Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska have teamed up to challenge the issue of occupational licensing, which refers to the state and local rules that require job seekers to obtain approval from the government before he or she can start working in that profession. Most agree that jobs that deal…
KYIV, Ukraine—The terrorist attack in Nice spurred finger pointing among France’s political elite about insufficient security during Bastille Day celebrations, as well as a sober acknowledgment that the threat of radical Islamist terrorism has become a day-to-day reality for life in France. The attack, which killed 84 along the French Riviera on France’s independence day, July…
The House Freedom Caucus has launched a pressure play against Republican leadership in an effort to force a vote on impeaching John Koskinen, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Before Congress skipped town Thursday for a seven-week recess, Reps. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., and John Fleming, R-La., filed a parliamentary measure known as a privileged resolution…
Seated in the House gallery, one man watched the vote on the Conscience Protection Act with all the intensity of a general going into war. On July 13, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill, which intended to protect the rights of health care providers, churches, and other groups that object to participating in abortion….
Republicans on a special House panel investigating the sale and transfer of body parts and other tissue from aborted babies are accusing Democrats of stonewalling efforts to present Congress with an accurate picture. Democrats, they say, are encouraging abortion clinics and for-profit companies not to comply with congressional subpoenas and other requests for documents, making…
Sen. Tim Scott wishes the police officers who he believes egregiously stopped him various times were wearing body cameras, so that the public can see what he saw. “I would have felt a bit more comfortable actually if there were body cameras present,” Scott, R-S.C., told The Daily Signal in an interview. “I think one…
KYIV, Ukraine—At 3:45 a.m. Friday, just hours after a man drove a large truck through a crowd in the French seaside town of Nice, killing at least 84, French President François Hollande made a televised address to the nation. He began by making it clear the attack at the close of Bastille Day, France's Independence Day,…
Republican senators consistently accuse President Barack Obama of refusing to follow the law and exceeding his constitutional powers. Yet they’ve been unwilling to draw the line when it comes to giving Obama’s judicial nominees lifetime appointments to the federal bench. So far in 2016, the Republican-led Senate has confirmed nine Obama judges. And that number…
Prominent Republicans in the House and Senate have resurrected a fight over the Export-Import Bank after slipping language into appropriations bills that would allow the contested agency to, in effect, approve transactions benefiting its largest beneficiaries. Appropriators in both chambers passed legislation changing Ex-Im’s quorum requirements for its board of directors, but lawmakers are likely to…
State government figures spearheading an effort to obtain documents from scientists and researchers who dissent from the Obama administration’s position on climate change are being asked, once again, to come clean about their relationships with environmental organizations. But this time around, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey have only…
Parents in a Washington suburb say their school board has cut them out of the process of implementing new guidelines for accommodating transgender students. The school board in Fairfax County, an affluent suburb in Northern Virginia, has scrapped a public forum on the gender identity policy and scheduled a work session in which parents aren’t…
Protecting religious liberties, keeping Americans secure from foreign and domestic threats, and holding government accountable are the goals of the House Freedom Caucus for 2016. The members of the Freedom Caucus held a press conference Wednesday to unveil their policy priorities. Five bills were at the forefront of the proposal. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman…
Less than a week before the Republican National Convention kicks off, the GOP platform committee was racing into the night Tuesday to finish its work on a policy blueprint. A quadrennial exercise that occurs before each general election, a 112-member subset of the delegation gathers to hammer together the Republican Party’s official vision, a platform…
Conservative critics of President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Library of Congress were blindsided Wednesday when a key Republican engineered her lopsided confirmation by the Senate despite concerns she is, in the words of one opponent, “an unqualified, far-left progressive.” The Senate voted 74-18 to confirm Carla D. Hayden, who leads Baltimore's public library…
Individuals around the country called the White House comment line on Tuesday to say “no” to President Barack Obama’s transgender bathroom mandate. The “United We Stand” campaign was organized in response to the Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter on transgender students. The letter sent to schools in May from the departments of Education and Justice…
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released its stopgap measure to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration last week. The measure is a last-minute solution to avoid a funding lapse when the current authorization expires on July 15. Given the short timeline, the proposal already passed the House by voice vote on Monday and is expected…
CLEVELAND—Delegates to the Republican National Convention accuse staffers and fellow delegates bankrolled by billionaire political activist Paul Singer of using duplicitous tactics in an attempt to force a floor vote on LGBT issues. “It’s one of the filthiest things I’ve ever seen in politics,” Maryland delegate Ben Marci told The Daily Signal. CNN first reported that…
As President Barack Obama visited Dallas on Tuesday to speak at the memorial service for five slain police officers there, some law enforcement advocates faulted his legacy on the issue as negative. “Because these are not isolated incidents. They’re symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system,” @Potus…
The story of the former Atlanta fire chief who was fired from his job after publishing a book that addressed marriage and sexuality from a biblical perspective took center stage at a hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, with witnesses from both sides of the aisle voicing disapproval of the city’s decision to terminate the decorated…
For 17 years, Ahmad Zaatari has called Austin, Texas, home. It’s a fact that’s not lost on him—Zaatari has now lived in Austin longer than he’s lived in any other place, including his native Lebanon. But now, because of new regulations on rental properties put in place by the City Council, he’s not sure whether…