Free Republic

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that there were “enough” Republican senators who would not vote for the so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill without significant changes. Host Jake Tapper said, “How determined are you to be that guy if it actually means telling President Trump you are going to vote against the bill and you’re going to try to get other Republican senators to join you, unless there are major, major changes?” Johnson said, “Well, in 2010, I sprang out of the Tea Party movement and as I did parades I would shout, this...

Trump administration border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday on FNC’s “Fox & Friends” that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and other Democrats’ plans to go to El Salvador to conduct a welfare check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant, was “disgusting.” Partial transcript as follows: LAWRENCE JONES: Truly incredible. This comes as House Democrats reportedly planning to send a delegation to the megaprison where he’s being held. Let’s bring in the man himself, border czar Tom Homan joins us now. Tom, I just want to focus on one portion when the senator said that he was abducted. As the...

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told a committee full of skeptical senators Tuesday that escalating trade tensions won’t “be resolved overnight,” but insisted the US economy is strong enough to withstand President Trump’s duty regime. “Our trade deficit, driven by these nonreciprocal conditions, is a manifestation [of] the loss of the nation’s ability to make, to grow, to build, and the president recognizes the urgency of the moment,” Greer told the Senate Finance Committee. “Our large and persistent trade deficit has been over 30 years in the making, and it will not be resolved overnight, but all of this is...

Last week Democrats rallied outside the Baltimore office of the Social Security Administration demanding "Musk, keep your hands off of our Social Security." Those in attendance at the demonstration included Maryland Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland Representatives Kweisi Mfume, Johnny Olszewski and Sarah Elfreth. Musk replied "my hands aren't the ones stealing a large portion of the annual 'entitlement' payments being made. We have discovered that more than $100 billion worth of entitlements every year are going to individuals with no Social Security Number or even a temporary ID number. This is extremely suspicious. Officers of the...

I am trying to find the webpage that lists all of the email addresses for all sitting senators and congressmen. It would be a handy tool for all of us to have so we can email all the critters in Washington DC whenever legislation comes up that we would like to comment on. If anyone can locate that and provide it, I would be very grateful. I've tried and I can't find it. Google isn't cooperating.

Meghan McCain vowed to make it her “personal mission to help campaign and fundraise” against any Senator who does not vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). “Any Senator who votes against @TulsiGabbard for DNI isn’t just going to have a problem with MAGA and Trump,” McCain warned. “I will make it my personal mission to help campaign and fundraise against you in your next election. And my people are probably a lot like their people.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) urged his fellow Republican senators Wednesday not to join what he called the “lynch mob” calling for former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to withdraw his nomination to serve as attorney general because of allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. “I fear the process surrounding the Gaetz nomination is turning into an angry mob, and unverified allegations are being treated as if they are true. I have seen this movie before,” Graham, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement released after he met with Gaetz and Vice President-elect JD Vance....

A pair of Democratic senators called for a federal investigation into Elon Musk’s involvement in SpaceX’s federal contracts following reports the tech billionaire has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a letter sent Friday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said Musk’s reported relations with a U.S. adversary “pose serious questions” about his “reliability as a government contract and a clearance holder.” Shaheen is a senior member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, holds contracts with the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community...

The organization, Baptist Zionist Public Affairs Committee (BZPAC), is asking the question, "Among all U.S. Senators who will be seated in January, 2025, who are the five most allied to President Trump and to his agenda?" BZPAC is a Conservative Baptist Christian organization, fervently in support of Israel and the Jewish people, and of Zionism, as the name suggests, and being at the same time patriotic to the United States. BZPAC is officially urging the U.S. Senate to endorse and support a Majority Leader who is allied to President Trump. BZPAC can be researched at www.bzpac.com The e-magazine, THE BAPTIST...

A group of Republican senators wants to know how President Biden’s Department of Labor severely overestimated the number of new jobs created over the past year — after the agency made its largest downward revision to US payroll figures since 2009. The revised figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), released last week, suggested that there were actually 818,000 fewer jobs during the 12 months ending in March than initially reported — an indication that the economy may be less robust than the White House is saying. That means that the actual job growth during that period was likely...

A pair of Senate Democrats has asked the Justice Department to criminally investigate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over travel given as gifts and a loan for a luxury car from wealthy donor friends. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee on federal courts, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden of Oregon sent a letter last week asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to examine whether Thomas violated federal ethics and tax laws when he didn't disclose as income more than $267,000 of a loan that was allegedly forgiven in 2008.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), an influential centrist who is close with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), is working to gather support among Democratic senators to ask President Biden to drop his reelection bid, according to two sources familiar with the effort. Warner is concerned that Biden could perform so badly in November that he risks taking down senators who were thought to be in relatively safe seats, such as fellow Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). “He talks to a lot of his colleagues all of the time. There’s a statewide race going on in Virginia,” said a source familiar...

Former President Donald Trump declared that he is “1000 percent” behind the senators he had a meeting with at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) on Thursday and that they are with him “1,000 percent.” Trump delivered brief remarks at the NRSC in Washington, DC, after meeting with Republican senators on the heels of a separate “unifying” meeting with House Republicans earlier in the day: This is an outstanding group of people. I’m with them 1,000 percent; they’re with me 1,000 percent. We agree just about on everything, and if there isn’t, we work it out,” he said. “And…I’ve had...

On June 4, the Senate Health, Education, and Labor Committee held a hearing titled “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms,” during which pro-abortion Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) claimed pro-life lawmakers are inflicting “trauma” on women by protecting children from abortion. “Today we take a close accounting of the trauma Republicans are inflicting on women and families across our country and the damage they are doing to basic reproductive health care through their horrific anti-abortion crusade,” said Murray. “The issue here is simple, and it cuts to the core of American values: freedom.” Three pro-abortion and two pro-life witnesses were present to...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reportedly said the House of Representatives would cobble together a Ukraine aid bill while speaking with Republican senators on Wednesday during a retreat on Capitol Hill. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reported on the conversations that occurred at the Library of Congress during the annual Republican Senate retreat and emphasized the speaker “cautioned that what comes out of the House will look substantially different than the $95 billion foreign aid package the Senate passed last month.” Per Bolton, Johnson suggested a lend-and-lease program during the meeting but did not mention whether border security measures would be...

Americans have lost trust in some of the most important roles in a society, including those in the medical industry, teaching, and especially positions of institutional power. A Gallup poll in Honesty and Ethics conducted at the end of 2023 asked 800 respondents to rate the ethical standards of and their overall trust in a series of professions. "How you would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in these different fields?" the survey asked. In terms of "very high" trust, all professions but one took a hit compared to previous years. The poll measured the downward trends dating...

Senate negotiators have agreed to empower the US to significantly restrict illegal migrant crossings at the southern border, according to sources familiar with the matter, a move aimed at ending the migrant surge that has overrun federal authorities over the past several months. The Senate deal, which is expected to be unveiled as soon as next week, would also speed up the asylum process to consider cases within six months – compared with the current system, under which it could take up to 10 years for asylum seekers. The details provide a new window into high-profile negotiations that have been...

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky will appeal directly to U.S. senators on Tuesday as he seeks assurances on approval for delivery of the next tranche of aid and lethal military equipment to his embattled country. The personal entreaty will take place via secure video as part of a closed, classified briefing on the war in Europe, UPI reports. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced he extended the Biden administration’s invitation to Zelensky on Monday.

Concern is rising for senators in both parties that funding for Ukraine might get left on the cutting room floor this year as Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) “laddered” stopgap spending bill will keep the government open through late January, depriving the supplemental of a potential vehicle. Lawmakers still say the Biden administration’s $105 billion supplemental request, which includes aid for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, the border and other items, remains a priority. But there are serious obstacles standing between it and the finish line. Among them is that despite the urgency of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, there...

Senate Republicans are disavowing former President Trump’s call to let the federal government default on its debts unless President Biden agrees to “massive” spending cuts, dismissing Trump’s suggestion as something far too risky to seriously consider. The cold reception to Trump’s bold statement is the latest sign of the widening rift between Trump and his party’s Washington establishment. While Trump maintains strong influence in the House, where he helped Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) nail down enough votes to be elected Speaker, it’s a different story in the Senate. GOP senators largely ignored Trump’s participation in a CNN’s town hall Wednesday and...