Welcome to The WonkLine, a daily 9:30 a.m. roundup of the latest news about health care, the economy, national security, immigration and climate policy. This is what we’re reading. Tell us what you found in the comments section below. You can also follow The Wonk Room on Twitter.
Immigration
President Obama assured Latinos at the gala dinner for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute that he was not walking away from immigration reform.
Faith leaders and immigration reform advocates staged a surprise “pray-in” in the offices of five key Republican Senators yesterday afternoon asking for a meeting to discuss immigration reform and then praying for them to support reform.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is calling on armed volunteers to undertake immigration patrols, or “a little specialized unit” to focus on rural areas looking for border crossers and human smugglers.
Climate Change
BP oil disaster claims master Ken Feinberg is failing to process claims for weeks and is giving workers “a small fraction of what they were claiming,” a process some in the Gulf are calling “garbage.”
“We have the situation of hard-working people in factory jobs and farmers subsidizing the landowners of Palm Beach” because of support for housing on vulnerable coasts, says hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel. “That’s crazy.”
Brendan DeMelle reports on coal ash hearings being conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency around the country to hear community views about the coal industry’s toxic waste.
Health Care
“Since the beginning of Congress’s August recess, Democratic candidates have poured $930,000 into ads deriding the health overhaul but just $300,000 in pro-reform spots, according to Evan Tracey at Kantar Media.”
“The last few polls on health care reform have been discouraging. Public support for the Affordable Care Act does not seem to be rising. If anything, it seems to be falling, as a quick glance at Pollster.com will confirm.”
“Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MI) signed onto a discharge petition drafted by Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Taylor’s office confirmed. His office would not offer any additional comment.”
Economy
Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren will be named an assistant to the president, a senior White House position from which she will oversee the establishment of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
According to the latest data from RealtyTrac, “U.S. home seizures reached a record for the third time in five months in August.”
“The nation’s largest banks have an obligation to pay some of the cost for bailing out mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because they sold [the GSE's] bad mortgages,” said Edward DeMarco, the acting director for the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
National Security
“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to vote Thursday on whether to approve a treaty reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals by about a third. The panel will vote on a ratification resolution crafted by ranking Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana and co-sponsored by Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).”
“Senior State Department and American military officials are deeply divided over the pace and scale of military aid to Yemen, which is emerging as a crucial testing ground for the Obama administration’s approach to countering the threat from Al Qaeda.”
“The Obama administration, worried that an upcoming referendum in Sudan could lead to renewed bloodshed, has begun an urgent diplomatic effort to rescue the American-backed peace plan there. President Obama will meet with two of Sudan’s leaders next week at the United Nations, in the first such contact of his presidency.”
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