Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a US Senate floor speech Thursday explaining his “no” vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (HR 3304), exposes “wasteful, inefficient, and often fraudulent” Department of Defense spending. Sanders also addresses the bloated nature of...
Speaking on the United States House of Representatives floor Thursday, Rep. Jim McGovern delivered a comprehensive speech urging Congress to stop wasting $80 billion a year and Americans’ lives in US military action in Afghanistan. “It is time to get out of...
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) introduced a resolution this week in the House of Representatives urging President Barack Obama to declassify 28 pages of a joint House and Senate Intelligence Committee report that includes information concerning foreign governments'...
Following another Thanksgiving travel period with the Transportation Security Administration subjecting travelers to infuriating harassment, the House of Representatives leadership has scheduled for House floor consideration Tuesday three bills that will tinker with...
Rep. Walter Jones, speaking on the US House of Representatives floor yesterday morning, called on Congress to exercise its constitutional power over US military policy in Afghanistan. In particular, Jones insisted that Congress debate and vote on the matter instead of...
Do you follow Congress? Let us make it easier for you. Here is your guide to House and Senate hearings and mark-ups of interest to RPI readers for the week beginning Nov. 18, 2013.House of Representatives: Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee Hearing: Crisis in the...
Rep. Walter Jones, an RPI Advisory Board member, presented last week on the House floor a short, powerful speech calling for ending US military action in, and the flow of Americans' tax money to, Afghanistan. Jones's speech focuses on continued US government spending...
By guiding HR 2083, the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act, to the Floor Tuesday for passage by a voice vote, the House Republican leadership demonstrated the hollowness of the praise it heaped on local control of education when HR 5, the...
Remember the bizarre "Kony 2012" video last year that was supposed to mobilize us all to fight the really bad guys in Uganda? (Or at least get behind the State Department and AFRICOM's efforts to fight the "really bad guys" in Uganda)? The video was supposedly viewed...
US Sen. Ron Wyden, in a Guardian article he wrote based on his speech at a Cato Institute event this week, reinforces RPI's warnings that efforts to reform the US government mass spying program "provide an excellent opportunity to make bad legislation worse" and that...
As Ron Paul wrote this week in his weekly column (free subscription here), the recent slight thaw in US/Iranian relations is reason for optimism. But, he warned, it should be very cautious optimism. He wrote that the danger from the neocons may even be greater when...
There is nothing so dangerous as when Washington starts "reforming" something. Usually it means that despite best obfuscation efforts the administration or Congress has been caught doing something -- or not doing something -- sufficiently outrageous to create a public...
There is reason for concern that the US Congress and the National Rifle Association may soon work together to use the Washington, DC Navy Yard killings earlier this week as an excuse to expand a US government database of all Americans' private medical information.The...
Ron Paul interviewed by Larry King yesterday -- don't miss it! Unfortunately at this point it is audio only, but please do not let that discourage you from listening to this excellent and informative video:
On Wednesday, the House debated and passed overwhelmingly HR 850, the Iran Nuclear Prevention Act of 2013. As we wrote on the eve of the vote, these new sanctions are timed to disrupt the inauguration of Iran’s new president, a moderate, and to severely restrict...
photo: MudflapDCAs we wrote several days ago, the House will vote on a new Iran sanctions bill this week, possibly as early as tomorrow. With nearly 400 co-sponsors of the bill, known as HR 850 -- the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, the debate is likely to be rather...
photo: World Can't WaitThe House Leadership has announced that it will bring a new Iran sanctions bill to the Floor for a vote this week. The bill, HR 850 - Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, will be brought up on the "suspension" calendar this coming week. Traditionally,...
House Leadership has put forth a limited closed rule governing the debate over the Defense Appropriations bill (HR 2367), approving just over 100 amendments to the bill. The bill will be on the House Floor today shortly after noon.By approving for debate several...
Faced with an unexpected groundswell of opposition to its highly unusual move to limit debate on the Defense Appropriations bill, as well as fears over a Floor fight on such contentious issues as the coup in Egypt, arming the Syrian rebels, and NSA spying, House...
When the "People's Branch" of government takes up the Defense Appropriations bill later this week they will abandon a long-held tradition of debating the bill under an "open rule," which would allow any amendment to be brought to the floor that does not seek to change...
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