Politico: Five Things Trump Did This Week While You Werent't Looking
1. Treasury keeps one Obama-era tax rule—and targets many others
After Trump won the presidential election, many tax experts predicted he would roll back the rule—which specifically targeted corporate inversions, a kind of merger in which companies are “taken over” by smaller firms headquartered in low-tax countries like Ireland. But this week, Treasury announced that it wasn’t going to repeal the anti-inversion rule after all. With the administration still pushing hard for tax reform to lower corporate rates and bring company revenue back into the U.S., the agency said repealing the rule now “could make existing problems worse.”
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2. DOJ revives a Bush-era approach to violent crime
But on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he was reinvigorating Project Safe Neighborhood, requiring every U.S. Attorney to implement an “enhanced violent crime reduction program” and improve ties with local police. Sessions called Project Safe Neighborhoods, which was generally considered a success at reducing violent crime, the “centerpiece of our crime reduction strategy.” Critics previously said the program unfairly targeted poorer communities, leaving too many young African-Americans with long prison sentences or criminal records for minor crimes—although reaction this week to Sessions’ announcement was limited.
3. DOJ shifts its legal position on transgender discrimination
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One critic at the time was Jeff Sessions, then a senator from Alabama. On Wednesday, Sessions reversed Holder’s memo. Holder had declared that sex discrimination—outlawed under the Civil Rights Act—should be construed to include gender-identity cases; Sessions walked that back with a memo stating that “sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status.” In other words, the DOJ no longer considers discrimination against transgender people to violate the law.
4. FDA promises a new Nutrition Facts Panel—in 2020
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The Food and Drug Administration—the agency actually responsible for the redesign—set an initial date of July 26, 2018 for manufacturers to add the new label to food but new FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb indefinitely delayed the rule in June. This week, the agency finally revealed how long the delay will last: Another year and a half. The FDA published a rule in the Federal Register on Monday proposing to delay the compliance date until January 1, 2020, an effort to give food companies more time. While the news is a logistical win for many food producers, the FDA has shown no signs of modifying the redesign. So while it will take longer to hit stores, the Obama-era Nutrition Facts Panel still appears to be coming.
5. Trump is renegotiating another trade agreement
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This week, Trump got his wish when the South Korean government announced it would seek to amend the 5-year-old pact. As with the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the upcoming renegotiation of KORUS will be a technical process and take months, if not longer, to complete. In the meantime, the news is a victory for Trump—and an opportunity to draw closer to South Korea as North Korea’s nuclear program continues to advance.
http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/10/06/trump-policy-taxes-crime-korea-000536