Congressional & Capitol Hill News

For more than four years, Maryland dairy farmer Randy Sowers has been fighting the federal government, asking it to right what many say was a wrong. In Feb. 2012, two federal agents told Sowers, who owns South Mountain Creamery in Frederick, Md. that the Internal Revenue Service was seizing more than $60,000 from his farm’s…

For the last few years, opponents of civil forfeiture have been calling on Congress to make it more difficult for law enforcement to take property, cash, and vehicles from innocent Americans through a process known as civil asset forfeiture. Now, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers on Capitol Hill is taking action. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.,…

RALEIGH, N.C.—Republicans are falsely being accused of instigating the transgender bathroom debate, state Rep. Dan Bishop from Charlotte, North Carolina, told The Daily Signal. “This controversy nationwide has been a media-driven, ideological carpet bombing,” he said. “And I think a very dishonest one across the board. Everything that we’ve done has been distorted—so many falsehoods,…

Recently-introduced federal legislation would protect doctors, nurses, hospitals, and health care providers from being forced to provide abortion as part of their practice or insurance plans.   The Conscience Protection Act, House Resolution 4828, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives at the end of March by Rep. John Fleming, R-La., currently has 49 co-sponsors….

While Senate leaders are hoping to earn final passage on a $37.5 billion energy and water spending bill this week, the legislation lacks amendments pushed by conservatives and boosts spending above President Barack Obama’s budget request. One of those amendments would have blocked funding for a major Environmental Protection Agency rule. Last week, Senate Republicans…

Greensboro, N.C.—Mark Walker spent his childhood in and out of prison. He wasn’t an inmate, but the chaplain’s son at one of Alabama’s minimum-security state prisons, Berrydale Forestry Camp. And starting in elementary school, he followed his father while he made the rounds offering a message of salvation to inmates.  “I remember the joy on…

After a week of campaigning, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has called it quits on a short-lived effort to win a post inside Senate leadership. A conservative upstart, Lee tried to break into the GOP’s upper ranks and win the fourth-ranking position as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. If successful, the effort would have…

The Daily Signal has obtained a draft letter from two Democrat senators urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to continue addressing what they call “discriminatory and unfair lending practices” in the auto industry. But, according to metadata found in the document’s properties, it appears the letter may not have been written by the two senators…

Conservatives who are normally at odds with Senate leadership are turning out to be important allies in their ongoing campaign to block President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. When the Senate recessed in March, conservative groups quickly mobilized activists across the country to reinforce the Republican blockade against Merrick Garland. Organizations like FreedomWorks, Heritage Action,…

Republicans, Democrats, and Wall Street investors agree that lawmakers must do more work on a plan to save Puerto Rico from looming fiscal disaster. They just disagree on the direction Congress should take to tackle the problems plaguing the U.S. territory. A rough draft released Tuesday by House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, wasn’t…

If the Email Privacy Act becomes law, the inboxes of millions of Americans will get a security update overnight. The bill would prohibit the government from accessing private email accounts without a warrant. But civil rights and law enforcement advocates remain at odds over the legislation. Proponents say the bill secures privacy rights online while…