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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...

Building more walls between the United States and Mexico will not boost border security, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Tuesday. The Texas Republican toured the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge and visited Anzalduas Park during an all-day visit to the Rio Grande Valley. Cornyn also met with Mission Mayor Norberto "Beto" Salinas, McAllen Mayor Jim Darling, Superintendent of Bridges Rigo Villarreal and Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla, who heads the Rio Grande Valley Sector. Cornyn brought Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, along for a firsthand look at trade and security issues. Asked about the border wall -- a hot topic during the Republican...

It’s funny how the tables turn over time. Ted Cruz is the only one left who can pose any real challenge to Donald Trump‘s Republican nomination, and now, figures from the political establishment are asking him to make nice with them before they agree to coalesce around his campaign. While his uncompromising stances distinguished Cruz as the junior U.S. Senator from Texas, years of stunts like shutting down the government and calling Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar have caused many of his colleagues to dislike him. According to CNN, Sen. John Cornyn and others have called on Cruz, after...

Ted Cruz fought his way to second place in the Republican primary as the conservative who never compromises. But already, he’s learning to stretch. Behind closed doors, Cruz’s aides are talking about how to draw more centrist supporters as Republican rivals drop out. They have given former Jeb Bush donors access to the entire campaign leadership team. And Cruz has made overtures to Senate colleagues who despise him, praising Mitch McConnell and Marco Rubio and talking by phone with Lindsey Graham.

Senior Senate Republicans are calling on Sen. Ted Cruz to rebuild his strained relationships with his colleagues and apologize to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before the party establishment considers consolidating behind his presidential bid. Cruz has increasingly called for Republicans to unify behind his candidacy in order to take down front-runner Donald Trump. But in interviews Tuesday with CNN, it's clear Cruz's fellow GOP senators are not willing to do that, at least not yet. Republican senators said that Cruz must return to Capitol Hill and make the case directly to his colleagues to help ease long-festering tensions. And a...

The Senate voted 49-40 Monday evening to confirm John B. King Jr., President Barack Obama’s nominee, as secretary of education. A total of 11 senators did not vote on King’s confirmation, while those who voted against him cited his loyalty to the system and support for Common Core education standards. King, 41, has been the acting secretary of the Department of Education since January, after Arne Duncan stepped down from the Cabinet post at the end of last year. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, spoke in support of King on the Senate floor....

Democrats accused Republicans on Tuesday of taking their cues from Donald Trump after the Senate’s No. 2 Republican said President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court should expect to be treated like a “piñata.” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Republicans were “acting like big, tough people threatening to destroy the reputation of a Supreme Court nominee they haven’t even met yet.” Reid and other Democrats denounced a comment by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, who told reporters late Monday that anyone nominated by Obama to the high court “will bear some resemblance to a piñata.” Reid...

The House omnibus bill, released last night, includes a provision that would quadruple the number of H-2B visas for low-skilled guest workers. The measure would increase the number of H-2B visa workers allowed in the U.S. in 2016 from 66,000 to around 264,000. The new provision does not increase the current H-2B visa cap of 66,000 but would exclude any worker who has already received an H-2B visa in the last three years. The provision can be found on page 701 of the omnibus spending bill:

Sen. Sessions says this hurts wages and reduces job prospects for native-born workers. The upcoming appropriations legislation would massively expand the foreign worker program, quadrupling the issuance of low-wage visas, according to an analysis from Sen. Jeff Sessions' (R., Ala.) office. The H-2B visa program allows employers to hire foreign workers to come temporarily into the United States to work either in nonagricultural labor or a temporary service job. For example, some workers who use the H-2B visa program could be employed as a housekeeper, an amusement park worker, or a landscape laborer. According to the senator's office, the language...

Former Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has agreed to pay off $800,000 of debt from his failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 2012, according to a report in The Texas Tribune. According to a September letter obtained by the Tribune, Dewhurst has agreed to pay the debt over the next year but he said that he was not legally obligated to pay the money to his vendors. “While there is obviously no legal obligation that I personally pay the vendors invoices, and while a few of you let me down with messaging and media that was counter-productive, plus there were...

Sen. John Cornyn is calling on Attorney General Loretta Lynch to appoint a special counsel to oversee the investigation into Hillary Clinton off-the-books email arrangement. “Secretary Clinton’s misconduct is evident, and her intent — since the beginning of her tenure as Secretary of State — to keep information from the public is clear,” stated Cornyn, the Senate GOP’s second-in-command. “The present circumstances surrounding her use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State could not be more extraordinary,” the Texas senator continued, “nor the conflicts greater. Americans deserve the assurance that justice — and justice alone...

On the floor of the U.S. Senate on Sunday evening, something remarkable—a little bit insider-y in Washington, but remarkable nonetheless—happened: The Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)52% , his entire leadership team, and most of the Republicans in the U.S. Senate voice voted through measures to fund Planned Parenthood in its entirety and to help protect President Barack Obama’s nuclear arms deal with Iran. The reason the voice vote is significant is because McConnell, especially, and his Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)59% , purposefully launched what appears to be an unprecedented effort to duck accountability for their votes—and the...

On the floor of the U.S. Senate on Sunday evening, something remarkable—a little bit insider-y in Washington, but remarkable nonetheless—happened: The Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), his entire leadership team, and most of the Republicans in the U.S. Senate voice voted through measures to fund Planned Parenthood in its entirety and to help protect President Barack Obama’s nuclear arms deal with Iran. The reason the voice vote is significant is because McConnell, especially, and his Whip Sen. John Cornyn, purposefully launched what appears to be an unprecedented effort to duck accountability for their votes—and the votes of every...

The No. 2 Senate Republican instantly dismissed the fresh shutdown threat from members of the House Freedom Caucus, who declared they wouldn’t vote for any spending bill keeping the government open if it funds Planned Parenthood.“We’re not going to engage in a shutdown scenario,” said Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas. “That will set the pro-life movement back, not advance it. We’ve got better ideas to actually advance the pro-life agenda.”President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any bill that eliminates funding for Planned Parenthood. Republicans have been seeking to defund the group for years, but many have dug in...

Senate Republicans concede they are not likely to have enough votes to overturn President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran unless they can swing a key Democratic voice against the accord. They’re setting their sights on Hillary Clinton, vowing to tie her to the deal in hopes of pressuring her to oppose it. GOP leaders need 67 votes to override Obama’s expected veto and keep sanctions on Iran in place. The administration has not yet announced an accord but lawmakers expect it to come soon. “It could be a good policy strategy. It’s not going to be hard to come up...

The most potent illustration that Republicans have shifted their attitudes on immigration came Tuesday morning when all GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected an amendment from Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to severely limit the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country. The committee’s overwhelming ‘No’ vote shows that the battle for Republicans’ souls on immigration has shifted away from groups that want to reduce the influx of foreigners, like the Heritage Foundation, NumbersUSA, and Fairness for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), toward free-market groups that applaud increased immigration, such as Americans for Tax Reform and the CATO Institute....

The Senate voted overwhelmingly to advance the USA Freedom Act Sunday evening, but too late to prevent Sen. Rand Paul from being able to force a short-term expiration of Patriot Act surveillance authorities at midnight. The overwhelming vote Sunday came after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., threw in the towel on advancing any short-term extensions of the Patriot Act authorities under the continuing objections of Paul, the fellow Kentuckian he has endorsed for the presidency. The Senate voted 77-17, far above the 60-vote threshold to advance the bill. Several more steps are required, however, before a vote on final passage,...

Hours before the Senate’s PATRIOT Act standoff hit its peak this month, Republican leaders thought they had Rand Paul figured out. He would object, rail on the matter on the Senate floor — and then let at least a temporary extension through. “I don’t agree with Sen. Paul on this issue, but I think he’s been a constructive guy,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said just before the week-long recess. A day later with the clock past midnight and the Senate in a standstill largely because of Paul’s objections, Cornyn wasn’t nearly as generous. “I’m a little surprised,”...

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans began to look at our national security in a different light. No longer were the lines of battle neatly drawn and enemies easily identified. In the 21st century, threats would be constantly evolving and growing even more complex. The crisis in Syria and Iraq has illustrated just how dangerous these threats are, both abroad and at home. In February, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center estimated more than 20,000 foreign fighters had joined the Islamic State or other related groups in Syria — among them, some 3,000 were from Western countries. More than...

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...