Free Republic

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has canceled votes scheduled for Friday, May 16. According to Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), “Members are advised that votes are no longer expected in the House on Friday, May 16. He continued, “Last votes for the week are now expected at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 15. This is a change from the previously announced schedule.” No reason has been given. No accountability offered. Just more silence from the so-called “leader” of the House. ... Just last month, Johnson abruptly canceled the remainder of the week’s voting schedule, halting progress on critical conservative...

Went to Grok and posted this query: What are the U.S. president's additional powers under (1) a government budget shutdown, as opposed to (2) Congress being declared in recess? Groke gave me a very detailed answer. Not posting the results here, as they would be harder to read without the formatting. But it's interesting. I included the link in case you want to check it for yourself.

Collins told Axios that the Senate’s constitutional “advice and consent” duty for Trump’s appointees “means a background check, it means extensive committee investigations and questionnaires and public hearings.” The moderate GOP senator also said that she would be against Trump making recess appointments asserting it would be a way to “avoid and evade the Senate’s constitutional duty to do advice and consent

“…in Case of Disagreement between [the House and Senate], with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, [the President] may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper.” — Article II, Section 3 The presidential power of adjourning Congress has never been used. There are no precedents and scant commentary about what it means or exactly what triggers it. But now, there is credible consideration of the idea being discussed as part of Trump’s demand for an adjournment to let him use recess appointments to completely bypass the Senate confirmation process. It wouldn’t be the first time the issue...

A rift is emerging among the incoming Senate Republican majority due to President-elect Donald Trump’s push for recess cabinet appointments. Republicans can only afford to lose a handful of their 53 senators’ votes if they hope to enter a recess to allow Trump to appoint his Cabinet picks without Senate confirmation hearings. Multiple GOP senators are already signaling they are against recess appointments. Breitbart News senior legal contributor Ken Klukowski and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission Ken Blackwell detailed how recess appointments work in a thorough article published Monday. A president can appoint cabinet members...

Donald Trump's MAGA faithful were outraged after it was leaked that Mitch McConnell hatched a plot to stall his Cabinet nominations in the Senate. The backlash began after a now-deleted tweet from New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer claimed McConnell told colleagues 'there will be no recess appointments' for the president-elect's cabinet members. 'Message to Trump Team: "There will be no recess appointments" Sen. Mitch McConnell said tonight at a Washington gathering,' Mayer wrote on X at around 8 pm Sunday. Trump has promised to use the strategy to defy Congressional oversight and bypass the Senate confirmation process when appointing...

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s demand that Senate Republicans surrender their role in vetting his nominees poses an early test of whether his second term will be more radical than his first.Over the weekend, Mr. Trump insisted on social media that Republicans select a new Senate majority leader willing to call recesses during which he could appoint personnel, a process that would allow him to unilaterally sidestep the confirmation process. His allies immediately applauded the idea, intensifying pressure on G.O.P. lawmakers to acquiesce.The demand to weaken checks and balances and take for himself some of the legislative branch’s usual power underscored...

Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday called a recess after Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis threw a tantrum on the witness stand. The recess underscores Willis’s lack of decorum during her testimony, in which the judge was forced to admonish the prosecutor. After about an hour of testimony, the defense questioning Willis asked the prosecutor if Nathan Wade, Willis’s lover and fellow Trump prosecutor, ever visited her “at the place you laid your head.” “When?” Willis replied.

Arizona Electoral Certificate Objected To. Nanshy upshet that Republicansh not wearing mashksh...

Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, called the House's planned monthlong recess "absurd" and urged Congress to continue working on coronavirus relief legislation. Khanna, a progressive, said he's remained in Washington advocating for a deal between Congress and the White House. "I think Congress should be in session," Khanna said Tuesday during a Facebook town hall with his constituents. "I think it's absurd for Congress to be going on a break during a pandemic and a national crisis."

Does a pandemic that has killed thousands of people around the globe, shuttered the American economy and resulted in a nearly 20 percent unemployment rate qualify as an "emergency?" Not in the mind of Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. As he explained to the press on Monday, the House of Representatives would not be meeting again before May 4, "absent an emergency." They had initially planned to reconvene on April 20. Jennifer Bendery ✔@jbendery "Absent an emergency, the House is not expected to meet prior to Monday, May 4, 2020." -- Steny Hoyer email 195 1:06 PM - Apr 13,...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that he will cancel the August recess, citing "historic obstruction" by Democrats. “Due to the historic obstruction by Senate Democrats of the president’s nominees, and the goal of passing appropriations bills prior to the end of the fiscal year, the August recess has been canceled," McConnell said in a statement. He added that senators would stay in session "to pass legislation, including appropriations bills, and to make additional progress on the president’s nominees.” The Senate had been expected to leave town on August 3 for a four-week break and not return...

Follows recent tweet by President Trump urging Senate to stay in session through the summerThe clamor for Congress to scrap its summer vacation is growing louder, with more than a dozen Senate Republicans officially petitioning Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday to keep the chamber in session on nights, weekends and even through their normal August break to make headway on President Trump’s agenda. Partly born of frustration with Democrats and partly worried that voters will see a lack of progress from an all-Republican Washington, the senators said voters preparing for the November elections deserve to know that the Republican...

Louisiana's lawmakers Wednesday (April 25) advanced a bill that would require public schools to provide 30 minutes of recess daily to students in kindergarten through eighth grade, excluding charter schools. The House Education Committee voted 8-5 to advance House Bill 842, sponsored by Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Houma., to the full House floor. It would still have to move through the Senate before the governor could sign it into law.Debra Schum, Louisiana Association of Principals executive director, said the state would have to either have the Board and Elementary and Secondary Education determine that recess can be counted as instructional time,...

Where are they? Seems like a wasted opportunity to get the DOJ Assistant Attorneys for the 5 major divisions within the DOJ.

Thank you, President Trump! People’s lives are on the line, and they need to know now about the future of their health care. President Trump on Wednesday told Republican senators he doesn’t want Congress to leave Washington for the August recess until lawmakers pass a health care bill. “Frankly, I don’t think we should leave town unless we have a health insurance plan, unless we can give our people great health care,” Trump said during a lunch with senators at the White House. “Because we’re close. We’re very close.”

Ten Republican Senators called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to Cancel the August recess The list includes:   Senator Perdue (Georgia) Senator Daines (Montana) Senator Ernst (Iowa) Senator Kennedy (Louisiana) Senator Lankford (Oklahoma) Senator Lee (Utah) Senator Rounds (South Dakota) Senator Strange (Alabama) Senator Sullivan (Arkansas) Senator Tillis (North Carolina) Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have squandered their majorities. So far Congress has refused to pass legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare, pass tax cuts and build a border wall.Weekend after weekend American workers work overtime to complete their unfinished work. Why should the elites in...

Folks, both the Republican & Democrat establishment low life have had the "easy street" ride as the "People's Representatives, IHMHO!!! Too many long weekends, Tuesday through Thursday work weeks, and one recess after the other. I say Monday through Friday, twelve hours per day, no recesses, only holidays and weekends (Saturday & Sunday) off. Votes in both the Senate & House should take no longer then fifteen minutes. If you cannot cast your vote within fifteen minutes...you do not belong in the people's congress. IMHO, these congress people...not only screw us all....but, they rub it our faces and take us...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he wants to see "very significant" tax reform passed before Congress' August recess, in what could prove a tough task as lawmakers work through a complex agenda. "We want to get this done by the August recess. We've been working closely with the leadership in the House and the Senate and we're looking at a combined plan," he told CNBC in his first television interview since assuming office. President Donald Trump has repeatedly made pledges for tax reform and regulatory cuts since he took office, creating optimism among business executives and investors. So...

If there is one thing that is bipartisan in Washington, it is brazen hypocrisy. Currently there is much indignation being expressed by Democrats because the Republican-controlled Senate refuses to hold confirmation hearings on President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Democrats complain, and the media echo their complaint, that it is the Senate’s duty to provide “advice and consent” on the President’s appointment of various federal officials. Therefore, according to this claim, the Senate is neglecting its Constitutional duty by refusing even to hold hearings to determine...