Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced the “Deterring Undue Enforcement by Protecting Rights of Citizens from Excessive Searches and Seizures Act,” or DUE PROCESS Act. The reforms contained in Grassley’s bill would significantly alter the federal civil asset forfeiture landscape, dramatically improving the lot of innocent…
The Obama administration first announced its intent to end the historical U.S. contractual relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in March 2014 and transition its stewardship of key Internet domain name functions to the global multi-stakeholder community. The transition was originally supposed to occur at the end of Sept. 2015,…
The United States is under growing threats, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his team deserve credit for recognizing that threat and outlining a plan for making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. During the last seven years under President Barack Obama, the United States has grown less safe. Threats are rising, such as…
Many Americans are unaware of the serious problems that face transgender persons. More than 50 percent had active suicidal thoughts and 45 percent had had a major depressive episode. For instance, a 2016 study comparing 20 Lebanese transgender participants to 20 control subjects reported that transgender individuals suffer from more psychiatric pathologies compared to the general population….
The Zika virus continues to be a problem that must be addressed. The mosquito-borne virus is now known to be transferable from human to human through sexual contact, even up to six months (it may be more) after developing symptoms. It’s still unknown whether men with Zika who never develop symptoms have the ability to…
The Obama administration seems to live in a parallel reality, oblivious to the racial animus that has become the hallmark of late-stage Obama and to the ethnic strife that wreaks havoc on the rest of the world. Inside its own Platonic cave, the thinking is: Over half the world is polyglot, so why not us?…
The rule of law requires an orderly and predictable judicial system that guarantees citizens the right to seek redress through the courts for wrongs they suffer. Congress’s proposal to address Puerto Rico’s economic and fiscal crisis through the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Security Act throws all that aside by implementing a stay on…
The House of Representatives has passed a short, but significant, 31-page Medicare bill, Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act (H.R. 5273). The House measure would improve traditional Medicare in a number of ways, though most of these would be technical changes to current law. Because the bill was largely noncontroversial and thus enacted under a special…
On Tuesday, the Senate considered a proposal that would expand Pell Grants (federal aid meant to help low-income students attend college) to cover year-round tuition. In theory, part-time and full-time students who have increased access to Pell Grants would be encouraged to finish their degrees faster and graduate with less debt. Unfortunately, the proposal to expand Pell…
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is among the most inappropriately named laws ever enacted in the U.S. It neither reformed Wall Street nor protected consumers, and it imposed massive new regulations on banks far away from Wall Street. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, has long recognized how…
This summer promises to be a turbulent one for the Asia-Pacific region. As the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore made clear, the United States and China are each promoting a distinctly different view of the regional situation. The United States continues to reiterate the need for regional stability, while China fundamentally perceives the South China Sea as…
Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., recently proposed an amendment to legislation on Puerto Rico that would exempt the island from the Jones Act. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act, requires vessels transporting goods within the United States to be U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, and at least 75 percent U.S.-crewed. According to the…
Today, the United States and its allies face a wider and more serious array of threats than at any point since the end of the Cold War a quarter of a century ago. While the demand for troops to confront these challenges is increasing, the size and readiness of the U.S. Army is in steep…
Twenty years after the welfare reform of 1996, House leadership is once again turning attention to policy for fighting poverty. Reforming the massive welfare system, which includes 80 programs at a cost of $1 trillion annually, must be a top policy priority for conservatives in Congress. The 1996 reform and policy lessons since show how…
Warning: Spoilers abound. In the 1947 classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” protagonist George Bailey, who is considering suicide, sees what would have happened to his wife Mary if he had never been born. With George Bailey alive, Mary is a radiant, enthusiastic wife and mother. Without him, she is a downcast librarian, single and…
The defense budget should be used to pay for things that make our country more secure and help the men and women in uniform accomplish their mission. Unfortunately, some in Congress use this funding as a piggy bank for their own unrelated priorities. In fact, for the current fiscal year, Congress took almost $500 million…
In every Soviet-era military unit, the long shadow of totalitarian political control hung over day-to-day operations. A political commissar served alongside commanding military officers to ensure that communist purity was maintained. We’re seeing the same political strong-arm in President Barack Obama’s executive agencies, particularly in the raw enforcement of so-called “environmental justice.” Readers will recall…
For the third time in as many years, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is pushing her radical scheme that, if enacted, would render the military justice system unworkable and ineffective. Don’t be fooled by the false label of her scheme—The Military Justice Improvement Act. In the last two years, she forced a vote on her idea,…
Two weeks ago 42 Republicans voted to endorse President Barack Obama’s transgender agenda. They did it by voting for the Maloney amendment, which affirmed Obama’s 2014 executive order barring “discrimination” on the basis of “sexual orientation and gender identity” in the private employment policies of federal contractors. Over the weekend, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., posted a…
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration continued its overreach into Americans’ dietary choices, seeking to manipulate consumer behavior so that Americans eat food that government bureaucrats think is ideal. The FDA released voluntary sodium reduction goals seeking to lower individual sodium consumption to 2,300 mg per day. This would be achieved by “encouraging” manufacturers, restaurants, and…