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Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) called on his Democratic colleagues to give President Trump the funding for his long-desired border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, saying its construction is inevitable. “Give Trump the money,” Peterson told KFGO’s “News & Views” on Tuesday. “I’d give him the whole thing … and put strings on it so you make sure he puts the wall where it needs to be. Why are we fighting over this? We’re going to build that wall anyway, at some time.” The 15-term congressman said top Democrats look at him “cross-eyed” when he makes this suggestion. The funding...

The Constitution provided that the president "may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them." On forty-six occasions between 1791 and 1933, presidents called the Senate alone into special session (see Table V-L). Most of these special sessions met in March (since presidents were inaugurated on March 4) to confirm the president's nominations to the cabinet.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Blocks President Trump Entry into Capitol Building – Confirms State of Union Speech Cancellation… It looks like Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi has no intention of allowing the House chamber to be used for a State of the Union address. Speaker Pelosi has informed the House Sergeant at Arms that no executive branch official will be permitted entry into the Capitol building. Earlier Fox News reported Pelosi cancelled a walkthrough last week, and a second request for reconsideration from the White House is expected to meet the same fate. The House Speaker controls who is,...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell informed his Democratic colleagues that he's holding a vote to "immediately open the government" on Thursday. The government has been shuttered for 32 days now as President Trump and Democrats continue to butt heads over border security. As Trump suggested, McConnell's legislation will include $5.7 billion for border security, including funds to build a wall. Democratic leadership insists they're not paying for Trump's border barrier, but McConnell urged his colleagues to "put the country ahead of politics and take 'yes' for an answer." Over the weekend Trump offered a compromise deal. If Democrats agreed to...

Smart call. Can’t go wrong with Republican voters by standing up to Pelosi, after all. And Trump’s insistence on following protocol by delivering the State of the Union as scheduled is a neat bit of table-turning on Democrats. Normally he’s the one accused of flouting political norms, often for petty reasons. This time he’s the one who’s trying to stick to norms, with Pelosi peevishly trying to block him.She’s in a bad spot now. Whether she does attend or if she doesn’t, the politics are unkind to her. SCOOP: @WhiteHouse has sent a letter to the Sergeant-At-Arms, asking to...

Shortened title. Full title: Nancy Pelosi Charged The Air Force Nearly $200k To Fly Her Family And Other Lawmakers To Italy And Ukraine House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional delegation (CODEL) to Belgium, Egypt and Afghanistan garnered extra attention after President Donald Trump banned her from using military aircraft, but the trip would not have been the first time she used Air Force money to travel the world. Pelosi’s trip to Italy and Ukraine from July 30 to Aug. 6, 2015, cost the Air Force $184,587.81, according to documents released Saturday under a 2015 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit by...

The White House is still planning to move ahead with next week’s scheduled State of the Union address, but the details remain up in the air after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi strongly urged the president to delay the speech or submit it in writing amid the government shutdown fight. According to multiple sources, it remains unclear whether the address scheduled for Jan. 29 will in fact go forward, or what venue it would be in. The White House is even planning for the possibility of a speech outside of Washington. PELOSI URGES TRUMP TO DELAY STATE OF THE UNION UNTIL...

I can’t believe we had to wait almost 24 hours for her to reply to yesterday’s White House letter. We live in the Netflix era. We should be able to binge-watch every episode of this pitiful melodrama in a day. “After President Trump revoked the use of military aircraft to travel to Afghanistan, the delegation was prepared to fly commercially to proceed with this vital trip to meet with our commanders and troops on the front lines,” [Pelosi spokesman Drew] Hammill said.Overnight, he added, a new State Department threat assessment indicated “that the President announcing this sensitive travel had...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first speech from the House floor has set a minor record with C-SPAN. Ocasio-Cortez slammed the Trump Administration over the partial government shutdown in her remarks. A C-SPAN tweet of her nearly four-minute speech garnered 1.16 million views in a little more than 12 hours, setting a record for the most-watched Twitter video from the outlet of any remarks by a House member, according to a tweet from Howard Mortman, C-SPAN’s communications director. By Friday morning, it had surpassed 2.3 million views, with more than 13,000 retweets and over 46,000 likes.

Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski weighed in on the feud between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) amid the ongoing partial government shutdown. According to Brzezinski, Trump has only feared his base and FBI special counsel. But now, she said the president fears Pelosi because she, like Mueller, is fearless and experienced. “Nothing Trump does will make her afraid or rattled. Also like Mueller, she knows more than she is saying publicly. She’s gotten inside Trump’s head.

Pelosi wrote: The U.S. Secret Service was designated as the lead federal agency responsible for coordinating, planning, exercising, and implementing security for National Special Security Events. However, both the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] have not been funded for 26 days now — with critical departments hamstrung by furloughs. Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress...

Rep. Marino said the following: “As of January 23, 2019, I am officially stepping down from Congress. Having spent over two decades serving the public, I have chosen to take a position in the private sector where I can use both my legal and business experience to create jobs around the nation. I want to thank the people of the 12th Congressional District of Pennsylvania for the faith they have placed in me to represent them in Congress. It truly has been one of the greatest honors of my life. I worked in Congress to fight for the hardworking people...

President Trump hosted a number of Republican and Democratic House lawmakers at the White House Wednesday to negotiate over border security and end the ongoing government shut down. “The President and his team had a constructive meeting with bipartisan members of the problem solvers caucus. They listened to one another and now both have a good understanding of what the other wants. We look forward to more conversations like this,” Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said about the meeting.  These House Democrats in the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus met today with @realDonaldTrump in the Situation Room to discuss the shutdown: Josh...

WASHINGTON — Along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, which sprawls across four states and nine House districts, a single seat is held by a Republican: Representative Will Hurd of Texas. And Mr. Hurd, a former undercover C.I.A. officer who barely won re-election in Texas’ 23rd District, the largest of the nine, has emerged as perhaps the most persistent critic in his party of President Trump’s wall. Drawing upon his years undercover and his work in the private sector, Mr. Hurd has a starkly different vision for the southwestern border: fiber optic cables, sensors, radar, drones, increased staffing — but not...

Freshman Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) is criticizing Sen. Rand Paul, saying the Kentucky Republican gave President Trump "bad advice" when he suggested that the U.S. declare victory in Afghanistan and Syria. "There are those of us who have sacrificed for our nation, who know the importance of this terrorist threat and the need to stay vigilant," tweeted Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, on Wednesday. "We go there so that they don’t come here. It’s that simple." Crenshaw, who wears an eyepatch due to an injury sustained in combat, was responding to a tweet from Paul in which the senator said...

Freshman Congressmen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib have wasted no time in shaking up the US House of Representatives. Early Friday morning, Omar and Tlaib introduced a bill adding Islamic holidays to the Federal calendar which has traditionally only recognized American holidays. Omar and Tlaib’s bill would add Eid Al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan and the four-day-long celebration of Eid Al-Adha to the list of Federally recognized holidays, potentially granting reasons to banks, schools, and other businesses to remain closed for five additional days per year. Omar and Tlaib justified their work as making America more inclusive of it’s...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday suggested President Trump hold his State of the Union address in the Senate after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asked the president to postpone the Jan. 29 address amid the partial government shutdown. "I think that’s a real affront to the American people," Paul said on "Fox & Friends," referring to Pelosi's request. Pelosi made the surprise request on Wednesday, warning that staging the speech amid the partial shutdown — which has affected both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secret Service — creates security risks. Paul said denying the move would be the...

Ilhan Omar, one of the country’s first Muslim congresswomen, is among the CBC’s new members. headshot On Thursday, the day of the official swearing-in of the 116th Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus swore in its own group of members, a total of 55 ― its largest number in history. Download This year’s CBC surpasses its previous record of 49 House and Senate members in the 115th Congress. “With the largest caucus in history... the CBC is poised to play a leading role in standing up to the Trump Administration and pressing forward on key issues like protecting voting rights and...

A new poll by the Pew Research Center shows a big part of the reason why the standoff over funding President Trump's border wall has been so impossible to solve: Republican support for the wall is higher than at any time since Trump's election, while Democratic support has dwindled to almost nothing. The big picture: When the divide has gotten this big, it's hard to see how the government shutdown ends. Although a majority of the public still opposes the wall, Republican support is so high that Trump and GOP leaders would face a furious backlash if they reopen the...

Republican Senator John Kennedy called Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s request to move the date of the State of the Union address a “tactic” that is “making things worse.” Kennedy suggested that President Trump should speak before the Senate instead if he is unwelcome in the House. “I think the President ought to go ahead and give the State of the Union as normal,” Kennedy said. “He can come to the Senate if Mrs. Pelosi doesn’t want him to come to the House. I just think that sort of tactic is making things worse.”