Shock Admission: ActBlue Tells Congress It Didn’t Block Foreign Gift Card Donations to Democrats until Fall

Act Blue donation platform

ActBlue, the massive online fund-raising platform for liberal causes, has informed Congress it did not automatically block donations made with foreign-bought gift cards until recently, a potentially significant revelation in an ongoing investigation into whether China, Russia, Iran or Venezuela routed illicit money to Democrat candidates.

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Congress to Subpoena ActBlue as Feds Confirm Suspicious Activity Tied to Democrat Fundraising

James Comer

House investigators prepared Wednesday to subpoena the Democrat donations platform ActBlue in a rapidly expanding probe into possible illicit foreign funding in the 2024 election after the Treasury Department confirmed to Congress its money laundering detection system has generated hundreds of suspicious activity reports related to the online fund-raising giant.

The dramatic developments were communicated to House members and ActBlue itself in a series of memos this week obtained by Just the News that reaffirmed that lawmakers fear foreign adversaries like China, Iran, Venezuela and Russia may be routing illicit foreign money into Democratic coffers by using the names of unsuspecting American donors.

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House Committee Calls on Five States to Probe ‘Potential Criminal Activity’ Involving ActBlue Donations

Republican Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil on Wednesday called on five states to launch probes into ActBlue, a well-known Democratic fundraising platform, over ‘potential criminal activity.’ Steil, chairman of the House Administration Committee, sent five letters addressed to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. The letters to the attorneys general requested that they probe into ActBlue donations in their respective states based on findings from a committee investigation alleging the organization illegally used people’s identities to channel funds to campaigns.

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House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil Expands Probe of Donations Through ActBlue

Rep. Bryan Steil

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., expanded his investigation into online political donations through ActBlue on Monday.

“Illegal and malicious conduct have no place in our elections. Ensuring all parties are complying with federal election law as we approach a presidential election is of utmost importance. By launching a new phase of our investigation into ActBlue, the Committee on House Administration has begun robust oversight of ActBlue’s lenient donor verification standards,” he said in a statement. “I’m committed to ensuring Americans can have confidence in our elections and to preventing foreign or malicious actors from influencing American elections.”

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Republicans Fight Federal Funding for College Voter Mobilization That Biden Gave Democrat States

Voter Registration

Republicans are pushing back against federal funds being used to promote get-out-the-vote (GOTV) activities among college students as Democrat-led states are taking advantage of the new Federal Work-Study (FWS) program focused on voter registration efforts.

Secretaries of state from Democratic-run states pushed the Biden administration for federal funds to be used in college GOTV activities, and Republicans are now fighting back against the funding in Congress and across GOP-led states.

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Democrats Deny Non-Citizens are Voting in Federal Elections While Republicans Seek to Prevent It

Rep. Joe Morelle

Democrats claim that non-citizen voting doesn’t occur while Republicans and most states are trying to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in elections.

As states are adopting constitutional amendments to prevent non-citizens from voting and Republicans are raising the alarm about the issue as more evidence has been presented, Democrats insist that it is not a concern because non-citizens are not voting in U.S. elections.

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Wisconsin Congressman Bryan Steil Hosts Roundtable on Combatting the Scourge of Fentanyl

As the scourge of fentanyl continues to rack up victims across the nation, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) was joined on Thursday by local and national law enforcement officials in Milwaukee County for a roundtable discussion on combatting the deadly drug.

The event, held in the suburban Milwaukee community of Franklin, included officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and North Central High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA),  state legislative leaders, and medical experts.

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Wisconsin Congressman Bryan Steil Wants Answers on State Department Passport Mess

The U.S. State Department’s sluggish passport processing system is making applicants wait months for their passports. U.S. Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) is demanding answers — and action. 

Citing increased demand, the State Department has expanded processing times for passport applications and renewals. It’s now taking agents about three months to process routine passports, and seven to nine weeks for expedited international travel permits. 

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Wisconsin Congressman Bryan Steil Hopes Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Won’t Have to be Subpoenaed to Testify on Trump Probe

Liberal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has proved to be a hostile witness to the three House committees trying to find out if he’s illegally using federal funds to target the Democrats’ No. 1 political enemy.

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) says he’s “hopeful” Bragg will respond to a straight forward request for information — without the use of a subpoena, or contempt of congress charges.

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Wisconsin Congressman Bryan Steil Demands Answers on Manhattan DA Investigation into Trump

Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) and his fellow co-chairs on three key House committees are not taking no for an answer from the intransigent Manhattan District Attorney investigating former President Donald Trump.
“The American people deserve to know the answers to the questions we asked,’ Steil, chairman of the House Committee on Administration, told The Wisconsin Daily Star. 

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House Administration Chair Warns Hyperpolitical DAs: Weaponize the Law, Lose Federal Funding

Amid the Manhattan district attorney’s reported planning to arrest former President Trump next week under a novel legal interpretation of a state law against falsifying business records, Chairman of the House Administration Committee Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) issued a blunt warning Monday to hyperpolitical big city district attorneys: Any federal funding their offices receive may be at risk if they are abusing their prosecutorial power to settle political scores rather than fight violent crime.

“Often the federal government is funding and providing resources to prosecutors across the United States,” Steil told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “The purpose of that is to make our cities safer. If we find out through this investigation that instead those are being used to weaponize DAs across the country with a purpose of grinding a political ax rather than making our communities safer, we’re gonna have to go back into the funding model.”

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Ohio Congressman Legislates Against Use of SEC for Social Policy

U.S. Representative Dave Joyce (R-OH-14) is encouraging fellow congresspersons to get behind a resolution he introduced to shield American industry from new disclosure requirements meant to advance leftist environmental policy. 

Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed requirements for publicly traded companies to disclose information about the “climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition….” 

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Wisconsin Republican Congressmen Denounce Omnibus Spending Bill

While a $1.66 trillion omnibus spending bill passed the Democrat-run Senate 75-20 this week with the support of many Republicans, House GOP members, including those representing Wisconsin, are voicing their disappointment. 

Republicans point to exorbitant spending as the major driver of inflation which reached a 40-year high this year and now stands at 7.11 percent, well above the long-term average of 3.27 percent. The party likely cannot prevent the new spending legislation’s passage insofar as the GOP will not take control of the House of Representatives until January. 

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Wisconsin Republican Members of Congress Ask Evers to Pull Government TikTok

Republican members of Congress from Wisconsin this week called on Democratic Governor Tony Evers to end all state-government usage of the video-sharing application known as TikTok. 

The app, which has garnered about 80 million monthly active users since its release in 2016, is run by the Chinese technology corporation ByteDance. Recent reporting indicates the communist Chinese government is using the program to mine data from TikTok users aggressively and track some Americans’ whereabouts. 

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Wisconsin Representative Steil Co-Sponsors ‘Open Schools Act’

Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) is co-sponsoring the Open Schools Act with Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL-13), “to support students and allow parents to make the best decision for their family.” According to a press release from Davis, the Open Schools Act would provide families with up to $10,000 per student “to seek alternative forms of in-person education” if the public school that the students attend has switched to distance or online learning due to COVID.

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Republican Leaders Slam Biden After Jobs Report Shows ‘Massive Miss’

Republican leaders slammed President Joe Biden after December’s jobs report released Friday reported numbers well below economists’ projections, highlighting the report as another example of how the president mishandled the post-pandemic recovery.

The U.S. economy added only 199,000 jobs in December while unemployment dipped to 3.9%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal projected that the economy would add 422,000 jobs in December and that unemployment to fall to 4.1%.

“Our economy should be soaring right now, but the policies of this administration continue to stifle growth and hold back American businesses and workers,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement.

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Wisconsin Rep. Steil Introduces Amendments to National Defense Authorization Act

Wisconsin Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) introduced several amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. According to a press release from Rep. Steil’s office, “Bryan Steil introduced several amendments to the nation’s annual defense funding bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to strengthen the legislation and hold our adversaries accountable.”

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Wisconsin Congressional Delegates Respond to Biden Admin COVID Vaccine Mandates

Wisconsin congressional delegates responded to the Biden Administration’s COVID vaccine mandates. Three Representatives, Gallagher (R-08-WI), Fitzgerald (R-05-WI), and Steil (R-01-WI), expressed disagreement with Biden’s order, requiring businesses that employ over 100 people to mandate vaccinations or weekly COVID testing. Biden’s order also mandated that any healthcare facility that accepts Medicare or Medicaid to have all of their employees vaccinated.

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Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil Questions Why Biden Admin Shuttered Trump Era Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau Before Afghanistan Withdrawal

Bryan Steil

Wisconsin Representative Bryan Steil (R-01-WI) is questioning why the Biden Administration shuttered the Trump era Contingency and Crisis Response (CCR) Bureau prior to withdrawing from Afghanistan. Steil co-wrote a letter to the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken with another Representative, saying that he believes that the decision to shut down the CCR made the Afghanistan situation worse.

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Wisconsin Congressional Delegates Respond to Biden’s Waiving Afghanistan Congressional Report

Wisconsin congressional delegates responded to President Biden waiving the congressional mandate stating that the Pentagon is required to provide a detailed report regarding the risks surrounding withdrawing from Afghanistan. Representative Bryan Steil (R-01-WI) said in a comment to Star News Network that, “Before the botched withdrawal in Afghanistan, the Biden Administration waived an important Congressional mandate that would have provided vital information and transparency to both Congress and the American people.

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