Decade after decade, United States presidents order intervention, by the military and otherwise, across the Middle East. And, decade after decade, the US House of Representatives and Senate provide the funding for the intervention to continue, as well as pass bills and resolutions demanding even more.
Tag: House of Representatives
On the United States House of Representatives floor today, representatives have lined up to speak in solemn tones about how they are fulfilling of their oaths of office and defending America from grave danger by voting to impeach President Donald Trump.
Following up on his previous call for caution in the effort in the United States House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley on Wednesday presented to the House Judiciary Committee oral testimony and an extensive written statement regarding the case as it now stands for impeaching the president. Unlike other witnesses at the hearing, Turley did not give the deed his blessing.
Speaking Wednesday evening with host Kennedy at Fox Business, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) predicted that the shenanigans this week to pass a continuing resolution providing short-term funding for the United States government and extra big-government goodies including authorization for mass surveillance, all without US House of Representatives members having time to adequately review the legislation, is not the end of the story.
Come December 20, Massie predicts congressional leadership “will come in a closed room” with Massie and other representatives “and they’ll say ‘OK now we’ve got the really big omnibus and, if you vote for this, you can go home for Christmas, but, if you don’t vote for it and it fails, we’re gonna make you stay here over Christmas and New Years.’”
New Pew Research Center poll results indicate Americans’ support for marijuana legalization continues to grow, with support reaching two-thirds among those questioned and maintaining majorities among Democrats, Republicans, and independents. This state of popular opinion, along with marijuana law liberalization continuing to move forward at state and local levels, are among the factors suggesting the time is ripe for legalization on the national level.
However, the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee is not moving forward with a clean bill to repeal marijuana prohibition that would garner widespread public support and have a good chance of both passing in the Republican-controlled Senate and receiving President Donald Trump’s signature. Instead, the committee is scheduled to consider on Wednesday legislation that, in addition to national legalization, contains marijuana business subsidies and race-based provisions that likely mean the bill will have zero chance of passing in the Senate or receiving Trump’s support.
It is a good rule of thumb that bill names in the United States Congress are misleading. A prominent example of that is the USA PATRIOT Act that, instead of supporting the freedom for which American patriots have fought, provides to the US government extensive means to infringe on that freedom.
On Thursday, though, House of Representatives members were offered in an amendment vote the opportunity to replace one such misleading bill name with a name that informs the American people what the bill is really about. Forty-seven House members voted for the change.
During a United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing earlier this month that appeared to signal the beginning of a move in the House to approve countrywide marijuana legalization legislation, Republican House member, and longtime proponent of rolling back marijuana prohibition, Tom McClintock (R-CA) warned that Democratic members’ apparent focus on weaving race-based policies and new government meddling into legalization legislation could sink support from Republicans.
Now it looks like House Democrats are moving forward with that plan against which McClintock warned. On Tuesday, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee with jurisdiction over marijuana legalization, introduced legalization legislation that includes race-based provisions tied together with marijuana business subsidies that just about ensure the bill will have little support from Republican House members.
A United States House of Representatives subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday at which countrywide marijuana legalization was considered. The hearing of the Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee appears designed to start off deliberative action in the House out of which the advancement of legalization legislation to the House floor will arise. However, the focus by Democratic majority House members on racial issues in the hearing titled “Marijuana Laws in America: Racial Justice and the Need for Reform” suggests the move toward legalization is off to a rocky start.
Phillip M. Baily reported Wednesday at the Louisville Courier Journal on a apparent effort by national Republican Party figures to defeat United States House of Representatives Member Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the 2020 Republican primary.
Why the effort to defeat Massie? Maybe it is because Massie has been a strong advocate for nonintervention overseas and respect for liberty in America since he won election to the House in 2012.
You may think that the United States House of Representatives only passes legislation while in session when members have an opportunity to vote. Not so. On Tuesday, a small group of representatives on the House floor, while most representatives were far afield on recess, sought to quickly approve a 19 billion dollars disaster relief bill and a two-week extension of the National Flood Insurance Program. They would have succeeded, but for the fact that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) objected on the House floor, preventing the legislation from being approved.