Tag: GOP senate

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.

High anxiety hits Senate over raising debt ceiling

The Hill logoSenators are growing anxious that they might have to vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling in a matter of weeks given new estimates that the government could hit its borrowing limit earlier than expected.

The debt limit was exceeded earlier this year, and the Treasury Department is now taking steps known as “extraordinary measures” to prevent the government from going over its borrowing limit.

Lawmakers had hoped they would be able to avoid the politically painful vote to raise the debt ceiling until the fall — and that it could be packaged with other legislation to fund the government and set budget caps on spending.

View the complete July 10 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Senate Republicans tiptoe around Acosta, largely defer on his future

Labor secretary’s role in cutting deal with Jeffrey Epstein

Some Republicans in Congress are looking for more answers about Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s conduct as U.S. attorney, but they’re  not joining calls by Democrats that he step down because of a generous plea deal he cut with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

One Republican member of the Judiciary Committee said Tuesday that Acosta should explain his handling of the plea agreement with Epstein.

Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he would get out ahead of whatever may emerge from any inquiry from the Justice Department, but Senate Republicans more broadly are taking a wait-and-see approach.

View the complete July 9 article by Katherine Tully-McManus and Niels Lesniewski on The Roll Call website here.

Senate rejects attempt to curb Trump’s Iran war powers

The Hill logoSenators blocked an effort on Friday to restrict President Trump’s ability to go to war with Iran, handing a victory to Republicans and the White House.  

Senators voted 50-40 on the proposal from Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.) and Tom Udall (N.M.) to block the president from using funding to carry out military action without congressional authorization. 

Sixty yes votes would have been required to get the amendment added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In a round of unusual procedural maneuvering, senators passed the mammoth defense bill on Thursday, but agreed to add the Kaine-Udall proposal retroactively if they could secure the votes.

View the complete June 28 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Senate passes $4.6 billion emergency border bill after rejecting House version

Axios logoThe Senate on Wednesday voted 84-8 to pass a $4.6 billion bill that would appropriate funding for humanitarian aid for migrants and additional security measures at the southern border, after rejecting a House version of the bill that would impose greater restrictions on migrant detention centers.

The big picture: Democrats and Republicans have backed two separate plans to deal with reports of dangerous and unsanitary living conditions at migrant facilities on the southern border. The House and Senate must now reconcile the two bills or find an alternative solution before Congress leaves for its July 4 recess, with the Department of Health and Human Services warning that it could run out of funding to house migrant children by the end of the month.

The Senate version of the bill allocates $2.88 billion for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency responsible for taking care of migrant children. It also provides funding to the Defense Department and agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to carry out President Trump’s immigration policies, per the New York Times.

  • Trump supports the Senate bill and has threatened to veto the House package.

View the complete June 26 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

9/11 first responders slam Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham for failing to renew compensation fund: ‘We’re just not going to take your crap’

Two 9/11 first responders lambasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for failing to renew a compensation fund for 9/11 victims during a CNN appearance on Wednesday.

Interviewed by CNN’s John Berman for “New Day,” John Feal and Brian McGuire — both of whom were first responders at the World Trade Center in New York City following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — asserted that neither McConnell nor Graham is doing enough to help 9/11 first responders receive the health care they need.

Feal, founder of the FeelGood Foundation, praised comedian Jon Stewart for his efforts on behalf of 9/11 first responders. And Feal noted that he has attended countless funerals since 9/11, saying, “I’ve been to over 180 of these funerals. This is painful. This is sad. And I’m tired of listening to excuses.”

View the complete June 12 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

McConnell says he would help Trump fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020 — after blocking Obama in 2016

When President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refused to consider him, blocking the nominee until after that year’s presidential election.

He said then that “the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice.” The tactic cost Garland his spot on the court, and Neil M. Gorsuch was confirmed in April 2017.

With his party now in the White House, McConnell said Tuesday he would try to push through any nomination that President Trump might make to the high court — even if it comes during an election year. Some saw that stance, which McConnell has signaled before, as hypocritical.

View the complete May 29 article by Reis Thebault and Kayla Epstein on The Washington Post website here.

Senate GOP vows to quickly quash any impeachment charges

GOP senators say that if the House passes articles of impeachment against President Trump they will quickly quash them in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has broad authority to set the parameters of a trial.

While McConnell is required to act on articles of impeachment, which require 67 votes — or a two-thirds majority — to convict the president, he and his Republican colleagues have the power to set the rules and ensure the briefest of trials.

“I think it would be disposed of very quickly,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

View the complete May 27 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Sorry Mr. President, facts prove the House Democrats are doing way more than the GOP Senate

The House has passed 248 things since January. And many of them are a big deal.

The Trump administration has spent much of the past 24 hours blaming the president’s refusal to act on infrastructure on House Democrats, claiming they are too busy investigating him to pass any legislation.

But unlike the Republican-controlled Senate, the House of Representatives has actually passed hundreds of things in just a few months, including major legislation to protect LGBTQ Americans, restore American democracy, reduce gun violence, protect the climate, ensure equal pay for women, and expand health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

A day after President Donald Trump blew up a bipartisan negotiation session and gave a press conference that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called a “temper tantrum,” he issued a series of tweets making the false claim that House Democrats were “getting nothing done.”

Remember Benghazi? The Hypocrites On The Hill Should

Donald Trump will never build the Great Wall he envisioned on this country’s southern border, but his lawyers and minions are erecting the largest stonewall against Congressional oversight since Nixon’s presidency. In a scolding letter to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), White House attorneys have said that the administration will simply reject some 81 subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee that he chairs.

The reason offered for this blanket refusal to cooperate sounds much like a Trump tweet. “Congressional investigations are intended to obtain information to aid in evaluating potential legislation,” huffed the president’s lawyers, “not to harass political opponents or to pursue an unauthorized ‘do-over’ of exhaustive law enforcement investigations conducted by the Department of Justice”

Requests for information from the House Oversight Committee, the House Intelligence Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Senate Intelligence Committee have all met with roughly the same arrogant attitude — as if the executive branch has no obligation to provide any information at all to Congress. Such dismissive responses represent a profound violation of the Constitutional order.

View the complete May 15 article by Joe Conason on the National Memo website here.