Free Republic

A major coalition of moderate House lawmakers is endorsing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal in the Senate, it announced Tuesday, marking a huge step forward as lawmakers wrestle with how to push the legislation through the lower chamber. In a statement, the Problem Solvers Caucus — a bipartisan group of 29 Democrats and 29 Republicans in the lower chamber of Congress — said they supported the compromise agreement, adding it closely aligns with their proposal. “The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus strongly supports the Senate infrastructure framework, which is closely aligned with our own ‘Building Bridges’ proposal released last month,”...

Republican leadership said Monday that fewer than 10 House GOP lawmakers would vote to support a bipartisan Senate infrastructure deal. House Republican leadership sources told Punchbowl News that fewer than 10 House GOP lawmakers would vote for the bipartisan infrastructure deal if it were to come up for a vote. Although there tentatively remains support from Republicans and Democrats in the Senate for a bipartisan infrastructure deal, it remains unclear how many Republicans could back such a bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has a historically slim majority, and the bipartisan deal could fail to get support from far-left lawmakers...

Republicans are hesitant to endorse Biden's plan — and for good reason.Congress is expected to take action on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan any day now, but Republicans are hesitant to endorse the expensive plan, which is filled with Democrat agenda goals and progressive talking points.Biden originally said last week he would not sign the infrastructure plan that garnered GOP support unless the legislative body also passed a reconciliation bill littered with leftist agenda items. When Republicans promised to jeopardize Biden’s plan by pulling out of the “bipartisan” part of the deal in response, Biden walked back his statement and...

The bipartisan infrastructure agreement reached last week will get rid of all of the country's lead pines and service lines, according to a new White House memo, but it's not clear how long it will take. The memo, from National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and senior adviser Anita Dunn, says the bipartisan framework "will replace 100 percent of the nation's lead pipes and service lines." White House press secretary Jen Psaki also told reporters on Monday that "it will put Americans to work replacing 100 percent of our nation's lead water pipes" but wouldn't give a time period when...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Monday demanded assurances from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that the bipartisan infrastructure bill is not held “hostage” to reconciliation with “Green New Deal socialism.” “The President has appropriately delinked a potential bipartisan infrastructure bill from the massive unrelated tax-and-spend plans that Democrats want to pursue on a partisan basis,” McConnell explains in a press release. “Now I am calling on President Biden to engage Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi and make sure they follow his lead.”

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked the creation of a bipartisan panel to study the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, refusing to back down on their opposition to the independent investigation. The Senate vote was 54-35 — short of the 60 votes needed to consider a House-passed bill Democrats and some moderate Republicans had called for a commission to probe the events leading up to and on Jan. 6, when hundreds of people, some of them supporters of President Donald Trump, stormed the Capitol, fighting with police, urging violence against lawmakers and delaying the formal certification of President Joe Biden's...

The top Democrat and Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee reached an agreement Friday on legislation to establish a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol ahead of an expected vote next week. The bill is focused squarely on the Jan. 6 riot, not other episodes of political violence as GOP leaders have demanded. It’s unclear how much support the legislation has among Republicans who have defended former President Trump’s actions surrounding the deadly rampage. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday said he has not signed off on the bill.

During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of PBS’ “Firing Line,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) argued that President Joe Biden can still say he’s a bipartisan leader, but this requires redefining what bipartisanship means. Gillibrand said that Biden will still have credibility as a bipartisan leader even if both the coronavirus relief and infrastructure packages pass through reconciliation without Republican votes because “I think from a voters’ perspective, they see solving the COVID crisis, getting the economy up and running, the most bipartisan agenda you could have.” Host Margaret Hoover then asked, “Is that a little bit redefining what bipartisanship...

I haven't seen much humor in life during the past year or so, but one thing that has been uproariously hilarious lately is the orchestrated media narrative that President Joe Biden is bipartisan and conciliatory. Please give me a moment to catch my breath. I think it was Karl Rove who recently observed that the media's effective definition of bipartisan legislation is not that significant numbers of both parties' lawmakers support a bill but that some poll somewhere shows that a large percentage of Americans of each party support some vaguely described initiative, even if zero Republican legislators support the...

Speaker Pelosi made an extraordinary move and appointed a general to preside over a ‘9/11-style’ commission to purportedly ‘get to the bottom’ of the January 6th Capitol riots. The bold action came as Pelosi was facing heat over her knowledge and decisions about the Capitol riots’ planning prior to the attack on the Congress. The general that Pelosi has hand-picked for her mission to point the finger at Donald Trump for the planned attack is Lt. General Russel Honoré. It now appears that Honoré is a partisan appointment, as he not only had blasted Missouri Senator Josh Hawley for objecting...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Friday stated that Democrats cannot “indefinitely” reach out to Republicans, mere days after Democrats took control of the White House and Senate. “We cannot reach out to Republicans indefinitely. If they choose not to come on board to help the American people now, we have the majority. We should use that majority,” Sanders said alongside a clip of his recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, in which the Vermont senator reiterated the same sentiment. “Look I think we should do our best to reach out to Republicans, who represent communities that were suffering...

Joe Biden’s historically weak administration and the far-left wing pulling its strings should not get Reagan-Tip O’Neill good-faith bipartisanship it laughably seeks.President Donald Trump is rightly fighting for his political life and the future of our nation. His legal team is presenting specific evidence of voter fraud from election officials in pivotal states. The Supreme Court has already ruled in his favor in one lawsuit. A complete audit of results in states using software that incorrectly counted votes in Michigan is a must. This is not over, and any Republican who concedes prematurely does so at high risk. Good luck...

Earlier this year, the U.S. government passed the largest piece of stimulus legislation in our nation's history. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act included a very generous expansion of unemployment insurance benefits. The idea was to help people to keep paying their bills during the forced COVID-19 shutdowns. These benefits are expiring, and Congress is now fighting over whether to extend them as they are or to modify them. The proper approach is to phase these benefits out as quickly as possible. It is typical that during nationwide economic downturns the federal government provides supplemental funding to boost...

Actor Chris Evans has called President Trump a “dumb s**t,” said he’s worse than a “sh**ty playground bully,” and a “reckless moron.” Now the Captain America star says he’s backing off bashing the president on social media ahead of the launch of his bipartisan political website. Evans is gearing up to launch a bipartisan website called “A Starting Point.” The platform will publish two-minute videos of interviews with elected officials on both sides of the aisle, so that the public can hear from them on a variety of subjects.

Republican and Democratic senators unanimously voted to pass a coronavirus relief bill late Wednesday that gives $350,000,000 to assist refugees and migrants.Earlier this week, it was revealed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s relief package would include $300,000,000 for refugee assistance. The new bill, approved by the Senate and now headed to the House, includes an additional $50 million on top of Pelosi’s initial $300 million for refugees.On page 817 of the 880-page bill, the measure calls for “an additional amount for ‘Migration and Refugee Assistance’, $350,000,000, to remain available until expended, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.”Excerpt, read...

Two Democratic congressmen broke with their party Thursday to vote against the House resolution formalizing the rules and procedure for the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, a move that ushers in a new and public phase of the investigation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., took the unusual step of presiding over the House during the vote. The resolution passed largely along party lines, 232-196. Republican senators who were invited to lunch at the White House Thursday told reporters back on Capitol Hill that Trump pointed to the defections as proof of bipartisan opposition to the resolution. "He mentioned the...

(Audio Link at Source)President Trump signed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's bill July 25. The proposal closes a loophole in federal law that allowed some veterans to get caught up in predatory home refinance deals. The problem was certain VA loans could be easily churned, or resold. The new law prevents that from happening before a cooling-off period. "So veterans won't get stuck with these refinancing fees over and over again," said Sinema.

Former House Speaker John Boehner and former Rep. Joe Crowley are joining forces in a bipartisan effort to combat a looming pension crisis affecting nearly 1.3 million American retirees Opens a New Window. Boehner, the Ohio Republican who retired in 2015, is part of the Retirement Security Coalition, a leading force that is raising awareness to the underfunded multiemployer benefit plans. “The job Joe and I have taken on is to try to elevate the seriousness of this problem," he told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto Opens a New Window. on Thursday. "And Congress really does in fact need to act."...

After being confined in the Fort Leavenworth military prison for eight years, Sergeant Derrick Miller is out on parole and trying to put his life back together. In July 2011, Sgt. Miller was convicted of premeditated murder for the death of an Afghan during his third deployment with the U.S. National Guard. But the circumstances that led Sgt. Miller to join the military and got him to this point, are a story in and of themselves. "Initially, I had been working in construction for probably about six or seven years. I'd been doing carpentry and had my own crew. We...

This year, Sen. Rand Paul's (R–Ky.) effort to balance the federal budget didn't even get a floor vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. Paul's so-called "Pennies Plan" failed a procedural vote on Monday evening when only 22 senators voted in favor of a cloture motion that would have brought the bill to a final vote. A majority of Republicans and all Democrats voted against proceeding to a floor vote on the bill. It's another sign that fiscal responsibility is all but dead in Congress, even as the national debt heads toward record highs and the budget deficit approaches $1 trillion this...