In the News
House Democrats to Move on Temporary 'SALT' Cap Increase
The House Ways and Means Committee could take up legislation as early as next week that would increase a limit on state and local tax deductions that has riled Democrats from high-cost regions, according to a senior panel member.The "SALT" bill, which has not yet been released, is still in flux, but the $10,000 deduction limit set by the Republican-backed tax code overhaul would be raised to an as-yet undetermined level for three years, according to Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr.. A final figure … Continue Reading
December 06, 2019
Casten Reports on Madrid Climate Conference
An Illinois congressman who's made climate change a key issue is back from the United Nations climate conference in Madrid saying that President Trump has abandoned the U.S. leadership role in taking on global warming.U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove joined a Democratic congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in attending the opening of what's being called COP25 as the 25th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change. Trump, a … Continue Reading
December 02, 2019
The Energy 202: Here's Why Pelosi is Going to Madrid for a Climate Conference
President Trump isn't going to Spain this week for a major international climate change conference. That isn't a surprise, given everything he's said and done when it comes to global warming. Here's something slightly more unexpected: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in the midst of a rapidly moving impeachment inquiry into the president, is planning to attend.Coming off the long Thanksgiving holiday, Pelosi is leading a delegation of 14 other congressional Democrats to Madrid for the … Continue Reading
December 02, 2019
Glen Ellyn Formally Unveils $14.4M Grant to Replace Metra Station
After the morning rush Monday, it was still a tight squeeze inside Glen Ellyn's Metra station when village officials made the case for replacing the outdated depot.The occasion was a ceremony to formally unveil a $14.4 million grant for construction of a new station and a pedestrian tunnel.The village welcomed U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Sean Casten, state lawmakers and transit leaders to celebrate the infusion of federal funds. Squeezed in around benches and renderings, the gathering … Continue Reading
November 25, 2019
New Congressional Task Force Formed to Pressure U.S. EPA to Adopt New Ethylene Oxide Rules: 'Something That Should Have Been Done a Long Time Ago’
The EPA has yet to revise its rules regulating how sterilizers like Sterigenics, which has announced it would be closing its Willowbrook facility, and Medline in Waukegan, along with other companies like Vantage Specialties in Gurnee use ethylene oxide.U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Deerfield, said he had originally been told new rules would be coming in May 2019 but the date kept getting pushed back, with the EPA now indicating February."This feels like one of those arguments where, ‘We're on it … Continue Reading
November 25, 2019
Schatz, Casten Float Bill to Test Risk for Financial Sector
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) introduced a bill today aimed at assessing climate change risk in the financial sector, an emerging area of focus for congressional Democrats.The legislation would require the Federal Reserve to develop stress tests to gauge how prepared financial institutions are to handle various climate change scenarios.It would effectively extend the kind of financial analysis the Fed already does for large banks under the Dodd-Frank Act to include … Continue Reading
November 25, 2019
Glen Ellyn to Celebrate $14.4M Grant for Metra Station Project
Glen Ellyn officials and lawmakers will gather Monday to celebrate a $14.4 million infusion of federal funds into plans to build a new Metra station and a pedestrian tunnel downtown.The village secured a major coup recently when a regional planning agency awarded the transit grant for a project lauded for its safety and accessibility improvements. Village President Diane McGinley, Glen Ellyn trustees and U.S. Rep. Sean Casten will help mark that milestone during the ceremony Monday morning at … Continue Reading
November 25, 2019
Democratic Senators Want the Fed to Better Prepare Banks for Climate Change
A group of Democratic senators, half of whom currently running for president, are supporting a new bill that would direct the Federal Reserve to formally factor climate-change risks into its oversight of large financial firms.Sen. Brian Schatz, (D., Hawaii) announced on Wednesday that he was joining with nine other Democrat senators on the legislation -- including presidential hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Michael Bennet (D., Colo.), Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D., … Continue Reading
November 18, 2019
Casten Pins Down EPA on Science
Proposed new "transparency" rules at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would actually block the government watchdog from using scientific data, according to critics.The EPA has submitted a draft it calls Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science that would actually limit the scientific data the agency uses by calling for it to be more transparent. At issue, according to The New York Times, is that the proposal would call for even confidential medical records to be made public as … Continue Reading
November 18, 2019
Carpentersville Girl's Speech on Gun Violence Reaches Congress
Carpentersville resident Sara Fierro was in fifth grade on Dec. 14, 2012, when a man entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 26 people, including 20 who were ages 6 and 7."We were young and didn't understand how serious it was," said Fierro, now a senior at Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville. "I knew it must have been bad because of the look on my teacher's face."Fierro said it was the first time she was exposed to the horrors of mass shootings; … Continue Reading
November 14, 2019
Democrats Urge Career EPA Scientist to Resist Research Limits
The long-serving EPA scientist came to a House committee to defend a Trump administration proposal to limit the kind of science used in environmental rulemaking, but Democrats on the panel urged her to resist the change. Testifying before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee on Wednesday, Jennifer to stand up against the agency's political leadership as she defended a Trump , EPA's science adviser and principal deputy assistant administrator for science at the agency's Office of … Continue Reading
November 14, 2019
EPA Defends ‘Secret Science’ Rule to House Democrats
An EPA official defended the agency's proposed "secret science" rule, but declined to answer questions about the basis for the rule, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups and other agency watchers.Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, principal deputy assistant administrator for science at the Environmental Protection Agency, told Democrats on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee that she had to defer questions about statutory authority to other agency officials.Orme-Zavaleta, a … Continue Reading
November 13, 2019
In ‘Hyde Country,’ Voters Warily Eye Impeachment, and Fear Its Aftermath
GLEN ELLYN, Ill. — Anna Schroeder was making dinner in her Hinsdale home in this stretch of the Chicago suburbs this year when her 8-year-old son interrupted to ask a question about the impeachment news blaring in the background: Does this mean President Trump is a bad guy?"We don't know, but this is what people are trying to figure out," Ms. Schroeder, 41, a sales executive, recalled saying as she tried to explain the impeachment process to her elementary schooler. "This is what the country … Continue Reading
November 08, 2019
Rep. Sean Casten on the New Democrat Path to Fighting Climate Change
If you're following political news, you've probably heard of the Squad, a group of four newly elected congresswomen advocating for progressive policies like the Green New Deal.But have you heard of the New Democrat Coalition and its plans for dealing with climate change? In this episode of Political Climate, we hear from a lawmaker who is leading that charge.Last year, Sean Casten ran one of the most overtly pro-climate-action campaigns of the 2018 midterms — and in a historically Republican … Continue Reading
November 08, 2019
New Cary Metra Station to Officially Open Friday
Those who use Cary's Metra station could experience an easier and warmer time as they wait for trains once the new station depot officially opens later this week.Eric Morimoto, Cary's director of public works, said the village is targeting a Friday morning opening for the new station.Construction on the structure started about a year ago. It cost about $3.3 million and includes a new 1,400-square-foot station building, which replaces a structure built in 1942, as well as a new 300-square-foot … Continue Reading
November 06, 2019
Metrics Needed to Measure Farmers' Potential to Curb Climate Change
Agriculture can play a key role in mitigating climate change, but more work is needed on methods of measuring the impact of changing farming practices."If we're going to really make a difference" in combating climate change, "we need to have a metric we can count on," said Fred Yoder, a former president of the National Corn Growers Association who grows corn, soybeans in Ohio. The difficulty, however, is coming up with reliable numbers for the wide variety of growing systems throughout the … Continue Reading
October 21, 2019
New Bill Seeks Indexing of Pell Grants to Inflation
Two lawmakers have joined hands to introduce a bill that would increase the Pell Grant value by matching it with the rising cost of attending college.Representatives Susie Lee (Nev.-03) and Sean Casten (Ill.-06) moved the Pell Grant Sustainability Act that will index the Pell Grants to Inflation.Over the years, amid a sustainable rise in inflation, the value of Pell Grants have remained flat, leaving the responsibility of covering major expenses of college education on students."Our Pell Grant … Continue Reading
October 21, 2019
Time for Advisers to Speak in Plain English
If you think your job is tough, try simplifying financial disclosures.A new Securities and Exchange Commission rule requires brokers and financial advisers to describe their services, fees and conflicts of interest in " plain English" and a maximum of four pages.But, as my dad used to say, nothing is harder than making something look easy. The SEC needed roughly 165,000 words and almost 170 pages in the Federal Register to specify how advisers and brokers should "reduce retail investor … Continue Reading
October 18, 2019
U.S. Reps. Underwood, Casten Address Illinois Election Security Concerns
U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, and Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, are among the suburban Illinois lawmakers who raised questions about election security during an Oct. 15 field hearing in Illinois' 14th Congressional District.Also in attendance for the committee meeting, held at Gurnee Village Hall, was U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District, Matt Masterson of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Steve Sandvoss of the Illinois Board of Elections, … Continue Reading
October 15, 2019
House Democrats Warn Syria Pullout Endangers U.S. Security, Could Lead to ISIS Resurgence
A growing chorus of House Democrats and Republicans is criticizing President Donald Trump's decision to pull U.S. troops from northern Syria, saying it endangers America's safety and relationship with allies, and could lead to regional instability and the freeing of captured Islamic State fighters."This pullout is going to hurt our national security," U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi told the Daily Herald Editorial Board during a meeting this week. "And it's going to hurt our relationship with … Continue Reading