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A longtime congressional staffer was fired by her boss, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), after it was revealed she was allegedly working with the Chinese Embassy to set up meetings with other offices. An investigation conducted by the House sergeant at arms discovered the alleged impropriety by the staffer and informed Beyer’s office on Tuesday. The staffer was subsequently fired ... Beyer’s former aide, identified as Barbara Hamlett, has worked in congressional offices since the 1970s, ... She was a scheduler in Beyer’s office and has previously worked for lawmakers including the late Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), former Rep. Diane Watson...

There are now 23 Democrats who won't seek reelection in the 2022 midterms as Representative Albio Sires from New Jersey plans to retire and party leadership desperately grips their slim majority in the House.... ...With a series of upcoming retirements, Democrats' majority in the House looks increasingly vulnerable, and Pelosi can only afford to lose three seats in order to keep her party in power.... [list of the 23 at link]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray. That's about all the United States - or anyone for that matter - could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday. An asteroid estimated to be have been about 55 feet in diameter exploded on February 15 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and damaged buildings. More than...

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., faced criticism Wednesday after voting "present" on a House resolution to formally recognize the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide. The measure, H.Res.296, passed the chamber by an overwhelming 405-to-11 margin, representing a forceful rebuke to Turkey following the NATO ally's recent incursion against the Kurds along the Turkish-Syrian border. Two other House members also voted "present" with Omar: fellow Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, and one Republican, Paul Gosar of Arizona. But it was Omar's vote that drew the dismay of Armenian advocacy groups and political organizations. Omar's "votes and...

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., told "Fox & Friends" on Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had made "a bad call" by allowing a Texas imam with a history of anti-Israel comments to deliver the noon prayer in the House of Representatives last week. "Either the speaker's office did not vet this imam at all, or worse, they did vet the imam and then decided that it would have been OK for the imam to come onto the floor of the House of Representatives anyway," said Zeldin. "It's a bad call to have this person. It's horrible judgment, and after...

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for inviting a “radical imam” to speak before Congress. “On Thursday, the noon prayer was given by an imam from Texas who has a long history of, not just supporting BDS, but comparing Israel to the Nazis, accusing Israel of being a terror regime, calling for a Palestinian intifada in the past and inciting violence, supporting the Muslim brotherhood and the list goes on,” Zeldin said Sunday on “The Cats Roundtable” on AM 970 in New York. “I think it is outrageous that Speaker Pelosi on this day, on Thursday, chose...

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has made yet another shocking and historically ignorant claim: That thinking about the Holocaust gives her a "calming feeling" because her Palestinian ancestors provided a "safe haven" for Jewish victims of the tragedy. Tlaib, a close ally of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is no stranger to anti-Semitic controversies herself, made the latest statement on a podcast called "Skullduggery" in an episode titled "From Rashida with Love." "There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my...

The Muslim imam chosen by Democrats to to give the opening invocation for Congress this week has a record of anti-Israel rhetoric and pro-Palestinian activism. Imam Omar Suleiman, 33, was invited to give the prayer by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas after he gave the invocation last year at the Texas Democratic Convention. Based in Irving, Texas, he is the founder and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and a professor of Islamic studies at Southern Methodist University. **SNIP** “A beautiful, moving, and timely prayer by Imam Omar Suleiman on the House floor today at the US...

Federal scientists warned in a new report Friday that changes in the climate will disrupt the economies of every region in the country in the coming years, with costs threatening to reach hundreds of billions of dollars annually by the middle of this century. The message, echoing decades of sobering conclusions from the world's leading climate scientists, is at odds with President Donald Trump's repeated scoffing at the idea of global warming. And the administration chose to release it on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day and one of the slowest news days of the year. But despite the timing,...

After 8 years in the political wilderness, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D–TX) is relishing the chance to “restore the credibility” of the science committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. With Democrats winning control of the House, Johnson is in line to move from ranking member to chair of the panel when the 116th Congress convenes in January 2019. And she says ending the committee’s ideologically driven fights over climate change, management of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other research topics is high on her agenda.

A Democratic congresswoman responded to the allegations against Harvey Weinstein by saying that women also have a responsibility to stop sexual assault and harassment."I grew up in a time when it was as much the woman's responsibility as a man's—how you were dressed, what your behavior was," Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson told Dallas' local NBC5."I'm from the old school that you can have behaviors that appear to be inviting. It can be interpreted as such," Johnson continued. "That's the responsibility, I think, of the female."Interviewer Diana Zoga asked if it was time to stop asking about what women were wearing...

Living down to our worst expectations, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology voted Thursday to cut deeply into NASA's budget for Earth science, in a clear swipe at our agency's manipulation of climate data. The committee's markup of the NASA authorization bill followed what appears to be a deliberate attempt to keep (us) Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), the committee's rank Democrat, and her caucus in caucus "we understood why.", Rep. Eddie B whined.

A full list of the Democrats who have confirmed they're missing the speech follows: SENATE - 4 members Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Sen. Brian Schatz (Hawaii) HOUSE - 26 members Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) Rep. G.K. Butterfield (N.C.) Rep. Andre Carson (Ind.) Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.) Rep. Peter DeFazio (Ore.) Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.) Rep. Donna Edwards (Md.) Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.) Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (Ill.) Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas) Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.) Rep. John Lewis (Ga.)...

The Dem Congressmen Boycotting Netanyahu are the Same Old Hamas SupportersPosted By Daniel Greenfield On February 26, 2015 @ 6:02 pm In The Point | 12 Comments There are a lot of stories about the Dem members of Congress boycotting Netanyahu’s speech. But most of the names on the list are longtime opponents of the Jewish State.The boycott lists consists of two groups. Congressional Black Caucus members who are offended on Obama’s behalf and can smell racism anywhere.The other consists of opponents of Israel.It’s instructive to compare the list of boycotters to the 54 members of Congress who signed...

A group of 23 liberal House Democrats urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday to delay Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress next month. In the letter spearheaded by Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the lawmakers argued that Netanyahu was being used as a "political tool" against President Obama. "As members of Congress who support Israel, we share concern that it appears that you are using a foreign leader as a political tool against the president," they wrote. Netanyahu's March 3 address will be just two weeks before the Israeli elections and...

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson condemned members of the “extreme right wing” of the Republican Party for holding the nation “hostage” during the government shutdown because they oppose the Affordable Care Act. “They have an extreme dislike for President Obama, and are willing to do anything to halt the effectiveness of his presidency,” Johnson wrote in a statement to the suburban Dallas Focus Daily News on Friday. “Their behavior is not political, it is personal!” The congresswoman went on about the huge impact the shutdown has on the nation. She complained of hundreds of thousands of furloughed employees, damage to businesses...

Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), Pete King (R-N.Y.) and more than two dozen Democrats have introduced legislation that would create a national nurse to work alongside the surgeon general. The National Nurse Act, H.R. 485, would designate the chief nurse officer of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) as the "National Nurse for Public Health." The bill would have the national nurse work alongside the surgeon general and "focus on health promotion, improving healthcare literacy, and reducing health disparities." "As the first registered nurse in Congress, I know from experience how nurses play a critical role in health promotion and...

Democrats in House of Reps. joined J Street in supporting Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions Seventy-four Democrats in the House of Representatives have joined the dovish J Street organization in supporting the Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions to the Palestinian Authority. “In our view, support for a two-state resolution is inseparable from such support for Israel, its special relationship with the United States, and its very survival as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people,” the letter said. Seven Jewish members signed the letter, including Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), John...

Johnson Wins District 30 Despite ScandalBy Carol Cavazos & Matt Goodman, CBS 11 News November 2, 2010 10:35 PM DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – In the midst of many Republican gains, the Associated Press announced that Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson had defeated her challenger for District 30 U.S. Representative despite a nationally publicized scholarship scandal. Her opponent, Republican Stephen Broden, didn’t want to discuss the race, and refused to concede until all votes counted. With 77 percent of precincts reporting, however, Broden was trailing by 54 percent of the vote. **SNIP** Broden would still not concede the race. In August, officials with...

North Texas rarely is viewed as a national battleground in the fight for control of Congress, but two of the hottest races in the country are in the region. That's because two Democratic incumbents long considered relatively safe -- U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas and U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards of Waco -- are now considered vulnerable as Republicans seek to wrest control of Congress from the Democrats. Johnson is facing Dallas Pastor Stephen Broden, and Bryan oil and gas executive retiree Bill Flores is challenging Edwards. Broden recently made national news by picking up an endorsement from former...