Virginia Senator Reintroduces Legislation to Increase Funding for Teacher Recruitment and Training

Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine joined Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in reintroducing legislation that would increase funding opportunities for teacher and school administrator recruitment and training, as well as minority-serving colleges and universities.

The Preparing and Retaining Education Professionals Act, or PREP Act, was initially introduced in the Senate a couple of years ago as the PREP Act of 2021. Though touted as bipartisan, Collins is the only Republican cosponsor alongside seven Democrats.

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Four Republican Senators Who Voted Against Reinstating Troops Who Refused the Vaccine

Four Republican senators joined Democrats in shooting down an amendment to a massive defense authorization package that would have reinstated troops discharged for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the Senate 83-11 Thursday night, and along with it a provision overturning the Biden administration’s service-wide vaccine requirement. Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Rounds of South Dakota voted no on a last-minute amendment to the bill re-enlisting thousands of troops separated for refusing the vaccine mandate, collapsing the proposal 54 to 40.

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Retiring Ohio Senator Portman Helps Codify Gay Marriage into Law

Same-sex marriage is on track to becoming codified in federal statute and retiring U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) is celebrating his role as a key driver of the change.

In 2013, Portman became the first Republican senator to support redefining marriage as something other than the matrimonial union between one man and one woman. He attributed his reversal of his prior opposition to gay marriage to his son having come out two years earlier.

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Sen. Mike Lee’s Amendment to Safeguard Religious Liberty for Americans Who Hold to Traditional Marriage Fails By One Vote

Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) religious liberty amendment to the Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill failed by just one vote, 48-49, an outcome that, if the legislation is signed into law, could give a green light to the federal government’s retaliation against nonprofit faith organizations, such as schools and businesses, whose religious beliefs are incompatible with gay marriage.

Senate Democrats voted Tuesday, 61-36, to codify same-sex marriage into federal law with the help of 12 Republicans, as the Senate Press Gallery noted.

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U.S. Senate to Vote on ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ as Several Groups Question its Constitutionality

Several groups argue the Respect for Marriage Act (ROMA) currently before the U.S. Senate is unconstitutional, and if enacted, will eventually be struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The bill, HR 8404, was introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-NY, on July 18 and passed by a vote of 267-157 the next day. The U.S. Senate took it up on November 14.

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Mitch McConnell Backs Electoral Count Reform Bill Ted Cruz Warns All Republicans to Oppose

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Tuesday he will back legislation that intends to make it more difficult in the future to object to the results of presidential elections.

The Electoral Count Act and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022, a bill sponsored by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and supported by other liberal-moderate Republicans, was dismissed, nevertheless, by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who said it is based on Democrats’ belief voter fraud “helps elect more Democrats.”

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Commentary: America Needs a Red Flag Law For Senile Senators

America’s geriatric senators increasingly represent a threat to themselves and to others. Take Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for example. She has filed paperwork to run again in 2024, despite the fact she turns 90 next year and associates say she can’t hold a coherent conversation or remember the names of close colleagues.

This is a woman who has the power to vote to send Americans to war. Just this past spring, she helped pass legislation that sent billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, a country currently at war with a nuclear power. America’s senators have enormous power to harm the country. They have access not just to firearms but to the world’s most powerful military force and even nuclear weapons.

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Commentary: Make the Judiciary Great Again by Holding Senators Accountable

Following four days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in late March, the full Senate voted 53-47 last week to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as an associate justice of the Supreme Court—fulfilling Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to name a black woman to the high court. Three Republican senators joined their Democratic colleagues in voting to confirm Jackson—Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Maine’s Susan Collins, and Utah’s Mitt Romney.

Imagine a slightly different scenario: a Republican president nominates someone to serve on the Supreme Court and asks a 50-50 Senate to confirm that person. You can be absolutely sure that Democrats would force the vice president to break the tie to get that nominee on the bench. Remember when, in 2016, President Trump nominated Betsy Devos to be secretary of education   and Vice President Mike Pence had to break a tie, even without an evenly split Senate?

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GOP Sen. Collins Says She’ll Vote to Confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court

Republican Sen. Susan Collins says she’ll will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, guaranteeing President Biden’s judicial nominee at least a slim path toward confirmation.

Jackson will need 51 votes in final Senate vote – with the chamber evenly split among 50 Democrats and 50 Republican. With no GOP support, Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the decisive, tiebreaker vote.

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Wittman, Kaine Introduce SHIPYARD Act to Fund Navy Infrastructure, Including Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) and Representative Rob Wittman (R-Virginia-01) announced the SHIPYARD Act to provide $21 billion to invest in the Navy’s four public shipyards, including Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The plan, announced Wednesday, would also provide $2 billion for new construction of private shipyards, and $2 billion to repair the Navy’s existing private shipyards.

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Collins, Murkowski Vote Against Going to Session to Consider Barrett Confirmation

Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against going into an executive session to consider the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett Friday.

The United States Senate voted 51 to 46 to go into executive session to consider the confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Democratic senators Kamala Harris of California, Doug Jones of Alabama, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona did not vote.

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Lamar Alexander Wants More Tax Credits for Electric Cars, Despite Opposition from Donald Trump

U.S. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is co-sponsoring a bill that would extend tax credits for electric car manufacturers, according to Green Car Reports. This, despite Republican U.S. President Donald Trump wanting to do away with them. As The Tennessee Star reported in February, research shows manufacturers of electric cars wouldn’t make a tidy profit in a pure free market system because, at least right now, there isn’t enough demand for that product. So that’s why government gets involved. According to Green Car Reports, this legislation has many sponsors, Republican and Democrat. “The Driving America Forward Act counts among its key sponsors Michigan Democrats Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, Tennessee establishment-Republican Lamar Alexander and Maine Republican-centrist Susan Collins. Michigan Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee signaled his support in the House as well. Automakers including General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Tesla, Honda, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, and Volkswagen have supported the effort,” according to the website. “Unlike partisan Democratic proposals that would simply extend the tax credit for 10 years for all automakers, before ending them abruptly, the Driving America Forward Act would boost all automakers’ available credits from 200,000 (which Tesla and GM have already surpassed) to 600,000, but lower the…

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Three Senate Republicans Likely to Vote in Favor of Terminating Trump’s National Emergency

by Henry Rodgers   Three Senate Republicans are expected to vote “yes” for a resolution in an attempt to terminate President Donald Trump’s national emergency for border wall funding. The group of three Republicans expressed their concerns with Trump’s declaration for a national emergency, saying they do not believe the president should be allowed to override Congress to such a degree. In the group are Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. “As a U.S. senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress,” Tillis wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “As a conservative, I cannot endorse a precedent that I know future left-wing presidents will exploit to advance radical policies that will erode economic and individual freedoms.” Murkowski said Tuesday she would vote for the resolution, making it clear that the bill will pass the Senate due to support from these Republicans. Collins said Wednesday she supports a lawsuit challenging Trump’s national emergency, adding that she plans to vote for the congressional resolution. Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced the resolution Friday to block Trump’s national emergency that could allow him to build…

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Liberal Writers, Activists Attack ‘White Women’ Over Kavanaugh

by Peter Hasson   Liberal writers and activists responded to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation over the weekend by attacking “white women.” The New York Times on Saturday evening published an op-ed titled “White Women, Come Get Your People.” The op-ed’s author, Alexis Grenell, attacked Republican women who supported Kavanaugh as “gender traitors” in league with the “patriarchy.” Grenell claimed that “white women benefit from patriarchy by trading on their whiteness to monopolize resources for mutual gain.” White women “are expected to support the patriarchy by marrying within their racial group, reproducing whiteness and even minimizing violence against their own bodies,” the liberal writer asserted. Grenell wasn’t alone in placing responsibility for Kavanaugh’s nomination on “white women.” NBC News ran an opinion piece on Sunday slamming white, Republican women for Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which the op-ed claimed was “the ultimate affirmation of the patriarchy.” Opinion: Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation was enabled by white women via @IAmSophiaNelson https://t.co/bIvwFtR4Vs pic.twitter.com/8ObJQEndNe — NBCBLK (@NBCBLK) October 7, 2018 Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour on Friday called Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins “the mother [and] grandmother of white women in America who gave us a Donald Trump presidency.” “She is a disgrace [and] her legacy will be that she was a traitor…

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Senator Susan Collins’ Historic Speech Lauding Constitutional Principles in Support of Justice Brett Kavanaugh

U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) delivered remarks from the Senate floor Friday afternoon to announce her decision to vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. On Saturday, Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court by the United States Senate by a 50 to 48 vote. Collins’s speech was the defining moment in the confirmation battle. It has been described by many conservatives and Republicans as one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in the history of the Senate. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) delivers a heartfelt speech explaining her decision regarding Kavanuagh’s confirmation and the importance of this historical occasion to the Senate floor.   Her full remarks are as follows: Mr. President, the five previous times that I have come to the floor to explain my vote on the nomination of a justice to the United States Supreme Court, I have begun my floor remarks explaining my decision with a recognition of the solemn nature and the importance of the occasion. But today we have come to the conclusion of a confirmation process that has become so dysfunctional it looks more like a caricature of a gutter-level political campaign than a…

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