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US Senate Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 24, 2017 20 Comments
GOP Senators Bill Cassidy (LA) and Susan Collins (ME) unveiled one possible replacement for Obamacare called the Patient Freedom Act. This plan would leave the majority of the power to the states, letting each one decide "whether the want to keep ObamaCare." Fox News reported:
“We recognize that our bill is not perfect,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who introduced the 2017 Patient Freedom Act with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and fellow Republican. “We need comprehensive legislation,” Collins continued. “It’s still a work in progress. ... But if we don’t start putting specific legislation on the table that can be debated, refined, amended and enacted, then we will fail the American people.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 20, 2017 23 Comments
The Senate has confirmed retired General James Mattis to become the Secretary of Defense, the first confirmation of President Trump's Cabinet. He won confirmation with a 98-1. WOW. But who doesn't like or approve of Mad Dog Mattis?

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 19, 2017 5 Comments
Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin faced the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday for his confirmation hearing, answering questions about the dollar and his own investments. Mnuchin worked at Goldman Sachs for 17 years before he "became an investor at ESL Investments and then with his own fund Dune Capital Management." He rescued IndyMac Bank for $1.6 million, renaming it to OneWest. The project succeeded for Mnuchin, who sold it to CIT Group for $3.4 billion in 2015. However, the project faced scrutiny over its foreclosure practices, which Mnuchin defended during his testimony:
About foreclosures, Mnuchin said OneWest extended 100,000 loan modifications to delinquent borrowers. "In the press it has been said that I ran a 'foreclosure machine.' This is not true. On the contrary, I was committed to loan modifications intended to stop foreclosures. I ran a 'Loan Modification Machine,'" Mnuchin said. He also sought to counter the idea that a foreclosure was financially beneficial to OneWest versus a modification.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 19, 2017 36 Comments
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Energy Department, will face the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at 10AM EST. During the 2012 primary, Perry said he would abolish the Department of Energy if he became president. He also famously forgot the name of the department during one of the debates in November 2011. But that didn' bother Trump:
"As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy," Trump said in a statement. "My administration is going to make sure we take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation, and Rick Perry is going to do an amazing job as the leader of that process."

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 18, 2017 5 Comments
I live blogged Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's senate hearing for the EPA, but three other cabinet choices had their own senate hearings today. That included Rep. Tom Price for Health and Human Services, Wilbur Ross for Commerce, and Nikki Haley for UN. Obamacare took control of Price's hearing, since the Republicans in D.C. want to repeal and replace it. Price told the committee that states should lead on a replacement.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 17, 2017 4 Comments
Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for education secretary, has her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions at 5PM ET. The Democrats picked her as one of the eight nominees they want to grill the most. DeVos has remained an advocate for school choice and used money to help establish charter schools in Detroit, MI. Of course, the Democrats have concerns over her massive donations to Republicans, including some that sit on the panel, and the Republican National Committee. We'll be liveblogging beneath.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 13, 2017 17 Comments
The media has gone ballistic during the first week of confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees since the most of them have different views than Trump. Trump has shown thin skin with those who disagree with him so of course the press has attempted to stir the pot even more, but it has not worked.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 12, 2017 17 Comments
The Senate Armed Services Committee passed a waiver by a vote of 24-3 allowing Gen. James Mattis to serve as President-elect Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense. Becuase he retired from the Marine Corps in 2013, he needed the waiver to bypass a rule stating an individual must be out of the service for seven years before serving a new appointment. Only Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand, Richard Blumenthal, and Elizabeth Warren voted against the waiver. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said the committee should pass the legislation "because the U.S. is at war and the Trump administration needs Mattis as quickly as possible."

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 12, 2017 11 Comments
Former presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Housing and Urban Development Secretary, will have his confirmation hearing today at 10AM ET in front of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Carson turned down Trump's request to leads the Human and Health Services, but accepted the HUD nomination. He often fought with Trump in the primary and even said he would never work in Trump's administration. Trump chose Carson for "his 'brilliant mind' and passion about 'strengthening communities and families within those communities.'" Carson has said:
"I grew up in the inner city and have spent a lot of time there, and have dealt with a lot of patients from that area and recognize that we cannot have a strong nation if we have weak inner cities," he said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 12, 2017 44 Comments
Meow. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) came out with the claws during the hearing for former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state. Rubio started by asking Tillerson if he considers Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal. Tillerson, who ran a company that had many deals with Russian STATE OWNED companies, refused to take the bait:
"I would not use that term," Mr. Tillerson said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 11, 2017 5 Comments
General John Kelly, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, had his Senate confirmation hearing, which went off without a hitch. In fact, Kelly received massive praise from both sides of the aisle Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) considers Kelly a "good choice for Secretary of Homeland Security." https://twitter.com/clairecmc/status/818950860961103872

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 10, 2017 6 Comments
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) faced an all day confirmation hearing for attorney general in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The senators had a blast asking Sessions the same questions over and over. Some asked valid questions while others asked obscure questions that made you scratch your head. But overall, Sessions promised he would uphold all the laws, even those he opposed as a senator. He promised he would stand up to President-elect Donald Trump and keep politics out of his decisions.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 06, 2017 33 Comments
The Senate Republicans have ticked off the Senate Democrats because they scheduled six Cabinet confirmation hearings next Wednesday. Oh, and President-elect Donald Trump will also hold his first press conference next Wednesday. Plus, the confirmation schedule includes the nominees the Democrats planned to target the most: attorney general, secretary of state, CIA director, education secretary, and transportation secretary. The Democrats wanted to drag out the process, make it as hard as possible to confirm Trump's Cabinet. On January 1, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told The Washington Post that his party would "resist" any attempts by the Republicans to rush through the process.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 26, 2016 16 Comments
In 2007, I could have sworn President Barack Obama was supposed to be the savior of the Democrat Party. The smooth talking, suave Illinois senator had everything to bring the party together and end any GOP dominance. Well, it turns out, the Democrats have lost 1,030 seats across the board since Obama took office in January 2008. This includes seats in state's houses and senates, governorships, and Congress.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 17, 2016 17 Comments
The House and Senate have become agitated with the CIA as the agency has continued to deny both sectors with briefings or information on claims that Russia hacked into America's election, but passed information to the mainstream media. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) told a radio station in his home state that the CIA just denied his request for a briefing:
“I’m not happy they denied a briefing to me,” the Wisconsin Republican told a public radio interviewer in his home state on Friday morning. “I need information from the administration, and right now they're withholding it.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 15, 2016 12 Comments
The Senate Finance Committee has discovered that 27 IRS employees in fiscal 2015 spent over $1.4 million on travel expenses to use "high-end car services and luxury apartment and hotel stays." One member of the committee said the report hows that the agency has not done anything to reduce waste. Federal employees must spend like a "prudent person" while traveling. These 27 employees traveled only 125 business days and the bills averaged $52,000 a year:
The committee found more than half of the long-term travel time was spent in the Washington D.C., area. It found cases of five employees living in hotels, primarily in the capital, for months at a time without looking for lower-cost housing or having their per diem rates reduced as outlined in federal guidelines.
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