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House conservatives on Wednesday revolted against a massive bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and bust spending caps, complaining that the GOP could no longer lay claim to being the party of fiscal responsibility. “I’m not only a ‘no.’ I’m a ‘hell no,’ ” quipped Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), one of many members of the Tea Party-aligned Freedom Caucus who left a closed-door meeting of Republicans saying they would vote against the deal. It’s a “Christmas tree on steroids,” lamented one of the Freedom Caucus leaders, Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). “This spending proposal is disgusting and reckless — the...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced a deal with Senate Democrats to fund the government and set spending levels for defense and nondefense programs over the next two years. The legislation would avert a government shutdown on Friday, when federal funding is due to expire, and boost defense and nondefense programs. It also lifts the debt ceiling to March 2019, which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hailed as a decision that would move Congress away from "crisis-to-crisis budgeting." The deal is backed by McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and will almost certainly be...

I have no idea what Nancy Pelosi was flapping her jibs about all day yesterday. Two old bags and a crone walk into a bar…I do know that instead of working with her fellow members of the House to reach a resolution on the DACA/immigration problem she spent the day protesting the impasse. The record-setting 8 hour speech was Nancy’s allocated 1 minute floor time - proving yet again that if you give a Democrat an inch they’ll take a mile.I think Nancy called on Hillary’s Dr. Feelgood before the speech and got one of his magic reanimation shots. The...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spoke for more than eight hours on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, using her prerogative as a party leader to mount a filibuster to draw attention to the cause of illegal aliens. The House, unlike the Senate, does not actually have a filibuster rule that allows members to speak as long as they want. Only the Speaker of the House and the party leaders can hold the floor indefinitely. Pelosi said she was taking a stand to draw attention to the plight of the so-called “Dreamers,” who are illegal aliens...

Washington (CNN) — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke for a little more than eight hours to oppose the budget deal to lift spending caps and avert a government shutdown -- because the plan does not address immigration issues. The House Historian's office told CNN that Pelosi's speech is the longest on record on the House floor, according to their records. Pelosi started speaking shortly after 10 a.m. ET, and wrapped the speech a little after 6:10 p.m. ET. "I have had the privilege of reading the testimony from Dreamers, I still have more," she said, receiving applause in the...

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, fired back at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Wednesday for her marathon eight-hour-plus filibuster on the floor of the House of Representatives to demand a vote on an immigration bill addressing the so-called "Dreamers." "Mr. Speaker, we could not be more highly honored that the Minority Leader would take such an interest in HR 1153, the Mortgage Choice Act," Hensarling started to some laughs on the House floor. After speaking on the floor in the morning, Hensarling, who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, had to wait the entire duration of Pelosi's speech...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took the rare step Wednesday of giving a marathon speech supporting Democrats’ attempts to legalize the status of young immigrant “dreamers,” in a bid to pressure Republicans to act. Her more than eight-hour speech ranked as the longest given by a member of the House of Representatives in at least a century, possibly ever, focusing on an issue that has dominated the Democratic agenda in recent months. But it also came as her caucus began three days of closed-door meetings to craft a 2018 agenda that can win wider appeal in November’s elections. .....

Nancy Pelosi speaking non-stop on House floor for 7 hours and counting

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has been holding the floor of the House of Representatives for more than six hours and counting Wednesday, in a marathon speech protesting a budget deal reached by Senate leaders. In her remarks, Pelosi announced that she and many fellow House Democrats would oppose the package unless House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., promised to allow a vote on a plan to shield from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally. "Let Congress work its will," said Pelosi, who noted that Senate Republicans have slated a debate on the politically freighted...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Democrats are threatening to oppose a budget deal to fund the federal government unless House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) commits to allowing a vote on amnesty legislation. In a more than hour-long filibuster on the House floor, Pelosi is speaking live to demand a vote on amnesty or else the Democrat caucus will not support legislation to fund the federal government. During a part of her filibuster, Pelosi said Congress had a “moral responsibility” to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens shielded from deportation by the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., launched a filibuster of sorts in the House on Wednesday, by taking the floor to talk about the need to pass legislation to protect the Dreamers. The House was set to start debating the Mortgage Choice Act, but Pelosi took the floor shortly after 10 a.m., and said she wanted to talk at length about immigration. A filibuster is an action lawmakers can take in the Senate, not in the House. However, both Pelosi and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., are both permitted to talk at length on the floor because of their leadership...

This week, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz joined an amicus brief on behalf of 22 members of the Texas congressional delegation in support of private landowners along the Red River. The Bureau of Land Management has recently made waves by claiming thousands of acres of privately owned Texas land along the Red River. It has done so by utilizing — in apparent violation of a nearly 100-year-old Supreme Court precedent and tradition — an arbitrary and bizarre gradient boundary survey method that has adversely impacted private landowners. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) joined Cruz in the brief...

Washington - Even though the Democratic majority vowed to return Congress to a path of fiscal responsibility, the 2008 appropriations bills were stuffed with wasteful pork projects. While Representatives John Campbell, Jeff Flake, Jeb Hensarling, Scott Garrett, and David Obey (1 amendment) offered 50 amendments to strip outrageous pork projects from the appropriations bills, only one amendment, offered by Rep. Jeff Flake, passed. The Club for Growth has compiled a RePORK Card of all members' votes on all 50 anti-pork amendments (see below). "Taxpayers have a right to know which congressmen stand up for them and which stand up for...

The millions of dollars of corporate lobbying for reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank seems to have finally paid off. Despite the fact that taxpayers won a victory when Congress allowed the beleaguered, corruption-laden bank to expire on June 30, a group of weak-willed Republicans, led by Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.), joined with Democrats and used a little known and rarely used tool called a "discharge petition" to resurrect the Bank from the dead. The House of Representatives has abandoned common sense as Boeing's Bank may be coming back. The discharge petition circumvented the authority of the House Financial...

Conservative frustration over Republican efforts to force a House vote on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank boiled over Wednesday during a contentious GOP meeting. Members of the conference’s conservative wing criticized Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) at the meeting for moving to file a discharge petition to bring a vote on legislation renewing the embattled bank’s charter for five years, after it lapsed June 30 because of Tea Party opposition. "A lot of people don't like that we're doing a discharge petition. You know what? I don't like it. I wish we could've done something in committee," Fincher said in an interview...

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced Friday he will resign from Congress -- his seat as well as his speakership -- at the end of October after more than 20 years on Capitol Hill. The resignation will likely see a throng of Republicans vie to replace Boehner, who in recent months has faced pressure to step down over internal GOP fighting on issues such as funding for disease research, an education bill and the possible renewal of the Export-Import Bank. Below is a list of the members most likely to replace him. 1. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.: McCarthy has...

Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, also a nationally syndicated radio host, is tripling down on his calls to demand new blood in House GOP leadership. In the wake of Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) rebuffing his call to run against Speaker John Boehner after the white supremacy scandal that has rocked Boehner’s ally, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Hannity is calling on every Republican member of the House of Representatives to reconsider whether Boehner is in fact an effective leader. “Every Republican member needs to ask themselves if John Boehner is really the best person to lead the conservative movement at...

Business groups are bracing for another battle against Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) in the lame-duck session over reauthorizing an insurance program designed to help businesses recoup losses after terrorist attacks. Unless Congress acts, the Terrorism Risk Insurance program (TRIA) enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks will expire. The law, pitched in 2002 as a temporary program, allows the government to shoulder the costs of insurance payouts after a large-scale terrorist attack. Hensarling and other conservatives are skeptical of government involvement in the insurance industry. They argue that Congress should begin lessening its footprint in the market, in part by...

Criticism will rain down Wednesday on the Export-Import Bank as members of an influential House panel debate whether it’s time to disband the agency. Fred Hochberg, the chairman of the embattled bank, will square off in testimony against House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who is leading the charge to let the bank’s charter expire in September. Hensarling and other members are likely to press Hochberg about reports that the bank has suspended or removed four officials for taking kickbacks, a controversy that could strengthen the hand of Ex-Im’s foes. Business supporters swarmed Capitol Hill ahead of the...

As part of his bid to become majority leader, McCarthy told his Republican colleagues in a closed-door meeting that he wouldn't overstep Hensarling on Ex-Im -- a major blow to the bank's future. The bank expires if the House doesn't produce a bill to reauthorize it, and Hensarling's committee has jurisdiction on the issue.Business groups fear the shake-up in House leadership will set back their efforts to renew authorization for the Export-Import bank. With Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) -- an Ex-Im critic during the 2012 battle -- jumping into the majority whip post, supporters of the bank say a divided...