Boehner not optimistic about quick solution to border crisis

“I would certainly hope so, but I don’t have as much optimism as I’d like to have,” the Ohio Republican told reporters.

But Boehner said he will continue working with House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., as well as a special border task force, to find a solution to deal with the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America who have flooded the U.S.-Mexico border and overwhelmed U.S. immigration authorities.

The speaker called the issue a “humanitarian crisis at our border” that “needs to be dealt with.”

Boehner’s comments tone down those from Rogers, who a day earlier predicted the House would pass a bill before it heads out for the summer recess.

“We’re crunching the numbers and waiting for the [border] group,” Rogers said. “As soon as we get the final policy inserts, we can go pretty quick.”

Still, a bipartisan agreement is seriously in doubt.

A sticking point is whether changes should be made to a 2008 law designed to protect Central American children from human trafficking. Republicans have blamed the law for the mass migration of unaccompanied minors, but many Democrats say that any changes to the law should be done separately from a $3.7 billion emergency spending measure.

When asked if Democratic resistance to changing the law was tempering his optimism that a deal could be reached, Boehner smiled and said, “Something like that.”

“I don’t know how Congress can send more money to the border to begin to mitigate the problem if you don’t do something about the ’08 law that’s being abused. And it is being abused,” he said.

But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she believes a solution can be reached without tweaking the law, which was signed by President George W. Bush.

“I do not need believe that they need a change in legislation to more expeditiously provide due process for all of the children that we’re talking about,” she said.

Pelosi also denied that the anti-human-trafficking law, which requires that unaccompanied children from countries not contiguous with the U.S. be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services, has contributed to the border crisis.

“It’s stunning to me how Republicans have tried to politicize this issue,” she said. “Most of them were responsible for the good legislation that passed in 2008.”

— Sean Lengell, Congressional Correspondent

VETERANS AFFAIRS ADMITS IT CAN’T TRUST ITS DATA AS IT ASKS FOR $18 BILLION

The Department of Veterans Affairs cannot trust its own numbers on delivering health care and processing disability claims, the acting secretary of the agency said as he asked for $17.6 billion in new funding.

Sloan Gibson repeatedly acknowledged during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing that serious problems with “data integrity” have been revealed though a series of investigations into falsified patient wait times at VA medical facilities.

Gibson also acknowledged concerns about the reliability of agency numbers that track backlogs and errors in claims for disability benefits, which were challenged recently in reports from the agency’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office.

“We understand the seriousness of the problems we face,” Gibson told the Senate committee. “We own them. We are taking decisive action to begin to resolve them.”

Gibson became acting VA secretary in May, when the former head of the agency, Eric Shinseki, resigned under intense pressure amid revelations that medical appointment lists were being falsified to hide long wait times.

Robert McDonald, a former CEO of Procter & Gamble, has been selected by President Obama to replace Shinseki. The Senate committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on his nomination July 22.

The inspector general has confirmed the “systemic” use of phony appointment lists and other tricks to make it appear patients were being seen within agency time limits so top managers could meet their performance goals and qualify for merit bonuses.

The investigation by the IG, which began with reports of a secret appointment list used to hide delays in Phoenix, has been broadened to encompass at least 77 facilities.

Gibson said he has focused on getting patients off of wait lists and into clinics. In the last two months, VA has referred more than 543,000 veterans to private medical providers, an increase of about 91,000 from a comparable period last year, he said.

Administrators who falsified data will be disciplined, Gibson said. He also said he has made it clear that whistleblowers who expose agency impropriety will be protected, and managers who retaliate against them will be disciplined.

The new money Gibson is asking for will be used through fiscal 2017 to hire additional doctors and expand space to treat patients, Gibson said.

Another $6 billion is needed for new medical facilities, Gibson said.

About 2,000 positions for health care workers are funded but unfilled at VA, including about 400 vacancies for doctors.

The VA’s current-year budget is about $154 billion. The budget request for next fiscal year, which begins in October, would raise that by $10 billion.

— Mark Flatten, Senior Watchdog Reporter

U.S. IMPOSES NEWS SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA

President Obama tried to ratchet up the pressure on Moscow to stop supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine by announcing new sanctions against several large banks, energy and defense companies in the country.

The moves limit sectors of Russia’s economy from the U.S. marketplace but don’t cut them off entirely. They go much further than the administration’s sanctions so far, which have placed financial and travel limits on several dozen Russian individuals and their businesses.

Over the past several weeks, the Russian government has escalated its support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine and has failed to engage in internationally mediated talks, Obama said.

“These sanctions are significant, but they are also targeted and designed to have the maximum impact on Russia while limiting any spillover effects on American companies or those of our allies,” he told reporters.

“So far, Russia has failed to take any of the steps that I mentioned. In fact, Russia’s support for the separatists and violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty have continued,” he said.

The Treasury Department’s actions prohibit any U.S. individual from providing new financing to two major Russian financial institutions, Gazprombank and VEB, along with two Russian energy firms, Novatek and Rosneft.

It also extends the same prohibitions to eight Russian arms firms responsible for the production of a range of small arms, mortar shells and tanks, four Russian government officials, an oil shipping facility in Crimea and the pro-Russian separatist leader operating in Ukraine and rebel groups in the eastern cities of Luhansk and Donetsk.

— Susan Crabtree, White House Correspondent

HARCH TAKES ON TREASURY’S LEW OVER ‘ECONOMIC PATRIOTISM’

Sen. Orrin Hatch isn’t playing along with Jack Lew’s exhortation for “economic patriotism.”

The Treasury secretary had called for economic patriotism in a letter to congressional leaders of tax committees pushing for action against so-called “tax inversions,” in which corporations merge with companies based in countries with lower corporate taxes, and then base the parent company in that jurisdiction to avoid U.S. taxes. Lew urged Congress to pass Democratic legislation that would effectively place a moratorium on such maneuvers.

Hatch, who represents Utah and is the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, responded with criticism of those measures and of Lew’s rhetoric, while leaving the door open to action.

In a letter to Lew, Hatch rejected “punitive, retroactive policies designed to force companies to remain domiciled in the United States.” He also wrote that he hoped that “economic patriotism” extended to addressing the projected unsustainability of the federal debt.

Hatch also allowed that there “may be steps Congress can take” short of comprehensive tax reform, although he did not specify what those might be. The committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on international taxation Tuesday.

Both sides agree on the need for broad corporate tax reform that lowers tax rates, reducing the incentive for companies to move their headquarters abroad. The Obama administration and Democrats, however, have pushed for immediate implementation of a rule that would require that a company attempting to “invert” transfer a majority of its stock to the offshore company it is trying to merge with. That measure would be intended to ensure that if a company remained majority U.S.-owned, it would continue to pay U.S. business taxes.

A number of major U.S. companies in recent months have explored mergers that would significantly decrease their tax liabilities, including medical device maker Medtronic, banana company Chiquita and pharmacy chain Walgreens. The Democratic legislation would apply retroactively to companies completing mergers after May.

— Joseph Lawler, Economics Writer

ISSA: VOICEMAIL SHOWS ADMINISTRATION’S ILLEGAL FUNDRAISING

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is highlighting a fundraising phone call former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis made to a department employee as evidence that the Obama administration has a history of illegal fundraising activities.

During a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Issa played a recording of a voicemail message from March 2012 that he said Solis left on the phone of a Labor Department subordinate asking the person to contribute to Obama’s re-election campaign, Organizing for America, at a restaurant.

“Hi, this is Hilda Solis calling, um, just calling you off the record here. Wanted to ask you if you could, um, help us get folks organized to come to a fundraiser that we’re doing for Organizing for America for Obama campaign on Friday at La Fonda at 6 p.m.,” she says on the recording.

Allegations that Solis, now a candidate for Los Angeles County supervisor, solicited subordinates to raise money for Obama’s re-election campaign have been the focus of a criminal probe. She abruptly resigned her Labor Department post in early 2013.

The Hatch Act prohibits employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president, vice president and other high-level officials, from engaging in partisan political activity, and specifically bars employees below the policy-making level in the executive branch from engaging in “any active part” in political campaigns.

While Solis would be exempt from the Hatch Act, her subordinates most likely would not be.

Issa, as chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is looking into the Obama administration’s taxpayer-funded political campaign activity.

— Susan Crabtree, White House Correspondent

OBAMA’S LIBRARY RAISES $1.75 MILLION, HAS $498.25 MILLION TO GO

The nation’s fundraiser-in-chief has collected just $1.75 million of the minimum $500 million needed to fund construction of his presidential library, according to a tiny list of donations published on the Barack Obama Foundation website.

While there are no worries he will succeed in his fundraising goal, the humble start could be a sign of the struggle his team is facing when competing for donors already being pressed to contribute to the 2014 midterm elections and awaiting Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Fundraising for the Barack Obama Presidential Library has already suffered a funding setback, when the Illinois legislature withdrew a Democratic plan to spend $100 million on the president’s project.

The budget for the library, expected to be in Chicago or Obama’s home state of Hawaii, is about $500 million, but that could grow.

Former President George W. Bush expected to raise and spend $300 million on his library, but collected more than $500 million. Supporters note that the Obama foundation is just seven months old and is beginning the fundraising process for the library that probably won’t open until 2020.

Presidential libraries are constructed with private money, then handed over to the federal government to operate.

Obama is expected to step up fundraising for his library after the midterm elections.

His foundation’s website listed three contributors in the range of $250,001 to $500,000 and one in the $100,001 to $250,000 range.

— Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist

UDALL JOINS RIVAL GARDNER TO OPPOSE COLORADO FRACKING RESTRICTIONS

Democratic Sen. Mark Udall announced his opposition to Colorado ballot initiatives being bankrolled by Rep. Jared Polis that would impose restrictions on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Udall is facing a tough fight from GOP Rep. Cory Gardner, who has slammed the ballot effort, to maintain his Senate seat.

“Colorado has served as a model for the nation on finding the right balance between protecting our clean air and water, the health of our communities, and safely developing our abundant energy resources. In my view, these proposed ballot initiatives do not strike that balance,” Udall said.

Udall’s move was compelled partly because Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, also up for re-election this year, canceled a special legislative session that aimed to shelve the Polis-pushed proposals, which are likely headed for the November ballot.

Gardner’s campaign for months had pressed the incumbent Udall to take a stand on the measures. The race, in many respects, has been based on energy issues and, to a broader extent, support of the state’s oil and gas industry, which has been buoyed by fracking.

“Welcome to the party, where have you been?” tweeted Chris Hansen, Gardner’s campaign manager.

One ballot proposal that both Gardner and Udall oppose seeks to extend the setback for fracking wells to 2,000 feet from existing buildings — four times the current limit — that detractors say would take a lot of Colorado land off the market. The other ballot proposal would establish a so-called environmental bill of rights in which the more restrictive of conflicting state and local laws takes precedence.

— Zack Colman, Energy & Environment Writer

75% CALL HILLARY CLINTON RICH, 39% WANT HER TO RUN

Hillary Clinton’s poor-mouthing of her wealth is starting to take its toll, with a substantial majority now calling her among the nation’s richest, and more Americans than not believing she’s out of touch on understanding the plight of the middle class.

But even worse for her, according to a new Economist/YouGov.com poll, just 39 percent of Americans want her to run for president in 2016.

The new poll slaps Clinton with the headline “Hillary Clinton: Far from Broke,” and points out that even Democrats are starting to sour on the likely 2016 candidate.

“Does the perception of a candidate being wealthy hurt them?” asks the Economist/YouGov analysis. “In the case of Clinton, the most recent controversy over wealth may have taken a toll. Her favorable rating has dropped five points in the last week, with much of that drop coming from Democrats, and much of it coming from a drop in their rating of ‘very favorable.’ Last week 54 percent of Democrats said their opinion of Clinton was ‘very favorable,’ but this week that has dropped 13 points to 41 percent.”

The wealth controversy hit the former first lady as she opened her book tour to tout her latest memoir, Hard Choices. In an initial interview, she described her and former President Bill Clinton’s financial situation on leaving the White House in 2001 as “dead broke.”

Since then most media outlets have detailed the Clinton wealth from speeches and books. Now, 75 percent of Americans call her “wealthy.”

When it comes to understanding the middle class, 44 percent said she doesn’t get them, while 38 percent said she did. Lower-income Americans said she understood the middle class, but half of those with family incomes between $40,000 and $100,000 said she does not.

And while most Americans believe she will run, just 39 percent want her to. That includes 69 percent of Democrats, 34 percent of independents and just 14 percent of Republicans.

— Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist

GRID OPERATOR GETS NEW CHAIRMAN AND COMMISSIONER

The Senate confirmed a pair of nominees to join the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in a move that will see one serve out a nine-month term as chairman before transferring power to the other.

Cheryl LaFleur, who has served as acting chairwoman for the nation’s electric grid regulator since November, will remain on the job for another nine months under a deal brokered by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Mary Landrieu, D-La.; Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and the White House. Norman Bay, President Obama’s pick to run the independent commission, will take over thereafter.

The arrangement assuages concerns among Republicans and some Democrats that Bay, who led the FERC’s enforcement office but has never been a commissioner, lacked experience to head the body. Getting Reid, who objected to LaFleur running the commission for a full term, on board helped seal the deal.

Once he takes over, Bay will be charged with watching the electric grid’s reliability as the nation’s power delivery system shutters dirtier, older coal-fired power plants as a result of mercury and air toxic standards that go into effect in 2016.

Several coal-heavy utilities and congressional Republicans have warned of rolling blackouts as a result of the regulation, fearing that demand could outstrip supply in severe circumstances such as last winter’s polar vortex.

The FERC also is assessing an influx of proposals to build terminals that would send liquefied natural gas abroad, an issue that has generated fierce debate.

Bay also will be responsible for overseeing regulatory changes LaFleur, who netted a 90-7 vote to stay on as commissioner, initiated for strengthening the electric grid’s physical security. That push was in response to congressional pressure following an April 2013 military-style attack on an electrical substation near San Jose, Calif.

— Zack Colman, Energy & Environment Writer

THE WEAK RECOVERY COST YOU $2,700

If the current economic recovery had kept pace with other post-World War II recoveries, the average American would have $2,700 more in annual income.

That is the number crunched by the American Action Forum, a right-of-center think tank, based on personal income data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Slow income growth for Americans is one of the signs that Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen reads for making decisions about whether to loosen or tighten monetary policy. She listed it among the five factors on her “economic dashboard” in March.

She said then that “3 and 4 percent wage inflation would be normal.”

The most recent jobs report, however, showed hourly wages increased just 2 percent year-over-year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ more comprehensive Employment Cost Index, which takes into account benefits as well as wages, showed compensation rising just 1.8 percent on the year for the first quarter.

— Joseph Lawler, Economics Writer

OBAMA SCORES LOWEST GRADE OF PRESIDENCY ON IMMIGRATION

Voters are about as unhappy as they’ve ever been with President Obama for his response to the immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

Only 28 percent of the 1,805 adults polled say they approve of Obama’s handling of the border crisis, while a whopping 58 percent disapprove, according to the survey, which was conducted from July 8-14, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

That is the lowest grade that the president has received on any issue since his inauguration in 2009, according to Pew.

Still, despite the widespread dissatisfaction over his handling of illegal immigration, Obama’s approval rating is holding steady at 44 percent.

The survey also found likely voters split over which party is best suited to address the border crisis: Forty-two percent say Republicans would do a better job, while 40 percent say Democrats are more capable.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 58 percent disapprove of Obama’s handling of the surge of minors, while 66 percent were unhappy with Republicans’ efforts.

Of the self-identified Latino adults surveyed in the report, 54 percent say they are unhappy with the White House’s handling of the situation.

Speed is also apparently an issue that concerns many Americans: The Pew survey found that 53 percent of respondents want Congress to accelerate the legal process of dealing with the underage illegal immigrants who have crossed the border in recent months.

Americans are so eager to see the process sped up that they say they want it to happen even if it means children who are “eligible for asylum are deported,” according to the report.

Only 38 percent of survey respondents advocate sticking with the current immigration system in place.

— T. Becket Adams, Commentary Writer

PLANS TO SPLIT CALIFORNIA INTO SIX STATES MOVES AHEAD

A group campaigning to divide California into six new states turned in 1.3 million signatures supporting their proposal, more than enough to put the measure on ballots statewide in the November 2016 general election.

Congress still would need to approve the dissolution of “old” California and grant the six new regions official statehood, if the referendum were to pass.

The Six Californias Initiative is sponsored by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper and is the result of a desire for more responsive local governments, brought about by a number of state crises and the opinions of some who say the state is too large to function properly.

The proposed states are North California, Jefferson, Central California, West California, Silicon Valley and South California.

— Spencer Brown, Special to the Examiner