Free Republic

THE BIG STORY House Republicans unveiled their plan of attack against Obama-era regulations Wednesday, highlighting the top rules they plan to roll back. The Labor Department's blacklisting rule, Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) stream protection rule, Interior Department's methane emissions rule, a disclosure rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and an obscure gun regulation from the Social Security Administration (SSA) top the list of regulations Republicans are targeting. GOP lawmakers will turn to the Congressional Review Act to strike down these rules.

President Donald Trump pushed Republican lawmakers on Thursday for swift action on a sweeping agenda including his planned U.S.-Mexico border wall, tax cuts and repealing Obamacare, despite tensions over timetables and priorities. Congressional Republicans were in Philadelphia for a three-day retreat to hammer out a legislative agenda, with the party in control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade. "This Congress is going to be the busiest Congress we've had in decades, maybe ever," Trump said in a speech to the lawmakers at a Philadelphia hotel. "Enough 'all talk, no action.'...

Trump's Mexican border wall from improbable is rapidly becoming imminent. First, it was Paul Ryan telling Greta Van Susteren that he is prepared to pay $8-$14 billion for Trump's "massive wall"... Paul Ryan tells @greta “we're going to pay for” Trump's wall, confirms est. cost $8-14 billion; says lot of ways to get Mexico to contribute pic.twitter.com/c5URBViwpE — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) January 26, 2017 ... and now he has support in the Senate, where Mitch McConneell has said Congress is moving ahead with $12 billion - $15 billion to build border wall. BREAKING: Senate leader McConnell says Congress moving ahead...

Senate Democrats are set to unveil a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and offer President Donald Trump their support if he backs it, the NYT reports. The plan includes $180 billion to rail and bus systems, $65 billion to ports, airports and waterways, $110 billion for water and sewer systems, $100  billion for energy infrastructure, and $20 billion for public and tribal lands. Cited by the Times, Chuck Schumer said “our urban and rural communities have their own unique set of infrastructure priorities, and this proposal would provide funding to address those needed upgrades that go beyond the traditional road...

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- On January 9th, 2017, the new Hearing Protection Act (HPA), H.R. 367, was reintroduced into the 115th Congress (2017-2018).  It was introduced by Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC-3).  It started with 40 co-sponsors. The HPA, unlike many bills, is short and concise. It takes silencers out of the National Firearms act, with its draconian regulation and $200 excise tax, and places them in the same category as rifles and shotguns.Here is the text of the  Hearing Protection Act of 2017, H.R. 367:A BILLTo provide that silencers be treated the same as long guns.       Be it enacted by...

Fiscal Policy: President Trump hasn't released a detailed budget plan yet, but already some Republicans are signaling their disinterest in making deep cuts to federal spending. The biggest obstacle to the conservative parts of Trump's agenda could be his own party. Trump hasn't been shy about wanting to see big changes in federal spending. Shortly before taking the oath of office, news came out that he is aiming for 10% spending cuts and a 20% cut in federal staffing. On his first full day in the White House, he announced a halt to hiring federal workers and a freeze on...

President Donald Trump is home alone, so suddenly one of the hottest new tickets in town is an invitation to the White House. The President is going to start hitting the Washington dinner party circuit. In most cases, actually, his guests will come to him as he tries building bridges in a city that he has spent years railing against. "It's very good -- a beautiful relationship," said Trump, all smiles Monday as he hosted congressional leaders at the White House for his first round of evening visitors. A piano played Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind," as the...

Matthew Lee and Richard Lardner, Associated Press January 23, 2017 Officials say the Obama administration in its waning hours defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority. GOP members of Congress had been holding up the money. A State Department official and several congressional aides say the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning, just before Donald Trump became president. More than $227 million in foreign affairs funding was released at the time, including $4 million for climate change programs and $1.25 million for U.N. organizations.(snip)

Submitted by John Mauldin via MauldinEconomics.com,I have been in Washington DC for the last three days. The ostensible reason was to participate in a board meeting of a public company, Ashford Inc. (AINC). We manage hotel REITs that own three hotels here in DC, and the group decided to move our board meeting up a few weeks and hold it in DC during the inauguration. That gave me the opportunity to set up a few meetings to try to gain some insight into what the first 100 days, the first six months, and the first year of the Trump...

UNITED STATES: Bill to withdraw the US from the United Nations has been submitted to Congress as the 'American Sovereignty Restoration Act'

Republicans, both in the incoming Trump administration and on Capitol Hill, are growing increasingly angry with Senate Democrats' efforts to slow the confirmation of Trump nominees. GOP lawmakers and staff often point out that the Senate confirmed seven Obama nominees — secretaries of agriculture, education, energy, homeland security, interior, veterans affairs and a budget director — on Inauguration Day 2009. Now, Democrats are saying they might — might — allow the confirmation of two Trump nominees on Friday. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is accusing Republicans of trying "to jam through Cabinet nominees in a way that hides their views...

GOP-Hating Rep. John Lewis Didn’t Pay His Real Estate Taxes Instead of finding fault with the new president, maybe Rep. John Lewis should worry about paying his real estate taxes. The well-paid congressman didn’t pay taxes on his nearly $1 million posh D.C. townhouse on Capital Hill. Rep. Lewis said Donald Trump isn’t a “legitimate” president, same thing he said about George Bush, but he’s not a legitimate taxpayer. Public records show he avoided paying property taxes on his DC townhouse at 219 3rd Street SE on Capitol Hill, Got News reported. Click the link for Got News to see...

Anyone who believes Democrats own exclusive opposition to Donald Trump are completely ignoring the deliberate construct of the 2015/2016 republican primary. There are just as many -if not more- natural enemies within the Republican apparatus as there are within the Democrat group. “America-First” is antithetical to the UniParty. Again, prior to Donald Trump there was one party in Washington DC, “The UniParty”. President Donald Trump represented a second party, an independent approach toward legislative and economic priority. He was not a third choice, he was the second option.

John Lewis’s Record in Congress Is Less Than Heroic The Democrat deserves an honored place in history. But Trump has a point about what he’s done lately. Jason L. Riley If Donald Trump had been referring to Rep. John Lewis’s civil-rights record when he wrote on Twitter Saturday that the congressman was “all talk” and “no action,” the president-elect might need a refresher course in U.S. history. One of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest allies, Mr. Lewis was on the front lines of the successful fight to end Jim Crow. But for anyone who bothers to check out the...

President Obama oversaw the deepest legislative malaise in modern political history, according to the Washington Times Legislative Index, which captures his struggles to find ways to work with a Congress that ranged from lukewarm to openly hostile toward him. Over the course of his eight years, he has signed just 1,227 bills into law — less, even, than one-term Presidents Carter and George H.W. Bush. Digging deeper into the numbers, Congress spent less time in session, handled less business on the chamber floors and generally sputtered for much of Mr. Obama’s tenure, according to The Times’ index. Blame for the...

The wife of Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen was arrested by the FBI on Monday in connection with the mass shooting, officials said. Noor Salman was taken into custody in California, where her family lives, but the case is filed in Florida, where her husband massacred 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in June. "I can confirm the arrest did occur," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on MSNBC. This is a matter that we continue to take very seriously," she said. "We said from the beginning we were going to look at every aspect of this case, every aspect of...

As part of its broader package of rules for the 115th Congress, the House of Representatives revived the Holman Rule, a provision that allows House members to propose amendments to spending bills that closely manage federal agencies. These "retrenchment" amendments can affect details down to individual federal salaries and the number of staff in an office. ... The restoration of the Holman Rule means merely that when it comes to firing a federal employee, the president's signature on an act of Congress can do it. It doesn't seem extraordinary that the heads of the federal government should be able to...

Congress took its first step toward rolling back President Obama’s health care reform law Friday, with the House voting along party lines to pass key preliminary legislation. The measure, which was passed Thursday by the Senate, will allow Republicans to use special budget procedures to repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act without cooperation from Democrats.

A Democratic congresswoman announced Thursday she plans on skipping Donald Trump’s inauguration next week as the 45th president of the United States, vowing instead to spend her time laying the groundwork for “resistance.” Rep. Barbara Lee of California said she can’t stomach the idea of attending the Jan. 20 ceremony after Mr. Trump ran “one of the most divisive and prejudiced campaigns in modern history.” “I will not be celebrating or honoring an incoming president who rode racism, sexism, xenophobia and bigotry to the White House,” said Ms. Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Democratic lawmakers are calling for President Obama to close Guantanamo Bay because "Donald Trump must be deprived of the use” of the controversial prison. Representatives including New York City’s Hakeem Jeffries, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez and Jose Serrano signed a letter sent to the White House Wednesday. Obama promised during his first presidential campaign to close the facility on Cuban soil, which was filled with suspected terrorists during the Bush administration, some of whom have stayed there for years without a trial or charges. The White House has said that it is working to move the 18 inmates who remain...