Tag: U.S. Senate

Ratcliffe, Trump’s pick to lead U.S. intelligence, faces head winds in Congress

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s announcement Sunday that he will nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) as the next director of national intelligence drew immediate opposition from Senate Democrats and tepid support from key Republicans, an early indication that the junior congressman might not sail smoothly to confirmation.

Current and former intelligence officials also said Ratcliffe is the least-qualified person ever nominated to oversee the country’s intelligence agencies and questioned whether he would use the position to serve Trump’s political interests.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which would vet Ratcliffe when the chamber returns from its summer recess, called the congressman to congratulate him. When the White House submits the official nomination, “we will work to move it swiftly through regular order,” Burr said in a statement.

View the complete July 29 article by Shane Harris on The Washington Post website here.

Senate Intel finds ‘extensive’ Russian election interference going back to 2014

The Hill logoThe Senate Intelligence Committee has released its long-awaited bipartisan report on election security and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Among the key findings of the report, the committee writes that “the Russian government directed extensive activity, beginning in at least 2014 and carrying into at least 2017, against U.S. election infrastructure at the state and local level.”

The report is heavily redacted in some areas and is 67 pages. The Senate panel, which has been investigating Russian interference for more than two years, released a summary version of its election security findings in May 2018.

The panel released its redacted report one day after former special counsel Robert Mueller appeared on Capitol Hill to testify about his own 22-month investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump.

View the complete July 25 article by Morgan Chalfant and Maggie Miller on The Hill website here.

New study finds states need more funding to protect elections ⁠— funding McConnell won’t allow

AlterNet logoA report released last week from the Brennan Center for Justice, the R Street Institute, the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security, and the Alliance for Securing Democracy sounds an alarm about the urgent need for federal funding to secure state elections systems ahead of the 2020 election.

Choosing Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania as key states representing different regions, with varied population sizes to extrapolate from, the authors find that federal intervention is critical. “Elections are the pillar of American democracy, and, as we saw in 2016 and 2018, foreign governments will continue to target them,” the authors write. “States cannot counter these adversaries alone, nor should they have to. But at a time when free and fair elections are increasingly under attack, they can, with additional federal funding, safeguard them.” They say that while they “have limited their review to a sampling of six states, it is clear that the other 44 states and the District of Columbia have similar unfunded needs.” Continue reading “New study finds states need more funding to protect elections ⁠— funding McConnell won’t allow”

McConnell stumped after reporter asks if it’s OK to tell his immigrant wife to ‘go back to your country’

AlterNet logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday refused to condemn President Donald Trump’s racist attack against progressive members of Congress — suggesting instead that both Democrats and Republicans alike needed to tone down their rhetoric.

During a press conference, McConnell was asked if it would be racist to use similar language towards his wife Elaine Chao, who is currently the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

“You’re married to an immigrant naturalized citizen,” a reporter noted. “If someone were to say to her, ‘you should go back to your country’ because of her criticisms of federal policies, wouldn’t you consider that a racist attack?”

View the complete July 16 article by Eric W. Dolan from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

 

Republicans scramble to contain Trump fallout

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday sought to dispel the uproar over President Trump’s controversial tweets targeting four nonwhite Democratic lawmakers, but also defended the president by declaring he is not a racist. 

McConnell tried to quell the controversy that has raged since Sunday when Trump tweeted that four minority Democratic lawmakers should “go back” to their home countries — even though all of them are U.S. citizens — by calling for a broad ceasefire in Washington. 

“The president is not a racist,” McConnell responded after reporters pressed him Tuesday afternoon on whether Trump’s tweets were racist or whether the GOP leader himself would ever use such language. 

View the complete July 16 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Pelosi rejects short-term debt ceiling hike as budget talks extend

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Monday night turned aside the notion of a short-term debt ceiling hike as she continues negotiating on a broader budget deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

After days of hashing out their positions over the phone, Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Mnuchin spoke again Monday night, with plans to talk on Tuesday, according to a Pelosi aide.

“We shall see,” Pelosi said when asked about the possibility of striking a sweeping two-year agreement before the August recess that lifts the budget caps and the debt limit.

View the complete July 15 article by Caitlin Emma on the Politico website here.

Rating changes: Texas and Minnesota Senate races shift the Democrats’ way

Cornyn remains the favorite, but defending his seat could cost the GOP resources

The fight for Senate control is still taking shape and, less than 16 months before Election Day, two states appear to moving in the Democrats’ direction on the battlefield.

Donald Trump came within about a point and a half of winning Minnesota in the 2016 presidential election. But that might be the new high-water mark for Republicans, and the GOP will have a hard time unseating Democratic Sen. Tina Smith in 2020.

Democrats have a 52-43 percent advantage statewide, according to the Inside Elections Baseline, which includes all statewide and House results over the most recent four election cycles. Republicans took a half-hearted shot at Smith last cycle, when she was on the ballot for the first time as a senator, but state Sen. Karin Housley lost by more than 10 points.

View the complete July 9 article by Nathan L. Gonzales 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.

Republican humiliates himself at Senate hearing as his attempt to nail Instagram for liberal bias falls flat

AlterNet logoSen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Tuesday fell flat on his face when he tried to get technology experts to admit that major social media platforms were biased against conservatives.

While talking with assorted experts on artificial intelligence and algorithms, Johnson said that he had his staff members go to Politico’s Instagram account and record what other recommendations the app gave to them after following it.

According to Johnson, the vast majority of recommendations that came back were for news websites like the Washington Post or progressive outlets like Huffington Post, and none were for right-wing websites such as Breitbart.

View the complete June 25 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet 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.