All Entries in the "Mitch McConnell" Category

Williams, Moffett take on Beshear at Fayette GOP dinner

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

Two Republican candidates for governor took on Democratic incumbent Steve Beshear more than each other Saturday night at the Fayette County Republican Party dinner.

Senate President David Williams of Burkesville claimed Beshear, who has no opponent in May’s Democratic primary election, has no agenda and Louisville businessman Phil Moffett said Forbes magazine last October labeled Kentucky as the worst run state in the nation and that Kentucky’s bond rating has declined because of the state’s financial picture.

Williams and Moffett were at center stage at the Fayette GOP dinner at the Griffin Gate Marriott attended by about 200 people and hosted by Lexington sports media celebrity Dave Baker.

A third Republican candidate for governor, Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw, was invited but did not show up, said Fayette County GOP Chair Carol Rogers.

McConnell returns from trip to Aghanistan, South Korea and India

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has returned from a trip with four other U.S. senators to Afghanistan, South Korea and India.

McConnell’s office announced Monday that the delegations met with U.S. troops, military officials and political and business leaders to discuss political, economic and regional security issues.

Senate convenes, Stein calls it “political theater”

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The state Senate convened Wednesday and appears posed to pass a series of resolutions to override some of Gov. Steve Beshear’s vetos of a budget fix designed to shore up Medicaid.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, told the Senate Wednesday that it would recess so the Republicans and Democrats could caucus. When the Senate returns later Wednesday afternoon, it will consider resolutions that would override some language that Beshear vetoed in House Bill 1, which was passed by the House on March 24 and vetoed by Beshear on March 25.

McConnell leads charge against Obama environmental rules

By Halimah Abdullah and Renee Schoof — habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — In Kentucky, where coal mining has been the lifeblood of many rural communities, miners and the lawmakers who represent them say the Obama administration’s push for regulations that cap greenhouse gases and toughen mine permitting requirements feels like an assault.

In response, lawmakers from Kentucky and other mining states have battled the administration’s efforts through legislation designed to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory authority and by attacking agency director Lisa Jackson.

This week alone, there are three measures up for debate in the Senate that would revise critical parts of the Clean Air Act. The proposals, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, Senate finance committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., are vital to helping shore up the economy, say supporters.

“Americans are tired of the White House paying lip service to their struggles while quietly promoting effort after effort, either through legislation or through some back-door regulation, that make it harder, not easier, for businesses to create new jobs,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

UPDATED: Senate likely to vote Thursday on Medicaid budget fix

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Members of the Senate budget committee grilled Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Janie Miller Wednesday on how the state would document planned savings in the $6.5 billion Medicaid program.

Miller told the Senate panel that when the cabinet enters into contracts with managed care programs sometime after July 1, the cabinet will be able to tell how much it will pay per Medicaid patient. Under the current system — which pays fees based on services provided — the costs are not known. Many managed care programs are paid a set rate per patient, regardless of how many health care services the patient uses.

“I am confident that we will be able to generate the savings,” Miller said, after repeated questions by many Senate Republicans on how much savings the managed care programs will generate.

How the new managed care programs will generate savings is key to a compromise budget passed by the House on Monday. Under House Bill 1, if the state can not demonstrate that it has generated more than $116 million in savings through managed care and other efficiencies by Aug. 15, there will be across-the-board cuts in most areas of state government by Oct. 1. Education would be exempt from most of those cuts.

Changing his ways, Rogers helps lead GOP effort to cut spending

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers is undergoing a makeover of sorts.

Widely known for steering federal dollars to projects in his district, the Somerset Republican and House Appropriations Committee chairman is now helping lead GOP efforts to trim fat from the federal budget.

He’s joined by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, himself no stranger to earmarks, and together the two Kentucky lawmakers are wielding enormous sway in the debate over cutting billions in federal spending.

“The American taxpayers have lost confidence in the way Washington is managing their money, and Chairman Rogers is working to repair this by cutting spending and stopping the overreach of government bureaucracy,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

As recently as this week, Rogers was pivotal in helping craft and get passed a two-week federal funding stopgap to stave off a looming government shutdown. The measure slashes $4 billion from the federal budget by nixing funding for several education, highway and agricultural programs, among others.

Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul push for faster decisions on coal mine permits

By Halimah Abdullah
habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — Kentucky Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul introduced legislation Thursday designed to force the Environmental Protection Agency to decide more quickly whether to approve or deny permits mines need to operate under the Clean Water Act.

Dubbed the Mining Jobs Protection Act, the bill gives the EPA 60 days to approve or veto permit applications. If the agency doesn’t act within that time, the permit automatically moves forward.

“The EPA has turned the permitting process into a back door means of shutting down coal mines by sitting on permits indefinitely, thus removing any regulatory certainty,” McConnell, the minority leader, said on the Senate floor Thursday. “What they’re doing is outside the scope of their authority and the law and represents a fundamental departure from the permitting process as originally envisioned by Congress.”

The legislation, which was also sponsored by Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, will move to that committee for consideration.

House panel approves bill to ban pension ‘placement agents’

FRANKFORT – A House committee unanimously approved a bill Thursday that bans state governments’ pension funds from paying middlemen known as “placement agents.”

But the sponsor of House Bill 480, House State Government chairman Mike Cherry, D-Princeton, removed from the measure term limits for members on the boards overseeing billions of dollars held by the Kentucky Retirement Systems, the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System and the Judicial Form Retirement System.

He also deleted from the bill a requirement that the state auditor review the retirement systems every five years.

Cherry said he made the deletions because he wants to see what recommendations state Auditor Crit Luallen may have after she is finished with her review of the Kentucky Retirement Systems.

Speaking in Kentucky, Biden calls Mubarak resignation ‘a pivotal moment in history’

By Jack Brammer – jbrammer@herald-leader.com

LOUISVILLE — Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak “is a pivotal moment in history” and that it is America’s hope it will bring “a path toward democracy.”

Biden also told a crowd of about 1,200 people on the University of Louisville campus that it is time for Iran to let its people speak out freely.

Biden was at U of L as a guest of U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, to speak at the McConnell Spring Lecture Series. Biden’s speech was delayed for more than 30 minutes because of Mubarak’s resignation Friday morning.

Biden, who spoke for 50 minutes, said President Barack Obama will address the nation later Friday regarding Mubarak’s resignation. He said he did not want to detract from Obama’s message but that he believes all Americans — Democrats and Republicans — should speak with one voice on the need for democracy in Egypt.

New Yorker gives McConnell, Paul high ranking

By Halimah Abdullah | habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

Kentuckians ranked high on New Yorker magazine’s Top Ten Most Intriguing Political Personalities of 2010 list.

The magazine noted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, arguably one of the most politically powerful Republicans, as someone “who is in the process of transforming from a senator who could effectively deny the White House important pieces of Obama’s agenda to a senator who can force the White House to embrace important aspects of the Republican agenda.”

This week’s showdown over tax cuts, influenced in no small way by the Obama administration’s recognition that it must work in a more bipartisan fashion with McConnell and other GOP leaders, is an example.

Political newcomer and junior Sen-elect Rand Paul’s status as one of the most high profile Tea Party backed candidates also merits attention, according to the magazine.