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After Election

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The election is over. You’d think that would mean a period of quiet. The time for planning so a new government can take office on January 20th at noon. Already there are lists of potential leadership jobs at every agency in government. Some 4,000 political appointees need to be vetted and hired, including those who run the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service.

This is Trahant Reports.

Every story published  about the election gets an instant comment from supporters of President Donald Trump: The election is not over, they write. There are legal challenges ahead. The media doesn’t call elections, the courts will. 

That packs in a lot of ideas. The news media doesn’t really determine elections, that’s true. 

But we do report results. And the math is the math. It’s a system that has worked pretty well for more than a century. Yes, you could use the standard of certification … but most states take 30 days or more after the counting is completed and that could be mid-December. That’s the deadline for the Electoral College to meet and vote.

Waiting is a problem because it means less time to organize a new government. And, at all levels of government once the news media does the math … the transition planning begins. Even in this election, every single congressional race was “called” by the media, often moments after the polls closed. Not a single member objected. But this president is different. The damage he is doing is to the country and to the essential operation of government. 

The legal challenges are the political equivalent of a lottery ticket. Yes … he could win. Something that everyone who buys a lottery ticket says too.
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect  Kamala Harris celebrated their win Saturday and are beginning a transition anyway. It’s worth noting about this as history: Harris is the first woman, the first daughter of immigrants, the first Black woman. She is shattering the glass ceiling. The Biden team promises more of that, assembling a diverse cabinet, one that could even include a Native American for the first time in history. The possibilities range from a Secretary of the Interior to the United Nations Ambassador. 
There is one more message from this election: The United States remains a divided country. More than 70 million people voted for Trump .. and 75 million voted for Biden. The challenge going forward is for the next president, and Congress, to govern with that fact in mind.
I am Mark Trahant.

Impeached

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What’s next in the impeachment process? And, will it force President Trump from office?

This is Trahant Reports.

There have only been three presidents who have been impeached by the House of Representatives. Andrew Johnson in 1868. Bill Clinton in 1998. And now Donald Trump.

Impeachment is only the beginning of the process. The next step will kick in later this week when the House votes to name the managers who will then make a case for conviction.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that she will formally send the two articles to the Senate. The speaker hopes the Senate will conduct a formal trial, with witnesses, and due process. “Witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what happened. Documentation, which the President has prevented from coming out to the Congress, as we review this. Now the ball is in their court to either do that or pay a price.”

The impeachment trial is political. It takes two-thirds of that body voting to remove a president from office — and that’s unlikely to happen in a body controlled by Republicans.

But there is a lot of drama ahead. For example what will the rules of the trial be? Will there be witnesses? And when? That ruling will be decided by 51 senators.

Some in the Senate see this as nonsense and want to vote to acquit immediately. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News: “All I can say is the impeachment articles are a danger to the presidency, the way they impeached the president is un-American. This trial will end in a matter of days, not weeks and he’s going to be acquitted. I hope every Republican votes to acquit and I hope some Democrats will too.”

The politics of impeachment change depending on the party in the White House. The same arguments about witnesses and process that Republicans once made are now those of the Democrats. And the same is true for the Democrats who in Clinton’s day wanted the process over.

Still there are some differences. One is contrition. Bill Clinton admitted doing wrong. “I am profoundly sorry for all I have done wrong in words and deeds. I never should have misled the country, the Congress, my friends or my family. Quite simply, I gave in to my shame.”

Trump, on the other hand, has said his actions were perfect and the impeachment process itself is corrupt.

Indian Country is in a tough spot when it comes to impeachment. Tribal leaders are representing governments that have a direct relationship with the United States. So that means staying focused on the mechanics of how that works. At the same time tribal leaders are political leaders — with views and concerns about how the United States is led.

One final note: The impeachment trial will not be the end of the process. If the Clinton impeachment is a guide, then, there will be a lot of litigation ahead.

 

I am Mark Trahant.

Greenland: Not for Sale

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Greenland’s ice is melting faster because of warming oceans. The ice sheets on the island hold enough water to raise sea levels by 25 feet. (NASA photo)

Sometimes a headline makes you go, “huh.” Then you think about it, and it’s even worse. The story: President Donald J. Trump is interested in purchasing Greenland.

This is Trahant Reports.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the president listened intently when advisers discussed the island’s resources and geopolitical importance and that he asked his White House counsel to look into the prospect of a purchase.

The Greenland Ministry of Foreign Affairs fired back saying it is “not for sale.”

Denmark, the colonial power in Greenland, instituted home rule after a 1979 vote. The people of Greenland, Indigenous people, the Kalaallit, voted overwhelmingly for the provision including the eventual outcome of an independent state.

So living under another colonial regime is probably not in the cards.

But the president could learn a lot by finding out more about Greenland and the challenges in the Arctic.

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are finding that Greenland is experiencing climate change faster than the rest of the planet. This is a big deal because Greenland’s melting ice affects the whole world. The ice sheets on the island hold enough water to raise sea levels by 25 feet. NASA found that warmer air is melting Greenland’s ice. But so are warmer oceans.

As NASA puts it: “Humans are changing the climate by burning fossil fuels for energy. These add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which trap extra heat from the sun and warm the air and oceans. But the oceans get most of the extra heat. In fact, more than 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases warms the oceans, not the air.”

One scientist, Josh Willis, is trying to find out which is causing the most warming, air or water. And he thinks it might be water. In the long run, he said, the oceans are warming.” And seeing the oceans have such a huge impact on the glaciers is bad news for Greenland’s ice sheet.” That could mean that Greenland’s ice sheets are melting more quickly than previously thought and sea levels will rise faster with more coastal communities in a flood zone.

Perhaps a few trips to Greenland would change the president’s mind about global warming and what should be done next.

In the meantime the government of Greenland tweeted:

#Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism. We’re open for business, not for sale.”

I suppose at least the island is getting global attention. But it would be better if the president’s interest included learning about what global warming is doing to that island — and to our future.

 

I am Mark Trahant.

 

 

Mueller Report

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The two-year investigation of the president by the special counsel has been completed and the report finally released to the public. Well, at least a redacted version. We know that the President Donald J. Trump lied to the country. He lied to Congress. (And he likely would have lied to the special counsel, had he answered the questions.)

This is Trahant Reports.

When a “source” tells a reporter something we do our best to corroborate that information elsewhere. Special Counsel Robert Mueller did that, too. Only he did one better: His witnesses talked under oath. In other words: If they lied, and were caught, they would go to jail. So witness after witness told the special counsel a different story than the one the public was told.

President Trump says the report clears him. He tweeted last week: “As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION – NO OBSTRUCTION!”

But the report says something else. “If we had confidence” that a thorough investigation of the facts, “that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.”

The president called this investigation an outrage and said no other president should be subject to such acts. But the report resulted in dozens of criminal prosecutions and convictions and some 14 criminal pending cases.

Now the problem in Congress is that Republicans and Democrats are reading the report quite differently. House Democrats say they will subpoena the entire document and will hold public hearings. On CNN, the House’s majority leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland said impeachment would not be “worthwhile.”  However other Democrats say the Constitution requires Congress to go forward.

Rep. Tom Cole, a Chickasaw, R-Oklahoma, said the report “doesn’t change the prior conclusions of the 22-month investigation. Redacted or not,” he said, “the report confirms that there was no collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign, nor was there sufficient evidence to justify indictment for obstruction of justice.” He said the thorough investigation is over. The results are clearly in. Now it’s time for Democrats to also conclude with their politically motivated investigations and their dubious charges against the president.

So, given the divide between Democrats and Republicans, impeachment is unlikely.

But what about official acts of lying?

There is now documented evidence that the White House press office, including the current occupant, Sarah Sanders, made up stories to protect the president. The report documents at least seven instances of Trump’s press secretaries lying in their official capacity.

Sanders, the president, some government officials, and many Trump supporters, are quick to chant “fake news” when they disagree with the reporting in any news story. The fake news is what the White House was creating.

I am Mark Trahant.

Shutdown is Over

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President Trump in the Rose Garden announcing the shutdown. (WhiteHouse.gov)

President Donald J. Trump signed into law late Friday a three-week spending bill to fund about a quarter of government operations. That ended the longest government shutdown in history. But the White House is already talking about another shutdown — unless Democrats on Capitol Hill agree to a $5.7 billion wall.

So now what?

This is Trahant Reports.

The practical takes over this week. Government agencies have a lot to catch up on.  Work piling up. Contracts. Phone messages. Decisions. Even collecting garbage. Basically the works. This will take time.

There will be a lot of demand, for example, from tribes and non-profit organizations to get cash flow restarted to pay for self-governance and other contracts with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service.

As for employees, the White House acting chief of staff, said the government will move quickly to get paychecks out this week.

But what happens next depends on the president. Any deal that results from Congress will likely be the product of a give and take between the Senate and the House. It will not be the president’s demand for a wall or else. So will he shut the government again?

The White House is already saying yes. That started Friday when the president made the announcement about the government reopening. “So let me be very clear,” he said. “We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier. If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on February 15th, again, or I will use powers afforded to me under the laws and the Constitution of the United States … “

That leaves the White House with the option of trying to build a wall using emergency powers instead of an appropriation from Congress.

That could unite Republicans who think the declaration of an emergency is a poor way to govern. And they are not much happier with another shutdown.

Congress has the power of the purse. It can override the president on spending or legislation. That could happen quickly if there is another shutdown fight.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, for example, apologized to federal workers and said she is supporting measures to make certain that it does not happen again. She said: “If there was every any silver lining to this, it was to understand that there was no good reason for a shutdown ever.”

This could also spur legislation, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall, of New Mexico, a Democrat, to protect the revenue to tribes through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service. Essentially taking them out of any shutdown plans.

There could be a wave of support from both Republicans and Democrats looking for a new way to budget, one that excludes the possibility of a shutdown.

I am Mark Trahant

Zinke resigns as Interior Secretary

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President Trump tweeted Saturday. “Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years. Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.”

This is Trahant Reports.

Two years ago Ryan Zinke was riding high.

He was moving from representing Montana in the Congress to running the Department of Interior. In the West it’s the gig to get. The secretary controls more public lands than many state governors. The secretary has a huge say in oil and gas leasing. And the secretary is the key government official responsible for carrying out the treaty and trust obligation to tribes.

Ryan Zinke wasted no time in mixing it up with all three interests. At the request of President Donald J. Trump, Zinke reviewed 27 national monuments, opening their status for energy development, and stripping tribal governments of a say in how those lands would be managed.

A three-fer.

Except almost immediately a coalition of tribes and environmental groups moved the fight into the federal judiciary. A number of lawsuits will determine if Zinke even had the legal authority to reduce the size of the monuments. As the tribal arguments in the legal proceedings stated: “It was the largest rollback, whether by a president or Congress, of federally protected lands in United States history.”

That legal case will continue. Probably for years. And, in the meantime, the next secretary will have to notify the court before there is actual drilling.

Earlier this month, a blog post for Scientific American called Zinke’s policies a “monumental disaster.”  Joel Clement wrote that he was one of the senior executives and scientists who were sidelined. “At the Department of the Interior, with its mission to conserve and manage America’s natural and cultural resources, the Trump administration’s political appointees are stumbling over one another to earn accolades for disabling agency operations,” he wrote.

Indeed, one of Zinke’s last acts was to release the required Fourth National Climate Assessment on the day after Thanksgiving. That report described a bleak future for the United States if climate change is not addressed and it points out that federal lands produce nearly a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington calls Zinke “one of the most ethically dubious members of president’s cabinet.” It cites 17 investigations, and says he has been only cleared of wrongdoing in three cases.

A new secretary could be appointed as soon as this week. But don’t expect many policy changes at Interior. Energy dominance is a theme that comes from the White House.

 

I am Mark Trahant.

Govern Ready?

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Are Republicans ready to govern? It’s time to make that case at least in the Senate and in the House.

This is Trahant Reports.

The Senate is returning to what’s called “regular order.” In that process a spending bill works its way through committee, is passed by the Senate. The House does the same thing. The two bills are resolved and it’s sent to the president.

Textbook.

Last week at a Senate news conference Tuesday, Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said he has reached a deal with Democrats to move forward with 90 percent of the federal budget, including appropriations bills for Defense, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor. McConnell’s goal is to move 90 percent of the appropriations bills this way and the Senate will be done by Labor Day.

Then McConnell jopes the House will move quickly too — so common ground can be found before the fiscal year ends on September 30. (The Interior Appropriations bill that includes the the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs are included in this regular order process.)

As part of the deal, Republicans have agreed to avoid policy riders that make it impossible to round up votes from Democrats. It will take 60 votes in the Senate for legislation to be passed.

That’s the governing part. Or in the language of Washington, regular order.

The House leadership would very much like to do something similar.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, said the House could pass several spending bills before that deadline. But, he added, “there will be some bills that don’t pass” and it’s likely a short-term Continuing Resolution will be needed.

One such bill that will be controversial is the House’s plan to spend $5 billion on Homeland Security. The Senate’s version spends far less, only $1.6 billion, as well as requirements that funds only be used to reinforce existing physical barriers. Democrats such as Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont call the House bill a “non-starter.”

This is where the governing part gets confusing. While McConnell and Ryan are championing the regular order and a functioning Congress, the president is saying something else.

President Trump last week said several times that Congress must pass funding for a border wall or the government will be shut down. He said he “may have to do some pretty drastic things.”

No matter what budgets come out of Congress — the House version or the Senate’s plan — the president would still have to sign the legislation into law. Most likely that will be in the form of a compromise bill that includes either spending the president does not like or less money than he would like for his border enforcement.

So it will be up to the president to close the government without help from Congress.

I am Mark Trahant

Native Americans on the Courts

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What should we think about the justice system, the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, and the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh? Or put another way: Why not a Native American on the court?

This is Trahant Reports.

A few weeks ago I was interviewing the attorney and playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle about her work. Her amazing plays merge Indian history and law with contemporary Native issues. There is often a character, an attorney and Native woman, who argues before the Supreme Court. But I messed up. Instead I asked her about a character, a young Native woman, who becomes the first Associate Justice serving on the Supreme Court.

“Which play are you talking about?” Nagle responded. Then it hit me: None of her plays had that character. I was projecting beyond her fiction.

“Now I need to write that play,” Nagle quickly said. “I think that would be an amazing play. To write a play where she’s the first Justice. Why not? ’cause then it begs the question, ‘Why not?’ Why not? I mean you look at the whole history of this country and how integral tribal issues have been. Why wouldn’t there have been one by now?”

Why not? That is the question that should be asked when ever there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court. And for judicial openings in U.S. district courts, U.S. courts of appeals, and U.S. Court of International Trade, as well as the Court of Claims, U.S. Customs Court, and U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

If confirmed by the Senate, Judge Kavanaugh will be the 114th person to serve on the Supreme Court since 1789.  The only active Native American on the bench is U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa, Hopi, in Phoenix. She is one of three Native American judges in history. When she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2014, there was a lot of optimism that more Native American judges would follow.

As attorney Chris Stern, Navajo, told Indian Country Today at the time: “Let’s hope Diane’s confirmation is just the start of a slew of Native American federal judges. There is still a massive lack of representation of Indian judges in the federal courts.”

A massive lack of representation remains.

But one route to the bench starts with those who clerk for judges, especially those who serve the Supreme Court. Starting earlier this month, Tobi Merritt Edwards Young, a Chickasaw tribal citizen, is doing just that. She is clerking for Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch.

According to a news release from her tribe, “Young is thought to be the first enrolled citizen of a Native American tribe to serve as Supreme Court clerk.” As she says: “I hope that if other Chickasaws read about my experiences, they will recognize that nothing stops them from pursuing any dream that they have too. Somebody from where they are from is going to be working every day at the Supreme Court, and there’s no reason that there shouldn’t be many more to come.”

More to come. Yes.

I am Mark Trahant.

Environmental Protection Agency’s New Lead

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Will a change at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency bring about change … or more of the same?

This is Trahant Reports.

Scott Pruitt the controversial agency administrator resigned last week after the White House determined that scandal after scandal was finally too much. The list of allegations and infractions was long, some 14 current investigations ranging from attacks on whistleblowers to special personal favors from the industry he was supposed to regulate.

Pruitt was hostile to climate change science and even the process of government itself.

A columnist for The Guardian newspaper called Pruitt: “The worst. EPA administrator. Ever.”

But will anything change? The acting head of the EPA, Andrew Wheeler is a former lobbyist for the coal industry.

And the acting EPA leader is already involved in a controversy about the cleanup of abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo Nation. Wheeler was once the lobbyist for Energy Fuels International. That Canadian company is now seeking federal contracts to clean up those mines as well as engage in new ones. Energy Fuels was one of the companies pushing to shrink the Bears Ears National Monument.

Energy Fuels chief executive Mark Chalmers was quoted by CNN saying that the 500 abandoned mines – already on the Superfund list – should be cleaned up by his company because the company has the only mill in the area and routinely processes uranium there. “We offer the EPA an established, low-cost option to move material off the Navajo Nation, recycle it into fuel for carbon-free nuclear energy and dispose the remnants in our existing state-of-the-art facilities,” he told CNN.

This contract also fits into a broader scheme for more uranium development in the Four Corners. A blog for The Grand Canyon Trust said:  “Wheeler’s name should ring a bell for those following the Bears Ears National Monument issue, and his ascension to EPA chief could be cause for concern.”

Tribes have opposed the return of uranium mining in the Four Corners. Many communities are still living with a toxic past and the failure of the industry to clean up its mess. The 1979 spill of an uranium tailing wastewater pond near Churchrock, in the Navajo Nation, is considered the single largest release of radioactive material in American history, surpassing the crisis at Three Mile Island. Drinking water in the area remains contaminated.

As acting administrator Wheeler will not be subject to Senate confirmation. Should President Donald J. Trump nominate him for the post permanently he would need to get that nod again. Wheeler was confirmed by a vote of 53 to 45 for the Deputy post back in April.

I am Mark Trahant.

Trade Wars: Who are the Casualties? REPEAT

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The growing trade war with China is politics all mixed up. It’s an issue that divides many Republicans from President Donald J. Trump. And some of the president’s most strident supporters from coal companies to farmers are not happy with his policy.

This is Trahant Reports.

But make no mistake: The outcome (when it finally occurs) is a dollar-and-cents issue that will impact the daily lives of Native people, tribal governments, and businesses. Why? A tariff is a tax.

It’s a tax bill that’s paid every time someone buys a product that’s on a country’s tariff list. And so now many agriculture products, such as soybeans, will be taxed by China.

According to the National Congress of American Indians: “Agriculture is increasingly important to Native economies, representing the economic backbone of more than 200 tribal communities and witnessing an 88 percent increase in the number of American Indian farmers between 2002 and 2007. According to the Census of Agriculture, in 2007 annual Indian agriculture production exceeded $1.4 billion in raw agriculture products.”

Agriculture represents one risk in a trade war.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, wrote last month, “In general, free trade contributes to our national prosperity as well. However, having open markets is not an invitation for others to take advantage of us.” Cole, who is Chickasaw, called tariffs bad news for his state.

Cole told CNBC Friday that “outside of agricultural areas” the trade issue is a net plus because “somebody is finally doing something about China, which has simply ripped us off since we let them in” the World Trade Organization.

A potential trade war also has huge implications for global warming. The Trump administration, of course, has attacked virtually every climate policy from the past administration. And, the first action in this trade dispute involved solar panels. Now the trade war could upend extractive industries, especially coal.

China has not yet levied a tariff on coal, but it’s widely expected because of the industry’s ties to President Trump. China is the world’s largest importer of coal.

Tribes that mine coal, such as the Crow Nation in Montana, have looked toward China and Asian markets as a way to make coal great again. But other tribes along the shipping route, such as the Lummi Nation in Washington, see dirty coal trains bound for Asia as a threat to salmon and their treaty rights.

There is a connection between global trade and global warming. A report by United Nations says this issue presents an “important policy conundrum: behind every trade transaction there is a production process and, in turn, associated greenhouse gas emissions. Policies that modify trade (trade policies) can influence emissions, while policies for reducing emissions (climate change policies) can also influence trade.”

So a trade war could slow commerce — and the emissions that cause global warming. I am Mark Trahant.

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