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Tag: US House of Representatives

  • Eric Cantor Defeated in Surprise Primary Landslide

    House majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his Republican primary election Tuesday night. Instead of once again running for Virginia’s 7th congressional district this fall, Cantor’s challenger, David Brat, will be on the ballot. Cantor is now the first House Majority Leader to lose his party’s primary.

    The loss came as a surprise to almost everyone. Pollsters and political observers had assumed that Cantor could easily defeat his Tea Party-backed opponent. An internal poll from the Cantor campaign had showed the representative with a 34-point lead as of Friday and other polls also showed Cantor with a comfortable lead. Election returns show Cantor lost the election by more than 7,000 votes, with nearly 56% of the vote going to Brat.

    “You know, I know there’s a lot of long faces here tonight and it’s disappointing, sure,” said Cantor during his concession speech. “But I believe in this country. I believe there’s opportunity around the next corner for all of us.”

    As House Majority Leader, Cantor was a senior figure in House leadership and second in command to House Speaker John Boehner. Boehner issued a statement Tuesday night saying, “(Cantor is) a good friend and a great leader, and someone I’ve come to rely upon on a daily basis as we make the tough choices that come with governing. My thoughts are with him and Diana and their kids tonight.”

    Cantor’s challenger, David Brat, is a professor of economics at Randolph-Macon College. His candidacy was backed by Tea Party groups and figures related to the Tea Party movement, including former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. During the primary campaign Brat had run heavily on immigration, painting Cantor as a supporter of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

    Cantor’s defeat provides a new twist in this election year’s conventional wisdom that establishment Republicans are taking back their party from the Tea Party. Cantor and others in House leadership have been struggling to accommodate hard-right Tea Party Republicans in the House in recent years, culminating in last year’s government shut down.

    Brat will face off against Democratic challenger Jack Trammel in this fall’s midterm elections. Trammel is a colleague of Brat’s, a sociology professor at Randolph-Macon College.

    Image via Facebook

  • Another Democratic Congressman Announces Retirement

    Congressman Bill Owens today announced that he will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives this fall. Owens is the Democratic representative from New York’s 21st District.

    Owens has served in the House since 2009, when he won a special election for his district that took place after Congressman John McHugh took a position as Secretary of the Army. Owens won a subsequent election in 2010.

    In a statement released today, Owens said that it is time for him to “undertake new endeavors and spend more time with [his] family.” He also reassured his constituents that he would serve out the rest of his term advocating for jobs, the military, and a farm bill. The statement, in full:

    “After careful thought and consideration, I have decided not to seek re-election for the 21st Congressional District this November. I have enjoyed the opportunity to travel the district, meeting and serving the families and business owners of this vast community. It has truly been a privilege to serve, and I plan on continuing to work for a brighter future for the region.

    My appreciation for the support of my wife, children, grandchildren and close friends cannot be sufficiently expressed in words. There are others — too numerous to list — to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude. The remainder of my term will be spent in much the same way as the previous four years: assisting constituents with their individual concerns, continuing to focus on passing a Farm Bill, helping to create jobs in our communities, working for our troops and veterans, keeping the northern border secure and fluid and being a voice in Congress for bipartisanship, as well as fact-based decision making. You can count on me to work with and for you over the remainder of my term.

    It is time for me to undertake new endeavors and spend more time with my family. Even though I will not seek re-election, it is my goal that the next phase of my life will continue to focus on helping to improve the lives of all New Yorkers, primarily through job creation and economic development.

    Thank you for letting me serve you since November 2009.”

    Owens’ retirement announcement comes just one day after fellow U.S. Representative George Miller announced his retirement from congress. Miller was a long-serving Californian Democratic representative and the fifth most senior member of the U.S. House.

  • Congressman George Miller Announces His Retirement

    U.S. Representative George Miller today announced that he will not be seeking re-election for his California district seat this fall. Miller is currently one of the longest-serving Democratic representatives in congress, having first been elected to his seat in 1974. He is the fifth most senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives,

    “This is a great institution and I cannot thank my family and my constituents enough for having given me the honor and privilege of representing my district in Congress these past 40 years,” said Miller. “I have tried to repay them for their confidence by working hard every day to make our country a better place. I’m proud of what I have been able to accomplish on behalf of children, working people and the environment, in my district and for our country, especially passage of national health care reform. Now, I look forward to one last year in Congress fighting the good fight and then working in new venues on the issues that have inspired me. What a wonderful experience this has been.”

    Miller is currently the ranking Democratic member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. In addition to his long-standing advocacy for education reform, Miller has been at the forefront of recent efforts to raise the federal minimum wage.

    As part of his retirement announcement, Miller stated that he will continue to working to raise the minimum wage, as well as extend unemployment benefits during his final months in congress. In addition, he plans to push for the Higher Education Act, early childhood education funds, immigration reform, improved labor standards, and a fix for the No Child Left Behind Act.

    “Capitol Hill and California are filled with Democrats and Republicans alike who have enjoyed working with George Miller and who deeply respect him because his dedication to the issues and his excitement for the legislative process are infectious and undiluted by the years he has served or the challenges he had faced,” said Nancy Pelosi, house minority leader. “For me, as Speaker and Democratic Leader, George’s patriotism, wisdom, and guidance have been especially valued, and he has been a close friend since my first days in the House.”

  • Congresswoman Proposes Broadband Internet Subsidies For Low-Income Families

    Congresswoman Proposes Broadband Internet Subsidies For Low-Income Families

    For years, it was essential that every family had a phone line. The U.S. government started the Lifeline program to help impoverished families afford this essential communication tool. Now the Internet has overwhelmingly replaced traditional phone lines, but the Lifeline program hasn’t adapted to this reality. One Congresswoman is hoping to change that.

    Ars Technica reports that Rep. Doris Matsui has introduced the Broadband Adoption Act of 2013. The bill would modify the Lifeline program to provide cheaper broadband Internet services to low-income families across the country.

    “In today’s digital economy, if you don’t have access to the Internet you are simply at a competitive disadvantage. For example, more than 80 percent of available jobs now require online applications,” said Congresswoman Matsui. “The Internet is increasingly the economic engine for growth and innovation. The Lifeline program provides a tangible service to lower-income Americans and it is imperative that the Lifeline program be reformed and modernized to account for broadband services. We must ensure lower-income Americans have a greater opportunity to participate in the digital economy, whether it be for workforce training, education, finding a job or creating the next big idea.”

    Matsui says that a recent FCC report found that nearly 100 million Americans are without broadband Internet services. She places the blame squarely on the high cost of broadband Internet in America. Many low income families simply can’t afford the high cost of broadband Internet. The bill would help to make faster Internet affordable to all.

    Of course, the Broadband Adoption Act of 2013 isn’t just about providing faster Internet to low-income families. Matsui has envisioned a number of reforms to the Lifeline program for the FCC to enact if the bill were to become law:

  • The bill directs the FCC to establish a broadband Lifeline Assistance program that provides low-income Americans living in rural and urban areas with assistance in subscribing to affordable broadband service.
  • The proposal would require the FCC, in calculating the amount of support, to routinely study the prevailing market price for service and the prevailing speed adopted by consumers of broadband service.
  • The bill is technology neutral to promote competition from broadband service providers under the program.
  • The bill allows eligible consumers to choose how they would like their Lifeline support- whether for broadband, mobile, basic telephone services or a bundle of these services. The bill clarifies that eligible households will qualify for only one lifeline support amount for one of those functions, not for multiple purposes.
  • The bill requires the FCC to establish a national database to determine consumer eligibility for Lifeline and to prevent duplication.
  • The bill encourages the FCC to consider providing a preference to participating broadband service providers that include components involving digital literacy programs as part of their offerings.
  • Eligible households must meet federal low-income guidelines or qualify for one of a handful of social service programs including, but not limited to: SNAP, Head Start, WIC, National School Lunch Program, Tribal TANF or Medicaid.

    • It’s hard to see how anybody in the telecom industry would be opposed to this bill. It would net ISPs more subscribers to their expensive broadband plans while receiving plenty of free government money. There’s an argument to be had that we can’t be spending more money on social welfare programs, but the counterargument is that universal Internet access is worth it.

  • Charlie Wilson Dies; Congressman Was 70

    Former U.S. Representative Charlie A. Wilson has died at the age of 70.

    According to an Associated Press report, Wilson had a stroke in February and had been recovering since that time. He reportedly became sick over the weekend and died Sunday afternoon at a hospital in Boynton Beach, Florida.

    Wilson owned funeral home and furniture store businesses before entering state politics in Ohio. In 1996 he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, where he served until 2002. In 2004 Wilson was elected to the Ohio Senate, and in 2006 he ran for U.S. congress when Ohio congressman Ted Strickland ran for governor of the state.

    Though Wilson’s name did not appear on the primary ballot, he ran a successful write-in campaign to become the Democratic candidate for Ohio’s 6th district. He won the general election and served two terms before being defeated by current U.S. Representative Bill Johnson in 2011.

    Charlie A. Wilson is not related to Charlie Nesbitt Wilson, the former U.S. Representative for Texas who is the subject of the book and movie Charlie Wilson’s War.

  • Google Issues a Call For Legislative Transparency

    Google has issued a statement announcing that it believes public policy should be based on sound data analysis. Seth Webb, a senior policy manager for Google, stated that Google takes transparency seriously, and that it also believes citizens can be more active in politics when more data is made public. Webb announced Google’s transparency stance in a post on the Google Public Policy Blog:

    Last year, for example, the U.S. House of Representatives identified transparency as one of its top priorities, and since then it has taken several steps towards becoming more open. The House now streams and archives video of committee hearings, and it shares draft legislation for public consultation online.

    As part of its ongoing effort to promote openness and transparency, the House of Representatives voted for an appropriations bill that directs a task force to examine and expedite the process of disclosing large amounts of legislative data to the public. Even before the bill was passed, Congressional leadership issued a statement on the importance of transparency and requested for the task force to begin its work immediately.

    Google is promoting the ability for bulk legislative data to be provided in formats such as XML, so that websites and apps can parse it and provide up-to-date information on legislation. Also, it hopes that researchers will be able to analyze the data for research purposes.

    Webb praised earlier initiatives to open government data, such as President Obama’s recently issued Digital Government Strategy, which called for executive branch offices to open up more of their data and for more deployment of mobile technology that will allow citizens to access government data at all times. Alongside this praise, Webb also stated that Google looks forward to even more increased legislative transparency in the future.

  • House To Cut NASA Budget To 1950’s Levels

    The Appropriations Committee of the United States House of Representatives is about to get together to work on an election year budget. One of the hot topics is funding for NASA, and what to do with some of the programs. The Appropriations Committee is preparing to cut NASA’s budget to the levels of the 1950’s. Not in dollar amounts but in percentage of GDP. When they do cut the budget it will surpass last years low and be at .48% of GDP. The actual dollar amount will be in tune with the 2006 levels of spending at $19.57 billion.

    Some of the programs that are being cut from are the Space Technology and Commercial Crew programs. They are going to add funds to the Space Launch System and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle which happen to be congressional favorites.

    The one thing that the House needs to stay away from is trying to pick a winner. This is essentially what critics think they are doing in trying to force NASA into by suggesting that they abandon the 4 company competition for the Orion Crew Vehicle. “The Committee believes that many of these concerns would be addressed by an immediate down select to a single competitor or, at most, the execution of a leader-follower paradigm in which NASA makes one large award to a main commercial partner and a second small award to a back-up partner.”

    There are some programs that Congress is trying to force but NASA neither asked for or has use for. These are the kind of programs that people hate because they are a waste of money. The biggest one is the Space Launch System. The SLS is a rocket that is required, by law, to have the capability to lift 130 metric tons to orbit. This is a requirement for the rocket even thought there is not a current mission or one in the foreseeable future that would require a rocket with that kind of horse power. It is also so expensive that NASA can only afford to launch it once every 2 years. Maybe they know more about the Mayan apocalypse than they are letting on?

  • Microsoft Kind Of Drops Support For CISPA

    Ever since its introduction, CISPA has had the support of the major tech companies. All of them use the same line about how it helps them protect themselves and consumers from cyberattacks. Civil rights groups and pretty much everybody on the Internet will tell you that it’s an invasion of privacy and violates their fourth amendment rights online (a right a judge recently said doesn’t exist). Now that CISPA has passed the House, however, the real offensive is now beginning as it heads to the Senate.

    The pressure being put on companies in support of the bill may be working now as Microsoft has kind of dropped support for the bill. Microsoft issued a statement to CNET stating their kind of support for the bill while citing privacy concerns as their main problem with the bill. Here’s the full statement from Microsoft:

    Microsoft has previously stated support for efforts to improve cyber security, and sharing threat information is an important component of those efforts. Improvements to the way this information is shared would help companies better protect customers, and online services in the United States and around the world from criminal attack. Microsoft believes that any proposed legislation should facilitate the voluntary sharing of cyber threat information in a manner that allows us to honor the privacy and security promises we make to our customers.

    Legislation passed by the House of Representatives yesterday is a first step in this legislative process. Since November, there has been active, constructive dialogue to identify and address concerns about the House bill, and several important changes were incorporated. We look forward to continuing to work with members of Congress, consumer groups, the civil liberties community and industry colleagues as the debate moves to the Senate to ensure the final legislation helps to tackle the real threat of cybercrime while protecting consumer privacy.

    As you can see, it’s not like Microsoft has flat out dropped support for the bill. They still want to see the primary goal of the bill – the sharing of information between companies and government – to be passed. They just now realize that the bill has serious privacy concerns especially after the House refused to hear the amendments that would have made the bill better. They instead passed the bill with even worse amendments tacked on that give the government even more reason to snoop on your online activities.

    As CISPA makes it way through the rest of the legislative process, expect the resistance to grow. Even though Microsoft has kind of dropped support, I’m not sure that will be enough to keep them safe from Anonymous’ planned mass protest against the companies who support the bill. The Internet wants CISPA to die even if it does get better. Microsoft wants a better CISPA. The Internet and those that support this kind of legislation will always be at odds. Any kind of Internet regulation will always be seen as an attack on those who live and breathe the Internet.

  • House DATA Act Makes Gov’t Spending Visible

    The United Staes House of Representatives has just passed what they are calling the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA). The bill features an independent board who will oversee and and receive reports on all government spending. Currently the government has the technology to track spending, and this bill will force agencies to be more accountable to taxpayers.

    The Sunlight Foundation blog commented on DATA:

    “The legislation reflects and has shaped the growing understanding on Capitol Hill that technology-mediated government transparency is an area of bipartisan agreement where real progress can be made.”

    “The DATA Act, if fully implemented, could transform government spending accountability.”

    Before we can expect to see any progress made by the act, it must also be approved by the US Senate, then reviewed and signed the the US President. Hopefully this will happen in a timely fashion as taxpayers are currently the victims of reckless government spending and careless investments. A great example from current events would be the General Service Administration’s (GAS) lavish $800,000 Los Vegas party (sorry, I meant conference) on the taxpayer’s dime.

    Here’s how the govtrack website describes the bill:

    Requires each person, state, local, or tribal government, or any government corporation (recipient) that receives appropriated funds, either directly or through a subgrant or subcontract at any tier, to report at least once quarterly each receipt and use of such funds to the Federal Accountability and Spending Transparency Board established by this Act.

    Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, commented on the DATA bill:

    “This is designed to save money,”

    So, I guess it’s safe to assume that our representatives, and other groups funded by our tax dollars are like children. If we don’t make them disclose their spending behavior, we can’t keep them on a track of financial well-being. This is something that should be of great interest to taxpayers. Too often our elected officials have been allowed to abuse public funds for personal gain.

    We’ll be watching the progression of this House bill closely. Check back regularly to hear more about the DATA bill and how it can help protect the American payers, from what many consider fraud, by our elected officials.