Aurelia Butler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Centrist U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar was clinging to a razor-thin lead early on Wednesday against progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros in a high-profile south Texas Democratic primary battle that illustrated sharp dividing lines over immigration and abortion rights.The election on Tuesday in a district along the U.S.-Mexico border was the third contest between Cuellar, who has held the seat since 2005, and Cisneros, a 28-year-old attorney who failed to unseat him in 2020 but forced him to a runoff in the state’s March primary this year.A tally by Edison Research showed Cuellar up by just 177 votes with 92% of the estimated vote counted. Major media outlets held off on calling the race.Despite the slim margin, Cuellar declared victory. Cisneros, however, declined to concede, saying every ballot needed to be counted.The race took on new urgency in recent weeks after a leaked Supreme Court opinion indicated that it could overturn a 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. Cuellar, 66, is the lone House Democrat to oppose abortion rights, and abortion-rights groups have spent at least $160,000 to bolster Cisneros’ campaign.Cuellar has said that Cisneros would risk public safety and hurt the local economy by cutting law enforcement funding in a district where many voters work for border patrol agencies.Cisneros has since distanced herself from her previous call to eliminate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Political analysts have said that a Cisneros win could threaten Democrats’ chances to hold the seat in the Nov. 8 election, when Republicans hope to win control of the House of Representatives.But Cuellar’s strength in the general election should not be a foregone conclusion, said Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas in Austin.”The reality is that Cisneros has come very close to unseating Cuellar twice at this point,” Blank said. “If he can’t defeat Cisneros, then I think the logic underlying that should come into question.”Cisneros has benefited from increased name recognition and an FBI investigation that saw raids on Cuellar’s home and office.Financial disclosures on Friday showed she has out-raised him by almost $1.4 million, and has around $400,000 more cash on hand than Cuellar.The race is one of several midterm primary battles between incumbent House Democrats and progressive challengers.In primary contests last week, Jamie McLeod-Skinner looks set to oust moderate incumbent Kurt Schrader in Oregon, while progressive Summer Lee won the Democratic nomination over Steve Irwin in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. Other progressive challengers like Nina Turner in Ohio have lost. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Democrats said on Tuesday they were hopeful of reaching a $52 billion bipartisan deal to subsidize U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and boost U.S. competitiveness with Chinese technology.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, both Democrats, met with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to try to hammer out a compromise but did not announce an agreement. Pelosi and Schumer issued a statement urging swift action and said they believed there was no reason the bill should not through Congress in July.”Democrats have already made accommodations in the name of reaching an agreement, which we are optimistic can happen soon,” they said.McCarthy and McConnell did not immediately comment.A persistent shortage of chips has disrupted the automotive and electronics industries, forcing some firms to scale back production.The two chambers have passed similar bills but key differences must be resolved.The Senate legislation, passed in June 2021, included $52 billion for chips subsidies and authorized another $200 billion to boost U.S. scientific and technological innovation to compete with China.The House version, passed in February, is nearly 3,000 pages long and includes a number of trade proposals not in the Senate bill. Some House provisions are likely to be removed for lack of approval in the Senate, officials say.Democrats have warned that major investments in new U.S. chip production could be jeopardized without action from Congress. Democratic Senator Mark Warner told Reuters last week “the clock is ticking.”Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb said in a joint opinion piece https://www.ibj.com/articles/eric-holcomb-gretchen-whitmer-congress-needs-to-pass-innovation-legislation-soon for the Indianapolis Business Journal that governors of both parties “overwhelmingly agree that federal action is critical not only to address the semiconductor shortage we all face but also to realign national research and economic development priorities and leapfrog our adversaries.” More

(Reuters) -Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s guidance that the U.S. central bank will most likely raise interest rates by 50 or 75 basis points in July is “reasonable,” Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said on Tuesday, even as he cautioned against the bank moving so fast that it damages the economy.”I am pretty comfortable with what Jay (Powell) said. …He gave a range that feels pretty reasonable,” Barkin said during a webinar held by the National Association for Business Economics.The Fed is poised to deliver another bigger-than-usual rate hike at its next meeting in July as it seeks to tame inflation running at more than three times its 2% goal, with fears growing that the economy will tip into recession as a result.Barkin repeated that the Fed will have to make monetary policy restrictive, but said data and judgment would guide the central bank as its tackles “high, broad based and persistent” inflation.”You really don’t want to inadvertently break something and lead to a significant pullback in the reactions of economic actors that you weren’t anticipating. It is a fine balance and I think judgment plays a huge part,” Barkin said, noting that he is focused on trying to get to positive forward looking real, or inflation-adjusted, rates.Last week on the heels of another report that showed price pressures escalating more than expected, the Fed raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point to a range of 1.50%-1.75%. It now forecasts borrowing costs will more than double that level over the next six months.Several policymakers, including some previously more wary about sparking a sharp rise in unemployment, have backed the new whatever-it-takes approach.Powell’s pledge of an unconditional war against price increases that are draining American pocketbooks will be scrutinized by U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday and Thursday during two days of regularly scheduled hearings, held semi-annually, before Congress.Barkin said he remains hopeful that a lot of pandemic era price pressures will ease and inflation start to ease in short order, but gave no timeframe for when it might return to the central bank’s goal.Research released by the San Francisco Fed on Tuesday showed supply issues account for around half of the run-up in current inflation levels, underscoring the difficulties Fed policymakers face in taming inflation due to factors outside their control. Critics contend that the Fed has been too slow to act to bring down inflation which it argued last year was transitory. The more aggressive fight needed to quash surging price pressures will lead to a downturn as it cools demand across the economy, they added.The clamor for a repeat of last week’s 75 basis point increase in borrowing costs, the biggest hike in more than 25 years, has already begun from some quarters. Fed Governor Christopher Waller has called for the same sized move at the next meeting in July, saying the central bank is now “all in” on restoring price stability. More

President Joe Biden on Tuesday hit out at Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth, calling the oil major boss “sensitive” after he criticised the US administration’s energy policy, as high fuel prices deepen tensions between the White House and the domestic industry. The exchange came ahead of a meeting scheduled on Thursday between energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and senior industry executives including Wirth, whose company is the second-largest US oil and gas producer by market value. The US president’s rhetoric on oil companies has heated up in recent weeks. This month, he criticised ExxonMobil for “making more than God this year” and told the oil supermajor to “start investing more”. Last week, he criticised the industry’s elevated profits as “unacceptable” during “a time of war”, as conflict rages in Ukraine. Rising fuel prices at the pump have become a political vulnerability for Biden, as signs at petrol stations telegraph the highest inflation rate the US has experienced in 40 years. The national average price for petrol was $4.97 a gallon on Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association.Wirth on Tuesday sent Biden a letter saying that increasing fuel supplies and bringing prices down would require a “change in approach” from the administration. He also rebuked the White House for seeking to “criticise, and at times vilify, our industry”.Asked about the letter during a White House event, Biden called Wirth “mildly sensitive”, saying he “didn’t know they would get their feelings hurt so quickly”. The president called on the industry to increase fuel supply. In his letter, Wirth said there was little the industry could do to bring down pump prices immediately, indicating that this week’s meeting was unlikely to yield relief for drivers in the US.“There are no easy fixes nor any short-term answers to the global supply and demand imbalances aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Wirth wrote.

Among other measures to address high fuel prices, the president said this week that he was considering a holiday on the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents a gallon to try to push down prices, although such a move would require action from Congress.Biden has also said he could use emergency powers to add oil refining capacity, while criticising the industry for closing down refineries in recent years. Profit margins for refining petrol and diesel have reached record levels.Refining executives said they were already producing at or near their maximum capacity but they were still struggling to keep up with demand. Asked about Biden’s comments, Chevron said: “Mike is looking forward to Thursday’s meeting with secretary Granholm and is hopeful for a constructive conversation about actions to address the near-term issues and longer-term stability of energy markets.” More