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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a national security correspondent at The Washington Times, a senior member of its Threat Status team, and the host and producer of the award-winning Threat Status Podcast. Ben covers national security, foreign policy, military affairs, the defense industry and the rapidly evolving landscape of military technology.
A Pennsylvania native, he joined The Washington Times in 2011 after serving as a political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa. Over the course of his career, Ben has covered the White House, Congress, and four presidential campaigns.
His reporting has earned recognition from some of journalism's most respected organizations, including the Virginia Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists' Washington, D.C. Chapter, among other honors.
Ben has interviewed heads of state, chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, senior military commanders, cabinet secretaries, senior government officials, and the CEOs of many of the nation's largest and most influential defense companies.
Ben is a frequent guest on broadcast media, with appearances on C-SPAN, the Sirius XM POTUS channel, and other outlets.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

Lisa Murkowski, Ryan Zinke reach health care detente over beers

After threatening to scrap Alaskan energy projects in response to Sen. Lisa Murkowski's "no" vote on Obamacare repeal, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday night mended fences with the Alaska Republican over a couple of cold ones.

August 3, 2017
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt hasn't said one way or the other whether he plans to pursue the endangerment finding, which provided the legal underpinning for much of the Obama administration's agenda inside the agency. (Associated Press/File)

EPA endangerment finding tough for Trump to reverse

After dismantling a host of Obama-era regulations in its first six months, President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has yet to begin what would be its toughest fight: reversing the agency's 2009 endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, a game-changing document that laid the foundation for many of the environmental and climate change regulations that followed.

July 31, 2017
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is surrounded by reporters as she walks toward the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) ** FILE **

Trump looks for revenge on Murkowski after health care vote; Alaska projects in jeopardy

Long-awaited projects in Alaska -- including the potentially life-saving King Cove road and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- are now in jeopardy as President Trump reportedly looks for revenge on the state and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski in particular after her vote against the GOP health care bill earlier this week.

July 27, 2017
The Capitol Dome of the Capitol Building in Washington, Monday, July 17, 2017. The Senate has been forced to put the republican's health care bill on hold for as much as two weeks until Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., can return from surgery. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

David Bernhardt violated disclosure laws, say green groups

Ahead of a contentious vote on his confirmation this week, David Bernhardt has become the latest target of environmentalists' ire, with green groups and other critics charging that the deputy Interior secretary nominee failed to disclose lobbying work he did on behalf of California's Westlands Water District while spearheading the Trump administration's transition team at the Interior Department.

July 23, 2017
An ethanol plant stands next to a cornfield near Nevada, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) **FILE**

Ethanol bill defeated in Senate

In a major defeat for the ethanol industry, senators of both parties joined forces late last week to sink a controversial bill that would've allowed gasoline with 15 percent ethanol to be sold year-round.

July 23, 2017
Companies that offer higher ethanol blends can sell renewable identification numbers to those that provide only E0 gasoline to help them comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's fuel requirement of a 10 percent average. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Pro-ethanol bill dead in Senate; no action before August recess

In a major blow to the ethanol industry and its supporters in Congress, a bill to expand the availability of gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol has stalled in the Senate and won't come up for a committee vote before the August recess.

July 21, 2017
An ethanol plant stands next to a cornfield near Nevada, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) **FILE**

Pro-ethanol bill dividing both parties

An unlikely coalition of environmentalists, labor unions, boaters and some of the Senate's most conservative Republicans is mobilizing to fend off a pro-ethanol bill that has divided both parties and, if passed, would mark one of the biggest wins in recent memory for the industry.

July 19, 2017
California Gov. Jerry Brown (center) said that the Golden State had a moral duty to act on efforts to combat climate change, and applauded the state's bipartisan cap and trade extension. "Tonight California stood tall and once again, boldly confronted the existential threat of our time," Mr. Brown said of the state's initiative. (Associated Press)

California cap and trade program extended with bipartisan support

By extending its controversial cap and trade system for another decade, California this week officially replaced the federal government as the nation's most powerful actor on global warming — and in the process got several Republicans to buck their national party leadership.

July 18, 2017
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on June 2, 2017. (Associated Press) **FILE**

EPA cites ‘market realities’ in proposal to lower biofuels mandates

The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed to lower the amount of renewable fuels that must be blended into the nation's gasoline supply next year, saying "market realities" have informed its decision and leaving the door open for a much broader overhaul of the entire Renewable Fuel Standard in the near future.

July 5, 2017
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke took a close look at Bears Ears National Monument in May and recommended last month that President Trump reduce the size of the designation. Such a move is hardly unprecedented. (Associated Press/File)

Bears Ears monument changes have precedent

The Trump administration's "unprecedented" effort to break up and shrink a national monument has been done at least 18 times before, with presidents of both parties exercising power to significantly reduce the size of U.S. landmarks established by their predecessors.

July 4, 2017