Capitol Hill Updates

  • From Speaker Boehner's Blog: Ways & Means Hearing on IRS Scandal Underscores Need to Simplify Tax Code, Repeal ObamaCare #4Jobs
    Today’s hearing by the House Ways & Means Committee with organizations improperly targeted by the IRS underscores two important parts of the Republican Plan for Economic Growth & Jobs: simplifying the tax code and lowering health care costs by – in part – repealing ObamaCare. You see, the IRS “systematically violated the rights of Americans for almost two years,” said Speaker Boehner (all while its leader was visiting the White House repeatedly – 157 times).  There is growing evidence that the targeting was ordered from Washington, D.C.  And the same agency is the chief...
  • Congressman Forbes: Honoring Our Nation’s Heroes
    Last week, leading up to Memorial Day, the House passed three measures supporting our nation’s veterans:  Improving Job Opportunities for Veterans Act (H.R.1412): To increase opportunities under the Veterans Affairs On-the-Job and Apprenticeship Training programs, available under the current GI Bill, and allow former servicemembers to receive job training outside of a classroom setting.  This bill passed the House 416-0.   American Heroes COLA Act (H.R.570):  To provide a permanent annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to the amounts paid to...
  • Stutzman: "The Supreme Court Failed the American People"
    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Marlin Stutzman issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to hear Secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration vs. Planned Parenthood of Indiana:   “The Supreme Court failed the American people today.  Abortion providers should provide for themselves and not be subsidized by taxpayers.  We will continue to fight on the federal level to make sure Planned Parenthood does not receive one dime of taxpayer money as long as they are performing abortions.”
  • Senate Republicans Ask Supreme Court to Consider Case on President’s Unconstitutional “Recess” Appointments"
    Forty-five Senators File Amicus Brief Urging the Supreme Court to Invalidate Unlawful “Appointments" WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Tuesday that he and 44 of his Senate colleagues filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in a challenge (Noel Canning v. NLRB) to the constitutionality of President Obama’s so-called “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012. The NLRB lost the case in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and has asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. The...
  • Portman Renews Effort To Commemorate FDR's D-Day Prayer with the Nation at the WWII Memorial
    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Thursday renewed his effort to pass legislation that would direct the Interior Secretary to install a plaque or inscription at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring the words that President Franklin D. Roosevelt prayed with the nation on June 6, 1944. “On D-Day, courageous Americans risked and sacrificed their lives to preserve our freedoms and end tyranny abroad,” said Portman. “That morning, President Roosevelt asked our nation to come together to pray for the men overseas. His words brought strength and...
  • Congressman J. Randy Forbes: Above all, this we’ll defend
    Always courageous. Always faithful. Always ready. Above all. This we’ll defend. These mottos represent each of the five service branches of our military. They are at the core of what our men and women in uniform stand for as they serve our nation each day. Behind every one of these mottos is a face ­– a father, a sister, a neighbor, a son – who lives these calls to action in times of physical hardship, camaraderie, sacrifice, surrender, peace, bravery, loyalty, and pain. Behind each of those mottos, triumphs have been met. Hope has been extended. The ultimate sacrifice has been...
  • Statement by House GOP Leaders on Immigration Reform & Border Security
    WASHINGTON, DC – The following statement was issued today by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA): “Our nation’s immigration system is broken – hurting families, our national security, and the economy, which is why reform is included in our plan for economic growth and job creation.  While we applaud the progress made by our Senate colleagues, there are numerous ways in which the House will...
  • “We’ve Got a Big Problem”: Speaker Boehner on White House’s Arrogance of Power
    After another week of the White House shifting, revising and walking-back its account of its involvement in the IRS scandal, the American people deserve a straight answer and Republicans “are going to continue to seek answers until we get to the truth,” Speaker Boehner said at a press conference today.  Here’s more: “Well, today is a new day, which means that we’re sure to get a new story from the White House on the IRS scandal.  First they told us that the White House learned from the news that the IRS was targeting conservative groups, but then we hear the president’s...
  • From Speaker Boehner's Blog: 10 Questions for President Obama About Keeping America Safe and Secure
    President Obama delivers a speech on a new U.S. counter-terrorism strategy this afternoon.  It’s reported this morning that his new policy includes limiting the tools available to eliminate terrorists abroad and a renewed effort to close the terrorist detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The president is said to want to end the war on terror, but this new strategy leaves us with a number of questions about how exactly that will happen and who will win it.  With continuing and evolving terrorist threats around the globe, and in the United States, this is no time...
  • Senate GOP Leader McConnell Warns Against Scandal-Plagued IRS Overseeing Obamacare Compliance
    The potential for waste and abuse would have been there regardless of which agency was put in charge of administering this bloated law. I mean, Obamacare is just massive – about 20,000 pages of regulations already – so waste and abuse is basically unavoidable. But now, we’re going to have Americans worrying that they might be discriminated against too – just for having an opinion? And you know what? We’re not going to be able to tell them not to worry. Because we don’t yet know the truth ourselves.’  WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the...