The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Tuesday that, likely through September 10, it is suspending a program that allows U.S. employers to pay an extra fee to have their H-1B visa petitions processed within 15 days. The suspension applies to U.S. employers seeking new H-1B visas, including for workers with a master’s degree or higher.
Why it matters: USCIS says it is choosing to suspend premium processing to speed up overall processing. While this move forces some U.S. companies to wait longer to get needed foreign talent and adds some uncertainty to their planning, this year's suspension only applies to new cases that are not exempt from the the H-1B cap. Last year, USCIS suspended premium processing for all H-1B petitions.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has been in hot water in recent weeks over reports that he ordered a $31,000 dining set for his office using taxpayer dollars. His latest explanation, on Tuesday: "I left it to my wife."
The bigger picture: Carson joins other cabinet officials who have been scrutinized for seemingly lavish spending. From a cost standpoint, his case is far from the most eye-popping — but it includes some particularly interesting twists and turns.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a lawyer for Stormy Daniels purchased the rights to a video on Monday of her taking a polygraph test in 2011 about her alleged affair with President Donald Trump.
Why it matters: The polygrapher, Ronald Slay, told the Journal that her response "about having unprotected sex with Mr. Trump in July 2006 to be truthful," and her statement that she was promised a spot on The Apprentice was inconclusive. Slay said there "were no observable indications of intent to deceive." Per the Journal, the test was taken "as part of an agreement to sell her story to Life & Style magazine for $15,000." But the story was never published and she did not get paid.
Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to be freed from a 2016 legal agreement that required her to stay silent about an affair she claims she had with President Trump in 2006, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters, per Axios' Jonathan Swan: We have no earthly idea how many other women are out there who have similar hush money agreements with Trump's lawyers or associates acting on his behalf. But the floodgates appear to be opening with Stormy Daniels and now this Playboy model coming out. They're setting the template for others to follow — a nightmare scenario for even this teflon president.
Sen. John McCain condemned President Trump on Tuesday for his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying U.S. presidents shouldn't congratulate "dictators on winning sham elections."
“An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country's future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin's regime."
The Senate Intel Committee released a set of recommendations Tuesday that concludes states should "rapidly replace outdated and vulnerable voting systems" and that "any machine purchased going forward should have a voter-verified paper trail and no WiFi capability."
Why it matters: States have already begun voting in primaries this year, but not all states have a paper trail of votes, and without them, election officials cannot guarantee election results reflect the way people cast their ballots. (There are five states that lack a paper trail of votes, and nine that sometimes lack them.) And with intel leaders assuring lawmakers that Russia is continuing to meddle in U.S. elections, this lack of verifiability can sow doubt in swing state results or particularly close elections.
President Trump's legal team wanted to add Theodore Olson, who served as solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration, as Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues his investigation, the Washington Post reports. But Olson has declined the offer, according to another partner at his firm, Gibson Dunn. We've reached out to Olson to confirm.
The House, which was originally expected to unveil the omnibus spending bill Monday night, is expected to vote on the omnibus this Thursday, Politico reports. Congress is working against the clock as government funding will expire on Friday.
The White House is hosting a roundtable on sanctuary cities Tuesday afternoon with the President, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of the Department of Homeland Security, Republican lawmakers and others, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Conservatives tried to use this week’s massive government spending bill to cut federal funds from sanctuary cities, but they failed, according to sources involved in the process. But Trump officials want to use Tuesday’s event to highlight the issue and put pressure on cities that don't comply with federal immigration law enforcement.
The Koch network, including Freedom Partners, Americans for Prosperity and the LIBRE Initiative, has come out in support of an immigration deal pitched by Democratic leadership that would create a pathway to permanent citizenship for 1.8 million "Dreamers" while giving $25 billion to a border wall. The White House's proposal was a temporary extension of DACA for a smaller population.
Why it matters: The Koch network is hugely influential with Republicans and certain factions within the White House. Its support could tip the scale toward finally clenching an immigration deal.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to halt the implementation of a court-drawn congressional map, which is expected to make elections more competitive and put several Republican-held seats in play for Democrats.
The backdrop: The decision comes just hours after a panel of federal judges in Pennsylvania dismissed a similar challenge, saying that Republican lawmakers who brought the suit had no legal standing. In both cases, Republicans argued that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overstepped its authority when issuing a new congressional map last month.
Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee released a statement Monday saying the four bombings that have killed two and injured others in Austin, Texas “must be classified as ongoing terrorist attacks and should be investigated as such.”
“For too long we have focused only on certain sources of terrorism and violence while ignoring others.”
What's next: The three Democrats, Reps. Bennie Thompson, Cedric Richmond, and Sheila Jackson Lee, are demanding to know whether the attacks are ideologically or racially motivated and called on the FBI to brief Congress before Thursday on the matter.
The Supreme Court has decided to hear the Trump administration’s appeal of a Ninth Circuit ruling that allowed criminal immigrants who would be subject to deportation to be released after they had served time in prison.
The state of play: In an earlier, similar ruling last month, the Supreme Court said that some immigrants who have been arrested could be held and detained without bond indefinitely during their immigration proceedings. However, that case was sent back to a lower court for other questions, which means that it could still be heard again by the court.
In a colorful deep dive into life in the West Wing, New York Magazine's Olivia Nuzzi profiled Hope Hicks and what she has learned in Washington. One key detail:
"A second source who meets regularly with the president told me that Hicks acted almost as an embodiment of the faculties the Trump lacked — like memory. 'He’ll be talking, and then right in the middle he’ll be like, ‘Hope, what was that … thing?’ When the name of a senator or congressman or journalist came up, Trump would prompt Hicks to provide a history of their interactions, asking, 'Do we like him?' And she f---ing remembers!'"
— Olivia Nuzzi on Hicks' role in the Trump White House
Senate Republicans believe a campaign trail assault from President Trump is their key to retaining a majority in this fall's midterm elections, per Politico. Their primary target races are five conservative states with vulnerable Democrats — West Virginia, North Dakota, Indiana, Missouri and Montana — as well as battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
The big picture: The Senate GOP doesn't see President Trump's national unpopularity as a hindrance given this year's Senate map. Sen. John Thune told Politico that Republicans "got to have some intensity in our base," believing that Trump can bring that intensity on the trail. Of course, it's worth noting that the last two Republican candidates who saw an in-person push from Trump — Roy Moore in Alabama and Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania — both lost their elections.
