US Senate | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 44
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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.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 28, 2016 9 Comments
Oh how the tables have turned! Only a few weeks ago we talked about vulnerable Republicans, but the election put the GOP in charge of Washington, D.C., leaving the Democrats scrambling for ways to remain relevant. According to The Hill, some of those Democrat politicians who face reelection in 2018 have expressed a willingness "to work with President-elect Donald Trump and Republican colleagues."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 18, 2016 31 Comments
The Nuclear Option was used for the first time by Harry Reid in 2013 to allow Obama to stuff the lower federal courts with Obama nominees despite Democrats not having a filibuster proof majority in the Senate at the time. It was a clear possibility at the time that Democrats were about to lose control of the Senate in the 2014 cycle, so the court-stuffing Nuclear Option was a desperate last-minute tactic. Democrats said that rule change would not apply to the Supreme Court. Holding back on using the Nuclear Option for the Supreme Court was a meaningless gesture at the time, because there were no Supreme Court vacancies.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 15, 2016 30 Comments
Defeat after defeat on Tuesday has left the Democrat Party in shambles. So much so they cannot decide on a leader. Rep. Nancy Pelosi has led the House Democrats since 2002 while Sen. Chuck Schumer will replace Harry Reid as Senate Minority Leader. But now the Democrats have delayed a vote on leadership in the House, possibly a sign that Pelosi's time has ended. In the Senate, anti-Trump protesters in DC have begun protesting Senator Shumer's new role.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 10, 2016 17 Comments
After his meeting with President Barack Obama, President-elect Donald Trump drove down to Capitol Hill to meet with Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell:
"I think we’re going to do some absolutely spectacular things for the American people," Trump said, sitting next to Ryan at a conference table in the Capitol. "We can’t get started fast enough." After meeting with McConnell, Trump said his top priorities were immigration and border security, addressing health care and "big-league jobs."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on November 06, 2016 21 Comments
With election day only two days away, control of the Senate is still unclear as several states are simply too close to call. A big, unanswered question is the impact the presidential race will have on Senate races. Real Clear Politics co-founder Tom Bevan discusses the impact the top of the ticket winner may have on the Senate races.
"If Hillary Clinton wins and wins substantially on November 8, Democrats will mostly likely win many of these very competitive Senate races, and probably win enough to take back the Senate," Bevan said. "If Donald Trump wins, that will mean Republicans will probably be able to defend."
Watch:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 29, 2016 14 Comments
The Florida Senate race is starting to look a lot like the presidential race, at least in terms of wildly fluctuating numbers amongst polls and significant changes reported almost daily. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is running against newly-mined Democrat and Representative of Florida's 18th district Patrick Murphy (D-FL), and the race currently stands . . . who knows?  Polls show that Rubio is up as much as 10 points, 6 points, or maybe only 3.6 points (the latter two down from a 7 point lead earlier this month). Murphy, so far, is not leading and has not led in any poll, but that hasn't stopped Democrats from taking another look as polls fluctuate and the race appears to tighten. Following the DSCC pulling its money out of the Rubio-Murphy race less than two weeks ago, Roll Call reports that two super PACs, one backed by Harry Reid, are quickly getting Murphy some small amounts of cash.
Florida Rep. Patrick Murphy is getting a cash boost from donors and a Democratic super PAC as his campaign shows signs of life in his Senate race against Republican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2016 64 Comments
In August, the GOP and PACs associated with it, started preparing ads that target Hillary in case Donald Trump couldn't make a comeback. Now that it's almost certain we will end up with Hillary, the GOP knows the importance of holding the Senate and the House has only grown stronger. With two weeks left, the candidates have unleashed these ads across the country, mirroring their opponents as too similar to Hillary and promise to keep her in check in the White House.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 24, 2016 3 Comments
The Chamber of Commerce has endorsed a bill that would stop President Barack Obama's administration's new estate tax rules, which they insist would keep those mean wealthy people from reducing value on their assets. GOP senators proposed legislation to stop these rules because they believe it will harm small and family owned businesses because the owners would not be able to easily transfer the business to future generations. This is what the administration proposed:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 23, 2016 61 Comments
It's been a while since I've written about the Senate, but as the prof did an analysis of the GOP keeping the House, I am revisiting the question of whether or not the GOP can keep the Senate.  As a recap:  The Democrats need to win five Senate seats to win back the majority, only four if Hillary is elected and Kaine, as VP, holds the tie-breaking vote.   Republicans, by contrast, are defending 24 Senate seats to the Democrats' 10. As the professor noted, "In the case of the Senate, it will pave the way for Hillary to push through disastrous judicial nominations. And yes, expect Majority Leader Schumer to raise the nuclear option to the Supreme Court level if Democrats control the Senate by even a single (tie-breaking) vote." This holds true even if Trump wins the White House and the GOP loses the Senate.  Without the Senate, Trump won't be able to get the type of justice/s confirmed that he promised.  They simply won't make it through a Democrat-controlled Senate.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 17, 2016 7 Comments
The fight for the Senate continues to grow tighter, which has led Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to push even more of her campaign money to Democrat senate candidates. The Democrats only need five seats to take the majority or four if Hillary wins. Politico reported:
Clinton, who entered October with more money than any other candidate ever at her disposal, will spend more than $6 million total on paid media and get-out-the-vote efforts in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire — each of which also has Senate races — said campaign manager Robby Mook on a conference call with reporters on Monday.