House GOP Prepares to Battle Obama EPA Pick

Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, says President Obama's nomination of Gina McCarthy to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency will damage the nation's economy.

On "Power Play with Chris Stirewalt," Thornberry, who has represented the Texas Panhandle since 1995, said he expected to see an even more aggressive push on global warming regulations if she is confirmed.

"I would expect no change except a greater urgency to pursue this extreme, anti-fossil fuel agenda," Thornberry said. "Which will also continue to hurt the economy."

McCarthy is currently in charge of the EPA's air regulations and is the principal author of the restrictions on coal-fired power plants that industry leaders say spell the end of the use of coal for electricity. 

Thornberry said that while Obama would likely veto any legislation aimed at curtailing EPA authority, he suggested that a bipartisan coalition in Congress might be able to shut down enough funding for the agency to prevent full implementation of the controversial regulation. 

"It reduces the amount of damage they can do to the economy," Thornberry declared.

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Tours of White House cut due to sequester

If your public tour of the White House has now been canceled, House Speaker John Boehner says come visit the Capitol instead.

Boehner says tours of that building will continue, despite mandatory spending cuts that led the U.S. Secret Service and the National Park Service on Tuesday to announce that public tours of the White House will end, starting Saturday, until further notice.

The Republican speaker made the tit-for-tat announcement in a letter to his Ohio constituents on Tuesday, following news about the suspension of White House tours. His office released the letter on Wednesday.

"While I'm disappointed the White House has chosen to comply with sequestration by cutting public tours, I'm pleased to assure you that public tours of the United States Capitol will continue," Boehner wrote. He added that planning for the possibility of mandatory budget cuts, also known as sequestration, "has been under way for some time."

"Consequently, alternative spending reductions have been implemented within the Capitol complex to ensure public tours and other regular activities can proceed as they normally would," Boehner said.

Spending cuts that went into effect last Friday require that $85 billion be trimmed from the budget between March 1 and Sept. 30. The cuts were designed to force Congress and the White House to come up with a long-term plan to reduce federal budget deficits, but those negotiations so far have failed to produce an alternative acceptable to all sides.

The White House Visitors Office information line now informs callers that tours already planned will not be rescheduled. The free, self-guided tours can take visitors months to arrange through requests submitted to members of Congress or to embassies.

The Secret Service said uniformed officers normally assigned to White House tours will be reassigned to other security posts, noting that the reassignments will reduce overtime costs as well as potential furloughs that could have been required to meet the cuts in spending.

Separately, White House officials said planning continued apace for the annual Easter Egg Roll, scheduled for April 1. Free tickets have been distributed and more than 35,000 people were expected to join President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their family on the South Lawn for hours of sports and games, story-telling, cooking demonstrations and the traditional rolling of hard-boiled eggs.

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Conan O'Brien to headline White House correspondents dinner

Conan O'Brien is taking his talents to D.C.

The Emmy award-winning late-night host and comedian was announced Wednesday as the headliner for the White House Correspondents Association dinner in April.

Association president Ed Henry said he's "thrilled" that O'Brien accepted the invite.

"Conan is one of television's most innovative and influential talents and I am absolutely thrilled that he has agreed to be this year's featured act," said Henry, who is also Fox News' White House correspondent. "As social media has changed all aspects of the media business, Conan has embraced this shifting landscape to become a creative force both online as well as in the traditional television model."

The comedian's appearance at the April 27 dinner marks a long-awaited return to the capital.

He performed at the 1995 correspondents dinner, just when he was beginning his 16-year run as host of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

His career took several sharp turns as he transitioned out of "Late Night." He briefly took over "The Tonight Show," but later gave the slot back to Jay Leno and ultimately launched a new show, "Conan," on TBS.

Proceeds from the dinner help fund more than $100,000 in scholarships. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will also attend, as they have in prior years.

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White House to give senators Benghazi documents

WASHINGTON –  The White House has agreed to give the Senate Intelligence Committee documents related to the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, a congressional aide said Friday.

Republicans had demanded the documents as a condition of voting on the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director.

The documents include emails between top national security officials showing the debate within the administration over how to describe the attack and other documents the committee had been asking for, the aide said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The White House has said it has already turned over more than 10,000 pages of Benghazi-related documents, along with witness interviews, staff briefings and hours of testimony.

Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the administration was talking with members of Congress about their requests regarding both the Benghazi attacks and the use of drone strikes, but he declined to say whether those requests had been granted.

"That being said, the confirmation process should be about the nominees and their ability to do the jobs they're nominated for," Vietor said.

The attack on the Benghazi compound last Sept. 11 killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The Obama administration sent conflicting signals about whether the assault was a terrorist attack or an incident touched off by protests over an anti-Muslim video.

Republicans accused the Obama administration of an election-year cover-up of an act of terrorism and repeatedly pressed for more information about the attack. An independent review that faulted the State Department and led to four employees being relieved of their duties failed to placate GOP lawmakers. They demanded testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who spent more than five hours before two congressional panels, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey about the military's response to the attack.

Republicans also pressed the administration for emails, communiques and videos, and threatened to hold up the nominations of members of President Barack Obama's second-term national security team, including the choice of Chuck Hagel for the Pentagon and Brennan for CIA director.

___

Associated Press writers Josh Lederman and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

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House Armed Services Chair McKeon: Drone program ‘fully within the law’

"We have American citizens that have tried to kill Americans, and I think when they do that, they give up some of their rights," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., told Fox News on Sunday about the United States' drone-strike policy.

The Justice Department and White House last week defended the use of unmanned drones to kill American citizens thought to be involved with Al Qaeda or other terror-related forces.

Congress is also considering creating a special court to oversee the Obama administration's drone-assassination program.

But not all of Congress is on board with the idea of special court.

"I don't think we should hand cuff ourselves when people are trying to kill us. I would rather take them out first before we put our people in jeopardy," McKeon told Fox's "America's News HQ."

It was only 18 months ago when a drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American born Islamic militant.

But Congress was denied access to the legal memos authorizing the strike until this past week, when the issue resurfaced during the confirmation hearing of John Brennan for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

"I never believed it's better to kill a terrorist than to detain them," Brennan said.

McKeon maintains the military is performing the drone strikes as an act of war and doing what is necessary to fight terror.

"We have an attorney standing behind the weapons officer that approves any weapons fired," he said. "So we're fully within the law and functioning. We're at war. And whatever we can do to take out the enemy, I think we should do it."

In Congress, McKeon has worked to establish the Unmanned Systems Caucus, a group on Capitol Hill advocating for drones in the U.S. defense program.

With the sequester deadline less than a month away, McKeon has spoken out on the potential impact that the massive federal spending cuts could have on national security and defense, in addition to the drone program.

"I was stunned at the president's silence on national security risks and I am frustrated that he continues to look to our men and women in uniform to pay the cost of America's debt crisis," he released in a statement. "After all, it is their lives that are at greater risks today, because of the cuts already imposed."

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Conan O'Brien to headline White House correspondents dinner

Conan O'Brien is taking his talents to D.C.

The Emmy award-winning late-night host and comedian was announced Wednesday as the headliner for the White House Correspondents Association dinner in April.

Association president Ed Henry said he's "thrilled" that O'Brien accepted the invite.

"Conan is one of television's most innovative and influential talents and I am absolutely thrilled that he has agreed to be this year's featured act," said Henry, who is also Fox News' White House correspondent. "As social media has changed all aspects of the media business, Conan has embraced this shifting landscape to become a creative force both online as well as in the traditional television model."

The comedian's appearance at the April 27 dinner marks a long-awaited return to the capital.

He performed at the 1995 correspondents dinner, just when he was beginning his 16-year run as host of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

His career took several sharp turns as he transitioned out of "Late Night." He briefly took over "The Tonight Show," but later gave the slot back to Jay Leno and ultimately launched a new show, "Conan," on TBS.

Proceeds from the dinner help fund more than $100,000 in scholarships. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will also attend, as they have in prior years.

View the original article here