The following article by Shawn Zeller was posted on the Roll Call website January 5, 2018:
The Week Ahead Podcast is now CQ on Congress. New look but same great show. CQ Senate reporter, Niels Lesniewski, says the Senate Republican majority, now just one seat, will struggle to pass legislation and confirm judges in 2018.
View the post here
The following article by Devlin Barrett and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website January 5, 2018:
The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended Friday that the Justice Department investigate for possible criminal charges the author of the now-famous dossier alleging the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin during the 2016 election.
The move by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) marks a major escalation in conservatives’ challenges to the FBI’s credibility as the agency investigates whether any Trump associates committed crimes. Another Republican, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), joined in the letter to the Justice Department.
Their letter makes what is called a criminal referral to the Justice Department, suggesting it investigate the dossier’s author, former British spy Christopher Steele, for possibly lying to the FBI. It is a crime to lie to FBI agents about a material fact relevant to an ongoing investigation. Continue reading “Senior Republican refers Trump-Russia dossier author for possible charges”
The following article by Avery Anapol was posted on the Hill website December 25, 2017:
Utah’s largest newspaper slammed Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) in a Christmas Day editorial on Monday, calling on the senior GOP senator to retire.
The Salt Lake Tribune’s editorial board named Hatch their 2017 “Utahn of the Year,” a designation the paper says is given to someone who has “had the biggest impact. For good or for ill.” Continue reading “Utah paper tells Hatch to ‘call it a career’ in blistering editorial”
The following article by Paul Kane was posted on the Washington Post website December 16, 2017:
In November, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, who is 83, was at the helm when the Senate’s massive tax bill came through the Finance Committee. But Hatch also deputized four younger Republicans on the panel to serve as de facto co-chairmen over various parts of the legislation.
This week, with a compromise bill marching toward final passage in both chambers, the House has to vote first — because a pair of senators, Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), are recuperating from, respectively, non-melanoma skin surgery and the side effects of cancer treatments.
Hatch’s advisers say his move demonstrates a keen sense of coalition building, and aides and friends to Cochran, 80, and McCain, 81, contend that their bosses should be back in the Senate before long. Continue reading “How the oldest Senate ever is taking a toll on the business of Washington”
The following article by Jason Dick was posted on the Roll Call website December 14, 2017:
Senate Republicans are readying another rule change to the chamber, this one aimed at reducing the number of hours the chamber debates executive and judicial nominees.
The Rules and Administration Committee will meet on Tuesday to consider a resolution sponsored by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., that would reduce the time the chamber debates nominees drastically from the current 30 hours after debate is cut off.
High-ranking executive branch nominees and most judges or justices would get eight hours of post-cloture debate. District court nominees would get two hours of debate time. Continue reading “Senate Panel to Consider Rules Change”
The following article by Nathan L. Gonzales was posted on the Roll Call website December 13, 2017:
One of the best parts about covering elections is that there is always a result. After all the prognosticating, projecting, discussing and arguing, there’s a winner. But determining the true meaning of victory and loss can be difficult.
There will be plenty of time to analyze the Alabama Senate special election (at least until the next special election on March 13 in Pennsylvania’s 18th District), but here are some initial postelection thoughts:
This was a historic victory for Doug Jones. Of course, Roy Moore had some unparalleled flaws as a candidate, but Jones overcame a 20-point deficit in partisan performance to win. The last Democrat to win a Senate race in Alabama was Sen. Richard C. Shelby in 1992, and he’s now the state’s senior senator as a Republican. Tonight’s upset will be talked about for years to come. Continue reading “10 Thoughts After the Alabama Senate Election”
The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website December 1, 2017:
A key analysis of the Senate Republican tax plan released late Thursday afternoon threw a wrench into the GOP leadership’s rush to pass tax reform this week. In response, Republican lawmakers are choosing to simply ignore the report’s findings.
Just as the Senate was about to vote on Thursday on whether to advance their tax plan, the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation released a troubling report. The JCT report found that the $1.4 trillion dollar tax plan would generate around $400 billion dollars worth of growth, leaving the total net cost of the plan to be $1 trillion dollars — completely eviscerating any notion that the plan would pay for itself, a key White House talking point.
“We think we can pay for the entire tax cut through growth over the cycle,” said Chief White Economic Adviser Gary Cohn told CNBC in September. Continue reading “Senate Republicans refuse to believe the official analysis of their tax plan”
The following article by Mike DeBOnis, Erica Werner and Damian Paletta was posted on the Washington Post website November 28, 2017:
The Senate Budget Committee moved the Republican tax bill forward amid the shouts of protesters on Nov. 28. (U.S. Senate Budget Committee)
The Republican effort to rewrite the tax code surged forward Tuesday, as a Senate panel approved the measure and several wavering lawmakers signaled they are leaning toward backing the bill.
The Senate Budget Committee voted 12 to 11 to send the $1.4 trillion tax package to the Senate floor for a vote later this week. That margin was in doubt up until the votes were cast because two Republicans, Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.), had threatened to oppose it. Continue reading “Senate Republican tax plan clears hurdle with help from two key GOP holdouts”
The following article by Andrew Siddons was posted on the Roll Call website November 21, 2017:
Deaths linked to alcohol are significantly more common than drug overdose deaths, but lawmakers may promote more drinking through a two-year tax break for producers of beer, wine and spirits as part of the Senate’s tax code overhaul.
The tax break, for 2018 and 2019, would save alcohol producers $4.2 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The provisions in the Senate Finance Committee’s tax plan were requested by Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, but are based on a bill from Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the committee’s top Democrat.
Supporters of the tax break emphasize its benefits for small brewers, whom they tout as job creators. But public health experts who study the link between taxes and alcohol consumption think the economic impacts are overstated, especially since the underlying idea is for people to buy more alcohol. Continue reading “Lawmakers Push Alcohol Tax Cut Despite Rising Drinking Rates”
The following article by Robert Costa and Jenna Johnson was posted on the Washington Post website November 13, 2017:
During a press conference Nov. 13, Beverly Young Nelson accused Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexually assaulting her in the 1970s when she was a teenager. (Reuters)
NEW YORK — An Alabama woman on Monday accused Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for Alabama’s open U.S. Senate seat, of sexually assaulting her and bruising her neck in the late 1970s when she was 16 years old.
This new allegation follows an extensive report published Thursday by The Washington Post that detailed allegations that Moore initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32. The story also described his relationship with three other girls who were between the ages of 16 and 18 at the time. Moore has denied the allegations. Continue reading “New woman accuses Moore of sexual misconduct when she was a minor”
