Tag: Senate Democrats

Virginia House and Senate Reach Deal on Military Education Program

The Center Square
Virginia Military Bill

Monday ended with another disappointment for those unhappy with recent changes to a state education assistance program for military families, but by Tuesday night, things had turned around.

Tuesday evening, the Senate of Virginia issued a press release stating that the House of Delegates and Senate finance chairs had finally reached an agreement on the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program after a month and a half of upheaval surrounding changes made to the program in the latest state budget.

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Mayorkas to Testify at House Committee Hearing on Homeland Security Budget

The Center Square
Alejandro Mayorkas

The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security will be holding a hearing next Tuesday to examine the Department of Homeland Security’s fiscal 2025 budget request.

It will hear testimony from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is scheduled to testify for the first time since he was impeached in February. The committee’s chairman, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., led the charge to impeach Mayorkas on two counts, making him the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history.

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TikTok Launches Ad Campaign in Battleground States in Which Vulnerable Dem Senators Seek Reelection

Just the News
Tiktok

TikTok launched a $2.1 million advertising campaign try to stop Congress from voting on a measure to effectively ban the social media app in the U.S. that will be run in states in which Senate Democrats are in tough reelection bids.

The bill, targeting the app, whose parent company is China based, overwhelmingly passed the GOP-controlled House and now awaits a vote in the Senate.

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House Freedom Caucus Calls Speaker Johnson’s Proposed Spending Deal with Schumer ‘Total Failure’

Just the News

The conservative House Freedom Caucus slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposed top-line spending deal with Senate Democrats as a “total failure,” arguing the potential agreement costs about $68 billion more than the Louisiana Republican said it would.

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Senate Democrats Shoot Down GOP Amendment to Fly Only the American Flag over Government Buildings

Virginia Star Staff

On Thursday, Senate Democrats voted against a Republican-introduced measure that would have forbidden the federal government from flying any flag other than the American flag over government buildings.

As Fox News reports, the measure in question was introduced by Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would have instituted the ban for all public buildings, from federal office buildings and courthouses to post offices.

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Democrats Celebrate 100 Federal Judicial Nominee Confirmations But Michael Delaney ‘Problematic’ for Biden and Schumer

Susan Berry, PhD

The Democrat-controlled Senate is celebrating the confirmation of 100 of Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, approved by radical left-wing organizations, but Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing saw Biden nominee Michael Delaney struggling against an onslaught of confrontation over his move in 2015 to publicly release the name of a minor female victim of sexual assault while he represented her school.

By nominating representatives of these radical positions, Biden is “paying back the left-wing dark money groups who spent over a billion dollars to help elect him and Senate Democrats,” Carrie Severino, president of JCN, formerly known as Judicial Crisis Network, told Fox News Digital.

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Senate Democrats Criticize New Biden Border Plan

Virginia Star Staff

On Thursday, four Democratic members of the U.S. Senate slammed Joe Biden’s most recent proposal for handling the immigration crisis, particularly the plans to slightly increase the number of deportations.

As reported by The Hill, ahead of Biden’s planned first trip to the southern border since taking office, the Biden Administration announced revised plans that involve temporarily expanding Title 42 to increase the number of daily deportations by turning away illegal aliens who present themselves at the border.

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Analysis: The Reason Big Oil Is Backing Dems’ Climate Bill

Admin

Large oil and gas producers are lauding the Senate Democrats’ climate bill due to its green incentives and regulations on fossil fuels; however, smaller producers argue that the new taxes and fees included in the bill will kill their operations.

Big oil is hailing the $369 billion climate bill for its steps to regulate the fossil fuel industry and promote green energy, according to Bloomberg. However, smaller, independent oil and gas companies are arguing that the bill’s numerous, costly regulations will threaten their industry’s development, according to an industry letter that was sent Tuesday night to the House Ways & Means Committee.

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Analysis: 10 Actions to Reduce Energy Prices That Won’t Cost Taxpayers $740 Billion

The Center Square

Rather than impose higher taxes and more restrictions on domestic production of oil and natural gas, as Senate Democrats voted to do by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, those in the industry proposed 10 actions policy makers can take right now to reduce costs. The industry says its solutions won’t cost taxpayers $740 billion, as the Inflation Reduction Act does, or increase the national debt or inflation, as 230 economists have warned the act will do.

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Harvard University Denied Tax Cut After Lobbying to Senate Democrats

Virginia Star Staff

Harvard University’s request for an endowment tax cut was denied despite frequent lobbying to Senate Democrats for its inclusion in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 with tax increases on corporations and energy firms but did not include plans to lower the endowment tax, which is tax paid on income from individual donors to colleges, according to the bill.  Senior Executive Director of Federal Relations at Harvard University Suzanne Day sent an email in July urging Democratic Senators to eliminate the tax in the upcoming bill.

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Senate Fails to Advance Democrat Bill That Would Have Forced Doctors to Perform Abortions Against Their Faith Beliefs

Susan Berry, PhD

A bill Democrats pushed to shut down state pro-life laws and force doctors throughout the country to perform abortions, even if doing so violates their faith beliefs, failed to advance in the Senate Wednesday.

Desperate to appeal to his party’s radical leftist supporters in the wake of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the vote was “urgent” to prevent states from restricting abortions within their borders.

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Democrats Introduce Another Voting Bill, But Odds of Becoming Law Are Slim

Virginia Star Staff
Tim Kaine and Amy Klobuchar

Senate Democrats are set to release their new, trimmed down voting bill, but despite unanimous support from their caucus it faces a steep climb to become law.

The bill, titled the Freedom to Vote Act, is Democrats’ response to a series of voting restrictions passed in Republican-controlled states across the country. But despite its framework, constructed around a compromise plan proposed by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, it must still clear a filibuster to pass the Senate, meaning at least 10 Republicans would have to sign on in support.

The legislation, introduced by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, drops some of the more contentious provisions included in the For the People Act, Democrats’ previous legislation that fell to a GOP filibuster in June. While the new bill would no longer restructure the Federal Election Commission and requires a nationwide voter ID standard, it includes automatic registration provisions and would make Election Day a national holiday.

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Senate Passes Amendment to Ban Federal Dollars from Funding Critical Race Theory in Schools

Virginia Star Staff

The Senate has approved an amendment to the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that will ban the use of federal funds from being used to teach Critical Race Theory in schools.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the “Stop CRT Act” in an effort to prevent tax dollars from being used to teach the controversial set of ideas in public school classrooms.

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Eleven Senate Democrats Vote Against COVID Tests for Illegal Immigrants at the Southern Border

Virginia Star Staff

Eleven Senate Democrats on Thursday voted against a modest and commonsense amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution that requires illegal migrants apprehended on the southern border to be tested for COVID-19 before they are transported into the country.

The amendment, introduced by Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), a physician, establishes “a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to protecting migrants and local communities against COVID-19.”  Under the provision, migrants will be quarantined and not transported from the border until they tested negative.

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Senate Democrats Publicly Release $3.5 Trillion Filibuster-Proof Budget Reconciliation Resolution

Virginia Star Staff

Senate Democrats have publicly released their $3.5 trillion, filibuster-proof budget reconciliation resolution.

The draft of the legislation released on Monday includes new spending programs that the White House has labeled “human infrastructure,” such as universal pre-K, childcare support and tuition free community college.

The spending total is estimated over a 10-year period. Using budget reconciliation allows the Democrats to pass the measure without votes from Republicans in the 50-50 Senate. Democrats used the same process in March to pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus package called the American Rescue Plan Act.

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Senate Democrats Attempt to Add Funding for Dreamers, Border Security to Budget Bill

Virginia Star Staff

Senate Democrats are attempting to add funding for “Dreamers” and border security to their budget bill, Axios reported Friday.

The Democrats are looking at adding $10 billion to their $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package towards border security infrastructure at legal points of entry, according to Axios. The Democrats previously planned to allocate around $120 billion for citizenship for undocumented essential workers, immigrants with Temporary Protected Status and Dreamers.

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Senate Dems Kick GOP Colleagues to the Curb

Jacob Taylor

The Democratic-controlled Virginia Senate rejected almost all budget amendment proposals from Republican members during a lengthy session Thursday afternoon. 

As the Senate moves closer to a passage vote on its comprehensive budget, Thursday’s session made it clear that Senate Democrats are ultimately running the show. 

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EPA’s Andrew Wheeler Calls Out Senate Dems for ‘Politicizing’ Agency’s COVID Response

Virginia Star Staff

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler believes Democrats are politicizing the agency’s response to coronavirus and using flawed research to argue regulation rollbacks are disproportionately hurting black people amid a pandemic.

Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts used a politically-motivated research and a study based on 15-year-old data from Europe to suggest that the agency’s regulatory work is increasing the harm of coronavirus on minority groups, Wheeler said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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