Tag: Congress

Bombshell: FBI Supervisor Alleges Bureau Improperly Pulling Conservative Agents’ Security Clearances

Just the News

An FBI supervisor is blowing the whistle on his own organization, alleging to the Justice Department’s chief watchdog and Congress that the bureau has been improperly suspending or revoking the security clearances of agents it believes hold conservative political views.

The new whistleblower’s allegations surfaced Tuesday in correspondence obtained by “Just the News” that was sent to the House and Senate Judiciary committees and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, dramatically claiming that as a supervisory special agent he witnessed efforts by senior FBI brass to target employees who supported Donald Trump or opposed COVID-19 vaccines.

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Another Report Says CBP, ICE Not Detaining, Removing Inadmissibles Flying into Country

The Center Square
CBP officer

The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued another report identifying ongoing problems with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processes.

A regional CBP and ICE detention and removal processes were ineffective at one major international airport, the OIG audit found. The report redacts the name and location of the airport and CBP and ICE regional offices.

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Congress Presses to See If U.S. Intel Warned Biden of Son’s Business Deals

Just the News
Hunter Biden and Joe Biden

House Republicans have built a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that Hunter Biden made millions while his father was vice president from business associates with unsavory backgrounds, including a Ukrainian energy firm deemed corrupt by the State Department, a Chinese executive convicted by DOJ of corruption, a Russian oligarch unable to get an American bank account because of red flags, a Romanian oligarch charged with bribery in his country, and two Americans convicted of securities fraud.

And now, an Associated Press/University of Chicago poll shows that two thirds of Americans believe Joe Biden did something illegal or unethical.

But the tangle of complex transactions and foreign names can often complicate the explanations of influence peddling.

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Tennessee U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles Introduces the ‘No Juicing Joe Act’ Ahead of Trump v. Biden Debate

Kaitlin Housler
Andy Ogles

U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) introduced a bill on Thursday that would require the White House to notify Congress of each instance the president takes certain drugs relating to cognitive function.

Ogles’ “No Juicing Joe Act” would specifically require the White House to alert Congress when the president takes a drug that could alter his alertness, judgment, or mood.

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Border Experts: Biden Plan will Bring Another 2 Million into Country a Year

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants

Former Border security leaders serving under multiple presidents and whose careers span decades in law enforcement say President Joe Biden’s “border security” announcement Tuesday won’t secure the border but instead will facilitate more illegal immigration, bringing in another two million people into the country illegally a year.

“The border will never be ‘shut down’ under this executive action but rather serve to legalize an unjustified level of open borders that will further perpetuate the chaos and lawlessness we’ve experienced during the entirety of the Biden Administration,” former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan told The Center Square. “The proposed action will, at a minimum, allow more than one million illegal aliens to be released into the county annually, along with another one million inadmissible aliens being allowed to fly into interior airports within the U.S.,” referring to the CBP One app that allows migrants to apply for entry remotely.

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Economist: ‘True’ Federal Debt Masked by Draining U.S. Treasury

The Center Square
Janet Yellen

The federal debt continues to climb to unprecedented levels, but the “actual, true” debt is higher if the Treasury weren’t being drained, a national economist says.

Citing Bureau of the Fiscal Service data, E. J. Antoni, Ph.D., an economist at the Heritage Foundation, argues that as the federal debt increases, the “true daily deficit” is being masked by the amount of cash being drained from the U.S. Treasury by Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen.

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Commentary: Pharmacy Benefits Are Essential for Tennesseans’ Well-Being

Admin

In Tennessee, the battle to protect pharmacy benefits is not merely a matter of policy, but a battle to protect our country from unnecessary government overreach by the extreme Left. I am deeply troubled by recent attempts at the federal level that target pharmacy benefits and our free market – all in one swoop.

People across our state are already experiencing immense financial strain as they grapple with the soaring costs of inflation and prescriptions, and we need to advocate for policies that will effectively lower these prices through free market competition.

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China’s Growing Threat to U.S. National Security in the Crosshairs of Congress

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants

While the Chinese Communist Party’s possibly imminent invasion of Taiwan could spark a war in the region, experts and lawmakers in Congress on Thursday expressed that the Taiwan issue is just one part of a broader Chinese strategy countering the U.S.

U.S.House lawmakers raised the alarm about the Chinese communist government’s threat to the U.S. via cyber security and the border crisis at two separate hearings Thursday.

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Commentary: Defund and Investigate Jack Smith

Julie Kelly
Jack Smith

Special Counsel Jack Smith was supposed to be basking in glory right now.

In his ideal world, Smith would be hot off a quick conviction of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. for the former president’s alleged role in the events of January 6 and attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The special counsel then would have immediately moved his victorious prosecutors to Palm Beach for the summer to prepare for Trump’s second federal trial related to allegedly stealing national defense information and impeding the Department of Justice’s investigation.

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U.S. Spending on Interest Tops National Defense, Medicare

The Center Square
US Capitol building

Congress has spent more money on interest so far this year than it has spent on both national defense and Medicare. 

Spending on net interest hit $514 billion in the first seven months of fiscal year 2024. That’s more than spending on both national defense ($498 billion) and Medicare ($465 billion). Medicare is the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older and younger people with disabilities. During the same time period, the U.S. spent $873 billion on Social Security, the federal program that provides retirement, disability, survivor, and family benefits to more than 67 million Americans. 

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Terrorist Watch List Apprehensions at Northern Border Continue to Break Records

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants Northern Border

The number of known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) apprehended at the northern border in the first six months of fiscal 2024 continue to outpace those apprehended at the southwest border.

There have been 143 KSTs apprehended at the northern border through the first six months of this fiscal year compared to 92 at the southwest border, according to the most recent CBP data.

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Combined Social Security Trust Fund Projected to Deplete Reserves by 2035

The Center Square
Social Security

Two reports released Monday show that the U.S. combined Social Security trust fund is projected to deplete its reserves by 2035.

The Trustees for Social Security and Medicare released annual reports on Monday. The Trustees projected the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund will exhaust its reserves in 2036. The Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund was projected to be insolvent by 2033.

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Minnesota and Wisconsin Withhold Voter Registration from Public That Most States are Federally Mandated to Disclose

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Meagan Wolfe Steve Simon

Wisconsin is one of the most fiercely contested battleground states in this election cycle, but it lacks federal transparency requirements for voter registration imposed on most states, according to a lawsuit by an election watchdog.

Minnesota, generally a solidly blue state although it saw a razor-thin margin in the results of the 2016 presidential race, also doesn’t make its voter rolls available to the public, the lawsuit contends.

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Commentary: DHS’ Secrecy About ‘Disinformation’ Regulation Docs

RealClearWire
Nina Jankowicz

Nearly two years after Nina Jankowicz briefly led the Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security, she’s launched an organization demanding transparency and the public release of documents about the public debate on disinformation. An interesting move, likely without true transparency in mind.

My organization, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, has spent the same two years fighting DHS for documents on the federal board Jankowicz managed. We’re filing a second lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to fight continued government stonewalling of our requests. Thus far, DHS has refused to provide unredacted versions of documents that outline its purported authorities to regulate disinformation. Nor will the agency release more information about its work on misinformation related to “irregular migration” and “Ukraine” before the board was disbanded in August 2022.

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Commentary: A Bill to Ensure Fair Representation for American Citizens

Admin

The House of Representatives finally acted Wednesday to remedy an injustice that has been getting worse as the number of illegal aliens coming into the United States has skyrocketed: the distortion caused by including noncitizens when determining how many House members each state gets.

The House passed HR 7109, the Equal Representation Act, to mandate a citizenship question on the census form and use of only the citizen population in the apportionment formula for representation applied after every census.

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Fraud Costs the Federal Government up to $521 Billion a Year

The Center Square
Money Waste Government

The federal government loses up to $521 billion a year to fraud, according to a first-of-its-kind estimate from a Congressional watchdog. 

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which serves as the research arm of Congress, estimated annual fraud losses cost taxpayers between $233 billion and $521 billion annually, according to a new report published Tuesday. The fraud estimate’s range represents 3% to 7% of average federal obligations. 

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Commentary: House Should Plan to Drain the Swamp in January 2025

Admin
Drain the Swamp

The sad reality is that the Republicans in the House after a narrow victory in the 2022 Congressional midterms do not have enough of a majority to be able to accomplish many big things. 

This is not the fault of anyone in leadership, but instead is just the reality of what is at this time a one-vote majority with wildly divergent priorities amongst the GOP members in the House.

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Commentary: The Biden EV Plan Needs American Mining

RealClearWire
Mining Work

The Biden administration has just supercharged the electric vehicle (EV) revolution. With its finalized tailpipe emissions rule, the administration expects that by 2032 70% of new U.S. car sales will be electric.

This lightning-fast transformation of the nation’s car fleet faces myriad challenges but perhaps none are greater than sourcing the minerals needed for millions of EVs and addressing the nation’s alarming reliance on Chinese-controlled mineral supply chains.  

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Commentary: Biden’s DOJ Thumbs Nose at SCOTUS on Key J6 Felony Charge

Julie Kelly
Matthew Graves

Donald Trump filed his brief Tuesday at the U.S. Supreme Court to defend his argument that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution. Noting the lack of historical precedent and dire ramifications for the future, Trump’s attorneys warned that “a denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future President with de facto blackmail and extortion while in office, and condemn him to years of post-office trauma at the hands of political opponents.”

Oral arguments on the groundbreaking question are set for April 25; a final opinion, which could be announced in late May or sometime in June before the current SCOTUS term ends, represents a do-or-die situation for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment against the former president for the events of January 6 and his alleged attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The case is now on hold awaiting a decision by SCOTUS.

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Commentary: Electric Transmission Buildout Could Cost Americans Trillions of Dollars

RealClearWire
Electric Grid

Though windmills and solar panels get the headlines, the big energy topic in Washington is electric transmission. Whether it is Congress’s newfound interest in permitting reform, the U.S. Department of Energy’s new Grid Deployment Office, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) upcoming final rule on transmission planning and cost allocation, how to build and pay for long-range transmission to connect generators to customers is considered the final piece in the quest to meet net-zero goals.   

Like so many issues in Washington, the need for more transmission lines is accepted without question and the costs are not considered. But for American consumers, especially low-income and elderly, as well as small businesses and energy intense manufacturers, building new transmission lines could result in much higher monthly bills and leave them on the hook for stranded assets.

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Lawmakers Aim to Ban Colleagues from Market Trading While They Still Buy and Sell

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Pete Sessions and Bill Keating

Four members of Congress recently reported buying and selling financial assets, despite co-sponsoring a bill that would ban such trades, disclosures show.

Democratic Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, Jeff Jackson of North Carolina, Bill Keating of Massachusetts and Republican Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas all reported selling or purchasing assets after they signed on as co-sponsors of the TRUST In Congress Act, financial disclosures show. The TRUST In Congress Act would ban members of Congress from directly trading covered investments, which includes securities, commodities futures and similar assets by requiring them to place such assets in a blind trust.

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Florida Prepares for Surge in Illegal Aliens from Haiti

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Haitians in Boat

As the government of Haiti appears poised to collapse in the face of a violent revolution by criminal gangs, the nearby U.S. state of Florida is preparing for a tidal wave of illegal aliens from the devastated island nation.

According to Politico, lawmakers in Florida have already issued warnings about the potential national security risk of so many third-world illegals coming to the U.S. as a result of the humanitarian crisis, especially as Congress has not yet determined a definitive policy towards Haiti.

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Government Report Could Lead to an Infestation of Federal Regulation into Youth Sports, Experts Say

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Youth Sports

A key report recently released by a federal government commission could result in a slew of new regulations being pushed onto youth sports, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics & Paralympics, which was established by Congress in 2020 to address concerns about the U.S. Olympic Commission, including the handling of sexual abuse cases, outlines several key policy changes that it believes the government should pursue, including expanding the reach of government in youth sports at the grassroots level, according to the report. The injection of federal oversight and government into an already functioning youth sports system could create undue regulations on leagues and possibly force diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in local areas, hurting young athletes while also forcing Americans to pay into a sports league that they may not be interested in, experts warned.

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Commentary: The Federal Government is Deciding Who Can Start a Small Business

Admin
Business Owner

Just when it seemed impossible for things to get tougher for small businesses, the federal government decided to make things worse.

Small businesses have had a tough run for the last few years. Record inflation, high interest rates, and workforce shortages have led to widespread pessimism among small businesses. The last thing they need is more government interference, but that is exactly what is happening.

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Emails Show ‘Access’ to Biden Family Reason for Chinese Business Partnership with Hunter Biden

Just the News

Newly-disclosed emails show a Chinese businessman who partnered with Hunter Biden’s Burnham firm was primarily motivated by access rather than financial considerations, bolstering the House Oversight Committee’s contention that the Biden name was the commodity being sold by the younger Biden.

In late February, impeachment witness Jason Galanis—one of Hunter Biden’s partners in the Burnham venture—told Congress the firm served as place to integrate the “Biden Family Office” with a “large-scale financial company.”

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Democrat Who Led Trump Impeachment Pledges Legislation in Response to Supreme Court Ballot Ruling

Just the News
Raskin Trump

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who led the second impeachment effort against former President Donald Trump, pledged to work on legislation that would set up a process for Congress to determine who cannot run for office under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” clause.

Raskin spoke about the legislation Monday on CNN hours after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Trump can remain on the 2024 presidential ballot in response to a case in Colorado, where the state supreme court ruled that Trump was ineligible under the 14th Amendment for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.  

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Congressman Mark Green Will Run for Re-Election at Urging of Former President Trump

Kaitlin Housler
Tennessee U.S. Rep. Mark Green

Congressman Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced on Thursday that he has reconsidered his decision to retire from Congress and will now run for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2024 election.

“While my strong desire was to leave Congress at the end of this year, since my announcement, I have received countless calls from constituents, colleagues, and President Trump urging me to reconsider,” Green said in a statement released by his office to The Tennessee Star.

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Hunter Biden Tells Congress: ‘I Did Not Involve My Father in My Business’

Just the News

Hunter Biden testified to Congress that he did not involve his father, President Joe Biden, in his business dealings as the Republican impeachment inquiry heats up. 

“I am here today to provide the Committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business. Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. Never,” he said in his opening statement obtained by Punchbowl News.

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Biden Planned to Join Son’s China-Backed Firm After Vice Presidency, Former Partner Tells Congress

Just the News
Joe Biden

In his opening statement to House impeachment investigators, former Hunter Biden business partner, Jason Galanis, said Joe Biden planned to join the board of his son’s firm which was being backed by a Chinese businessman and state-owned enterprises.

Galanis delivered his opening statement on Friday morning to congressional investigators from inside a federal prison in Alabama where he is serving a prison sentence for engaging in an illegal scheme to enrich Burnham Asset Management.

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Tennessee State Senator Bill Powers Passes on Bid for TN-07 U.S. House Seat

Kaitlin Housler
Bill Powers

Tennessee State Senator Bill Powers (R-Clarksville) has announced he has “no plans” to run for Congress in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District amid the announcement of incumbent U.S. Representative Mark Green’s (R-TN-07) retirement.

“For me, family is more important than any congressional title in Washington DC. I’m honored to be your state senator and have no plans to run for congress,” Powers wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.

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Commentary: Congress Must Fight Modern Day Slavery

Admin
Sad Person

On February 13, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act with a vote of 414-11. The bipartisan legislation, authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), will reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 – which expired in 2021 – and provide approximately $1 billion in funding over five years for programs that combat the scourge of human trafficking.

Among the measures included in the comprehensive legislation are educational grants to provide situational awareness training and prevention for elementary and secondary students; funding reauthorization for the International Megan’s Law and Angel Watch programs; and authorization for programs that support survivors’ employment, housing, and education.

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Special Counsel Robert Hur Says Biden ‘Willfully’ Kept, Shared Classified Memos but Won’t Be Charged Because of His Poor Memory

Just the News
Biden Hur

Special counsel Robert Hur concluded in a stinging report released Thursday that President Joe Biden willfully kept classified documents from his time as vice president, shared them with an author and knew he had them as far back as 2017, but he recommended against prosecution.

Hur said that part of the reason he declined to prosecute the president’s age and poor memory would create reasonable doubt for jurors.

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Abe Hamadeh Calls on Blake Masters to Leave Congressional Race Due to ‘Fake Fundraising Numbers’

Rachel Alexander
Abe Hamadeh Blake Masters

Abe Hamadeh called on Blake Masters this week to drop out of Arizona’s 8th Congressional District (CD8) race due to “intentionally misleading voters” about raising $1.3 million.

“I’m officially calling on Blake Masters to drop out of this race,” Hamadeh posted on X. “Blake needs to stop paying his Nikki Haley consultants on a losing endeavor, and stay in his hometown of Tucson to rally behind President Trump this November.”

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No Charges for Democrat Staffer Who Filmed Gay Porn Video in Senate Hearing Room

Admin

The U.S. Capitol Police announced on Thursday that they have declined to press charges against the former Democrat Senate staffer who filmed a gay sex video in a Capitol Hill hearing room last month.

In a news release, the USCP said there was no evidence that Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a former aide for Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), broke the law by filming himself copulating with another male inside the Hart Senate Office Building on the morning of Wednesday, December 13.

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Commentary: The Beltway Judge Hearing Trump Cases and Her Anti-Trump, Anti-Kavanaugh Husband

RealClearWire

Washington glitterati assembled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in October to celebrate federal employees making a difference in government. Hosted by CNN anchor Kate Bolduan, the black-tie affair featured in-person appearances by top Biden White House officials including Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack.

Midway through the evening’s festivities, Max Stier, president of the group sponsoring the event – the Partnership for Public Service, a $24 million nonprofit based in Washington that recruits individuals to work in the civil service – took the stage to thank his high-profile guests. “Great leaders are the heart and soul of effective organizations,” Stier said, “which is why I am so thankful to see so many of our government’s amazing leaders here tonight.”

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Commentary: The Elite One Percent Behind the Cultural Civil War

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American Flag

Scott Rasmussen has done America an enormous service. He and his team have identified the driving forces behind the destructive radicalism which is pushing us into a cultural civil war.

While doing their two weekly national surveys, Rasmussen and his team noticed an anomaly. Out of every 1,000 or so respondents, there would always be three or four who were far more radical than everyone else. After several months of finding these unusual responses, Rasmussen realized they all shared three characteristics.

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Leadership of Major U.S. Landowner Chock-Full of Chinese Communist Party Members

Admin
American Farmland

Top executives at Hong Kong-based WH Group Limited, the world’s largest pork producer that controls vast swaths of U.S. farmland through its American subsidiary, are Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of corporate records and state-run media reports.

Records and reports reviewed by the DCNF identify four top executives and the chairman of the pork giant as CCP members with extensive ties to the Chinese government. WH Group controls nearly 150,000 acres of land across 29 U.S. states through its subsidiary Smithfield Foods, a family-run business established in 1936, which it purchased for $7.1 billion in 2013. While a keyword search on Smithfield’s website returned only two articles mentioning the firm’s relationship with WH Group, neither of the two articles mentioned China. An online map of Smithfield’s global business activities does not list any operations in, or connection to, Asia, despite archived reports from their website suggesting otherwise.

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Congress Reaches Deal to Increase Child Tax Credit, Negotiate Tax Treaty with Taiwan

Admin
Family Learning

Congressional negotiators from the Senate and House of Representatives announced a deal on Tuesday to increase the child tax credit and negotiate a new bilateral tax treaty with Taiwan, among other matters.

The child tax credit was first enacted in 1997 to provide parents with greater funds to care for children under the age of 17 and was expanded in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act, though that expansion expired in 2022 and has not been reauthorized. The new deal — known as the “The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024” — reached between Democrats and Republicans in Congress will change the way the tax credit is calculated, increase the credit every year until 2025 and index it to inflation, according to a technical summary of the plan published by the House Ways and Means Committee.

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