|
Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 18:34:47 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The House passed a bill that would require federal authorities to detain any migrant charged with theft or burglary, named after a Georgia nursing student police have said was killed by a man who entered the US illegally. The measure, called the Laken Riley Act, requires immigrations and customs enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants accused by local authorities of theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting. The bill would also allow states and individuals to sue the federal government for crimes committed by immigrants who enter the country illegally. The bill was named after 22-year-old Laken Riley, who was killed on the campus of the University of Georgia while on a morning run last month. Riley’s death has become a rallying point for Donald Trump, after authorities arrested a Venezuelan man who entered the US illegally and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case. The House approved the legislation hours before Joe Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union address. Republicans have seized on Riley’s death to hammer the Biden administration’s border policies. “Republicans will not stand for the release of dangerous criminals into our communities, and that’s exactly what the Biden administration has done,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News. -- Laken is just one of the tragic examples of innocent American citizens who have lost their lives, been brutally and violently attacked by illegal criminals who are roaming our streets.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:34:16 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, introduced a bill to establish a four-day US working week. Studies and pilot programmes have shown that four-day workweeks can increase productivity and happiness. Given Republican control of the House and a Senate split 51-49 in favour of Democrats, however, the legislation stands little chance of success. “Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea,” Sanders said on Thursday. -- Today, American workers are over 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago … It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 18, 2024 18:58:52 GMT -5
(The Guardian) House speaker Mike Johnson asked fractious fellow Republicans to “cool it” and stop fighting each other in displays of “member-on-member action” during primary elections as he seeks to maintain some sort of control over a caucus at the mercy of the far right, controlling the chamber by a mere two votes. “I’ve asked them all to cool it,” Johnson told CNN in remarks published Sunday. -- I am vehemently opposed to member-on-member action in primaries because it’s not productive. And it causes division for obvious reasons, and we should not be engaging in that. So I’m telling everyone who’s doing that to knock it off. And both sides, they’ll say, ‘Well, we didn’t start it, they started it.’Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, the far-right Trumpist firebrand pursuing such fights, effectively told the same outlet: “They started it.” -- “I would love nothing more than to just go after Democrats,” said Gaetz, who was last year the prime mover behind the historic ejection of Johnson’s predecessor as speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and who is now going after two more Republicans, Tony Gonzales of Texas and Mike Bost of Illinois.“If Republicans are going to dress up like Democrats in drag, I’m going to go after them too,” Gaetz said. -- Because at the end of the day, we’re not judged by how many Republicans we have in Congress. We’re judged on whether or not we save the country.Gonzales is under attack over a vote for gun safety reform, after the Uvalde elementary school massacre; over his positions on immigration reform; and for voting in favour of same-sex marriage.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 19, 2024 15:34:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Congressional leaders announce deal on government funding, averting partial shutdownCongress’s top Democrats and Republicans say they have reached a final agreement on government funding, and will move to enact legislation before the end of the day Friday that will prevent a partial shutdown. The sticking point was funding for the Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats over the weekend accusing Republicans of turning down their attempts to channel funds to the department to help it deal with migrant arrivals at the southern border, according to Politico. The two sides appear to have worked out their disagreement. Here’s what Republican House speaker Mike Johnson had to say: An agreement has been reached for DHS appropriations, which will allow completion of the FY24 appropriations process. House and Senate committees have begun drafting bill text to be prepared for release and consideration by the full House and Senate as soon as possible.It was much the same tone from Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer: Senate and House leaders and the White House have reached an agreement to finish the final set of full year appropriations bills. The Senate and House Appropriations Committees are in the process of finalizing text and reports for Congress to closely review and consider as soon as possible.Funding for a chunk of Washington’s departments, including homeland security, defense and state, expires at midnight on Friday. Congress passed legislation to fund the other half of the US government earlier this month.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 19, 2024 16:05:06 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The government shutdown threat won’t be neutralized until Congress passes the final funding bill, and if you know Congress, you know they are capable of anything. From the Guardian’s Joan E Greve, here’s more on the sprint to head off a partial shutdown that will begin if the funding is not approved by Friday: Congress faces its third shutdown deadline of the month this week, as much of the federal government is expected to run out of funding by Friday at midnight.
Both chambers of Congress must approve six appropriations bills before Saturday to get the legislation to Joe Biden’s desk and avert a partial shutdown. Although the current fiscal year started more than five months ago, House Republicans have struggled to pass appropriations bills due to demands from hard-right members to include controversial provisions in the legislation.
As a result, Congress has been forced to pass four stopgap bills since the fiscal year began in October, and members hope they can finally conclude the appropriations process this week. But disputes over the Department of Homeland Security’s budget have hampered the negotiations so far, raising serious doubts about whether members will be able to pass a spending package in time to prevent a funding lapse.
Punchbowl News reported on Monday evening that negotiators had reached a deal on homeland security funding, but it remains unclear whether Congress will have enough time to pass the proposal before Saturday.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 20, 2024 14:12:29 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, said this morning he had a “lengthy” conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also expected to address Senate Republicans later in the day. During the call, Johnson said he expressed “House Republicans’ strong support for Israel and their efforts” in Gaza and his “strong disagreement” with the Democratic Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, a strong defender of the Jewish state who last week identified Netanyahu as one of the major impediments to peace and called for new elections in the country when the war winds down. “We think it’s not only foolhardy, it’s dangerous for him to be trying to suggest how Israel should run its domestic affairs in the midst of its conflict,” Johnson said. On Wednesday, Punchbowl News reported that Netanyahu was expected to speak virtually to Senate Republicans during their lunch meeting. The move underscores Netanyahu’s alliance with Republicans, forged over more than a decade and under three US presidencies.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 20, 2024 14:49:33 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republican House speaker Mike Johnson defends Trump after he said Democratic Jews 'hate' IsraelSince being elected speaker of the House last year, the Republican Mike Johnson has emerged as one of Donald Trump’s most prominent defenders on Capitol Hill, and today is no exception – even when it comes to the former president’s recent comment that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate” Israel and their religion. Asked about it at a press conference, Johnson said he understands where Trump is coming from: The context here is that GOP lawmakers are trying to make clear their support for Israel and its ongoing invasion of Gaza, even as they waffle on whether or not to continue providing military assistance to Ukraine. That’s put them at odds to Democrats, who want to approve aid to both countries as well as Taiwan – but Johnson is blocking that legislation.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 20, 2024 14:57:19 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 21, 2024 17:03:14 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Johnson says he will invite Netanyahu to address CongressThe House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said he plans to invite Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address Congress, amid rising tensions between Democrats and the Israeli leader over the war in Gaza. “We will certainly extend that invitation,” Johnson said in an interview on CNBC this morning. The speaker told reporters on Wednesday that he held a “lengthy” conversation with Netanyahu, and that he was considering inviting the Israeli leader to speak with lawmakers. It comes after the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish politician in the US and a longtime advocate for Israel, blasted Netanyahu in a floor speech and called for Israel to hold new elections.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 22, 2024 15:00:20 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Mar 22, 2024 15:01:09 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 3, 2024 15:18:20 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee, did not quite tell NBC they agreed with growing calls for the supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire, so Joe Biden can nominate a younger liberal replacement. But they nearly did. “I’m very respectful of Justice Sotomayor,” Blumenthal said. “I have great admiration for her. But I think she really has to weigh the competing factors. We should learn a lesson. And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be. The old saying – graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.” That lesson – a harsh one for anyone to contemplate – springs from the case of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the great liberal justice who declined to retire in 2014, when she was 81 and when Democrats held the White House and the Senate, then died in September 2020, at 87 and with Republicans in control. That allowed Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to ram through a hardline replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, and tilt the court firmly right, 6-3. That court has issued major rulings including removing the federal right to abortion, striking down race-based affirmative action in college admissions and loosening gun rights. Progressives fear more such rulings to come. Sotomayor is 69 and suffers from diabetes. She recently remarked on feeling “tired” while “working harder than I ever had”. Blumenthal said Sotomayor was “a highly accomplished and, obviously, fully functioning justice right now. Justices have to make their personal decisions about their health, and their level of energy, but also to keep in mind the larger national and public interest in making sure that the court looks and thinks like America.” Whitehouse said he was “not joining any calls” for Sotomayor to step down. But he also offered a stark warning: “Run it to 7-2 and you go from a captured court to a full Maga court. Certainly I think if Justice Ginsburg had it to do over again, she might have re-thought her confidence in her own health.” Sotomayor did not comment. Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, told NBC: “President Biden believes that decisions to retire from the supreme court should be made by the justices themselves and no one else.”
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 3, 2024 15:20:54 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Speaking of Democrats and the Senate, the party is already expected to have a difficult time keeping their majority in Congress’s upper chamber in the November elections. But one prominent political forecaster thinks the job is even more difficult than it appears. The Cook Political Report has moved the Nevada Senate seat represented by Jacky Rosen into its “toss up” column, from “lean Democratic”. “We are moving this race because of the unique forces at play in Nevada. A combination of a newer electorate that Rosen must win over, Biden’s lagging numbers and the unique post-COVID economic hangover in Nevada make this race a Toss Up,” said Jessica Taylor, Cook’s Senate and governors editor. Besides Nevada, which has voted Democratic in recent presidential elections but has seen the GOP make inroads lately, Democrats are defending Senate seats representing Ohio and Montana, both red states. The outcome of those races will likely decide Senate control, in addition to whether or not Joe Biden wins re-election.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 10, 2024 18:30:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The House has voted to block the reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a high-profile warrantless surveillance program that is now in limbo ahead of a 19 April expiration date. House Republicans have been fiercely divided over how to handle the issue, and Wednesday’s vote comes months after a similar process to reform and reauthorize the program fell apart before it even reached the House floor. The law allows the US government to collect the communications of targeted foreigners abroad by compelling service providers to produce copies of messages and internet data, or networks to intercept and turn over phone call and message data. It is controversial because it allows the government to incidentally collect messages and phone data of Americans without a court order if they interacted with the foreign target, even though the law prohibits section 702 from being used by the National Security Agency to specifically target US citizens.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 16, 2024 15:45:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) House sends impeachment articles of homeland security secretary to SenateHouse Republicans have sent two articles of impeachment against homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate, a move that will bring about a Senate trial. According to House Republicans, Mayorkas “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws, with House speaker Mike Johnson saying that Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer should “hold those who engineered this crisis to full account.” Johnson went on to add that Schumer is “the only impediment to delivering accountability for the American people.” “Pursuant to the constitution, the House demands a trial,” Johnson said. In response, Schumer said that he wants to “address this issue as expeditiously as possible,” adding, “Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement.” Following the latest move from the House, senators are expected to be sworn in as jurors on Wednesday. The chamber will then formally inform Mayorkas of the charges and request for a written response from him.
|
|