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Lydia DePillis

@lydiadepillis

7 Jan

@loganjaffe

There's a lot we still don't know about why law enforcement allowed something to happen that D.C. went through decades of security theater to prevent. But it's not because they weren't warned.

Quick story with @loganjaffe @iarnsdorf and @davidmcswane: propublica.org/article/capito…

@davidmcswane

@davidmcswane WEEKS of posts on right-wing social media platforms called for escalation -- to "take the hill or die trying," as one put it. For MONTHS, the intelligence establishment had identified white supremacist movements as the nation's most immediate domestic terror threat.

As has been noted many times, nothing on the order of that kind of threat nevertheless precipitated a level of mobilization around the protests in June that left D.C. feeling like it was living under military occupation. And yet yesterday, the Capitol was essentially undefended.

Read 8 tweets

Lydia DePillis

@lydiadepillis

3 Dec 20

NEW from me: The Trump administration has requested to convert dozens of political appointees into career civil service positions this year, allowing them to stay in government after he's gone. We have the documents: propublica.org/article/how-do…

@USOPM

This "burrowing" process happens at the end of every presidency, and @USOPM requires that all conversion requests be submitted for its review, so as to make sure the correct hiring protocol was followed. Those lists are then submitted to Congress, but usually not shared publicly.

Here they are for the first three quarters of this year: beta.documentcloud.org/app?q=project%…
OPM denied five requests because it "could not conclude the appointment was free of political influence and complied with merit system principles.”

Read 7 tweets

Lydia DePillis

@lydiadepillis

30 Nov 20

This morning the Fed announced it was extending a bunch of the emergency market support facilities it set up in March for another 3 months. Notably missing: The ones backstopped by CARES Act funding, which Secretary Mnuchin yanked on Nov. 20. federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pre…

In testimony before Senate Banking tomorrow, Jay Powell lays out the facilities that are ending--primarily loans for mid-sized companies and state/local governments. Takeup has been light, but Biden could've expanded them to be more useful. Now it's hard. federalreserve.gov/newsevents/tes…

@PeterContiBrown

However, as @PeterContiBrown laid out last week, the Fed could be a hell of a lot more creative in expanding lending facilities *on its own,* by making riskier loans on better terms, and potentially using the discount window for companies as well as banks. brookings.edu/blog/up-front/…

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Lydia DePillis

@lydiadepillis

10 Nov 20

@marketplace

Lovely joining @marketplace to talk about stimulus checks, which millions of Americans still haven't received. marketplace.org/2020/11/09/irs…
If you didn't get one automatically, you have until Nov. 21 to apply through the IRS' online portal!
sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-wmsp/log…

After the story published, I received a bunch of heartbreaking inquiries from folks who really needed the money and had tried all kinds of things to get it, but kept getting "payment status not available" messages, and couldn't figure out the problem. propublica.org/article/millio…

I wish I had better advice. The IRS doesn't have enough resources to do the kind of casework necessary to cut through computer glitches and other paperwork confusion confronting millions of people. Low income folks often have complicated lives and stuff gets misplaced.

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Lydia DePillis

@lydiadepillis

30 Oct 20

NEW THING FROM ME: The CARES Act passed forever ago, but millions of people still haven’t received their stimulus checks -- either because they aren’t aware they need to file, haven’t been able to make it through the IRS’ glitchy portal, or were deliberately excluded from it. 1/

The IRS’ latest estimate for the number of people who are likely eligible but haven’t applied through its online portal for people who make too little to file taxes is 9 million. That was last month, but the agency says new figures aren’t yet available. The deadline is Nov 21. 2/

With little in the way of a federal public relations campaign, finding those people has required herculean efforts by outreach organizations, who have to walk people through a hard-to-navigate web interface without much help from backlogged IRS customer service agents. 3/

Read 13 tweets

Lydia DePillis

@lydiadepillis

13 Oct 20

NEW: By Trump’s own benchmarks, his approach to trade hasn’t worked. Here’s my story about what he set out to do, the guy he chose to do it, the agency that carried it out, and the result so far. It’s the most complex, hard-to-balance piece I’ve ever written. This is why. 1/

I talked to dozens of former & current USTR employees, their foreign counterparts, and interest groups. USTR has long been seen as a special agency. Consistently across administrations, about 250 experts & lawyers considered it their mission to break down trade barriers overseas.

Enter Robert Lighthizer, probably the perfect person to carry out Trump’s agenda. He shared the president’s views, but had a much deeper understanding of arcane trade law and how negotiations work from his decades representing the steel industry. 3/

Read 16 tweets

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