Nov. 11, 2024, 8 p.m.
Immigration. Foreign affairs. Climate regulations.
The first wave of likely Donald Trump nominees announced Monday would target three areas that the former president, who returns to the Oval Office in January, touted as signature themes on the campaign trail.
Stephen Miller, named as deputy White House chief of staff for policy, and Tom Homan, named as “border czar,” are seen as tough-minded advocates of the mass-deportation program Trump promised frequently at his rallies and in interviews. As internal advisers rather than Cabinet secretaries or agency heads, neither will have to go through the bruising gauntlet of a Senate confirmation hearing.
Both are being embraced by Trump’s closest allies as great choices, including by Elon Musk, who tweeted his congratulations to Homan “on being given responsibility for enforcing our borders!”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, currently the chair of the House Republican Conference, has been tapped as ambassador to the United Nations, Trump’s first Cabinet pick. An outspoken defender of Israel, Stefanik was an early critic of Trump in 2016 before becoming a close ally in recent years. She will have to be confirmed by the Senate.
Lee Zeldin, who also represented parts of Long Island in Congress before losing a gubernatorial race in 2022, was named to run the Environmental Protection Agency, which is frequently in the crosshairs of conservatives. Trump wants to dismantle many environmental regulations related to climate and fossil fuels.
Zeldin does not have an environmental or energy background. His 14 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters is high compared to current GOP House members. Nonetheless, environmental groups are not expected to give him much quarter.
“Trump made his anti-climate action, anti-environment agenda very clear during his first term and again during his 2024 campaign,” LCV Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld said in a statement. “During the confirmation process, we would challenge Lee Zeldin to show how he would be better than Trump’s campaign promises or his own failing 14% environmental score if he wants to be charged with protecting the air we breathe, the water we drink, and finding solutions to climate change.”
Biden official raises alarm over allegations of mass-poisoning in Sudan’s civil war
With the world’s eyes still trained on conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, the ongoing civil war in Sudan has garnered significantly less attention than it otherwise might have. But U.S. officials have been raising alarm bells about a growing food crisis in the country, where a brutal paramilitary is fighting the armed forces.
On Monday, U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello called attention to new allegations that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are poisoning civilians in the war-torn country. The United Nations says a total of 25.6 million people face acute hunger in Sudan.
“The emerging reports that RSF soldiers poisoned hundreds of Sudanese in the village of Alhilaliya shock the conscience,” Perriello said in a statement. “To poison food in a country already suffering from famine is an especially heinous act.”
Perriello called for emergency supplies and aid to be delivered to the country immediately and said the leadership of the Rapid Support Forces should face consequences if the allegations are confirmed. He traveled to Kenya, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt at the end of last month to gather support for increased access to humanitarian supplies and end the fighting in Sudan. However, the Biden administration’s attempts to spearhead peace negotiations in September ended without direct contact between the warring parties. Kenya now leads the effort to broker new peace talks.
Fighting in Sudan has been ongoing since the spring of 2023. Over 13 million Sudanese people are estimated to have fled their homes in the 18 months since then. The United Nations says the country is experiencing famine and a surge of cholera and dengue fever. There have also been widespread allegations of sexual violence and other atrocities committed by both sides in the conflict.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid spending grew in fiscal 2024
Spending for the three largest mandatory programs––Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid––grew in fiscal 2024, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO report said the federal deficit increased by $138 billion, or 8 percent, to $1.8 trillion, in fiscal 2024.
Social Security outlays rose by $106 billion, or 8 percent, because of increases in the average benefit payment and the number of beneficiaries, according to the report. Medicare outlays increased by $78 billion, or 9 percent, because of increased enrollment and higher payment rates. Medicaid spending increased by $2 billion, less than 1 percent, even though millions of people have been disenrolled. The rise is attributed to greater costs per enrollee in 2024 compared to 2023.
The report, released Friday, comes as health-policy experts consider the implications of a second Trump administration, including for Medicaid.
“With Republicans looking for spending reductions to help pay for tax cuts, the math is inescapable that Medicaid and [Affordable Care Act] cuts will then be on the table,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, during a post-election briefing Friday. “In Medicaid, that could take the form of block grants, per-capita caps, or reductions in federal matching payments for the ACA Medicaid expansion, all proposals that have been put forward in the past by Trump as well as by conservative groups and Republicans in Congress.”
Lawmakers return to Washington this week and will work on funding the government. House appropriators have put forth a bill that would cut funding to the Health and Human Services Department by $8.5 billion in discretionary spending, bringing the overall pot of funding to $107 billion, according to a committee report. Senators are seeking an increase in HHS funding to $122.8 billion.
With Trump looming, green groups urge Biden to ‘finish the job’ on climate protections
With only weeks before the inauguration of a president-elect who has repeatedly dismissed climate change as a “hoax,” environmental groups are pushing the Biden administration to move ahead on several fronts before Donald Trump has a chance to block them.
That includes cementing the Biden administration’s pause on liquefied-natural-gas exports, approving state-based environmental regulations such as the California vehicle standards, and finalizing tax-credit guidance from the Inflation Reduction Act related to climate provisions, said Manish Bapna, president and chief executive officer of the Natural Resources Defense Council. It also includes “fast-tracking fund disbursement” from the IRA, he said.
“There are still some important steps that can be taken in the next few months during the lame duck to finish the job on climate and public health,” Bapna said on a call Thursday with reporters that also included leaders of some of the nation’s other leading environmental groups.
The IRA’s passage in 2022 ushered in an unprecedented wave of money and policy changes directed at confronting the climate crisis, as 2024 is on track to set global-warming records. The Biden administration is already working to preserve as many of the law’s climate elements as possible before President Biden is replaced by Trump, who aggressively courted oil executives and promised to “drill, baby, drill.”
On Monday, climate leaders convened at the 2024 Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29. It’s the first significant U.N. gathering since the election.
Last year, the U.S., along with many other countries, pledged to transition away from fossil fuels. But the incoming administration is expected to go the opposite direction. World leaders are bracing for Trump’s expected withdrawal—for the second time—from the Paris Agreement, after Biden rejoined it on the first day of his presidency almost four years ago.
—Ledyard King and Lauren Green
