Congressional & Capitol Hill News

The Daily Signal delivers comprehensive congressional news with reporting and conservative commentary on House and Senate activities, legislative priorities, committee investigations, leadership battles, and the fight for conservative policy in both chambers of Congress.
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    • Opinion

    Why Trump’s Appeals Court Nominees Are Backed Up in the Senate

    President Donald Trump’s nominations for judgeships on federal courts have been excellent so far, and his just-announced nominees to fill four appeals court vacancies in Texas and Louisiana are no exception. The four are among a slate of new judicial nominations rolled out Thursday by the president as he makes steady progress toward filling more…
    Elizabeth Slattery
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    • News

    What Conservative Lawmakers Want to See in a Tax Reform Package

    Republicans are set to release further details of their tax reform plan this week, and lawmakers in the House’s most conservative caucus says the plan must lower the tax rate and simplify the code. “Our leadership has to stay strong and so the must-haves are just the basic pieces, deep cuts so we get the…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • News

    Lawmaker Says Congress Will ‘Have to Be on Our Toes’ After Failing to Scrap $900 Million ‘Earmark’

    After failing to stop what he called an “earmark,” one Republican lawmaker is preparing to fight the possible return of pork-barrel spending in Congress. Rep. Ted Budd worked to block $900 million in a transportation funding bill bound for an Amtrak project in New Jersey, saying the funding violated the House’s ban on earmarks. The…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • News

    Lawmaker Seeks to Derail $900M for Amtrak Project as Earmark

    A North Carolina congressman is working to stop $900 million in a transportation funding bill bound for an Amtrak project in New Jersey that he says violates the House’s ban on earmarks. “We are in the era of no earmarks and we certainly see one, essentially a $900 million earmark … called the Gateway Project,”…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • News

    Conservative Lawmakers: Hiking Debt Ceiling Is ‘Wasted Opportunity’ If Passed Without Reforms

    With the Treasury set to be unable to continue borrowing more Sept. 29, due to the debt limit, conservative lawmakers are looking ahead to what they should do. “This is my third summer in Congress and it’s the same song and dance every year,” Rep. Mark Walker, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • News

    Democrat Senator Proposes Removal of All Confederate Statues From US Capitol Building

    Sen. Cory Booker plans to propose a bill to remove all Confederate statues from the United States Capitol building, he announced Wednesday. “I will be introducing a bill to remove Confederate statues from the US Capitol building,” Booker, D-N.J., tweeted. “This is just one step. We have much work to do.” He did not offer…
    Amber Randall
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    • Opinion

    Senate Democrats Are Trying to Undermine Trump’s Ability to Govern

    Before leaving for its summer break, the U.S. Senate confirmed 67 of President Donald Trump’s nominees to positions in 12 different executive branch departments and agencies. These include deputy, under, and assistant secretaries, as well as administrators, commissioners, general counsels, and ambassadors. Unfortunately, this was merely a temporary respite in the confirmation war. The Constitution…
    Sen. Orrin Hatch
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    • News

    GOP Lawmakers Ask Jeff Sessions to End Operation Choke Point

    Five high-ranking House Republicans have asked formally that the Trump administration end Operation Choke Point, an Obama administration program that critics say unfairly targets politically unpopular industries such as firearms sellers and payday lenders. In a letter sent Thursday to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the four lawmakers request that the Justice Department “repudiate” the program…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • News

    Lawmaker Works to Save Taxpayers’ Money With New Energy Bill

    An Arizona congressman is working to remove energy subsidies that are part of the 2014 farm bill. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., recently released legislation that he says could save the American taxpayer more than a billion dollars over five years. Biggs told The Daily Signal in an interview that he wants his bill “to actually…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • Opinion

    Senate Agriculture Appropriations Bill Would Expand Crony Handouts for Cotton Industry

    What are Senate appropriators doing to address two new farm programs whose costs are spiraling out of control? They are increasing the costs even more. Cotton growers just can’t seem to get enough handouts, and many Senate appropriators are happy to funnel even more money their way at the expense of taxpayers. The Senate agriculture…
    Daren Bakst
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    • Opinion

    Oregon Lawmakers Vote to Bail Out Planned Parenthood

    The demand for abortion in Oregon is going down, so why do pro-abortion lawmakers there seem so determined to increase it? From 2011 to 2014, Oregon saw a 15 percent decline in the number of abortions. It also saw a 7 percent decline in the number of abortion providers. But, apparently that isn’t a trend…
    Genevieve Wood
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    • Opinion

    House and Senate Set to Protect Consumers From an Overreaching Federal Agency

    On Thursday, Republicans in both the House and Senate took a major step toward nullifying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s harmful arbitration rule. In the House, Financial Services Committee member Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., sponsored a resolution of disapproval that will allow Congress to invalidate the rule through the Congressional Review Act. At almost the…
    Norbert Michel
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    • Opinion

    Senate Health Care Bill Could Be Greatest Entitlement Reform in a Generation

    The Senate health care bill (the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017) would fundamentally reform federal Medicaid payment. As Washington Post columnist George Will has written, the bill’s Medicaid provisions, as crafted by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., “makes it this century’s most significant domestic policy reform.” Will is correct. Medicaid financing needs reform. Jointly financed…
    Robert Moffit
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    • News

    GOP Lawmakers Say Their Budget Plan Spotlights ‘Path Back to Solvency’

    The House’s largest caucus of conservatives is throwing its weight behind a budget proposal that it says would cut more government spending and advance conservative principles further than the official Republican plan. The Republican Study Committee’s budget plan, released Tuesday, “is a showcase of reform measures” introduced by caucus members, Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., told…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • Opinion

    Why the Revised Senate Health Care Bill Is a Major Improvement Over the Status Quo

    On Thursday, the Senate Republican leadership unveiled an updated version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. While it is an imperfect legislative product, it is nonetheless a major improvement over the status quo. Obamacare has wrecked both the individual and small group health insurance markets. After seven years, millions of Americans enrolled in…
    Robert Moffit
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    • Opinion

    This Senate Effort Could Lead to Another Housing Bubble

    The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a hearing last week to lay out guiding principles for housing finance reform legislation. While it is a positive development that the Senate is getting to work on housing finance, conservatives should be wary of the way things are starting out. First, here are some basic facts….
    John Ligon
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    • News

    Conservative Lawmakers Ask Congressional Leadership to Cancel August Recess

    A conservative lawmaker is leading an effort in the House of Representatives to ask congressional leadership to cancel lawmakers’ August recess to give members more time to work on legislative priorities such as Obamacare repeal and tax reform. “We request that you cancel Congress’s current plans to recess for the month of August to ensure…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • Opinion

    Here Are 3 Reasons the Senate Health Care Bill Should Expand Individual Health Accounts

    As Congress works to undo the damage caused by Obamacare, members are looking for ways to maximize their opportunity to address Obamacare’s problems that drove up premium costs for insurance and reduced access to plans. One innovative idea currently under consideration: expanding the use of health savings accounts. These are tax-advantaged accounts that let individuals…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • Opinion

    What the CBO Score Means for the Senate Health Care Bill

    The Congressional Budget Office released its score on Monday of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. The top-line score is very similar to the American Health Care Act that was passed earlier in the House. This budgetary analysis projects that if passed into law, the Better Care Reconciliation Act would reduce the number of…
    Drew Gonshorowski
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    • Opinion

    The Senate Should Offer a Range of Options to Encourage Continuous Insurance Coverage

    As Senate Republicans work on legislation to start reversing Obamacare’s damage to insurance markets, one problem they need to address is the perverse incentive created by two Obamacare mandates. Those mandates required insurers to accept all applicants and prohibited them from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. The problem to address is that the combination of…
    Edmund Haislmaier
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