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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, NOvEmbER 2, 2019
Divided House approves impeachment rules
By ALAN FRAM and
MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Democrats swept a rules
package for their impeach-
ment probe of President
Donald Trump through a
divided House, as the cham-
ber’s first vote on the inves-
tigation highlighted the par-
tisan breach the issue has
only deepened.
By 232-196, lawmakers
on Thursday approved the
procedures they’ll follow as
weeks of closed-door inter-
views with witnesses evolve
into public committee hear-
ings and — almost certainly
— votes on whether the
House should recommend
Trump’s removal.
All voting Republicans
opposed the package. Every
voting Democrat but two
supported it.
Underscoring the pres-
sure Trump has heaped on
his party’s lawmakers, he
tweeted, “Now is the time
for Republicans to stand
together and defend the
leader of their party against
these smears.”
Yet the roll call also
accentuated how Demo-
crats have rallied behind
the impeachment inquiry
after House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi spent months urging
caution until evidence and
public support had grown.
She and other Demo-
cratic leaders had feared
a premature vote would
wound the reelection pros-
pects of dozens of their
members, including fresh-
men and lawmakers from
Trump-won districts or seats
held previously by Republi-
cans. But recent polls have
shown voters’ growing
receptivity to the investiga-
tion and, to a lesser degree,
ousting Trump.
That and evidence that
House investigators have
amassed have helped unify
Democrats, including those
from GOP areas. Rep. Cindy
Axne, D-Iowa, said she was
supporting a pathway to
giving “the American peo-
ple the facts they deserve,”
while Rep. Andy Kim,
D-N.J., said voters warrant
“the uninhibited truth.”
Yet Republicans were
also buoyed by polling,
which has shown that GOP
voters stand unflinchingly
behind Trump.
“The impeachment-ob-
sessed Democrats just
flushed their majority down
the toilet,” said Michael
McAdams, a spokesman for
Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gavels as the House votes 232-196 to pass resolution on impeachment procedure to move forward into the next phase of the
impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
House Republicans’ cam-
paign arm.
Elsewhere at the Capitol
on Thursday, three House
panels led by the Intelli-
gence Committee ques-
tioned their latest witness
into the allegations that led
to the impeachment inquiry:
that
Trump
pressured
Ukraine to produce dirt on
his Democratic political
rivals by withholding mili-
tary aid and an Oval Office
meeting craved by the coun-
try’s new president.
Tim Morrison, who
stepped down from the
National Security Council
the day before his appear-
ance, testified — still
behind closed doors — that
he saw nothing illegal in
Trump’s phone call with the
Ukrainian president that is
at the center of the Demo-
crat-led investigation.
Yet,
Morrison
also
largely confirmed much of
what William Taylor, the
highest-ranking U.S. offi-
cial in Ukraine, said in ear-
lier, highly critical testi-
mony about the call, which
Taylor said he and Morrison
discussed several times.
The Democrats are still
waiting to hear if Morrison’s
one-time boss John Bolton
will testify. They have sub-
poenaed former national
security adviser Bolton,
who quit the administration
after disagreements with
Trump over his handling of
Ukraine.
In the House inquiry
vote, the only Democratic
“no” votes were by Reps.
Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey
freshman, and veteran Col-
lin Peterson of Minnesota,
one of the House’s most
conservative
Democrats.
Both are battling for reelec-
tion in Republican-leaning
districts.
Also supporting the rules
was independent Rep. Jus-
tin Amash of Michigan,
who left the GOP this year
after announcing he was
open to considering Trump’s
impeachment.
Thursday’s House debate
was laced with high-minded
appeals to defend the Con-
stitution and Congress’ inde-
pendence, as well as partisan
taunts.
“What are we fighting
for? Defending our democ-
racy,” Pelosi said.
She addressed lawmakers
with a poster of the Ameri-
can flag beside her and
opened her comments by
reading from the preamble
to the Constitution. She also
said the rules would let law-
makers decide whether to
impeach Trump “based on
the truth.”
“I don’t know why the
Republicans are afraid of the
truth,” she said.
But her counterpart,
Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy of California,
cast the process as a skewed
attempt to railroad a presi-
dent whom Democrats have
detested since before he
took office.
“Democrats are trying
to impeach the president
because they are scared they
cannot defeat him at the bal-
lot box,” he said.
No. 2 House GOP
leader Steve Scalise, R-La.,
accused Democrats of
imposing
“Soviet-style
rules.” His backdrop was
a bright red poster depict-
ing the Soviet hammer
and sickle emblem and the
famous St. Basil’s Cathedral
in Moscow’s Red Square.
The House is at least
weeks away from decid-
ing whether to vote on actu-
ally impeaching Trump. If it
does, the Senate would hold
a trial on whether to remove
him from office. That GOP-
run chamber seems highly
likely to keep him in the
White House.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Ca-
lif., likened Democrats to
a “cult,” accusing them of
bouncing from “one out-
landish conspiracy theory
to another.” Rep. Maxine
Waters, D-Calif., pointedly
said she looked forward to
Republicans “prioritizing
country over party, just as
we took an oath to do.”
Democrats said the pro-
cedures are similar to rules
used during the impeach-
ment proceedings of Pres-
idents Richard Nixon and
Bill Clinton.
Pelosi decided to have
the vote following a GOP
drumbeat that the inquiry
was tainted because law-
makers hadn’t voted to for-
mally commence the work.
The rules direct House com-
mittees “to continue their
ongoing investigations” of
Trump.
Democrats hope Thurs-
day’s vote will undercut
GOP assertions that the
process has been invalid.
They’ve noted that there is
no constitutional provision
or House rule requiring such
a vote.
The rules require the
House Intelligence Commit-
tee — now leading the inves-
tigation — to issue a report
and release transcripts of
its closed-door interviews,
which members of both par-
ties have attended.
The Judiciary Committee
would then decide whether
to recommend that the
House impeach Trump.
Republicans could only
issue subpoenas for wit-
nesses to appear if the com-
mittees holding the hearings
approve them — in effect
giving Democrats veto
power.
Attorneys for Trump
could participate in the Judi-
ciary Committee proceed-
ings. Democrats would
retain leverage by empow-
ering panel Chairman Jerr-
old Nadler, D-N.Y., to deny
requests by Trump repre-
sentatives to call witnesses
if the White House contin-
ues to “unlawfully refuse”
to provide testimony or doc-
uments Congress demands.
Associated Press writ-
ers Andrew Taylor and Lisa
mascaro contributed to this
report.
US jobs report for October California governor threatens
a potential takeover of PG&E
solid despite GM strike
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A
solid October jobs report on
Friday spotlighted the sur-
prising durability of the U.S.
economy in the face of per-
sistent trade conflicts and a
global slowdown.
The economy managed to
add 128,000 jobs last month
even though tens of thou-
sands of workers were tempo-
rarily counted as unemployed
because of the now-set-
tled strike against General
Motors. What’s more, the
government revised up its
combined estimate of job
growth for August and Sep-
tember by a robust 95,000.
Though the unemploy-
ment rate ticked up from
3.5% to 3.6% in October, it’s
still near a five-decade low.
And for a second straight
month, average hourly wages
rose a decent, if less than
spectacular, 3% from a year
ago.
The report from the Labor
Department suggested that
the economy has enough
strength to keep expand-
ing despite the threats from
overseas, political tensions
at home, a downturn in man-
ufacturing and a chronic
gap between the wealthi-
est Americans and everyone
else.
The healthy level of hiring
also makes it less likely that
the Federal Reserve, which
cut short-term interest rates
this week for a third time this
year, will do so again any-
time soon.
“This was an unambig-
uously strong report,” said
Kathy Bostjancic, chief
U.S. financial economist at
Oxford Economics.
The jobs data put stock
investors in a buying mood.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed up 301 points
for the day, or 1.1%.
Friday’s jobs report also
raised the prospect of fur-
ther job growth to come.
The settlement of the GM
strike, which contributed to
the temporary loss of 41,600
auto factory and likely other
related jobs last month, seems
sure to lead to a return of
those jobs in coming months.
In addition, the labor force
participation rate, a gauge
of how many adults either
have a job or looking for one,
reached 63.3%, the best since
2013. That suggests that a
rising number of people con-
tinue to think it’s a good time
to find a job.
Besides GM, a temporary
drag on hiring last month was
the U.S. Census. The govern-
ment let go of 20,000 short-
term workers who had been
helping prepare for the 2020
survey.
The economy has been
expanding for more than a
decade, the longest period
of growth on record. But the
bump from the 2018 tax cuts
is fading, and an aging popu-
lation and other demographic
forces are slowing potential
growth.
That slowdown could
be worrisome for Presi-
dent Donald Trump, who
is seeking re-election next
year amid an impeach-
ment inquiry. The economy
appears unable to achieve the
lasting growth of more than
3% annually that Trump had
promised. Within 30 minutes
of the jobs report’s release,
though, the president cele-
brated the figures on Twitter
as a “blowout,” adding that
“USA ROCKS.”
Job growth so far this
year has averaged 167,000 a
month, down from an aver-
age of 223,000 in 2018,
according to Labor Depart-
ment figures. Even so, hiring
remains high enough to keep
the unemployment rate from
rising even as overall growth
has become more tepid. On
Wednesday, the govern-
ment estimated that the econ-
omy grew in the July-Octo-
ber quarter at a modest 1.9%
annual rate.
The hot job market is
spurring many employers
to raise wages to attract and
retain workers. Yet those
gains may not always leave
workers feeling better off as
they grapple with high hous-
ing, transportation, health
and education expenses.
By ADAM BEAM
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
— California’s governor
on Friday threatened a pos-
sible takeover of the trou-
bled utility blamed for
sparking deadly wildfires
across the state with its
outdated equipment unless
it can emerge from bank-
ruptcy ahead of next year’s
wildfire season with a plan
focused on safety.
Gov. Gavin Newsom
called all sides to a meet-
ing early next week, saying
he would personally try to
mediate a solution involv-
ing Pacific Gas & Electric.
But if an agreement
can’t be reached, Newsom
said, “then the state will
prepare itself as backup for
a scenario where we do that
job for them.”
PG&E has come under
more scrutiny in recent
weeks as it cut off power
to millions of people to
avoid a repeat of last year’s
deadly fire season.
The
shutoffs
have
angered residents, busi-
nesses and local govern-
ments, who say the com-
pany has done a poor job of
communicating.
“This is not the new nor-
mal,” Newsom said. “There
are things that can be done
immediately and will be
done immediately.”
Pacific Gas & Electric
filed for bankruptcy earlier
this year after a 2018 wild-
fire mostly destroyed the
town of Paradise and killed
85 people. An investiga-
tion revealed the fire was
started by one of the com-
pany’s powerlines that was
knocked down during a
windstorm.
The utility is facing up
to $30 billion in damages
from that fire and others.
Shareholders and cred-
itors have been battling
for control of the utility in
bankruptcy court, offering
two competing plans for
the company’s future.
A federal judge has
expressed concern the
two sides are not making
progress, and last week
appointed a mediator to try
and resolve the case.
In June, Newsom signed
a law setting up a $21 bil-
lion fund that could help
utility companies pay out
claims for future wildfires
as climate change makes
them more frequent and
destructive.
Utility companies would
have to spend at least $5
billion on safety improve-
ments and meet new safety
standards to participate.
PG&E would have to be
out of bankruptcy by June
30th to use the fund.
Friday, Newsom called
on PG&E executives,
shareholders and creditors
along with wildfire victims
to meet with him. New-
som said he is confident the
meeting will occur.
However, representa-
tives for the largest groups
of bondholders and share-
holders did not respond to a
request for comment.
PG&E
spokesman
James
Noonan
indi-
cated the company would
participate.
“We welcome the gov-
ernor’s and the state’s
engagement on these vital
matters and share the same
goal of fairly resolving the
wildfire claims and exit-
ing the Chapter 11 process
as quickly as possible,” he
said.
It’s unclear how the state
could take over PG&E in
the event it does not meet
the June 30th deadline.
San Francisco has
offered to purchase por-
tions of PG&E’s equipment
for $2.5 billion so it could
operate parts of the power
system on its own.
Asked if taxpayers
would purchase the com-
pany, Newsom said: “It’s
more complicated than
that.”
“It’s not writing a
check,” he said. “This is
not plan ‘A,’ but it is a plan.
We would be irresponsi-
ble not to scope that plan.
So we’re not going to sit
back and hope and hope an
expectation that everything
else works out.”