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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  • news

    Mike Lee to Take Over Conservative Senate Group
    In what is being billed as a reason for conservatives to be encouraged, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has been tapped to head the Senate Steering Committee, a conference of Republican lawmakers working to advance a conservative agenda. Lee will take the helm from Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, chairman for the past two years. In…
    Melissa Quinn
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  • opinion

    Why the Washington Post Is Right to Oppose Legalized Pot in D.C.
    In a refreshing move, The Washington Post came out against legalizing pot in the District of Columbia in an editorial this weekend. The Post supported the decriminalization of marijuana when it was on the ballot a few years back, but draws the line at outright legalization – which is what’s on the ballot this November…
    Cully Stimson
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  • opinion

    Why Is the Senate Considering Legislation That Would Discourage Raises?
    How would a law that makes employers afraid to give raises benefit women?! Yet many senators appear to believe it would. They have announced their support for the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA), which is currently being debated in the Senate and could be up for a vote as soon as this week. This law would…
    James Sherk
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  • opinion

    Senate Democrats No. 1 Priority After the Recess? Gutting the First Amendment
    When the Senate reconvenes today, the No.1 legislative priority of Democrats is to pass a resolution that would gut the First Amendment, one of the few times in American history an amendment has been proposed to cut back on part of the Bill of Rights. It’s probably no surprise they want to restrict political speech…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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  • news

    Lawmaker Moves to Tax Sugary Drinks
    A Connecticut lawmaker hopes to open another front in the war on childhood obesity and diabetes. On Wednesday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, introduced a bill that would impose a national tax on sugary soft drinks. DeLauro’s legislation, the Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Act, would levy a one-cent excise tax for every teaspoon of sugar within…
    Philip Wegmann
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  • news

    Lawmakers Ponder Ways to ‘Get Politics Out of the IRS’
    Could the IRS be governed by multiple commissioners? Some lawmakers hope so. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday heard pitches for proposed reforms aimed at preventing future targeting scandals at the Internal Revenue Service. One proposal is to name multiple members from both major political parties to a commission to govern the agency….
    Melissa Quinn
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  • opinion

    Cartoon: Democrats on Impeachment Talk
    Is Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., really that outraged about the supposed impeachment chatter? >>> If Conservatives Try to Impeach Obama, He’ll Have the Last Laugh
    Glenn Foden
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  • news

    Massachusetts Lawmakers Kill Charter School Expansion
    Those 45,000 Massachusetts students on waiting lists to attend charter schools will continue to wait. The state Senate has killed a bill that would have allowed more charter schools to open and expanded the reach of a program that has effectively turned around some of the state’s lowest-performing schools. A similar bill could return after…
    Mary Tillotson
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  • news

    People Will Abuse Powdered Alcohol, Ohio Lawmakers Say
    We have powdered coffees, powdered juices, powdered soups, powdered eggs, powdered milk. Why not powdered alcohol? After all, it’s light, portable and convenient. But we’ll abuse it, two Ohio lawmakers say. Reps. Ron Gerberry, D-Austintown, and Jim Buchy, R-Greenville, introduced House Bill 594 to prohibit the sale of powdered or crystalline alcohol in Ohio. Alaska…
    Maggie Thurber
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  • news

    Vitter’s Senate Bill Seeks to Stem Flow of Border-Crossing Children
    As lawmakers debate how to stem the flood of unaccompanied minors across the southern border, The Daily Signal has learned that Sen. David Vitter, R-La., will introduce a bill this morning to modify the anti-trafficking law identified as a key factor in the surge of young illegal immigrants. In a statement to The Daily Signal,…
    Melissa Quinn
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  • news

    Cruz Rips Senate Democrats’ Bill to Reverse Hobby Lobby Decision
    Today on Capitol Hill, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had a message for President Obama and Senate Democrats voting to undermine the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision: “If you’re litigating against nuns, you have probably done something wrong.” Sixty votes were needed to debate the bill, which was sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash.,  and Mark…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • news

    Conservative Lawmakers Reject Obama Impeachment, But …
    Today on Capitol Hill, conservative lawmakers were asked about Sarah Palin’s call to impeach President Obama. Though some of the six House members attending Conversations with Conservatives argued that Obama “deserves” to be impeached, even they rejected the idea, saying it would be practically impossible. Rep. Raúl Labrador,  R-Idaho, jokingly noted:  “And nobody wants a President Joe Biden.”   Watch the…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • news

    Lawmakers Throw Light on Secretive ‘Operation Choke Point’
    Is “Operation Choke Point” about to get choked by Congress? Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sure hopes so. Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is calling for the dismantling of what he calls a secretive initiative launched by the Obama administration in early 2013. Critics say that Operation Choke Point, so dubbed by…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • opinion

    Hobby Lobby Does Want Bosses Out of the Bedroom. Why Are These Liberal Senators Against That?
    Obamacare has been on a collision course with Americans’ individual liberty and religious freedom from the beginning. Last week’s Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case prevented Obamacare’s Department of Health and Human Services mandate from careening into the religious freedom of family business owners, on the basis of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration…
    Sarah Torre
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  • news

    Lawmakers Split Over Busting Budget Cap to Fight Wildfires
    In asking for $3.7 billion from Congress yesterday to combat the border crisis, President Obama attached another request that has nothing to do with illegal immigration. The president wants $615 million to fight wildfires. Acting on similar bipartisan proposals in Congress, Obama also requested a change that he says would treat spending to fight wildfires…
    Josh Siegel
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  • news

    Arizona Lawmaker Aims to Send Border-Crossing Children Home Faster
    Legislation proposed by an Arizona congressman would give federal officials authority to quickly screen and deport unaccompanied children from Central America who have crossed the Mexican border into the United States. The bill from Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., would change a provision in a 2008 human-trafficking law that requires U.S. Border Patrol agents to turn over the children…
    Josh Siegel
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  • news

    Iowa Banned Most Fireworks 76 Years Ago. Now One Lawmaker Is Trying to Change That.
    Jerri Andersen wasn’t impressed by the Fourth of July fireworks display at her local Hy-Vee in Urbandale, Iowa. “Of course, it’s not their fault,” she said. And it isn’t. The supermarket was displaying the only types of fireworks people can buy or possess in Iowa without a special permit: sparklers and snakes. All other consumer…
    Paul Brennan
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  • news

    New York Lawmakers Make It Illegal to Touch a Tiger
    The New York State Legislature doesn’t want you touching tigers. State Rep. Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored a bill that passed this week, pointed to New York’s history of tiger attacks—seven over the past 15 years, according to her office—as evidence the ban is in the public’s best interest. “There is no safe…
    Eric Boehm
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  • news

    Lawmaker Questions Whether Ex-Im Benefits Small Businesses
    Proponents of the Export-Import Bank tout the agency as a champion of small businesses, but Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., yesterday challenged that claim during a hearing and told the story of of a small Kentucky company that was overwhelmed by related regulations. Ex-Im Bank, an 80-year-old agency that provides taxpayer-backed loans to foreign companies and…
    Melissa Quinn
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  • news

    House Passes Measure to Assess Grid Vulnerability to Electromagnetic Pulse
    Members of Congress want to know more about whether America’s adversaries possess the capability to shut down the nation’s power grid. The intelligence authorization bill passed by the House of Representatives on May 30 includes a provision mandating the director of national intelligence submit to Congress within six months of the bill’s passage “a report…
    Josh Peterson
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