Category: US House of Representatives

Here’s what we know from the House hearing with FBI Director James Comey

Here’s what we know from the House hearing with FBI Director James Comey FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers appeared Monday before the House Intelligence Committee Check out this story on jconline.com: http://usat.ly/2mIt7Hx FBI Director James Comey says the FBI and Justice Department have no information to substantiate President Donald Trump’s claims that former President Barack Obama wiretapped him before the election. FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers appeared Monday before the House Intelligence Committee .

Sununu reaffirms Northern Pass support during Canada visit

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is reaffirming his commitment to the Northern Pass transmission line project and calling for revisions to NAFTA in a visit to Canada New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, left, greets Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard after being introduced at a foreign relations luncheon Monday, March 20, 2017 in Montreal. Sununu is in Quebec to discuss the economic relationship between the two and meet with business, political and community leaders.

Roger Stone a focus at Comey Russia hearing

Longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone was mentioned several times at Monday’s House hearing on Russian involvement in the 2016 campaign. The Trump confidant was mentioned by Democrats pressing FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers over alleged links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

US Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal, Clearing Way for Pretrial Litigation in Menendez Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to immediately take up a petition of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, claiming that corruption charges against him are pre-empted by the speech or debate clause of the Constitution. The court’s Monday order denying certiorari, clears the way for U.S. District Judge William Walls of the District of New Jersey to resume pretrial proceedings, which have been on hold since Menendez filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in November 2015.

FBI director confirms probe of Trump campaign and Russia

FBI director James Comey confirmed that the bureau is investigating whether there was coordination between Russian officials and President Donald Trump’s campaign during the 2016 presidential campaign. The House Intelligence Committee opened hearings on Monday to determine the extent of Russian interference and whether campaign officials from either side helped.

FILE – This Wednesday, March 1, 2017, file photo shows President…

This Wednesday, March 1, 2017, file photo shows President Donald Trump, flanked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., left, and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., right as he speaks during a meeting with House and Senate leadership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. The president is deploying an outside and inside strategy to fulfill his campaign promise to repeal and replace “Obamacare,” seeking support beyond Washington before making an in-person pitch on Capitol Hill.

In 1st budget, Trump to push conservative view of government

President Donald Trump sends Congress a proposed budget this week that will sharply test Republicans’ ability to keep long-standing promises to bolster the military, making politically painful cuts to a lengthy list of popular domestic programs. The Republican president will ask his adopted political party, which runs Capitol Hill, to cut domestic agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, along with grants to state and local governments and community development projects.

Schiff: ‘I’m very pleased’ with increase in FBI cooperation

Ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, on Sunday said the FBI director has increasingly started to work with his group’s investigation into Russia’s role in hacks during the 2016 presidential election. “I have been critical of the FBI and their willingness to cooperate in the investigation.

HHS: ‘Nobody will be worse off financially’ with new bill

Health and Human Services Sec. Tom Price Sunday vowed no Americans would suffer financially as a result of the healthcare replacement bill House Republicans have rolled out and hope to pass soon. “I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we’re going through,” Price told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd.

White House told to prove wire-tap

The White House says President Trump did not know until this week that his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had been working as a representative for Turkey, although the issue was raised with the Trump team before the Republican took office. THE Republican-chaired intelligence committee has demanded the Trump administration provide evidence to back the US president’s claim that Barack Obama “tapped his wires”.

Texas redistricting plan violates Voting Rights Act, judges say

A three-judge panel in a Texas redistricting case has ruled that the Texas Legislature’s 2011 congressional redistricting plan discriminated against minority voters. The judges in a San Antonio federal district court concluded in a 2-1 vote late Friday that the drawing of some of the state’s congressional districts violated the federal Voting Rights Act or the U.S. Constitution.

Patricia Jones: Should Salt Lake County be a pizza or a doughnut?

Rep. Jason Chaffetz listens to questions as many of those in attendance hold signs and yell during a town hall meeting at Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017. Do you prefer pizza or doughnuts? And what do those food items have to do with a raucous, crowded town hall meeting recently held in Salt Lake County by U.S. Congressman Jason Chaffetz? Lest it be lost on Chaffetz and others who are scratching their heads in wonder or dismissing the town hall attendees as simply left-leaning outsiders: Salt Lake County residents had a pizza-shaped redistricting plan forced down their collective throats as a result of the 2010 reapportionment process.

World Briefs: 3-12-17

A Manhattan federal prosecutor who says “absolute independence” was his touchstone for over seven years as he battled public corruption announced he was fired Saturday after he refused a request a day earlier to resign. Preet Bharara, 48, made the announcement on his personal Twitter account after it became widely known hours earlier that he did not intend to step down in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ request that leftover appointees of former President Barack Obama quit.

Under Trump, the Moon regains interest as possible destination

Washington: Dismissed by former US president Barack Obama as a place explorers had already seen, the Moon has once again gained interest as a potential destination under Donald Trump’s presidency. Private sector companies in particular are energized by the prospect of future space exploration missions beyond low-Earth orbit, where the International Space Station circles the Earth.

Judges: Texas redistricting plan violates Voting Rights Act

A three-judge panel in a Texas redistricting case has ruled that the Texas Legislature’s 2011 congressional redistricting plan discriminated against minority voters. The judges in a San Antonio federal district court concluded in a 2-1 vote late Friday that the drawing of some of the state’s congressional districts violated the federal Voting Rights Act or the US Constitution.

We can’t rest on substance abuse

Though they disagree strongly about many aspects of government spending, the vast majority of West Virginia legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, understand one thing: The state is broke. Any thought of new spending had better be based on real necessity.

Now-fired US Attorney Bharara boasts of a absolute independencea

A Manhattan federal prosecutor who says “absolute independence” was his touchstone for more than seven years as he battled public corruption announced he was fired Saturday after he refused a day earlier to resign. Preet Bharara, 48, revealed his firing on his personal Twitter account after it became widely known hours earlier that he did not intend to step down in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ request that leftover appointees of former President Barack Obama quit.

Now-fired Preet Bharara boasts of ‘absolute independence’

A Manhattan federal prosecutor who says “absolute independence” was his touchstone for over seven years as he battled public corruption announced he was fired Saturday after he refused a day earlier to resign. Preet Bharara, 48, revealed his firing on his personal Twitter account after it became widely known hours earlier that he did not intend to step down in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ request that leftover appointees of former President Barack Obama quit.

The Latest: Top House Democrat seeks listing of Trump probes

Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the House Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, wants a summary of probes linked to President Donald Trump in light of the dismissal of dozens of federal prosecutors. Conyers says in a release that Saturday’s firing of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is a particular problem.

Mike Pence To Keynote AIPAC Conference

WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence and a bipartisan slate of top members of Congress are scheduled to address AIPAC’s upcoming annual conference. An American Israel Public Affairs Committee official confirmed to JTA that Pence will keynote the conference scheduled for March 26-28 in Washington, D.C. Pence, who enjoyed a long relationship with the pro-Israel lobby as a congressman and later as Indiana governor – but as a local congressman in 2009, told AIPAC that he didn’t know of the three synagogues in his district – spoke last month at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual confab and has taken a lead in condemning recent anti-Semitic incidents.

Pence appeals for complete GOP support for health overhaul

Vice President Mike Pence appealed for total GOP congressional support for a White House-backed health overhaul during a brief visit Saturday to Kentucky, where the Republican governor and junior senator are among the plan’s skeptics. “This is going to be a battle in Washington, D.C. And for us to seize this opportunity to repeal and replace Obamacare once and for all, we need every Republican in Congress, and we’re counting on Kentucky,” Pence said at an energy company where business leaders had gathered.

Pence Promises Kentucky Its Obamacare `Nightmare’ About to End

Vice President Mike Pence said the “nightmare” of Obamacare will soon end as he visited Kentucky in hopes of drumming up some good publicity for a contentious health bill that’s united many conservatives and liberals — as well as doctors, seniors and “Obamacare has failed the people of Kentucky it has failed the people of America and Obamacare must go,” Pence told told an invited audience of about 100 mostly small business owners and Republican backers in Louisville.

GOP Acts Fast on Health Care, Aims to Avoid Ire Dems Faced

It took former President Barack Obama and his Democrats more than a year to pass the Affordable Care Act, a slow and painstaking process that allowed plenty of time for a fierce backlash to ignite, undermining the law from the very start. Republicans are trying to avoid that pitfall as they attempt to fulfill years’ worth of promises to repeal and replace Obama’s law.

Federal judges find Texas gerrymandered maps on racial lines – Sat, 11 Mar 2017 PST

Federal judges found more problems in Texas’ voting rights laws, ruling that Republicans racially gerrymandered some congressional districts to weaken the growing electoral power of minorities, who former President Barack Obama set out to protect at the ballot box before leaving office. The ruling late Friday by a three-judge panel in San Antonio gave Democrats hope of new, more favorably drawn maps that could turn over more seats in Congress in 2018.

Federal judges find Texas gerrymandered maps on racial lines

Federal judges found more problems in Texas’ voting rights laws, ruling that Republicans racially gerrymandered some congressional districts to weaken the growing electoral power of minorities, who former President Barack Obama set out to protect at the ballot box before leaving office. The ruling late Friday by a three-judge panel in San Antonio gave Democrats hope of new, more favorably drawn maps that could turn over more seats in Congress in 2018.

Panel voids 3 Texas congressional districts

In a 2-1 ruling, the panel concluded that race, instead of partisan advantage, drove the decisions by the Republican-controlled Legislature to redraw District 23, which is held by U.S. Rep. Will Hurd , R-San Antonio; District 35, which stretches from Austin to San Antonio and is held by Democrat U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett , and District 27, which includes Nueces County. The nearly 200-page ruling invalidates those districts, and could have a filter-down effect on nearby districts if the ruling stands.

Illinois congressman objects to men purchasing prenatal care

Illinois Republican Rep. John Shimkus is under fire after comments he made Wednesday about prenatal requirements in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. During a 27-hour debate on House Republicans’ health care plan in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Shimkus suggested men could be opposed to former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law because under the law they are required to pay for prenatal care.

How healthy are you? GOP bill would help employers find out

A bill in Congress could make it harder for workers to keep employers from getting access to their personal medical and genetic information and raise the financial penalties for those who opt out of workplace wellness programs. House Republicans are proposing legislation aimed at making it easier for companies to gather genetic data from workers and their families, including their children, when they collect it as part of a voluntary wellness program.