Notices by GovTrack.us (govtrack@mastodon.social)

A lot of know-it-alls are tooting on the birdsite that Trump can dissolve USAID, the foreign assistance organization. But, as per usual, that's false.

USAID is created by statute. Its funding is directed by statute. It can only be reorganized after notice to Congress (which Trump did in his first term) and it cannot be legally dissolved without a law passed by Congress.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12500

Members of Congress inexplicably blindly obeying Elon Musk, a person with no government position or authority, killed funding for research into childhood cancer & funding for poor children to access better care (among many, many other things).
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/elon-musk-killed-budget-deal-children-cancer-funding-collateral-damage

The House Ethics Committee met today and a majority did not agree to release the report. That means that no Republicans voted to release it because the committee is evenly split between the parties. It’s unclear whether this result applies only to the public or the public and the Senate.

Can't help but wonder how many Republican legislators --- was it more than Sen. Cruz? --- unwittingly participated in this Russian influence operation. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/internets-popular-trump-pundits-ended-paid-messengers-russian-propagan-rcna169803

We've been getting a steady stream of vile and antisemitic emails from Trump supporters all day long, mostly since Elon Musk tweeted about us and far-right media invented a conspiracy theory about us. At the same time Trump himself is citing our statistics (that's not a complaint, I just mean he thinks we're credible) and a mere few days ago Senate Republicans called us nonpartisan (again, glad to know they think we're credible). It's unhinged.

Big legislative day today, though maybe not in the way you'd think. The Supreme Court has overturned a position they've held since 1984 that could mean changes to how Congress writes bills. https://www.govtrack.us/posts/427/2024-06-28_checks-and-balances

We've updated our Misconduct Database to reflect a new investigation into Rep. Hunt (R-TX38), updates on Reps. Jackson (R-TX13) and Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL20) and the start of our annual link check. We're starting at the bottom because a source we've relied on for several years for the oldest cases, a Century of Lawmaking from the Library of Congress, is in transition. If there's something you need asap, let us know & we'll update it out of the planned order. https://www.govtrack.us/misconduct

We Asked Republican Senators About Pride Month. It Got Awkward. | The New Republic
https://newrepublic.com/article/182558/republican-senators-pride-month

S.Con.Res. 36 by Sen. Brian Schatz [D-HI] was agreed to yesterday. A concurrent resolution authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for an event to celebrate the birthday of King Kamehameha I. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/sconres36 🏛️

On the one hand, the Supreme Court has not been favorable, overall, to Trump's reelection. In 2020, they threw out a case brought by Republicans to have four Democratic states ejected from the election, for example.

But on the other hand, now with two justices' wives taking public actions to support Trump's reelection, it's really hard to take the idea of impartiality seriously. If you're the spouse of a justice, and if you took SCOTUS's work seriously, you'd sit it out. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html

Ah. Well then. One of the first things the House will do after its return is send the articles of impeachment (from 2/13!) for Sec. Mayorkas to the the Senate on 4/10. By the end of the next day, the Senate will have sworn in the Senators as jurors and then take a vote on what they’re actually going to do on this obviously very urgent issue. He will not be convicted bc it requires 2/3 vote, but the Senate may hold a trial anyway. Mayorkas has said he will not resign.

As the Ukraine/border enforcement bill remains both a wave and a particle, some hints about the border provisions have trickled out. It would appear the bill would significantly increase a President's ability to deport and decrease odds of getting asylum. Pablo Manriquez and Arturo Dominguez of Capitol Press have an update: https://capitol.press/archive/inside-bidens-plan-to-shut-down-the-border/

NB: they are pro-migrant and pro-immigration. We think this improves their reporting, but it does break from the norm of "journalistic objectivity".

Per Craig Caplan on X: "House returns today at Noon from its weeklong break.Mbrs will consider several postal naming billls as well as Senate-passed bill to ensure US Secret Service agents continue to be paid for overtime.Current authorization expired at end of 2023;Bill extends authority to 2028."

Apparently the House will begin impeachment proceedings against Sec. Mayorkas next week. Usually the standard for impeachment is “high crimes and misdemeanors”. House Republicans apparently believe that carrying out a president’s policies, aka Mayorkas’s _job_, constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors. There is no sign that the House has made any progress on appropriations for the current fiscal year, literally its one constitutional job.

The Internet is becoming increasingly filled with fiction. This started with recipe mill websites and right wing content farms and now it's getting even cheaper to lie with billionaires subsidizing AI apps.

Keep following us this year for what's actually happening in Congress. Not what some AI chatbot makes up about what's happening in Congress.

The Civil War _was_ about "states' rights". Specifically, the claim by some states that they had the right to enslave other human beings and the other states saying "you absolutely do not". The slaveholding states felt so strongly about their "right" to enslave other humans that they went to war over it. This is not complicated and anyone, politician or otherwise, who can't or won't say this explicitly should not be in office or elected to one.

Cool job alert: Work as a Legislative Data Specialist to help design and run Congress.gov. https://www.usajobs.gov/job/760797500

NB: it is now 11/8. The continuing resolution keeping the government running ends on 11/17. There is no new draft CR yet, the new speaker can’t reliably pass regular appropriations bills, and the only thing really animating members apparently is censuring each other. So far Speaker Johnson appears to have no discernible handle on his caucus or a plan going forward.

As the United States heads toward running out of cash in a few weeks, here's a reminder how this happened:

* The law says what tax rates are, determining revenue.
* Each year laws are enacted that direct money to be spent a certain way.
* Existing debt has to be serviced (e.g. bonds).
* An older law limits national debt.
* Republicans drove up the debt during the Trump Admin (tax cuts, airline bailouts, etc) so that the limit is about to be reached.

The laws are logically incompatible.

In 2017, more than 8.5 million fake comments that impersonated real people were submitted to the FCC, which the Trump Administration used as cover to repeal "net neutrality" internet regulations, and more than half a million fake letters were sent to Congress, according to the NY Attorney General who secured large fines against the firms hired by Internet providers to bombard the government with their side.
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2023/attorney-general-james-secures-615000-companies-supplied-fake-comments-influence