U.S. Senate News

The House of Representatives and the Senate approved their respective versions of the National Defense Authorization Act last week. Both passed with strong bipartisan support. The House version passed 295 to 125, while the Senate bill was approved 86 to 14. The lopsided margins in favor show there are strong majorities in both parties and…

The Congressional Progressive Caucus introduced a measure in both the Senate and the House to cut the U.S. defense budget by 10%. The proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act was bolstered by a flood of op-eds from think tanks advocating a “more restrained U.S. foreign policy”–shorthand for the U.S. abdicating its current global…

For a second month in a row, the U.S. economy gained a record number of jobs. Following job gains of 2.7 million in May, the economy added  4.8 million more jobs in June. And even as the labor force grew by 1.7 million workers, the unemployment rate fell by 2.2 percentage points, from 13.3% to…

High school-educated, working-class parents aren’t capable of overseeing their own child’s education, a state lawmaker said last week. New Hampshire state Sen. Jeanne Dietsch, D-Peterborough, made the comment at a committee hearing last Tuesday while promoting a bill that would stop the state Board of Education from creating a new way of allocating high school…

Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. chief trade negotiator, will testify Wednesday before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. He is expected to defend the Trump administration’s trade agenda since 2017 and shed light on what Congress can expect the future goals of the Trump administration to be on trade. Lighthizer…

The Senate Armed Services Committee last week passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021. The bill passed by a wide bipartisan margin of 25-2. From the summary we have, it appears the bill focuses, appropriately, on great power competition. The most recent National Defense Strategy outlines the need for…

As former national security officials, we write to express our deep concerns about the current debate over suggested amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.  Contrary to popular narratives making the rounds on the extremes of both sides of the political aisle, the fact is that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is a critical…

We have been reminded in this time of pandemic that necessity is the mother of invention. People have modified many regular activities. They’ve gone to telework and contactless delivery and even virtual church services. And now the House of Representatives has adopted a resolution that, for the first time, no longer would require members to…

Democrats passed proxy voting in their fourth coronavirus recovery bill on Friday. “Instead of 435 [people] representing districts across the nation … 20 people control all of Congress,” says House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, referring to the effect of Democrats’ proxy voting push. “Each member can call up to 10 proxies,” McCarthy tells The Daily…

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a member of President Donald Trump’s congressional task force on economic recovery, joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss the economy’s devastation by the coronavirus and how America should get back to work. The House Freedom Caucus chairman talks about how the nation should balance the contagiousness of COVID-19 with the…

Illinois State Senate President Don Harmon sent a letter April 14 on behalf of the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus to members of Congress requesting $40 billion in federal funds for the beleaguered state. Although the letter comes under the guise of unprecedented COVID-19 disruptions, the purposes for which Illinois and other states seek additional federal…

President Donald Trump expressed frustration Wednesday that the Senate has not confirmed his pending nominees to various posts. “The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony pro forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis,” Trump told reporters. The president warned that if the House does…

Four senators came under fire last week for making financially advantageous stock trades after receiving information about the then-approaching coronavirus pandemic.  The optics of that are terrible. While the country faced an unprecedented situation, those senators executed trades for their own gain while simultaneously seeking to quiet public fears.  Reactions from across the political spectrum…

Stocks have plunged in recent weeks. The S&P 500 is down about 27% from its high on Feb. 19 but still hasn’t dropped to the levels of late May 2019. This means anyone with a retirement account or other investments likely has taken a significant hit. Assuming they don’t need that money in the short…

Buyers (aka taxpayers), beware: The Land and Water Conservation Fund is not what you might think. Some on Capitol Hill have floated the idea of fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund permanently. In Washington budget-speak, that means creating a new autopilot mandatory program.  Congress created the conservation fund in 1964 to “assist in…

If you don’t believe our government is complex and inefficient, just ask presidential appointees navigating the Senate confirmation process. Under our constitutional framework, the president hires the people he wants to run the executive branch, many of whom require Senate confirmation. This includes about 1,200 of the most senior employees, such as ambassadors or Cabinet…

The Senate is expected to vote soon on a resolution aimed at curbing the president’s efforts to reduce health care premiums and expand insurance options for Americans. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., authored the resolution, which would curtail an administration initiative that was the driving force behind the first-ever reduction in average Obamacare premiums: the authority…

The leaders of the Armed Services committees of the House and the Senate met Thursday to formally start negotiations on a bicameral version of the National Defense Authorization Act under a conference committee process. There are substantial differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill that need to be hammered out to create…