Free Republic

WASHINGTON Donna Shalala may be in trouble. Shalala, a Democrat running in a district that President Donald Trump lost by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016, is trailing Republican TV journalist Maria Elvira Salazar by 2 percentage points in a Mason Dixon-Telemundo poll. The independent poll’s margin of error was 4 percentage points and included a pro-Trump non-party candidate who could siphon votes from Salazar. Salazar’s unique background as a journalist in a party dominated by President Donald Trump and her appeal with older, Spanish-speaking voters has enabled the GOP to remain competitive. Shalala, one of the most experienced first-time...

Few Republicans in Washington are willing to go head-to-head with President Trump, but there is one band of GOP members willing to stand up to the leader of their own party: lawmakers who have announced their retirements. While it’s not uncommon for members to feel far more liberated on their way out the door, it has taken on a whole new meaning in the Trump era, where lawmakers are confronted daily by a never-ending stream of White House controversies. The GOP’s retirement caucus has provided some of the most biting commentary on the president in recent months, with Rep. Ryan...

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio departed from his Miami colleagues Tuesday and said the decision by Commerce Secretary Ross on Monday to include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census is, essentially, no big deal. “I personally don’t see the problem with it,″ Rubio told reporters at a “pen and pad” briefing in Tallahassee Tuesday. “I think there’s a lot of noise being made about it.” Rubio’s comments diverge from the opinion of other members of Congress from South Florida who have said they fear some people could be dissuaded from answering the census if the citizenship question is asked. It...

One Republican has joined eight Democrats in creating the first Transgender Equality Task Force in Congress. Created by the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and chaired by Rep. Mike Honda, D-CA, the task force held a hearing yesterday to discuss challenges, especially violence, that transgender advocates say are prevalent among transgendered Americans. According to the description below the Human Rights Campaign's video of the two-hour forum, the event consisted of two panels. The first was about "the lived experience of transgender victims and educating on the scope of violence experienced by transgender people." The second panel included "HRC President Chad Griffin...

AMMAN, JORDAN – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and a delegation of senior lawmakers met with His Majesty King Abdullah II on Sunday during a visit to Jordan where talks focused on Iranian-backed violence in the region and the growing terrorist threat. King Abdullah hosted the delegation for a luncheon at Beit al-Urdun Palace. Lawmakers also met with U.S. Ambassador Alice Wells, Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, as well as senior embassy officials. Discussions focused on two major trends in the region: the violence caused by Iran’s allies and proxies, and the spreading of the terrorist threat. There was also...

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) was traveling back and forth to Cuba in secret negotiations to try and secure a release for American prisoner Alan Gross when a woman approached him with an impassioned plea: she wanted a child and she needed his help. The woman, the wife of one of the Cuban spies imprisoned in the U.S. on espionage charges, was in her early 40s and said she was almost out of time. According to Tim Rieser, Leahy’s foreign policy aide, she was “clearly desperate.” That began an unusual effort on the part the senator, who is chairman of the...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has banned two American lawmakers from his country after they helped push through legislation last week to ban Venezuelan officials from the United States. “Just like they [U.S. officials] have their lists, we can make our own lists in Latin America of those who shouldn’t enter our country,” Ortega told Costa Rica’s Tico Times. Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen laughed off Ortega’s ban, The Miami Herald reported. …

Democrats are holding out hope that their discharge petition on a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill can still work — or at least be used as election-year ammo. House Democrats held a conference call Tuesday to announce their intention to distribute a memo in the districts of 30 House Republicans who have signaled support for an immigration overhaul previously. Democrats are calling on these Republicans, and others, to “put their pen where their mouth is,” as Colorado Democrat Jared Polis put it, and sign the discharge petition for HR 15, the companion bill to the Senate-passed immigration bill. The discharge petition...

A group members of the U.S. House of Representatives have sent Secretary of the Department of Human and Health Services, Kathleen Sebelius, a letter questioning her reported actions of soliciting donations from non-profit organizations that are “directly implementing” Obamacare. Florida’s Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Jeff Miller, Bill Posey and Trey Radel are among the 26 members of Congress who penned their signatures on the letter to Sebelius. The letter asks Secretary Sebelius if she indeed made the calls,how many did she make? In addition, Sebelius was asked if Department resources were used, and how much money was raised?

Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez are scheduled to speak at a rally in support of Israel this weekend. Hundreds are expected at Sunday's rally in North Miami Beach at the Michael and Ann Russell Jewish Community Center. Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire this week after eight days of conflict. Four Israeli civilians and two soldiers were killed and dozens others wounded by rockets fired from Gaza into residential neighborhoods during the fighting that ended in cease-fire Wednesday night.

A Miami congresswoman is pressuring National Public Radio stations, the cable television network CNBC and others to stop airing sponsorships and advertising by a giant German insurer that collaborated with the Nazis. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is pushing legislation that would allow Holocaust survivors to sue Allianz AG, has launched a letter-writing campaign aimed at blocking the insurer from advertising with any U.S. media until it pays off all Holocaust survivors’ life insurance claims. During World War II, Allianz insured concentration camp facilities and sent money to the Nazis instead of rightful Jewish beneficiaries. “Allianz is no ordinary insurance...

Castro should go: Clinton WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the United States remained firm that the Castro regime should end in Cuba, despite overtures seeking reform on the communist island. Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban American...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) has signed on as the first Republican co-sponsor of the bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. “I voted against the constitutional amendment defining marriage so I’m pleased to co-sponsor the repeal of DOMA and work with my colleagues on marriage equality,” said Ros-Lehtinen in a statement. The DOMA-repeal bill, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, now has 125 cosponsors. Under DOMA, which was signed into law in 1996, states are allowed to not recognize valid same-sex unions performed in other states. Same-sex couples are also denied federal benefits afforded to opposite-sex...

An agreement signed in Colombia this week allowing the ousted former Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, to return home and resume political activity without fear of prosecution marks “a great day” for the Honduran people, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But in the view of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the accord sets the stage for Zelaya and his leftist ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to further damage democracy in the small Central American country. “Hugo Chavez’s handprints are all over this deal,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. “He can’t wait to have Zelaya...

In the wake of the announced reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, three prominent members of Congress declared that the PA’s merger with the terrorist organization would spell an end to U.S. aid. House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen released a statement: “The reported agreement between Fatah and Hamas means that a Foreign Terrorist Organization which has called for the destruction of Israel will be part of the Palestinian Authority government. U.S. taxpayer funds should not and must not be used to support those who threaten U.S. security, our interests, and our vital ally, Israel. “According to existing U.S. law,...

Months after top New York City officials expressed intense behind-the-scenes frustration at the security vulnerabilities at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, the U.N. is now planning to spend $100 million -- donated by the U.S. -- on the upgrade. That has created a new controversy: critics want to know why the U.S. is footing the entire bill, and why that money is not being credited against U.S. dues for the following year. “If the U.S. overpays the U.N., those funds should be returned in full to the U.S. Treasury,” declared Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who heads the House Foreign Affairs...

North Korea brands US politician 'human scum' North Korea has labelled the incoming head of the United States' House Foreign Affairs Committee as "human scum" and an "anti-communist fanatic" - but is not apparently up to speed on Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's background - or her gender. By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 7:00AM GMT 23 Dec 2010 In a blistering attack on the Republican politician from Florida, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Ms Ros-Lehtinen's calls for "strong countermeasures" against Pyongyang for its artillery attack on an island off South Korea in November were a "malignant vituperation against the dignified DPRK...

The Obama administration has quietly forged ahead with its proposal to sell $60 billion worth of fighter jets and attack helicopters to Saudi Arabia unhampered by Congress, despite questions raised in legislative inquiries and in an internal congressional report about the wisdom of the deal. The massive arms deal would be the single largest sale of weapons to a foreign nation in the history of the U.S., outfitting Saudi Arabia with a fully modernized, potent new air force. "Our six-decade-long security relationship with Saudi Arabia is a primary security pillar in the region," Defense Sec. Robert M. Gates and Secretary...

House members seek conditions to prevent arms being used against Israel; 198 representatives voice complaints about Saudi policies. WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is demanding more assurances from the Obama administration that a record $60 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia won’t give the kingdom new military capabilities that threaten Israel. In a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, 198 representatives voiced a range of complaints about Saudi policies, and said they “would like to know how these sales will affect Israel’s qualitative military edge.” House members aren’t likely...

The new funding was described as budget support for the Palestinians and is separate from the $400 million in aid that President Barack Obama pledged in June during a White House visit by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who stands to take over in January after her party won the House of Representatives, said she was deeply concerned over what she called the bailout of the Palestinian leadership, which she claims has failed to live up to its commitment to dismantle the Palestinian terror infrastructure, eradicate corruption and recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish...