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☆ Credit Suisse limited investigations into Nazi-linked accounts, Senate Committee alleges
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

This left significant gaps in the forensic search for Nazi-linked records, the Senate Committee stated. The bipartisan Senate investigation follows a March 2020 report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) that linked Credit Suisse accounts to a list of 12,000 Nazis in Argentina. Credit Suisse has thus far failed to meet that standard,” said Sen. Grassley in a statement. AlixPartners, according to the Senate committee, has indicated it will conduct a “supplementary review” of Credit Suisse’s connections to ratlines amongst other allegations. Credit Suisse is Switzerland’s second-largest bank by assets and has spent the past few years plagued by scandals and large losses.

☆ Senators relaunch bill seeking to force Supreme Court to televise sessions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a leading Republican senator on Thursday reintroduced a bill that seeks to compel the Supreme Court to televise its open court sessions live. A Supreme Court spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Supreme Court long has refused to allow cameras — TV or still — into oral arguments for cases or other proceedings. The new low was reached months after the Supreme Court finished a term considered one of the most controversial and consequential, marked by two rulings in particular. Durbin cited both cases in a statement Thursday calling for televised Supreme Court sessions.

☆ Senate Republicans criticise Biden budget amid banking, market strains
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Republicans have refused to raise the nation's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling unless Democrats agree to sharp spending cuts. "We have to use this debt ceiling issue to pry the nation's maxed-out credit card from Joe Biden's hands," Republican Senator Roger Marshall said. Not touching those, or failing to cut defense spending, leaves little chance of addressing the government's budget deficit. Young said the White House looked forward to seeing a Republican budget that suggests the programs are off the table. Republicans are determined to avoid tax hikes and to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy implemented under former President Donald Trump.

☆ Amid bank strains, Democrats and Republicans spar over U.S. budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstWASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Budget Committee debated Democratic President Joe Biden's $6.8 trillion budget proposal on Wednesday, as new financial strains at Credit Suisse threatened to raise the stakes in a partisan standoff over spending and debt. "The president's budget proposal continues to take our nation down a path of fiscal and economic ruin," said Senator Chuck Grassley, the panel's top Republican. "President Biden is proposing levels of debt, deficits and spending previously reserved for times of world war or depression. Market turmoil exacerbated fears about the banking system days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) and New York's Signature Bank. Republicans are determined to avoid tax hikes and to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy implemented under former President Donald Trump.

Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Ken Buck, R-Colo., are seen during a House Judiciary Committee markup in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. The GOP also doesn't want to give the Biden administration more power and resources, House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told CNBC in a separate interview. "We just felt that Thomas Massie was a good fit with how we were structuring the Judiciary committee. While the tech companies may be spared costly new regulations that threatened to break them apart — for now — the industry may not be totally safe from scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Though it passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee and similar legislation advanced out of the House Judiciary Committee, it didn't get to the floor of either chamber for a vote.

☆ Reaction to Biden's 2024 budget proposal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Katharine Jackson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Leah MillisWASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday delivered a budget proposal that includes a robust spending agenda, higher taxes on the wealthy and plans to reduce the deficit, a document that forms the blueprint for his expected 2024 re-election bid. Here is reaction to Biden's budget proposal to Congress for the 2024 fiscal year:HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE CHAIR JODEY ARRINGTON, A REPUBLICAN FROM TEXAS:"His policies have led to 40-year record inflation, soaring interest rates, and the prospect of a sustained economic recession. Unfortunately, Biden’s latest budget is more of the same bloated bureaucracy at the expense of working families, while sticking our grandchildren with the bill." HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADER HAKEEM JEFFRIES, ON TWITTER:"The Biden budget plan protects Social Security, strengthens Medicare and invests in our children. SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY:"Even with near-record revenues, President Biden wants to raise taxes on every segment of America.

☆ Biden's funding wish list quickly runs into headwinds as Republicans slam it as 'completely unserious' and 'a roadmap to fiscal ruin'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

President Joe Biden released his budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 on Thursday. The budget, which amounts to more of a wish list of priorities than viable policy, has already sparked pushback. "President Biden just delivered his budget to Congress, and it is completely unserious," he wrote on Twitter. "Let's be clear – the budget put forward by President Biden today will not be enacted," Capito said. "I want to make it clear, I'm willing to meet with the Speaker anytime, tomorrow if he has his budget," Biden said.

☆ U.S. senators reintroduce bill to pressure OPEC oil producer group
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - A group of bipartisan U.S. senators on Wednesday said they have reintroduced legislation to pressure the OPEC oil production group to stop making output cuts. The so-called No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels, or NOPEC, bill was reintroduced by Senators Chuck Grassley, a Republican, and Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, as well as others on the Judiciary Committee. The bill passed the committee 17-4 last year after the OPEC+ producer group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed to cut output by 2 million barrels per day but moved no further. Klobuchar said, "Current law has made the Justice Department powerless to stop the 13 largest oil-producing countries from manipulating prices and driving up costs." Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Mark PorterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ US senators reintroduce bill to pressure OPEC oil producer group
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Timothy Gardner | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - A group of bipartisan U.S. senators on Wednesday said they have reintroduced legislation to pressure the OPEC oil production group to stop making output cuts. The so-called No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels, or NOPEC, bill was reintroduced by senators Chuck Grassley, a Republican, and Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, and others on the Judiciary Committee. The bill passed the committee 17-4 last year after the OPEC+ producer group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed to cut output by 2 million barrels per day. OPEC has continued with the 2 million bpd cut, setting a floor on global oil prices, with the Brent international benchmark trading around $82.60 per barrel on Wednesday. Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington Editing by Mark Porter and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ron DeSantis' past views could come back to bite him in Iowa, a critical state for any GOP challenger to Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Ron DeSantis' potential bid to dethrone former President Donald Trump could hit a critical snag in Iowa, home to the first-in-the-nation caucuses. "If you come to Iowa, you're going to talk about agriculture," Monte Shaw, the executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, told Insider. DeSantis won't be alone in facing questionsTrump's own administration was hammered over its handling of the renewable fuel standard. Like Iowa's senators, he was also deeply frustrated by how Trump's EPA enforced the renewable fuel standard. Chris Carlson/APTexas Sen. Ted Cruz was hammered for months on the campaign trail for wanting to phase out the Renewable Fuel Standard.

☆ Sen. Bernie Sanders blasts 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley's call for 'mandatory mental competency tests' for politicians over 75 as 'absurd'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bernie Sanders blasted Nikki Haley's idea of an age-based mental competency test for politicians. She's the second major Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race, joining former President Trump, who'll turn 77 years old in June. "We'll have term limits for Congress, and mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old." "I think she should test her own mental competency," Hirono said of the presidential aspirant. "Come on, how many times has she said she's fighting Trump, and then the next thing you know, she's kissing his ring?"

☆ Elderly senators have mixed feelings about Nikki Haley's call for 'mandatory mental competency tests' for politicians over 75
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Nikki Haley is calling for "mandatory mental competency tests" for politicians over the age of 75. Over a sixth of the US Senate is age 75 or older. "We'll have term limits for Congress, and mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old." "I think she should test her own mental competency," said Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, who recently turned 75. Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho said he'd take a mental competency test Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesSome aging lawmakers expressed general openness to taking the test.

☆ Biden's classified records bumbling is a gift for Trump, and some high-profile figures say it closes the door on an indictment for the former president
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Biden aides have discovered two batches of classified documents from when he was vice president. "When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House? Over in the US House Republicans have already launched an investigation. Trump is the only person to have announced a 2024 campaign for the White House, but his campaign has been off to a slow start. Some commentators even predicted that the perception of a double standard around the Biden documents investigation would derail a potential Trump indictment.

☆ Home Depot's 93-year-old cofounder who said 'nobody works' anymore because of 'socialism' has donated $64 million to elect Trump and the Republican party over the years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bernie Marcus, the billionaire cofounder of Home Depot, said Thursday "nobody works" anymore. Marcus donated millions to Trump in 2016 and 2020, and more to other Republicans over the years. In an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday, 93-year-old Bernie Marcus said "nobody works, nobody gives a damn," blaming the change on "socialism." In 2020, he made two separate donations of $5 million each to the Preserve America PAC, a single-candidate PAC that supports Trump. Marcus has also donated extensively to House and Senate races, contributing to a long list of Republican lawmakers that includes Sens.

☆ How government spending bill may help prevent abuse of federal tax incentive for land conservation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The $1.7 trillion federal spending bill includes a new change that will curb the abuse of tax incentives for land conservation. The $1.7 trillion federal spending bill includes a new change that will curb the abuse of tax incentives for land conservation. Federal conservation easements enable property owners to take a charitable deduction when they give up certain rights to develop land. The original bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and in the Senate by Sens. "This is a great victory for conservation," said Lori Faeth, senior director of government relations at the Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization that has advocated for the bill since it was first introduced.

☆ Top talkers: These 20 lawmakers spoke the most on the House and Senate floors during the 117th Congress, including Rep. Buddy Carter and Sen. Marsha Blackburn
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some lawmakers delivered dozens of floor speeches during the 117th Congress, C-SPAN's tracking showed. Most members don't usually hang out on the House or Senate floor to hear their colleagues' speeches. These House members spoke the most on the House floor during the 117th Congress. "It is my duty to use the House Floor as a vehicle to share their views, needs, and successes. That's because the Senate floor is typically where leaders make announcements to their members on legislation and nominations, among other topics.

☆ Veterans accuse Congress of abandoning Afghan allies after help for refugees is left out of spending bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Dan De Luce | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julie-Tsirkin-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Refugee advocates and veterans accused Congress of abandoning Afghans who fled to the U.S. after a bill designed to resolve the legal status of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees was left out of a year-end spending bill. The Afghan refugees were granted a two-year temporary “humanitarian parole,” which has left them in legal limbo and unable to work. The bill would have granted Afghan refugees a pathway to permanent legal residency before their parole expires. To address concerns raised by some Republican lawmakers, sponsors of the bill added language to ensure the Afghan refugees undergo thorough security vetting by U.S. authorities. But the proposal failed to win support from 10 Republican senators needed to add it to the omnibus spending package.

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Negotiations in the U.S. Senate to narrow sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine have stalled, two sources said on Monday, in what could prove a blow for criminal justice reform advocates. Earlier in December, Reuters reported Senate negotiators reached a tentative deal to narrow the sentencing disparity between the two substances and planned to tuck the measure into a year-end bill funding the government. Separately, bipartisan negotiators have encountered unexpected opposition from top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, one of the people said. In 1986, Congress passed a law to establish mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking offenses, which treated crack and powder cocaine offenses using a 100-to-1 ratio. Under that formula, a person convicted for selling 5 grams of crack cocaine was treated the same as someone who sold 500 grams of powder cocaine.

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Negotiators in the U.S. Senate have reached a tentative deal to narrow sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine and plan to tuck the measure into a bill funding the government, according to four people briefed on the matter. Congress is likely to attach the measure to a year-end spending bill that lawmakers are currently hashing out, they added. 2 Senate Democrat and a key actor in cocaine sentencing talks, declined to comment. In 1986, Congress passed a law to establish mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking offenses, which treated crack and powder cocaine offenses using a 100-to-1 ratio. Under that formula, a person convicted for selling 5 grams of crack cocaine was treated the same as someone who sold 500 grams of powder cocaine.

☆ Advocates Urge Congress to Pass Permanent Residency Status for Afghans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesConvincing Republican senatorsThe House version of the Afghan Adjustment Act has 143 co-sponsors, including 10 Republicans. Demonstrators gather to support Afghan evacuees outside the Capitol on Nov. 16, 2022. At the moment, one prospect to advance the Afghan Adjustment Act is by attaching it to that larger spending bill, advocates say. But negotiations on the omnibus are ongoing, and whether the Afghan Adjustment Act will be included is up in the air. Yet without a deal by then, passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act appears doomed, advocates say, keeping Afghan evacuees in perpetual legal limbo.

That’s all I have to say about that,” said Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a member of Senate Republican leadership. I don’t think he should be the nominee of our party in 2024,” he said. And I don’t think it’ll matter in terms of his political future, but I do believe we need to watch who we meet with. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the outgoing NRSC chair, said, “There’s no room in the Republican Party for white supremacist antisemitism — so it’s wrong.”Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said: “Antisemitism is wrong, and white supremacy is wrong, and that’s all there is to it. Writing on Truth Social, Trump called Ye a “seriously troubled man” and said he had no idea who Fuentes was.

☆ Twitter searches for China protests bombarded by spam and porn, raising alarms among researchers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The fire, and long simmering frustration over the country’s zero Covid policies, helped spur the rare protests in China. GreatFire.org, which helps Chinese citizens get around the country’s internet censorship, noted a torrent of “dating” spam tweets appearing on Friday tagged with “Urumqi,” the capital of Xinjiang. The flood of spam tweets is still ongoing, Smith told CNN on Monday. Twitter is officially blocked in China, but estimates of the number of Twitter users in China have ranged between 3 million and 10 million. Musk has pushed back on suggestions that his ownership of Tesla, which is heavily invested in China, may give the Chinese government “leverage” over Twitter.

WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Top Senate Republican Chuck Grassley urged Elon Musk, who recently acquired Twitter, to conduct a threat assessment at the social company to better protect U.S. user data, following up on concerns raised by a whistleblower. read moreIn a letter to Musk dated Tuesday and released on Wednesday, Grassley, the top Republican on the U.S. Judiciary Committee, asked Twitter to perform a threat assessment "of Twitter's current security posture and systems to better protect user data and privacy." "Twitter collects vast amounts of data on American citizens. Zatko testified that a foreign agent could use malware to steal Twitter users personal information, and use that to gain access to sensitive data on the person's phone, among other dangers. According to Grassley, Agrawal did not respond to the letter, citing litigation with Musk.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who is eyeing the speaker's job after his party captured the majority, was nowhere to be seen. Asked why he skipped her speech, McCarthy said: “I had meetings. Among the few Republicans in the chamber were Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa.“She’s got quite a legacy, that’s for sure," he said afterward. A few hours after the speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had not yet commented. Pelosi ended her speech with an appeal to patriotism and the perseverance of American democracy.

☆ How Catherine Cortez Masto clinched the Nevada seat — and the Senate
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Natasha Korecki | Natasha Korecki Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The campaign's internal data moving into the fall showed that a significant number of Nevadans still didn't know Laxalt's stance on abortion, said an adviser to Cortez Masto. Cortez Masto clinched Nevada, and that clinched control of the Senate for Democrats, overcoming historical trends that punish the party in the White House. Gas and inflation should have spelled disaster for Cortez Masto, as it did for Nevada Gov. Of those who did vote, 62% backed Cortez Masto. Laxalt did dominate the state's 15 rural counties, but there just weren't enough votes to overcome Cortez Masto in Clark and Washoe counties.

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