Congressional Hall Monitor

A new HBO documentary that follows three Republican members of Congress exposes how special interest groups wield immense influence over federal lawmakers. “The Swamp” reveals an open secret in D.C. that prominent committee seats are doled out to members of Congress not based on their merit but on their ability to raise huge sums of cash for their party. “The ...

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York said antifa violence in Portland is a myth in a YouTube video published Monday. Nadler made the comment during an interview with Austen Fletcher. Fletcher hosts Fleccas Talks, a political channel, according to the Dartmouth Review. I ran into Jerry Nadler in DC and asked him to disavow the Antifa violence/rioting in Portland. ...

Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said that he would not support abolishing the filibuster if his party were to win the majority come November. “That’s bullshit,” Manchin told CNN Tuesday when asked if he would join other Democrats who have called for lowering the vote threshold to close debate on legislation. “The whole intention of Congress is to have a ...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said Tuesday he is working to declassify a memo regarding an FBI interview conducted with the primary source for Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the infamous anti-Trump dossier. Graham revealed new details about the memo in an interview with former South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy. He said that the document is ...

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday he will approve Democrats’ request to invite Robert Mueller to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee after the former special counsel published an op-ed in The Washington Post criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence for Roger Stone. “Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing – and also capable – of defending the Mueller ...

Two separate House spending bills deny President Donald Trump any funds for the southern border wall’s construction, according to drafts released Monday by the Appropriations Committee. The bills total more than $300 billion in spending and allocate funds for military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as to the Department of Homeland Security. Out of the $10.1 ...

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a 538-page climate plan Tuesday that is designed to eliminate the U.S. economy’s contributions to global warming. The plan seeks to address climate change through a combination of government mandates, tax incentives and revamped infrastructure, according to the Washington Post. The proposal comes as lawmakers and citizens respond to a pandemic that has killed ...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday called on two top intelligence officials to provide a briefing to all members of Congress regarding reports that Russian intelligence has paid bounties to Taliban fighters to attack U.S. service members in Afghanistan. “Congress needs to know what the intelligence community knows about this significant threat to American troops and our allies and what ...

A Justice Department official turned whistleblower appeared caught off guard Wednesday when Republican Rep. Doug Collins pressed him in a House Judiciary Committee hearing about his efforts last year to work for House Democrats during the Trump impeachment saga. John Elias, a chief of staff to the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general in the antitrust division, reluctantly conceded at the ...

House Democrats and Senate Republicans have each rolled out potential police reform bills amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, but despite their common goal of improving policing in the United States, they differ on police tactics and officer immunity. While the two competing bills both increase funding for body cameras and elevate lynching to a federal crime, ...

The United States Senate voted to confirm a judge appointed by President Donald Trump to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals Thursday. Judge Justin Walker has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, interned for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and worked as a speechwriter for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Walker, a pick that Senate Democrats opposed, won ...

Twenty-eight congressional Democrats signed a letter Wednesday condemning the Department of Education for ruling that public schools that allow biological males who identify as transgender to play girls’ sports are violating Title IX civil rights legislation. Democratic Conn. Sen. Richard Blumenthal joined 27 House Democrats in signing the letter, which charged that the department’s order “discriminates against transgender youth” by ...

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Thursday to authorize subpoenas for dozens of current and former government employees as part of a sprawling investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary panel, sought the subpoenas in order to investigate the FBI’s probe of Trump campaign associates, as well as U.S. ...

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that he has been denied access to interview an FBI agent and FBI analyst who met with a key source for the Steele dossier who disavowed the salacious document. Graham has sought interviews with the FBI case agent and supervisory intelligence analyst to discuss their interview in January 2017 with the primary source for Christopher Steele, ...

Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski expressed support for former Defense Secretary James Mattis on Thursday after he harshly criticized President Trump in a statement originally published in The Atlantic. Murkowski described Mattis’ statement as “true and honest and necessary” before admitting that she has struggled with the decision over whether she will vote for the president in November. “When I ...