Tag: House of Representatives

Posted on

House Speaker John Boehner Relents – Allows Clean Vote On Homeland Security Funding

And it would seem the game playing with the security of the United States is over.

According to NBC News, the House of Representative has passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security by a vote of 257-167.

In a 257 to 167 vote, the House passed a “clean” Homeland Security funding bill on Tuesday without provisions that would curtail the president’s executive orders on immigration. The Senate passed the legislation last week and the president’s signature is certain.

Funding for Homeland Security, which was set to run out midnight on Friday, will now go through Sept. 30 of this year.

The vote is a blow to conservatives in the House who fought to use the spending measure as a way to force the president to roll back his orders aimed at allowing millions of undocumented immigrants the chance to stay in the U.S. legally. Conservatives contend that the orders are unconstitutional and all 1of the 67 no votes came from Republicans.

But Senate Democrats blocked legislation that included language on immigration, and some Republicans publicly acknowledged they would be the party that would get blamed if the agency shut down.

Boehner announced in a closed-door meeting of Republican members on Tuesday morning that the House would vote on the year-long funding bill.

Posted on

Texas Congressman Randy Weber Tweets Then Deletes Comparision Of Hitler And Obama

Texas Congressman Randy Weber has come under fire for a tweet he shared comparing President Obama to Hitler’s march through Europe.

After a firestorm of criticism it appears the tweet was deleted and Weber shared a link to his House webpage where he issues a kind of apology.

Weber has a history of anti-Obama comments, so this is nothing new.  But to compare attending a march in Paris over the shooting of five journalists at Charlie Hebdo to a holocaust that led to the death of millions is severely unbalanced.

I personally agree with some critics that the White House should have sent a higher level representative to the march in Paris. We have a Secretary of State who not only speaks French, but foreign relations ARE his job. I would like to know why John Kerry did not attend.

That being said, Weber’s comments are outside the boundaries of sane thought and good taste.

Posted on

New House Of Representatives May Rebuff Speaker John Boehner Today

As the new Congress is just now convening, Tea Party House members are posing a threat to John Boehner’s position as Speaker of the House.

The Daily Caller lists these Repubs as planning to vote against Boehner:

– Walter Jones (North Carolina)

– Jim Bridenstine (Oklahoma)

– Thomas Massie (Kentucky)

– Ted Yoho (Florida)

– Louie Gohmert (Texas)

– Paul Gosar (Arizona)

– Steve King (Iowa)

– Dave Brat (Virginia)

– Marlin Stutzman (Indiana)

– Gary Palmer (Alabama)

– Justin Amash (Michigan)

– Randy Weber (Texas)

– Curt Clawson (Florida)

– Tim Huelskamp (Kansas)

– Jeff Duncan (South Carolina)

Should the opposition get 29 votes, the House then moves to a second round of voting.

While I doubt Boehner’s Speakership is in jeopardy, it would be embarrassing for him to be pushed to a second ballot.

The vote begins about 12:30pm ET.

You can watch on C-SPAN here.

UPDATE: Boehner was re-elected to the Speakership with 216 votes. Twenty-five Republicans voted against him. We’ll see how that shakes out later.   Nancy Pelosi received 164 votes from Democrats.

In the end, 25 Republicans voted against Boehner – the most against a sitting Speaker since 1923.

Posted on

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert Announces Challenge To John Boehner For Speaker Of The House

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert visits Fox & Friends Weekend to declare his opposition to Representative John Boehner for Speaker of the House.

In announcing his challenge Gohmert had this to say to Boehner: “You deceived us when you went to Obama and Pelosi to get your votes for the Cromnibus; you said you’d fight amnesty tooth and nail, you didn’t! You funded it.”

Life now gets more complicated for Boehner.

I don’t think Boehner will lose his Speakership, but I do think this is the Tea Party/far right GOPers way of sending a very public message to Boehner.

Posted on

Last Ditch Effort To Pass ENDA Dies in GOP-Controlled House Committee

A last ditch effort to pass the US Senate approved version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act died in a GOP-controlled House committee last night.

Supporters attempted to attach the bill via amendment to the defense spending bill as it heads to the full House floor, but the measure was voted down 7-3 in the House Rules Committee along party lines.

The Senate passed a version of ENDA last year with a bipartisan vote of 64-32 vote.

The House, set to adjourn by Dec. 11, never brought the legislation up for a vote even though there was bipartisan support.

When the new Congress is seated for the 114th Congress, it’s highly unlikely the bill will see passage given Republicans will then control both chambers of Congress.

(source)

Posted on

GOP-led House Intelligence Committee finds no White House wrongdoing on Benghazi

I can’t IMAAAAAGINE why I haven’t seen this story on Fox News.

 I mean, it IS about Benghazi.

From San Francisco Chronicle:

The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.

The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public.

Thompson said the report “confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given.”

MSNBC’s Steve Benen wrote yesterday:

Taken together, the deadly violence in Benghazi two years ago has now been investigated by the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the independent State Department Accountability Review Board, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

How many of them uncovered evidence of a cover-up? None.

Posted on

GOP-led House of Representatives votes to sue President Obama

So, instead of getting something done on behalf of the American people before heading off to a month-long vacay, the Republicans in the House took time to vote on suing the President for actually getting something done.

Just so we all know who is being sued over what – from the LA Times:

The House approved the resolution in a near party-line vote, 225 to 201.

It authorizes House Speaker John A. Boehner to file suit in federal court on behalf of the full body “to seek appropriate relief” for Obama’s failure to enforce a provision of the Affordable Care Act that would penalize businesses that do not offer basic health insurance to their employees.

That provision’s effective date has been delayed by the administration twice and now won’t fully take effect until 2016.

The GOP-led House has voted to repeal the law, even as it seeks to sue Obama for failing to enforce it.

So, the Republicans are suing the President because he didn’t enforce a law that they don’t even want.

Got it?

SRSLY.

Posted on

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would welcome House immigration bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would welcome the $659 million immigration bill currently circulating in the US House.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is trying to round up enough votes for a pared-down border bill that spends far below the president’s request for $3.7 billion and includes policy changes to speed the deportation of illegal minors from Central America.

Reid said the policy changes would give him an opportunity to attach the comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Senate passed last year with the support of 14 Republicans.

“If they pass that, maybe it’s an opening for us to have a conference on our comprehensive immigration reform. If they’re finally sending us something on immigration, maybe we can do that,” Reid told reporters after a lunch meeting with his caucus.

“We’ve been looking for something to do a conference on. Maybe we can do it with that,” Reid said.

The current House bill would send National Guard troops to the southern border plus add funding for immigration judges to speed the processing of unaccompanied minors found crossing US borders illegally.

While the Senate passed legislation last year, Speaker Boehner has blocked any attempt to further immigration reform this year. To do so could might open the door to what could be considered a “win” by President Obama and the Democrats.

 And of course, it’s more important to play politics than to get the people’s work done, don’t you know?

Posted on

US House Farm Bill cuts $8.7 billion in food stamps from primarliy blue states?

While the good news may be that the US House has passed the Farm Bill, the bad news is it contains $8.7 billion in food stamp cuts.

And it seems the cuts are pretty “strategic,” you might say. From Daily Kos:

Almost all of the food stamp cuts come from 16 states and the District of Columbia–the rest of the nation is left virtually untouched.

Further, 15 of these 16 states voted for President Obama twice, and 28 of its 32 senators are Democrats. In other words, these cuts are targeted overwhelmingly at poor folks in blue states.

As the bill heads to Senate, keep a watch to see how “strategic” those cuts stay. Seems kind of “political” to make so targeted, but hey, maybe that’s me…

Check out more at Daily Kos.