Congress

This morning, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee took the unprecedented action of advancing the confirmation of President Trump’s controversial Supreme Court nominee just days before an election he is likely to lose and in which their own Senate majority is at risk. t.

With two weeks left before Election Day and millions of Americans already casting their ballots, President Donald Trump still has not indicated what his policy agenda would be for a second term.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I'm glad to be with you today, and I thank Mr. [Tom] Cole as well. I think the House is advantaged by the new relationship that you and Tom Cole as the Ranking Member have, and the fact that both of you care about the institution.

I join in thanking Tom Wickham for his service as House Parliamentarian. He is a true expert on House rules and Parliamentary procedure; he always gives his advice thoughtfully, and often with equal parts historical background and humor.

In yet another example of this President’s willful ignorance of our Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rule of law, the General Accountability Office (GAO) has now confirmed that his appointments of Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and senior department official Ken Cuccinelli were illegal.

WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) joined MSNBC’s Chris Jansing this afternoon to discuss the insufficient Republican response to the coronavirus pandemic and the urgent need for relief for American families.  Below are excerpts from his interview and a link to the video:
 

oday, a federal court affirmed what was already clear from our Constitution: the House has the right to determine its own rules, including the allowance of proxy voting as an emergency measure during this pandemic.

WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) sent a letter to the Director of the House Office of Employee Assistance (OEA) expressing his gratitude for the support and counseling the office provides to House staff during the stressful COVID-19 pandemic. 

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) joined CNN’s “New Day” this morning to discuss the life and legacy of his dear friend Rep. John Lewis, the urgent need to provide coronavirus relief to the American people, and the insufficient GOP proposal that was released yesterday. 

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairwoman Lowey. Not only for her tireless work on this minibus, but for all her years of extraordinary service on the Appropriations Committee and in this House. The House is getting its work done for the people and passing these appropriations bills well in advance of the end of the fiscal year.
 

Today’s hearing by the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade is important to understanding not only the effects of COVID-19 on supply chains but also on the long-term challenges facing American manufacturing and economic growth. 

Madam Speaker, the Capitol building is a sacred space for American democracy. It is where we write our laws, inaugurate our presidents, and say a somber farewell to great Americans who earned our respect, like Dwight Eisenhower and Rosa Parks. We cannot erase the difficult history and painful truth that this temple to liberty was built using the labor of enslaved people. But we can do everything in our power to ensure that how we use the Capitol today reflects our commitment to equality and justice for all.

good morning. Today will be a historic day in the Congress of the United States, and in our country. Today, the House is taking a long-overdue and historic step to ensure that individuals we honor in our Capitol represent our nation’s highest ideals and not the worst in its history.

This memorandum is reprehensible, ignoring the Constitution’s clear directive that ‘the whole number of persons in each state’ be counted. 

Madam Speaker, I have walked with John Lewis at least fifteen times across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where with courage and commitment he made a seminal difference in the life of our country. Many of us walked with him. As we followed in John Lewis’s footsteps, I suspect my colleagues saw, as I did, that the man we knew to be a veteran legislator and person of wisdom and experience still carried in his heart the same energy, optimism, and determined spirit that he bore in his youth.

“There is a hole in the heart of America today. We, and the world, have lost a paragon of faith: in God, in his country, and in humankind – we were all his brothers and sisters. God is welcoming home one of his greatest disciples of love, and peace, and forgiveness, and reconciliation, and of hope, and of unlimited courage born of conviction and faith.
 

With COVID-19 infections continuing to surge in many states, it is critical that the House keep taking the steps necessary to engage in the people’s business safely and in a way that does not exacerbate this crisis.  That’s why we passed H. Res. 965, which provided for House committees to meet virtually using secure, remote technologies as well as for proxy voting through a system that is verifiable and safe. 

I was proud to support Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s resolution today marking the observance of Juneteenth on June 19, 2020.  I applaud her efforts to recognize Juneteenth in the House and make it a federal holiday – an effort I support. 

The Speaker and I have agreed on that for a long period of time: that the District of Columbia citizens were not being treated fairly.

This Republican lawsuit is about one thing only: forcing the House to stop doing its job and prevent it from helping the American people get through this crisis. 

Madam Speaker, to date, more than 85,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and that number continues to grow. More than 36 million Americans have applied for unemployment insurance over the past eight weeks, which is more than one in every five American workers.

Madam Speaker, I want to remind us today of President Lincoln’s words to Congress. He said: ‘the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.’ So it is today.