Category: US House

Join Us for Dessert and Discussion

Please join the CD3 Central Committee for an evening of desserts and discussion with our congressional candidates;  Alicia Donahue, Adam Jennings, Dean Phillips and Brian Santa Maria.

This will be an informal meet and greet where we can meet all of the candidates one-on-one, and begin brainstorming how we can flip CD3 from red to blue.

Please invite anyone else who is ready to push up their sleeves and get to work in the 3rd!

When:  Wednesday, August 16, 7:00 – 8:45pm
Where:  Minnetonka Community Center, 14600 Minnetonka Blvd,  Minnetonka, MN

Bring a dessert to share.  CD3 will be providing coffee and water.

If you have questions about the event, please contact Kay Lewis at 952.491.0748 or kay.lewis@gmail.com.

Note This will be in lieu of our August Central Committee meeting. Our regularly scheduled meeting will resume in September.

Rep. Ted Lieu Explains Why He Called Donald Trump an ‘Evil Man’

On March 28, 2017, California Democrat Rep. Lieu tells Laurence O’Donnell that President Trump is violating his oath of office when he said he will let Obamacare “explode.” He also shares what he thinks about White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

House Defeats Amendment to Cut One-Third of CBO Staff

The following article by Lindsey McPherson was posted on the Roll Call website July 26, 2017:

The House on Wednesday night rejected, 116-309, an amendment that would have eliminated one-third of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The amendment, offered by Virginia Republican Morgan Griffith to the four-bill appropriations minibus the House is currently debating, would have abolished CBO’s 89-employee budget analysis division and saved a total of $15 million in salaries. Roughly half of Republicans joined Democrats in voting down the amendment.

House Freedom Caucus leaders designed the amendment to have CBO cut down on in-house staff and aggregate analyses from outside groups. Continue reading “House Defeats Amendment to Cut One-Third of CBO Staff”

Ted Lieu is out-tweeting Trump, and it’s making him a political star

Rep. Lieu will be joining us at our upcoming (September 10, 2017) Jackie Stevenson Dinner. Here’s a recent article talking about him we thought you’d be interested in.

The following article by Karen Heller was posted on the Washington Post website March 30, 2017:

The makeshift sign on Lieu’s office door. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

LOS ANGELES — In the packed auditorium at the Creative Artists Agency, a vortex of entertainment industry power and current progressive political woe, comedian Kathy Griffin — tiny, insistently red-tressed — erupts in full-throttle rasp at the man in the boxy gray suit as he finishes up onstage.

“I saw you on the Joy Reid show on MSNBC,” Griffin says, coming up from the audience to address Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat speaking at the CAA Foundation’s Take Action Day. “You’re giving us hope!”

A trio of sleek female agents surrounds Lieu, as if he’s some TV heartthrob like actor Joshua Jackson, who is on the same environmental panel yet attracting far less attention.

“You’re a rock star,” they gasp. “We love your tweets.”

With Lieu, it’s all about the tweets. Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, Lieu has become a tweeting demon, famous as the man, as the Los Angeles Times put it, “trolling the Tweeter in Chief.” Continue reading “Ted Lieu is out-tweeting Trump, and it’s making him a political star”

Rep. Ted Lieu to Keynote the 2017 Jackie Stevenson Dinner

We are pleased to announce that our Keynote Speaker at this year’s Jackie Stevenson Dinner will be U.S. Representative Ted Lieu.  Rep. Lieu has served in Congress since 2014 representing California’s 33rd Congressional District.  He is a former active duty officer in the U.S. Air Force and serves as a Colonel in the Reserves.

In Congress, he has established himself as a leader on the environment, cybersecurity, civil liberties and veterans.

As one of only four computer science majors currently serving in Congress, he is frequently sought out for his insight on technology and innovation matters.

Prior to serving in Congress, he was elected to the California State Senate in 2011 and State Assembly in 2005, as well as serving as a Member of the Torrance City Council in 2002.  Prior to that, he served as a Torrance Environmental Quality Commissioner.

You can read more about Rep Lieu here.  Look for information on how to get your tickets shortly.

Congress breaks impasse on bill to slap sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea

The following article by Mike DeBonis and Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website July 22, 2017:

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) left, speaks with reporters during the Speaker’s weekly news conference on June 8 on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) is to the right. (Cliff Owen/AP)

A weeks-long impasse over imposing new financial sanctions on Iran and Russia broke late Friday, with the House preparing to vote next week on a measure that would prevent President Trump from lifting measures against Moscow.

House leaders agreed to vote on an expanded version of the bill after incorporating sanctions aimed at freezing North Korea’s nuclear program and draining the government of revenue it uses to fund it. The measures against Pyongyang, which passed the House 419 to 1 as a stand-alone bill earlier this year, were inserted at the request of House Republican leaders.

While some details have yet to be finalized, congressional aides said, the bill is set for a vote Tuesday, according to a schedule circulated Saturday by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). It will proceed under special expedited procedures for noncontroversial bills expected to pass with a two-thirds majority.

Continue reading “Congress breaks impasse on bill to slap sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea”

Hits on federal retirement advance as bill is introduced to fire feds for ‘no cause at all’

The following article by Joe Davidson was posted on the Washington Post website July 21, 2017:

House Budget Committee Chairwoman Diane Black (R-Tenn.) listens as budget committee lawmakers deliver statements on the American Health Care Act during a meeting in March. (Shawn Thew/EPA)

House Republicans greeted current and future federal employees with two controversial body blows in recent days — one amounts to a pay cut and the other would allow new feds to be fired for “no cause at all.”

The House Budget Committee approved a spending plan that would save the government $163.5 billion over 10 years by taking that amount from federal employees. They would pay that in the form of “greater contributions to their own defined benefit retirement plans,” according to the panel’s budget document.

Republicans call their plan “Building a Better America.”  But the Americans now working to build a better country through their federal jobs would be called on to sacrifice again, as they have repeatedly over the years.

“Since 2010, these employees have already lost $182 billion in pay and benefits,” Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a letter to the committee. Those losses occurred through measures including a partial three-year pay freeze and previous retirement hits under the Obama administration. Continue reading “Hits on federal retirement advance as bill is introduced to fire feds for ‘no cause at all’”

How Paul Ryan’s Hypocritical Fiscal Hysteria Threatens Working Families

The following article by Harry Stein was posted on the Center for American Progress website July 17, 2017:

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 10, 2017.

After years of hysterical warnings about budget deficits under former President Barack Obama, Republican congressional leaders suddenly seem to have shed their concern for the deficit. In The Atlantic, Russell Berman questions whether “deficits still matter to Republicans” under President Donald Trump.1

While this changing approach to budget deficits is certainly hypocritical, it continues a consistent pattern of selectively using fiscal hysteria as a weapon to attack programs for low- and middle-income Americans. A recent article by this author for Harvard Law and Policy Review defines fiscal hysteria as “exaggerating the impacts of deficits and debt, thereby underestimating the extent to which the United States can afford to solve problems facing the American people.”2 While fiscal hysteria does not actually lead to sustainable fiscal policy—since it tends to be deployed selectively for political gain—it does lead to policies that enrich those at the top at the expense of everyone else.3 Continue reading “How Paul Ryan’s Hypocritical Fiscal Hysteria Threatens Working Families”

House GOP unveils budget plan that attaches major spending cuts to coming tax overhaul bill

The following article by Mike DeBonis was posted on the Washington Post website July 18, 2017:

House Republicans unveiled a 2018 budget plan Tuesday that would pave the way for ambitious tax reform legislation — but only alongside a package of politically sensitive spending cuts that threaten to derail the tax rewrite before it begins.

GOP infighting over spending, health care and other matters continues to cast doubt on whether the budget blueprint can survive a House vote. Failing to pass a budget could complicate leaders’ plans to move on to their next governing priority as hopes of a health-care overhaul appeared to collapse late Monday in the Senate. Continue reading “House GOP unveils budget plan that attaches major spending cuts to coming tax overhaul bill”