Category: US House

WATCH: Marjorie Taylor Greene unleashes a bizarre rant to defend her vote against resolution honoring Capitol police

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) denounced the U.S. Capitol where she serves as an “evil” place after she was called out for voting against honoring the police who protected legislators from insurrectionists.

The House of Representatives voted last week to award Congressional Gold Medals to Capitol police, the D.C. police and the Smithsonian Institution for protecting the Capitol during the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection aimed at overturning former president Donald Trump’s election loss, but Greene told constituents she could not support the resolution, reported Right Wing Watch.

“[The resolution] called the Capitol ‘a temple,’ Greene told constituents at a town hall. Continue reading.

Democrats introduce ‘DeJoy Act’ in opening salvo against USPS leader’s mail-slowing plan

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Prospects for the legislation are unclear, but the move displays deep divisions between the postmaster general and Congress

Democrats are swarming to block a key piece of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year restructuring plan for the U.S. Postal Service, casting doubt on the feasibility of his proposals for achieving financial stability for the agency.

A group of House Democrats on Friday introduced legislation to prohibit the Postal Service from lengthening mail-delivery windows and require it to adhere to present service expectations. They named the bill the Delivering Envelopes Judiciously On-time Year-round Act, or DEJOY Act.

One House aide involved in postal reform legislation introduced in February said some members of the caucus are leery of proceeding with efforts to address the Postal Service’s financial obligations given that DeJoy’s 10-year plan includes sharp reductions in service, including slower timetables for mail delivery and reduced post office hours. Continue reading.

With Millions Out of Work, Phillips Introduces Bill to Widen Access to Valuable Workforce Training Programs

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) and a coalition of bipartisan Representatives and Senators introduced the Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act, a bill that would increase access to high-quality workforce training and credentialling programs. Phillips’s bill would allow individuals to utilize “529” tax-advantaged savings plans to pay for job-training programs. Under current law, students can only use 529 savings accounts to cover the costs of college, vocational school, or other institutions of higher learning. This common-sense reform will allow Americans with varying work experiences and career goals to finance their education and compete in a job market that increasingly rewards specialization and expertise.

“No matter your resources or your professional goals, every American deserves access to a quality education,” said Rep. Phillips. “By making workforce training more affordable and accessible, this bipartisan bill will help make that aspiration a reality. Especially after such a difficult year, this is exactly the kind of policy we need to get our economy back on track. I look forward to working with my House and Senate colleagues to get this important legislation to the President’s desk.”

The Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act is sponsored by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Fred Upton (R-MI), Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Braun (R-IN).

Phillips Introduces Bipartisan, BicameralI RECYLE Act to Reduce Waste and Protect Environment from Plastic Pollution

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Reps. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and David Joyce (R-OH) and Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced the RECYLE Act, a bipartisan bill that would lead to vast improvements in community and residential recycling programs.

Recycling is one of the simplest ways to protect the environment, yet consumer confusion often impedes efforts to reduce waste. In fact, according to the EPA, nearly $9 billion worth of recyclable materials are thrown away each year. The RECYCLE Act would fund education and outreach programs meant to increase recycling rates and share best practices across the country. Improved recycling is especially important as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand for PPE and other single-use plastics has increased waste by an estimated 30%, with the majority of that waste ending up in landfills or the natural environment.

“Plastic pollution is one of the worst environmental crises in decades, yet across the country, people remain confused about how to dispose of materials responsibly,” said Rep. Phillips. “That’s why I worked with my colleagues on the RECYCLE Act, a bipartisan, bicameral bill that gives local communities the tools they need to keep our lands, rivers, and lakes pollutant free. Let’s get this bill to the President’s desk and prove once and for all that preserving our environment is an American issue, not a partisan one.”

Continue reading “Phillips Introduces Bipartisan, BicameralI RECYLE Act to Reduce Waste and Protect Environment from Plastic Pollution”

The militarization of society is trapping us in a paralyzed republic

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The Republicans in the US Congress insist it’s a constitutional Second Amendment issue. The Democrats insist it’s a commonsense safety issue. The press corps, which prefers binaries as a matter of professional convenience, frames the question just like that, as a tension between the right to bear arms and the right to peace. As long as that framing holds steady, there’s no way for the conflict to be resolved (which is, as I mentioned Monday in an unrelated context, exactly how the press corps likes it).

This framing is useless. How is a free republic supposed to react in good faith to bloody massacres like the one last week in Atlanta and the one this week in Boulder, Colorado,1 if the conflict between diametric rights is forever deadlocked? Well, the answer is obvious. It does not. It is paralyzed. It has been for going on two decades now. A problem of democracy cannot be solved democratically even as the problem continues killing wholesale. It’s no wonder many Americans have turned to military solutions to democratic problems, which, of course, make nearly everything worse.

We must concede this free republic of ours is not free. To be sure, some within it believethey are free—white men, for the most part, who make a fetish of stockpiling as many weapons of destruction as they can. But these people are not free. They are not only trapped by their own delusions, paranoia and fear, they are trapped in the same paralyzed republic the rest of us are trapped in. They are subject to the same risk of carnage, injury and death. The difference? They choose to make-believe they are free. Continue reading.

‘Close ally’ of Marjorie Taylor Greene caught on video inside the US Capitol on Jan 6

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CNN reported last month that “a close ally” of Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene partook in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Now, CNN reports that there’s footage showing Anthony Aguero inside the building on that day.

Aguero refused to say whether or not he was inside the building and claimed he went to the Capitol as an “independent journalist” to document the event, but videos reviewed by CNN’s KFile are the first visual confirmation that Aguero breached the building. He can be heard chanting “heave ho” as rioters were attempting to break in on the West Side of the Capitol.

Another video filmed immediately following the riot, Aguero said “a message was sent” by the rioters, later describing them as “patriots.” Continue reading.

Republicans put themselves in a box — after driving the nation into a ditch​

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Why, at this time of desperate need, does the Republican leadership refuse to put its fingerprints on legislation that relieves the American people’s suffering? Not one Republican in the entire US Congress voted for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

If you scrolled through right-wing social media last weekend, you’d see the top news was not the increased pace of vaccination or the arrival of $1,400 stimmies. It was Joe Biden’s triple-stumble on the staircase to Air Force One. A particularly creative meme tweeted out by Donald Trump, Jr. interspersed video of the former president hitting golf balls, which then appeared to hit Biden in the head and knock him down. 

United behind obstructionism so extreme it overwhelmed the need to pass legislation when the GOP controlled both chambers of the Congress, Biden tripping and falling now counts as a Republican win. In fact, over the four years of the Trump administration, exactly one major piece of legislation was passed, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a big unwrapped present to corporations, but not to the American people. Instead, congressional Republicans have unified behind the bizarre theory that Congress must deliver cultural criticism and mean jokes about their colleagues. Continue reading.

Conservative group escalates earmarks war by infiltrating trainings

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New videos of internal discussions on Capitol Hill about the public’s perception of earmarks are providing a window into Democratic concerns about reviving the controversial spending practice.

In a recent Zoom training for congressional staffers, a House Appropriations Committee aide tells participants that while “the optics” of a lawmaker steering an earmark to a campaign donor “look kind of bad,” the project could still be allowed under House rules so long as no family members are involved.

“I think what you’re saying is if you have somebody who’s building a [military construction] project, and his company contributes to your boss’s campaign, is that a conflict of interest?” Appropriations Deputy Staff Director Matt Washington told House staffers during the training. Continue reading.

As Autocrats Use New Technology to Strengthen Their Grip, Phillips Introduces Legislation to Combat Oppressive Government Surveillance

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) along with Reps. John Curtis (R-UT), Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), Young Kim (R-CA), and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), announced the reintroduction of the Foreign Advanced Technology Surveillance Accountability Act, a bipartisan bill that would counteract foreign governments who abuse cutting-edge technology to repress their citizens. If passed, this legislation would for the first time designate oppressive government surveillance as a human rights abuse. It would also require a report on whether countries have imported or unlawfully obtained biometric or facial recognition data from other countries.  

“The right to privacy is fundamental, and we must ensure that right is protected in our increasingly interconnected world. New technologies provide a powerful tool for enabling a freer exchange of ideas, but they can also threaten our ability to control our private information,” said Rep. Phillips. “We must advocate for human rights, both at home and abroad. The Foreign Advanced Technology Surveillance Accountability Act will allow us to assess how foreign governments are using new technologies to threaten civil liberties, so that we can better address it going forward.”  

“Modern technology is the direct result of innovation by democratic people and countries. However, in many dictatorships, technology has been misused to lessen the accountability of leaders and increase human rights abuses such as torture or unjust detention,” said Rep. Curtis. “My bill, the Foreign Advanced Technology Surveillance Accountability Act, brings the State Department’s Annual Report on Human Rights Practices into the 21st century to counter the growing adoption of advanced technology surveillance equipment by foreign governments.” 

Continue reading “As Autocrats Use New Technology to Strengthen Their Grip, Phillips Introduces Legislation to Combat Oppressive Government Surveillance”

Republicans siding with Putin over Biden are showing their ‘adoration’ for a ‘murderous autocrat’: journalist

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During his four years as president, Donald Trump made it abundantly clear that he did not consider Russian President Vladimir Putin an adversary of the United States. But President Joe Biden, during his two months in the White House, has been much tougher on Putin — and journalist Steven Beschloss, in a scathing March 22 article for his America, America blog, calls out Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Rep. Matt Gaetz and other Republicans he believes have become Putin’s useful idiots during the Biden era. 

Gaetz, during a recent appearance on Hannity’s show, told the Fox News host, “Putin and Biden, it would not end like ‘Rocky IV.’ I don’t think the American would prevail.” And Hannity joked that Putin would have the upper hand in a debate with the U.S. president.

Beschloss explains, “After four years of never a negative word about Putin from Trump — not after the interference in our election, not after the killings of Russian journalists and political opponents in Russia and on foreign soil, not after it was revealed the Russians put bounties on American soldiers — this cute interplay may have sounded like no big deal. Just more fun and games from among the same bunch who’ve perpetrated the Big Lie of election fraud and are determined to gloss over and move on from the deadly insurrection…. But make no mistake: The continuing adoration of Putin represents the embrace of autocracy over democracy — indeed, the dark desire to learn from the anti-democratic tactics of a murderous autocrat.” Continue reading.