central says weather-related power outages have almost doubled in the last decade compared to the ten years prior. The $612 million investment Biden announced Sunday is part of the $10.5 billion dedicated to electric grid resiliency in the bipartisan infrastructure law, which passed in 2021. “We’ve already gotten the majority of that money out the door, 65 different projects all across the country to build more resiliently,” Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said in an interview. Turk said those projects include replacing wooden electrical poles with concrete ones and burying overhead transmission lines underground. “We need to do a lot more of that and the storms are, unfortunately, only getting more intense,” Turk added.Without further action to improve the grid and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, climate change could increase the risk of hurricane-induced power outages in some places, according to projections from EPRI, an independent, non-profit energy R&D institute.”Some areas might see a doubling of the number of power outages experienced in a given decade in a future climate,” said Andrea Staid, principal technical leader for EPRI’s Energy Systems and Climate Analysis Group. In some metro areas, like Miami, Houston and Boston, EPRI’s models found the risk is even higher. “Most utilities understand they have growing risks from hurricanes. We hope this is just material that can be used to try to more systematically approach those risk,” Staid said.
President Joe Biden announced $612 million on Sunday for six projects to improve electric grid reliability in areas hard-hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Biden is expected to detail those resiliency efforts during a visit to St. Petersburg, Florida, which is recovering from back-to-back disasters.
Taken together, the storms knocked out power for more than 8 million people in less than two weeks, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ahead of Biden’s trip Sunday, the tracking website PowerOutage.us said more than one million people across the Southeast were still without electricity.
The White House says a massive restoration effort is ongoing.
“Fifty thousand power line workers from 43 states and the country of Canada have stepped up,” President Biden said on Friday.
The Biden administration’s push to shore up the electric grid comes as disruptions are on the rise. The research group Climate Central says weather-related power outages have almost doubled in the last decade compared to the ten years prior.
“We’ve already gotten the majority of that money out the door, 65 different projects all across the country to build more resiliently,” Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said in an interview.
Turk said those projects include replacing wooden electrical poles with concrete ones and burying overhead transmission lines underground.
“We need to do a lot more of that and the storms are, unfortunately, only getting more intense,” Turk added.
Without further action to improve the grid and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, climate change could increase the risk of hurricane-induced power outages in some places, according to projections from EPRI, an independent, non-profit energy R&D institute.
“Some areas might see a doubling of the number of power outages experienced in a given decade in a future climate,” said Andrea Staid, principal technical leader for EPRI’s Energy Systems and Climate Analysis Group.
In some metro areas, like Miami, Houston and Boston, EPRI’s models found the risk is even higher.
“Most utilities understand they have growing risks from hurricanes. We hope this is just material that can be used to try to more systematically approach those risk,” Staid said.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris face off in the ABC presidential debate on Sept. 10, 2024.
Getty Images
With the U.S. election less than a month away, the country and its corporations are staring down two drastically different options.
For airlines, banks, electric vehicle makers, health-care companies, media firms, restaurants and tech giants, the outcome of the presidential contest could result in stark differences in the rules they’ll face, the mergers they’ll be allowed to pursue, and the taxes they’ll pay.
During his last time in power, former President Donald Trump slashed the corporate tax rate, imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, and sought to cut regulation and red tape and discourage immigration, ideas he’s expected to push again if he wins a second term.
In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris has endorsed hiking the tax rate on corporations to 28% from the 21% rate enacted under Trump, a move that would require congressional approval. Most business executives expect Harris to broadly continue President Joe Biden‘s policies, including his war on so-called junk fees across industries.
Personnel is policy, as the saying goes, so the ramifications of the presidential race won’t become clear until the winner begins appointments for as many as a dozen key bodies, including the Treasury, Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
CNBC examined the stakes of the 2024 presidential election for some of corporate America’s biggest sectors. Here’s what a Harris or Trump administration could mean for business:
The result of the presidential election could affect everything from what airlines owe consumers for flight disruptions to how much it costs to build an aircraft in the United States.
The Biden Department of Transportation, led by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has taken a hard line on filling what it considers to be holes in air traveler protections. It has established or proposed new rules on issues including refunds for cancellations, family seating and service fee disclosures, a measure airlines have challenged in court.
“Who’s in that DOT seat matters,” said Jonathan Kletzel, who heads the travel, transportation and logistics practice at PwC.
The current Democratic administration has also fought industry consolidation, winning two antitrust lawsuits that blocked a partnership between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways in the Northeast and JetBlue’s now-scuttled plan to buy budget carrier Spirit Airlines.
The previous Trump administration didn’t pursue those types of consumer protections. Industry members say that under Trump, they would expect a more favorable environment for mergers, though four airlines already control more than three-quarters of the U.S. market.
On the aerospace side, Boeing and the hundreds of suppliers that support it are seeking stability more than anything else.
Trump has said on the campaign trail that he supports additional tariffs of 10% or 20% and higher duties on goods from China. That could drive up the cost of producing aircraft and other components for aerospace companies, just as a labor and skills shortage after the pandemic drives up expenses.
Tariffs could also challenge the industry, if they spark retaliatory taxes or trade barriers to China and other countries, which are major buyers of aircraft from Boeing, a top U.S. exporter.
Big banks such as JPMorgan Chase faced an onslaught of new rules this year as Biden appointees pursued the most significant slate of regulations since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Those efforts threaten tens of billions of dollars in industry revenue by slashing fees that banks impose on credit cards and overdrafts and radically revising the capital and risk framework they operate in. The fate of all of those measures is at risk if Trump is elected.
Trump is expected to nominate appointees for key financial regulators, including the CFPB, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that could result in a weakening or killing off completely of the myriad rules in play.
“The Biden administration’s regulatory agenda across sectors has been very ambitious, especially in finance, and large swaths of it stand to be rolled back by Trump appointees if he wins,” said Tobin Marcus, head of U.S. policy at Wolfe Research.
Bank CEOs and consultants say it would be a relief if aspects of the Biden era — an aggressive CFPB, regulators who discouraged most mergers and elongated times for deal approvals — were dialed back.
“It certainly helps if the president is Republican, and the odds tilt more favorably for the industry if it’s a Republican sweep” in Congress, said the CEO of a bank with nearly $100 billion in assets who declined to be identified speaking about regulators.
Still, some observers point out that Trump 2.0 might not be as friendly to the industry as his first time in office.
Trump’s vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, has often criticized Wall Street banks, and Trump last month began pushing an idea to cap credit card interest rates at 10%, a move that if enacted would have seismic implications for the industry.
Bankers also say that Harris won’t necessarily cater to traditional Democratic Party ideas that have made life tougher for banks. Unless Democrats seize both chambers of Congress as well as the presidency, it may be difficult to get agency heads approved if they’re considered partisan picks, experts note.
“I would not write off the vice president as someone who’s automatically going to go more progressive,” said Lindsey Johnson, head of the Consumer Bankers Association, a trade group for big U.S. retail banks.
Electric vehicles have become a polarizing issue between Democrats and Republicans, especially in swing states such as Michigan that rely on the auto industry. There could be major changes in regulations and incentives for EVs if Trump regains power, a fact that’s placed the industry in a temporary limbo.
“Depending on the election in the U.S., we may have mandates; we may not,” Volkswagen Group of America CEO Pablo Di Si said Sept. 24 during an Automotive News conference. “Am I going to make any decisions on future investments right now? Obviously not. We’re waiting to see.”
Republicans, led by Trump, have largely condemned EVs, claiming they are being forced upon consumers and that they will ruin the U.S. automotive industry. Trump has vowed to roll back or eliminate many vehicle emissions standards under the Environmental Protection Agency and incentives to promote production and adoption of the vehicles.
If elected, he’s also expected to renew a battle with California and other states who set their own vehicle emissions standards.
“In a Republican win … We see higher variance and more potential for change,” UBS analyst Joseph Spak said in a Sept. 18 investor note.
In contrast, Democrats, including Harris, have historically supported EVs and incentives such as those under the Biden administration’s signature Inflation Reduction Act.
Harris hasn’t been as vocal a supporter of EVs lately amid slower-than-expected consumer adoption of the vehicles and consumer pushback. She has said she does not support an EV mandate such as the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act of 2019, which she cosponsored during her time as a senator, that would have required automakers to sell only electrified vehicles by 2040. Still, auto industry executives and officials expect a Harris presidency would be largely a continuation, though not a copy, of the past four years of Biden’s EV policy.
They expect some potential leniency on federal fuel economy regulations but minimal changes to the billions of dollars in incentives under the IRA.
Both Harris and Trump have called for sweeping changes to the costly, complicated and entrenched U.S. health-care system of doctors, insurers, drug manufacturers and middlemen, which costs the nation more than $4 trillion a year.
Despite spending more on health care than any other wealthy country, the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases and the highest maternal and infant death rates, according to the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group.
Meanwhile, roughly half of American adults say it is difficult to afford health-care costs, which can drive some into debt or lead them to put off necessary care, according to a May poll conducted by health policy research organization KFF.
Both Harris and Trump have taken aim at the pharmaceutical industry and proposed efforts to lower prescription drug prices in the U.S., which are nearly three times higher than those seen in other countries.
But many of Trump’s efforts to lower costs have been temporary or not immediately effective, health policy experts said. Meanwhile, Harris, if elected, can build on existing efforts of the Biden administration to deliver savings to more patients, they said.
Harris specifically plans to expand certain provisions of the IRA, part of which aims to lower health-care costs for seniors enrolled in Medicare. Harris cast the tie-breaking Senate vote to pass the law in 2022.
Her campaign says she plans to extend two provisions to all Americans, not just seniors: a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug spending and a $35 limit on monthly insulin costs.
Harris also intends to accelerate and expand a provision allowing Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices with manufacturers for the first time. Drugmakers fiercely oppose those price talks, with some challenging the effort’s constitutionality in court.
Trump hasn’t publicly indicated what he intends to do about IRA provisions.
Some of Trump’s prior efforts to lower drug prices “didn’t really come into fruition” during his presidency, according to Dr. Mariana Socal, a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
For example, he planned to use executive action to have Medicare pay no more than the lowest price that select other developed countries pay for drugs, a proposal that was blocked by court action and later rescinded.
Trump also led multiple efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including its expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults. In a campaign video in April, Trump said he was not running on terminating the ACA and would rather make it “much, much better and far less money,” though he has provided no specific plans.
He reiterated his belief that the ACA was “lousy health care” during his Sept. 10 debate with Harris. But when asked he did not offer a replacement proposal, saying only that he has “concepts of a plan.”
Top of mind for media executives is mergers and the path, or lack thereof, to push them through.
The media industry’s state of turmoil — shrinking audiences for traditional pay TV, the slowdown in advertising, and the rise of streaming and challenges in making it profitable — means its companies are often mentioned in discussions of acquisitions and consolidation.
While a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media is set to move forward, with plans to close in the first half of 2025, many in media have said the Biden administration has broadly chilled deal-making.
“We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to do even better,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in July at Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley conference.
Media mogul John Malone recently told MoffettNathanson analysts that some deals are a nonstarter with this current Justice Department, including mergers between companies in the telecommunications and cable broadband space.
Still, it’s unclear how the regulatory environment could or would change depending on which party is in office. Disney was allowed to acquire Fox Corp.’s assets when Trump was in office, but his administration sued to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner. Meanwhile, under Biden’s presidency, a federal judge blocked the sale of Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House, but Amazon’s acquisition of MGM was approved.
“My sense is, regardless of the election outcome, we are likely to remain in a similar tighter regulatory environment when looking at media industry dealmaking,” said Marc DeBevoise, CEO and board director of Brightcove, a streaming technology company.
When major media, and even tech, assets change hands, it could also mean increased scrutiny on those in control and whether it creates bias on the platforms.
“Overall, the government and FCC have always been most concerned with having a diversity of voices,” said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Integrated Media, which specializes in digital media investment. “But then [Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter] happened, and it’s clearly showing you can skew a platform to not just what the business needs, but to maybe your personal approach and whims,” he said.
Since Musk acquired the social media platform in 2022, changing its name to X, he has implemented sweeping changes including cutting staff and giving “amnesty” to previously suspended accounts, including Trump’s, which had been suspended following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Musk has also faced widespread criticism from civil rights groups for the amplification of bigotry on the platform.
Musk has publicly endorsed Trump, and was recently on the campaign trail with the former president. “As you can see, I’m not just MAGA, I’m Dark MAGA,” Musk said at a recent event. The billionaire has raised funds for Republican causes, and Trump has suggested Musk could eventually play a role in his administration if the Republican candidate were to be reelected.
During his first term, Trump took a particularly hard stance against journalists, and pursued investigations into leaks from his administration to news organizations. Under Biden, the White House has been notably more amenable to journalists.
Also top of mind for media executives — and government officials — is TikTok.
Lawmakers have argued that TikTok’s Chinese ownership could be a national security risk.
Earlier this year, Biden signed legislation that gives Chinese parent ByteDance until January to find a new owner for the platform or face a U.S. ban. TikTok has said the bill, the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed with bipartisan support, violates the First Amendment. The platform has sued the government to stop a potential ban.
While Trump was in office, he attempted to ban TikTok through an executive order, but the effort failed. However, he has more recently switched to supporting the platform, arguing that without it there’s less competition against Meta’s Facebook and other social media.
Both Trump and Harris have endorsed plans to end taxes on restaurant workers’ tips, although how they would do so is likely to differ.
The food service and restaurant industry is the nation’s second-largest private-sector employer, with 15.5 million jobs, according to the National Restaurant Association. Roughly 2.2 million of those employees are tipped servers and bartenders, who could end up with more money in their pockets if their tips are no longer taxed.
Trump’s campaign hasn’t given much detail on how his administration would eliminate taxes on tips, but tax experts have warned that it could turn into a loophole for high earners. Claims from the Trump campaign that the Republican candidate is pro-labor have clashed with his record of appointing leaders to the National Labor Relations Board who have rolled back worker protections.
Meanwhile, Harris has said she’d only exempt workers who make $75,000 or less from paying income tax on their tips, but the money would still be subject to taxes toward Social Security and Medicare, the Washington Post previously reported.
In keeping with the campaign’s more labor-friendly approach, Harris is also pledging to eliminate the tip credit: In 37 states, employers only have to pay tipped workers the minimum wage as long as that hourly wage and tips add up to the area’s pay floor. Since 1991, the federal pay floor for tipped wages has been stuck at $2.13.
“In the short term, if [restaurants] have to pay higher wages to their waiters, they’re going to have to raise menu prices, which is going to lower demand,” said Michael Lynn, a tipping expert and Cornell University professor.
Whichever candidate comes out ahead in November will have to grapple with the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence sector.
Generative AI is the biggest story in tech since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022. It presents a conundrum for regulators, because it allows consumers to easily create text and images from simple queries, creating privacy and safety concerns.
Harris has said she and Biden “reject the false choice that suggests we can either protect the public or advance innovation.” Last year, the White House issued an executive order that led to the formation of the Commerce Department’s U.S. AI Safety Institute, which is evaluating AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Trump has committed to repealing the executive order.
A second Trump administration might also attempt to challenge a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that requires companies to disclose cybersecurity incidents. The White House said in January that more transparency “will incentivize corporate executives to invest in cybersecurity and cyber risk management.”
Trump’s running mate, Vance, co-sponsored a bill designed to end the rule. Andrew Garbarino, the House Republican who introduced an identical bill, has said the SEC rule increases cybersecurity risk and overlaps with existing law on incident reporting.
Also at stake in the election is the fate of dealmaking for tech investors and executives.
With Lina Khan helming the FTC, the top tech companies have been largely thwarted from making big acquisitions, though the Justice Department and European regulators have also created hurdles.
Tech transaction volume peaked at $1.5 trillion in 2021, then plummeted to $544 billion last year and $465 billion in 2024 as of September, according to Dealogic.
Many in the tech industry are critical of Khan and want her to be replaced should Harris win in November. Meanwhile, Vance, who worked in venture capital before entering politics, said as recently as February — before he was chosen as Trump’s running mate — that Khan was “doing a pretty good job.”
Khan, whom Biden nominated in 2021, has challenged Amazon and Meta on antitrust grounds and has said the FTC will investigate AI investments at Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft.
AND WE’VE GOT MORE FOR YOU TONIGHT. FIRST, WE BEGIN WITH PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S VISIT TO FLORIDA. COME TOMORROW. THE WHITE HOUSE SAYS THEY PLAN TO FLY TO TAMPA, TAKE AN AERIAL TOUR OF THE DAMAGE BEFORE SPEAKING IN SAINT PETE BEACH WH
President Biden to visit Florida after Hurricane Milton on Sunday
Updated: 1:44 AM EDT Oct 13, 2024
President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Florida on Sunday to conduct an aerial tour of the areas impacted by Hurricane Milton and to receive a briefing from officials.Biden will land at Joint Base Andrews in Tampa and take an aerial tour of the affected areas while heading to St. Petersburg.Afterward, the president will receive an “operational briefing” from federal, state and local officials. Related: Video: Boat rescues family from severe flooding in Tampa after Hurricane MiltonBiden will later deliver remarks from St. Pete Beach before returning to Tampa. This comes after Biden approved a major disaster declaration for those affected by Hurricane Milton in Florida. The declaration will provide federal funding for multiple counties, including Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia.Read more: President Biden approves major disaster declaration for Florida following Hurricane MiltonWESH will stream the live new conference using the video player above. More: Tampa mayor says city ‘didn’t see expected storm surge’
Florida —
President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Florida on Sunday to conduct an aerial tour of the areas impacted by Hurricane Milton and to receive a briefing from officials.
Biden will land at Joint Base Andrews in Tampa and take an aerial tour of the affected areas while heading to St. Petersburg.
Afterward, the president will receive an “operational briefing” from federal, state and local officials.
Biden will later deliver remarks from St. Pete Beach before returning to Tampa.
This comes after Biden approved a major disaster declaration for those affected by Hurricane Milton in Florida.
The declaration will provide federal funding for multiple counties, including Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia.
The federal government says it has been dealing with an unprecedented number of rumors surrounding the recent hurricanes, Helene and Milton. CBS News immigration and politics reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez speaks with the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection about one of those false claims. Then, CBS News national security contributor Sam Vinograd joins with further analysis.
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It sounds like arcane insider jargon best kept inside a campaign headquarters: Does this election come down to persuasion or mobilization? But the terminology is really just a fancy way of asking whether a campaign should prioritize swaying undecided voters or turning out its base. No matter the rhetoric, though, answering that question is fundamental to every campaign’s chance of winning, and the internal debate will shape the crucial choices Kamala Harris makes in the less than four weeks before a crazy-close presidential election.
See, for example, Harris’s recent appearance in Wisconsin with former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney and Cheney’s starring role in a new Harris TV ad (running frequently during the Major League Baseball playoffs) aimed at persuadable Republicans. Cheney’s conservative record and policy positions—stridently antiabortion, pro-repealing Obamacare—are anathema to most core Democrats. Yet Cheney emerged as a leading and principled critic of then president Donald Trump in the wake of January 6, and the Harris campaign sees her as a powerful weapon in persuading undecided Republican moderates in swing states to vote against Trump, if not vote completely in favor of Harris. “We are definitely making a play for Republicans and independents and Never Trumpers in a very real way,” a campaign insider tells me. “We are spending a lot of time in red counties—like one third of our offices in Pennsylvania are in Trump counties, rural counties that he won by double digits in 2020. And it’s not necessarily because we think we can win those counties, but because, in a close race, cutting the margins matters.”
That tactic has been part of the Democratic formula all along, even back when President Joe Biden was the Democrats’ 2024 candidate. But the mix between persuasion and mobilization has shifted since Harris suddenly stepped into the top of the ticket in late July. Jen O’Malley Dillon, the chair of Biden’s reelection effort and a master of the complicated blocking and tackling of voter turnout—down to the granular precinct level—had been installing the nationwide infrastructure to replicate her successful work on behalf of Biden in 2020. Harris kept O’Malley Dillon in the same role, and JOD (as she is referred to by staffers) is relentlessly deploying and fine-tuning the mechanisms she put in place during the past year.
But Harris also added David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, as a senior adviser. A strategist in touch with Harris’s campaign says Plouffe’s impact is clear. “The Biden campaign had decided this was a turnout election. The Harris campaign thinks it’s a persuasion-and-turnout election, which is classic David Plouffe,” the strategist says. “Besides the Cheney thing, you see it in other ways. The Biden team was never going to talk about immigration. The fact that Harris goes to Arizona to give a speech on immigration, and the fact that they’re trying to own the economic lane exactly like Obama did—David Plouffe is all over that campaign.”
No campaign—at least no successful campaign—is exclusively about one or the other, and the campaign insider argues forcefully that strenuously pursuing both base and undecided voters was always part of the plan, regardless of whether Biden or Harris was the candidate. Harris’s ability to wage an energetic war on both fronts at the same time has been greatly enhanced by the gusher of money, at least $1 billion, that the vice president has raised in less than three months. However, campaign leadership is concerned that the massive haul may not be enough. There will inevitably be tough choices regarding how much money and manpower is devoted to turnout versus persuasion. The calculus is even trickier because Harris’s campaign believes it needs to persuade people not simply to vote for the Democrat, but to vote at all. “We always sort of grouped our targets into two sets,” the Harris campaign insider says. “One is traditional swing targets—folks who are going to vote anyway and it’s a question of us or Trump. The other is what we call ‘persuade to participate.’ They are deciding between the couch and us.”
Reaching the disengaged was one big reason Harris appeared, for instance, on the All the Smoke podcast. And this weekend the persuasion push takes to the skies. The Democratic National Committee will be flying skywriting and banner-trailing planes over stadiums hosting games between six NFL teams from swing states, with messages about “sacking” the right-wing Project 2025 and voting for Harris. But there’s a risk in emphasizing persuasion over mobilization, as base turnout is hardly guaranteed, particularly with issues like Israel and Gaza angering elements of the Democratic coalition. “There are no warning lights, but there are things we need to tighten up,” says Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina legislator who is close to Harris’s campaign and believes Black and Hispanic men should be the campaign’s focus. “It’s a no-stone-left-unturned strategy—because she can lose a close race, or she can win all six swing states. That’s kind of where it is.”
Denver’s Morgaine Wilkins-Dean was one of 10 girls honored by First Lady Jill Biden at the 2nd Girls Leading Change event on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. The young women were recognized for the impact they have had in their communities.
Caitlyn Kim/CPR News
After experiencing three school shootings her junior year at East High School, Morgaine Wilkins-Dean said she was scared.
She took that fear and mixed it with another thought she had: “I want to help.”
Wilkins-Dean reached out to Denver School Board member Michelle Quattlebaum and together they worked to enact a policy this year that requires all DPS superintendents to regularly inform the districts’ families about Colorado’s safe storage laws and how to protect children from guns at home.
First Lady Jill Biden honored Wilkins-Dean for her work on Thursday, along with nine other young women, at a “Girls Leading Change” event at the White House to mark International Day of the Girl, on October 11. Honorees were noted for shaping a brighter future in their communities.
“Today we say proudly for all to hear that girls are powerful,” Biden said. “Every time you show up as your true self, with your boldness and your insight, with your questions, you all shape the world, and that’s what this year’s honorees did.”
Biden said these girls didn’t wait for life to happen to them. “They stepped forward, and they spent their weekends and hours after school to make our world kinder and fairer and filled with more possibility.”
Of her White House visit, Wilkins-Dean said, “it’s surreal” and “overwhelming.”
The 18-year-old was nominated for the honor by someone from the local League of Women voters and the Girl Scouts of Colorado. This project earned Wilkins-Dean her Gold award, the highest achievement for a Girl Scout.
“Being here and getting to earn this award really has shown me that if you are scared of something or if you want something to change, you might not believe in yourself. But if you go out and do it, you can do it. And the only voice that you need is your own, really,” she said.
And now that she’s proven to herself she can do something on an issue that matters to her, she hopes other young women will be inspired to do the same, especially when it comes to the male-dominated world of public policy.
“When I was a young girl. I didn’t feel powerful,” she explained. “But it really takes a second to realize I can be powerful if I want to, and I am powerful. I don’t have to prove it to anyone. And I think that’s an important thing to show girls that you can do just as much as the boys next to you. You can be just as loud as them.”
Biden echoed that sentiment to the crowd that included family, friends, young girls from the area and President Joe Biden who popped in to learn about the girls being honored.
“If you ever wonder, can I — one person, one girl — can I make a difference? Standing here among these incredible women and girls, we have an answer, Yes you can!” the First Lady said.
First Lady Jill Biden honors ten young women from across the country, including Denver’s Morgaine Wilkins-Dean, at the 2nd Girls Leading Change event in the East Room of the White House on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.Caitlyn Kim/CPR News
The other honorees included Cheyenne Anderson of New Mexico, Sreenidi Bala of Connecticut, Noel Demetrio of Illinois, Serena Griffin of California, Pragathi Kasani-Akula of Georgia, Chili and Dolly Pramoda, sisters from Puerto Rico, Kira Tiller of Virgina, and Emily Austin, a military child who joked she’s “from everywhere.”
Wilkins-Dean said it was great to meet those other young women who are kind and passionate. “It really makes me hopeful for the future of not only government, but the arts.”
Wilkins-Dean, now a freshman at Sacramento State University, added she was thankful to all the people that helped her, because “getting a policy in place is a group effort.” For her, that group included her mom, board member Quattlebaum, and her troop leaders.
President Biden gave an update Thursday on the government’s aid efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, urging Americans affected by the hurricane to continue to be careful because of conditions that still pose a danger.
“We’ve had search and rescue teams at the ready for any calls for help this morning,” he said at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “There are still very dangerous conditions in the state, and people should wait to be given the all clear by their leaders before they go out. We know from previous hurricanes that it’s often the case that more lives are lost in the days following the storm than actually during the storm itself.”
He also called on lawmakers to “move as rapidly as they can” on emergency funding, particularly for small businesses because the disaster relief fund for loans for these businesses is running precariously low.
Mr. Biden said he and Vice President Harris “have been in constant contact with the state and local officials, and we’re offering everything they need. I must have spoken to somewhere between 10 and 15 mayors and county executives, and all of the governors.” He thanked first responders on the ground “for your professionalism, your dedication to every mission you’re given.”
He also warned against the spread of misinformation around the hurricane.
“Vice President Harris and I said yesterday, and we’ll say it again: To anyone who seeks to take advantage of our fellow Americans’ desperation, whether you’re a company engaging in price gouging or a citizen trying to scam your neighbors, we will go after you and we will hold you accountable,” he said.
On Wednesday, Mr. Biden criticized former President Trump for leading the “onslaught of lies” about government hurricane aid. He addressed a comment to Trump Thursday, saying, “Former President Trump, get a life, man. Help these people.”
Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Topline: The Biden-Harris administration is eclipse the $1 trillion mark in improper payments, a new record for wasted money in a four-year term, according to a recent report from OpenTheBooks.com.
Key facts: Improper payments — money sent by the federal government to the wrong person, for the wrong reason or in the wrong amount — totaled over $800 billion from 2021 to 2023, adjusted for inflation.
That’s $450,000 every minute. In the roughly five seconds it takes to read this very sentence, the government will have wasted $37,500 on mistaken payments.
Medicaid and Medicare accounted for 43% of improper payments last year, but problems were found across the board. Dead people received $295 million, mostly from pension benefits the Office of Personnel Management sent to former federal workers who had passed away. Prisoners were paid $171 million.
The Internal Revenue Service spent $25 billion doling out fraudulent and mistaken tax credits, with some IRS programs reporting mistake rates above 30%.
The issue is not new, but it is getting progressively worse. Barack Obama wasted roughly 4% of his spending on improper payments in his second term. Donald Trump wasted roughly 5%, and Biden is approaching 6%.
Background: Even California Democrats have realized that the mistake rate is out of control. The bipartisan “Improper Payments Transparency Act” advanced out of committee with four sponsors including Reps. Jimmy Panetta and Scott Peters. It would require the president’s budget to identify ways to reduce improper payments.
Dissent has come from within Biden’s own administration as well. When the Environmental Protection Agency received bonus funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, Inspector General Sean O’Donnell told Congress it would be difficult to spend the required $27 billion in one year without making payment errors. Regardless, none of the money was spent on oversight.
Critical quote: Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) had a short response when the Washington Times shared OpenTheBooks.com’s improper payment research with her: “Goodness, that was more than I thought.”
Supporting quote: Some lawmakers take issue with the government’s efforts to claw back overpayments after they’ve been mailed out.
“Our residents after they made the mistake and they get the letter in a year, that’s not fair,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) told the Washington Times. “They’ve already spent the money. They’re living check by check. They don’t deserve to be punished.”
Summary: The Congressional budget is growing larger and more bloated every year as it is. There’s no room for $1 trillion to be thrown out due to careless errors.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
President Biden on Wednesday addressed what he called “stupid” claims that the federal government can control the weather, as the false claim was promoted by some politicians and high-profile figures.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather, we’re controlling the weather. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s so stupid, it’s got to stop,” Mr. Biden said in his remarks from the White House. He also pledged federal support for hurricane recovery efforts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency created a new “Hurricane Rumor Response” page to combat misinformation. The White House launched an official Reddit account, with one of its posts focused on debunking hurricane misinformation. And many local officials have taken to social media to push back on harmful misinformation.
Rep. Chuck Edwards, a North Carolina Republican, sent a letter to his constituents in the wake of Hurricane Helene urging them to beware of “untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts across our mountains.”
Claims that the government was controlling Hurricane Milton spread widely on social media platforms including X, TikTok and Facebook just days after similar false claims spread during Hurricane Helene. One post on X with more than 100,000 views claimed Hurricane Milton is a “modified and manipulated” storm being used as a “weapon.”
“Yes they can control the weather,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted to X on Oct. 3. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” Greene also shared a 2013 CBS News segment in which a physics professor discussed lab experiments investigating the potential use of lasers to affect the weather.
Several meteorology experts told CBS News it’s not possible to create or control hurricanes, with one expert calling the claim “utter nonsense.”
Some social media users also reference geoengineering, which NASA describes as proposed schemes “to reverse or limit climate change by intentional, large-scale manipulation of the Earth’s climate.” But “geoengineering could not create or control hurricanes,” said Joshua Horton, a senior program fellow studying solar geoengineering at Harvard University.
“It doesn’t currently exist, but if it did, geoengineering would be much too imprecise to control weather or weather events like hurricanes,” Horton said.
Some social media users have also pointed to cloud seeding as evidence that the government can control Hurricane Milton. Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that can improve a cloud’s ability to create rain or snow, according to the Nevada-based Desert Research Institute, which has its own cloud seeding program. Cloud seeding has existed since the 1940s, and dozens of countries have such programs.
Hurricane modification through cloud seeding was explored in the years between 1962 and 1983, but the project ended after seeding was found to be ineffective compared to the natural forces of the hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Charles Konrad, a professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Geography and Environment, said it’s important to acknowledge that hurricane modification was tested in the past but that it was ineffective.
“They tried to modify hurricanes and at the end of it, they realized that they couldn’t,” he said.
Konrad said hurricanes are “big atmospheric entities” that require an “incredible amount of energy” — more energy than humans could harness to weaken or direct the storm.
Hugh Willoughby, a research professor at Florida International University whose work focuses on hurricanes, said he’s not aware of any U.S. programs to revive the hurricane modification project. He said the idea that the government can control a hurricane is “utter nonsense.”
Konrad said the National Hurricane Center is a trusted source for anyone seeking verified information about hurricanes. “We have the best and the brightest, very specialized tropical meteorologists who have given their careers to understanding these things,” he said.
Layla Ferris is a verification producer with CBS News Confirmed. She previously worked at ABC News and Storyful. She specializes in breaking news coverage, visual verification and open-source research.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris heard from federal officials leading efforts to prepare for Hurricane Milton’s expected historic impact. The storm will make landfall in Florida late Wednesday or early Thursday. Here’s how the Biden administration is responding to the storm.
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Credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Steve Wilson (The Center Square)
President Joe Biden on Tuesday praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his efforts to get the state ready for a strike in the Tampa Bay area by Hurricane Milton.
“The governor of Florida says he’s gotten all that he needs,” Biden said. “I talked again to him yesterday and I said no, you’re doing a great job, we thank you for it and I literally gave my personal phone number to call.
“There was a rough start in some places, but every governor from Florida to North Carolina has been fully cooperative and supportive and acknowledged what this team is doing and they’re doing an incredible job, but we’ve got a lot more to do.”
The praise from Biden comes as DeSantis and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, continue to be at odds. Harris called him “selfish” for not taking her calls and DeSantis shot back, saying she was trying to “parachute” her way into storm recovery and relief efforts.
Biden also said in a briefing at the White House that his administration would help “communities before, during and after these extreme weather events.”
“They’re offering $750 to people whose homes have been washed away, and yet we send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of,” Trump said at his Butler, Pa. rally Saturday.
His comment was without context. The Biden administration has confirmed more than $137 million in assistance with more expected, and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said more than $33 million in FEMA assistances to individuals had already been paid to more than 109,000 people. More than 2,100 are housed in hotels through FEMA transitional sheltering.
Hurricane Milton, likely one of the worst storms in 100 years in Tampa, is predicted to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday morning as a Category 3 storm packing winds of 120 mph.
It’ll be the second storm in as many weeks to hit the state and DeSantis urged Floridians in a news conference in Ocala on Tuesday to not lose faith in the state’s ability to bounce back.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “I know people have been working around the clock, not just with state government, but our local counties and cities and then all the other partners that participate in this. But people are pushing forward. They’re stepping up. I know some of our residents that just experienced hurricane damage from Helene are also fatigued. Just hang in there and do the right thing. Just let’s get through this. We can do it together.
“And then on the other side of it, make sure everybody’s safe and and we’ll put the pieces back together. The state is strong, we’re going to be able to weather it. Not going to be easy. We’re going to suffer damage.”
The storm surge in Tampa Bay, which hasn’t been hit directly by a hurricane since 1921, could be as high as 15 feet. That’s triple what the area experienced with Hurricane Helene, which passed offshore on Sept. 23 before making landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida.
Credit: Credit: California National Guard, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By James Varney for RealClearInvestigations
Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Congress last month that it had $4 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, officials also warned that the Fund could have a shortfall of $6 billion by year’s end, a situation FEMA says could deteriorate in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
While FEMA is expected to ask Congress for new money, budget experts note a surprising fact: FEMA is currently sitting on untapped reserves appropriated for past disasters stretching back decades.
An August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General noted that in 2022, FEMA “estimated that 847 disaster declarations with approximately $73 billion in unliquidated funds remained open.”
Drilling down on that data, the OIG found that $8.3 billion of that total was for disasters declared in 2012 or earlier.
Such developments are part of a larger pattern in which FEMA failed to close out specific grant programs “within a certain timeframe, known as the period of performance (POP),” according to the IG report. Those projects now represent billions in unliquidated appropriations that could potentially be returned to the DRF (Disaster Relief Fund).”
These “unliquidated obligations” reflect the complex federal budgeting processes. Safeguards are important so that FEMA funding doesn’t become a slush fund that the agency can spend however it chooses, budget experts said, but the inability to tap unspent appropriations from long-ago crises complicates the agency’s ability to respond to immediate disasters.
‘Age Old-Game’
“This is an age-old game that happens and it doesn’t matter what administration is in,” said Brian Cavanaugh, who served as an appropriations manager at FEMA in the Trump administration. “It’s unfortunate how complex disaster relief has become, but it’s skyrocketing costs.”
Cavanaugh said neither action from Congress nor an executive order from the White House would be required to tap those funds because FEMA is operating on the sort of continuing resolutions Congress routinely authorizes. If the money is part of “immediate needs funding,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas could draw from the billions in untapped money to help the victims of Helene and then inform lawmakers he was compelled to do so, leaving elected officials facing charges they sought to pinch pennies when Americans were desperate.
FEMA did not respond to a request for comment about whether it could access the earmarked funds.
Mayorkas, whose Department oversees FEMA, stressed the agency is not broke, and both he and other FEMA officials said this week there was enough money in the Disaster Relief Fund to meet the needs of victims of Hurricane Helene, which with a death count of more than 200 stands as the most lethal storm to hit the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Most of Helene’s bills will come due in the future, and Mayorkas said FEMA can meet the day-to-day needs of operations right now in afflicted states but might be hard-pressed if another storm like Helene were to hit this year. Hurricane season officially lasts until the end of November, but historically, September and October have been the months in which the occasional monster smites the U.S.
“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas told a press gaggle Oct. 2 on Air Force One. “We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and … what is imminent.”
On Oct. 3, FEMA, which handles state and local government relief aid as well as the federal flood insurance plan and individual emergency requests, said it had spent at least $20 million in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida – three of the states that bore the brunt of Helene as it ripped ashore last week. The figures FEMA provided did not include Georgia, another state hard-hit by Helene, which made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane.
Longtime FEMA critics said the looming shortfall is not surprising, given its main job is to use federal taxpayer dollars to reimburse state and local governments for recovery costs, in addition to more immediate money it provides to victims on an individual basis.
“It doesn’t strike me as too weird,” said Chris Edwards, policy scholar at the conservative Cato Institute. “Right now, $20 million is peanuts, but it’s not necessarily unreasonable to think the upcoming bills will be much, much higher.”
The skyrocketing costs associated with disaster recovery are one of the main drivers of FEMA’s predicted budget woes. Last year, the U.S. saw a record 28 storms that caused more than $1 billion in damages, and the $1 billion threshold has been reached 19 times thus far in 2024. Since 2001, there have been nine times that FEMA nearly ran out of money in its Disaster Relief Fund, forcing it to pause hundreds of non “life-saving services” the agency runs.
The price tag on some of those services, such as those associated with assistance to immigration, has seen an unprecedented surge due to millions of illegal entrants during Biden’s term. FEMA has spent more than $640 million on those programs in 2024, leading to criticism this week from Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and others.
FEMA rebutted the claims by insisting those sums did not come out of the Disaster Relief Fund. Yet as Cavanaugh, Edwards, and others noted, the relief fund isn’t the main driver of FEMA’s expenses, which are primarily reimbursements to state and local agencies that handle things like debris removal, road and power grid repairs, and the like.
Thus far, FEMA has been getting mixed reviews from elected officials for its response to Hurricane Helene in afflicted states. While five state officials in North Carolina’s hard-hit Buncombe County did not respond to questions from RCI, some Tar Heel residents have complained in media reports about the agency’s invisibility.
While FEMA rarely initiates or administers contracts to clean debris, restore power, or search for survivors, the agency does provide emergency cash to storm victims who apply for it. Flood insurance protection comes not from private homeowners policies but from a federal program run by FEMA.
‘Crazy’ Numbers
Generally, FEMA, along with state or local officials and a neutral third-party civil engineer, will estimate the cost of such work, and then the final figure will come through negotiations. But given those settlements are far in the future, they should not have any bearing on FEMA’s current budget.
“It’s just crazy how expensive the numbers have gotten,” said Jeremy Portnoy of OpenTheBooks, a nonpartisan watchdog of government spending. “They’ve been warning for months now they are running out of money.”
Portnoy first called attention to FEMA’s unspent funds in conversations with RealClearInvestigations on Sept. 8. He said it seems bizarre that federal officials would have a pot substantial enough to cover a projected shortfall while adding billions to the Disaster Relief Fund, but fail to draw on it.
“There is all that money just sitting there,” Portnoy said. “They’re saying they don’t have enough money but when you juxtapose it with the more than $8 billion, well, why not use that right now in Florida and other places?”
The “unliquidated obligations” have stayed on FEMA’s books because it “subjectively” extended the deadlines on some projects. The deadline for 2012’s Superstorm Sandy has been extended to 2026.
“As a result, the potential risk for fraud, waste, and abuse increases the longer a program remains open,” a DHS report concluded.
Although DHS could probably reach into such unliquidated obligations to help restore order in areas devastated by Helene, experts note that bureaucracies are loath to resort to such tactics when budget negotiations are near, as they are when the fiscal year ends this month.
“The bridges that have been washed out, that’s not something FEMA will have to pay tomorrow,” Cavanaugh said.
JUNEAU, Wis. (AP) — Donald Trump on Sunday visited Wisconsin for the fourth time in eight days as his campaign showers attention on a pivotal state where Republicans fret about his ability to match Democrats’ enthusiasm and turnout machine.
“They say that Wisconsin is probably the toughest of the swing states to win,” Trump said in his opening remarks at an airplane hangar in a rural Juneau where the overflow crowd spilled out on to the tarmac. “I don’t think so.”
Voters in Wisconsin are already casting absentee ballots and in-person early voting begins Oct. 22. Trump stood on stage for nearly two hours, touching the third rail of Wisconsin politics by overlapping with a Green Bay Packers game, drawing derision from Democrats. But that didn’t stop thousands of people from sticking with Trump as he urged supporters to begin to vote by mail and early, when the time comes, so they turn out “in record numbers.”
“If we win Wisconsin, we win the presidency,” Trump said.
Wisconsin is perennially tight in presidential elections but has gone for the Republicans just once in the past 40 years, when Trump won the state in 2016. A win in November could make it impossible for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to take the White House.
“In the political chatter class, they’re worried,” said Brandon Scholz, a retired Republican strategist and longtime political observer in Wisconsin who voted for Trump in 2020 but said he is not voting for Trump or Harris this year. “I think Republicans are right to be concerned.”
Trump won the state in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton by fewer than 23,000 votes and lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 by just under 21,000 votes.
On Tuesday, Trump made his first-ever visit to Dane County, home to the liberal capital city of Madison, in an effort to turn out the Republican vote even in the state’s Democratic strongholds. Dane is Wisconsin’s second most-populous and fastest-growing county; Biden received more than 75% of the vote four years ago.
“To win statewide you’ve got to have a 72-county strategy,” former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, said at that event.
Juneau is a a town of 2,000 about 50 miles north of Madison in Dodge County, which Trump won in 2020 with 65% of the vote.
Early arrivals filled the hangar, far exceeding the available seating. One large banner behind the bleachers inside said “Vote Early.”
“Make sure we turn out because guess what, I’ve been to Madison,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, who is from Juneau, at the event. “I’ve been to liberal Madison and they’re going to show up. We need to do the same thing because we are the firewall to keep this country independent and free.”
Jack Yuds, chairman of the county Republican Party, said support for Trump is stronger in this part of the state than it was in 2016 or 2020.
“I can’t keep signs in,” Yuds said. “They want everything he’s got. If it says Trump on it, you can sell it.”
Trump’s campaign and outside groups supporting his candidacy have outspent Harris and her allies on advertising in Wisconsin, $35 million to $31 million, from when she became a candidate on July 23 through Oct. 1, according to the media-tracking firm AdImpact.
Harris and outside groups supporting her candidacy had more advertising time reserved in Wisconsin from Oct. 1 through Nov. 5, more than $25 million compared with $20 million for Trump and his allies.
What to know about the 2024 Election
The Harris campaign has 50 offices across 43 counties with more than 250 staff members in Wisconsin, said her spokesperson Timothy White. The Trump campaign said it has 40 offices in the state and dozens of staffers.
Harris rallied supporters in Madison in September at an event that drew more than 10,000 people. On Thursday, she made an appeal to moderate and disgruntled conservatives by holding an event in Ripon, the birthplace of the Republican Party, along with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of Trump’s most prominent Republican antagonists.
Harris and Trump are focusing on Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the “blue wall” states that went for Trump in 2016 and flipped to Biden in the next election.
While Trump’s campaign is bullish on its chances in Pennsylvania as well as the Sunbelt states, Wisconsin is seen as more of a challenge.
“Wisconsin, tough state,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, who worked on Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s winning reelection campaign in 2022.
“I mean, look, that’s going to be a very tight — very, very tight, all the way to the end. But where we are organizationally now, comparative to where we were organizationally four years ago, I mean, it’s completely different,” LaCivita said.
He also cited Michigan as more of a challenge. “But again, these are states that Biden won and carried and so they’re going to be brawls all the way until the end and we’re not ceding any of that ground.”
The candidates are about even in Wisconsin, based on a series of polls that have shown little movement since Biden dropped out in late July. Those same polls also show high enthusiasm among both parties.
Mark Graul, who ran then-President George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign in Wisconsin, said the number of campaign visits speaks to Wisconsin’s decisive election role.
The key for both sides, he said, is persuading infrequent voters to turn out.
“Much more important, in my opinion, than rallies,” Graul said.
Mark Seelman, from Watertown, said the energy and size of the crowd sends a message that Trump is strong in Wisconsin.
“Everybody’s into it,” he said during Trump’s speech. “It’s time for a change.”
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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Jill Colvin in Butler, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
