Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough

Weekly Washington Wrap

• The dog days of hot and humid Washington have not slowed the pace of legislative and political activity this week.  Politicians are holding their breath in the hopes that BP’s efforts to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico keep working. Legislation to address climate change and the Gulf oil spill remains in limbo in the Senate.  Unemployment benefits are about to be restored.  A new Supreme Court Justice is imminent. Financial regulatory reform is law.  And, yes, there is a new Washington scandal.

 

• This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Elena Kagan to be a Supreme Court Justice, paving the way for the full Senate’s vote on her confirmation during the first week of August. 

 

• The Senate passed legislation restoring unemployment benefits for more than 2.5 million unemployed whose benefits lapsed in June.  Previous attempts to pass the measure failed because of its fiscal impact.  Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) was able to muster the 60 votes necessary for passage after trimming the bill from $120 billion to $34 billion and swearing in Carte Goodwin (D-W.Va) as the replacement for Senator Byrd who died three weeks ago.

 

• President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law.  The bill rewrites the oversight structure for America’s financial system in reaction to the financial meltdown blamed on lax regulation and Wall Street excesses.  There is intense political jockeying over who will be nominated to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Consumer groups want President Obama to nominate Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law professor who was the architect of the consumer protection provisions in the bill.  Business groups are concerned that an activist head of the new regulatory agency will harm the economy by squeezing already tight credit markets through over-regulation.

 

• The Senate is growing increasingly frustrated with Senate Majority Leader Reid’s delay in announcing plans for climate change/energy/oil spill response legislation.  The Majority Leader wants to introduce legislation next week, but it is unclear whether the bill will be narrowly crafted to address the Gulf oil spill and a few non-controversial energy provisions or whether the bill will mirror some of the climate change provisions in the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill that passed the House last year.

 

• This week’s scandal involves a Department of Agriculture employee whose historical comments about differences in how white farmers and black farmers received government aid, they were posted in an on-line video.  Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, fired Shirley Sherrod after hearing about her comments.  The ensuing backlash over Sherrod’s firing prompted a White House apology.  Like most Washington scandals, the episode eclipsed all other news and will likely be re-lived through weekend political shows.

 

Cowboys and Collaboration 

Calgary has long been famous for its second-to-none annual Stampede.  But this year, cowboys and gals and their fans weren’t the only folks in town enjoying all Calgary has to offer.  A collaboration of state and provincial legislative and business leaders, as well as policy experts and our own David Wilkins, were welcomed to Calgary by Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach for the 20^th annual summit of the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER). 

Every year PNWER brings together leaders from the region's public and private sectors to discuss and suggest solutions for the most pressing bi-national issues of the day.  Participating provinces include Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories and the states are Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

The focus of this year's summit was all about energy, specifically titled: "An Energized Outlook: Leading the Way."   Some 550 participants including federal Ministers Stockwell Day, Jim Prentice and Gary Lunn, Saskatchewan's Minister of First Nations and Métis Relations Ken Cheveldayoff and House Speaker Don Toth, Alberta's Minister of Energy Ron Liepert and Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations Iris Evans, US Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson, Nexen's Pierre Alvarez, Brian Humphreys and Wishart Robson, Doug and Lois Mitchell, Alberta's representative in Washington, D.C., Gary Mar, the US Consul General for Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories Laura Lochman, as well as many other experts and VIPs examined issues ranging from renewable and sustainable energy to carbon capture and sequestration, bio energy, the environment and the economy. 

Alberta's Minister of Sustainable Resources Mel R. Knight is the group's incoming president and success of the annual conference is due in large part to the work of PNWER's Executive Director Matt Morrison.

Crossing Canada

As usually is the case these days, David Wilkins began his week in one part of Canada and will conclude it on the other side of the country.  And so it is this week, Wilkins finds himself in Montreal today after his trip to Calgary. 

Wilkins was honored to fly with his good friend and our client Jimmy Gibbs, who is president and CEO of Albatros Energy.  There will be a number of business meetings in Montreal and then it's onto Toronto where Wilkins will wrap up the week tomorrow.  While in Toronto, Wilkins will catch up with his friend Randy Pettipas, president and CEO of Global Public Affairs.

Top of the Hill 

This week our close friend as well as one of Canada's most prominent statesmen, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and longtime Tory MP Jay Hill, announced he will not be seeking re-election after some 17 years representing the good folks of Prince George-Peace River.

The always snappy-dressed Hill is leaving government at the top of his game, and with his wife Leah Murray, is now anticipating what's sure to be more exciting adventures for them both when his government service concludes. 

Team Wilkins enjoyed so many special moments in Canada, but a trip to Hill's picturesque riding where we had the privilege of helping to memorialize 12 US soldiers who died tragically in a drowning accident on Charlie Lake, May 14, 1942, ranks right up there as one of the most poignant.   The servicemen were in Fort St. John, B.C., helping to build the Alaska Highway during the dark days of World War II. 

Here's some of what US Ambassador Wilkins had to say in May 2008 – more than six decades after the tragedy as the community unveiled a beautiful monument in tribute to the fallen heroes:

These soldiers died during wartime in service to their nation. They died answering freedom’s call. And they contributed to the greatness of our two democracies at a time when tyranny was on the march. Their hard work is evident today and benefiting both our nations in a very tangible way.

Their lives were too short; but their time was well-spent.

For the families they left behind there are years of blank pages in incomplete chapters in the books of your lives.

But now at last you have this memorial.

And it is significant.

For you will know that your loved ones will be thought of, prayed over and appreciated by all who visit here forevermore – for 66 years and beyond.

So what started out at Charlie Lake as a place of great loss is now also a place of great discovery, a place where people will learn about 12 young American GIs and the important role they played in history.

Capital Correction

Recently, the Capital Hill Group announced in a newsletter its "new association" with our law firm, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough. That announcement was inaccurate, and we wish to set the record straight:  There is no such association between our firm and any Canadian law firm or lobbying group.