Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Friday to protect abortion services against growing Republican-backed state restrictions, including a Texas law that imposes a near-total ban on abortion, but the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate. The Democratic-controlled House voted 218-211 largely along party lines to pass the legislation called the Women's Health Protection Act. Just one Democrat, Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, voted against the proposal. The bill would protect abortion services and pre-empt many restrictions Republicans have passed at the state level, such as those requiring ultrasounds or other tests. The...

House Democratic leaders late Thursday postponed a vote yet again on the bipartisan infrastructure bill amid threats from progressives to tank it as leverage for a separate, larger package to expand social safety net programs. After a long day of meetings between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the warring centrist and progressive factions of the caucus, as well as with White House staff, Democrats opted to delay a vote planned for Thursday rather than allow an embarrassing public failure on the House floor. A notice from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's (D-Md.) office issued shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday confirmed...

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said he believes members of his caucus will vote against President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal. “I think the majority, an overwhelming amount of our members, are going to vote no, because they don’t view it as an infrastructure bill,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill on Thursday. “I went to the White House, in the Oval Office, that’s exactly what I told the president. We want to build roads, highways, bridges, broadband, airports. We want to reform NEPA. We want to make sure this happens and gets built in...

The vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill is set to move forward on Thursday, despite progressives vowing to withhold their support for the measure until there is movement on a sweeping social spending bill — with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying “we are on a path to win the vote.” Pelosi’s confidence in the vote comes as top Democrats seek to pass the $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal and President Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, while moderates and progressives have signaled their willingness to kill both in recent days. “I do not plan on not doing anything,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said...

President Joe Biden’s proposal for a radical expansion of IRS monitoring of Americans’ bank accounts would be stopped in its tracks under a proposal introduced by two Senate Republicans concerned about protecting privacy rights.“What they’ve done is, they are weaponizing the IRS, they’re pushing many, many billions of dollars into that and they will be hiring tens of thousands of new agents,” Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) told The Epoch Times late Thursday.“So this is all about looking at everybody’s transactions and then hoping that perhaps they find something that’s not getting reported, so they can come after you and get...

Here is what needs to happen for Joe Biden to have a successful domestic legacy: Democrats in Congress need to negotiate with themselves and determine what new social spending they agree on, and how they can agree to pay for it. That may very well happen. But it is not happening at the moment. What’s happening instead is a series of escalating threats. The latest comes from a band of centrist House Democrats, joined by Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who preposterously warn that, if the bipartisan infrastructure bill does not pass the House next week, they will refuse to back any...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the state's controversial election integrity bill Tuesday after a months-long battle with Democrats opposed to the legislation.

President Biden on Tuesday seemed to appropriate a line from the musical “Annie” as he faces bleak prospects for his $3.5 trillion bill to raise taxes and create new social programs. “The sun’s gonna come out tomorrow,” Biden said when asked on the White House lawn — on his way to visit storm-flooded New York City and New Jersey — how he would get fellow Democrats to agree to the bill. The 1977 Broadway hit featured the showstopper “Tomorrow” with the title character, Little Orphan Annie, reflecting optimistically on her life despite Great Depression conditions in New York City. Biden...

Monica Lewinsky says that former President Clinton "should want to apologize" for his part in the 1990s scandal surrounding his affair with her, a then-White House intern. "I think there was a long period before my life changed in the last six or seven years, where I felt a lot in terms of there not being this resolution. And I'm very grateful that I don't have that feeling anymore," Lewinsky told "Today's" Savannah Guthrie on Monday when asked if she feels that Clinton owes her an apology. "I don't need it," Lewinsky continued. "He should want to apologize in the...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday the House will vote on legislation to codify Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to deny an emergency appeal filed by abortion providers to block the Texas heartbeat bill. Pelosi blasted the 5-4 ruling made Wednesday evening to uphold Texas’ new policy to ban the procedure after six weeks and allow for individuals to file civil suits against abortion providers or those who help facilitate abortions. “The Supreme Court’s cowardly, dark-of-night decision to uphold a flagrantly unconstitutional assault on women’s rights and health is staggering. That this radically partisan...

Rachel Bush, the wife of Bills safety Jordan Poyer, is demanding the NFL’s health and safety protocols regarding unvaccinated and vaccinated players be “fixed asap.” The model — who’s been vocal about her pro-choice stance about vaccines against COVID-19— shared a series of angry tweets on Tuesday in response to a number of Bills players being separated from the team after coming in close contact with a fully-vaccinated trainer who tested positive for COVID-19. Wide receivers Cole Beasley (who has made it clear he is unvaccinated) and Gabriel Davis, along with defensive tackles Star Lotulelei and Vernon Butler, will miss...

Hillary Clinton already lived through her husband Bill Clinton’s infamous infidelity scandal once in 1998. So it’s highly doubtful the former secretary of state will want to see it again when FX’s new series “Impeachment: American Crime Story” hits the small screen, according to its showrunner. The series’ executive producer Brad Simpson revealed at the virtual Television Critics Association panel that he doesn’t think Hillary, 73, will watch the 10-part drama series when it airs on Sept. 7. “No one, as far as we know, from the Clinton camp has seen this series,” Simpson said. “Of course, I’m curious what...

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “MTP Daily,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) stated that by embracing “using growth projections to pay for some portions of the bipartisan bill,” Republicans have given Democrats a tool to argue the reconciliation bill is paid for. Kaine said, “I want to pay for this bill. Now, just remember, Garrett, there [are] a couple of different ways you can pay for a bill like this. So, first, is you raise revenues. And the Finance Committee is given the instruction that basically says, raise at least, I think it’s a billion dollars, and they’ll likely do that...

Anti-drunk driving technology may become standard on all cars in the next few years under one of the provisions baked into the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill. The 2,702-page bill under negotiation also includes a provision that would require manufacturers to equip new vehicles with an alert system to let drivers know that kids or other passengers have been left in the backseat after the engine has been turned off. The new technologies would target alcohol-related car crashes and increasing incidents of kids dying in hot cars. The bill defines the preventative technology for impaired driving as anything that could...

If the United States Senate votes this week on the bipartisan so-called “infrastructure” bill, it would be humanly impossible for any U.S. senator to read it before voting on it. The text of a draft of the bill, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News from U.S. Senate sources not authorized to leak it, shows the plan is 2,701 pages long. The text, which Breitbart News is publishing here so the public can see what Congress is doing in secret, shows the plan is far more sprawling and expansive than GOP senators, who backed advancing it without text even existing, led their...

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) said on Sunday that there would be "more than enough" votes to prevent a bipartisan infrastructure bill from passing the House without a massive companion spending bill that Democrats hope to pass through reconciliation. During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Ocasio-Cortez told host Jake Tapper that if the Senate doesn't pass the reconciliation bill, the House "will uphold our end of the bargain and not pass the bipartisan bill until we get all of these investments in." "So, we really need to see that language and see what's put in there...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed another pro-life bill in Texas on Tuesday, one that would completely ban abortions as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to do so. Abbott signed the Human Life Protection Act (House Bill 1280). Sometimes referred to as a “trigger bill,” the legislation would protect unborn babies by banning abortions completely or as much as the U.S. Supreme Court allows when it overturns Roe v. Wade. The ban would go into effect 30 days after the Supreme Court rules. Exceptions would be allowed for risks to the mother’s life or a “substantial impairment of...

A Texas House representative announced Monday he’s introducing a bill for a forensic audit of the most populous counties’ election results.According to the text of House Bill 241, introduced by Republican state Rep. Steve Toth, forensic reviews of counties with more than 415,000 population should be carried out before Nov. 1, 2021, and they should be completed before Feb. 1, 2022.“Not later than March 1, 2022,” the bill’s text states, “the independent third party conducting the audit under this section shall submit a report to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and each member of the...

Senate Minority Leader argues Dems don't have a mandate to introduce socialismDemocrats’ "wildly inappropriate" and massive $3.5 trillion spending spree will generate "zero" Republican support, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told "The Faulkner Focus" on Thursday."It's a wild spending taxing spree, completely inappropriate for the country, which is already suffering from dramatic inflation," McConnell, R-Ky., expressed to host Harris Faulkner. "Running the country into the ground, both with taxing and debt is not a good idea."McConnell made these comments after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced late Tuesday night that the Budget Committee had reached an agreement to allot...

The Texas state Senate approved a sweeping election reform bill Tuesday night, one day after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to prevent the chamber from taking up the legislation. The state Senate approved the bill on an 18-4 party-line vote. Nine Senate Democrats had joined 51 of their House colleagues in hightailing it to Washington, DC, though this was not enough to deny the upper chamber a quorum. However, the legislation is now stalled due to the absence of a quorum in the House. Republicans say the measures in the bill — which include ending drive-thru and 24-hour...