Supreme Court to decide fate of Obama-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it would decide on the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created in the wake of the 2008 Wall Street collapse and funded directly by the Federal Reserve.
The case poses a threat to an array of independent agencies, including potentially the Federal Reserve. The court's conservatives have been skeptical of the notion that agencies can operate outside the direct control of the president and Congress. But it is not clear how far they will go to rein in these agencies, all of which were created by Congress.
The issue is before the court now because the Biden administration moved quickly to challenge a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court in New Orleans that held the CFPB has been operating illegally because it is "no longer accountable to Congress" for its annual budget.
If the high court's conservative majority agrees, it could cast doubt on the Federal Reserve as well because the Fed relies on bank fees and interest income for its operating expenses, not an annual appropriation from Congress.
—Los Angeles Times
Idaho could pursue executions by firing squad. Here’s how much it would cost
BOISE, Idaho — The cost of implementing a bill that seeks to make the firing squad Idaho’s backup execution method has more than doubled since it was last reviewed by the state prisons system, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
The Idaho Department of Correction’s initial estimate to build out the venue for such an execution, as an alternative to lethal injection, is $750,000, spokesperson Jeff Ray told the Idaho Statesman. In 2014, when the department last considered the firing squad, costs were expected to reach at least $300,000, which IDOC determined “would take too much time and money” in choosing not to go forward with the plan, Ray said at the time.
State Rep. Bruce Skaug, a Nampa Republican, last week proposed the bill to use a firing squad as the state’s reserve execution method. Idaho previously offered it as an alternative to lethal injection, but removed death by firing squad in 2009 as the controversial method went unused.
Skaug, a former Ada County deputy prosecutor, last year indicated lawmakers would bring forth the legislation if execution drugs continued to elude the state. The House committee that Skaug chairs will need to approve the bill before it heads to the House floor for a vote.
—The Idaho Statesman
US House bill would establish museum at African Burial Ground in NYC
NEW YORK — U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman said Monday that he plans to reintroduce long-stalled legislation to build a museum at the Colonial-era African Burial Ground near Foley Square in lower Manhattan, a site that is believed to hold the remains of more than 15,000 free and enslaved Africans.
The African Burial Ground hosts a decade-old visitors’ center and received National Historic Landmark status in 1993, two years after excavators discovered the 7-acre burial ground during work on a planned federal government office tower.
Goldman, a New York City Democrat, described the burial ground as a “stark and sobering reminder of the fact that New York and America was built by Black Americans and, to a great extent, on the back of Black Americans.”
The legislation will be introduced in the House on Tuesday, according to Goldman’s office. The bill calls for the appropriation of $15 million in 2024 for the creation of the museum.
—New York Daily News
Ukraine gets support from Saudis with $400 million aid deal
Saudi Arabia signed agreements worth $400 million with Ukraine on Sunday after the kingdom’s foreign minister made a surprise visit to Kyiv, a move praised by Washington.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, and others. He was the highest-ranking Saudi official to visit Ukraine in 30 years.
The trip comes after Saudi Arabia was accused by the U.S. of siding with Russia in its year-old invasion of Ukraine through its oil policy. Saudi Arabia steers the OPEC+ producers group with Moscow, and Washington has said its production cuts have been detrimental to the global economy. Saudi Arabia rejects this, saying its policy is aimed at balancing global oil markets and is not political. The rift soured U.S.-Saudi relations last year but tensions have since eased.
The agreements stipulated how Ukraine will spend some $410 million in humanitarian aid the Saudi government authorized in October, the prince told reporters.
—Bloomberg News
