Tag: GOP House

GOP struggles to find backup plan for avoiding debt default

The Hill logoRepublicans are in the dark about their party’s backup plan for raising the debt ceiling amid growing anxiety that they will need to do so in a matter of weeks.

Leadership wants to attach an increase in the nation’s borrowing limit to a budget deal, which would let them consolidate two tough political votes. But while Congress has until January to avoid deep budget cuts, it appears increasingly likely it will have to vote to raise the debt ceiling before leaving for the August recess.

Underscoring the urgency, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sent letters to congressional leadership Friday requesting Congress vote before the recess, after first indicating to reporters that it was his “preference” lawmakers act this month.

View the complete July 14 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

GOP’s Jim Jordan gets mocked at House Oversight hearing after ranting that Democrats are trying to interfere with the Supreme Court

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing to decide whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for not complying with subpoenas regarding the Committee’s investigation into the Trump Administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

Republicans tried to stunt the proceedings, but their efforts to do so were swiftly blocked.

“Democrats know the Supreme Court will rule by the end of this month on the citizenship question but they hope to use this committee’s oversight power to create a controversy around this issue, try to impact the Court’s decision,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) claimed.

View the complete June 12 article by Tana Geneva from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

‘Don’t fall for it’: Arizona congressman and former Marine who ‘gets the same intel’ as Tom Cotton warns some GOPers are ‘exaggerating’ the Iran threat

Before Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona pursued a career in politics, he served in the United States military: Gallego was a Marine infantryman in Iraq in 2005. And the 39-year-old Democratic congressman is warning that the push for a military confrontation with Iran in 2019 is full of misleading assertions.

Gallego, now a member of the House Armed Services Committee, received a classified briefing on May 17—and the following day, he told the Washington Post, “What I saw was a lot of misinterpretation and wanting conflict coming from the administration and intelligence community. Intel doesn’t show existential threats. Even what it shows, it doesn’t show threats to U.S. interests.”

The claim that Iran poses a major threat to the U.S. in 2019, according to Gallego, is mainly being advanced by National Security Adviser John Bolton and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. On Saturday, Gallego took to Twitter and warned, “I get the same intel as Cotton. He is greatly exaggerating the situation to spur us to war. Don’t fall for it.”

View the complete May 20 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

GOP on defensive over Dem votes on policies geared toward women

House Republicans are playing defense as Democrats hold votes on a series of measures that could make it more difficult for the GOP to recoup losses with female voters in 2018.

The House on Wednesday approved the Paycheck Fairness Act, which strengthens penalties against employers that discriminate against female workers with lower wages.

And this week, the House is set to vote on a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) after it expired in late December.

View the complete March 31 article by Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.

‘Shut up!’: House erupts after GOP congressman flips out on Democrats during health care hearing

The U.S. House of Representatives is a centuries-old institution with some very specific written and unwritten rules and codes of behavior. These are designed to ensure not only appropriate respect for all Members – and their constituents – regardless of age, or gender, or party, but for the institution, the Constitution, and for the rule of law itself.

House Republicans are increasingly ignoring these rules of decorum, and it seems clear they are doing so intentionally to show their utter disrespect while attempting to appear as if they are not part of the Washington “establishment.”

One of the unwritten rules is that male Members of Congress must be properly attired in a suit – including a jacket and tie. (And, naturally, pants and shoes.)

While it does not seem to be written anywhere, House and party leadership – and the Sergeant at Arms have been known to enforce it, at times vigorously, in years past.

View the complete March 29 article by David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.

GOP wants Trump to back off on emergency

Senate Republicans are sending a pointed message to President Trump to back off from his national emergency declaration, arguing that he has $6 billion currently available from multiple funds — more than he requested — to build border barriers.

The eleventh-hour effort to persuade Trump to rescind his declaration will probably not work, but it reveals the growing anxiety within Republican ranks about a looming vote to rebuke the president’s move. It’s a tough spot for many Republicans who both don’t want to publicly cross Trump and also believe the emergency sets a bad precedent.

Republicans in the upper chamber argue the administration will have an additional $4 billion in fiscal 2020 to redirect to building border barriers when Congress replenishes a drug interdiction fund under the jurisdiction of the Defense Department.

View the complete March 6 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Trump on brink of GOP rebellion over emergency declaration

President Trump is facing a potential revolt among Senate Republicans over his decision to declare a national emergency to construct the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) public announcement over the weekend that he will oppose Trump’s declaration ensures a resolution blocking it will be approved by the Senate after already passing the House — unless Senate Republicans can find some kind of last-minute way out of the showdown.

Republicans have been hunting for a way out of a fight over the declaration that has badly fractured the caucus, but Paul’s decision underscores the difficulty leadership faces in finding a successful exit strategy.

View the complete March 4 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Republicans are mad that Cohen said Trump is racist. The president’s record speaks for itself.

Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Trump testifies before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill February 27, 2019 in Washington, DC. . Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

President Trump has publicly done or said racist things for decades. Republicans are now studiously avoiding his record.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee invited a black federal employee to appear in Michael Cohen’s hearing Wednesday, to make the point that President Donald Trump could not possibly be racist, as Cohen has alleged.

In his opening statements, Cohen said he heard Trump call black people stupid, and claimed the president once asked if any country run by a black person was not a “shithole.” Barack Obama was president at the time, according to Cohen.

Lynne Patton, a Trump appointee in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, stood behind Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), who spoke for her.

View the complete February 27 article by Emily Q. Hazzard on the ThinkProgress website here.

Rants aside, Trump scores big with Congress

The latest edition of CQ’s study of congressional voting comes out in CQ Magazine on Feb. 25 and the authors, CQ reporters John Bennett and Jonathan Miller, explain that Congress voted as Trump wanted at record levels in 2017 and 2018, while representatives and senators who crossed party lines more than their peers paid at the ballot box. Laura Weiss, who profiled Larry Hogan for the magazine, discusses what is prompting the Maryland governor to consider challenging Trump in the 2020 GOP primaries.

View the February 22 post by Shawn Zeller on The Roll Call website here.

Dithering GOP Stalls House’s New Trump-Russia Probe

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Democrats now in control of the crucial intelligence committee want to get back to their Russia probe. It can’t happen until the Republicans formally join.

The new leadership on the House intelligence committee is eager to revive the panel’s probe into the connections between Donald Trump’s camp and Russia, an urgency underscored by the latest indictment of a Trump associate accused of lying to its investigation. But three weeks into the Democratic-controlled Congress, House Republicans haven’t taken a critical step necessary for the committee to begin any work at all.

The House Republican leadership has yet to name the intelligence committee’s Republican membership for the new Congress, with the exception of retaining Devin Nunes as ranking Republican. Without doing so, the committee is stalled—no hearings, no internal business meetings. Democrats announced their membership roster on Jan. 16, adding Val Demings, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Sean Patrick Maloney, and Peter Welch to their 10 current members. (This Republican intransigence was first noted by The Rachel Maddow Show.)

It’s not clear what the holdup is. “That will be announced when it is ready,” said Matt Sparks, a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who did not address the reasons for the delay. A representative for Nunes—who does not pick the membership—did not respond to The Daily Beast’s inquiries.

View the complete January 26 article by Spencer Ackerman on The Daily Beast website here.