1. Impeachment vote today

2. Lawmakers get a pay raise as economy improves

 

3. Spending bill passes, Alabama delegation split

• The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to pass a $1.4 trillion government spending package, handing President Donald Trump a victory on his U.S.-Mexico border fence while giving Democrats spending increases across a swath of domestic programs.
• The hard-fought legislation also funds a record Pentagon budget and is serving as a must-pass legislative locomotive to tow an unusually large haul of unrelated provisions into law, including an expensive repeal of Obama-era taxes on high-cost health plans, help for retired coal miners, and an increase from 18 to 21 in the nationwide legal age to buy tobacco products.
• The House first passed a measure funding domestic programs on a 297-120 vote. But one-third of the Democrats defected on a 280-138 vote on the second bill, which funds the military and the Department of Homeland Security, mostly because it funds Trump’s border wall project.
• The Alabama congressional delegation varied in their votes on the bill. On the base bill for domestic programs, Reps. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, and Terri Sewell, D-Selma voted Yes, while Reps. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, Bradley Byrne, R-Mobile, Gary Palmer, R-Birmingham, and Mike Rogers, R-Saks, voted No.
• On the amendment adding defense and homeland security spending, Aderholt, Brooks, Roby, Rogers and Sewell all voted Yes, while Byrne and Palmer voted No.
• Read more HERE.

 

 

4. Senate sends Defense bill to Trump

• The Senate on Tuesday voted to send to President Donald Trump an annual defense bill authorizing $738 billion in Pentagon spending, including many policy provisions.
• The annual defense measure has passed every year since the Kennedy administration, invariably as a traditionally bipartisan effort. Trump has said he’ll sign the bill, which delivers a 3.1% pay raise for Pentagon personnel, the largest in more than a decade, and provides federal employees with 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Alabama’s two senators each voted in favor of the bill. Republican Richard Shelby, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the bill “contains major victories for Alabama and the nation’s defense and aerospace sectors.”
• Democrat Doug Jones, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, touted the inclusion of a provision repealing the so-called “Military Widow’s Tax,” which he championed alongside Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
• “We worked hard to make sure this bill reflects our values, and that’s why it includes so many provisions to not only shore up our national defense, but to take care of servicemembers and their families,” Jones said.
• The NDAA also authorizes the creation of the U.S. Space Force, which reorganizes existing personnel into a new branch of the Air Force. Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers, R-Saks, has long pushed for the creation of a Space Force. He said he was “ecstatic” to see the project finally come to fruition.
• “This is an important step for our national security. Our adversaries are moving quickly in space and this new service will allow us to quickly realign our resources and efforts towards countering them,” Rogers said.
• Full story HERE.

 

5. Job market remains strong

• The Labor Department said Tuesday that the number of available jobs rose 3.3% to nearly 7.3 million during the last measured month of October. That suggests that businesses remain confident enough in the economic outlook to create more positions.
• The figures provide the latest evidence that employers have largely shrugged off the uncertainties surrounding the U.S.-China trade war and slowing global growth. While the number of open jobs has declined from a record high of 7.6 million a year ago, they are still at a historically high level. For roughly a year and a half there have been more job postings than unemployed people.
• “The numbers should calm worries that employer demand for workers is drying up,” said Julia Pollak, labor economist at ZipRecruiter. “Rather than falling substantially, job openings now appear to have remained fairly stable for over a year.”
• Read more HERE.

 

 

 

News Briefs

 

Judge drops charge against 2nd man in Aniah Blanchard case

• OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge dismissed a kidnapping charge Tuesday against one of the three men arrested in the disappearance of 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard, who was later found slain.
• Lee County Judge Russell Bush dismissed a kidnapping charge against Antwain Shamar Fisher, 35, of Montgomery, after the county’s assistant district attorney, Garrett Saucer, filed a motion to dismiss.
• Fisher was one of three people arrested earlier in the death of Blanchard, an Alabama college student and the stepdaughter of UFC heavyweight Walt Harris.
• “The investigation has since revealed that Fisher was not present during the commission of the principal offense,” according to the motion as reported by the Opelika-Auburn News.
• Ibraheem Yazeed, 29, of Montgomery, was charged with capital murder-kidnapping, after Blanchard’s remains were discovered and identified. County District Attorney Brandon Hughes said the medical examiner determined Blanchard died from a gunshot wound.
• A memorial service for Blanchard is scheduled for noon Saturday at Faith Chapel Christian Center in Birmingham.
• An announcement posted on the church’s Facebook page says the event is open to the public.
• Full story HERE.

Popular tax breaks extended

• WASHINGTON (AP) — A raft of expired and expiring tax breaks, including deductions for mortgage insurance premiums, college tuition and large medical bills, would be renewed under a massive government-wide funding bill approved by the Democratic-controlled House.
• The action comes a few days before the second anniversary of passage of President Donald Trump’s massive 2017 tax law, his signature legislative achievement. The package of individual and corporate tax cuts that the Republicans muscled through Congress was the most extensive rewrite of the U.S. tax code in three decades, adding an estimated $1.5 trillion to the ballooning deficit.
• It provided steep tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families. While the law slashed the corporate tax rate permanently from 35% to 21%, its tax cuts for individuals expire in 2026.
• In addition to the deduction for mortgage insurance, college tuition and big medical bills, it includes extensions of several measures to boost renewable energy sources, such as a wind energy tax credit and a biodiesel credit eagerly sought by soybean growers.
• Also extended are tax breaks for brewers and distillers, a credit for maintenance on short-line railroads and tax relief for victims of natural disasters.
• Full story HERE.

Tobacco age hike backed by vape makers

• WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is moving to pass the biggest new sales restrictions on tobacco products in more than a decade, with support from two unlikely backers: Marlboro-cigarette maker Altria and vaping giant Juul Labs.
• The legislation would raise the minimum age to purchase all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, from 18 to 21 nationwide, a step long-sought by health advocates. But in the past year Juul and Altria have emerged as the biggest supporters of the measure, blanketing Capitol Hill with lobbyists and advertisements touting their support for a national “Tobacco 21” law.
• Tobacco critics contend the companies’ support is calculated to head off even harder-hitting government action: a ban on all flavored tobacco products, including fruit and dessert e-cigarettes. Their stance puts them in the unusual position of criticizing a move they long supported, arguing that the sales restriction isn’t enough.
• The bipartisan legislation, supported by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has been attached to a package of must-pass spending bills that will keep the government running into next year.
• Juul and Altria — the vaping company’s biggest investor — threw their support behind the bill earlier this year amid a backlash against e-cigarettes at the local, state and national levels.
• Full story HERE.

 

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