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Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said he plans to be inside the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland this week, but will not deliver a speech to the delegates during the Republican National Convention.
Although Portman has endorsed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, he appears to be distancing himself from the New York real estate developer. Portman has spoken at every GOP convention since 1996.
In a conference call with Ohio reporters last week, Portman said he will be on the convention floor for at least one or two days. He also said he plans to speak to the Ohio delegation at its hotel in Cleveland.
In addition, Portman will appear at a rally today at the Cuyahoga County Community College Metropolitan campus with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.
The rally will include interns from Portman’s campaign offices across the state who have helped his re-election campaign.
White Castle concerned new OT will hurt business
A senior official at White Castle last week told a congressional panel co-chaired by Rep. Pat Tiberi that new federal overtime regulations will hurt businesses.
Jamie Richardson, vice president of government relations at the Columbus-based hamburger company, told the Joint Economic Committee “these overtime regulatory burdens only add to the tremendous amount of uncertainty that new and expanding federal regulations have created over the last five years.”
A number of companies in the service industry have fought the changes, which are scheduled to take effect by the end of the year. The Obama administration will require workers be paid the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and time and-a-half for all hours worked over 40 hours during a typical week.
In his prepared opening remarks, Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, complained that “our current economic recovery has been relatively slow,” adding that “government can’t tax and regulate its way to American prosperity.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the ranking committee Democrat, responded that after the financial collapse of 2008, the U.S. economy “rebounded faster than” those of America’s allies in Europe, saying “we have created 14.7 million private sector jobs since President Obama took office” in 2009.
Jordan questions FDIC chairman
Rep. Jim Jordan last week questioned whether an Obama administration initiative to investigate banks who work with companies such as gun dealers and payday lenders bore a resemblance to the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative organizations.
Jordan, R-Urbana, questioning Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Martin Gruenberg during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, said he found an uncanny resemblance between the two initiatives.
Specifically, he is worried about Operation Choke Point, where the U.S. Department of Justice investigated banks that were working with legal businesses that the Obama administration opposed, such as gun dealers and pay-day lenders. Additionally, the FDIC listed such companies together with illegal businesses, claiming these legal companies were associated with “high-risk” activity. This caused banks to stop working with legitimate businesses.
Brown’s 2nd attempt to fight ‘super bugs’
Sen. Sherrod Brown is reintroducing a bill that he hopes will protect Americans from “super bugs” by fighting antibiotic resistance.
Brown’s bill would reauthorize a task force studying antimicrobial resistance, enact CDC recommendations to place greater emphasis on federal antimicrobial resistance surveillance, prevention and control, and research effort and create grants to healthcare facilities to study the development and implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programs aimed at expanding efforts to encourage appropriate use of antibiotics, among other provisions.
Brown and Portman worked for new AG confirmation
Brown and Portman this week said they were thrilled that Carole Rendon has been confirmed as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Rendon, the former First Assistant U.S. Attorney, has been serving as Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio since February. Brown and Portman recommended her nomination to the Obama Administration, which nominated her in May. Her nomination unanimously cleared the U.S. Senate last week.
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