The Pentagon Has Avoided Audit For 27 Years

To achieve this budget, which is expected to sail through the Senate after the Thanksgiving break, Congress will have to raise the caps set into place during the Budget Control Act. But if there is a will - which there certainly is, considering the powerful defense industry lobby, coupled with members' own special interests for their districts - there is a way.

Roy Moore lawyer calls accuser’s account into question, demands yearbook

Attorney Phillip L. Jauregui says Judge Roy Moore has been falsely accused, wants Gloria Allred to release Beverly Young Nelson's yearbook for handwriting analysis. An attorney for Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore on Wednesday called into question the account of the fifth woman to accuse the candidate of past sexual misconduct, demanding she turn over evidence for an expert to review.

Senate Judiciary Committee member Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican .(Associated Press) ** FILE **

The American Bar Association said Wednesday it didn't ask one of President Trump's judicial nominees about his personal opinions on abortion, saying the ABA's negative evaluation of him was instead based on peers who doubted he could leave his politics behind if he becomes a federal judge. Pamela Bresnahan, chair of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, was defending her organization's role in the vetting process for federal judges, which involves rating a president's picks.

Blumenthal, Leahy reveal consumer data security bill

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal in October 2017 in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday, Nov. 15, Blumenthal announced alongside U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy and four other senators a proposed Consumer Privacy Protection Act that among other aims would penalize companies if they do not notify consumers promptly of breaches in their payment card systems and other databases storing sensitive information.

The Drug Price Relief Act, defeated soundly in Ohio last week, is coming to a state near you in 2018

People in Ohio, including some residents of Steubenville, voted against a ballot initiative that would require the state to pay no more for prescription drugs than the federal Department of Veterans Affairs does. However, the man behind the ballot, Michael Weinstein, hopes to get it on several states' ballots ahead of next year's mid-term elections.

Roy Moore’s lawyer challenges Alabama woman’s claim of sexual assault

The Senate campaign of Roy Moore of Alabama sought Wednesday to discredit a woman's accusation that he sexually assaulted her when she was 16, suggesting that what looks like his signature on her high school yearbook could be a forgery. Moore's attorney, Phillip L. Jauregui, Jr., also disputed a statement by Beverly Young Nelson that she'd had no contact with Moore since the alleged assault took place in 1977 in Gadsden, Ala.

The GOP Has Its First Casualty In Tax Reform Push

Well, the smooth road to tax reform just it a bump with Sen. Ron Johnson signaling that he will be a "no" vote on the legislation. The Wisconsin Republican is the first to definitively say he will be against the bill, as he feels it gives too much to corporations at the expense of other businesses.

2017 Silver Eagle Award Honors Merlyn Carlson

Nebraska Farm Bureau has selected former Nebraska Director of Agriculture Merlyn Carlson as the 2017 recipient of its highest honor, the Silver Eagle Award. The award will be presented to Carlson on Merlyn Carlson and his wife Janice raised their family on their ranch near Lodgepole, where they raised cattle.

1st GOP senator opposes tax bill in early sign of problems

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., points to boxes of petitions supporting the Republican tax reform bill that is set for a vote later this week as he arrives for a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tue... WASHINGTON - Wisconsin's Ron Johnson on Wednesday became the first Republican senator to say he opposes his party's tax bill, signaling potential problems for GOP leaders. Passage of a similar package seemed certain Thursday in the House, where a handful of dissidents conceded they expected to be steamrolled by a GOP frantic to claim its first major legislative victory of the year.

Trump Court Pick Says He Was Joking When He Compared Gay Marriage To Marrying Bacon

One of President Donald Trump 's judicial nominees, Don Willett, said Wednesday he was just kidding that time he compared gay people's constitutional right to marriage with a right to marry bacon. Willett, nominated for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, told the Senate Judiciary Committee he wasn't mocking same-sex marriage when he tweeted in April 2015 that he "could support recognizing a constitutional right to marry bacon" - a day after the Supreme Court heard arguments in the landmark marriage equality case.

Judge Grilled Over Past Tweets At Judicial Confirmation Hearing

Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, one of President Donald Trump's nominees to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, appeared Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Senate Democrats grilled him over statements made on his popular Twitter feed. Willett appeared with James Ho of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, another nominee to the 5th Circuit, the New Orleans-based federal appeals court.

GOP Inches Closer To Opening ANWR To Drilling

Legislation to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration advanced out of a Senate committee on Wednesday, largely along party lines. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, joined with GOP lawmakers to pass ANWR legislation in a 13-10 vote.

New money: Mnuchin and Carranza signatures now on the dollar bill

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on Wednesday to see firsthand the production of new $1 bills, the first currency that will bear his signature. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Treasurer Jovita Carranza were on hand at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Wednesday to see the production of the new dollar bill bearing their signatures.

Hatch Defends ‘Obamacare’ Repeal in Tax Bill

The head of the Senate's tax-writing committee is defending the decision to include in the tax bill a repeal of the Obamacare requirement for Americans to get health insurance. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Wednesday the requirement that nearly everyone have insurance coverage or face a fine is a tax.

No, The Electoral College Isn’t Rigged to Favor Rural Trumpism

It's time to shed the mythical claim that electoral features of the United States Constitution somehow infuse our national political system with a rural Republicanism, conservatism, or Trumpism. This charge appears prominently in Nancy MacLean's controversial book Democracy in Chains , which cites the U.S. Senate's equal representation clause as well as the Electoral College as evidence of the Constitution's anti-democratic features.