Free Republic

After 36 years in Congress, all of it on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I can confidently say this is the most transformative session of Congress for our transportation system since President Eisenhower established the Interstate Highway System. Let’s review the tape. Last fall we passed the historic bipartisan infrastructure law. This transformational legislation provides $660 billion for transportation—the largest ever one-time infusion of federal funds into our nation’s transportation system. It will provide over $400 billion in funding for roads, bridges, and major multimodal projects. In my state of Oregon alone, that means over $3.7 billion to rebuild and...

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]

Senior House Democrats on Tuesday aggressively pushed their caucus to fall in line behind next week’s key budget vote, hoping to quell a rank-and-file rebellion that threatens to at least temporarily derail President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. “We have to hold firm. We have to stay together,” Rep. Peter said … The centrists’ threat against the budget is the latest iteration of a long-running tug of war between moderates and progressives in the Democratic Caucus. And with just a three-vote margin in the House, that rift could tank Biden’s entire domestic agenda if Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team...

Legal experts are picking up “signals” that the Trump team is bracing for subpoenas or indictments in the New York City and Georgia investigations into the former president. Washington, D.C.-based public interest lawyer John Banzhaf, who prompted the election interference investigation in Georgia, said the case is heating up. He noted that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is struggling for documents from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is said to be “lawyering up.” Meanwhile, Willis has hired a special prosecutor who had a role in the Whitewater case against former President Bill Clinton. Banzhaf also noted that...

Today, U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio (OR-04) introduced the Wall Street Tax Act, legislation to create a new tax on financial transactions that would generate billions in revenue, while reducing speculative trading and volatility in the market. “High-frequency traders front-run the market and drive up prices for individuals, pension funds and other value investors,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio. “Some days high-frequency traders trade billions of shares that they sometimes hold for only seconds or less. They reap enormous financial benefits for themselves and their privileged elite investors but add no value to our economy. Congress needs to rein in excessive speculative...

A week before the Federal Communications Commission officially signed off on a plan for Ligado Networks to use L-Band spectrum, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, warning the plan could harm the Global Positioning System. The April missive was the first sign some members of Congress were unhappy with the plan, but it would not be the last, as officials from the departments of defense, transportation and other government agencies raised alarms about how Ligado’s system could damage GPS capability for the military and...

A veteran who helped stop a terrorist attack on a Paris-bound train in 2015 is running for Congress in Oregon, telling "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday that liberal Democrat Peter DeFazio "doesn't represent" the rural district anymore. Alek Skarlatos, a veteran of the Army National Guard who served in Afghanistan, said he became interested in politics after speaking with his state senator on a plane to Washington, D.C. and was encouraged to consider running for office. "I did some research and the more I learned about the [4th Congressional District] and everything that happened to it under the tenure of...

House Democrats are reintroducing their proposal of a financial transaction tax on stock, bond and derivative deals, and this time they've signed on a key new supporter: left-wing firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., is leading the effort to bring back a bill, titled the "Wall Street Tax Act of 2019," which slaps a tax on securities transactions and could have a particular negative effect on high-frequency traders. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is the lead co-sponsor. DeFazio is expected to file the bill on Tuesday. "What we were looking at is if there's a sweet spot when you do a...

The Department of Transportation's Inspector General says the “FAA’s oversight of industry actions to remove unapproved parts (from the nation’s aviation system) is ineffective,” and the agency “cannot be assured that unapproved parts … no longer pose a threat to safety” for the traveling public. That OIG report has prompted ranking member of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio, (D-Oregon), to vow to crack down on unapproved airplane parts that he says pose a safety risk to the flying public. The inspector general’s report echoes a series of stories by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit that...

Now ten members of the "progressive caucus" of the Democratic Party are trying to give these terrorist leaders another reason for using even younger terrorists to kill even more innocent civilians. The bill fails to acknowledge that some of the most barbaric terrorist attacks against Jewish Israelis have been committed by Palestinian teens who have been recruited by terrorist leaders. Israel has a right — according to international law — to protect its citizens from constant terror attacks, even those committed by young Palestinians. Indeed, it has an obligation to do so. Palestinian terrorist leaders often use teenagers to...

If you watch activity on the floors of Congress you may be shocked by some of what you hear. With a slip of the tongue, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) not only sought continued taxpayer funding for abortion provider Planned Parenthood, but also funding for the organization’s efforts in offering “STD tasting and treatment.” “It’s not about abortion, it’s about something different,” DeFazio said on the House Floor Tuesday. “ It’s about breast exams, pap smears, physical exams, STD tasting and treatment…” STD tasting and treatment? That certainly is “something different.” Thanks anyway, but I’ll take a pass on federally funding...

Hillary Clinton's Saturday campaign reboot isn't just her first public rally. Coming a day after President Obama suffered an embarrassing legislative defeat, it is a changing of the guard for the Democratic Party. Make no mistake: while House Republicans also voted overwhelmingly against the president on a key trade bill Friday, it was his fellow Democrats who handed him the most stinging rebuke. Just 40 Democrats out of 188 voted with Obama. Nearly 80 percent of House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, went against him. A mere two of the 10 Democrats representing Obama's home state of Illinois in...

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...

The Obama administration’s indictment of critic Dinesh D’Souza on campaign finance law violations is a reminder that it’s dangerous to be in the opposition when the president is a lawless strongman who knows the media will protect him no matter what. Democratic malefactors remained at large on Friday as D’Souza pleaded not guilty to charges that he directed two individuals to each make $10,000 donations to the campaign of Wendy Long, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, on the understanding he would reimburse them, which he did not long after.The court in New York reportedly imposed unusually tough...

Blasting Republican “climate-change deniers” as well as “blathering idiots on talk shows” who joked about the “Arctic vortex,” Rep. Peter DeFazio urged Congress to tackle climate change in 2014. He called it one of the “biggest challenges of our time.” He wants the Obama administration to regulate carbon emissions as pollution. And “even if we take strong measures here, we’ve got to force those measures on other countries,” he said in a five-minute speech on the House floor Wednesday. “Now how are we going to get China and other countries lined up on this?” DeFazio asked. …

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) has blamed the government shutdown on politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), calling them “Cruzites.” DeFazio took the House floor Tuesday afternoon and offered up his definition of a “Cruzite”. “Shutting down the government –pretty radical. But we are really dealing here with for short –Cruzites, or I guess I would call them - they’re sort of anarchist, radical, libertarians who don’t believe in government,” DeFazio said. “They don’t believe in evolution they believe in devolution – devolve all the duties to the states,” DeFazio continued. “Dissolve the Union essentially. Go to some loose federalism and...

Dr. Robinson is an internationally renowned scientist and also the author of a popular home-school curriculum that he developed from home-schooling all six of his children by himself. FreedomWorks has called Dr. Robinson "the poster boy for uniting the GOP establishment and the Tea Party." The American Spectator magazine called him "not only a scientist but also a warrior." Dr. Robinson is the founder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and the author of "Self-Teaching K through 12 Home-School Curriculum," which he developed while home-schooling his six children. He ran for OR-4 in 2010 and lost to the...

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...