Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., is still angry about the omnibus spending bill that passed through Congress more than two months ago. Buck is frustrated—not only by what Congress included in the massive $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill, but also by what Congress intentionally left out. He wants the legislature to reassert its rule-making authority by…
Sen. Mike Lee believes that the Senate fight over the next Supreme Court nominee will help the chances of a criminal justice reform overhaul passing Congress this year. In an interview with The Daily Signal, Lee, a conservative leader on the issue, suggested that Republican leaders may be more eager to achieve a bipartisan deal…
Addressing tax, health care, and monetary policy is key to ensuring America’s economic future, says Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media. Forbes, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and Board of Trustees member at The Heritage Foundation, laid out his “reforms that we need to get this country moving again” during a speaking engagement…
Student protesters swarmed California State University, Los Angeles to barricade the entrances of a theater where conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was set to deliver a speech about censorship and diversity on college campuses. Led primarily by the school’s Black Student Union and Black Lives Matter chapter, the hundreds of demonstrators, including some professors, poured into…
The largest Republican caucus in Congress has thrown its weight behind a proposal to reduce spending significantly and scrap a 2015 budget deal. With that move, the conservative-leaning Republican Study Committee brings additional urgency to an ongoing budget battle in Congress. House Speaker Paul Ryan wants to keep in place spending levels in the Bipartisan…
From the steps of the Supreme Court, Senate Democrats unleashed their latest messaging barrage in the battle over whether President Obama should fill the open seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blasted Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, after the chairman of the Judiciary Committee accused Democrats earlier Thursday of throwing…
An Ohio firearms retailer who was recently denied access to banking services says the federal government is continuing to “discriminate against” his industry. “I definitely think the government is discriminating against our industry,” William Evans, president and CEO of American Tactical Concepts in Wadsworth, Ohio, told The Daily Signal. “It’s a little too widespread.” Evans, who…
Discrimination against Americans of faith is on the increase, but if they stand up for their religious liberty, they can prevail, a new report says. “Hostility to religion in America is rising like floodwaters,” Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO, and chief counsel at First Liberty Institute, writes in the report. “This flood is engulfing ordinary citizens…
The Obama administration is proposing a plan to help Puerto Rico with its debt crisis, framing the issue as a bipartisan responsibility owed by the U.S. government and Congress to an island that has 3.5 million American citizens. Though the administration says its proposal stops short of being a direct federal bailout, it remains an…
Two recent reports by the federal government’s watchdog shed light on one of the more overlooked elements of immigration to the United States: the money migrants send to the country from which they came. The U.S. is the largest source of these money transfers sent overseas by foreign-born residents, known as remittances, with an estimated…
KYIV, Ukraine—Vadym Krypychenko was sure he was going to die. His vehicle had broken down along the front lines in eastern Ukraine near the village of Verkhniotroitske. It was Aug. 10, 2015, only four days before the end of his military service commitment and his scheduled return home. Krypychenko, a private in the Ukrainian army’s…
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, has taken his name out of contention in President Obama’s search for a nominee to fill the current Supreme Court vacancy. In a statement Sandoval provided Thursday to Nevada political reporter and commentator Jon Ralston, the governor said: Earlier today, I notified the White House that I do not wish to be…
Obamacare is putting the agricultural industry in a tizzy. Many contractors who provide farm labor and must now offer workers health insurance are complaining loudly about the cost in their already low-margin business. Some are also concerned that the forms they must file with the federal government under the Affordable Care Act will bring immigration…
Senate Republicans are abusing their constitutional authority by “blockading” any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Barack Obama, progressive legal experts said Wednesday. “This is not just an instance of the Senate refusing to do its duty. This is actually better understood as an unconstitutional power grab by the Senate,” Edward Fallone, an associate professor…
A Missouri court has ruled that religious liberty rights prohibit courts from interfering with a Catholic diocese’s firing of an employee for being in a same-sex marriage, which conflicts with church teaching. The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph terminated Colleen Simon’s employment in 2014, citing “irreconcilable conflict between the laws, discipline, and teaching of the Catholic Church”…
Republicans on Capitol Hill are questioning the legality of a move by the Obama administration to give billions to insurers under a program implemented under Obamacare that they say is equal to an insurer bailout. At issue for lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is whether the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services…
The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee has vowed to block the path for President Barack Obama’s eventual Supreme Court nominee. But Sen. Pat Toomey is asking that committee to quickly let through two different Obama nominees from his home state of Pennsylvania. The Republican senator’s push comes as the Senate continues to clash over whether Obama…
Senate Democrats are predicting with certainty that Republicans will fold on their pledge not to hold hearings on President Obama’s eventual Supreme Court pick. “We’ve been here with Republican leadership before,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a press conference Wednesday. Schumer and other Democrats say they see the GOP’s current strategy as a bad…
Following in the footsteps of cities in northern California, San Diego is weighing an increase to its minimum wage that small business owners warn could serve as a “job killer” for them. The city is gearing up to vote on a proposal to raise its minimum wage to $10.50 an hour—50 cents higher than the…
The Obamacare website failed on launch because government officials spent too little time on it, made bad technical decisions, and mismanaged a key contract, a new internal report says. The “culture” of the agency overseeing Obamacare also got in the way of readying the website, Healthcare.gov, especially poor coordination and a resistance to addressing “bad news,”…