U.S. Senate News
This section focuses on the upper chamber of Congress, from major policy debates to confirmation hearings. The Daily Signal provides a conservative look at Senate priorities.
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- Opinion
Senate Votes to End a Textbook Crony Program
On Wednesday, the Senate passed a joint resolution that will effectively put an end to one of the most egregious programs that exists today: the U.S. Department of Agriculture catfish inspection program. It’s actually disappointing that the vote was as close as it was—55-43. It may sound a bit silly, admittedly, but this program created…Daren Bakst -
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Exclusive: Lawmakers Move to Make It Harder for IRS to Seize Money From Innocent People
On the heels of the House Judiciary Committee’s legislation reforming federal civil forfeiture laws, House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., are introducing a bill further protecting people from having money wrongfully seized by the government, The Daily Signal has learned. Roskam and Crowley’s bill, called the…Melissa Quinn -
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‘An Abuse of Power:’ IRS to Face Lawmakers After Thousands Seized From Small Business Owners
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…Melissa Quinn -
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Lawmakers Introduce Bill Making It Harder for Police to Take Innocent Americans’ Property
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.,…Melissa Quinn -
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NC Lawmaker Blames Media, Activists Groups for Bathroom Bill ‘Falsehoods’
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,…Kelsey Bolar -
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Lawmaker: ‘Big Brother’ Shouldn’t Force Americans to Participate in Abortions
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….Leah Jessen -
- Opinion
The Problem With This Senator’s Plan to Help Businesses Deal With the Tax Code
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has released a plan to update the way businesses deduct the cost of capital expenses. Wyden is right to focus on capital cost recovery as a key way to improve the economy, but his plan does not go far enough to fix the problem because it focuses on administrative issues rather…Curtis Dubay -
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Senate’s First Spending Bill Expected to Advance Without Major Conservative Policy Rider
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…Josh Siegel -
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A Preacher Turned Lawmaker and His New Campaign to Win the Old War on Poverty
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…Philip Wegmann -
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Mike Lee Forces Senate Republicans to Clarify Leadership Rules
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…Philip Wegmann -
- Opinion
Establishment Senators Push GOP Unity Ahead of Conservative Values
The Senate is often referred to as a “club” — a term that certainly fits. The nickname was reinforced last week by a behind the scenes account of GOP senators who view their “club” as a pretty exclusive place. Basically, conservative ideas, opinions, and research need not apply. The main focus of The Hill’s article was about…Genevieve Wood -
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Senators Lobby Consumer Bureau in Letter That Appears to Be Written by Agency’s Own Adviser
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…Kelsey Bolar -
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Iran-Boeing Talks Raise Importance of Senate Delay on Ex-Im Nominee
Officials of the Obama administration teamed up with Boeing executives last week to lobby for Senate confirmation of the president’s nominee to the board of the Export-Import Bank, which lacks a quorum and thus is barred from approving deals in excess of $10 million (that is, the deals that most benefit the multinational conglomerates that…Diane Katz -
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Conservative Lawmaker on the House Budget: ‘We’re Not There Yet’
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., sat down with The Daily Signal to talk about the next round in the budget battle now that Congress is back from recess. Meadows told me, “We’re not there yet” in terms of finding offsets to bring down the spending levels currently being pushed by House GOP leadership. In talking with…Genevieve Wood -
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Reinforced by Grassroots, Senate Republicans Hold Line on Supreme Court Nomination
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,…Philip Wegmann -
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Lawmakers Debate What Kind of Lifeline to Throw Drowning Puerto Rico
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…Philip Wegmann -
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Key GOP Senators Say There’s ‘No Crack’ in Vow of No Hearings, No Votes
The battle over whether to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has escalated since President Barack Obama submitted U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee. Though Senate Democrats continue to push for hearings and one GOP Senator, Mark Kirk of Illinois, met with…Genevieve Wood -
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Lawmakers in Both Parties Are Addicted to Spending
Congress is at it again…the budget train is about to leave the station, and guess what’s on board! Almost $60 billion above what House Republicans proposed in last year’s budget. And this from the party that claims to be for limited government and fiscal discipline. The reality is that the majority of lawmakers in both parties…Genevieve Wood -
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Lawmakers Want Big Brother to Get a Warrant Before Looking in Your Inbox
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…Philip Wegmann -
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Why Did Senate Leadership Close This Policy Avenue to House Conservatives?
The Senate keeps making it harder for House Speaker Paul Ryan to sell an unpopular budget to the Republican conference. Appropriators in the upper chamber have complicated Ryan’s task by calling for “clean” spending bills free of controversial policy riders. A major selling point for conservatives, these amendments–known as policy riders–are attached to larger bills…Philip Wegmann