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116th hse dem pelosi

SEE PELOSI DEMS 312 21

promote primary, hope

most diverse in hist; 2 nat am, 2 muslim,  1 bi

100 women, biggest turnover since watergate

asian pac is

1/6 rioter woman misdemeanor parade tho said put bullet in nancy head fail

2019-20

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/116th_United_States_Congress

The 116th United States Congress was the meeting of the 116th legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2019, and ended on January 3, 2021, during the final two years of Donald Trump's presidency. Senators elected to regular terms in 2014 finished their terms in this Congress, and House seats were apportioned based on the 2010 Census.

In the November 2018 midterm elections, the Democratic Party won a new majority in the House, while the Republican Party increased its majority in the Senate. Consequently, this was the first split Congress since the 113th Congress of 2013–2015, and the first Republican Senate–Democratic House split since the 99th Congress of 1985–1987. This Congress was the youngest incoming class by mean age in the past three cycles[1] and the most demographically diverse ever.

Upon joining the Libertarian Party on May 1, 2020,[2] Justin Amash became the first member of Congress to represent a political party other than the Democrats or the Republicans since Rep. William Carney, who served as a Conservative before switching to the Republican Party in 1985. Before joining the Libertarian Party, Amash had been serving as an independent since his departure from the Republican Party on July 4, 2019.[3] Paul Mitchell also left the Republicans in December 2020, becoming an independent.[4] Neither incumbent ran for re-election.

major bills:

Enacted

February 15, 2019: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019, Pub.L. 116–6 (text) (PDF), H.J.Res. 31

January 16, 2019: Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, Pub.L. 116-1Main article: List of acts of the 116th United States Congress

Proposed (but not enacted)

Main article: List of bills in the 116th United States Congress

https://redgreenandblue.org/2019/02/06/71-republicans-house-panels-looking-climate-change-science-denying-numbskulls-data/

71% of Republicans on House panels looking at climate change are science-denying numbskulls (with data!)

Published on February 6th, 2019

TAGGED: BIG OIL, CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE DENIAL, CONGRESS, GOP WAR ON SCIENCE, LOBBYING

There are two kinds of numbskulls: the ignoramus kind and the calculating kind. The first kind truly believes the climate crisis is a hoax. They swallow the fabrications, smears, and other propaganda that the fossil fuel industry and its purchased media, phony think tanks, and congressional puppets have saturated us with for decades. The second kind don’t privately reject what scientific evidence shows is happening with the Earth’s climate; they just choose to publicly adopt the climate-science-denying stance for whatever economic gains and political advantages it offers them.

by

**Meteor Blades**

With a Democratic majority now running the House, both the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on Energy and Commerce’s environment subcommittee (with the actual words “climate change” newly added to its name) will begin hearings on the climate crisis Wednesday, both at 10 AM ET.

Twenty-nine Republican numbskulls on these two panels will shower us with their usual denier nonsense. And while the 12 other Republicans assigned to those two panels aren’t quite as stubbornly resistant to the overwhelming evidence of climate change, their environmental voting records are so grotesquely destructive that they might as well be deniers, too. They vote to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve; drill everywhere offshore; research “clean coal”; push to keep extracting dirty coal; bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Power Plan and other programs; repeal weatherization funding for low-income people; and on and on, ad nauseam.

Having these Republican representatives officially discussing the climate crisis and questioning witnesses is like appointing people who think the stars are painted on a giant backdrop to run an astronomy conference. None of them has any business even being in the room. There is no sugarcoating their stance: It’s lethal.

And for the past decade they have done everything in their power to block or eviscerate climate-friendly legislation or agency rule-making and to stop any climate hearings from happening at all. Stunning that they think shutting people up about climate change will make it vanish. They won’t be able to shut people up this week, but they will waste time with their own jabber, just as they have used their political clout to waste time in addressing the climate crisis.

[**Related: GOP Rep forces Air Force to DESTROY a new weather satellite. Because climate change.**]

In a moment, we’ll examine the records of these deniers and their Democratic counterparts on the two panels in some detail. Included in this scrutiny are theLeague of Conservation Voters’ lifetime environment scores for each member and information about fossil fuel campaign contributions (coal, oil, and gas) covering the representatives’ entire congressional careers, as calculated by Open Secrets. Deciding whether a representative qualifies as a climate-science denier was achieved by referring to A Guide to the Climate Change Deniers in Congress,the Center for American Progress’s Climate Deniers in the 116th Congress, Mother Jones magazine’s Here Are the Races to Watch if You Care About Global Warming, and my own original research.

But, first, a bit of background.

The Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, chaired by Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko of New York, has yet to announce who it will invite to its hearing. The Natural Resources Committee has invited seven witnesses to testify: North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper; Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker; Kim Cobb, professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Tech; Nadia Nazar, co-founder of the Zero Hour movement and co-organizer of the Youth Climate March; Elizabeth Yeampierre, steering committee co-chair for the Climate Justice Alliance; Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus and an advisory board member of the Climate Mobilization; and Paula DiPerna, a special adviser to CDP North America Inc.

We may also learn this week who will serve on the Select Committee on Climate. That body—pushed into existence by representatives and grassroots advocates who favor a “Green New Deal” to accelerate the transformation of the country’s energy, transportation, and agriculture systems—will be chaired by Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida. What its role amid committee turf battles will turn out to be is anyone’s guess. It was gutted in the process of its creation by being barred from issuing subpoenas or drafting legislation, something that hadn’t hampered its predecessor’s work before the Republicans demolished it eight years ago.

How the select committee’s eventual hearings may differ from those of other committees and subcommittees is uncertain. But one thing you can be sure of is that Republican leaders will pack its slots on the select committee with still more deniers. Not a difficult task, since more than 100 of  them taint the House with their idiocy. The more relevant question is how many of the select committee’s Democrats will prove to be climate hawks and climate owls.

THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Previously known as the Subcommittee on Environment and Economy, the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change has 22 voting members—9 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Half served on the subcommittee in the previous Congress.

One good omen: No Democrat named to the panel challenges the consensus of climatologists that human activity is the chief cause of the accelerating changes threatening to upend civilization, wipe out vast numbers of species on land and sea, and generate titanic destructive forces across every continent. Two definite climate hawks, Rep. Nanette Barragán of California and Rep. Don McEachin of Virginia, are new to the subcommittee, the latter being a vigorous congressional advocate of environmental justice.

The Democrats’ scores are encouraging. It is, however, important to note that positive LCV scores are only one measure of environmental soundness and no guarantee that a member will initiate or stand up for the type of climate policies so desperately needed. Too many Democrats have been footdraggers on climate change. And in practical terms, delay is denial. Will they finally realize that climate disaster isn’t going to wait until the 22nd century to arrive?The League of Conservation Voters scores members of Congress based on how they have voted on a selection of two or three dozen environmental bills and resolutions each year. All but one of the subcommittee’s 13 Democrats have lifetime LCV scores in the mid-to-high 90th percentile, with the only outlier rating a very respectable 89 percent. On the other side, the highest LCV score for subcommittee Republicans is a pitiful 6 percent, except for a non-voting ex officio member who rates 9 percent.

Heading up the subcommittee is ChairmanPaul Tonko, who serves New York’s 20th Congressional District (LCVlifetime score:97%; career fossil fuel campaign contributions:$44,625). Tonko is an aggressive environmental advocate who has introduced or co-sponsored numerous climate- and energy-related bills since he was first elected to Congress a decade ago. It’s true that some of the fiercest climate hawks don’t think he’s gone far enough. For example, many of them oppose the cap-and-trade system he and other environmental advocates favor as the wrong approach at this late date to control pollution emissions. There’s no question, however, that Tonko has been an avid proponentof actions that would ameliorate or eliminate at least some of the negative impacts of climate change.

I ran for Congress in 2008 because our nation did not have a clear energy policy. Our nation and our economy has everything to gain by embracing cleaner fuels and making energy efficiency our fuel of choice. In Congress, I fight against the notion that climate deniers support that we must choose between a green environment and a robust economy. It’s a false choice. I will continue to work to give American businesses the resources they need to tap into the ‘green collar’ job markets of the future and make our nation a global leader on protecting the environment and making it more sustainable for generations to come.

Together with Democrats Rep. Elizabeth Esty and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Tonko introduced the U.S. Green Bank Act of 2017 two years ago: “State Green Banks are becoming increasingly popular as state and local economies work to meet the growing demand for clean energy and energy efficiency financing,” said Tonko at the time. “Our New York Green Bank is a leader in this field and has already delivered more than $350 million to more than two dozen projects in our state. Those projects are expected to generate more than $1 billion combined, helping us advance a more globally competitive, clean energy economy.”

Six states have now established financing institutions of this kind.

The ranking Republican member of the subcommittee, previously its chairman, is John Shimkus (IL-15) (LCVlifetime score: 6%; career fossil fuel campaign donations: $858,561; ranked No. 18 in oil and gas contributions to House candidates in the 2018 campaign). DENIER: While he concedes that the climate is changing, he has adopted the latest iteration of science denial by saying that this is not happening because of humans: “The Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a Flood. I do believe that God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.”

Here’s a brief look at at the rest of the subcommittee members, starting with the Republicans.

Republicans:

Democrats

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE

Republicans

Greg Walden: (OR-02) Ranking member of committee. (LCVlifetime score: 9%,career fossil fuel campaign contributions: $828,650.) Lousy climate-related voting record.“The emails raise a number of serious questions concerning the transparency and integrity of of U.S.-supported climate research going back more than 10 years.”

Walden was a co-sponsor of the 2011 Energy Tax Prevention Act to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Voted in support of S.J. Res. 24, a “resolution of disapproval” under the Congressional Review Act that would nullify the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan—the first nationwide limit on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, and key climate change policy. He may be less direct in dismissing climate change, but his foot-dragging and obfuscation on the issue are no less threatening to the planet. He has voted against clean energy research funding and against acknowledging that climate change is largely human-caused.

Democrats

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES

Democrats

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources. The committee will begin its month of climate hearings Wednesday morning.

The following two members can introduce legislation and vote in committee but not in the full House. They thus have no LCV scores.

Republicans

The following  two members can introduce legislation and vote in committee but not in the full House. They thus have no LCV scores.

random 12 21

Right Wing Round-Up: Pelosi’s Fake Mansion

Kyle MantylaBy Kyle Mantyla | November 30, 2021 5:32 pm

Leia Idliby @ Mediaite: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace Throw Down in Brutal Twitter Feud Over Boebert’s Racist Comments.

Cristina Cabrera @ Talking Points Memo: Another Video Shows Boebert Hurling Islamophobic Slurs At Omar Back In September.

Justin Baragona @ The Daily Beast: Fox Nation Host Compares Fauci to Nazi ‘Angel of Death’: ‘People All Across the World Are Saying This.’

Media Matters: Tucker Carlson calls Dr. Fauci “an even shorter version of Benito Mussolini.”

Jim Swift @ The Bulwark: Conservative Media Makes Up a Fake Florida Mansion for Nancy Pelosi.

Hemant Mehta @ Friendly Atheist: Evangelist: Your Circumcised Tithes Will Protect Your Family.

Tags: Lara LoganLauren BoebertMarjorie Taylor GreeneRobin BullockTucker CarlsonRound-Up

rww 921

several Republican members of Congress, North Carolina state legislators, various candidates for office, and radical religious-right activists gathered at Temple Baptist Church in Mount Airy, North Carolina, last weekend for the North Carolina Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Salt & Light Conference.”

Among the politicians in attendance was Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who used his time in front of his home state crowd to declare that he is waging a “spiritual battle” in the supposedly “evil and vile” Washington, D.C., against people like Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her “cold, evil eyes.”

“I believe that the power of prayer will save this country in the coming decades,” Cawthornsaid. “When I’m in Washington, D.C., I know a lot of you consider the place to be evil and vile, and I am here to tell you with first-hand knowledge, it is evil and vile. But I will tell you when I’m there, I don’t feel an overwhelming sense ofdarkness as if the devilhas complete dominion of that area because I feel a spiritual battle going on on Capitol Hill. And patriots like all of you in this room, on your knees, praying that we have the cover within the spiritual fight is what it will take to save this country.”

“I have to look Nancy Pelosi in her cold, evil eyes every single day,” he continued. “She just passed a bill yesterday trying to say that we can abort babies on demand all the way up until right before the day of birth. When we hear this, when we hear the fact that if a baby comes through a botched abortion alive, sitting there on the table, they then still have the right to murder that child, we realize that when I quip and say, ‘I look her in her cold, evil eyes,’ it’s not a joke. These people hate us.”

“I will tell you, the only way that we take our country back is when strong, God-fearing patriots decide it is time for us to stand up and say, ‘No’ to your tyranny,”Cawthorn declared. “It is time for the American Christian church to come out of the shadows, to say no longer are we going to allow our culture to be determined by people who hate the things that we believe in. We are going to stand valiantly for God’s incredible, inerrant truths that predate any version of government. Because my friends, if we lose this country today, if we bend the knee to the Democrats today, our country will be lost forever, and our children will never know what freedom is. It’s our duty to stand up. I encourage you—let us stand united as men and women of faith to fight for our country!”

dems made repeat concessions, gave gop = eg subpoena power, NP dumps 2 worst, not qual, mcc sez get rid on NP as spkr [refers to her only by last name, demon term?]

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/mccarthy-pelosi/

1/6 comm

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/social-media-explodes-with-reactions-to-kevins-mccarthys-jan-6-committee-picks/

before House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made his selections for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's select committee on the January 6 insurrection, Democrats on Capitol Hill were hoping to God that he wouldn't have the bad taste to pick the buffoonish Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. But sure enough, Jordan is one of the five House Republicans McCarthy has picked — along with Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois and Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas. Jordan has been an unapologetic promoter of the Big Lie, the false and debunked conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump because of widespread voter fraud. 

:{

}:

And Jordan, Nehls and Banks all voted against certifying now-President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory on January 6, although Davis and Armstrong were among the House Republicans who did vote to certify Biden's win.

Twitter has been exploding with reactions to McCarthy's picks. Journalist Seth Abramson devoted an entire thread to the subject:...

pelosi is satan" insurr sign

===

==

Pelosi COS

https://news.ucsc.edu/2021/04/distinguished-alumni-terri-mccullough.html

this year’s Alumni Week will feature a virtual fireside chat with Terri McCullough, an Oakes '91 politics alumna who is now chief of staff to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Throughout her career, McCullough has been an advocate for women’s leadership at the highest levels. She’ll join Professor Chris Benner, director of the UC Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation, for a conversation on April 24th, from 5:30–7 p.m.

McCullough will also be presented with the Social Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award. This event will be held in memory of Gabe Zimmerman (Stevenson ‘02, sociology). Registration is free and open to the public. 

Previously, McCullough connected with the UC Santa Cruz news team to discuss her career, sources of inspiration, and Banana Slug pride. 

A calling for public service

Terri McCullough vividly remembers the moment she knew she had to change careers.

"I was working for a software company in Santa Cruz, and we were all listening to the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings," she said, referring to Anita Hill's galvanizing 1991 testimony that the Supreme Court nominee had sexually harassed her years earlier. "I was stunned that no one on the committee was listening to a woman as intelligent, respected, brave—as courageous—as Professor Anita Hill."

McCullough recalls the make-up of the Senate committee. "I felt so strongly that I wanted to find a way to ensure there were a lot of different faces at those seats of power. It was a revelatory moment."

That's when McCullough dedicated herself to changing the system by getting more women at the table. Over her career, she has worked for and with some of the most influential women in the country, including Hillary Clinton, Cecile Richards, Tory Burch, and Anna Deavere Smith. 

But it all began with California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, with whom she interned in 1991.She moved up to serve as a legislative assistant in Pelosi's Washington D.C. office, then was an adviser in her outreach office, andfinally ran Pelosi's personal office until 2011. "I knew I wanted to work for a woman in Congress," said McCullough. "She has been amazing from the time I met her."

Pelosi, now Speaker of the House of Representatives, reached out to McCullough to return to the Hill as chief of staff, making McCullough the first woman to serve in that role in a paid, full-time capacity. Her first day on the job was March 25, 2019. No two days since have been the same.

....

The opportunity to support Pelosi—McCullough succeeds Daniel Weiss (Rachel Carson College '85, sociology),another UC Santa Cruz alum and longtime legislative staffer, who led Pelosi's team during the congresswoman's effort to win back the House in November 2018—necessitated her family's move from New York City back to the nation's capital. She and her husband, political consultant Howard Wolfson, have a daughter and son.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/false-flag-conspiracy-theory/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-facebook-2018-parkland-school-shooting-was  false flag

In a previously unreported interaction, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) agreed with a 2018 Facebook comment that the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was actually a “false flag” planned event.

In a separate Facebook post in 2018, Greene also claimed: “I am toldthat Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that ‘we need another school shooting’ in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control.”

top Republican's pathetic reply to Nancy Pelosi shows how the GOP got caught in her trap

Cody Fenwick

December 24, 2020

Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy wrote a letter to his colleagues on Wednesday trying to outmaneuver Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the ongoing fight over the omnibus government spending bill. But his attempt to counter the speaker's moves appear unlikely...

720 an portland

...Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Wednesday led 116 of his colleagues in a letter (pdf) demanding Barr and Wolf answer their questions on the ongoing Portland deployment and any planned expansion of federal law enforcement programs in U.S. cities.

“This is not legitimate law enforcement under our Constitution but a shocking slide into authoritarianism and police state tactics,” the letter reads, adding that “these new tactics are an outrageous assault on the liberties of the people and the police powers and political sovereignty of the states.”...

icn 220

congressional Democrats Join the Debate Over Plastics’ Booming Future

:{BY: JAMES BRUGGERS

A new bill would impose a three-year moratorium on new plant construction in parts of Appalachia and the Gulf Coast. Read More}:

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(tears up sotu text, manifesto of misinformation; wore white; HR3 chant drug bill

trump uses National Prayer Breakfast to slam Pelosi for praying for him

Travis Gettys / Raw Story

President Donald Trump attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Mitt Romney for justifying their impeachment actions on religious grounds.

==

democrats chant in support of House drug pricing bill during ...

2 days ago - signature drug pricing bill during President Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday. ... WATCH: Democrats chant "HR 3," referencing bill on drug prices, in response to President Trump's call for legislation to lower ...

an 1/20

minimum wage has momentum in the states and the House — but Republicans stand in the way

Laura Clawson / Daily Kos

==

impeach withhold

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/pelosi-is-crushing-mcconnell-step-by-strategic-step

USMC act

CORP COURTS KILLED!

kpfa public citizen house vote 12/19/19

house dems forced fix of nafta, djt made it worse. generic drugs [// china? there is no deal yet]

Bob did not do right on environ and labor for right reasons, but b/c of US sovereignty;

https://theintercept.com/2019/12/02/nancy-pelosi-usmca-pro-act-unions/

it's not great dan

https://theintercept.com/2019/12/03/wall-street-house-democrats-financial-regulations-cftc/

dodd frank achilles heel

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https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/how-mitch-mcconnells-legislative-graveyard-is-leaving-veterans-behind/

no lnx

How Mitch McConnell’s legislative graveyard is leaving veterans behind

Written by Joan McCarter / Daily Kos November 11, 2019

On this Veterans Day, here’s a reminder from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about recognizing the service of the men and women in our military. “On Veterans Day, a grateful nation gives thanks for the heroism and indomitable spirit of the 22 million veterans who have fought for freedom around the world and strengthened our democracy here at home,” she writes.

In recognization of that service, House Committees have “held 32 hearings and passed 25 bipartisan bills on the Floor, and are now advancing robust legislation that provides equity for women veterans accessing VA,” she points out. “Democrats have worked across the aisle to secure historic funding levels for VA’s mental health and suicide prevention initiatives, passed fixes to end unjust and unfair taxes on military families and expanded benefits for Blue Water Navy Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.”

A total of 56 House bills have passed that have addressed veterans either as a focus or peripherally. But of the 25 Pelosi discusses, none have passed in the Senate, aka Moscow Mitch McConnell’s graveyard. Those include:

H.R. 95: Homeless Veteran Families Act, passed on October 15, with a 28% chance of being enacted;

H.R. 2045: To establish in the Department the Veterans Economic Opportunity and Transition Administration, passed on May 21, with a 2% chance of being enacted;

H.R. 1812, to furnish Vet Center readjustment counseling and related mental health services to certain individuals, passed on May 21, with a 2% chance of being enacted;

H.R. 2333: Support for Suicide Prevention Coordinators Act, passed on May 21, with a 2% chance of being enacted;

H.R. 2372: Veterans’ Care Quality Transparency Act, passed on May 21, with a 2% chance of being enacted.

Since the Senate hasn’t passed any of those bills, McConnell’s remarks marking this day are limited to the anodyne: “The Senate will not be in session on Monday, as we honor Veterans Day. But I know that each of our members will be remembering and giving thanks for all veterans, and for those brave men and women serving today,” he said on the floor last week.

From Moscow Mitch, there’s nothing but lip service to America’s veterans.

==

icn

House Votes to Block Drilling in Arctic Wildlife Refuge as Clock Ticks Toward First Lease Sale

BY: SABRINA SHANKMAN

The effort to protect one of the nation’s last wild places from drilling still faces major hurdles. It may take legal action to stop Trump's lease sale.
Read More

better: a new House bill would guarantee reporter access to federal scientists

5/19

The House passed the Interior-EPA spending bill out of committee and it's now barreling toward a floor vote. This could be the biggest environmental vote this year.

But now, we're hearing that Republicans will attempt to jam the bill with awful anti-environment riders.

As it currently stands, the Interior-Environment bill could be the biggest environmental vote of the year. But we HAVE to swing the vote our way and make sure no anti-environment riders make it in.

Our policy team is on Capitol Hill fighting back and LCV members are flooding House offices with calls. We need your help.

If we do nothing now, funding for the EPA's efforts to hold polluters accountable could be slashed. Clean water funding could be decimated. Funding for America's top parks program could be eliminated. Endangered wildlife protections could be gutted. Trump's cronies in the House will pull every maneuver possible to torpedo this bill.

Right now, anti-environment members of the House think they will get away with this. Last year, there were at least 80 amendments to this bill. We cannot sit by quietly and let anti-environment riders into the bill, Padraic.

But you should also know that Trump and GOP leaders are just getting started — we're expecting a massive effort to gut more environmental protections this summer. We need to keep the pressure on Congress to stop these attacks and pass a clean and pro-environment budget bil

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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/445083-house-panel-votes-to-boost-interior-epa-budget-by-17b

A  key House committee on Wednesday advanced the 2020 budgets for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), voting to increase their funding by $1.73 billion over last year.

The Democratic-led House Appropriations Committeevoted 30-21 along party lines to push forward $37.28 billion in funds for the two agencies. It was an increase of $7.24 billion over President Trump’s 2020 requests, which included deep proposed cuts for both agencies.

“This Interior-Environment funding bill rejects cuts proposed by the Trump administration that would have put the interests of polluters over people,” said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), who chairs the subcommittee with jurisdiction over interior and the environment.

Trump originally proposed gutting the EPA’s budget by 31 percent and cutting Interior's by 14 percent. It was the third year in a row that the White House had proposed dramatic cuts to both departments, which appropriators have resoundingly rejected.

The president and some conservative Republican lawmakers have championed cuts to several departments, arguing they are necessary to rein in spending and reduce the national debt, which stands at $22 trillion.

Republicans on the committee complained that Democrats were moving ahead with bills while the House, Senate and White House have not yet agreed to overall spending levels, despite some progress in a Tuesday meeting.

“No doubt there are critical programs in this legislation that need more funding, but that does not give the Federal Government the right to borrow and spend without any over-arching plan for fiscal responsibility,” said Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), the interior and environment subcommittee’s ranking member.

Democratic lawmakers have blasted the White House’s budget requests, arguing the billions in proposed cuts would harm the departments’ ability to run efficiently and complete their public health and environmental mandates.

The committee’s appropriations bill instead aims to increase the EPA’s budget by more than $700 million, to $9.5 billion, compared to the bill passed last year by Congress.

Democratic lawmakers also removed nearly all the riders added in past years by Republicans that aimed to block Obama-era environmental regulations. In addition, they added language to the bills that would limit oil and gas drilling on public land.

Lines in the bill could also make it harder for the government to engage in new oil and gas lease sales. A part of the bill would deny fossil fuel leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) if bidding doesn't generate at least $500 million, half of the expected revenue. A GOP amendment to strip out the provisions was voted down.

Another measure Democrats floated in the bill would block any efforts to expand offshore drilling in the Atlantic and elsewhere until Interior makes public a final comprehensive plan. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt recently told Congress the draft plan is on hold for an indeterminate amount of time following ongoing legal challenges to ANWR drilling.

Additional amendments dealing with wild horses and sage grouse were not adopted.

The Interior portion of the bill also flew in the face of Trump’s budget request, which called for eliminating arts programs such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The bill increased funding for both by $12.5 million, bringing their budgets to $167.5 million apiece.

It also upped programs such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, for which Trump had requested funding cuts.

The Interior portion of the bill allocated funding for ecological services, land management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, and came out $2.4 billion above Trump’s request.

The bill is the eight of 12 appropriation bills that the committee has sent to the full House, which is expected to take them up in June. Two more bills are scheduled to advance through subcommittee this week.

The Senate has refrained from releasing appropriations bills until an agreement is reached on spending caps.

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Right-wing outlets spread bogus video of Nancy Pelosi on social media to say she’s drunk

Right-wing groups are circulating deceiving videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s…

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519

Pro-environment members in the House have just defied Trump in a major way by introducing a budget that would restore funding for environmental programs at EPA and Interior Department — programs that Trump has sought to cut over and over since he took office. 

The bill has just been passed out of subcommittee — it's expected to be in full committee this week and on the floor of the House soon.

==

HR 1

**House Passes Historic Anti-Corruption and Democracy Reform Legislation**

March 8, 2019 Press Release

Today, after Zoe Lofgren managed floor debate for three days, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, the For the People Act, a sweeping reform bill to clean up corruption in Washington, make it easier to vote, and give every day Americans more power in our democracy by a 234 – 193 vote.

Summary:

H.R. 1 makes critical reforms across three key areas:
Voting Rights
Campaign Finance

Ethics and Accountability

For more information about H.R. 1 see here.

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5/19 house bill pro paris

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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/27/what-climate-leadership-looks-democrats-bill-would-stop-trump-ditching-paris-accord

House Democrats Wednesday introduced legislation to bar President Donald Trump from ditching the Paris climate accord and force the White House to submit a plan to slash carbon emissions, drawing praise from environmental groups.

"Donald Trump's attempt to withdraw the United States from this landmark agreement is one of his most egregious steps to weaken our country's international standing." 

—Michael Brune, Sierra Club

"The Climate Action Now Act sends a powerful message to the rest of the world that when it comes to climate change and the Paris agreement, President Trump is out of step with the strong majority of Americans who want the U.S. to be a global leader, not a rogue nation," Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement.

The bill (pdf), also known as H.R. 9, comes nearly two years after Trump sparked global outrage by declaring his intent to withdraw from the Paris deal. Under the terms of the agreement, the earliest possible withdrawal date is November 4, 2020.

If passed, the Democrats' legislation would block Trump from using federal funds to pull the U.S. from the Paris deal and require the president to develop a plan to meet the accord's emissions targets.

The bill was unveiled at a press conference Wednesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), and other House Democrats.

...

https://thinkprogress.org/republicans-house-climate-change-committee-action-green-new-deal-graves-mcconnell-3e29225decee/

six Republicans named to a House select committee meant to address the mounting threat of climate change range in ideology and reflect the larger Republican Party’s shifting approach to discussing and addressing global warming.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced Thursday that Republican Reps. Garret Graves (LA), Gary Palmer (AL), Kelly Armstrong (ND), Carol Miller (WV), Morgan Griffith (VA), and Buddy Carter (GA) will all serve on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

The lawmakers more broadly reflect a deeply conservative approach to climate change. Many are from states dependent on fossil fuels and are likely to complicate the committee’s work, which has already been curtailed by House leadership. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) formed the committee in January but declined to give the group legislative authority or subpoena power — limiting their ability to actually effect change.

But the selection also offers some surprises. Graves, who will lead the Republican coalition, accepts the science behind climate change and has cited the issue as a place where he breaks with many members of his party. While Graves has only a 3 percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), meaning his environmental voting record is relatively weak, he has proven more willing to engage on climate action than many other Republicans.

His state, Louisiana, is an oil and gas hub. But it is also deeply vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.Louisiana’s coastline is sinking under the Gulf of Mexico at a rapid rate,losing around a football field’s worth of land an hour as sea level rise lashes the coast. Devastating hurricanes like Katrina in 2005 have also scarred the state, which will be among those hit first and worst amid the heightening toll of global warming.

Graves’ mainstream climate views are in line with the threat to his constituents and the lawmaker has proven open to measured action. When Graves chaired the Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, he supported programs emphasizing climate adaption and mitigation. He also formerly managed the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, created in the aftermath of Katrina to assist with coastal restoration and hurricane protection.

That past track record, however, doesn’t fully counter Graves’ conservative credentials. A study in contradictions, the Louisiana Republican has seen support from organizations like Environmental Defense Fund, while also receiving the backing of the ultra-conservative Republican mega-donor Koch brothers.

And according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, Graves also received $210,150 from oil and gas donors in 2018 alone.

As ‘Green New Deal’ talk gains traction, lawmakers who deny climate change are on the decline

Some of Graves’ peers on the climate change committee also have strong support from fossil fuel interests. Armstrong, of drilling hub North Dakota, received $217,751 from the oil and gas industry in 2018.

By contrast, the nine Democratic members of the committee took a combined $198,000.

And apart from Graves, all Republican members of the committee have expressed a degree of skepticism about climate change, including Alabama’s Palmer who has twice sought to keep the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gases.

“The EPA has repeatedly claimed fighting climate change as justification for crafting onerous regulations that limit carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other compounds that are both essentially harmless and in fact required for life to flourish,” the congressman claimed in 2015.

Emerging trends, however, would suggest that it is Graves and not Palmer who offers an indicator of where the Republican Party may be moving on climate change. Recent polling shows that the majority of Americans believe in climate change and are concerned about its impacts. That has been compounded new scientific assessments, like the 2018 National Climate Assessment (NCA) and a dire U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released last fall. Both reports warned that climate impacts are playing out now with dwindling time to avert heightened catastrophe.

Lawmakers who express skepticism or outright deny climate change, meanwhile, are on the decline. That trend comes as some Democrats embrace radical climate action. Three weeks ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the Green New Deal resolution, a blueprint for rapidly decarbonizing the U.S. economy in roughly a decade. Reactions to the proposal have varied dramatically even among Democrats — almost 90 House lawmakers and all Democratic 2020 presidential contenders in the Senate have signed on to the resolution, but many remain skeptical.

Republicans, meanwhile, have attacked the resolution as “socialism” and argued it would decimate sectors of the U.S. economy, including agriculture. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently pledged to hold a vote on the Green New Deal resolution, in an effort to fracture unity among Senate Democrats. But that effort hit a stumbling block as Democrats rallied behind a unity resolution acknowledging climate change and calling for congressional action to address the issue.

Other Republicans, meanwhile, are moving away from McConnell, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who broke ranks this week to oppose the appointment of EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler over his rollbacks of environmental regulations.

Others, like Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), have acknowledged climate change as its impacts take an increasing toll on their states. More moderate Republicans are also increasingly embracing limited climate action responses like carbon pricing.

This shift toward a potentially more moderate take on climate change is reflected in the choice of Graves, but other omissions show Republicans are far from unified on even incremental climate action. Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL), arguably the Republican most committed to addressing climate change in the House, failed to make the cut for the climate committee.

And while he called Graves a “pretty reasonable guy,” Rooney told reporters on Thursday that his own exclusion from the committee speaks to a divide between his climate politics and Republican leadership.

“It shows they are not quite where I am yet,” said Rooney, “and it makes me feel really good about being where I am.”

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NOTE, this is days after coast guard mass shooter

https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/nra-magazine-features-target-practice-headline-next-to-photo-of-nancy-pelosi-and-victims-of-gun-violence/

NRA is facing widespread condemnation after its latest magazine issue hit mailboxes, with a feature article titled “Target Practice” next to a large glossy color photo of Nancy Pelosi with House Democrats standing behind her.As if that weren’t bad enough, the photo was taken when Speaker Pelosi and her Democratic co-sponsors were announcing the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019. Standing behind Pelosi in the photo is Rep. Lucy McBath, whose 17-year-old son, Jordan, was gunned down at a Jacksonville gas station when 45-year-old Michael David Dunn pulled up next to the car Jordan was in with his friends and fired on the teens because he felt their music was too loud; and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011 during an assassination attempt by Jared Lee Loughner, whose murder spree that day killed six and wounded 18 others.

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The article was written by Chris Cox, the chief lobbyist of the NRA. He described Nancy Pelosi as the “arch anti-gunner.” See if you can pick up on the problem with how he describes other participants at the press conference.

Giffords was in attendance as Pelosi and Thompson introduced H.R. 8, along with other fixtures of the anti-gun cause, including Josh Horowitz, David Hogg, Lucy McBath and Shannon Watts.

Two of those “anti-gun” fixtures had their lives turned upside down by gun violence.

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post was the first to share the image on Twitter, and the reaction was swift. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said it seemed clear the NRA “knew what they were doing” with this outrageous pairing. Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jamie, was murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, called it an “incitement of violence.”

...[pix]

The most important thing we must do to save our democracy is get big money out of politics. It’s a prerequisite to accomplishing everything else.

Today, big money continues to corrupt American politics – creating a vicious cycle that funnels more wealth and power to those at the top and eroding our democracy.

In the 2018 midterm elections, wealthy donors and Super-PACs poured millions into the campaigns of the same lawmakers who voted to pass the 2017 tax cuts, which gave them huge windfalls.

Consider conservative donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, whose casino business received an estimated $700 million windfall, thanks to Trump and Republicans’ tax cuts. The couple then used some of this extra cash to plow more than $113 million dollars into the 2018 election, breaking the record for political contributions by a single household.[vid]

That’s not a bad return on investment – for them.  All told, almost 40 percent of total contributions in the 2018 midterms came from people who donated $10,000 or more. Yet these mega-donors comprise a tiny 0.01 percent of the U.S. population.

It’s a worsening vicious cycle: Lawmakers cut taxes and slash regulations for their wealthy campaign donors. Mega-donors and corporations funnel some of that money back into our political system to keep their lackeys in power. Politicians then propose another round of tax cuts, subsidies or bailouts to secure even more donations.

If this isn’t corruption, I don’t know what is. It also breeds cynicism in our democracy. The game seems rigged because it is.  A 2015 poll found that the majority of Americans say lawmakers are corrupt, out of touch with their constituents, and beholden to special interests.

In the 2018 midterms, Americans demanded an end to the corruption. And there are signs lawmakers are finally getting message.House Democrats’ first piece of legislation aims to end the big-money takeover.

We must end this vicious cycle in order to reclaim our democracy. We must get big money out of politics. Now.

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~ baby jail act

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https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/democrats-in-congress-unveil-ambitious-plan-to-fix-our-election-system/

Let the Ppl Vote Act

new transparency bill, must have 72 hrs to read bill; congress not on corp bds.