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Conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham criticized Will Brooke, a Republican candidate running to represent Alabama's 6th Congressional district, on her show Thursday for not filling out a three-question form on positions on immigration issues from the anti-immigration group Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR. After "The Laura Ingraham Show" aired, the Brooke campaign filled out the form and sent it to Ingraham.

"There are 11 million people in our country today who are not hear legally. We have to figure out what to do with them. Are we going to send out Paddy wagons, load them all up and ship them out. No. But we do need a path to legal status for those that are in the country illegally."

Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus, the longest-serving member of Alabama's House delegation, said Monday he will not seek re-election in 2014 after his current term. The 6th District congressman, who first made the announcement during a live interview on WBRC-TV, said he is too worried about problems like the national debt to resign, yet he also is frustrated by the climate in Washington

Republican lawmaker: Obama recess appointment is attack on ConstitutionBy Pete Kasperowicz - 01/04/12 12:39 PM ET House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) on Wednesday predicted that the Obama administration's decision to recess-appoint Richard Cordray as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) would lead to numerous legal challenges against the agency that will render it unable to function for the foreseeable future. "President Obama has delegitimized the CFPB and has opened the agency up to legitimate legal challenges that will cripple it for years," Bachus said. "The greatest threat to our economy right now is uncertainty,...

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, could face a primary challenge. According to the Birmingham News, Scott Beason, a conservative firebrand in the state Senate, is seriously considering a run. Bachus has bucked his party on a variety of issues, working early on with Democrats on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which bailed out Wall Street, and admitting publicly that he thought Wall Street executives should be limited in their executive compensation. Beason is best known for his controversial bill targeting illegal immigration in the state, and could prove a tough challenger for Bachus...

Updated: 10:30 p.m. Members of Congress may be personally profiting from insider information they gather while legislating, according to a “60 Minutes” report that aired tonight. A segment on the long-running TV news show noted that insider-trading laws do not apply to Members of Congress, highlighting several suspiciously timed deals in which lawmakers profited. The examples came from Peter Schweizer, a research fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution think tank at Stanford University, but “60 Minutes” said it verified all of the information in them. * Rep. Spencer Bachus bought stock option funds that would profit if the market crashed...

U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL) had access to highly sensitive financial information during the 2008 bailout debates that may have helped him earn tens of thousands of dollars by trading stock options, even as most Americans’ portfolios took a beating. On Sunday, Rep. Bachus’s trading behavior came under fire in a 60 Minutes report based on Throw Them All Out, the book by investigative journalist and Breitbart editor that has triggered a political earthquake in Washington. Bachus’s trades during debate over the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) raise serious questions about whether he invested based on information he acquired as...

In next few hours I will be calling for prominent, powerful congressperson to step down. Do pay attention, @MMFA, @EricBoehlert!

WASHINGTON (September 9) – Congressman Spencer Bachus (AL-6) today said he is outraged by an “indefensible” regulation that could require the demolition of storm shelters built to protect school children in Alabama after the deadly tornadoes of April 27. In a letter to President Obama, Bachus said that he will introduce legislation to prohibit the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from tearing down storm shelters that were constructed to accompany portable classrooms. In the meantime, Congressman Bachus is asking the President to direct FEMA to suspend a policy that one school administrator has flatly stated “stinks.” “It makes no sense...

When Republicans take control of the House next month, few committees will undergo a more drastic transformation in style, tempo and possibly legislative action than the Financial Services one.Gone as chairman will be Democrat Rep. Barney Frank, the bombastic, quick-witted Massachusetts bulldog who helped broker the Obama administration's push for Wall Street reforms, the most sweeping financial regulatory overhaul since the New Deal.Instead, say hello to incoming Chairman Spencer Bachus, a soft-spoken, reserved Alabama Republican with few — if any — enemies on Capitol Hill or Wall Street."He's one of the nicest guys in the world — and that's...

WASHINGTON — A leading House Republican says Sarah Palin cost the GOP control of the Senate. Questioned about those comments on Tuesday, a spokesman for Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama said the remarks had been taken out of context but didn't retract them. Bachus, in line to become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, initially blamed Palin last week at a local Chamber of Commerce luncheon. According to the Shelby County Reporter, he said the Senate would be in Republican hands if not for losses by tea party candidates endorsed by the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential...

Sen. James Inhofe, one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate, rejects the idea that poorly vetted Tea Party candidates cost the GOP control of the Senate, as some other Republicans have suggested. In a phone interview with The Hill, Inhofe derailed as "absolutely false" the argument put forward recently by Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who said in a recent interview with an Alabama newspaper that Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin "cost us control of the Senate" and that Tea Party candidates generally underperformed in Senate races. "The Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin...

COLUMBIANA — Shelby County’s congressman, U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin likely cost the Republican Party control of the U.S. Senate. Bachus made his remarks on Nov. 4 at the monthly luncheon meeting of the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce, held at the Columbiana United Methodist Church. “The Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin endorsed candidates) like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware,” Bachus said. “Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate.” He said Tea Party candidates did well in U.S. House races, but in the U.S....

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) cost the GOP control of the Senate, a powerful House Republican said. Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.) said that Tea Party-backed candidates whom Palin endorsed underperformed against their Democratic rivals, costing the GOP key pickup opportunities. "The Senate would be Republican today except for states [in which Palin endorsed candidates] like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware," Bachus said at a local Chamber of Commerce event last week, the Shelby County Reporter wrote Sunday. "Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate." Bachus' is one of the most visible Republicans to criticize Palin for her political activity...

ust when officials at the politically connected community lender ShoreBank thought they were rescued from near-certain failure by a consortium of Wall Street firms, a top Republican lawmaker is investigating why the firms were so generous with their money, FOX Business has learned. Spencer Bachus, the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, wrote President Obama this morning asking for "all records of communication - including emails, phone logs and meeting records- related to the ShoreBank negotiations that exist between the Administration and representatives of ShoreBank, and executives of the banks involved in the bailout."

It's not every day that you hear a Democratic senator charge that a fellow Democrat is proposing to raise taxes on the middle class, but that is what happened on Tuesday when Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., ripped into the health-care bill developed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The Baucus proposal would impose, starting in 2013, a 35 percent excise tax on insurance companies for "high-cost plans" -- defined as those above $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for family plans. Health economists believe a tax on high-priced benefits could help slow the growth of...

Congressman Spencer Bachus comments on ACORNBy Shannon Delcambre Assignment Manager Published: September 16, 2009 Press release from U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus Office: Congressman Spencer Bachus (AL-6) Tuesday called for an end to federal funding for ACORN, a leftwing activist group linked to voter registration fraud and other criminal activity. Bachus became an original cosponsor of the Defund ACORN Act, which would eliminate all ties, including financial support, between the government and the organization. He also signed a letter to President Obama demanding a termination of taxpayer assistance to the group. Congressman Bachus said, “Taxpayer funding for ACORN’s far left agenda...

Bachus: Social Security may face deficitLegislator predicts progam could be out of money in two years By Tommy Stevenson Associate Editor Last Modified: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 9:39 a.m. TUSCALOOSA | Social Security could face a deficit within two years, according to U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus who met with The Tuscaloosa News editorial board Tuesday. “The situation is much worse than people realize, especially because of the problems brought on by the recession, near depression,” said Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, in an interview with the Tuscaloosa News editorial board. Bachus, the ranking member of the House Committee on Financial Services,...