Thursday, September 14, 2017

DEFENDING THE DREAM

► In today’s NY Times — Trump confirms support for law that protests Dreamers — President Trump said on Thursday morning that he supports legislation that would protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation and would deliver a “massive” increase in border security — but not with a wall on the southern border. That appeared to confirm the broad parameters of an agreement that Democratic leaders announced had been reached Wednesday.

► This morning from The Hill — Trump: ‘Fairly close’ to DACA deal — “We’re working on a plan — subject to getting massive border controls,” he told reporters.

► From Politico — Poll: Majority wants Congress to establish path to citizenship for DACA recipients — A new poll shows that 54 percent of voters want Congress to establish a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, and another 19 percent want Congress to allow Dreamers to stay without establishing citizenship.

► In today’s Washington Post — Trump’s die-hard supporters are fuming after an apparent about-face on ‘dreamers’ — Staunch conservative allies of President Trump have erupted in anger and incredulity after Democrats late Wednesday announced that the president had agreed to pursue a legislative deal that would protect thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), one of the GOP’s biggest immigration hawks, issued a dramatic warning to the president after he scrolled through news reports. “If AP is correct, Trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair,” King tweeted.

EDITOR’S NOTE — King is the “right-to-work” supporter who has espoused racist, white nationalist views, tweeting that “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” Earlier this week, Washington Republican Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Cathy McMorris Rodgers repeatedly voted for King’s legislation to eliminate prevailing wage standards on publicly funded construction projects.

► From Politico — Moderate Republicans quietly form working group to craft immigration plan — Moderate House Republicans angling for a legislative fix to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program have quietly created an informal working group to try and craft an immigration plan that could pass Congress, according to GOP sources.

EDITOR’S NOTE — The group includes Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.)

THIS WASHINGTON

► In today’s Olympian — Amazon is getting too huge for any one city (editorial) — Given the obvious impacts Amazon’s stratospheric growth is having on Seattle, it’s hard to swallow the political opportunism and fretting that accompanied the company’s announcement last week that it is looking to build a second North American headquarters equal to the one in Seattle. Some politicians were quick to blame Seattle’s far left city politics… Most of this chatter — that even talking about a state capital gains or income tax scares off business — is just baloney.

LOCAL

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing will accelerate 787 production to 14 per month — Boeing will raise the 787 Dreamliner production rate from 12 jets per month now to 14 per month starting in 2019, chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said. With 787 production evenly split between Everett and North Charleston, S.C., that likely means seven planes per month rolling out at each assembly site, up from six a month today. The news comes as a much-needed boost for the widebody-jet plant in Everett because production of the larger 777 jet there has fallen sharply.

► From Bloomberg — Boeing to boost Dreamliner output from 12 to 14 a month

► In today’s Seattle Times — City Council President Bruce Harrell becomes Seattle’s 54th mayor; Ed Murray steps down — The city charter’s language on the transition of power ensures that Harrell won’t be mayor for long. It gives Harrell five days — until 5 p.m. Monday — to accept or decline a longer tenure. If Harrell accepts, he’ll forfeit his council seat and serve as mayor until Nov. 28, when the results of the Nov. 7 mayoral election between Jenny Durkan and Cary Moon are certified. If Harrell declines, he’ll become mayor pro tem and the council will have 20 days to choose another of its members to serve into November.

► In today’s Seattle Times — See Everett’s ‘sample outfits’ allowed under bikini-barista dress code — In the wake of last month’s legislation banning pasties, g-strings and bikinis on baristas and other “quick serve” employees, Everett officials asked police to disseminate a flier showing “sample outfits” that would be allowed under the new law.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From The Hill — Trump is ‘open’ to ObamaCare fix, lawmakers say — President Trump was “open” to the idea of a bipartisan ObamaCare stabilization bill but did not make any commitments during a meeting Wednesday with a group of House lawmakers, attendees said. Trump asked whether the plan is essentially what Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) are working on in the Senate, and lawmakers said yes.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Stop trying to kill Obamacare (editorial) — Sens. Alexander and Murray are boldly leading a bipartisan effort to make some small changes to prevent a market collapse. They have called a quick succession of hearings to gather information and build consensus for a plan that could pass Congress by the end of the month.

► In today’s NY Times — Trump goes all in on a tax overhaul whose details remain unwritten — President Trump is doubling down this week on his bid to remake the tax code, meeting with Democrats, tying tax legislation to hurricane recovery and dispatching his economic team to Capitol Hill almost daily to prod lawmakers into action. But he is bringing to the game a relatively weak team — a chief economic adviser whom he has openly disparaged and a Treasury secretary whose counsel he has dismissed — and is promoting quick passage of a new tax code that has yet to be written as members of his party bicker over the details.

ALSO at The Stand — Tell Congress: NO on Trump’s ‘tax reform’

► From Politico — Trump ethics watchdog moves to allow anonymous gifts to legal defense funds — The U.S. Office of Government Ethics has quietly reversed its own internal policy prohibiting anonymous donations from lobbyists to White House staffers who have legal defense funds. The little-noticed change could help President Donald Trump’s aides raise the money they need to pay attorneys as the Russia probe expands — but raises the potential for hidden conflicts of interest or other ethics trouble.

NATIONAL

► In today’s Washington Post — ‘Leave the light on — for ICE’: Motel 6 employees reported guests to immigration officials — For immigration attorneys in the Phoenix area, the motel chain has become the site of a troubling string of immigration arrests. And according to a published report, employees at two Motel 6 locations may have been sending guest information directly to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.