2016 Election

The clash between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton took a volatile turn as both candidates let loose a string of personal attacks, each arguing that the other has a personal racial bias. Clinton delivered a lengthy speech that sharply criticized Trump’s campaign for appealing to hate groups. She also released an ad that focused on Trump’s past housing discrimination issues in the 1970s when the Justice Department sued over evidence that his real estate company was systematically rejecting applications of minorities. Trump, in turn, attacked Clinton as a “real predator,” a reference to her use of the term “super-predator” to incite fear of urban youths while promoting President Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill.

Democrats

As November 8 nears, Democrats are growing increasingly hopeful of taking back the Senate. To gain control, the Democrats will need to win about five of the highly competitive Senate races this fall. The key races determining the Senate majority include: Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Energy

Hillary Clinton has long been an opponent of coal and has publically stated this on numerous occasions. Last week, the Democratic candidate for Governor of West Virginia said he will not be supporting Clinton in her run for the presidency. His lack of support for her is solely due to her opposition to coal; he did not say if he would be supporting Donald Trump, who is publically supportive of the coal industry.

Financial Services

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) supports Clinton’s plan to reduce the regulatory burden on community banks. At a committee hearing on Dodd-Frank, Sen. Warren stated that “Congress and the regulators ... have done a pretty good job of tailoring the rules to protect community banks.”

Labor

Members of Congress have come out in support of and opposition to the Obama Administration’s new rule that requires those who are bidding on federal contracts worth $500,000 or more to disclose prior labor law violations. Reps. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the ranking members of the House Education and Workforce and Oversight and Government Reforms Committees, both expressed support for the rule, saying that law-abiding contractors should not have to compete with those who have violated the law. On the other side of the aisle, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Subcommittee Chairmen Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Phil Roe (R-TN), said that the regulations are duplicative and that the administration should instead be focusing on existing laws to regulate violators.

Trade

The door to passing the Trans-Pacific Partnership was essentially closed last week when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the Senate would not be taking it up this fall. Sen. McConnell said he sees the agreement in its current form as greatly flawed, but that, if amended, it would have the possibility of passing in the new Congress in 2017. Both presidential nominees have come out against the TPP, while President Obama has vowed to work to pass it before his term is up.

Efforts to hammer out a free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union appear to have all but failed. After the third round of negotiations in six months (14 rounds overall), the negotiating parties have reached no mutual agreement on any of the 27 items under discussion.

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