Tag: House Democrats

House Passes Voting Rights Bill Despite Near Unanimous Republican Opposition

New York Times logoThe legislation restores the core of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights statute to guard against racial discrimination in elections.

WASHINGTON — The House voted on Friday to reinstate federal oversight of state election law, moving to bolster protections against racial discrimination enshrined in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights statute whose central provision was struck down by the Supreme Court.

Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, who was beaten in 1965 while demonstrating for voting rights in Alabama, banged the gavel to herald approval of the measure, to applause from his colleagues on the House floor. It passed by a vote of 228 to 187 nearly along party lines, with all but one Republican opposed.

The bill has little chance of becoming law given opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate and by President Trump, whose aides issued a veto threat against it this week.

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Pelosi warns of ‘existential’ climate threat, vows bold action

The Hill logoDemocrats on Friday warned of the “existential threat” posed by climate change, hammering President Trump‘s inaction on the topic while vowing to move aggressively next year on legislation designed to tackle the global issue.

“The reality of the crisis has to be met with the actuality of action that we take,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters in the Capitol, calling it “the existential threat to this generation.”

Pelosi was joined by a group of Democrats who also participated this week in a climate summit in Madrid, where world leaders, scientists, businesses and environmental activists gathered for talks aimed at boosting the 2015 Paris climate accord, the Obama-era pact forged to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

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Trump says Democrats are ‘getting killed in their own districts’ over impeachment

POTUS accuses opposition party of trying to humiliate him with Judiciary hearing while he’s on foreign soil

Accusing House Democrats of trying to humiliate him while on foreign soil, President Donald Trump predicted voters will punish the party in November for their impeachment inquiry.

“They’re getting killed in their own districts,” Trump said Monday morning as he left the White House for a two-day NATO summit in London. “I think it’s going to be a tremendous boon for Republicans. Republicans have never, ever been so committed as they are right now, and so united. It’s really a great thing in some ways.”

The comment shows anew how the president views most matters through a prism related to his reelection chances. But his assessment of the inquiry was not all upbeat.

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House Democrats, ex-Bolton aide ask judge to block Mulvaney from joining lawsuit

The Hill logoHouse Democrats and former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman separately asked a federal judge on Monday to block President Trump‘s acting chief of staff from intervening in a lawsuit over subpoenas related to the House’s impeachment inquiry.

Trump’s top aide, Mick Mulvaney, had filed a motion in D.C. District Court on Friday seeking to join Kupperman’s lawsuit over a subpoena in order to fight the House Intelligence Committee’s efforts to compel his own testimony.

But Democrats argued that the original lawsuit is moot since they withdrew the subpoena directing Kupperman to testify.

View the complete November 11 article by Harper Neidig on The Hill website here.

Democrats eye action on threat of white nationalism

The Hill logoDemocrats on Capitol Hill are pressing hard to adopt tougher gun laws following a pair of mass shootings this month that horrified the country and rekindled the on-again, off-again push to install higher barriers to owning firearms.

But as Congress prepares to return to Washington next month from the long summer recess, Democrats also want to go a step further to tackle another scourge they consider to be related: the threat of violent white nationalism that, according to federal law enforcers, is on the rise.

The lawmakers’ ultimate goal is to strengthen the nation’s hate crime laws and weed out race-based incidents of domestic terrorism. As a first step, they’re pushing legislation designed to log the frequency of such cases around the country — data they say has gone neglected as the Trump administration has focused more squarely on foreign-based threats to homeland security.

View the complete August 28 article by Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Democrats call for Pelosi to cut recess short to address white nationalism

The Hill logoDozens of House Democrats are pressing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to cut short the long summer break and bring House committees back to Washington to address the violent rise of white nationalism.

Behind two freshman lawmakers — Reps. Veronica Escobar (Texas) and Tom Malinowski (N.J.) — the Democrats maintain that “urgent attention” is needed to tackle “the threats posed by white supremacist terrorism” after Saturday’s deadly mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where the suspect appeared to be driven by anti-immigrant sentiment.

The pair is circulating a letter among House Democrats urging Pelosi to call back the relevant panels to take up related legislation.

View the complete August 6 article by Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

House Democrats vote to block diplomats’ funds from going to Trump hotels, golf resorts

Republicans slam amendment as ‘partisan stunt’

Updated 8:24 p.m. | House Democrats offered another rebuke to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, this time by voting to block the State Department from spending taxpayers’ money at his domestic and overseas golf clubs and hotels.

The House voted 231-187 to adopt an amendment that would prohibit the department from spending funds at any of the Trump Organization’s hundreds of hotels, golf resorts and other properties. The provision was voted on as part of an en bloc package of amendments that Democratic leaders put together to avoid the risk of floor time being eaten up by roll call votes on each.

The amendments become part of the fiscal 2020 State-Foreign Operations portion of a broader spending package that is expected to receive a floor vote this week.

View the complete June 18 article by Rachel Oswald on The Roll Call website here.

Dems accuse White House of caving to Trump’s ‘ego’ on Russian meddling

Democrats blasted the White House Wednesday following back-to-back reports that administration officials were discouraged from raising concerns about Russian interference in the 2020 election.

Several Democratic lawmakers characterized allegations that White House staffers are rebuffing administration officials as “troubling” and questioned if aides were dodging the topic over fear of irritating President Trump.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who is running for her party’s 2020 nomination, accused top White House aides of cowing to Trump’s “ego.”

View the complete April 24 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

House Democrats to Unveil Plan to Expand Health Coverage

WASHINGTON — Democrats won control of the House in large part on the strength of their argument that Congress needs to protect people with pre-existing medical conditions and to lower the cost of health care.

On Tuesday, Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will put aside, at least for now, the liberal quest for a government-run “Medicare for all” single-payer system and unveil a more incremental approach toward fulfilling those campaign promises. Building on the Affordable Care Act, they would offer more generous subsidies for the purchase of private health insurance offered through the health law’s insurance exchanges while financing new efforts to increase enrollment.

They would also reverse actions by the Trump administration that allow insurance companies to circumvent protections in the Affordable Care Act for people with pre-existing conditions. Insurers could no longer sell short-term health plans with skimpy benefits or higher premiums for people with chronic illnesses.

View the complete March 25 article by Robert Pear on The New York Times website here.

Democrats introduce latest version of DREAM Act, offering protection to more young immigrants

The Dream and Promise Act will for the first time include protections for TPS and DED holders.

Eighteen years after the original Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, was introduced, House Democrats formally unveiled their new-and-improved version Tuesday.

While previous iterations of the bill focused narrowly on providing a path to citizenship only for undocumented youth brought to the United States as children, the new version does this in addition to expanding it to include immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). With the inclusion of TPS and DED recipients, the DREAM Act has rebranded to the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, to reflect the government’s longtime goal to make good on its promise of providing permanent solutions to legal immigrants who have been living at the whims of the federal government for decades. Continue reading “Democrats introduce latest version of DREAM Act, offering protection to more young immigrants”