Stuff YOU Should Know
Border Security: A National Emergency?
The federal government shutdown is now the longest in our nation’s history. The government has shut down because the president is demanding $5.7 billion from Congress in order to build a wall along the U.S. southern border and Congressional Democrats are refusing to sign off on it. So now, to end the stalemate, Trump has threatened to use a new approach to funding the wall: declaring a national emergency.
According to Trump, there is a national crisis at the southern border due to illegal immigration and the influx of drugs and violent criminals. He claims that a physical wall is necessary to end this security crisis. But critics argue that no security crisis exists: undocumented immigrants, on average, commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States, and most drugs enter the country through legal ports of entry.
If Trump does declare a national emergency, he could then use special powers allowing him the ability to bypass Congress to allocate the funds he needs to build the wall. National emergencies are generally declared in a time of crisis, such as after a hurricane or after 9/11. Some lawmakers think that since there is no crisis at the southern border, Trump can’t declare an emergency. Others say that it’s possible he can, but that he would then have to draw on money from the military budget to build the wall. Either way, if Trump makes this move, it’s certain that he will face challenges from both Congress and the courts.
Dig Deeper What act allows presidents to declare national emergencies? According to this act, do you think the border wall qualifies as a national emergency? Why or why not?
Harris 2020?
Portrait of California Senator Kamala Harris
Credit: McGraw-Hill Education
Last week, Election Central brought you the story of the first Democrat to enter the 2020 presidential race: Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Now, it looks like she may be joined by Senator Kamala Harris of California. Harris released a memoir last week, The Truths We Hold, which talks about her upbringing and personal life, as well as sharing her political experience. Often, memoirs like these are released by political figures just before they run for office, as a way of introducing themselves to the public at large. This has led to a lot of speculation that Harris will announce her presidential run any day.
Those who are in favor of Senator Harris running for president say that she has the necessary credentials to get the job done (aside from serving as senator, she also served as California’s attorney general). She is also a groundbreaker: she is only the second black woman to ever serve in the Senate, which has generated a lot of excitement. Her youth, energy, and activism inspire young women of color. In very little time, Harris has gone from being relatively unknown to being a national figure. At the same time, those who are opposed to Harris running say that she doesn’t have enough experience. Because she is a former prosecutor, and because she accepted large corporate donations during her Senate campaign, Harris is often viewed as too “corporate” to attract the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
It’s possible that Harris will not run after all: she insists that she is still considering several factors before making a decision. Either way, like Elizabeth Warren, she is a strong Democratic female who isn’t afraid to back down from a challenge. And many are excited by the idea that if she wins, she would become the nation’s first black female president.
What Do You Think? In your opinion, would Senator Kamala Harris make a good presidential candidate in 2020? Why or why not? As always, remember to be respectful with your answers.
New Faces in the House
When the members of the House of Representatives were sworn into office earlier this month, they made history. Why? Because they make up the most diverse House in American history. Not only were a record number of women sworn in, but this House also includes the youngest member in history, the first female Muslim representatives, and the first female Native American representatives. But this surge in diversity was limited largely to the Democratic Party. In the House, the proportion of Democrats who are white men dropped from 41 percent to 38 percent, while the proportion of Republicans who are white men actually climbed from 86 percent to 90 percent. This further deepens the divide between the two parties.
Now that they are sworn in, these new members are already striving to make their voices heard. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the youngest-ever member of the House, has proposed a plan that would raise the taxes on the wealthiest Americans by up to 70 percent. And Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, one of the first female Muslim representatives, made a fiery statement about her desire to impeach the president. When Trump took to television to publicly criticize her for it, she apologized for creating a distraction, but not for the sentiment itself.
Still, more moderate Democrats in the House worry that these attempts by new members to shake up the party and to nudge it further to the left will damage Democrats in the long run. Nancy Pelosi, the new Speaker of the House, is now placed in a difficult position: she may try to support and encourage the new members while finding a way to balance their progressive points of view with the more moderate, established congressional Democrats.
Dig Deeper How many women now serve in the House of Representatives? What about in the Senate? Why is this important?
NASA Telescope Makes Exciting Discoveries
In July, NASA began using a new telescope called TESS–the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite–to search outer space for new planets. Last Monday, scientists announced the discovery of an exoplanet located only 53 light-years from Earth. The exoplanet is called HD 21749b. It is three times larger than Earth, but has 23 times the mass of Earth, meaning that it is probably a gaseous planet with a thick atmosphere. It has a 36-day orbit and a surface temperature of 300 degrees Fahrenheit. That may sound pretty hot, but it’s actually remarkably cool considering how close the planet is to the star it orbits. Scientists are very excited about this fact because usually cool planets are located far away from their stars, and thus too far away to study easily.
TESS has already discovered two other exoplanets as well. The first is Pi Mensae c. Located sixty light-years away, it is about twice the size of Earth and has a 6.3-day circular orbit. LHS 3844b, located 49 light-years away, is a rocky planet with an extremely fast orbit of only eleven hours. Because it is so close to the star it orbits, scientists guess that it is probably made up mostly of lava. TESS was also able to record images of six supernova explosions, five of them within the first month that the telescope was operational.
TESS works by surveying huge portions of the sky at once. In order to locate new exoplanets, it looks for slight changes in the brightness of stars as planets pass in front of them. This is called the “transit method.” Scientists estimate that TESS will be able to find and catalog more than 1,500 exoplanets during its operational lifetime.