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Energy
A Shameful Climate Witch Hunt
POLITICO
Rich Lowry
Let the climate inquisition begin. The ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, has written to seven universities about seven researchers who harbor impure thoughts about climate change.
NAFTA’s specter may haunt Keystone verdict
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Elana Schor
The 21-year-old free-trade pact allows foreign companies or governments to haul the U.S. in front of an international tribunal to face accusations of putting their investments at risk through regulations or other decisions. The CEO of Keystone developer TransCanada has raised the prospect as a potential last resort if Obama rejects the $8 billion project, although for now the company is focused on getting him to say yes.
Technology
Best Web Regulator Not Necessarily Net Neutrality
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Greg Ip
There is still a strong case for some regulation. Even ISPs now acknowledge they shouldn’t be allowed to degrade or exclude particular content, such as from potential competitors. Holding them to that requires close scrutiny from regulators and antitrust enforcers. But before applying an even heavier hand in the name of innovation and consumer protection, they should see if experimentation and competition do the job.
FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules Expected to Unleash Court Challenges
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Siobhan Hughes
“I think that the Democrats are going to realize what a disaster this is and will be a lot more anxious to work with us on a legislative solution after tomorrow when the FCC issues their order,” said Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
FCC chairman declines to testify ahead of net neutrality vote
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
The House Oversight Committee has postponed a hearing to explore whether the White House exerted improper influence on the Federal Communications Commission’s development of net neutrality rules. The announcement came after FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler declined to testify at Wednesday’s hearing, which would have come a day ahead of the commission’s vote on the new regulations.
For Netflix, One Net Neutrality Issue Remains Unclear
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Drew Fitzgerald
The least settled issue in the government’s new net neutrality rules is the one that put the debate back on the front burner in the first place—how much carriers like Verizon Communications Inc. can charge companies like Netflix Inc. to connect with their networks.
Tom Wheeler tweaks net neutrality plan after Google push
POLITICO
Brooks Boliek
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has made some last-minute revisions to his net neutrality plan after Google and public interest groups pressed for the changes, according to sources at the commission. Google, Free Press and New America’s Open Technology Institute last week asked the commission to revise language they said could unintentionally allow Internet service providers to charge websites for sending content to consumers. Such a scenario could open the door to an avalanche of new fees for Web companies and threaten their business models.
Republicans Fear Net Neutrality Plan Could Lead to UN Internet Powers
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
The U.S. government’s plan to enact strong net neutrality regulations could embolden authoritarian regimes like China and Russia to seize more power over the Internet through the United Nations, a key Senate Republican warned Wednesday. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota argued that by claiming more authority over Internet access for net neutrality, the Federal Communications Commission will undermine the ability of the U.S. to push back against international plots to control the Internet and censor content.
Clinton is looking for a middle ground on encryption that experts say doesn’t exist
WASHINGTON POST
Andrea Peterson
Hillary Rodham Clinton avoided taking a position on how easy it should be for law enforcement to access people’s encrypted e-mails and texts during an interview at a women’s leadership conference in Silicon Valley on Tuesday, calling the debate a “classic hard choice.”
Finance
Obama vs. Savers
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Brokers are already heavily regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which imposes myriad rules to prevent fraud, ensure that fees are disclosed and protect clients from “unsuitable” investments. But the President wants to require investors to use advisers who are even more heavily regulated. Specifically, he wants retirement savers seeking advice to use fiduciaries, who are legally bound to act in the client’s best interest.
Regulator warns of ‘Armageddon’ cyber attack on banks
USA TODAY
Kaja Whitehouse
A New York financial regulator said he is considering new rules to protect against “an Armageddon-type” cyber attack that would devastate U.S. financial markets. Ben Lawsky, head of New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS), said he fears a large enough hack on Wall Street firms could “spill over into the broader economy” — not unlike the mortgage meltdown of 2008.
House Republicans Intensify Attacks on Federal Reserve
NEW YORK TIMES
Binyamin Appelbaum
During a testy three-hour hearing, Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee accused Janet L. Yellen, chairwoman of the Fed, of using her office to advance liberal policy goals and argued that Congress should increase its oversight of the central bank.
A Sarbox Smackdown
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Too many federal prosecutors twist laws beyond their original intent, which means the courts have to intervene. The Supreme Court did the job well on Wednesday in a 5-4 decision that the anti-shredding provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law doesn’t apply to . . . fish.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose
WASHINGTON POST
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Giving foreign corporations special rights to challenge our laws outside of our legal system would be a bad deal. If a final TPP agreement includes Investor-State Dispute Settlement, the only winners will be multinational corporations.
Politics
As Shutdown Nears, McConnell and Boehner Remain Far Apart
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Sarah Mimms and Daniel Newhauser
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell finally have nominal control of Congress. But actually governing—together—is proving to be far more difficult. The two top congressional Republicans earned their leadership titles on the promise of competence and an end to brinkmanship, yet with just one day left until a partial government shutdown—the second in as many years—the two men do not seem to have a unified plan to avert it. And the gulf between the two chambers is so wide that Boehner actually found it useful politically to tell his members Wednesday that he and McConnell hadn’t spoken to each other about the impasse.
Unable to repeal common core, foes try sabotage
POLITICO
Stephanie Simon
The red-meat speeches at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference are likely to thunder with calls to repeal the Common Core. But out in the trenches, conservative lawmakers in state after state are running into difficulty rounding up votes to revoke the academic standards outright. So, aided at times by unlikely allies in the teachers unions, Republican lawmakers are trying a new tactic: sabotaging, in incremental steps, the academic guidelines and the new Common Core exams rolling out this spring.
Democrats Anointing Their Favorite Front-Runners
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Alex Roarty
Nationally, Democrats like to talk about themselves as an unruly family that rarely agrees on anything. But in recent elections, the party has forcefully united behind a single candidate and left possible challengers to either drop out or become irrelevant. Truly competitive primaries for top offices have become a thing of the past. Hillary Clinton isn’t the only prominent Democrat to avoid a serious primary; most of their down-ballot favorites are locking up pivotal nominations, as well.
Republicans Could Be In for a Wild Ride in 2016
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Karl Rove
Assume different candidates win each of the first four contests, which is historically the case. No one locks up the nomination in February, but the field narrows to three-to-five plausible candidates. March’s proportional primaries further winnow the field, with the late March and early April winner-take-all primaries settling the contest. In this scenario, the quality of each candidate’s message is likely to be the most important element in determining the outcome. But more so than in the past, momentum in early March, strong organizations in the March states, and sufficient money to spend effectively could seal the nomination.
Foreign governments gave millions to foundation while Clinton was at State Dept.
WASHINGTON POST
Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger
The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, including one donation that violated its ethics agreement with the Obama administration, foundation officials disclosed Wednesday.
GOP Centrists Look to Jeb Bush
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Beth Reinhard and Reid J. Epstein
Jeb Bush is drawing contributions from Republicans who favor gay marriage and other causes at odds with the GOP base, signaling his potential appeal across a large swath of his party’s ideological spectrum but also potential challenges to winning his party’s presidential nomination.
Is Gov. Scott Walker ready for prime time?
USA TODAY
Editorial
But when it comes to taking on the indulged interests in his own party — including people who question President Obama’s patriotism and religion, or who deny established science — Walker is positioning himself as a panderer of the first order.
Cracks Starting to Appear in Public Pensions’ Armor
NEW YORK TIMES
Mary Williams Walsh
First in Detroit, then in Stockton, Calif., and now in New Jersey, judges and other top officials are challenging the widespread belief that public pensions are untouchable. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey delivered the latest blow on Tuesday, when he proposed to freeze that state’s public pension plans and move workers into new ones intended not to overwhelm future budgets or impose open-ended demands on taxpayers.
White House threatens to veto GOP effort to overhaul No Child Left Behind
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kimberley Helfing
The White House threatened Wednesday to veto a Republican bill to overhaul the widely criticized No Child Left Behind law, calling the effort “a significant step backwards.” The veto threat came as lawmakers were set to debate the measure in the House. Republicans say the bill would restore local control in schools and stop top-down education mandates. Democrats say it would allow billions in federal dollars to flow out without ensuring that it will improve student learning.
