Today’s Headlines and Commentary
After weeks of tense confrontation between Arab protesters and Israeli police in Jerusalem including violent clashes in recent days cross-border conflict between Israel and militant groups in Gaza escalated on Monday evening, reports the New York Times. A Hamas military spokesman, Abu Obeida, said that the militant group had launched 137 rockets at the Israeli coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon within five minutes, appearing to have killed two Israelis and wounded dozens of others. Israeli military officials said that over 500 rockets had been launched from Gaza, although most of them either did not reach Israel or were destroyed by the military’s anti missile defense system. Israel launched at least 130 retaliatory strikes into Gaza on Monday and Tuesday reportedly resulting in the deaths of at least 26 Palestinians, including nine children.
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“Not all ethics waivers are bad,” said a former director of the Office of Government Ethics.
Soon after taking the oath of office in January, President Biden issued a sweeping ethics pledge for executive branch personnel. But shortly thereafter, the administration granted waivers to two labor leaders to allow them to serve in senior positions, drawing the ire of some conservatives along with charges of hypocrisy. “Labor’s sizable personnel presence in the administration is driving policy,”
Axios reported on Friday. “And the president’s appointment of top union officials to senior posts gives those unions powerful voices in the federal bureaucracy even at the cost of strictly adhering to his own stringent ethics standards.”
Dr. Rashawn Ray of the Brookings Institution says Scott’s assertion is more a reflection of systemic racism than an argument against it.
On April 28, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) gave a response to President Joe Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress. In the rebuttal, Scott recalled several stories of how racism has affected himself as a Black man living in the southern United States, but then went on to say that this racism was not systemic, with the assertion that “America is not a racist country.”
“Black people who succeed often walk on pins and needles, because they realize that their success and maintaining that success is precarious. Tim Scott being one of them.” Dr. Rashawn Ray, Brookings Institution
Lawfare Live: What’s Going on With Congressional Reform?
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Lawfare community about potential changes in how Congress does its work, including reforms to the budget process, to Capitol security post-January 6 and to operations in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reynolds recently wrote an article for
Lawfare about potential reforms to Congress’s power of the purse.
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The Week That Will Be
Event Announcements (More details on the Events Calendar)
Monday, May 10, 2021, at 3:00 p.m.: The House Administration Committee will hold a hearing titled, Oversight of the January 6th Attack: United States Capitol Police Threat Assessment and Counter-Surveillance Before and During the Attack. The committee will hear testimony from Michael Bolton, inspector general of the Capitol Police.
Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at 9:30 a.m.: The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the nominations of Ronald Moultrie to be undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security and Michael McCord to be comptroller of the Defense Department.
Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.: The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a hearing on ghost guns. The committee will hear testimony from Michael Harrison, commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department; Joshua Shapiro, attorney general of Pennsylvania; Nicholas Suplina, managing directo