Tag: U.S. House

House Republicans break 2-to-1 against Trump on withdrawal of Kurd support

Veterans who fought alongside them praise Kurds as allies who ‘had our back’

By a 2-to-1 margin, House Republicans on Wednesday broke with President Donald Trump and opposed his decision to pull back U.S. forces in Syria, a move that exposed Kurdish fighters to attack from Turkey.

A resolution opposing the move passed 354 to 60, with 129 Republicans siding with the unanimous Democrats and 60 opposed. It was a noteworthy rebuke of Trump from Republicans who have long been wary of crossing the president.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that the Kurds are “no angels,” but Republican lawmakers who fought alongside them in Iraq and Syria called them reliable and effective U.S. allies.

View the complete October 16 article by Griffin Connolly, Simone Pathé and Bridget Bowman on The Roll Call website here.

Trump called Pelosi a ‘third-rate politician’ during Syria meeting, top Democrats say

The Hill logoPresident Trump had a “meltdown” and called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a “third-rate politician” during a meeting Wednesday with congressional leaders on the situation in Syria, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters after they left the meeting early.

The White House had invited leadership and top committee members of both parties and chambers of Congress to discuss Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria.

That withdrawal paved the way for Turkey to initiate an onslaught against Syrian Kurdish forces that were instrumental in the U.S.-led fight against ISIS, and it has been widely criticized by lawmakers across the political spectrum.

View the complete October 16 article by Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

House passes resolution rebuking Trump over Syria pullout

The Hill logoThe House on Wednesday approved a resolution formally rebuking President Trump over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria.

The measure passed in a 354-60 vote, with four lawmakers voting present. All 60 votes against the resolution came from Republicans, with the present votes coming from three GOP lawmakers and Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.). The top three House Republicans supported the motion in a rare split from the president.

The resolution — which was sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and the panel’s top Republican, Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas) — “opposes the decision to end certain United States efforts to prevent Turkish military operations against Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria.”

View the complete October 16 article by Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

Pelosi: No House vote on impeachment inquiry

The Hill logoSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday she will not stage a vote on the House floor to officially launch an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The decision came after Democratic leaders, returning to Washington following a two-week recess, had reached out to members of their diverse caucus to gauge the party’s support for such a vote.

After back-to-back meetings with party leaders and then the full caucus, Pelosi announced that no such vote would take place. Democratic aides emphasized, however, that the process remains fluid and that Pelosi may reverse course and stage such a vote at any point in the future.

View the complete October 15 article by Scott Wong and Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

House Democrats unveil higher education plan to lower college costs

Washington Post logoThe Democratic-controlled House is expected Tuesday to release a plan to make college more affordable and schools more accountable for students’ success, reviving fraught efforts to reauthorize the main federal law governing higher education.

Compared with some of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates’ higher education proposals, including student debt forgiveness, the House bill is pretty tame. Still, the legislative package — provided in advance to The Washington Post — delivers reforms that top the wish lists of many liberal policymakers. Yet it may not go far enough for some student advocates.

Democrats anticipate the reforms will cost $400 billion over ten years.

View the complete October 15 article by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel on The Washington Post website here.

House committees subpoena Giuliani associates

The Hill logoHouse Democrats on Thursday issued subpoenas to two Florida businessmen who worked with President Trump‘s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on his efforts to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

The subpoenas to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman for documents by Oct. 16 came hours after reports emerged that the two were arrested on campaign finance charges.

Parnas and Fruman are expected to appear in a Virginia court later Thursday.

View the complete October 10 article by Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.

Justice Department slow to answer Congress on gun background checks

House Appropriations has asked Attorney General William Barr to clarify April testimony

House lawmakers are still waiting for Attorney General William Barr to answer written questions after he misstated key data about gun background checks during testimony in April.

The questions revolve around a controversial provision in federal law that lets gun dealers sell firearms before a background check is completed if that takes longer than three business days.

Here’s how the system works:

View the complete October 10 article by Joshua Eaton on The Roll Call website here.

White House and Democrats clash over rules for impeachment

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Constitution gives the House “the sole power of impeachment” — but it confers that authority without an instruction manual.

Now comes the battle royal over exactly what it means.

In vowing to halt all cooperation with House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, the White House on Tuesday labeled the investigation “illegitimate” based on its own reading of the Constitution’s vague language.

View the complete October 9 article by Jonathan LeMire, Jim Mustian and Mike Balsamo on the Associated Press website here.

Nancy Pelosi Calls Trump’s Bluff: ‘You Are Not Above The Law’

The White House refused to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry, calling it an “unconstitutional” effort to overturn the 2016 election.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) castigated President Donald Trump’s refusal to cooperate with Congress’ impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, saying the White House was trying to make “lawlessness a virtue” and pledging to hold the administration accountable.

“The American people have already heard the President’s own words ― ‘do us a favor, though,’” Pelosi said in a statement, referencing the whistleblower complaint that led her to formally open the impeachment inquiry last month. “The President’s actions threaten our national security, violate our Constitution and undermine the integrity of our elections. The White House letter is only the latest attempt to cover up his betrayal of our democracy, and to insist that the President is above the law.”

Her response came just hours after White House counsel Pat Cipollone sent Pelosi and other top Democrats an eight-page letter accusing them of waging a “partisan and unconstitutional” effort to overturn the 2016 election.

View the complete October 8 article by Nick Visser on the Huffington Post website here.

White House tells Pelosi, committee chairs it won’t cooperate with impeachment inquiry

The Hill logoThe White House on Tuesday wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and three Democratic committee leaders to say it would not cooperate with the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump, framing the investigation as an effort to “overturn the results of the 2016 election.”

White House counsel Pat Cipollone accused House Democrats in an eight-page letter of making “legally unsupported demands” of the executive branch and accused them of violating the Constitution and past precedent in opening the impeachment inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

“Given that your inquiry lacks any legitimate constitutional foundation, any pretense of fairness, or even the most elementary due process protections, the Executive Branch cannot be expected to participate in it,” Cipollone wrote. “Because participating in this inquiry under the current unconstitutional posture would inflict lasting institutional harm on the Executive Branch and lasting damage to the separation of powers, you have left the President no choice.”

View the complete October 8 article by Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.