Appropriators vent on child separations

With help from Ian Kullgren, Andrew Hanna and Daniel Lippman

APPROPRIATORS VENT ON CHILD SEPARATIONS: “House Republicans joined Democrats on a key spending panel Wednesday to signal growing frustration with the Trump administration’s muddled efforts to reunify migrant children,” POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn and Andrew Hanna report.

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“The House Appropriations Committee during a marathon budget session unanimously adopted a proposal levying steep financial penalties on HHS Secretary Alex Azar’s office if he fails to explain how he plans to reunify [as many as 3,000] migrant children under his agency’s care with their parents,” POLITICO reports. “The panel also endorsed language prohibiting officials from separating migrant siblings, and banning the forced medication of kids housed by the health agency and its contractors.”

The committee also approved an amendment by Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) that would require HHS and DHS to produce monthly reports on families separated at the border. Under the amendment parents and children who have been separated would be notified of each other’s whereabouts within 24 hours. The amendment failed earlier in the day, but committee staff brokered a compromise late in the evening. It passed in a voice vote.

The spending bill — passed late last night after an 11-hour markup — would trim DOL’s discretionary funds by 0.7 percent overall, including a 2 percent cut to the Employment and Training Administration. Total funding for DOL didn’t change much from the subcommittee version, save for a slight bump to OSHA funding.

The session was far from a bipartisan lovefest. In a series of party-line votes, GOP committee members voted down Democratic proposals cutting funds for migrant tent-cities. House Republicans also adopted a measure introduced by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) that would permit the long-term detention of children who enter the U.S. illegally, an attempt to override the 1997 Flores settlement and related court rulings. More here.

What’s next: The federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to reunite separated families called for a status report on the reunification efforts by 6 p.m. today (3 p.m. PDT). The report must show progress reuniting children under age 5 with their parents, as well as on the broader requirement to reconnect older children with their parents by July 26.

Related read: “Trump administration to turn away far more asylum seekers at the border under new guidance,” by CNN’s Tal Kopan. Find it here.

GOOD MORNING! It’s Thursday, July 12, and this is Morning Shift, POLITICO’s daily tipsheet on employment and immigration policy. Send tips, exclusives and suggestions to thesson@politico.com, ikullgren@politico.com, ahanna@politico.com, and tnoah@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @tedhesson, @AndrewBHanna, @IanKullgren and @TimothyNoah1.

NIELSEN TO MEET WITH AMLO: DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other Trump officials will meet Friday with Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mark Stevenson reports in the Associated Press. Nielsen will be joined by presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, according to the AP.

The Trump administration considers a “safe third country” agreement with Mexico a priority and appears willing to negotiate, but it’s doubtful the new Mexican administration will take the bait, a Mexican official told Morning Shift. Under such an agreement, migrants would be required to seek asylum in Mexico if they first passed through that country before reaching the United States. Nielsen and other Trump officials are also expected to press for an asylum deal with outgoing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, the Mexican official said.

López Obrador, a populist and outspoken Trump opponent, said Tuesday that Trump didn’t mention the border wall during a July 2 congratulatory call. “President Trump has been very respectful,” he told the AP. “He hasn’t brought up that topic.” When asked about an asylum deal between the U.S. and Mexico, he declined to answer but said immigration policy shouldn’t involve “coercive measures,” according to the AP. More here.

Nielsen discussed immigration this week in Guatemala City with officials from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico. The secretary spoke about expanding asylum capacity in the region “to make sure individuals can find safety closer to home, rather than feeling compelled to come to the U.S. border,” the department said.

KAVANAUGH’S KILLER WHALE CASE: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent in a 2014 case over the death of a killer whale trainer won’t likely dispel the view that he’s pro-management, Rebecca Rainey reports for Inside OSHA Online. In SeaWorld of Florida v. Perez, the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 to uphold a $70,000 OSHA fine against the theme park. The appeals court said “the employer should have taken action to abate recognized worker hazards,” Rainey reports, “in this case, those associated with training and performing with killer whales — including those not addressed by a specific standard.”

Kavanaugh argued that the OSHA violations overstepped DOL’s authority and were arbitrary. “Many sports events and entertainment shows can be extremely dangerous for the participants,” he wrote in his dissent. “The broad question implicated by this case is this: When should we as a society paternalistically decide that the participants in these sports and entertainment activities must be protected from themselves – that the risk of significant physical injury is simply too great even for eager and willing participants?” Read more from Inside OSHA Online here and the opinion here.

DE BLASIO BORDER BROUHAHA: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio contends he didn’t violate Mexican and U.S. immigration laws when he crossed into Mexico with his security detail during a visit to South Texas in late June, Colleen Long reports in the Associated Press. The outlet obtained a CBP letter that said de Blasio and his crew entered Mexico illegally to take photos of a facility for migrant children.

A Border Patrol agent “told them they’d crossed the border illegally and asked them to remain there while he got a supervisor,” the AP reports, citing the letter. “But the group disregarded the order, walking back to their vehicles and driving back to Mexico. … They re-entered by car through a port of entry about three hours later, the letter said.” The mayor dismissed the claim as “absolutely ridiculous.” De Blasio “said both times they showed their passports and crossed with approval of agents at the entry point,” the AP reports. More here.

CICCONE TAPPED FOR DHS ROLE: President Trump nominated DHS senior adviser Christine Ciccone to become assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the department, the White House announced Wednesday. Ciccone worked as deputy chief of staff for former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. At State, she oversaw Tillerson’s attempt to “redesign” the department and departed after her boss was fired in March. Ben Cassidy, the department’s previous head of legislative affairs, left in March.

WRANGLING OVER PAID LEAVE PLANS: Paid leave experts faced off Wednesday at a Senate Finance subcommittee hearing over competing plans from Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). The hearing represented was the first real movement in Congress to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise for paid family leave, but it remained somewhat theoretical. Rubio’s bill, which was scheduled to come out this week, was delayed to next week after Rubio met Tuesday at the White House with Ivanka Trump along with Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

All three senators support the concept of the bill, which would allow people to borrow from Social Security to take time off work when they have a child. But there was disagreement in recent weeks over how to structure the benefits, a source familiar with the talks told POLITICO’s Ian Kullgren. Another source described the delay as an extra layer of caution to ensure that the bill can pass. Ivanka Trump attended Wednesday’s hearing, but didn’t testify.

At the hearing, Gillibrand and other Democrats pushed her plan, which would pay for leave benefits through a tax increase on employers and workers. Democrats noted that Gillibrand’s bill would cover leave during family medical emergencies in addition to child care. “The FAMILY Act does not create a false choice between having to take money early from your Social Security account,” Gillibrand said. “It keeps your Social Security account secure so your retirement benefits are there for you.”

Andrew Biggs, a scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute who helped develop the Social Security plan, assured senators that people wouldn’t lose retirement income in the long run. Higher earnings from people staying in the workforce “would boost Social Security benefits by more than enough to make up for the increase in the normal retirement age.” Vicki Shabo of the left-leaning National Partnership for Women and Families said the plan amounted to a regressive “penalty” on those who rely on Social Security the most. Watch it here.

UNPACKING ‘CATCH AND RELEASE’: The New York Times published an article Tuesday evening titled, “Trump Administration Returns to ‘Catch and Release’ of Migrants.” Later that night, the headline changed to “As Migrant Families Are Reunited, Some Children Don’t Recognize Their Mothers.”

The Times acknowledged Wednesday that readers had argued against the use of “catch and release” (a common sport fishing term) to refer to migrants arrested at the border. “The Trump administration uses it as part of a strategy to dehumanize immigrants,” reader Tim Pierce wrote to the outlet. “The Times must not be complicit in this process of dehumanization, and must reject this biased term.”

Kim Murphy, deputy national editor at the Times, said they’ve asked their immigration writers “to think carefully” before using that language, “making sure they include it only in reference to the administration’s use of the phrase.” Read the original story here and Murphy’s note here.

HOUSE DEMS ANGLE TO BLOCK ALJ ORDER: House Democrats moved to block a new Trump executive order that grants the president greater political control over the hiring of administrative law judges at federal agencies. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) on Wednesday offered an amendment to a financial services appropriations bill slated for markup in the coming weeks that would bar the use of funds to carry out the order. Scott, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) warned in a written statement that it would “undermine the quality and integrity” of the administrative law process by ending a merit-based system to choose judges that’s been in place more than 70 years.

CLINTON, SANDERS, WARREN AT AFT CONVENTION: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will speak at the biennial AFT convention this weekend in Pittsburgh, Elizabeth Behrman reports in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The event begins Friday with remarks from AFT President Randi Weingarten and Clinton. Warren will address teachers Saturday; Sanders speaks Sunday. More here.

MEADOWS WADES INTO I 77 FIGHT: Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) is seeking to block funding to implement Initiative 77, the voter-approved D.C. ballot measure that gets rid of the city’s tipped wage credit, the Washington Post’s Fenit Nirappil reports. “Meadows, who leads the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, and Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) have proposed amendments that would block the city from spending money to implement the ballot measure. The move comes a day after a Democratic majority on the D.C. Council backed legislation to repeal the new law.” More here.

UBER JETTISONS HR CHIEF: “Uber Technologies Inc. pushed out its human-resources chief after an internal investigation into her department’s handling of racial discrimination claims, according to people familiar with the company’s actions,” Greg Bensinger reports in the Wall Street Journal. “The departure of Liane Hornsey, who joined Uber in early 2017 from SoftBank Group Corp. , was announced to staff Tuesday in an email from Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi. … The people familiar with the company’s move said Ms. Hornsey resigned under pressure, following internal reports that she turned a blind eye to charges by anonymous employees of racial discrimination at the ride-hailing firm.” More here.

VIRGIN WORKERS FLYING HIGH: “Flight attendants have won summary judgment in California federal court on claims that Virgin America Inc. deprived them of meal and rest periods in addition to shorting their overtime pay, leading the class counsel to say her clients look forward to proving their damages exceed $60 million,” RJ Vogt reports in Law360. The order, issued Monday, “indicated that future proceedings, either by the court or by a jury, will determine damages based on the flight attendants’ regular rate of pay.” Read more from Law360 here and the order here.

DETENTION PROFITS IN NJ JAILS: Democrat-controlled counties in New Jersey made millions detaining immigrants for ICE, Matt Katz reports for WNYC. “From January 2015 to March 2018 the amount of ICE money sent to Bergen, Essex and Hudson Counties increased 46 percent, amounting to more than $150 million over that period, according to invoices provided to WNYC by the counties. As many as 2,000 immigrants are in the county jails at any given time pending deportation proceedings. Some stay incarcerated for years.” More here.

AFL-CIO PERSONNEL MOVES: The AFL-CIO’s Josh Goldstein will become the labor federation’s communications director and senior adviser, he confirmed to Morning Shift. He’ll replace Amaya Smith, who is heading to the National Partnership for Women and Families. Goldstein joined the AFL-CIO in 2010, and most recently worked as national media director.

COFFEE BREAK:

— “Former Tesla employee blasted by Elon Musk takes battle to SEC, filing whistleblower complaint,” from The Washington Post

— “For many L.G.B.T. migrants, north of the border is no refuge,” from The New York Times

— “Woman arrested in assault of 91-year-old Mexican man who was told to ‘go back to your country,’” from The Washington Post

— “As more new dads get paternity leave, companies push them to take it,” from The Wall Street Journal

THAT’S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT.