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Democratic representative Alcee Hastings (Fla.) has paid his girlfriend the maximum congressional salary for the seventh straight year. Patricia Williams, Hastings's longtime girlfriend, who first appeared on his payroll in 2000, received the maximum congressional salary of $168,411 throughout 2018, according to salary data posted to Legistorm, a government tracking website. Williams has collected the maximum allowable salary since 2012, and has been compensated at a higher rate than Hastings's Washington, D.C., chief of staff, typically the highest paid position in a congressional office. Williams had been listed as district director out of Hastings's Broward County, Fla., office, but in...

Full headline: Freshmen Democrat Leftists already wearing thin on establishment as rebukes of Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlaib increaseAs candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s star began to rise last summer thanks to wall-to-wall coverage from an adoring, enthused media, many of whom were claiming that she was going to be the new face of the Democratic Party (if not the Democratic Left), some older party hands were having none of it. Rank-and-file establishment Democrats and former Democrats lined up to oppose Ocasio-Cortez’s agenda and even her candidacy after she unexpectedly defeated 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, who was widely expected to step into...

Eating dogs and cats banned in U.S. in House-passed bill https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/nation-now/eating-dogs-and-cats-banned-in-us-in-house-passed-bill/465-040343ab-080f-46e2-8274-9cc075d3a8b8 Eating dogs and cats banned in U.S. in House-passed bill Eating dogs and cats banned in House-passed bill NATION-NOW Author:Erin Kelly Updated:1:59 PM EDT September 13, 2018 WASHINGTON – The House has passed legislation that would outlaw the slaughter of dogs and cats for food – a practice that, although rare, is still legal in 44 states. The bipartisan bill by Florida Reps. Vern Buchanan, a Republican; and Alcee Hastings, a Democrat; would amend the federal Animal Welfare Act to ban the slaughter of dogs and cats for human consumption in...

he ballots were found in Alcee L. Hastings and Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s district. Need I say more? They are stealing the election. #war Prrotesters chant ‘lock her up’ about Florida county election chief

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) joked over the weekend that it would be a "catastrophe" if anybody jumped in after President Trump if he fell into the Potomac River, which goes through Washington, D.C. Hastings said he was borrowing the joke from Ari Silver, the son of former Florida state lawmaker Barry Silver. The Daily Caller has the video. “I will tell you one joke,” Hastings said at a rally in Sunshine, FL. “Do you know the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe?” “‘A crisis is if Donald Trump falls into the Potomac River and can’t swim,'” Hastings said, retelling...

Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., joked about how somebody saving a drowning President Trump would be a "catastrophe" at the start of an event in Sunshine, Fla., on Sunday. In a video reported by the Daily Caller, Hastings said he first learned of the joke from Ari Silver, whose father is former Florida state legislator and rabbi Barry Silver. “Do you know the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe?” Hastings said, retelling the joke. "A crisis is if Donald Trump falls into the Potomac River and can’t swim,” Hastings said. A "catastrophe," he added, "is anybody saves his ass.'” Cheers...

It turns out the government secretly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to resolve a sexual harassment case filed by Judicial Watch against a Florida congressman with a long history of unscrupulous behavior. The veteran Democrat, Alcee Hastings, is most famous for getting impeached by Congress as a federal judge following a scandal involving the solicitation of a $150,000 bribe in return for “favorable treatment for defendants in a racketeering case before him.” The disgraced judge was an unindicted co-conspirator, but there was enough evidence against him for Congress to boot him from the bench. Hastings is one of only...

If you watch activity on the floors of Congress you may be shocked by some of what you hear. With a slip of the tongue, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) not only sought continued taxpayer funding for abortion provider Planned Parenthood, but also funding for the organization’s efforts in offering “STD tasting and treatment.” “It’s not about abortion, it’s about something different,” DeFazio said on the House Floor Tuesday. “ It’s about breast exams, pap smears, physical exams, STD tasting and treatment…” STD tasting and treatment? That certainly is “something different.” Thanks anyway, but I’ll take a pass on federally funding...

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla) complains that his $174,000 annual salary plus perks is "not enough to keep a man honest. We deal with an annual budget of over $3 trillion dollars. Our piece of that action is a paltry .005%. High-ranking heads of Departments don't fare much better. Is it surprising that some are tempted to augment in ways that many find distasteful?" "Take former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill," the Congressman said. "After decades of public service they left the White House nearly broke in 2001. What choice did they have but to try to...

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) says that people find it surprising that members of Congress are in “year nine without a cost of living increase” and House members who make $174,000 a year, are “deserving of being paid appropriately.” […] “Some substantial number of members of this body are multi-millionaires, a significant number of members of this body easily qualify to be in the middle-class or the upper-class — and there are some members here who are in the lower-class in our society,” Hastings said. […] According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the median net worth of a member of...

The White House had better mark Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings as a firm “no” on the Iran deal. In a lengthy speech to Nova University in Davie, Florida at an AIPAC event, the liberal Democrat blasted Barack Obama and John Kerry for cutting a bad deal and Iran as entirely untrustworthy. Javier Manjarres reports on the speech, and of Hasting’s sharp rejoinders to the Obama administration — and demands that Obama immediately provide Israel with bunker-buster bombs.I wonder what he thinks Israel would do with those, huh?CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO “If I was at table, what would...

A House Democrat says he’ll not only vote against the Iran nuclear deal, but top it off with a bill to authorize military force as needed against the Islamic Republic to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), ranking House Dem on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, or U.S. Helsinki Commission, and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, got quickly to the point in a Palm Beach Post op-ed: “After careful review, I have decided that I cannot support this deal.” “The goal of the recently concluded negotiations was to prevent Iran...

The House approved $8 billion in highway funding Wednesday to keep projects moving past a July 31 deadline and buy enough time to negotiate the long-term bill lawmakers really want. But the measure is now on a collision course with the Senate, where Republicans sketched out a more ambitious bill that would pump tens of billions of dollars in new funding in coming years. House GOP leaders said they would eventually like a six-year bill. But for now, they asked members to swallow hard and support a five-month extension through Dec. 18, saying negotiations on the bigger bill could take...

Most members of Congress make $174,000 a year. Two senior House Democrats say lawmakers deserve a raise. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters on Tuesday that he’s concerned that static congressional salaries — the pay level has remained the same since 2009 — will dissuade all but the uber-wealthy from serving in Congress. “This will be the seventh year in a row that we have not done a cost-of-living adjustment….I think it was appropriate at the time of the recession,” Hoyer said. “But to continue that on, we will dictate that the only people who can serve are the...

The one thing most Americans can agree on is that members of Congress do not need a pay raise. But that didn’t stop one Democrat lawmaker from stating his case. At a hearing regarding the 2016 Legislative Branch appropriations bill yesterday, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) said that his salary of $174,000 a year simply isn’t enough to live on in Washington, D.C. […] Congress’ current approval rating is 19 percent. …

If one visits the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. and stops by the office of Congressman Alcee Hastings they will see hanging on the wall a framed document proclaiming Hastings to be an “Honorary Texan”. An honor that Hastings must be proud of otherwise why display such a document in his congressional office ? But during a recent congressional meeting Congressman Hastings commented that he thought all Texans were “crazy”. One would think that if Hastings thought that Texans were “crazy” then he certainly wouldn’t want to advertise the fact that he was an “Honorary Texan”, would one. In fact...

WASHINGTON Crazy is in the eye of the beholder. Texas singer-songwriter Willie Nelson wrote the signature love ballad “Crazy,” but it’s a loaded word in Congress, especially when used to describe the Lone Star State. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., found that out when he said Monday night at a Rules Committee hearing that Texas was a “crazy state” and Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, took it personally. The Texan demanded an apology, and not only didn’t he get it from the Floridian, but Hastings said Burgess could wait “until hell freezes over for me to say anything in an apology.” On...

Texas Republicans issued a one-sentence rebuttal to Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) for his comments during a Monday Rules Committee meeting. In debating with Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) over the latest Obamacare repeal bill, Hastings referenced his colleague’s home state, “which I think is a crazy state to begin with, and I mean it just as I said it.” As the two fought over speaking time, Burgess complained that Hastings “made a very defamatory comment about my state, and I will not stand here and listen to it.” Hastings has not apologized. House Texas Republicans issued a joint statement today:...

Matt Boyle has this fascinating piece about the inner workings of the legislative battle this week over the border crisis. The bill pushed by the Republican leadership had a number of serious defects. The story recounted by Boyle is how a small group of activists and congressmen drove the immigration narrative, and ultimately the legislative outcome. Buried toward the end of Boyle’s piece is a disgraceful statement from Florida Representative Alcee Hastings (D): Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) decried the House GOP lawsuit as he addressed “all the white people in here” during the Rules Committee hearing — which was filled...

Chaka Fattah Jr., son of Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), is suing the Internal Revenue Service, seeking nearly $1 million in damages for what he says were violations of IRS rules that harmed his reputation and crippled his earning power during an investigation into allegedly unpaid taxes. ---SNIP--- He said that since the raid, his income plummeted, he had to leave his home at the Ritz-Carlton, and he faced additional lawsuits and liens over other debts and unpaid taxes. Fattah Jr., who once drove a Range Rover Sport and cultivated a reputation as a high-end mover in city affairs, had...