Climate Politics: The View from Washington February 29, 2024

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

54% : (Forbes)Should the FRA's provisions be triggered, it would cut non-defense discretionary spending by $40 billion (approximately 5.4 percent)[i].
53% : It's anyone's guess if McConnell will find some way to rationalize endorsing Trump; he's been clever that way in the past.
52% : Successful advocacy strategies begin with understanding the political context in which proposed climate-related policies are debated and acted upon.Republicans and Democrats are once again playing a game of political chicken over government funding.
49% : According to the terms of the current Continuing Resolution (CR), bills covering military construction and the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Affairs come due on March 1.
46% : Not only is Trump against supporting Ukraine's efforts to defend itself from Russia, he's quoted saying that as president, he wouldn't come to the aid of any NATO nation behind in its organizational dues -- a number he pegs as equal to two percent of their GDP.
45% : The impact of budget cuts falls hardest on federal discretionary spending because everything else is either a mandated expense, e.g., Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, supplemental nutrition assistance, federal civilian and military retirement benefits, and unemployment insurance, or an interest payment.
45% : Will they finally say, "Enough is enough," and do something more dramatic like closing down the government the way Trump did as president?There are murmurings that Representatives Marjorie Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) are considering a motion to vacate the chair if Johnson continues to work rely on Democratic votes to get things done.
37% : Should Congress not pass a government budget before April 30, the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA or Act) would result in significant funding cuts.
35% : Trump continues to oppose any new border security measures as part of a supplemental foreign aid bill.
32% : Before his announcement, it was being reported that McConnell's peeps were talking to Trump's about the minority leader's 2024 endorsement of the former president.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.