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US House Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 24, 2017 13 Comments
Lawyer Melanie Sloan has come forward with inappropriate behavior that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) used towards her, which included verbal abuse and comments about her appearance. This happened when she worked as a Democratic counsel for the House Judiciary Committee in the 1990s, which Conyers still serves on as ranking member. From The Detroit Free Press:
She said he criticized her for not wearing stockings on at least one occasion. On another, she said he ordered her backstage from a committee field hearing on crime she had organized in New York City to babysit one of his children. Sloan made clear that she did not feel she had ever been sexually harassed, but that she felt “mistreated by this guy.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on November 22, 2017 31 Comments
After clearly stating that as president he had no power to change immigration law, then-president Obama went ahead in 2012 with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).  Obama himself referred to DACA as his "action to change the law," a power vested in the legislature, not the executive. In 2010, Obama told an audience of amnesty proponents that he's "not king" and "can't do these things just by myself."  In 2011, he explained further, "that he couldn't "just bypass Congress and change the (immigration) law myself. ... That's not how a democracy works."  And in 2012, he did it anyway. Then-presidential candidate Trump campaigned on ending DACA, and in September, he announced his decision to end DACA after giving Congress six months to pass it into law.  Passing DACA or some equivalent into law is perfectly within the purview of Congress.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 21, 2017 14 Comments
BuzzFeed has reported that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the longest serving member in the House and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, settled a wrongful dismissal complaint with a former female employee after she alleged he fired her for dismissing his sexual advances in 2015. She's not the only one he sexually harassed:
Documents from the complaint obtained by BuzzFeed News include four signed affidavits, three of which are notarized, from former staff members who allege that Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sexual favors, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public. Four people involved with the case verified the documents are authentic.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on November 18, 2017 37 Comments
Last weekend, I wrote about the 2018 fate of the GOP House majority ultimately being in the hands of Republicans.  They've been granted an immense honor in being bestowed with majorities in both Houses of Congress and the White House, yet they are losing support amongst their voters, including most alarmingly amongst independents.  The remedy, I proposed, was going all-in on President Trump's agenda; after all, his agenda is more popular than the GOP, Congress, and even the president himself.  What, I asked, do they have to lose? Instead of fulfilling their campaign promises and the president's agenda, the GOP is tying itself in knots trying to be more progressive than the progressives and more anti-Trump than antifa.  This leaves them in a bad situation going into 2018 because they will never win Democrat or progressive votes and are losing the Independents votes they did have on the merits of their campaign promises.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 17, 2017 17 Comments
The all Democrat Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CBC) rejected Rep. Carlos Curbelo's membership bid. The CBC actually thinks HIS motives were political, even though he is a Cuban American and "represents a Latino-heavy district in Miami." So why wouldn't they want him? Well, according to Politico, the Democrats have eyed his seat for the 2018 midterms.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 16, 2017 9 Comments
The GOP-controlled House passed a tax bill that eliminates many popular deductions, but reduces the tax brackets to three instead of seven and doubles standard deductions. It passed 227-205. However, 13 Republicans voted against the bill and no Democrats voted for it. This could spell gloom for it in the Senate, which the GOP holds a two seat majority.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on November 12, 2017 26 Comments
In one short year, the Republican majority in the U. S. House of Representatives has shifted from seemingly safe to somewhat in jeopardy.  The Democrats have an uphill battle in the Senate, defending 25 seats to the GOP's nine, but a number of circumstances and Tuesday's election results have improved Democrats' chances of retaking the House in 2018. It doesn't appear that Democrats are gaining because of anything they've accomplished; instead, Republicans appear to be losing ground because they have failed to accomplish key goals on which they campaigned throughout the Obama presidency.  From repealing ObamaCare to building the wall to tax and legal immigration reform, Congressional Republicans are disappointing the base who elected them to office on the strength of their promises, promises it has become increasingly clear too many had no intention of fulfilling.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 10, 2017 7 Comments
The House Ways and Means Committee passed its tax reform bill down party lines on Thursday after a week of markups. The House is the next step. The Senate has its own tax bill, which the two chambers will have to reconcile if each approves their own bill. From CNBC:
The House bill, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, while moderately reducing household income tax rates. It changes some popular provisions such as the mortgage interest deduction, but leaves others, like the 401(k) tax benefit, unchanged.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 09, 2017 3 Comments
The GOP has lost another in the House: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) will retire at the end of his term next year. Goodlatte is the third committee chairman to announce his retirement. So far, 19 GOP lawmakers have said they will not seek reelection. Roll Call said that around 22 representatives retire each cycle, but this one has hit hard since a lot of well-known members have decided to leave.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 07, 2017 10 Comments
SURPRISE! You didn't think the GOP tax reform bill would go off without a hitch, right? Because we all know that the government needs to keep spending so they can't cut too many taxes. The House Ways and Means Committee had a markup session on Monday and reports have emerged that multinational companies like Apple and Ford could possibly pay a 20% tax on any payments they make to offshore affiliates.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 03, 2017 15 Comments
Several GOP lawmakers have decided to retire at the end of this term and another one has joined the ranks: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who represents the 21st district, which includes San Antonio. From Texas Tribune:
"For several reasons, this seems like a good time to pass on the privilege of representing the 21st District to someone else," he wrote in an email obtained by the Tribune. "... With over a year remaining in my term, there is still much to do. There is legislation to enact, dozens of hearings to hold and hundreds of votes to cast."

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 02, 2017 26 Comments
The House GOP decided to wait a day to release its tax reform bill to smooth out some disagreements. That plan was finally released Thursday and like the framework President Donald Trump's administration released, it reduces the number of tax brackets, eliminates deductions, and reduces the corporate tax rate. But will it be enough to persuade the House Republicans from high-taxed states to pass the bill?

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 31, 2017 9 Comments
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has told The Dallas Morning News that he will retire at the end of his term:
"Today I am announcing that I will not seek reelection to the US Congress in 2018. Although service in Congress remains the greatest privilege of my life, I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned," Hensarling wrote to supporters today.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 26, 2017 7 Comments
The GOP-controlled House passed the budget on Thursday by a slim margin of 216-212. With the House and Senate budgets in sync, the lawmakers have activated a procedure that will allow a tax bill pass the Senate without a filibuster. The majority of Republicans that voted no hail from high taxed states since tax writers are toying with the idea to do away with state and local tax deductions.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2017 21 Comments
I've been keeping an eye on tax reform and ideas to make changes to 401(k) retirement funds have caught my eye. At first, tax writers wanted to tax your earnings before you place money in the fund. Then over the weekend they floated the idea of changing the pre-tax limit to $2,400 instead of $18,000. Of course this has caused an uproar, which led President Donald Trump to tweet out on Monday that tax reform will not include changes to your 401(k). House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) has said not so fast and the option remains on the table.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2017 22 Comments
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, claims that he has a "smoking gun" email that proves the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama directed funds from settlements away from conservative groups. From Fox News:
“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday. “Here, we have it.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 24, 2017 16 Comments
House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) have announced an investigation into the handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal by the FBI and Department of Justice. The two committees will also investigate why the FBI didn't announce its investigation into then-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign associates. From The Washington Examiner:
The probe will be conducted by two congressional panels responsible for overseeing the Justice Department and government operations in general. The investigators will review then-FBI Director James Comey's various decisions pertaining to the Clinton investigation, such as his unusual announcement that she should not face indictment.
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