The Latest on the Government Shutdown

On June 24, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) office said that the Senate Appropriations Committee is unlikely to consider a fiscal year 2015 Energy and Water Development bill after an amendment dispute ended a planned markup of the legislation. Further debate on the $34.2 billion draft legislation was cancelled after the White House said […]

Once again Democrats were smirking as Republicans appeared to wage civil war, this time over the decision to renew the charter for the Export-Import Bank. All Art Vandelay jokes aside, the debate over the Ex-Im bank once again has shown the schism in the Republican party, and how there are really three parties in Congress – Republican, […]

The House and Senate both completed legislative business for the week last Thursday, with lawmakers returning to their districts for the Fourth of July recess. Before adjourning, the House voted 229-185 to approve legislation (H.R. 4899) to require the Department of Interior to conduct additional onshore and offshore oil and gas lease sales. Earlier in […]

Today, at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, members discussed the Administration’s efforts to curb fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare. The Subcommittee heard testimony from witnesses at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), […]

Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee hosted its second 21st Century Cures roundtable to discuss “bridging the gap” between digital medicine’s advances and regulatory policies. This roundtable follows the Committee’s recently released white paper entitled Leveraging Technology to Advance the Discovery, Development, and Delivery of Better Treatments and Cures. The stated goal of the 21st Century Cures Initiative is to “to […]

 Last week, House leadership elections and appropriations bills dominated the agenda on Capitol Hill. In the House, GOP members elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Majority Leader, following Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) recent loss in a Virginia GOP primary. In floor activity, the Senate deadlocked Thursday on moving ahead with a three-bill appropriations package after […]

On Tuesday the voters in Mississippi will have the privilege of helping to determine whether the ascending trajectory the pundits placed back on the Tea Party following Majority Leader Cantor’s primary defeat maintains momentum or loses steam. While the media often focuses on the extremes of both parties, it is important to remember that the […]

Shortly ago, House Republicans voted for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the new House majority leader. The four-term Republican lawmaker, who previously served as the majority whip, will take over for Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) when he leaves his post on July 31. McCarthy defeated Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) in a vote held by private […]

The House will spend the day on the critical duty of naming post offices, while the Senate plans to finish work on some of President Obama’s judicial nominations. On the Senate floor today are confirmation votes for three judicial nominees and a cloture vote on an assistant attorney general nominee. The upper chamber will convene […]

Eric Cantor’s loss last week was described by some as yet another example of Republican’s “eating their own.” Unfortunately, liberals are also agitating in this way as well, and appear to be weaving the same narrative of creating “purity tests”, ironically with both sides taking aim at Wall Street.

Last week, a key Republican on the House Appropriations Committee said GOP lawmakers will seek to block the EPA’s proposed greenhouse-gas rule by denying the funding to implement it. According to Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), chairman of the House’s Energy-Water Appropriations subcommittee, said the funding ban will be included in the fiscal 2015 spending bill […]

Both chambers of Congress were in session last week, with the House debating two fiscal 2015 appropriations bills and expired tax breaks, while the Senate focused on veterans’ care and student loan costs. Last Tuesday, the House approved the fiscal 2015 Transportation-HUD spending bill (H.R. 4745) in a 229-192 vote. Earlier that day, House members […]