Happy end of August Recess. Here are a few articles the Federal Relations team has been enjoying this week.
Just 90 – According to ‘carbon accountant’ Richard Heede there are 90 companies contribute two thirds of the global carbon emissions. Among those, the top eight companies — ranked according to annual and cumulative emissions — account for 20 percent of world carbon emissions from fossil fuels and cement production since the Industrial Revolution. Heede has compiled a massive database quantifying who has been responsible for taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into the atmosphere. Read more in Science.
SCOTUS Scooch? – Senate Republicans could relent on their hard-line stance in opposition to granting Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a confirmation hearing this year. Read more in Politico.
Extension Headache – Funding for the federal government dries up on October 1, which will force Congress to move a stopgap spending bill in September just weeks before the Nov. 8 presidential election. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are pushing to extend government funding into early 2017, wary of a massive bipartisan spending deal in the lame-duck and rank in file Republicans are also wary of setting up the period after the election as a time to move on funding and a host of other issues.. But GOP leaders and House Democrats are already laying the groundwork for a short-term continuing resolution, or CR, that will set up a vote on a catch-all spending bill right before the holidays. Read more in The Hill.
16 – As more and more students and parents grow frustrated with the rising cost and uncertain quality of a college education; as employers and policymakers bemoan the negative economic effects of a lack of college-educated workers; and as voters turn angry about how the higher education system seems to perpetuate inequality rather than alleviate it, politicians are putting pressure on institutions to improve. Conditions are becoming ripe, in other words, for the innovators to take charge. Read about the 16 most innovative people in higher ed in Washington Monthly.
110 – Over 100 Republican thought leaders have declared to be against Trump. Read when and why they flipped at the New York Times.
South of the Border – Trump will meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto ahead of a major speech on immigration on Wednesday. The surprise visit comes as Trump is later scheduled to deliver what’s billed as a “major speech” on immigration in Arizona. Read more at NBC News.
7 Reasons – Why Trump will hate being President. Read them in Politico.
Welcome BACK! – The scaffolding around the Capitol Dome has been slowly going away, and the picturesque structure is starting to look like itself again. Read more in Roll Call.