Lawmakers urged to expand Biden-era wildfire grants
At a hearing on legislation to improve forest management and head off big wildfires, the nonprofit group Megafire Action said community wildfire defense grants should be changed to allow for home-hardening and defensible space projects that reduce the spread of fires in populated areas.
The testimony by Megafire Action puts a challenge before the Republican-led Congress: embrace a program funded through the Biden-era bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act, or follow the Trump administration's lead toward leaving such efforts in local hands.
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Community wildfire defense grants help local officials create wildfire defense plans, but they don't cover measures to ensure homes are built with more fire-resistant material or properties designed with noncombustible landscaping, said Megafire Action CEO Matt Weiner.
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Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Inside a US guitar string maker's strategy to navigate the trade war
By Timothy Aeppel FARMINGDALE, NY (Reuters) -Once a week, executives of D'Addario & Company, a maker of strings and drumsticks for the world's top musicians, gather at the company's headquarters about 40 miles east of New York to strategize how they should respond to the President Donald Trump's trade war between the U.S. and the rest of the world. 'We literally call it our trade war task force,' said CEO John D'Addario III. Back in April, Trump was generating so much turmoil on trade that they met daily. But as they've gotten the hang of responding to constantly changing rules, they've scaled back to meeting weekly to map out plans to protect their business and take advantage of opportunities that may arise. Strategy sessions like this are happening across corporate America as Trump's tariffs create kinks and extra costs in global supply chains built up over decades. For D'Addario, a family-owned business that has been around for over half a century, this has meant looking at every aspect of their business to assess exposure, resulting in strategies that include setting up their own free trade zone and rerouting shipments to avoid tariffs, Reuters reporting shows. U.S. companies are learning there are no quick fixes to their trade woes. What seems to work one week may be outdated the next as the levies, or threats of levies, shift. In the past few months, the U.S. has slapped a minimum 10% tariff on most imported goods, with higher rates on steel, aluminum, cars, and car parts. The trade war so far has pushed the effective U.S. tariff rate to around 20%, according to the Budget Lab at Yale, a level not seen since the 1930s. D'Addario is one of the world's leading makers of music accessories, with annual sales of $235 million and six U.S. factories. Five of those plants are clustered in this Long Island suburb, including one that churns out 750,000 strings a day for everything from bass guitars and banjos to violas and mandolins. The company has a devoted following among professional musicians as well as amateurs. John Oates--of the former rock duo Hall & Oates--uses their strings, as does jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and country singer Chris Stapleton. Neil Peart, the late Rush drummer, used D'Addario's drumsticks--and the company still sells sticks that were designed specifically for his playing style and bear his signature. A set of those hung on the wall of the conference room where the task force met one recent morning. While the company makes nearly all their products in the U.S., their supply chain and distribution are global. They export nearly 45% of what they make to 120 countries. Their biggest foreign market is Japan. TRADE WAR ROOM D'Addario's global footprint means they keep finding new vulnerabilities. For instance, one item on the agenda of the recent meeting was Japanese oak. D'Addario uses the wood, known as Shira Kashi oak, to craft a line of drumsticks coveted for their durability and feel. Some drummers won't play anything else. But the cost of the material is set to jump on August 1 if Trump makes good on his vow to push through a wide range of new tariffs, including 25% on Japanese goods. 'There isn't really any good alternative—people want their Shira Kashi oak,' Hank Sheller, the company's strategic sourcing manager, told the group of eight other executives gathered around a conference table three days after Trump announced the new levies on Japan. The group concluded that, in this case, a price increase to offset tariffs would be readily accepted by consumers because the wood is so unique. 'That's just something people will pay for,' said D'Addario. Other topics under discussion were more difficult to resolve, like what Trump's promise of a 50% copper tariff, announced the day after the Japan duties, would do to their costs. D'Addario doesn't buy raw copper but consumes large amounts of copper rod that it draws out into ultra-fine thread used to wind many types of musical strings. 'The problem is we don't really know the origin of the copper we're getting—whether it's from a domestic source or imported,' said D'Addario. 'But it's more likely there will be a cost increase for us, even if it is a U.S.-based supplier.' And unlike Japanese oak, copper strings are a commodity, so raising consumer prices to cover the tariff cost is unlikely. The task force has found ways to sidestep some tariffs. For example, after the U.S. started raising tariffs sharply on China, they shifted how they ship Chinese-produced goods to customers outside the U.S. It previously imported most of those goods, which account for about 5% of their total sales, to its warehouse on Long Island, where they were stockpiled and then sent on to end customers as they filled orders. The task force realized they could get around U.S. tariffs by having the goods sent directly to foreign customers from the Chinese factories. It helped that the Chinese factories were eager to help. In the past, they resisted directly shipping smaller orders. 'As a result of tariffs, our Chinese suppliers suddenly became much more accommodating,' said D'Addario. 'WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS' The task force has also applied for permission to create a free trade zone in part of their warehouse in Farmingdale, which will allow them to hold imported products and only pay tariffs when they need to be used to supply domestic orders. The company also plans to do some assembly work there. 'We'll be able to bring parts from China and assemble them with domestic parts—and then you could re-export that without paying any tariffs,' said D'Addario. Though that won't be a quick fix. D'Addario estimates it will likely take more than a year to get the necessary approvals and to build that facility, which must be secured with fencing and special monitoring equipment. Another effort is aimed at changing how they sell musical strings in China. Until now, they've produced them in New York and had workers here put them into retail packaging. They're testing sending the strings in bulk to China and having a logistics company there do the final packaging. Since the value of bulk strings is lower than the same number of strings packaged for retail, the tariff bill is cut. Savings like that will be crucial if the Chinese retaliate against U.S. tariffs after August 1, said D'Addario. 'At least we'll have the capability proven,' he added, 'so we're able to respond to whatever happens.' Despite the task force's efforts, the company's tariff bill is still expected to hit $2.2 million by the end of this year, compared to just $700,000 last year. Part of that is new costs to import cane from the company's own plantations in France and Argentina, which it uses to make woodwind reeds. The tariff on cane has risen to 10% and is set to go much higher. 'Trump said he'll put a 30% tariff on Mexico and Europe, so we're expecting anything from our plantation in France to cost even more,' said D'Addario. 'Assuming it goes through. We'll see what happens on August first.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Los Angeles Times
3 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Summer school for migrant students takes a double hit from Trump. Fewer kids go to the zoo
The 8-year-old girl is a migrant student whose family moves frequently in search of seasonal work. But for five weeks this summer, she found stability, fun and academic nurturing in a program for children like her that included visits to the L.A. Zoo twice a week. But like the axolotl, the salamander she studied, this program is critically endangered. Because migrant students may have family members who are living in the country illegally — or may themselves lack legal status — the Trump administration wants to end federal funding for it, saying the program wastes money and violates his policy directives. And in a more immediate blow to the program, amid fears over immigration-enforcement raids, fewer children went to the zoo and virtually no parents attended concurrent education workshops on how to support their children's learning. Although the federally funded zoo experience is a tiny program within the Los Angeles Unified School District — and a small part of a summer school that reaches tens of thousands of students, it offers a window into how Trump administration policies filter down to the classroom affecting California's complex education mission and some of the state's most vulnerable children. There are 1,700 students defined as migrants in the nation's second-largest school system, which has about 400,000 students ranging from transitional kindergarten through high school. Parents of these students typically work in agriculture or the dairy industry and they move with the seasons. The children sometimes move with the parents; sometimes they stay behind with relatives in the Los Angeles area or a different home base. Their parents typically have limited education and often limited English-language skills. The federal government provides L.A. Unified about $1.4 million for extra help for migrant students throughout the school year, part of some $400 million in federal migrant education grants available nationwide. The annual distribution of this funding was supposed to begin July 1, but the Trump administration held it back, even though it was approved by Congress earlier this year. Nationwide, this withheld funding for various education programs surpassed an estimated $6 billion, although some was released last week. Last week California joined other states in suing the Trump administration for holding back the money, much of which the administration wants to eliminate entirely in future years, including the migrant education funding. Those who applaud the federal cutbacks say that state and local governments should pay for these programs if they are valuable. Others believe the federal government retains an important role in helping children with special needs. Without federal involvement, 'some students are going to lose, and historically, it had been students of color, it had been migrant students, it had been low-income students,' said Mayra Lara, director of Southern California partnerships and engagement for the advocacy group EdTrust-West. RR — a rising third-grader whom the The Times agreed to identify by her initials to protect her and her family's privacy — has attended the zoo program for two consecutive years. 'I was kind of excited because I had the same teacher, because I really wanted the same teacher because she was nice and kind,' said RR, who wears glasses and has a dark ponytail. The number of participants who study at the zoo program is relatively small — because many families leave the area for summer work. In a typical year, 45 students, mostly in elementary school, take part. This summer, however, the number plummeted to 25, even though L.A. Unified provided buses to take students to the zoo and to Malabar Elementary in Boyle Heights, the home base for classroom work. What happened is no mystery to Ruth Navarro, the program's lead teacher for L.A. Unified. Concerned about immigration raids, four families asked if the district could pick their kids up from home. The district figured out a way to do this, but the families eventually declined to participate regardless, Navarro said. 'Even though we were willing to go to their home to pick them up, they didn't want to let their child out the door because of fear of what might happen to them,' Navarro said. Normally, the school system needs three buses to pick up participating students. This year, one of the buses was canceled. In addition, virtually no parents took advantage of a program for them that coincided with the hours their children were in class, Navarro said. This effort included workshops on such topics as social emotional learning and how to help children improve their reading skills. There also was advice on how to access help with immigration issues, Navarro said. In response to fears, parents were provided with an online simulcast for the workshops — in which about 15 parents participated, Navarro said. Los Angeles Unified also expanded an online version of the Malabar elementary classes, in which about 40 students participated to varying degrees — far more than usual. But the online students missed out on the heart of the program — seven trips to the zoo and in-person classroom interaction. RR took full advantage of summer learning — and became expert on the axolotl. At first, 'I thought it was just like a normal fish, but until I noticed the legs. I was like, 'Wait, a fish doesn't have legs,' ' she recounted. RR, like other students, created art projects of her animal and also served as a docent for parents and visitors. 'They have gills that help them breathe underwater,' she explained, holding a microphone next to the tank, adding that the axolotl can change colors to hide. 'There's one camouflaging over there,' she said, pointing. RR thinks it would be fun to be an axolotl and breathe underwater. She's never been to a pool or an ocean. The students are typically extremely shy at the start of the summer, said Coral Barreiro, community programs manager for the L.A. Zoo. 'They learn interpretation skills, which is amazing for building up confidence and public speaking in the future,' Barreiro said. 'They meet with the zookeepers, and they basically, at the end, mimic everything that we've done and make it their own.' L.A. Unified is continuing its migrant student program for now by using reserves that were designated for other purposes. During the school year, the migrant program pays for services such as tutoring and an extended instructional time after school and on Saturdays. Some argue that migrant programs — and many other examples of federal education spending — are not the responsibility of the federal government, including Neal P. McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. 'The federal government doesn't have constitutional authority to fund programs like that, not to mention we have a $37-trillion national debt,' said McCluskey, who was not taking a position on the value of the effort. 'If government is going to provide such a program, it should be state or locally funded.' The Trump administration, in its budget proposal for next year, echoes this argument, but also classifies the migrant effort as an outright negative. 'This program is extremely expensive' per student, according to budget documents. 'This program has not been proven effective and encourages ineligible noncitizens to access taxpayer dollars stripping resources from American students.' Critics of the administration's approach say that the federal government has long stepped in to support the students who need it most — when a state is unwilling or unable to do so. Without federal regulation and funding, state and local governments have not 'done right by all students,' said Lara, of EdTrust-West. The pending cuts and withheld funds, she said, will result in 'denying opportunity to students. State and local governments are going to have to make really tough decisions.'
The Hill
3 minutes ago
- The Hill
Epstein saga hangs over Congress's sprint to summer recess
The controversy surrounding the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files is poised to dominate the conversation on Capitol Hill this week, as Congress sprints to August recess — and prepares to dive into government funding conversations. The House returns to Washington on Monday for its last week before breaking for the long summer recess, while the Senate is in session for its penultimate week, a final stretch that will be inundated by conversations surrounding Epstein, whether the documents related to him should be released and how the Justice Department has dealt with the current uproar. The situation has been a difficult one for Congressional Republicans, who are weighing listening to the MAGA base and calling for the release of the documents against President Trump, who has urged his party to drop the matter. Aside from Epstein, Congress this week will spend some time focusing on government funding, as the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline inches closer. The Senate is expected to consider its first of 12 full-year funding bills, though that effort could be complicated after Republicans passed a bill to claw back $9 billion in federal funding. Also this week, the Senate is scheduled to vote on a number of Trump nominees as the president urges the upper chamber to cancel its August recess. And House Republicans are slated to select a new chair of the Homeland Security Committee following former Chair Mark Green's (R-Tenn.) departure from Congress. Lawmakers confront lingering Epstein scandal The outcry over the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files is likely to continue this week, as Republicans await the grand jury testimony Trump directed for release and some continue to call for the release of all the documents in the case. Adding to the controversy is a potential — though unlikely — vote in the House on a non-binding resolution, prepared by Republicans, that calls for the release of some materials from the case but gives Attorney General Pam Bondi the ability to exempt some parts. The House Rules Committee advanced the resolution after hours of deliberations last week, delaying a vote on a package to claw back $9 billion in federal funding. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), however, has not committed to holding a vote on the measure, a posture that will likely spark criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans who want the documents to see the light of day. 'We'll determine what happens with all that,' Johnson said when asked if he will put the Epstein resolution on the floor. 'There's a lot developing. The president made his statements this afternoon, he's asked the attorney general to release the information, I'm certain that she will, and everybody can make their own decisions about that.' Pressed on if he would commit to staging a vote on the legislation, Johnson again stopped short, telling reporters: 'We will see how all this develops.' 'We're in line with the White House, there's no daylight between us,' he added. 'We want transparency, and I think that will be delivered for the people.' Johnson suggested that the vote was a way to give Republicans on the Rules Committee cover after they voted against a different measure last week calling for the release of the documents. In the meantime, reaction is likely to continue rolling in about The Wall Street Journal's reporting that Trump, in 2003, allegedly sent Epstein a 'bawdy' letter for his birthday. Republicans have slammed the report, and Trump sued the outlet and Rupert Murdoch, an owner of the outlet. And lawmakers are awaiting the grand jury transcripts that Trump directed Bondi to release. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who has called for the release of the Epstein files, said, 'I believe that will pretty much cover everything,' referring to the transcripts, but he noted that he still wants all the files to be released. Democrats, meanwhile, are downplaying the importance of the transcripts, arguing that they will only pertain to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender who is serving time for wrongdoing in connection to Epstein. Hanging over the entire controversy is a bipartisan effort, led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), to force a vote on a resolution that calls for the disclosure of Epstein files. The pair is vowing to file a discharge petition for the measure, which already has 10 other GOP supporters. Government shutdown deadline inches closer This week marks the final one that both the House and Senate are in session at the same time before August recess — and before Congress returns to a government funding sprint in September. With less than 10 weeks to go until the shutdown deadline — and less than 20 legislative days until the cliff — Congress is behind the eight ball, staring down a mountain of work that has to be done before funding runs out in Washington. The House has only passed two out of 12 full-year appropriations bills, while the Senate has approved none of the dozen. The upper chamber will try to chip away at their to-do list this week, with an initial procedural vote expected on Tuesday on the bill to fund military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs and related agencies. Votes on the measures in each chamber, however, are unable to bring Congress closer to averting a government shutdown, since the full-year measures are written at different levels. Adding to the dilemma is the bill Republicans approved this month to claw back $9 billion in federal funding, targeting foreign aid and public broadcasting. Democrats warned that passage of that package would tarnish the appropriations process, setting the stage for a high-stakes stretch to Sept. 30. Earlier this month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said clearing the legislation — known as a rescissions bill — 'would be an affront to the bipartisan appropriations process.' 'That's why a number of Senate Republicans know it is absurd for them to expect Democrats to act as business as usual and engage in a bipartisan appropriations process to fund the government, while they concurrently plot to pass a purely partisan rescissions bill to defund those same programs negotiated on a bipartisan basis behind the scenes,' he wrote in a letter to colleagues, later adding: 'This is beyond a bait and switch — it is a bait and poison-to-kill.' The current dynamics are making the possibility of a continuing resolution in September more-and-more likely. Senate to vote on nominees as Trump calls for canceling recess The Senate this week is slated to continue churning through Trump's nominees, as the president puts pressure on the upper chamber to confirm more of his picks — and urges Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to cancel recess for that reason. The focus on nominations comes after the Senate spent considerable floor time on the 'big, beautiful bill' and legislation to lock in cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which monopolized recent weeks. The Senate will vote on Joshua M. Divine's nomination to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, Cristian M. Stevens's nomination to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, Aaron Lukas's nomination to be principal deputy director of national intelligence, Bradley Hansell's nomination to be undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, Arielle Roth's nomination to be assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, and John Hurley's nomination to be undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes. The focus on confirming Trump's picks comes after the president over the weekend encouraged Thune to nix the chamber's August recess, which is set to begin at the end of next week and run through the month. 'Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed. We need them badly!!! DJT' Trump wrote on Truth Social. It remains unclear if Thune will heed the president's advice and cancel recess. While Republicans want to continue confirming Trump's nominees, they are also eager to head home for the month to sell the 'big, beautiful bill' to constituents, which they see as vital as the midterm elections inch closer. House GOP to select new Homeland Security Committee chair House Republicans will vote on a new chairman for the Homeland Security Committee this week, after Green officially resigned from Congress. Republican Reps. Michael Guest (Miss.), Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.), Carlos Gimenez (Fla.) and Clay Higgins (La.) are all vying for the leadership position. The Republican Steering Committee — a group of Republican leaders and regional representatives — is scheduled to meet Monday and recommend a candidate for the job, who will likely be rubber-stamped by the conference later in the week. The four candidates each bring different qualities to the table. Guest, currently serving as chairman of the House Ethics Committee, is a former prosecutor who has held stints as vice chair and a subcommittee chair on the Homeland Security panel. The Mississippi Republican has also underscored that he was an impeachment manager when the House penalized then-Homland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Garbarino has pointed to his New York roots, arguing that the panel should turn back to its focus on counterterrorism, which was the focal point after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Gimenez, a former mayor and firefighter, has said that his background dealing with emergency planning in Florida, a state prone to hurricanes, has uniquely prepared him for the role. He has also said there should be 'nuance' in some of Trump's immigration policies. And Higgins, a former police officer, is the most senior of the candidates running, giving him a leg up in an environment where seniority is taken into consideration. A number of Louisiana Republicans, however, are already in leadership — Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), for example — which could work against him. Johnson said the candidates have created 'quite a horse race.'
