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Congress
The Author’s Corner with Sarah Kornfield
Sarah Kornfield is Associate Professor of Communication and Affiliated Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Hope College. This interview is based on her new book, Invoking the Fathers: Dangerous Metaphors and Founding Myths in Congressional Politics (Johns Hopkins University […]
Chaos in the House Oversight Committee. Lauren Boebert makes the sign of the cross.
Everyone is talking about what happened last night in the House Oversight Committee, and it was not the scheduled discussion about holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt. Watch: I’ll let others comment on the insanity. What I found interesting […]
Trump opposes an immigrant bill that does not yet have a text. Republicans line-up behind him.
The Senate is putting the finishing touches on a bipartisan border policy deal that would also provide aid to Ukraine. We are waiting for the text of the bill. Without a text, no one knows what is in the bill. […]
Six members of Congress from Pennsylvania call for the University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill to resign
They are all Republicans. Here is Nick Robertson at The Hill: A group of six Pennsylvania Republicans called on the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) to fire its president, Liz Magill, following backlash against comments she made at a House committee hearing […]
The elite university presidents who testified before Congress are taking the heat
I have yet to watch the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn testify before Congress on the matter of campus antisemitism. But it does not look very good. This clip is pretty damning: The blowback has been strong and bipartisan. […]
North Carolina GOP congressman Patrick McHenry will not seek another term in the House of Representatives
Most Americans outside of Western North Carolina had no idea who the bow tie-wearing North Carolina congressman was until we saw him working the house floor in January 2023 trying to get Kevin McCarthy elected Speaker of the House. Recently […]
Some of the biggest congressional fights in U.S. history
Two fights almost broke-out this week on Capitol Hill. You can read all about them here. The most famous fight in congressional history happened in 1856 when Preston Brooks of South Carolina caned Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the Senate […]
The National Endowment for the Humanities survives another attempt to cut its funding
Yesterday I wrote about how my congressman, Scott Perry (PA-10) tried to cut funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Well, it appears that Perry’s attempt failed. Here a message I received today from the National Humanities Alliance: “…the […]
My congressman, Scott Perry (PA-10), wants to defund the National Endowment for the Humanities
Here is the National Humanities Alliance: Later today, the House of Representatives will consider an amendment to the FY 2024 Interior Appropriations bill that would eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This amendment was proposed by Representative […]
Mike Johnson is the 56th Speaker of the House
I will have more to say about this in tomorrow’s feature at CURRENT. In the meantime, here is CNN: The Republican-led House elected Rep. Mike Johnson as the new House speaker on Wednesday – a major leadership change that comes three […]
Mike Johnson wins first round of GOP Speaker of the House voting, but he doesn’t have a majority
The House GOP is trying to pick another Speaker nominee after Tom Emmer dropped out of the race earlier today. In the first round of closed-door voting, Louisiana’s Mike Johnson garnered the most votes: Since Fleischman received the lowest number […]
Danielle Allen: There are three parties in the House of Representatives and the Democratic Party is the largest
Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen believes that Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the House Democrats, should be Speaker of the House. Why? Because she believes there are actually THREE parties in the House: The Freedom Caucus, the Old Republican Party, […]
Any House member who voted to certify the 2020 election has no real chance of being Speaker of the House in today’s GOP
Earlier today, the GOP caucus chose Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer as its candidate for Speaker of the House. Hours later Emmer dropped out of the running. This leaves five candidates: Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee Mark […]
Steve Scalise wins GOP nomination for House Speaker
Here is CNN: Rep. Steve Scalise has won the House GOP’s nomination for speaker during a secret ballot vote, according to multiple sources familiar. The final vote tally was 113 for Steve Scalise and 99 for Jim Jordan. The threshold […]
A pro-life conservative and a pro-choice liberal find common ground on a post-Dobbs family policy
Today The Washington Post is running a conversation on abortion and family policy between conservative columnist Marc A. Thiessen and liberal columnist Alyssa Rosenberg. We need more discussions like this. Here is a taste of their piece, “We disagree on […]
The “Five Families” of the House Republican Caucus
As a fan of The Godfather, I couldn’t pass up this Washington Post piece by Adrian Blanco, Marianna Sotomayor, and Hannah Dormido. Here is a taste: It all started with a meeting that then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) convened after […]
Should we expand the House of Representatives?
Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen thinks we can solve some of our partisan differences and “renovate our democracy” by expanding the House of Representatives. She makes her case here. A taste: Why this one renovation above all others? Four reasons: […]
“Hey big Jon!”: Biden works the crowd
I love this. (And not only because my brother always greets me by saying, “Hey Big John”). Here is Jennifer Bendery at HuffPost, “The Best Part Of Joe Biden’s SOTU Address Happened After It Was Over“: On Tuesday night, millions […]
Abortion and the State of the Union address
For some, Joe Biden is an accomplice to murder. They believe that the president confirmed this once again in Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address: For others, Biden did not spend enough time on abortion rights. And then there […]