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Mitch Mcconnell News

08 Feb 2022

Biden: Nord Stream 2 Will Be Halted if Russia Invades Ukraine

Credit: Framestock/AdobeStock

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would be halted if Russia invades Ukraine and stressed unity with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as the West rallies to avert a war in Europe.At a White House press conference with the new German leader, Biden, a longtime opponent of the decade-old pipeline project to Germany from Russia, said Russian forces crossing into Ukraine would trigger a shutdown."If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the ... border of Ukraine again, then there will be ... no longer a Nord Stream 2.

04 Mar 2021

Elaine Chao Used DOT Resources for Family Business - Report

Elaine Chao (Photo: Office of President Trump)

The U.S. Justice Department declined to investigate or prosecute then-Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao after the inspector general’s office referred allegations of potential misuse of office for review, a report made public on Wednesday said.The report included allegations that Chao directed staff to research or purchase personal items for her online using her personal credit card or performed other personal errands for her or her father.The report focused largely on Chao’s actions related to her family’s shipping business…

07 Jan 2021

US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to Resign

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao (Photo: U.S. Department of Transportation)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Thursday she would resign, citing the intrusion of the U.S. Capitol by violent supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is the first Cabinet secretary to announce her departure after the events. Many lower-level administration officials have announced they would resign, including several White House aides.Chao said her resignation would take effect Monday, just nine days before Trump is set to leave office.

16 Dec 2020

Biden Introduces Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary

Pete Buttigieg (Credit: Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0)

President-elect Joe Biden touted the diversity of his incoming administration as he introduced former rival Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday as his choice for U.S. transportation secretary.Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would be the first openly gay Cabinet secretary confirmed by the Senate if he is approved.Appearing with Buttigieg in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said the 38-year-old would confront the task of upgrading America’s aging infrastructure and restoring what he called “our crumbling roads…

20 Mar 2020

No Need for a Jones Act Waiver -AMP

© Cliff W Estes / Adobe Stock

America's maritime industry has hit back at a recent request by U.S. shale drillers to waive the Jones Act, a law requiring goods transported between U.S. ports to be carried on ships that are built, owned and operated by Americans.The American Exploration and Production Council, which represents independent oil firms that have been thrashed by an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and the fallout from the global coronavirus outbreak, sent a letter to congressional…

20 Mar 2020

California Asks Trump to Deploy USNS Mecy to LA 'Immediately'

USNS Mercy (Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Kelsey L. Adams)

California’s governor on Thursday asked President Donald Trump to send a U.S. Navy hospital ship to the port of Los Angeles “immediately” as the state braces for an expected surge in the number of coronavirus cases over the next eight weeks.Trump said earlier this week the Navy hospital ships Mercy and Comfort would be pressed into service, one on each coast, as healthcare systems become badly strained during the pandemic.But U.S. defense officials have said the ships were not yet ready to sail on the emergency mission…

13 Dec 2018

NOIA Calls for Offshore Wind Territories Act

National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) said that U.S. territories need the Offshore Wind for Territories Act.The U.S. has five permanently inhabited 'Territories' in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands which are directly overseen by the United States Federal Government.NOIA President Randall Luthi issued this statement: “The House passage of H.R. 6665 is welcome news for many Americans this holiday season. Too often, Americans in the U.S. territories are our forgotten citizens."The Offshore Wind for Territories Act empowers U.S. territories such as Guam and Puerto Rico to tap their offshore resources and strengthen their energy security…

01 Jun 2018

EU to Hit Back at US Tariffs

© Pere Sanz / Adobe Stock

The European Union's plans to hit back at new U.S. tariffs on EU steel and aluminium exports include hiking duties on a range of imports from the United States, from blue jeans and rice to the proverbial kitchen sink.In eight closely typed pages of documentation lodged at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, the EU has set out 25-percent tariff increases that are in part aimed at hurting the electoral districts of some of President Donald Trump's allies.That explains "motorcycles ...

16 Feb 2018

WCI Presents Leadership Award to Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

On February 14, 2018, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) received Waterways Council, Inc.'s (WCI) 17th Annual Leadership Service Award for his strong and continued leadership on ports and inland waterways issues. He was presented the award by Stephen Little, Chairman of Crounse Corporation. WCI President & CEO Mike Toohey said, “We were honored to have the opportunity to celebrate Senator McConnell, who has been a stalwart advocate for the inland waterways in his state of Kentucky, but throughout the United States. Also on February 14, 2018, recently retired former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Chief of the Navigation Branch Jeffrey A. McKee received the 2018 Waterways Counsel Award for his diligence and leadership in working with the waterways industry.

05 Feb 2018

Waterways Council to Honor Sen. McConnell

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Official photo)

U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will receive the 17th Annual Waterways Council, Inc. Leadership Service Award on Wednesday evening, February 14, 2018 at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. “Waterways Council is so fortunate to have the opportunity to honor Senator McConnell, a great waterways advocate and to thank him publicly for his commitment to America’s critical waterways infrastructure, to jobs, and to competitive access,” said Michael J. Toohey, President/CEO of Waterways Council, Inc.

27 Jan 2016

U.S. Senate Starts Debate on Broad Energy Bill

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday began debate on the country's first major energy bill in over eight years, featuring measures aimed at protecting the electric power grid against cyber attacks and speeding the export of liquefied natural gas. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican chair of the Senate energy committee and Washington Senator Maria Cantwell, its ranking Democrat, urged lawmakers not to thwart passage of the bipartisan bill, which cleared their panel in an 18-4 vote. A handful of senators were preparing to file amendments to the bill later on Wednesday, to address more contentious energy issues. These were expected to include a measure to repeal a moratorium on coal development on federal land introduced this month by the Interior Department. "Let's show the Senate can work.

08 Dec 2015

Democrats Steadfast in Demands for Axing US Oil Export Ban

U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday laid out a list of demands they seek before making any deal to end the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports in the wide-ranging government funding bill. With oil prices falling to nearly seven-year lows of less than $40 a barrel, producers are desperate to open crude sales to global markets. They say lifting the ban would give U.S. allies an alternative to Russia and OPEC countries for oil, breathe life into the drilling industry, and increase U.S. energy security. Opponents say it would hurt jobs at refineries, raise the amount of oil carried by trains, which have suffered a slew of recent accidents while carrying crude, and hurt the environment. "I've heard a long list, a long list of things," Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told reporters.

16 Jan 2015

Congress Won't Cool Fight Against Obama on Climate

Data showing the heating of Earth in 2104 to the highest level on record will do little to stop Republicans in the U.S. Congress from fighting President Barack Obama's use of executive powers to slow climate change. Republicans, who won control of the Senate in November's elections, campaigned on dismantling Obama's plans to slow the country's emissions. More broadly, they plan to target Obama's recent pledge of $3 billion to a global climate fund that led some to hope the world would reach an agreement to fight global warming in Paris next year. After two U.S. agencies released new climate reports on Friday, the Senate's leading global warming skeptic said human activity was not leading the planet to the brink of devastation.

05 Jan 2015

Republicans Set to Challenge Obama

Republicans take full control of the U.S. Congress this week with an agenda of trying to force approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and push back on President Barack Obama's sweeping policy shifts on Cuba and immigration. After years of battles over the budget and other issues, further clashes loom as Republicans who already control the House of Representatives take over the Senate majority on Tuesday after wins against Obama's Democrats in November's midterm elections. Angry over the president's moves last year to bypass Congress on issues such as immigration, Republicans have promised to fight him on a range of issues. Obama has vowed to use his veto pen if Republicans pass legislation he opposes…

15 Oct 2014

Sen. McConnell Named Champion of Maritime

Stephen Little, President and CEO of Paducah, KY based Crounse Corporation presents the Champion of Maritime award to Senator Mitch McConnell, who noted the huge impact America’s domestic maritime industry has in his home state of Kentucky.

Kentucky ranks top five in nation for U.S. Today, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was named a Champion of Maritime by the American Maritime Partnership (AMP), the voice of the domestic maritime industry. As U.S. Senate Minority Leader, McConnell has consistently supported the critical role the domestic maritime industry and the Jones Act play in America’s national, economic and homeland security. McConnell’s home state of Kentucky ranks fifth in the nation in per capita domestic maritime jobs, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for the Transportation Institute.

05 Jun 2014

Kentucky Could Meet EPA Emissions Goal

Kentucky may be well positioned to meet a carbon emission target for power plants set by federal regulators, even as U.S. Senate candidates there blast the plan, saying it will cripple the state's coal industry. The Environmental Protection Agency seems to have listened to feedback from state officials before the rollout on Monday, said John Lyons, Kentucky's assistant secretary for climate policy. The result: the Bluegrass State may be able to meet EPA targets between now and 2030. "I appreciate EPA's stakeholder process. Undoubtedly they did listen to our concerns," Lyons told Reuters. Shedding the carbon intensity of its fleet by 400 pounds of CO2/MWh will rely on retiring coal plants and shifting to natural gas…

07 Jul 2003

News: Opposition Mounts to Inland Waterway Tax

In a June 3 letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels, 23 members of the United States Senate, two of which chair key Senate committees, have expressed their strong opposition to the proposal in the FY 2004 budget to assess between 25 and 50 percent of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund to cover not only the currently mandated costs of new capital improvements and major rehabilitation on the inland system, but also the costs of operating and maintaining the nation's inland waterways. The senators - John Breaux (D-LA); Arlen Specter (R-PA); Mary Landrieu (D-LA); John Warner (R-VA, Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee)…

12 Jun 2003

Members of Senate Oppose FY 2004 Proposal

of operating and maintaining the nation's inland waterways. bi-partisan coalition of key legislators from a cross section of the country. the Inland Waterways Trust Fund through a fuel tax of 20 cents-per-gallon. locks and dams on the inland waterway system and major rehabilitation. and dams continue to erode. nation. waterways," the letter states. security. commodities which are generally described as the 'building blocks' of the U.S. the letter continued. infrastructure. which is deposited into general revenues. well as for operations and maintenance of the nation's coastal ports. the rapid mobilization of U.S. forces. transportation to congested highways and rail lines. negatively impact U.S. competitiveness," the letter said.