Page 6 - 5-15-15 Friday's Edition

Senate Dems Block Key Obama Priority
Chicago Wins Bid For Pres. Obama’s Presidential Center
CHICAGO — Maybe the Obamas will never return to live in Chicago after the presidency is over, their global celebrity pulling them toward New York or Los An- geles and away from the unpretentious Midwest. But Chicagoans will al- ways have this: As it was formally an- nounced on Tuesday, their city will be home to his presidential li- brary.
President Obama is pri- vately working with Senate De- mocrats to find a way forward for his free trade initiative.
After Democrats banded to- gether to rebuke their own party's President on a key trade bill Tuesday afternoon, Pres. Obama huddled with some of those senators -- including sev- eral who have publicly ex- pressed support for the bill, called trade promotion author- ity -- to "discuss a path forward for this legislation," an adminis- tration official said.
Pres. Obama is scrambling to save his biggest legislative priority in his remaining years in the White House. The bill, trade negotiators say, is neces- sary before the 11 other coun- tries participating in the talks will agree to finalize the Trans- Pacific Partnership.
"The President reiterated his view, which he has shared in nu- merous similar conversations with members over the past sev- eral weeks, that passing TPA is an important step toward final- izing the Trans-Pacific Partner- ship -- the most progressive trade agreement in our history, which levels the playing field for American workers and puts in place new, high-standards envi-
ronmental, labor, and human rights protections," the admin- istration official said.
It became clear that Pres. Obama would suffer a major setback Tuesday afternoon when roughly 14 pro-trade De- mocrats emerged from a meet- ing with other Senate Democrats saying they wouldn't vote to take up the trade bill -- which then failed on a 52-45 vote.
The Democrats complained that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was refus- ing to add a package of pro- worker provisions to the bill that many in the GOP see as un- related and too costly.
"What we just saw here is pretty shocking," McConnell said on the Senate floor after the vote.
Trade Highlights Democrats' Divorce From Pres. Obama
"What we've just witnessed here is the Democratic Senate shut down the opportunity to debate the top economic prior- ity of the Democratic President of the United States," he said.
Other Republicans lashed out, too, saying they were furi- ous to see Democrats stand in the way of a rare agreement with the White House.
"We had this pretty well agreed to until, all of a sudden, we had this mess on our hands," said Senate Finance Committee
Chairman Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who spon- sored the measure.
His Democratic co-sponsor, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, was among the pro-trade De- mocrats who voted against the bill, saying it needs enforcement provisions included in a broader trade package.
Opposition to the measure, which would allow for quick ap- proval of the 12-country free- trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has been building among progres- sive Democrats for some time. But there was still hope at the White House that aggressive lobbying from Pres. Obama would be enough to cobble to- gether votes needed to at least allow the Senate to debate the bill.
Pres. Obama's cars claim in trade deal running on empty? The tricky politics of trade have created unusual partner- ships heading into the vote. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a liberal darling, and Sen. Rand Paul, a conservative running for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, both oppose the
measure.
"While Sen. Paul has always
been a strong advocate of free trade, he is hesitant to give blan- ket authority on a trade agree- ment that has yet to be seen," a Paul aide said.
“His journey began on the South Side,
Park, on the
it will come full circle, Chicago, is one of the final contenders for the
South Side of Barack Obama Presidential Center, which
and now we know that Jackson
with his library com- would include a library.
ing home to the South
Side of Chicago,” an elated Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on Tuesday at a ceremony here, where the Barack Obama Presidential Center, which is to include the library, a museum and space for the president’s foundation, will be built.
But as Chicago officially notched a victory over New York and Hawaii, which were also contenders, it immediately turned to the next question: Where, exactly, on the South Side will the library be built?
The Obama Foundation says it is still undecided on the location and will make the announcement in roughly the next six to nine months. Two parks near the University of Chicago’s campus on the South Side are being considered for the library: Washington Park, a 380-acre space that borders several neighborhoods, including Washington Park and Hyde Park; and Jackson Park, which hugs both the neighborhood of Woodlawn and Lake Michigan, and is the site of the Museum of Sci- ence and Industry, a golf course, soccer fields and a children’s hospital.
The transfer of about 20 acres where the library could be built was approved in February by the Chicago Park District.
Audit: Pentagon Employees Used Credit Cards To Gamble, Buy Adult Entertainment
According to Politico.com, a Defense Department audit has found that a number of Penta- gon employees used their gov- ernment credit cards to gamble and pay for “adult entertain- ment” — findings that are ex- pected to lead department officials to issue stern new warnings.
The audit of “Government Travel Charge Transactions” by the Department of Defense Of- fice of Inspector General, which is to be made public in coming weeks, found that both civilian and military employees used the credit cards at casinos and for escort services and other adult activities — in Las Vegas and At- lantic City.
A Pentagon official briefed on some of the findings stressed that the federal government did not necessarily pay the charges;
holders of the cards pay their own bills and then submit re- ceipts to be reimbursed for ex- penses related to their government business. The offi- cial said that the employees may have used the government cards for gambling and escort services in order to shield the charges from spouses.
Because the review was an audit of the credit card system and not an investigation of par- ticular individuals, the official said the likely result will be that the agencies and military branches most affected will be compelled to remind employees that the practice violates policy — and possibly the law.
A Pentagon spokeswoman acknowledged the existence of the audit but said she was not authorized to speak about it until its release later this month.
Presidential News
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