Daily Digest: Trump attacks Syria
Good morning and welcome to Friday. Thursday got busy. Let's check the Digest.
1. The Minnesota House passed a jobs and energy budget bill Tuesday that includes language to remove regulatory hurdles for an oil pipeline project in northern Minnesota. It allows Enbridge Energy to bypass the Public Utilities Commission and begin building a 340-mile replacement pipeline. The language was added on a largely party line vote. Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, said the multi-billion-dollar project has already been delayed too long. Garofalo said the opposition to the project is “mindless.” Environmental activists and tribal members gathered at the state Capitol to protest the plan. They say the amendment would make it difficult for them to fight the pipeline project. (MPR News)
2. DFL House Minority Leader Melissa Hortman's remark this week about a "100 percent white male card game" put a rare spotlight on the House retiring room. Members see it as a "place of respite," former House GOP Speaker Steve Sviggum said Thursday. "It's an appropriate place for members that have a place to go where they're not necessarily being addressed by or hounded by lobbyists or others during the floor debate." While playing cards is not a regular scene in the House lounge, Sviggum said the room does serve as a place where members can meet and talk informally on legislative strategy. (MPR News)
3. State Auditor Rebecca Otto’s campaign for governor has a standing request for copies of requests for records submitted with the auditor’s office. That practice was confirmed Thursday after a top supporter of U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan’s possible run for governor questioned on Twitter why his March 30 data practices request was circulated this week by an Otto political backer to Democrats statewide under the subject line “Let’s keep it positive.” (MPR News)
4. President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch is set to be confirmed today after Senate Republicans changed the rules Thursday to lower the threshold to end debate on Supreme Court nominations from 60 to 51 votes. "This will be the first, and last, partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court justice," said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. By essentially eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees all presidential nominees will now face a far easier path navigating through the Senate confirmation process. It also could make it easier for presidents to appoint more overtly partisan justices to the Supreme Court. (NPR)
5. The United States fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria Thursday night in retaliation for this week's chemical weapons attack against civilians, U.S. officials said. It was the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Donald Trump's most dramatic military order since becoming president. The surprise strike marked a striking reversal for Trump, who warned as a candidate against the U.S. getting pulled into the Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year. But the president appeared moved by the photos of children killed in the chemical attack, calling it a "disgrace to humanity" that crossed "a lot of lines." (AP)
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