Obama wants big increase in clean energy funding
In a push for the United States to play a major role in global efforts to reverse the effects of climate change, President Obama said Saturday that he would ask Congress for twice the spending on clean energy research and development by the year 2020.
"Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future," the president said in a video released this weekend. "This will include new investments to help the private sector create more jobs faster, lower the cost of clean energy faster and help clean, renewable power outcompete dirty fuels in every state."
The president intends to submit his budget blueprint to Congress on Tuesday, just as the nation gears up for the first presidential primary in New Hampshire.
But the budget request may fall short on support in a Republican-led Congress, where conservative factions have previously attempted to block several clean energy legislative proposals. In December, the House voted to kill the president's Clean Power Plan, which would cut down on carbon emissions from power plants. The president eventually vetoed the GOP-backed bill.
Of Republicans in Congress -- many of whom deny the man-made causes of climate change -- the president said that regardless of their position, "many of them realize that clean energy is an incredible source of good-paying jobs for their constituents."
"I hope they support my plan to double that kind of investment because it's making a difference across the country," Mr. Obama said.
"Today, clean power from the wind or the sun is actually cheaper in many communities than dirtier, conventional power," he added. "It's helped grow our economy and cut our total carbon pollution more than any other country on earth."
In their own video, Republicans are pushing back against the White House for allegedly "carving loopholes" into Congress' new visa waiver program restrictions.
"Last month, the administration announced that it would grant waivers to people engaged in journalism, humanitarian work or, for people traveling to Iraq or Iran, 'legitimate business-related purposes,'" Rep. John Katko, R-New York, said Saturday. "These waivers have no basis in law. In fact, members of Congress explicitly rejected this idea when negotiating the bill with the administration."
In December, the House passed a bill tightening the visa waiver program after the November attacks in Paris put the nation on high alert to foreign terror fighters entering the U.S.
The program allows the citizens of 38 partner countries to travel to the U.S. without a visa. But the new rules deny visa waiver status to people who have traveled to terror hotspots like Iraq or Syria in the past few years. And it would require participating nations to share counterterrorism intelligence with the U.S.
But the White House's new "loopholes" would only make the program more vulnerable, according to Katko.
"It is not at all clear how granting a waiver to a New York Times reporter is in our law enforcement or national security interests," he added.
The New York Republican laid out Congress' plan to press the administration for a full report on the waivers.
"We expect, at a minimum, the name and nationality of each traveler; the explicit, detailed national security or law enforcement justification for granting the waiver; and the number of people who are asking for and using these waivers in each category," Katko said. "This law is a common sense measure we need to keep us safe, and we House Republicans will do all we can to make sure the administration enforces it in full."