Tag: U.S. Senate

Senate approves $854B spending bill

The Senate is racing to avoid the third government shutdown of the year ahead of a looming end-of-the-month deadline.

Senators on Tuesday voted 93-7 to pass a sweeping $854 billion spending bill that includes funding for the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor and Education, which make up the lion’s share of total government spending.

Six Republican senators — Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul(Ky.), David Perdue (Ga.), Ben Sasse (Neb.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.) — joined Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in voting against the legislation, which also includes a short-term stopgap bill to fund the rest of the government through Dec. 7 and prevent a shutdown that would start Oct. 1.

View the complete September 18 article by Jordain Carney and Iv Elis on the Hill website here.

Anita Hill’s claims echo in allegation against Kavanaugh. Three decades later, will anything be different?

Anita Hill reflects on her 1991 testimony about sexual harassment, the slow pace of change, and today’s #MeToo movement with The Washington Post’s Libby Casey. (The Washington Post)

In a prologue to their 1994 book, “Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas,” journalists Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson wrote of how “unresolved the conflict” remained between Thomas, a conservative justice, and Anita Hill, a law professor who testified that he had sexually harassed her a decade earlier.

“Rather than dying down, their clash has become part of an active battlefront in America’s culture wars,” the journalists observed of the nomination battle, which elevated Thomas to the nation’s top court in 1991. “The fight has gone well beyond the individuals — who have been reduced to symbols and caricatures — to strike at the heart of American politics.”

Nearly three decades later, as the Senate prepares to vote on another Supreme Court nomination, a contest is taking shape with clear parallels to the controversy that pitted the word of Thomas against that of Hill. An allegation of sexual assault has surfaced against Brett M. Kavanaugh, a nominee put forward by President Trump, who himself has been accused of sexual misconduct. All three Republicans — Thomas, Kavanaugh and Trump, who are dissimilar in background and temperament — deny the accusations.

View the complete September 17 article by Isaac Stanley-Becker on the Washington Post website here.

Democrat Leahy Just Hinted at a Smoking Gun to Kavanaugh Perjury Before the Senate in Hidden Documents

The following article by Joan McCarter with Daily Kos was posted on the AlterNet.org website September 5, 2018:

“I’m concerned because there is evidence that Mr. Miranda provided you with materials that were stolen from me.”

Credit: Global News YouTube Screengrab

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) used those reams of hidden and confidential documents related to Supreme Court nominee’s Brett Kavanaugh tenure with the George W. Bush administration to the best use he could Wednesday. The line of questioning goes back to 2004, when a senior staffer for then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist stole emails and memos from Judiciary Committee senators, including Leahy about their opposition to Bush’s judicial nominees.

The staffer, Manuel Miranda, shared the memos with Republican senators and with the White House where at the time, Kavanaugh was shepherding judicial nominees through the confirmation process. Leahy pressed Kavanaugh, who initially insisted that he didn’t know the information he received from Miranda was stolen. This was a line of questioning for which Kavanaugh was clearly not prepared. Leahy pressed him, asking whether Kavanaugh though it was “at all unusual to receive a draft letter from Democratic senators to each other before any mention of it was made public?”

Here’s where we get to the potential perjury Kavanaugh committed before the Senate Judiciary Committee previously. There is apparently evidence in the materials that Grassley has marked “Committee Confidential” that would show it. Leahy says so: “I’m concerned because there is evidence that Mr. Miranda provided you with materials that were stolen from me. And that would contradict your prior testimony… there is no reason [those emails] can’t be made public.”

View the complete article here.

Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Karin Housley Doesn’t Think Social Security is Something to Be Knowledgeable About

From the September 6, 2018 morningtake e-newsletter:

MNSEN: via the MN DFL, VERBATIM: “In an alarming and deeply concerning interview with the Star Tribune, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Karin Housley said that she did not have or know of any proposals to preserve and protect Social Security, which provides economic security to millions of Minnesotans and Americans, saying, “I haven’t sat down to look at any of them. I haven’t seen them.” The exchange, which took place last week at the State Fair, raises the question whether Housley has thought at all about this critical lifeline for seniors and families…Then, later that day in an off-mic moment on AM1280, Housley can be heard mocking the exchange on Social Security, admitting, “Well I found the issues I need to brush up on” and then laughing after telling the AM1280 host that the Star Tribune wanted to know “How I would fix social security.”

No self-respecting member of Congress should fear Democrats’ investigative requests

The following commentary by the Washington Post Editorial Board was posted on their website September 1, 2018:

President Trump meets with members of Congress and administration officials at the White House on Aug. 23. Credit: Win McNamee, Getty Images)

NEWS WEBSITE Axios reported Aug. 26 that Republicans are “getting ready for hell” in the form of wide-ranging congressional investigations of President Trump should the Democrats take the House in November. That is one way to describe the legislative branch finally taking its oversight responsibilities seriously.

According to the article, a senior House Republican’s office compiled a spreadsheet of more than 100 investigative requests Democrats have made, a document that has circulated on Capitol Hill and “churned Republican stomachs.” Highlights include Mr. Trump’s tax returns; his family’s businesses and whether foreign governments are doing them untoward favors; the president’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin; likely illegal hush money paid to an adult-film star and Playboy model alleging affairs with Mr. Trump; the sudden firing of then-FBI Director James B. Comey; the president’s transgender military ban; the purging of scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency; Cabinet secretary abuse of government perks; the lackadaisical (and deadly) response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico; Mr. Trump’s travel ban; election security; and the administration’s policy of ripping migrant children from their parents. The litany goes on. Continue reading “No self-respecting member of Congress should fear Democrats’ investigative requests”

Free Press Gets a Boost With Senate Resolution Declaring It Is Not the Enemy

The following  article by Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website August 16, 2018:

Action comes on same day newspapers coordinate on free press message

Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii is leading a resolution to defend press freedoms. Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call file photo

The Senate on Thursday went on record declaring “that the press is not the enemy of the people” — a rebuke to President Donald Trump, who declares the opposite on a regular basis.

Senators adopted by unanimous consent a resolution from Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York to declare the Senate’s support for a free press and the First Amendment protections afforded to journalists.

The resolution text was released the same day 350 newspapers ran editorials designed to push back on Trump’s criticisms of the media.

View the complete article here.

Congress Isn’t Perfect but the Politicians Aren’t Always to Blame

The following commentary by Nathan L. Gonzales was posted on the Roll Call website August 8, 2018:

Fixing the Hill is easier said than done

U.S. Capitol Building. Credit: Sarah Silbiger, CQ Roll Call file photo

After 30 years of covering Congress, David Hawkings has a good idea of how Capitol Hill works — or more important, how it doesn’t — and he laid out five key reasons why Congress is broken.

But whether it’s money, maps, media, mingling or masochism, there are no easy solutions. Nor are they entirely the responsibility of the politicians to address.

Map mess

The redistricting process, including how congressional districts are drawn and the lack of competitive seats, gets a lot of blame for the dysfunction in Congress.

View the complete article here.

Meet With Kavanaugh? Not Until There’s a Deal on His Documents, Democrats Say Image

The following article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg was posted on the New York Times website July 23, 2018:

Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, on Capitol Hill. Credit: Al Drago,The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are largely giving Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh the brushoff, refusing the customary “courtesy visits” until Republicans agree to turn over voluminous documents from the Supreme Court nominee’s past.

In the two weeks since President Trump nominated him to succeed the retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Judge Kavanaugh has met with 23 Republicans, and not a single Democrat. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in an interview Monday that he would not meet with Judge Kavanaugh until the top Republican and the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee reach agreement on what documents should be produced.

And those two senators, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Dianne Feinstein of California, are still far apart.

View the complete article here.

Tim Pawlenty nixes Minnesota Senate run this year

The following article by Jennifer Brooks was posted on the StarTribune website January 16, 2018:

Minnesota is going to be a “tough state” for Republicans to win, he said on Fox Business News interview.

Credit: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

WASHINGTON – Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday he will not run for the U.S. Senate this year, dashing Republican hopes that he would mount a strong bid for Al Franken’s old seat.

Minnesota’s going to be a “tough state for Republicans” to win in 2018, the Republican former governor told Fox Business during a Tuesday interview. Despite the pleas of GOP organizers who urged him to get into the race, and his own interest, Pawlenty nixed the idea. Continue reading “Tim Pawlenty nixes Minnesota Senate run this year”

Russian hackers who compromised DNC are targeting the Senate, company says

The following article by Shan Harris was posted on the Washington Post website January 12, 2018:

Russian hackers set up websites that were meant to look like an email system available only to people using the Senate’s internal computer network, according to a report from a computer security firm. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

The Russian hackers who stole emails from the Democratic National Committee as part of a campaign to interfere in the 2016 election have been trying to steal information from the U.S. Senate, according to a report published Friday by a computer security firm.

Beginning in June, the hackers set up websites meant to look like an email system available only to people using the Senate’s internal computer network, said the report by Trend Micro. The sites were designed to trick people into divulging their personal credentials, such as usernames and passwords.

The Associated Press was first to write about the report. Continue reading “Russian hackers who compromised DNC are targeting the Senate, company says”