Tag: U.S. House

Trump calls on Schiff to ‘immediately resign’ over his portrayal of Trump’s call with Zelenskiy

President says longtime thorn in his side tried to ‘defraud the American Public’ in Thursday hearing

Donald Trump on Friday called for House Intelligence Chairman Adam B. Schiff to resign over his portrayal of Trump’s message to Ukraine’s president in their phone call that the president called an attempt to “defraud the American public.”

Schiff has long been a thorn in Trump’s side and now Speaker Nancy Pelosi has placed him in charge of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, which is centered on the July 25 telephone conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskiy. During the call, Trump asks Zelenskiy for a “favor” after the incoming Ukrainian leader noted his intention to purchase more U.S.-made military hardware. That favor was Trump’s desire for an investigation of 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden.

During a Thursday hearing about an intelligence community whistleblower’s complaint about that call and White House aides’ coordinated effort to “lock down” the records, Schiff kicked off the hearing by summarizing Trump’s request of Zelenskiy, saying what he was about to recount was “the essence of what the president communicates.”

View the complete September 27 article by John T. Bennet on The Roll Call website here.

Trump demands Schiff resign over account of Ukraine call

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Friday demanded House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) “immediately” resign from Congress for reading what the congressman described as a parody of the president’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader that is at the center of a whistleblower complaint.

In a series of tweets early Friday, Trump accused Schiff of lying to Congress and “fraudulently” reciting a version of the call that made it “sound horrible” and made the president appear “guilty.”

He was supposedly reading the exact transcribed version of the call, but he completely changed the words to make it sound horrible, and me sound guilty,” Trump tweeted.

View the complete September 27 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

218 House lawmakers now support an impeachment inquiry on Trump

Washington Post logoThe White House released a rough transcript Wednesday of President Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling him to work with U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr to investigate the conduct of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The administration transmitted the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress before the vote, and members of the Intelligence committees had a chance to review it.

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Trump dismissed Democrats’ move to open an impeachment inquiry against him, denied that he pressured Ukraine’s leader to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and suggested that the White House should release even more records of his communications.

The July 25 call has been the subject of intense scrutiny since The Washington Post reported last week that a whistleblower had come forward with concerns about the matter.

View the complete September 25 article by Felicia Sonmez, Colby Itkowitz and John Wagner on The Washington Post website here.

Key House committees threaten subpoenas over Trump-Ukraine allegations

Axios logoThe Democratic chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees on Monday sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding that the State Department produce documents related to allegations that President Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden.

“Seeking to enlist a foreign actor to interfere with an American election undermines our sovereignty, democracy, and the Constitution, which the President is sworn to preserve, protect, and defend.  Yet the President and his personal attorney now appear to be openly engaging in precisely this type of abuse of power involving the Ukrainian government ahead of the 2020 election.”

— Chairs Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel

Why it matters: With a majority in the House, Democrats have the power to subpoena Trump administration officials to cooperate in their investigations. The allegations over Trump and Ukraine have erupted into a source of massive controversy over the past week, with Democratic leaders such as House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) suggesting that they could pave a new path to impeachment.

View the complete September 23 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

House votes to avert shutdown, fund government through November

The Hill logoThe House on Thursday passed legislation to avert a government shutdown and keep the government funded through Nov. 21.

The bill, which passed in a 301-123 vote, came after some uncertainty that the stop-gap measure would be brought to the House floor by the end of the week after it was yanked at the committee level on Tuesday evening.

The measure, known as a continuing resolution or CR, was unexpectedly pulled from the House Rules Committee due to a lack of consensus on provisions including health care funding extensions and aid to farmers dealing with the repercussions of the trade war with China.

View the complete September 19 article by Juliegrace Brufke and Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

GOP struggles with retirement wave

The Hill logoYet another House Republican is heading for the exits.

Rep. Paul Cook (R-Calif.) announced Tuesday he would leave Congress to run for a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, making him the latest addition to the GOP’s recent wave of retirements fresh off an annual retreat to chart a path to clawing back the majority next year.

His announcement underscores the challenges facing GOP leaders as they try to persuade rank-and-file members to stay in the House as members of the minority. For some, the prospect of holding office outside Washington has become more appealing.

View the complete September 17 article by Cristina Marcos and Scott Wong on The Hill website here.

House votes to block drilling in Arctic refuge

The Hill logoThe House on Thursday passed legislation that would block drilling along the shoreline of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

The 225-193 vote in favor of the bill, which follows the passage of two offshore drilling bans on Wednesday, sends a signal to Senate Republicans and the White House, who have said the climate change-focused legislation has no future in the upper chamber or as a law.

“Most Americans would agree there are some places so special, so wild, so spectacular, that they have to be off limits to being spoiled by oil and gas development,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), sponsor of the House bill. “If you believe that, then surely that proposition has to apply to the Arctic refuge.”

View the complete September 12 article by Rebecca Beitsch and Miranda Green on The Hill website here.

Democrats ramp up calls to investigate NOAA

The Hill logoDemocratic lawmakers are ramping up requests for investigations into why officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reprimanded their own scientists for contradicting President Trump’s tweet on Hurricane Dorian.

Four Democratic lawmakers are now calling for probes into reports that the White House played a hand in reprimanding NOAA staff at the agency’s Birmingham, Ala., office for tweeting that Alabama would not be affected by the hurricane. That kind of involvement would be seen as a politicization of science.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology launched a congressional inquiry into the circumstances that led NOAA to issue an unsigned statement last week that appeared to rebuke its own scientists who contradicted Trump’s claims about Dorian’s path.

View the complete September 11 article by Miranda Green on The Hill website here.

House approves two bills to block Trump drilling

The Hill logoThe House on Wednesday approved two bills that offer sweeping protections to the nation’s coastlines, permanently blocking offshore drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and part of the Gulf of Mexico.

Another vote on legislation to block drilling in the Atlantic is set for Thursday as House Democrats seek to advance their environmental agenda.

“We’re striking back this week against the Trump administration and their agenda to drill everywhere, every time, with no exception,” House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said ahead of Wednesday’s votes.

View the complete September 11 article by Rebecca Beitsch on The Hill website here.

House takes aim at Trump’s drilling plan with three bills

Bills would block offshore exploration in parts of the Gulf of Mexico, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the Pacific and Atlantic coasts

Lawmakers from both parties evoked the memory of the 2010 BP oil spill Tuesday to drum up support for a trio of House bills that would hamper offshore drilling and President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.

The House is expected to vote Wednesday and Thursday on three bipartisan bills that would block exploration in parts of the Gulf of Mexico, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

One of the bills, by Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Florida, would permanently ban oil and gas leasing in eastern areas of the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast. The measure would amend and make permanent a provision in a 2006 law that placed a moratorium on drilling there that is set to expire in June 2022.

View the complete September 11 article by Elvina Mawaguna on The Roll Call website here.