President Donald Trump is selling Hispanic business owners on his new tax cuts.

Trump is delivering the keynote address Wednesday at the annual legislative summit of the Latino Coalition. It’s his first time addressing Hispanic business owners.

The president says the $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts he signed late last year have finally given American business a “level playing field.” He tells the Latino business owners that they’ll “see more of this in the coming weeks.”

Trump highlighted administration efforts to eliminate regulations that many businesses find burdensome.

Trump also touched on immigration. He blamed Democrats for failing to reach agreement with the White House on a plan to protect immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children.
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The International Monetary Fund and European leaders pushed back Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, saying it would provoke a calamitous global trade war.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde told a European radio interviewer, “If international trade is called into question by these types of measures, it will be a transmission channel for a drop in growth, a drop in trade and it will be fearsome. In a trade war that will be fed by reciprocal increases of customs tariffs, no one wins.”

Lagarde said the IMF is “anxious” that U.S. tariff increases not be imposed, saying, “We are urging the sides to reach agreements, hold negotiations, consultations.”

Trump boasted last week that trade wars “are good and easy to win” after he announced plans for a 25 percent U.S. tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent levy on aluminum exported to the United States.

The proposal has drawn widespread criticism from his normal Republican colleagues in Congress and U.S. foreign allies, but support from economic nationalists in the United States and a handful of Democratic lawmakers in manufacturing states whose fortunes could be boosted by the tariffs protecting their metal industries.

EU retaliation

European Council President Donald Tusk rebutted Trump’s contention about trade conflicts, saying, “The truth is quite the opposite: Trade wars are bad and easy to lose. For this reason I strongly believe that now is the time for politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to act responsibly.”

The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union, detailed retaliatory tariffs it plans to impose on prominent U.S. products if Trump carries out his plan to impose the metal tariffs, taxing Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon, blue jeans, cranberries, orange juice and peanut butter.

Trump has claimed the United States needs to impose the steel and aluminum tariffs to protect its national security, but European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem dismissed his rationale.

“We cannot see how the European Union, friends and allies in NATO, can be a threat to international security in the U.S.,” Malmstroem said. “From what we understand, the motivation of the U.S. is an economic safeguard measure in disguise, not a national security measure.”

Denmark Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said if a trade war starts between the United States and the European Union, “at the end of the day, European and American consumers will pay for it. That is the signal we have to send to Trump that it is not a path we should follow.”

Moody’s Investors Service said the planned tariffs “raise the risk of a deterioration in global trade relations.”

Despite the criticism, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump is “on track” to make the formal announcement on the tariffs by the end of the week.

Cutting the trade deficit

Trump said on Twitter that since former President George H.W. Bush was in the White House 30 years ago, “our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than $12 trillion.”

Trump claimed the United States last year had a trade deficit of “almost $800 billion,” significantly overstating the actual figure of $566 billion, which still was the biggest U.S. trade deficit in nine years. A new report Wednesday said the U.S. trade deficit in January – the amount its imports exceeded its exports – reached $56.6 billion, the highest monthly total since October 2008.

“Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!” Trump said.

In another tweet, Trump said the United States has asked China “to develop a plan for the year of a One Billion Dollar reduction in their massive Trade Deficit with the United States. Our relationship with China has been a very good one, and we look forward to seeing what ideas they come back with. We must act soon!”

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the planned steel and aluminum tariffs were “thought through. We’re not looking for a trade war.”

He said the Trump administration could take a “surgical approach” to new tariffs, exempting some countries, specifically Canada and Mexico, if revisions are reached in the ongoing negotiations over changes in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Ross added that it is “not inconceivable that others could be exempted on a similar basis.”

Stocks prices fell in the U.S. markets with the turmoil over the tariffs and the resignation Tuesday of Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser, an economic globalist who had opposed the steel and aluminum tariffs, but lost the internal White House debate.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 key stocks dropped a half percentage point in early Wednesday trading and other markets dropped too.

Trump promised to quickly replace Cohn, saying, “Many people wanting the job — will choose wisely!”
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Kenyan coffee has an international reputation for good quality.

But Kenya’s coffee industry is struggling as production levels have dropped and a younger generation shows little interest in farming. Since the 1980s, coffee production has dropped by two-thirds.

“The German school in Nairobi, when I was there in 1980, ’82, when I went to school there, we were surrounded by coffee fields,” said Stefan Canz with Nestle’s Nescafe Plan in Kenya. “We were doing sports competitions around there in the coffee field. And, now there’s a shopping mall, there’s houses, there’s everything. So, you have to go really up country to find now the next coffee trees.”

Volatile coffee prices, corrupt brokers, and disease discouraged investment.

Coffee yields fell to two kilos per tree, a fifth of what they once were, and fewer of Kenya’s younger generation stayed on the farm.

“After independence, what happened is people were looking for more white collar jobs rather than the farm,” said Peter Kimata, deputy general manager for Coffee Management Services. “The farm was seen to be like a peasant kind of affair. It was seen to be a poor man’s business.”

Coffee farmer Martin Mureithi Alexander wants his children to continue working the family farm. But, he admits their education could take them elsewhere.

“The government may employ them with the time,” he said. “But at this time, they are working on my coffee farm.”

Since 2014, Kenya’s coffee production has been rising-but slowly.

Improving productivity is key to showing Kenyan youth that coffee farming can be profitable, says Kimata.

“Moving the trees from producing two kilos, from producing one and a half kilos, moving them to five kilos, moving them to seven kilos, moving them to fifteen kilos,” he said. “Moving them to that kilos whereby now, with high productivity, there is better return on investment.”

Disease-resistant coffee trees and farmer training are helping. But better implementation is needed or else Kenyan coffee risks losing its significance to bigger producers, warns Nestle’s Stefan Canz.

“Countries like China or Vietnam can serve as inspiration, that people see that it’s possible,” he said. “And then you have to find the African way, the Kenyan way, or the Côte d’Ivoire way, to move towards that.”

The question is whether the investment of time and money on the farm is a cost that Kenya’s younger generation is willing to pay.
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Trade war fears pushed U.S. and some Asian stock markets lower Wednesday, following the resignation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser.

National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn was a leading administration opponent of Trump’s plan to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports.

“It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform,” Cohn said in a statement Tuesday announcing his resignation.

In Wednesday’s trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was off more than one percent.  The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell less than that.  In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell one percent, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index had a smaller loss.  Key European indexes made gains, with Germany’s  DAX up more than one percent, while London and Paris made smaller gains.As director of the NEC, Cohn tried to get Trump to abandon his tariff plan.  But the president reiterated Tuesday that he will impose the measures in the coming days.

In a statement released by the White House, Trump praised Cohn.

“Gary has been my chief economic adviser and did a superb job in driving our agenda, helping to deliver historic tax cuts and reforms and unleashing the American economy once again.  He is a rare talent, and I thank him for his dedicated service to the American people.”

Chief of Staff John Kelly also praised Cohn.

“Gary has served his country with great distinction, dedicating his skill and leadership to grow the U.S. economy and pass historic tax reform.  I will miss having him as a partner in the White House, but he departs having made a real impact in the lives of the American people,” he said.  

There was no immediate announcement from the White House about a replacement for Cohn.

Cohn’s extensive policy portfolio included tax and retirement, infrastructure, the financial system, energy and environment, health care, agriculture, global economics, international trade and development, technology, telecommunications and cybersecurity.

He also played a critical role in advancing the president’s deregulatory agenda and organizing Trump’s successful participation in the World Economic Forum in January.

Cohn, former president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs investment bank, is one of several top-level White House staff members to resign this year, including communications director Hope Hicks, deputy communications director Josh Raffel, and staff secretary Ron Porter.

Cohn was one of several Wall Street veterans tapped by Trump for senior administration positions after the 2016 presidential election.

 
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India’s Tata Steel is concerned about U.S. plans to impose tariffs on steel imports, a senior executive at the group’s European unit said on Wednesday.

“We need appropriate measures against a negative influence on the European market,” Henrik Adam, chief commercial officer at Tata Steel Europe, told an industry conference. “We believe in fair, free trade.”

President Donald Trump announced last week he would impose hefty tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to protect U.S. producers, risking retaliation from major trade partners like China, Europe and neighboring Canada.

Adam said it was still unclear what exactly the tariffs would look like but warned there was a risk that the European market might be forced to absorb imports originally meant for the U.S. market as a result.

Adam said the U.S. market was relevant for Tata Steel Europe, which is currently working on merging with the European steel business of German rival Thyssenkrupp, adding it makes about half a billion euros of annual sales there.

 
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Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says his agency should be a partner with oil and gas companies that seek to drill on public land and that long regulatory reviews with an uncertain outcome are “un-American.”

Speaking Tuesday to a major energy-industry conference, Zinke described the Trump administration’s efforts to increase offshore drilling, reduce regulations, and streamline inspections of oil and gas operators.

“Interior should not be in the business of being an adversary. We should be in the business of being a partner,” Zinke said to a receptive audience that included leaders of energy companies and oil-producing countries.

Shorten permit process

Zinke said the government should shorten the permitting process for energy infrastructure — it shouldn’t take longer than two years.

“If you ask an investor to continuously put money on a project that is uncertain because the permit process has too much uncertainty, ambiguity, (it) is quite frankly un-American,” he said.

The Interior Department manages 500,000 million acres — one-fifth of the U.S. land mass — as well as the lease of offshore areas for oil drilling. One-fifth of U.S. oil production takes place on land or water that the Interior Department leases to private energy companies.

Environmentalists accuse Zinke and the administration of undercutting environmental rules to help oil, gas and coal companies. 

Alex Taurel, a legislative official with the League of Conservation Voters, said Tuesday that Zinke “thinks our public lands are nothing more than an ATM for his industry friends. If anything is un-American, it’s this administration’s persistent attacks on America’s public lands.”

In January, the Trump administration proposed to open up nearly all coastal areas to oil drilling, although Florida was dropped after the Republican governor and lawmakers objected, citing risk to the state’s tourism business.

States have leverage

As he has before, Zinke defended the plan, which faces fierce opposition from governors and lawmakers along the entire West Coast and much of the East Coast.

Zinke said he would listen to local objections, and he noted that states have leverage if they oppose drilling in federal water off their coastlines — they would have to approve pipelines and terminals to handle the oil.

“You can’t bring energy ashore unless you go through state water,” he said.

Zinke said the United States won’t exhaust its resource of fossil fuels in our lifetime, but that cleaner-burning natural gas will take on a bigger role.

Trump ‘a delightful boss’

The Trump administration, he said, is “pro-energy across the board,” and he tried to dismiss an environmental disadvantage to burning fuels that emit carbon linked to climate change. All fuels, he said, have consequences.

When solar facilities are built on public land, people can’t hunt or pursue other recreation there, he said, and wind turbines “probably chop up as many as 750,000 birds a year.”

Zinke acknowledged, however, that “certainly oil and gas and coal have a consequence on carbon.”

Zinke began his comments with a shout-out to his boss, President Donald Trump, calling him “a delightful boss,” before explaining Trump’s goal of encouraging U.S. “energy dominance.” He has frequently criticized former President Barack Obama.

U.S. oil production surged during Obama’s tenure and has kept growing, recently surpassing 10 million barrels a day, thanks to increasing output from shale formations in Texas, North Dakota and elsewhere.
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The European Union is cool to the idea of Britain’s “associate membership” in various agencies of the bloc as proposed by London to make Brexit less disruptive for British business.

Britain started a process to leave the EU last year because it no longer wants to accept the authority of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the free movement of workers, and it does not want to contribute to the EU budget.

But it is keen to keep most of its other links with the EU, especially unfettered access to the EU’s market.

EU officials call this approach “cherry-picking,” where London chooses the areas it wants for closer association but does not accept the obligations linked to it in other areas. 

Last Friday, Prime Minister Theresa May floated the idea of Britain’s remaining an associate member of the European Medicines Agency, the European Chemicals Agency and the European Aviation Safety Agency after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

She said London understood this meant abiding by the rules of those agencies and financial contributions. But EU officials involved in the negotiations on the terms of Britain’s exit from the bloc and deciding on the future trade relationship were not impressed.

“It is not so much ‘how’ they participate. That’s a technicality. The bigger question is ‘if’ they should participate. Why would we let them in?” one official said.

“The bottom line is that the U.K. approach is cherry-picking.

“The EU has a vast number of agencies, and I think we’d think twice to let the U.K. ‘associate’ itself with a selected number they choose because they have an interest,” the official said.

Brussels officials pointed out that an “associate membership” — a status that does not exist yet and would have to be created especially for Britain — would not give London the kind of access to the EU single market it sought.

“It is not possible to accept ECJ oversight in only some segments of business in the EU and not in others,” a second EU official said. “The single market is not made of bits and pieces you can pick and choose.”

An “associate membership” status would also likely involve complex legal work in the EU to create it.

“The willingness to change regulations in order to accommodate the U.K.’s wishes … is limited because it entails lengthy legislative procedures,” a third official said.

The chairman of EU leaders, Donald Tusk, will present draft guidelines for the EU’s future trade deal with Britain in Luxembourg on Wednesday.

‘Freedom implies responsibility’

The closest to an “associate membership” the EU has now is with countries in the European Economic Area but not EU members — Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland — which can take part in meetings, but they do not have voting rights.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said last November that the work of the EU agencies was based on EU laws, which Britain no longer wants to accept and should then go on and build its own.

“The same people who argue for setting the U.K. free also argue that the U.K. should remain in some EU agencies. But freedom implies responsibility for building new U.K. administrative capacity,” Barnier said.

“On our side, the 27 will continue to deepen the work of those agencies, together. They will share the costs for running those agencies. Our businesses will benefit from their expertise. All of their work is firmly based on the EU treaties, which the U.K. decided to leave,” he said.

May argued in her speech last week that every trade agreement, which focused on some aspects of an economy more than on others, was some form of “cherry-picking.”

“With all its neighbors the EU has varying levels of access to the single market, depending on the obligations those neighbors are willing to undertake,” she said.

“What would be cherry-picking would be if we were to seek a deal where our rights and obligations were not held in balance. And I have been categorically clear that is not what we are going to do,” she said.

But EU officials said that Britain would get the trade agreement it sought with the EU only if it agreed to balance the rights and obligations in a way that would not pick apart the EU single market.

The bloc would also have to make sure that the deal is less attractive than EU membership.

“Nobody asked after the EU trade agreement with Canada, or Korea: ‘Why can’t we be like Canada or Korea?’ The point is that also after Brexit, nobody should ask themselves: ‘Why can’t we be like Britain?’ ” the second official said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s net worth fell by $400 million last year, down to an estimated $3.1 billion, causing him to plummet 222 places on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s billionaires, released Tuesday.

Trump slipped from 544th richest in 2017 to 766th in 2018. It is the second consecutive year that Trump’s fortune has dwindled.

Trump’s slide down the rankings of the world’s wealthy comes as a record 35 people have joined Forbes list of billionaires.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was named the richest man in the world, with a fortune of $112 billion, up $39.2 billion from the year before. Rounding out the top three are Microsoft’s Bill Gates with $90 billion and investor Warren Buffett with $84 billion.

The richest person in Europe and fourth on the list is the boss of luxury goods firm LVMH, Bernard Arnault, who has a fortune of $72 billion.

The U.S. has the most billionaires by country, with 585, followed by China. California alone has 144 billionaires, more than any country besides the U.S. and China.

Germany has the most of any European country, with 123. India has 119 billionaires, and Russia has 102. Hungary and Zimbabwe made their first appearances on the annual list, with one billionaire each.

Ten Saudi Arabians who usually feature among the top 100, including prominent tech investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, were left off the list, “due to a lack of clarity about what they currently own,” Forbes explained, following a recent Saudi government crackdown on corruption within its ranks.

The list featured a record 256 women, led by Walmart heiress Alice Walton, worth $46 billion.

According to Forbes, the 2,208 billionaires who made this year’s list together are worth $9.1 trillion, roughly 4 percent of all the money in the world. 
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Top economic adviser Gary Cohn is leaving the White House after breaking with President Donald Trump on trade policy, the latest in a string of high-level departures from the West Wing.

 

Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, has been the leading internal opponent to Trump’s planned tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, working to orchestrate an eleventh-hour effort in recent days to get Trump to reverse course. But Trump resisted those efforts, and reiterated Tuesday he will be imposing tariffs in the coming days.

 

Cohn’s departure comes amid a period of unparalleled tumult in the Trump administration, and aides worry that more staffers may soon head for the doors.

 

The announcement came hours after Trump denied there was chaos in the White House. Trump maintained that his White House has “tremendous energy,” but multiple White House officials said Trump has been urging anxious aides to stay.

 

“Everyone wants to work in the White House,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. “They all want a piece of the Oval Office.”

In a statement, Cohn said it was his honor to serve in the administration and “enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people.”

 

Trump praised Cohn despite the disagreement on trade, issuing a statement saying Cohn has “served his country with great distinction.”

 

Cohn is a former Goldman Sachs executive who joined the White House after departing the Wall Street firm with a $285 million payout. He played a pivotal role in helping Trump enact a sweeping tax overhaul, coordinating with members of Congress.

 

Trump loved to boast about the former executive’s wealth, but Cohn’s tenure in the White House was rocky. Cohn nearly departed the administration last summer after he was upset by the president’s comments about the racial violence in Charlottesville, Va. Cohn, who is Jewish, wrote a letter of resignation but never submitted it.

 

“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” Cohn told The Financial Times at the time. “I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities.”

 

The comments came as Cohn was under consideration to serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

 

Earlier in the administration, Cohn found himself on the losing side of several contentious battles, including the announcement of plans to pull the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.

 

Cohn had also hoped to steer more than $1 trillion into infrastructure investments, including updates to the U.S. air traffic control system that would make air travel faster and easier. But the multiple infrastructure rollouts by the Trump administration failed to gain traction, often overshadowed by controversial statements made by the president himself.

 

Cohn often faced ridicule among some inside the White House for being a registered Democrat who last year met with former Republican officials pushing a form of a carbon tax that was designed to reduce the risks from climate change.

 

Yet his stock improved to the point that he was one of names Trump was floating for chief of staff last month, when it looked like John Kelly was on thin ice.

 

Cohn told other White House aides in recent weeks that he would have little reason to stay if Trump followed through with his tariff plans, according to a White House official familiar with his views. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

“I mean it is no secret that he disagreed with Trump on trade and he was opposed to the policy,” said Stephen Moore, who served as an economic adviser to Trump’s campaign.

 

The White House did not immediately announce a replacement for Cohn, whose deputy, Jeremy Katz, departed in January. Among those under consideration for Cohn’s job are CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow and Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

 

In a tweet earlier Tuesday, Trump sought to portray himself as the architect of the White House staff changes, writing, “I still have some people that I want to change (always seeking perfection).”

 

Trump acknowledged he is a tough boss to work for, saying he enjoys watching his closest aides fight over policy. “I like conflict,” he said during the press conference.

 

Cohn was nowhere in sight at the press conference and a seat reserved for him in the East Room was filled by a different aide.

 

Dating back to the campaign, Trump has frequently and loudly complained about the quality of his staff, eager to fault his aides for any mishaps rather than acknowledge any personal responsibility. But the attacks on his own staff have sharpened in recent weeks, and he has suggested to confidants that he has few people at his side he can count on, according to two people familiar with his thinking but not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.

 

Coinciding with the heated debate over tariffs, Trump’s communications director Hope Hicks, one of his closest and most devoted aides, announced her resignation last week, leaving a glaring vacancy in the informal cadre of Trump loyalists in the White House.

 

Turnover after just over a year in office is nothing new, but the Trump administration has churned through staff at a dizzying pace since taking office last January, and allies are worried the situation could descend into a free-fall.

 

Making matters worse, the list of prospects to replace departing aides grows shorter as the sense of turmoil increases. Vacancies abound throughout the West Wing and the administration at large, from critical roles like staff secretary to more junior positions in the press office.
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The Trump administration’s proposal to expand offshore drilling off the Pacific Northwest coast is drawing vocal opposition in a region where multimillion-dollar fossil fuel projects have been blocked in recent years.

 

The governors of Washington and Oregon, many in the state’s congressional delegation and other top state officials have criticized Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s plan to open 90 percent of the nation’s offshore reserves to development by private companies.

 

They say it jeopardizes the environment and the health, safety and economic well-being of coastal communities.

 

Opponents spoke out Monday at a hearing that a coalition of groups organized in Olympia, Washington, on the same day as an “open house” hosted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson told dozens gathered — some wearing yellow hazmat suits and holding “Stop Trump’s Big Oil Giveways” signs — that he will sue if the plan is approved.

 

“What this administration has done with this proposal is outrageous,” he said.

 

Oil and gas exploration and drilling is not permitted in state waters.

 

In announcing the plan to vastly open federal waters to oil and gas drilling, Zinke has said responsible development of offshore energy resources would boost jobs and economic security while providing billions of dollars to fund conservation along U.S. coastlines.

 

His plan proposes 47 leases off the nation’s coastlines from 2019 to 2024, including one off Washington and Oregon.

 

Oil industry groups have praised the plan, while environmental groups say it would harm oceans, coastal economies, public health and marine life.

 

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee met with Zinke over the weekend while in D.C. for the National Governors Association conference and again urged him to remove Washington from the plan, Inslee spokeswoman Tara Lee said Monday.

 

There hasn’t been offshore oil drilling in Washington or Oregon since the 1960s.

 

There hasn’t been much interest in offshore oil and gas exploration in recent decades though technology has improved, said Washington’s state geologist David Norman.

 

“It’s a very active place tectonically. We have a really complicated tough geology. It’s got really rough weather,” Norman said.

 

There’s more potential for natural gas than oil off the Pacific Northwest, said BOEM spokesman John Romero. A 2016 assessment estimates undiscovered recoverable oil at fractions of the U.S. total.

 

Proponents have backed the idea as a way to provide affordable energy, meet growing demands and to promote the U.S.’s “energy dominance.” Emails to representatives with the Western States Petroleum Association and the American Petroleum Institute were not immediately returned Monday.

 

Sixteen members of Washington and Oregon’s congressional delegation last month wrote to Zinke to oppose the plan, saying gas drilling off the Northwest coastline poses a risk to the state’s recreational, fishing and maritime economy.

Kyle Deerkop, who manages an oyster farm in Grays Harbor for Oregon-based Pacific Seafood, worried an oil spill would put jobs and the livelihood of people at risk.

 

“We need to be worried,” he said in an interview, recalling a major 1988 oil spill in Grays Harbor. “It’s too great a risk.”

 

Tribal members, business owners and environmentalists spoke at the so-called people’s hearing Monday organized by Stand Up To Oil coalition.

 

The groups wanted to allow people to speak into a microphone before a crowd because the federal agency’s open house didn’t allow that. Instead the open house allowed people to directly talk to staff or submit comments using laptops provided.
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