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Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby says he wants a Republican to win the state’s special election Tuesday, but did not vote for GOP candidate Roy Moore and hopes a write-in candidate will be victorious. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, Sen. Shelby reemphasized his absentee vote was not for Roy Moore. In November, Sen. Shelby announced he did not vote for Roy Moore, but did not say his write-in candidate of choice. "I'd rather see the Republican win, but I'd rather see a Republican write-in. I couldn't vote for Roy Moore. I didn't vote for Roy...

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) says that a potential victory for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore in the state's upcoming GOP runoff would prompt anti-establishment Republicans similar to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon to "pop out of the woodwork" and sow discord in the 2018 midterm elections. Shelby, the senior Alabama senator, told The New York Times that if Moore wins the runoff election against Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) on Tuesday, the Senate seat would become vulnerable to a Democratic challenge. But if Strange wins, Shelby said, the incumbent would be sure to emerge victorious in the December election....

Note: The following text is a quote: Grand Jury Indicts Two Men for Mailing Hoax Anthrax Letters BIRMINGHAM—A federal grand jury today indicted two men in connection with a series of hoax anthrax letters that were mailed in Alabama this month and in March, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, U.S. Postal Inspector Frank Dyer and Federal Protective Service Threat Management Branch Chief Curtis Huston announced. The first 15 counts of the 24-count indictment charge CLIFTON LAMAR “CLIFF” DODD, 38, of Lincoln, with mailing 15 hoax letters between March 6 and April 5 that contained a threat in the form of...

The president has nominated attorney J. Mark McWatters for the bank board. However, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, has said he's "in no hurry" to hold a hearing or a vote on the nomination. Other pending confirmations take precedence, he said.The last of the 2015 lobbying reports are in, and the top corporate spender turns out to have been the Boeing Company, at $21.9 million. Not coincidentally, the aerospace giant also outranks thousands of other firms in profiting from the subsidies doled out by the Export-Import Bank. Last year, Boeing benefitted...

Senators on Thursday rejected a push by Sen. Rand Paul to tie a battle over accepting refugees in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks to an ObamaCare repeal bill. Senators voted 10-89 on the amendment from the Kentucky Republican, who is running for president. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted. Republicans Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), David Vitter (La.) and Paul supported the amendment. Paul's amendment would place a "pause" on issuing visas to more...

Senator Hutchison cool to SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch; concerns remain about Obama NASA policy June 5, 8:25 AMHouston Space News ExaminerMark Whittington Falcon 9 Courtesy NASA The near universal acclaim that SpaceX has acquired for the successful launch of the first Falcon 9 is not shared within the United States Congress, which is still skeptical of many aspects of the Obama space plan, which includes reliance on companies like SpaceX for Earth to Low Earth Orbit transportation. The reaction illustrates for all the technical triumph that SpaceX has accomplished with the Falcon 9 launch, it still faces political problems. Typical...

WASHINGTON — Alabama’s U.S. Senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions on Wednesday signed a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell urging her agency to cooperate with upcoming investigations into Planned Parenthood and warning DHS not to delete any relevant records. Planned Parenthood annually receives more than $500 million in funding from the federal government, mostly through Medicaid and Department of Health and Human Services grants. The organization is the largest abortion provider in the country, performing over 300,000 abortions every year. It has been thrust into the national spotlight recently as a result of two...

The drama surrounding funding for NASA’s Commercial Crew program has started up once again. In the wake of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s cutting funding for the program by over $300 million, supporters have fallen back on familiar patterns of futile complaining. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden claimed that the funding shortfall would delay the restoration of American spaceflight capability by as much as two years. Bolden was mild compared to some of Commercial Crew’s supporters on the Internet.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul split with senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to vote for a healthcare bill Tuesday night that will add about half a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next several decades.Paul sided with the overwhelming majority of senators and representatives who voted for the bill, in a decision almost certain to come up in the primary race, where he is currently joined by Cruz and Rubio.The “doc-fix” bill solves a recurring problem in the way Medicare payments are made to doctors, extends a children’s health insurance program, and requires higher-income seniors to pay higher...

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

It’s a question that will prove crucial next year when Mitch McConnell takes the reins of a new Senate: Just how big is the Ted Cruz caucus? Three votes on the “cromnibus” late Saturday night suggest it could be as large as 22 senators — a dangerously high number for McConnell — or as few as a handful. Let’s break down the three votes — on filibustering the $1.1 trillion package, on Cruz’s point of order aimed at targeting the president’s immigration action, and final passage. The high-water mark for the Texas Republican came on his point of order vote,...

Hey, remember Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the guy who threw needless layers of bureaucracy at SpaceX because the private space company was doing its job of launching rockets into space a little too well? Well, it looks like he’s being joined by gentlemen from the other side of the Capitol: Three congressmen are trying to do the same thing.

Alabama's senior Senator said he is concerned the White House's request for billions of dollars to care for illegal children flooding across America's border may be just the first such request made by the Obama administration. Shelby spoke to Fox News before Senate hearings related to the growing crisis on the border, where as many as 50,000 young illegal aliens have crossed into the U.S. since October. The children are being detained at U.S. military bases and President Barack Obama is asking for $3.7 billion for housing and increased border security. Shelby, R-AL, said the government will have to borrow...

January 15, 2014, 04:19 pm House easily passes $1T omnibus spending bill with 359-67 vote By Pete Kasperowicz and Erik Wasson Anne Wernikoff and Greg Nash The House on Wednesday easily approved a $1 trillion omnibus spending bill would fund the government for the rest of fiscal 2014 and let Congress avoid the risk of a shutdown until the end of September. Members voted 359-67 to pass the bill, which was opposed by 64 Republicans and three Democrats. The three Democrats who voted "no" were Reps. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), Rush Holt (N.J.), and Mike McIntyre (N.C.), a centrist Democrat who...

Eighty-five of 100 U.S. senators voted to renew the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans, denying them of their fundamental right to due process.On December 19, by a vote of 84-15 (Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, did not vote), the Senate sent the Fiscal Year 2014 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to President Obama’s desk. Although an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats signed off on the evisceration of the Bill of Rights, a small coalition of Independents, Republicans, and Democrats refused to accede to such a devastation deprivation of rights. A list of the lawmakers...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal judge has allowed gay marriage in Utah to continue. Judge Richard Shelby on Monday denied a request by the state that sought to halt gay marriage until the appeals process plays out. The same judge overturned Utah's ban on same-sex marriage Friday, ruling it is unconstitutional.

Nashville, TN – Today, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham introduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The legislation currently has 33 cosponsors – but Senator Alexander is not one of them. Conservative Senate candidate Joe Carr called on Senator Alexander to change his stance and add himself as a co-sponsor. “I’m strongly pro-life and believe it’s imperative the Senate pass this important piece of legislation. When Senator Graham announced his co-sponsors and Senator Alexander’s name was missing, I was disappointed. I am hoping Senator Alexander will change his stance and add himself as a co-sponsor. This legislation is too...

All of the congressional Republicans with viable 2016 presidential ambitions voted against the bill enacted overnight to reopen the government and increase federal borrowing. So did two members of the Senate GOP leadership and three members of the party’s House leadership. The opponents also included a majority of the Republicans who are chairmen of House committees and most of the members of the House GOP caucus who aspire to election to the Senate next year. While the Democrats were unified in their support for the legislation, a review of Wednesday night’s back-to-back roll calls in Congress reveals just how divided...

There are a few good men. And by “a few,” I mean five. Certainly there are far more than five good men in America. But in the U.S. Senate, there are just five moral Republicans. Who am I referring to? Let me introduce you to the five men in the Senate who stood their ground while their Republican peers (save two abstainers) voted for a fiscal cliff deal that essentially codifies theft: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). I think conservatives and libertarians should praise...

Over the last few days, since Romney clinched the GOP nomination for President by going over the 1,144 committed delegates needed with his win in the Texas Primary on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, a number of new endorsements have come in for Romney's bid for the Presidency. These include George Shultz, former Secretary of State; Condoliza Rice, former Secretrary of State and National Security Advisor; Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate; and Nancy Reagan, wife of President Ronald Reagan. Here's what each of them had to say on the date they endorsed Romney: NANCY REAGAN endorses Mitt...