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In this Jan. 10, 2017, photo, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., accompanied by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. For decades, congressional Republicans have pushed to slash the budget and reduce the size of the federal government, especially during the eight years Democratic President Barack Obama was in office.
WASHINGTON Before the election, conventional wisdom had the GOP coming apart, had the Tea Party at war with traditional Republicans, and had fiscal hawks battling social conservatives. After the election, it was the Democratic Party coming apart, losing an election to a reality TV star and losing touch with blue-collar white voters, once the core of Democratic support.
The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to condemn a United Nations resolution critical of Israeli settlements as anti-Israel and one-sided, in a rebuke of the Obama administration's decision to allow the resolution to pass. The U.N. resolution, which passed in late December 14 to 0 with an abstention from the United States, declares Israeli settlements a "flagrant violation under international law" and describes east Jerusalem and the Western Wall as "occupied Palestinian territory."
House Republican leaders say their top regulatory targets will be President Barack Obama's rules to reduce methane emissions and to lessen the environmental impact of coal mining on the nation's streams From left, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La. meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, following a closed-door meeting with the GOP caucus to disucss repeal of President Obama's health care law now that the GOP is in charge of White House and Congress.
The new GOP era in Washington got off to a messy start Tuesday as House Republicans, under pressure from President-elect Donald Trump, abruptly dropped plans to gut an independent congressional ethics board. The dizzying about-face came as lawmakers convened for the first day of the 115th Congress, an occasion normally reserved for pomp and ceremony under the Capitol Dome.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, arrives for the opening of the 115th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3, 2017. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, arrives for the opening of the 115th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3, 2017.
Despite the hue and cry over President-elect Donald J. Trump and his use of social media to make pronouncements that might be, or might not be, new public policy, DJT's use of 140 characters or less is getting the kind of attention that customary and longwinded political orations rarely attract. “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority ...” - @realDonaldTrump.
President-elect Trump Tuesday criticized House Republicans for moving to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics in a closed-door vote Monday night, saying their attention should be focused elsewhere and hinting they had violated the spirit of his campaign slogan, "drain the swamp." "With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority," the incoming Republican president wrote in a pair of tweets.
House Republicans voted to rein in the power of the independent ethics office that was initiated in 2008 after Congress members went to jail for corruption. The decision to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics was made on late Monday, without any notice or debate on the subject.
Washington, Jan 3 - US House Republicans, overriding their top leaders, voted to rein in an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the wake of a series of embarrassing congressional scandals, the media reported. The move to effectively kill the Office of Congressional Ethics was not made public until late Monday, when Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that the House Republican Conference had approved the change.
Congress is sending President Barack Obama legislation to give the Congressional Gold Medal to World War II spies who served behind enemy lines in Nazi Germany and the Pacific theater. The Office of Strategic Services was formed in 1942 and at one point employed almost 13,000 men and women recruited from all branches of the military.
Congress may vote to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law before coming up with a replacement, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday. The approach could allow congressional Republicans to take swift action on one of President-elect Donald Trump's campaign promises, while putting off the hard part.
President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants to impose punishment on people who burn American flags, possibly including imprisonment or loss of U.S citizenship. Trump floated the sanctions, which would run counter to a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in an early-morning "Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!" Trump said.
SEPTEMBER 13: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan reacts to being asked about his previous reluctance to support Donald Trump during a news conference with U.S. Republican vice presidental candidate Gov. Mike Pence and other House GOP leaders following a weekly policy meeting at the Republican headquaters on Capitol Hill September 13, 2016 in Washington, DC. When asked about former vice presidential candidate Ryan's reluctance to endorse Republican presidential candidate, Pence said that the House Republicans and the campaign agree on a plan for America.
Congressional Republicans are already on the defensive about President-elect Donald Trump's decision to give former Breitbart News chief Steve Bannon a senior job in his White House. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was pressed by reporters in Washington Monday on the appropriateness of Trump's choice of someone who has been a leading figure in the so-called alt-right conservative movement.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday said people need to elect Donald Trump as the next president and that he's concerned about issues like the U.S. Supreme Court and foreign policy. "I want to see this country change.
In the first of what could be the start of what could be a national public relations nightmare, California lawmakers from both sides of the aisle piled on the Pentagon after reports it is forcing vets to repay enlistment bonuses improperly paid to thousands of National Guard soldiers a decade ago. Nearly 10,000 California National Guard soldiers have been ordered to repay huge enlistment bonuses a decade after signing up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Saturday.
Congressman Kevin McCarthy will hold a forum in Bakersfield for students in the 23rd Congressional District interested in attending one of the U.S. Service Academies on Oct. 29, 2016. "Our nation's Service Academies provide our students with the opportunity to obtain an excellent education and also equip our young people with the skills to become great leaders," said Congressman McCarthy.
In a conference call Monday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan reportedly told Republican members of the lower chamber that he will no longer defend Donald Trump or campaign with him before Election Day, and he urged them to focus their efforts on their own re-elections. According to Politico, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy echoed Ryan, who disinvited Trump from a unity rally in Wisconsin over the weekend after the GOP nominee came under fire for sexually explicit comments he made in 2005 that were released Friday.
Welch won both the Democratic and Republican nominations in August for re-election this year to a sixth term, and faces a little known candidate in November from the small Liberty Union political party. Winning both major party nominations is rare but not unheard of.