DC politicians criticize Trump after he blames them for canceling his military parade

Local Washington, D.C. politicians criticized President Trump on Friday after he blamed them for jacking up the cost of the military parade he wants to hold. Phil Mendelson, chairman of the D.C. Council, challenged Trump to run the federal government as well as the D.C. Council, and noted that “a great celebratory parade costs money, Mr Trump.” “Mr. Trump should run his federal government as well as we are running ours! We have surpluses. We have cut taxes without incurring deficits. We just got a bond rating increase from Wall Street because of our financial management. #DCProud,” Mendelson tweeted.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also took credit for being “the local politician who finally got thru” to Trump on how much a military parade would cost. “Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad),” Bowser tweeted. The Council of D.C. also weighed in on the issue. “Better late. Then: never,” the Council of D.C. tweeted. “Tanks but no tanks.” The D.C. Council opposed Trump’s military parade over fears it would create traffic problems throughout the city. Bowser said in February she was also worried about “the attention it would attract.”

The Pentagon announced Thursday that the Department of Defense was postponing the event until 2019, shortly after CNBC reported that the parade could cost the federal government as much as $92 million. Trump tweeted Friday morning that the parade would not be happening in 2018 due to the “windfall” cost, an accusation against the local politicians. “When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it,” Trump tweeted.

The tweet came hours after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis brushed off reports suggesting the cost was too high. “Whoever told you that is probably smoking something that is legal in my state, but not in most states. … I’m not dignifying that number with any reply,” Mattis told reporters. “I would discount that. And anybody who said that, I almost guarantee you one thing, they probably said ‘I need to stay anonymous.’ No kidding, because you look like an idiot. And No. 2, whoever wrote it needs to get better sources. I’ll just leave it at that. But I don't know who wrote it. I haven't seen it. But I guarantee you there’s been no cost estimate.”

According to an estimate of the parade provided by the city of Washington, D.C., a sizable portion of the costs would need to cover police expenses. The D.C. police department would have needed almost $13.5 million of the $21.6 million estimated cost for the district to manage public safety, crime prevention, crowd control, among other things. After attending the 2017 Bastille Day celebration in France as a guest of French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump was inspired to have a military parade in the U.S. because he was impressed by the display of French troops marching in the streets with military tanks and vehicles. A parade was also organized by former President George H.W. Bush along Constitution Avenue after the American victory in the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/dc-politicians-criticize-trump-after-he-blames-them-for-canceling-his-military-parade

Federal judge orders Trump to reinstate Obama's Waters of the US rule

A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction Thursday against the Trump administration for delaying the Obama-era Waters of the United States rule, dealing a setback to a key piece of President Trump's deregulatory agenda.

The decision by the U.S. District Court in South Carolina means that the so-called Clean Water Rule is again operative in 26 states where district courts have not halted the regulation. Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt signed a finalized regulation in February delaying the Waters of the U.S. rule until 2020 to allow the agency to go through a process of rewriting a more modest version of it. Opponents said EPA avoided the customary 30-day waiting period between the rule's finalization and its effective date, circumventing the Administrative Procedures Act, or APA. “As administrations change, so do regulatory priorities,” said Judge David Norton, an appointee of George H.W. Bush, in his ruling. “But the requirements of the APA remain the same. The court finds that the government failed to comply with these requirements.” Molly Block, an EPA spokeswoman, said the agency is reviewing the judge's order. "EPA and the Army [Corps of Engineers] will review the order as the agencies work to determine next steps," she told the Washington Examiner.

The National Association of Manufacturers, a defendant in the case, said it would appeal the decision. “The ruling is problematic because it creates a patchwork of states where the WOTUS rule applies and others where it does not," said Peter Tolsdorf, the association's deputy general counsel. The Southern Environmental Law Center represented nine groups, including Charleston Waterkeeper and the Coastal Conservation League, in filing a lawsuit over the Trump administration's delay of WOTUS. At the same time, 11 Democratic state attorneys general filed a similar lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Obama administration rule, published in June 2015, intended to clarify which waters and wetlands are protected by the Clean Water Act and are subject to federal regulation by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers. Farmers, ranchers, and developers said the rule violated their property rights, forcing them to protect the streams and tributaries that flow through their land. The EPA recently sent its draft replacement rule to the White House for review, and it should be made public soon. Under the proposal, the EPA and the Army Corps would enforce the water regulations under the older, limited definition of waterways, which included primarily large bodies of water like rivers.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/federal-judge-orders-trump-to-reinstate-obamas-waters-of-the-us-rule