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Bernie Sanders Unveils Massive Puerto Rico Reconstruction Bill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill Tuesday to rebuild and modernize the infrastructure of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with a massive federal investment of $146 billion.

The ambitious legislation, titled “The Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Equitable Rebuild Act of 2017,” would transform the U.S. territories’ energy, housing, education, agriculture, transportation and health care systems, addressing problems that have bedeviled the islands since long before two massive hurricanes plunged them into a state of full-on humanitarian crisis in September.

In total, the bill would grant $62 billion to the governments of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to address their fiscal challenges, $27 billion for infrastructure projects and $51 billion for economic development.

“The bill that Senator Sanders has introduced in the United States Congress is a comprehensive plan that provides the blueprint for the transformation of Puerto Rico,” Carmen Yulín Cruz, mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, said in a statement. “While dealing with all major areas of immediate concern: energy, health and education it also sets the foundation to make Puerto Rico a more equitable, just and fair society for all.”

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Democratic Reps. Nydia Velazquez (N.Y.) and Darren Soto (Fla.) are due to introduce a companion bill in the House of Representatives. Democratic Rep. Stacey Plaskett, the delegate representing the Virgin Islands, also is co-sponsoring the House version of bill.

The bills also have the backing of scores of progressive organizations and labor unions active in Puerto Rico, such as the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers.

Fla. company failed to deliver on Puerto Rico relief contracts: report

An unproven Florida company failed to deliver emergency supplies to Puerto Rico to help rebuild homes following the devastation of Hurricane Maria, The Associated Press reports.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had awarded $30 million in federal contracts to Bronze Star LLC to provide tarps and other materials to residents needing to temporarily patch their homes.

FEMA has canceled the contracts without paying any money, but it took nearly four weeks for the agency to cancel the contract, keeping the valuable disaster relief funds from being used elsewhere.

While an agency spokesman told The AP that FEMA has properly vetted companies helping in the recovery effort, Bronze Star, a small family company started in August, has never before been awarded a government contract or supplied plastic tarps.

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Brothers Kayon and Richard Jones, the two military veterans who started the company, eventually told FEMA they could not hold up their end of the contract due to supply issues.

FEMA then told the brothers it would hold them responsible for $9.3 million in damages unless they signed a waiver freeing the U.S. of any responsibility for the issue, which they agreed to.

The setback comes as thousands of Puerto Ricans are still struggling to regain key resources months after the hurricane landed, with many still without electricity.

A massive exodus of Puerto Ricans is on its way to Orlando – which could change the island, and Florida, forever

Almost 70 days after the destructive storm tore through the island’s weak infrastructure, the situation remains intolerable – a significant portion of the 3.4 million U.S. citizens who live in Puerto Rico remain completely in the dark, without electricity or access to potable water. In two months, tens of thousands of people have fled to the mainland, with the majority headed to established Puerto Rican strongholds in Florida, especially Orlando. Franceschini, who now heads Hispanic Federation’s Florida office, and other community members have been working for weeks to provide the island’s hurricane victims with food donations, housing, access to jobs, health care and even English classes.

“We have a record number of people coming from the island – we’ve had more Puerto Ricans leave the island and come to the U.S. in the last several years than in the 1950s when a major exodus came to New York,” she says. “Our community needs to come together and stay present and do what needs to be done.”

The Puerto Rican exodus to Florida is so massive it could surpass the number of Cuban refugees who escaped to Miami during the Mariel boatlift in 1980 or the number of New Orleans evacuees who fled to Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, says Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute and professor of anthropology at Florida International University.

Duany says a conservative estimate from a report by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College projects that between 114,000 and 213,000 people will leave the island annually after Maria, a jump from the 89,000 who left in 2016.

In two years, the report estimates, Puerto Rico will lose 14 percent of its population, or 470,335 residents. In a 10-year span after the end of World War II in 1945, nearly 700,000 people arrived in New York City during the Great Puerto Rican Migration, according to research from the Library of Congress

Senators debate likely effects of GOP tax plan

While Congress continues to push for tax reform, senators from across the aisle debated Tuesday evening over the likely ramifications of the GOP tax bill.

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Tim Scott faced off against Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on CNN, with CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating.

Cruz argued that, “if you’re a taxpayer, this bill benefits you.”

He and Scott defended the bill’s doubling of the child tax credit, but Sanders argued that the legislation would primarily benefit individuals in the highest income-level bracket.

“The tax bills in both the House and the Senate give the lion’s share of tax breaks to the top 1%,” Sanders said.

The 90-minute event came the same day Republicans voted to move their tax legislation to the full Senate for a vote, which GOP leaders hope will take place later this week.

Cantwell joins Sanders in sparring with GOP over tax plan

With the Senate expected to vote in the next week or so on a major overhaul of the tax system, Maria Cantwell tag teamed with Bernie Sanders in a verbal wrestling match Tuesday against two Republicans defending the GOP plan.

Answering questions from a studio audience and reporters from CNN, which broadcast the debate live, Cantwell was sharply critical of a provision in the Senate GOP plan that would eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes for taxpayers who itemize.

Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, told an audience member who opposes that change it is his single biggest concern, and one he’s “working hard to improve.”

“He’s not working hard enough,” countered Cantwell, who fought for years to make sales tax deductable for taxpayers in states like Washington that don’t have a state income tax. People have a right to that deduction and anything less is “double taxation,” she added.

Bernie Sanders returning to Reading

On the same day he received his first Grammy nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont announced that he will return to Reading.

The second-place finisher in the 2016 race for the Democratic presidential nomination will hold a rally Sunday at the Santander Performing Arts Center in protest of the Republican-backed tax plan making its way through Congress, according to a press release Tuesday. Sanders will be joined by representatives of political action groups MoveOn.org and Not One Penny for a “Protecting Working Families Rally.”

“This legislation goes well beyond taxes,” Sanders said in the release. “If passed, the Republicans will then rediscover the ‘deficit crisis,’ and push aggressively for massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, nutrition, affordable housing and more.”

The recently announced tour kicks off on Friday in Louisville, Ky., before heading to Dayton and Akron, Ohio on Saturday and finally coming to Reading on Sunday.

Jealous names Susan Turnbull, a former vice chair of the DNC, as his running mate

Maryland gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous has chosen Susan W. Turnbull, a Democratic stalwart who has held local, state and national positions in the party, as his running mate in the crowded June 26 primary.

The former NAACP president is the first of the eight Democratic candidates to announce his pick for lieutenant governor. He said he selected Turnbull, a former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and former chair of the state Democratic Party, because the two share a commitment to bringing people from diverse backgrounds together to address the major problems facing the state

Our Wisconsin Revolution endorses Tim Burns for Wisconsin Supreme Court

Our Wisconsin Revolution, the state chapter of the national organization formed to continue the energy from Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, announced 6,000 members voted overwhelmingly in favor of endorsing Tim Burns for Wisconsin Supreme Court.

“We are excited to make our first state-wide endorsement. Our Wisconsin Revolution is a people-powered, member-driven organization. We believe it is time to make sure that the Wisconsin Supreme Court is truly acting in the interest of the people. This is why we support Tim Burns for supreme court justice,” stated Sarah Lloyd, OWR co-chair. “Tim Burns is running for this important position to make sure that the judicial system and especially the highest court in the state is acting to ensure a level playing field for everyone and not corporate interests.

She continued, “This focus aligns with the values OWR is fighting for in Wisconsin. Our members know Tim will bring an experienced, authentic voice of reason to the Supreme Court, a voice that sides with the people of this state. We are eager to mobilize 6,000 members across the state in support of Tim through the primary and general election in April.”

In ‘Blow to American Consumers,’ Trump-Appointed Judge Sides With Trump on CFPB

A Trump-appointed federal judge delivered a “blow to American consumers” on Tuesday by denying Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) deputy director Leandra English’s request for a temporary restraining order, which would have prevented Trump budget chief Mick Mulvaney from becoming the CFPB’s acting director.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s ruling effectively gives Mulvaney the authority to lead the CFPB, despite arguments from the agency’s architects insisting that the law is “clearly” not on his side. English is reportedly weighing several options in response to Kelly’s ruling, including an immediate appeal.

As Common Dreams reported, English filed suit on Sunday claiming that President Donald Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney was “unlawful” and arguing that she is the “rightful acting director.”

“Dodd-Frank is quite specific: It provides its own succession planning,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) argued shortly following Mulvaney’s appointment. “There is no vacancy for President Trump to fill.”

Study Shows Corporate Cable Networks Largely Ignoring FCC Plan to Kill Net Neutrality

With just over two weeks left until the FCC is set to vote on chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to decimate net neutrality, a new study published on Tuesday by Media Matters for America found that corporate cable and broadcast news coverage of Pai’s proposed net neutrality repeal has been sorely lacking—and, in some cases, nonexistent.

Based on an examination of television segments aired on major news networks since November 20—the day Politico reported that Pai was planning a “total repeal of net neutrality rules”—the study found that NBC, ABC, and CBS have devoted just over two minutes combined to net neutrality.

Of all the major corporate networks Media Matters examined, MSNBC devoted far and away the most coverage to the FCC’s “scorched-earth” attack on the open internet.

“In the wake of the breaking news, MSNBC represented 90 percent of all cable coverage” of net neutrality, the study found.

Media Matters goes on to observe that both NBC—which “has not covered net neutrality at all”—and MSNBC are both “owned by internet service provider Comcast, which stands to benefit from the repeal.”

‘Sham’: EPA Ripped for Holding Lone Public Hearing on Clean Power Plan Repeal in Coal Country

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday is holding its only public hearing on the Trump administration’s push to axe the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, West Virginia, smack dab in the middle of coal country—a location that green groups said gives the event “all the markings of a sham” designed to silence agency critics and elevate proponents of dirty energy.

“I know it’s no accident that they’re holding the hearing in a place where the coal industry still wields significant political power,” Mary Anne Hitt, director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, wrote in an op-ed on Monday.

Nonetheless, environmentalists were determined to make their voices heard amid the crowd of fully-dressed coal miners in attendance at the start of the meeting on Tuesday.

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On Tuesday, environmentalists took their fight straight to the EPA, arguing that contrary to Big Oil talking points, the CPP is vital for safeguarding public health and spurring job growth and innovation.

“We can have both” good jobs and a clean environment, David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council argued in his testimony. “We can—and we must—protect Americans’ health and preserve the stability of our climate.”

“It is not the job of the EPA to protect the coal industry,” adds Dr. Jeremy Richardson, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “In fact, the EPA is bound by law to address air and water pollutants from producing and using coal. Many of these pollutants are hurting the health of communities right here in Appalachia, where acid mine drainage and coal ash contaminate our waterways, and are also causing harm around the country where people live downwind from coal-fired power plants.”