Tag: House of Representatives

Democrats Reject GOP Proposal to Deny Raises to Federal Workers Disciplined for Sexual Misconduct

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by Jason Hopkins   House Democrats defeated a Republican-led provision to deny raises to federal employees who have been disciplined for sexual misconduct. Lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to give civilian federal employees a 2.6 percent pay raise this year. However, Democrats successfully blocked a GOP provision that would have withheld raises for employees penalized for sexual misconduct. “During calendar year 2019, no increase in pay as authorized under this Act may be provided to any Federal employee who has been disciplined for sexual misconduct under chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code, or any other provision of law,” read the text of the provision. The proposal, despite receiving support from 189 Republicans and 17 Democrats, was ultimately defeated by a vote of 216-206. “As Washington Democrats continue their ill-advised push for unilateral pay raises for federal employees, regardless of their performance, Republicans continue to ask Democrats to amend their legislation,” Erin Perrine, a spokeswoman for House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, said in a statement provided to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Currently this bill treats victims the same as their harassers. That makes no sense.” Among the Democratic lawmakers who voted against the proposal…

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House Votes Overwhelmingly to Prohibit Exit From NATO

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The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill affirming congressional support for NATO, amid renewed concerns over President Donald Trump’s commitment to the 29-member alliance. The bipartisan NATO Support Act, which forbids the use of funds to withdraw from the alliance and states that it is U.S. policy to remain part of the alliance, passed by a 357-22 vote. Beside asserting Congress’s control over the money, the bill reaffirms U.S. backing of NATO and its mutual defense clause. It also voices support for Montenegro, its newest member, and for “robust” U.S. funding for the European Deterrence Initiative, and for the goal that each alliance member spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense by 2024. Just hours before the vote, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell, the top U.S. diplomat to Europe and an outspoken NATO supporter, tendered his resignation amid strained ties in trans-Atlantic relations. The House vote and Mitchell’s resignation come amid tensions with European leaders over Washington’s commitment to NATO and transatlantic ties in general. The New York Times, citing federal government sources, recently reported that Trump put forward the idea of withdrawing the United States from…

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Commentary: Trump Is Right, Congress Needs to Do Its Job

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by Rachel Bovard   As the partial government shutdown enters its third week with little hope of an end in sight, President Trump continues to demand funding for a southern border wall. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) flat out refuses to pass any funding at all. In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has washed his hands of the matter, telling Trump to work it out with Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) while he moves the Senate onto other topics. Predictably, both chambers clocked out for the weekend on Thursday afternoon. When senators and House members make the rounds on the upcoming Sunday shows wringing their hands about the shutdown, somebody might ask why they only worked less than three days this week. Apparently, the crisis at the border, and the resulting government shutdown, are an emergency to everyone except the people responsible for addressing it. In the face of congressional intransigence, President Trump has toyed with the idea of declaring a national emergency. On Friday, the president said that option was currently off the table, and with good reason. Although funding the wall through an emergency declaration is likely legal, it would create more problems for the president than it solves, both politically and practically.…

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Tennessee House Leadership Selections This Month Will Set the Stage for 2019 Session of the General Assembly

Laura Baigert

Now that the public voting is over and Tennessee state representatives and senators have been elected for the next two or four years, respectively, each legislative body goes about their own nomination process to select their leaders.  The outcome of the selection process will be a strong indication about the direction of the upcoming 111th Tennessee General Assembly. The State House, in particular, will begin its massive changes in leadership in less than two weeks. The two most senior members of the House of Representatives, Beth Harwell (Nashville) and Steve McDaniel (Lobelville), both Republicans who served 15 terms each, are gone. Harwell served as Speaker of the House, the first woman to do so, and McDaniel was the Deputy Speaker, a position appointed by the Speaker. While the “Red Wall” of the House held off a “Blue Wave,” retaining its super majority and losing just one seat holding 73 of the 99 total, there are 25 new members. With one quarter of the body being new, the most since reconstruction, out of sheer necessity there will be changes to the chairmanships and members of the 15 standing committees and 14 non-standing subcommittees of the House. House leadership is more important…

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Despite Opposition From Some Democrats, Pelosi Likely to Be House Speaker Again

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by Fred Lucas   During the 2018 election campaign cycle, nearly 60 Democratic House candidates and incumbents said they would not vote for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California to become speaker again if their party retakes control of the House. Dozens of other Democratic candidates declined to give a definitive answer when asked if they supported making Pelosi speaker again. Nevertheless, most analyst predicted she would take the speaker’s gavel in January if party control flips. “I think there is a 10 percent chance she’s in trouble,” said Tom Del Beccaro, former chairman of the California Republican Party. “She is a prodigious fundraiser and will keep her leadership.” As of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, with results still being counted, Democrats had gained three more seats than the 23 they needed to regain control of the House for the first time since 2010. (In the Senate, Republicans had picked up four seats–in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota–to increase their majority.) Pelosi served as the first female speaker of the House for four years after Democrats captured the House of Representatives in 2006, until Republicans took it back in the 2010 midterm elections. But she has been an unpopular figure with…

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Commentary: No Wall, No House, No Surprise

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by Natalia Castro   Republicans would have loved to win the House last night, but unfortunately, they did not deserve it, as they lost at least 26 seats and more likely 30 or so. After failing to solve our countries immigration problem time and time again, it should not be surprising that voters were not enthused to head to the polls on Tuesday. Now with a Democratic House ready to take power in 2019, the lame duck is now perhaps the last chance to get the wall built and if Republicans want a chance in 2020 this must be their focus. President Donald Trump requested $25 billion to fund a defensive wall along the U.S. Southern border. In his first two years in office, with a Republican majority in Congress, only $1.6 billion has been allocated to fund this wall. While Trump has optimistically called this a “down payment” with full funding coming in the near future, that funding has yet to materialize — and the Republican voters knew it. The truth is, House Republicans had ample opportunity to prove to the American people that building the wall is not just a rallying cry, but an actual policy objective. Republicans…

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Pelosi Outlines Agenda if Democrats Retake House

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Projecting confidence about her party’s chances, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi outlined five of the top 10 agenda items Democrats will pursue if they retake the House in next month’s election. Lowering health care costs, rebuilding infrastructure, and running the House chamber with more transparency and openness are near the top of the Democratic agenda, Pelosi said during a talk Tuesday at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. Democrats would also prioritize giving legal status to young immigrants, known informally as Dreamers, and strengthening background checks on gun purchases, she said. Democrats need to gain 23 seats to take control of the House from Republicans, something surveys suggest is within reach. “If the election were today, we would win the majority,” Pelosi said. The California Democrat said she couldn’t predict whether the election would be a “wave” or “tsunami” for her party, but said she expected it to triumph, putting her in line to regain the speaker’s gavel. “I’ve never seen anything like the mobilization that is out there, the grass roots,” she said. One item not on Pelosi’s top 10 list: impeaching President Donald Trump. “I think impeachment, to use that word, is very divisive,” she said. Instead, she said House committees…

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House Defunds D.C.’s Attempt to Restore the Obamacare Individual Mandate

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Eleanor Holmes Norton

By Robert Romano   The House of Representatives voted 226 to 189 to prohibit the use of funds for District of Columbia’s Health Insurance Requirement Amendment Act of 2018 in an amendment to H.R. 6147 by U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ga.). The D.C. law would require, beginning in 2019, that D.C. residents maintain individual health insurance coverage or else face a local tax penalty. The law was passed in response to Congress repealing the Obamacare individual mandate in the tax cut law that President Donald Trump signed into law. The amendment was supported by Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning in a statement prior to the vote. Manning said, “Considering Congress explicitly ended this practice already, D.C. has absolutely no authority to compel individuals to purchase insurance, something the House can clarify today by passing U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer’s amendment. The D.C. government operates under Article I of the Constitution, and it is up to Congress to ensure that it is carrying out the laws of the United States.” Manning’s statement earned the ire of D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who tweeted at Americans for Limited Government, “Anyone else find it ironic that a conservative group named ‘Americans for Limited Government’ is calling on Members of Congress to…

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The Tennessee Star Announces A Week Long Letters to the Editor ‘Endorse-A-Rama’ for the Last Week of July

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Letter to the Editor

The 2018 election season is in full swing, and with primary election day just a few short weeks away, we thought we would ask who your candidate of choice is for the record number of candidates running for open seats this year! Starting Monday, June 25th, we will begin accepting Letter to the Editor Endorsements for publication consideration. We will continue receiving them until Friday, July 20. The letters will appear throughout the week of July 22. Are you a ‘Matheny Man,’ or is Judge Bob Corlew your candidate of choice? John Rose? Tell us why! Who should replace State Rep. Charles Sargent? And State Rep. Shelia Butt? Should Bill Lee be the next governor, or do you think Diane Black can bring more to the table? We want to hear about it! Now, let’s remember this is a family website, so no profanity or un-sourced, ad-hoc attacks, please. Here is a comprehensive list we put together from The Tennessean and The Green Papers of the all the candidates – Gubernatorial, US House and Senate, and State House and Senate – in challenged races qualified to run as of the last candidate deadline April 5: Tennessee Governor Republican: Diane Lynn Black, Randy Boyd,…

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Is Your Representative Playing In The Congressional Baseball Game?

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Congressional baseball game group photo

by Evie Fordham   Sixty members of Congress will take the field for the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity on Thursday night in Washington, D.C. Click here to find the complete roster. Twenty-four Democrats and 36 Republicans will face each other at Nationals Park. Notable politicians playing include Republicans Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rep. Mia Love of Utah and, of course, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Scalise was shot when a gunman opened fire at a Republican congressional baseball practice in 2017. Five people were wounded, and Scalise was hospitalized for months, undergoing multiple surgeries after being shot in the hip. He will be the starting second baseman for a team hoping to earn victory over the Democrats, who beat the Republicans 11-2 in 2017. The game is available to watch on Facebook Live; the first pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. Eastern time. The congressional baseball game offers Republicans and Democrats a chance to cross party lines for a good cause. The event will support charities like The Washington Literacy Center, The Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation. – – – Evie Fordham is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Evie on Twitter @eviefordham.            …

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More Than 100 Conservatives Call For Jordan To Run For Speaker

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Jim Jordan, Paul Ryan

by Robert Donachie   A coalition of more than 100 conservatives sent a letter to House Freedom Caucus (HFC) co-founder Jim Jordan Monday urging him to throw his name in to replace outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. “There must be a real race for Speaker of the House. Now. No backroom deals. A real race, starting this spring, to make every incumbent and candidate commit on the record, as a campaign issue, whether they’ll vote to save the Swamp or drain it,” the letter reads. “America needs you to declare yourself as a candidate for Speaker at once. We write to you on behalf of millions of Americans who want Congress to Drain the Swamp.” Ryan rattled Capitol Hill in April when he announced he will retire from the House after nearly 20 years in Congress, telling reporters he wanted to spend more time with his family and pursue other opportunities. Two of the top House Republicans — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana — are angling for the position, but neither thought to have a guaranteed lock on the speakership. McCarthy failed to garner the 218 required votes to…

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Commentary: Leading Conservative Organizations Unite Behind Jim Jordan For Speaker

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Jim Jordan

by CHQ staff   The count of conservative organizations urging principled limited government constitutional conservative Representative Jim Jordan (OH-4) to run for Speaker of the House has now passed ten, with FedUp PAC, headed by CHQ Chairman Richard A. Viguerie, coming out in favor of Jordan to replace RINO Speaker Paul Ryan. Our friends at FreedomWorks posted a statement from president and CEO Adam Brandon saying: Jim Jordan is the only name that received unanimous consent from the FreedomWorks Activist Advisory Council. The level of grassroots energy surrounding a Jordan speakership campaign is something we haven’t seen in years. It indicates to us that selecting a truly conservative speaker would change the entire momentum of the 2018 midterm election cycle. Our activists believe this speakership campaign is the battle that will determine the future of the Republican Party. If Republicans in Congress really want to see the swamp drain, Rep. Jordan is the guy that’s going to work with President Trump to get it done. A House with Speaker Jordan at the gavel would actually pass laws, stand on principle, and cut spending. Speaker Jordan would make Congress work again. Mac Stoddard, FreedomWorks Digital Director says, “In less than 24 hours,…

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Rep. Diane Black Will Step Down as House Budget Committee Chair After Trump Tax Cut Victory

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Diane Black

In an op-ed appearing on FoxNews.com, Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06) announced Wednesday she will step down as House Budget Committee Chair in time for the Republican House Leadership to select a new Chair in January.  While she will no longer be in that leadership role, she will continue to serve in Congress as she campaigns to be Tennessee’s next Governor. “What a difference a year makes,” she begins: Twelve months ago, the country was ending one of the most fiscally irresponsible presidencies of the modern age. Now we’re wrapping up a year of bold fiscal leadership from President Trump and conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives. I became chairman of the House Budget Committee one year ago and have been proud to serve in that role along with our new president. He has pushed an agenda of action – responsible budgeting, repealing ObamaCare’s worst mandates, and aggressive tax-cutting to get our economy going. This has been exactly the kind of work I came to Congress to do and we have done it. But my heart has always been at home. This why today I’m announcing that I will now step down as chairman of the House Budget Committee, while continuing…

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Democrat Pundit and Former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. Fired by Morgan Stanley for Allegedly Harassing, Intimidating, and Forcibly Grabbing a Woman

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Harold Ford

Former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr was summarily dismissed from his position at a Managing Director at the investment firm Morgan Stanley amid an internal investigation by its Human Resource department, the Huffington Post reports. In an email to the progressive news and opinion giant, a Morgan Stanley spokesperson wrote, “He has been terminated for conduct inconsistent with our values and in violation of our policies.” At issue is an allegation by a woman Morgan Stanley says is not an employee, but interfaces with Ford in a professional capacity. She alleges he forcibly grabbed her and subsequently harassed her for a date. For his part, Ford denies the claim, saying in a statement via Twitter, “I support and have tremendous respect for the brave women now speaking out in this important national dialogue. False claims like this though undermine the real silence breakers.” The Huffington Post has interviewed the woman at the center of the allegation, and have agreed to keep her identity private: In two interviews with HuffPost, the woman alleged that Ford engaged in harassment, intimidation, and forcibly grabbed her one evening in Manhattan, leading her to seek aid from a building security guard. The incident took place several…

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Sources: Democratic Aide Suspected of Major Security Breach on Capitol Hill Now Under Government Protection in Pakistan

Tennessee Star Staff

A criminal suspect in an investigation into a major security breach on the House of Representatives computer network has abruptly left the country and gone to Pakistan, where her family has significant assets and VIP-level protection, a relative and others told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group. Hina Alvi, her husband Imran Awan, and his…

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House IT Aides Fear Suspects in Hill Breach Are Blackmailing Members With Their Own Data

Tennessee Star Staff

Congressional technology aides are baffled that data-theft allegations against four former House IT workers — who were banned from the congressional network — have largely been ignored, and they fear the integrity of sensitive high-level information. Imran Awan and three relatives were colleagues until police banned them from computer networks at the House of Representatives after…

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Commentary: GOP Health Care Plan Would Fundamentally Change Medicaid

Tennessee Star Staff

Obscured by the largely over pre-existing conditions, the Obamacare rewrite by the House of Representatives would usher in the most significant changes ever to one of America’s largest entitlement programs. The American Health Care Act faces almost-certain major changes in the Senate. But as passed by the House, it would phase out the Medicaid expansion created…

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