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Senators are calling on the Obama administration to halt the entry of Syrian refugees into the United States, with one lawmaker filing legislation on Monday that would stop the Obama administration from providing visas to citizens of any country deemed “a high risk of terrorism” by the Department of Homeland Security. The legislation comes on the heels of a massive terrorist attack in France that killed upwards of 120 people and has led officials on both continents to express concern about the failure to properly vet foreign refugees, particularly ones from Syria.

snip....A Bill has just passed the US Senate, mandating that the US Department of Veteran Affairs ensure that all veterans receive immunizations (vaccines) per a draconian schedule. At this juncture, active military must receive over a dozen vaccines. This piece of legislation is therefore an effort to extend the vaccine mandate to those who have previously served their country. Sec. 101 of Senate Bill 1203, named the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act, states that the Department of Veterans Affairs will be tasked with the mandate to “ensure that veterans receiving medical services under chapter 17 of title 38, United...

While several of the firms are cooperating with an FBI investigation, they're stiff-arming the latest requests from the congressional GOP. Several companies that worked on Hillary Clinton’s private server are refusing interview and document requests from congressional investigators, even as they are cooperating with the FBI. Platte River Networks, the Denver-based tech company that housed Clinton's server after she left the State Department in 2013, has declined requests by the Senate Homeland Committee to interview five employees about the security of the system, according to correspondence reviewed by POLITICO. And Platte is blocking another tech company, Connecticut-based Datto Inc., from...

For the past week, the White House has been talking about its first-day promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay — on the last day, if need be, of Barack Obama’s presidency. And it might take that long, too, because Congress has overwhelmingly passed a new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to fund the military that extends a prohibition on transfers from Gitmo. Obama isn’t likely to issue a veto, either: The Senate voted 91-3 on the $607-billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which lays out broad defense policy requirements and restrictions.Obama vetoed the original bill largely...

A new poll shows that minorities, millennials, and single women are less interested in next year's Senate elections than Republican-leaning voter groups. The poll from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner indicates that the voting blocs Democrats usually rely on–unmarried women, minorities, and millennials–are less engaged in the 2016 election than seniors, conservatives, and non-white college men.When participants were asked how interested they were in the 2016 election, 71 percent of seniors said they were extremely interested. When they polled conservatives and Republicans, 70 percent of them said they were extremely interested in the election.On the other hand, only 42 percent of millennials...

There must have been an old school phone booth somewhere near Ted Cruz' D.C. office, as the Senator from Texas seemed to have gone into superhero mode on Nov. 4. Let's recap the loquacious one's most excellent day.In the morning, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Cruz grilled Stuart Delery, Obama's nominee for U.S. Associate Attorney General, who in his current role at the Justice Department approved the Operation Choke Point initiative that sought to deny banking services to gun dealers and other businesses.Cruz explained his opposition to Delery's nomination because of this political weaponization of Obama's Justice...

Most of the attention in politics has focused on the 2016 elections, but a few contests on this Election Day 2015 are worth noting, too. Republicans have had a long history of frustration in gubernatorial races in otherwise friendly Kentucky, and they may well add another chapter of failure today — unless a last-minute infusion of cash can bridge the gap for Matt Bevin: Republicans are pouring money into a last-minute effort in Tuesday’s Kentucky gubernatorial race, aiming to rescue Matt Bevin’s struggling campaign and keep the GOP from again being shut out of the conservative state’s governorship.Bevin, who...

The Senate approved the horrible budget deal last night while most of us were asleep at 3am: Ted Cruz last night called this budget deal a corrupt betrayal of the people as he spoke over an hour and a half. The vote was mostly Democrats voting to pass it but a fair number of Republicans voted for it as well. Here's how they voted: YEAs: 64 Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Baldwin (D-WI) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Booker (D-NJ) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Cantwell (D-WA) Capito (R-WV) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Coons (D-DE)...

Updated | In an effort to delay passage of a bipartisan budget deal, Senator Rand Paul began a filibuster around 3 p.m. on Thursday. The effort was expected to continue through 1 a.m. on Friday, but ended after speaking for only 18 minutes and 40 seconds, according to MSNBC.  It turns out the Republican senator from Kentucky spoke against the budget bill only until the time the Senate was to vote on the deal. The Senate would have allowed Paul to continue speaking until midnight, but only if he didn't sit down or use the restroom, a physically exhausting feat if nothing else. At midnight,...

I know Presidential candidate Rand Paul's campaign is failing but one thing he is good at and that is going after the left and right when it comes to fraud, waste and abuse by our government leaders. He's started a filibuster against the debt ceiling increase that will last until 1am ET Friday morning. He says, "then we will find out who the real conservatives are" I will be uploading clips throughout the day.

Hope they aren’t holding their breath. The editorial board of the Sun-Sentinel demanded today that Marco Rubio resign his seat in the Senate after Rubio called the upper chamber “frustrating” and has missed a number of votes while on the presidential campaign trail: Rubio has missed more votes than any other senator this year. His seat is regularly empty for floor votes, committee meetings and intelligence briefings. He says he’s MIA from his J-O-B because he finds it frustrating and wants to be president, instead.“I’m not missing votes because I’m on vacation,” he told CNN on Sunday. “I’m running...

I posted this in another thread but I would like to know (besides the obvious reason of (R) cowardice) why this plan wouldn't work? 1.) The House passes a budget that defunds amnesty, defunds PP, defunds the Iran deal, defunds Obamacare. 2.) The Senate attempts to vote on it. 3.) The Democrats filibuster. 4.) The deadline passes. 5.) The government shuts down. 6.) The Republicans "change the rules of the Senate" so that budget bills cannot be filibustered after the government is shut down. 7.) The Senate passes the budget. 8.) Obama vetoes the budget. 9.) The Republicans take to...

I'll be at an event tonight hosted by Carlos Lopez Cantera, currently Lt. Gov in FLA but announced in July that he's running for Rubio's senate seat. What does anyone know about him? Any tips on who the most conservative candidate is?

Marco Rubio is a U.S. senator. And he just can’t stand it anymore. “I don’t know that ‘hate’ is the right word,” Rubio said in an interview. “I’m frustrated.” This year, as Rubio runs for president, he has cast the Senate — the very place that cemented him as a national politician — as a place he’s given up on, after less than one term. It’s too slow. Too rule-bound. So Rubio, 44, has decided not to run for his seat again. It’s the White House or bust. “That’s why I’m missing votes. Because I am leaving the Senate. I...

When pressed during a CNN interview about why he thinks federal workers should be fired for not doing their jobs while he has missed the most votes in the Senate, Sen. Marco Rubio put his foot in his mouth and said that voting in the Senate is not important for a Senator. In an interview that aired on CNN’s State of the Union, Jamie Gangel pointed out to Rubio that other Senators running for president (Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders) have only missed ten votes while the Senator from Florida has missed 59. Rubio answered, “Well, I can tell you...

The Senate has approved a 2016 Defense Department spending bill that earmarks nearly $1 billion to arm Syrian and Ukrainian rebels, including several batallions adopting neo-Nazi symbols and slogans. By a veto-proof 70-27 vote, the Senate voted on October 7 to approve the $612 billion Pentagon appropriation bill for 2016, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). While most of the items in the bill would never be approved were our government to be bound by the enumerated powers of the Constitution, a few of the provisions are particularly pernicious.

Some D.C. and Kentucky Republicans want Paul to end his presidential campaign and focus on his 2016 Senate reelection. Rand Paul is under increasing pressure from Republicans here and in Washington to pull the plug on his stagnant presidential campaign and instead recommit his resources to keeping his Senate seat in GOP hands. D.C. Republicans think Paul's poll numbers have flat-lined — and operatives worried about retaining control of the Senate are ready for him to start spending a lot more time in Kentucky and a lot less time in Iowa and New Hampshire. "This presidential dream needs to come...

Senate Democrats gathered Thursday on the steps of the Capitol surrounded by about a dozen armed guards to announce a new push for tougher gun-control laws. The officers from the U.S. Capitol Police, who carried sidearms, were in addition to the regular detail paroling the Capitol ground due the large number of elected officials attending the event, according to a officer on the scene. About 27 Democratic senators attended the event.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is known for sticking to his principles, but that might trip him up if he were to become president, a position that requires compromise, said CNN host Dana Bash. "Give me an example where you have successfully compromised in the United States Senate with Democrats," Bash asked Cruz on CNN’s State of the Union March 29. Cruz mentioned his sponsorship of a bill that denied admission to the United States any United Nations representative who poses a national security threat (a response to Iran’s chosen U.N. representative). The bill passed unanimously in both the Senate...

From Jan 2011 to Oct 2015, Rubio missed 160 of 1,417 roll call votes, which is 11.3%. This is much worse than the median of 1.6% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.