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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D.-Texas) took to the House floor on Dec. 12 to explain why, especially in the Christmas season, a shutdown of the federal government should be avoided. “This is a season where many in our Nation draw together with families and worship and celebrate,” Jackson Lee said. “It is a very honored time,” she said. “People of the Christian faith are engaged in the recognition and acknowledgment of the birth of baby Jesus. It is a holy time. It is a time when families need resources. Government workers need to ensure that their families are provided for,...

Breaking news: House lawmakers left the Capitol Friday night without passing a budget agreement, ensuring funding for several key government agencies will lapse at midnight. The partial shutdown comes amid an impasse between President Trump and Democrats over billions in federal funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. This story will be updated.

This will continue to be a weekly post in the next Congress. The current Congress confirmed 85 judges: 53 District Court judges 30 Circuit Court judges 2 Supreme Court justices All existing nominations will expire on January 3rd and will have to be renominated by the President. The newly constituted Senate Judiciary Committee, with Lindsey Graham as chairman, an extra republican seat, and Jeff Flake gone, should be able to run through those nominations fairly quickly, especially the ones who had already made it to the floor. Orrin Hatch will also be gone from the committee, so three new senators...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rejected President Donald Trump’s call to partially fund the border wall with a simple majority vote on Friday, suggesting not enough Senate Republicans support the measure. President Trump called on McConnell to use the “nuclear option,” or switch to a simple majority vote in the Senate, to pass the continuing resolution (CR) that would partially fund the border wall...

On 'America's Newsroom' Senator Rand Paul backed President Trump in the face of harsh criticism from Republicans over his decision to withdraw the 2,000-strong U.S. force from Syria. RAND PAUL: This is a very bold move for President Trump. It is exactly what he promised the American people -- in fact it is one of the reasons he won the election. Because he is different from so many Republicans who want us to be everywhere all the time around the world. They want us to be the world policeman, that every war on the planet we have to have our...

The Senate approved a seven-week funding bill on Wednesday, preventing a partial government shutdown that was expected to begin on Saturday. Senators passed the legislation by voice vote, which represented the final item on the Senate's to-do list as they wrap up their work for the year this week It still needs to pass the House, which returned to Washington on Wednesday night, and be signed by President Trump. Republican senators say that while they believe Trump is unhappy with Congress passing a short-term fix, they believe he will sign it because they were able to keep other controversial policy...

GOP senators emerged from the closed-door meeting in visible disbelief that President Trump is refusing to sign a seven-week stopgap measure to fund the government that cleared the chamber by a voice vote less than 24 hours ago. Senate GOP leadership appeared confident on Wednesday that Trump would sign the stopgap, which will fund approximately 25 percent of the government, as long as they kept poison pill policy riders out of it. But Trump, under fire from conservative pundits and lawmakers, reversed course Thursday. “You're ruining my life,” GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) joked to The Hill when told about...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t waste any time Thursday slamming her soon-to-be GOP counterparts in the House of Representatives for their passing a short-term spending bill that includes $5.7 billion that will fund President Donald Trump’s border wall. Ocasio-Cortez, the outspoken New Yorker who will be sworn-in to office next month, said border wall money could better be used for teacher pay, infrastructure and left-leaning distribution ideas like tuition, green jobs and prescription refills.

Can the government spend money that has not been specifically authorized by Congress? In theory – no. In practice? Absolutely. Each year the government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on things that are not specifically authorized by Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans have been complicit in this practice. President Donald Trump, to his credit, has worked hard to get his wall funding properly authorized. But he may ultimately do exactly what presidents before him have done: take advantage of the broken Congressional process.

The Democrats aren’t going to get away with holding the federal government hostage to their radical open-borders agenda. Not again.The Democrats know that they got the Republicans to cave during the previous budget impasse, which produced a bloated $1.3 trillion Omnibus spending bill that didn’t fund construction of the border wall. President Trump reluctantly signed that bill, but he did so with a vow that he would never again put his signature on such a bad piece of legislation.“As a matter of National Security I've signed the Omnibus Spending Bill. I say to Congress: I will NEVER sign another...

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) says a House-passed spending bill providing $5.7 billion for a border wall is dead-on-arrival in the Senate, signaling raising odds of a partial government shutdown. “The bill that’s on the floor of the House, everyone knows, will not pass the Senate,” Schumer said moments before the House voted in support on the measure. He accused Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of “cynically” putting the bill on the House floor “knowing it can’t pass the Senate.” “Everyone knows it can’t pass the Senate. It’s a cynical attempt to just...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funds hurled the federal government closer to a shutdown as the Republican-led House approved a package Thursday with his $5.7 billion request that is almost certain to be rejected by the Senate. The White House said Trump will not travel to Florida on Friday for the Christmas holiday if the government is shutting down. More than 800,000 federal workers will be facing furloughs or forced to work without pay if a resolution is not reached before funding expires at midnight Friday.

President Donald Trump will not sign a Senate-passed spending bill, increasing the chances of a partial government shutdown, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday after meeting with the president. The Senate unanimously approved the legislation Wednesday night to keep the government funded through Feb. 8. With Trump's support, it appeared set to breeze through the House before the midnight Friday deadline to fund seven agencies that make up about a quarter of the government. But Trump, who seeks $5 billion to build his proposed border wall, will refuse to sign the measure without his desired border security measures, Ryan said....

I don't get Twitter, but those are the exact trump words according to Wmal I will not sign any of their legislation unless it has PERFECT border security. Shutdown here we come! Wall, here we come!

A federal judge on Wednesday revealed just how widely Christopher Steele distributed his infamous anti-Trump dossier. Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Paul Ryan chief of staff Jonathan Burks received Steele’s reports in December 2016, before BuzzFeed would publish the dossier in full. Court documents say that Steele gave the dossier materials to Kinzinger and Burks, though Paul Ryan’s office claims that Burks has never met Steele and did not receive documents directly from the former British spy. A Republican lawmaker and the chief of staff to House Speaker Paul Ryan were early recipients of the infamous Steele dossier, according to a...

“They don’t even tell you – what does that mean, ‘the government shut down’? First of all, that phrase is a lie; the government doesn’t shut down. You’ll be long dead – your children and your grandchildren too – before this government shuts down, unless it shuts down from a financial and economic collapse. But, legally? No. “‘Seventy-five percent of the government[’s] already been funded’ – are you aware of this? – as they point out at CNSNews.com. “He signed a minibus appropriations bill – the president did – ‘that funded the Department of Energy; Military Construction [and] Veterans Affairs;...

Much misplaced anger is visible. President Trump wants the southern border wall; he is being opposed by every interest who doesn’t want it. The people in DC who are opposed to border security, are the people who write the laws. I’m not talking about congress; I’m talking about the real people who actually write the laws, the lobbyists. Right now Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are writing a short-term continuing resolution to fund government and avoid a shutdown. They know President Trump is quite comfy with a shutdown. Why would republican Mitch McConnell take such an...

The White House wants to avoid a partial government shutdown and has found other ways to get the border wall President Trump is demanding, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Tuesday. Sanders’ comments come four days before large portions of the federal government will begin shutting down unless Congress and Trump act first. Trump has been demanding $5 billion from Congress for his border wall, which Democrats refuse to give. But Sanders told Fox News Channel: “We have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion.” “At the end of the day we don’t want to shut down the government,...

No wall funding

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed fellow Republican Rep. Martha McSally to the Senate, he announced Tuesday, picking a favorite of GOP leaders to fill the seat John McCain held for decades. McSally, who lost a close race for Arizona’s other Senate seat this year, will succeed Sen. Jon Kyl (R). Kyl will step down at the end of the year following a brief time in McCain’s seat after McCain’s death in August. “With her experience and long record of service, Martha is uniquely qualified to step up and fight for Arizona’s interests in the U.S. Senate. I thank her...