Free Republic

Top Senate leaders were working Tuesday to finalize a sweeping long-term budget deal that would include a defense spending boost President Trump has long demanded alongside an increase in domestic programs championed by Democrats. As negotiations for the long-term deal continued, the House passed a short-term measure that would fund the government past a midnight Thursday deadline and avert a second partial shutdown in less than a month.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved H. Res. 724, a measure that prohibits sexual relationships between lawmakers and their staffers. The bill, pushed by Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), is the first significant step toward changing the system that has faced numerous sexual misconduct scandals against lawmakers in recent months amid the nationwide #MeToo movement. The measure is effective immediately, according to the Washington Post. The bill affects the House only.

On Tuesday, the House passed a bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) that makes significant changes to the way that allegations of sexual harassment will be handled in Congress. The most significant reform in Speier’s bill (officially known as the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 Reform Act ) appears to be a provision that forces lawmakers to pay back the U.S. Treasury when settling sexual harassment claims, a change that has drawn widespread support across ideological boundaries. Other popular provisions in the bill prohibit senators and representatives from dipping into their congressional office funds to pay off...

Some people have called for a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution as a means of reining in a big-spending Congress. That's a misguided vision, for the simple reason that in any real economic sense, as opposed to an accounting sense, the federal budget is always balanced. The value of what we produced in 2017 — our gross domestic product — totaled about $19 trillion. If the Congress spent $4 trillion of the $19 trillion that we produced, unless you believe in Santa Claus, you know that Congress must force us to spend $4 trillion less privately. Taxing us is...

Rep Gohmert appeared on Fox News Sunday to talk about the FISA abuse memo which was released Friday. Gohmert also revealed he is requesting the House Judiciary Committee subpoena the FISA court hearing transcripts. “I have prepared a letter that I plan to submit to and hopefully have other people sign on with me tomorrow on our Judiciary Committee we have a great Chairman [Bob Goodlatte] on our Judiciary Committee. He wants to get to the facts and what I’m asking him for is that we as the Judiciary Committee subpoena the transcripts from the FISA court hearings, the four...

Arthur Jones — an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist — is poised to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs. “Well first of all, I’m running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany. All right. To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket,” Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times. Indeed, Jones’ website for his latest congressional run includes a section titled “The ‘Holocaust Racket’” where he calls the genocide carried out by the German Nazi regime and collaborators in other nations “the...

What's the real problem with our federal government? That people in Congress serve too many terms? And if we get an Amendment to limit their terms, will our Land be healed? Of course not! The real problem is that the politicians we elect ignore our Constitution – yet we keep reelecting them. As a result, the federal government exercises thousands of powers not delegated; but everyone goes along with it. The States get federal funds for going along with unconstitutional federal programs; the People get all sorts of benefits, subsidies, and free stuff; and many live altogether at other peoples'...

The US-Turkey relations have become strained in the recent period due to the Turkish military intervention in Syria’s Afrin, an anti-Kurdish operation under the pretext of fighting terror – known as Operation Olive Branch. The US Congress is preparing sanctions against Turkey as part of the 2012 Magnitsky Act. The sanctions might target certain ministers and politicians of Turkey, Hurriyet reports. “The US government acknowledges that necessary means must be taken to stop Turkey, but at the same time the US tries to prevent the possible clash of the Turkish and American troops in the Syrian territory”, Hurriyet said. The...

A Republican congressman says the U.S. government should significantly raise the gas tax in order to fund President Donald Trump's ambitious infrastructure plan. Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania told Bloomberg TV that the tax should be increased by 15 cents per gallon of gasoline. The current rate is 18.4 cents, and hasn't seen a hike since 1993. Shuster said Thursday at a Republican congressional retreat in West Virginia that for the average American, a 15-cent increase would equal the cost of 'a cup of coffee a week that they might have to forgo.' 'Or if you're a Starbucks person, half...

Liberal legislators and members of the Congressional Black Caucus were caught-red handed this week; reading and playing video games on their mobile phones while President Trump delivered his first State of the Union address to the American people. Images first surfaced on the internet of Michigan Rep. Brenda Lawrence typing-away on her smart phone as the Commander-in-Chief outlined his vision for 2018 and beyond. Upon further inspection, the photos showed Rep. Lawrence playing popular web-based game Candy Crush in the middle of the address. “That State of the Union is put out an hour in advance so Democrats and Republicans...

CROZET, Va. (AP) — In a story Jan. 31 about a fatal train crash carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress, The Associated Press, relying on information from a congressman at the scene, misidentified who was killed in the pickup truck. It was a passenger who died, not the driver. A corrected version of the story is below: Train carrying GOP lawmakers strikes trash truck; 1 killed A train carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress to a policy retreat has slammed into a garbage truck in rural Virginia By ALAN FRAM and HEIDI BROWN Associated Press CROZET, Va. (AP)...

There is nothing worse than a cornered Rat. Except perhaps two cornered Rats. On the eve of President Donald Trump releasing the FISA memo which promises to torch the FBI and Justice Department, Congressman Adam Schiif and Sen. Chuck Schumer cooked up a late night scheme Wednesday to block the memo’s heralded release. And right on cue. This after the White House told FBI Director Christopher Wray that despite his objections, the memo would be released. UPDATE: 11:20 PM EST Nunes Fires Back

As President Trump stepped up to podium to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night, the NBC News team wanted viewers to focus on one thing as they watched the speech – that Trump was “under criminal investigation” and Special Counsel Robert Mueller “hovers over the chamber.” Just moments before House Speaker Paul Ryan introduced the President, Today co-host Savannah Guthrie declared: “And let’s not forget, as we see Attorney General Sessions, this is a president who’s under criminal investigation right now for obstruction of justice with regard to the Russia investigation. So a lot going on in...

Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) refused to stand or applaud when President Donald Trump touted the historically low level of black unemployment during his first State of the Union address on Tuesday. Left-wing media, however, gleefully reported a camera shot that showed CBC members grimacing in their seats. “Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low,” Trump said. “African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded, and Hispanic American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.” Video of the African Kente cloth-clad CBC members sitting and staring unamused filled the internet with breakneck speed. While...

Luis Gutierrez, the illegal alien-loving congressman from Illinois, appeared to be triggered during President Trump’s soaring rhetoric during the State of the Union address and fled the House chamber.

Top candidates *** They are listed in alphabetical order. Republican Party Debbie Lesko (R) Debbie Lesko is a former member of the Arizona State Senate, ***. She served as president pro tempore from 2017 to 2018, before resigning her seat on January 8, 2018, to focus on her U.S. House campaign. She also served in the Arizona House of Representatives ***. She is Arizona state chairman for ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). She was endorsed by the Susan B. Anthony List. Investing in national security initiatives, including a missile defense system, protecting border security through some physical barriers and improved...

<p>The memo has become a flashpoint in the political battle surrounding efforts to understand the scope of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether any of Trump’s associates coordinated with the Kremlin.</p> <p>Republicans say the document shows the investigation may be tainted by political bias. Democrats call it a cynical attempt to undercut the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the law enforcement agencies behind him.</p>

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On Monday, President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania announced their special guests at the President’s first State of the Union address on Tuesday: •The parents of two young women, Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, friends who were brutally murdered by MS-13 gang members. •The first blind, double-amputee to reenlist in the Marine Corps, Corporal (Ret.) Matthew Bradford, who had been injured by an IED explosion while serving in Iraq. •The founder of a non-profit rescue and recovery organization that has provided aid to thousands of people across the South victimized by floods and storms, including Hurricane, Jon...

FULL TITLE:Kelli Ward: Ronald Reagan’s Biggest Regret Was Granting Amnesty and Trusting Congress on Border Security “President Reagan’s biggest regret as president was granting amnesty and then trusting Congress to deliver on border security,” said 2018 Republican Senate candidate Kelli Ward, expressing opposition to the White House’s recently released amnesty proposal. Ward’s comments came in an interview with Breitbart News’s Washington Political Editor Matt Boyle on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday. “We have to learn from our history,” advised Ward. “In 1986, Ronald Reagan–great president, amazing conservative, lover of liberty and of America–granted amnesty; and Ed Rollins, who is helping me...