Ivanka Trump’s flagship initiative left in limbo after her attempt to strong-arm Congress backfires: report

As her father's presidency draws to a close, Ivanka Trump's push to have her flagship cause of women's economic empowerment made into law failed this week "due to a mix of politics and personalities," the Washington Post's Josh Rogin reports.

Now her plan, along with Senator Jeanne Shaheen's (D-NH) bill to formally authorize Ivanka's initiative, has fallen apart. According to sources speaking to the Post, the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) instructed her conferees not to include the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) initiative in the State Department authorization bill.

"As retaliation, the White House demanded that the entire State Department authorization bill be removed from the NDAA, and leaders of the armed services committees in both parties complied, fearing a presidential veto of the defense bill," Rogan reports. "That means all the other provisions lawmakers had negotiated for in the State Department bill are now killed."

According to Rogin, Ivanka's problems started after the election when her office stopped negotiating over the W-GDP bill language and put forth her own version -- "one that didn’t take the concerns of many outside groups and Democrats into account."

Shaheen tells Rogin that she expressed "serious concerns that the language would whittle away at our comprehensive strategy to empower women and girls around the world."

"For that reason, I couldn’t support it," Shaheen says.

"Among the concerns, Shaheen said, were that Ivanka Trump’s version of the legislation focused narrowly on women’s economic advancement, giving short shrift to other issues such as women’s education, health care, gender-based violence, and the role of women in peace and security building," writes Rogin. "These issues are especially relevant considering the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on women in poor countries."

Read the full report over at The Washington Post.