Hello, readers. Welcome back to On Politics. Zach Schermele again here, USA TODAY's congressional correspondent, back from a (much-too-short) vacation. Let's get into it.
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Trump to nix forest protections |
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it's moving forward with a proposal to rescind regulations that for 25 years have shielded millions of acres of public land from development and logging. Nixing the so-called "roadless rule" will help reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health, Trump administration officials said. Montana's Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, praised the plan for taking the "heavy thumb of Washington" off forest management in the state.
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Seth Bodnar, a veteran and former college president who's running as an independent in the race to replace Republican Sen. Steve Daines, sees it differently. In a sit-down interview in north-central Montana hours after the proposal was released, he told me exclusively that the "bad decision" could have "detrimental effects" for over 6 million acres of federal public land in the Treasure State. Some environmental groups have noted that humans are nearly always the cause of wildfires and ignitions occur more frequently near roads.
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"It's going to have some very negative implications," Bodnar told me. "That rule is very important for protecting habitat. We can't even maintain all the roads that we have on public land currently."
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The Reynolds Creek Wildland Fire burns in Glacier National Park, Montana, in this photo taken July 21, 2015.
Erin Conwell, REUTERS
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Graham's 'self-inflicted gaffe' |
Sen. Darline Graham had a bad night last night . Graham, who's running to replace her late brother permanently in Congress in November, struggled during a GOP primary debate to answer a basic question about whether Taiwan and the South China Sea are national security issues relevant to the United States. "I’m just going to be honest here," she said. "I’m … not that informed on national security, so – but I do support the military." Ralph Norman, a decade-long South Carolina Republican congressman challenging Graham, then swooped in and called Taiwan a "definite ally."
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For Graham, the moment was a "self-inflicted gaffe that could prove significant to the primary runoff next week," according to Kirk Randazzo, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina. "This is especially true given that her brother, Lindsey Graham, was an expert on foreign affairs and national security," he told me. "It gave the Norman campaign a much-needed point of leverage." Graham advanced last week to the runoff with about 33% of the vote, while Norman moved forward with about 25%.
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Trump to meet with Kim Jong Un |
Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com.
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Joe Kent resigned from the Trump administration over the Iran conflict. Now he and other MAGA war critics are plotting their next steps politically.
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Photos capture Natalie Harp’s evolving role in Trump's political inner circle.
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A preservation group urged the Supreme Court to halt the massive White House ballroom project before it becomes irreversible.
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