Latest news with #118thCongress
Time of India
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Jasmine Crockett Net Worth: The Reverend's daughter who became a fierce Congresswoman
Rep Jasmine Crockett is back in the news again. The American lawyer and politician, who has been a US representative from Texas's 30th congressional district since January 2023 as a member of the Democratic Party, recently claimed that Democrats are eying the 'safest white boy' ahead of the 2028 election. In the clip shared by Clay Cane, one of the hosts of 'Urban View', the group is seen speaking about potential candidates when Crockett offers her insight. 'It is, it is this fear that the people within the party, within the primary system, will have about voting for a woman because every time we voted for a woman, we've lost,' she explained. Crockett didn't name names, but suggested the party already has 'one specific candidate' in mind. Operation Sindoor 'Our job is to hit target, not to count body bags': Air Marshal Bharti on Op Sindoor Precautionary blackout imposed across parts of Rajasthan, Punjab 'Indian Navy was in position to strike Karachi': Vice Admiral on Operation Sindoor Here's all you need to know about the fierce Congresswoman. Who is Rep Jasmine Crockett ? In the 118th Congress, Rep Jasmine Felicia Crockett (born in 1981) served as the Democratic freshman class representative between the House Democratic leadership and the (approximately) 35 newly elected Democratic members. She was named as co-chair of the 2024 Harris-Walz campaign and is currently a part of the Democratic Congressional Progressive Caucus. The African-American politician previously represented the 100th district in the Texas House of Representatives. Before that, she was a public defender for Bowie County, Texas, and had previously practiced law in a private firm. Net worth: According to reports, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has an alleged net worth of between $2 million and $9 million in 2025. As a Texas House member and counselor, she reportedly earns $174,000 annually. She has amassed her wealth through her career as an attorney, business ventures, and salary from congressional work. Crockett began her legal career after graduating from the University of Houston Law Center in 2006. She worked as a public defender in the Bowie County Public Defender's Office, tirelessly keeping children safe and out of jail. Her dedication to justice and equality led her to become a civil rights attorney. She advocated for marginalised communities and focused on social justice, discrimination, and equal rights issues. In 2019, she formed her law firm, which became notable for taking pro bono cases for Black Lives Matter activists. Among her legal career highlights was her commitment to defending the most vulnerable and ensuring everyone had access to fair representation. Parents and family members: Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Crockett's parents are Rev. Joseph Crockett , a teacher and preacher, and Gwen, a former postal worker. Jasmine Crockett's family instilled in her a commitment to service, particularly to the underserved, for which she is grateful. In a 2023 Father's Day Instagram post, she shared, 'It's my daddy's leadership and love in the church that raised me and inspires me to this day to be the best Congresswoman I can be.' She also expressed her gratitude toward her mother in a June 2023 Instagram post: 'She's never left my side & has always had my back. Last night was no exception. At almost 2 am, my mom was there to witness me officially be sworn in as a United States Congresswoman!' Education and career: Growing up as a Baptist, Crockett attended Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School and Rosati-Kain, an all-girls Catholic high school in St. Louis. She graduated from Rhodes College in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in business administration. As an undergraduate, she aspired to become an anesthesiologist or certified public accountant before deciding to attend law school. Crockett later explained that stated that she changed the course due to experiencing a series of hate crimes while attending college and subsequently being represented by the Cochran Law Firm. She attended the University of Houston Law Center, graduating in 2006 with a Juris Doctor. Crockett was a member of the National Bar Association, as well, with the Dallas Black Criminal Bar Association. Crockett completed law school and passed the bar shortly thereafter in 2006. She then became a public defender for Bowie County and formed a law firm, which was notable for taking pro bono cases for Black Lives Matter activists. Crockett is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. In 2019, after Eric Johnson vacated his seat in the Texas House to serve as mayor of Dallas, a special election was held in November with a runoff in January 2020, for the remainder of his term, which Lorraine Birabil won. Crockett challenged Birabil in the 2020 Democratic primary. She narrowly defeated Birabil in a primary runoff, advancing to the November 2020 general election, which she won unopposed. She assumed office in January 2021. In November 2021, incumbent U.S. representative Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas's 30th congressional district announced she would not seek reelection in 2022. However, after a few days, Crockett declared her candidacy for the seat, and Johnson simultaneously announced that she was backing Crockett. In the Democratic primary election, Crockett and Jane Hope Hamilton, an aide to Marc Veasey, advanced to a runoff election, which Crockett won. She then won the general election in November. She was chosen to be the 118th Congress's freshman class representative. Family and children: Although Crockett, in the public forum, is a force to be reckoned with, she keeps her private life away from the prying eyes of the media. Information regarding Crockett's husband, marital status, or children is still undisclosed. The American attorney-turned-politician is presumably single and has chosen to share details only about her career. Abhishek Bachchan and Shweta Nanda to get equal share from Amitabh Bachchan's Rs 3000+ crore property; sister-in-law to beat Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in terms of net worth: Reports
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - Congress, DOGE turned the Social Security Fairness Act from a win to a loss
This year's Social Security Fairness Act represents the largest change to Social Security in decades, increasing benefits for 3 million government retirees at a cost of $190 billion over 10 years. But the chaotic process that brought the bill to fruition, and the failure of Congress to sufficiently fund the administrative costs of the new law, have placed a heavy burden on the already-struggling Social Security Administration. Indeed, the SSFA contained what was likely a technical error — and one that has made the implementation of the new law very difficult. The effective date of the legislation was never updated during the two years of the 118th Congress. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to move the date forward in the closing hours of the 118th Congress, but time ran out. As a result, the Social Security Administration has had to retroactively entitle millions of individuals to benefits for a period that actually predates the enactment of the legislation. The start-up administrative costs of the Social Security Fairness Act are plausibly about $200 million. When Congress was considering the full-year continuing resolution in March, it simply chose not to provide the Social Security Administration with sufficient funding to implement the law. As a result, Congress has created a zero-sum environment at the agency: additional service to one group means less service to another. In the months since enactment of the SSFA, the Social Security Administration has taken an additional 146,000 new benefit applications related to the new law. That means 146,000 other Americans did not have their applications considered. Additionally, the agency has had to field 450,000 calls (6,000-7,000 per day) from the public requiring agency staff to explain the new law and resolve benefit problems. That means 450,000 other Americans did not get their Social Security problems resolved. Most alarmingly, the agency's automation efforts for retroactive payments fell short. Social Security indicated that automation would result in these payments being deposited in bank accounts 'by the end of March.' After its automation runs in March, however, there were still 500,000 to 700,000 cases to be processed. These will have to be handled manually over time. The Social Security Administration plans to prioritize this manual workload, but all that means is that up to 700,000 other Americans in the agency's very large payment backlog will not have their benefit payments processed. Shortly after the law's enactment, the Social Security Administration was effectively taken over by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. While DOGE's stated mission is related to technology, DOGE engineers have struggled to get even a basic understanding of Social Security's data systems and structures. Their confusion over the agency's death data, for example, led to wild claims of tens of millions of people over the age of 100 receiving benefits; the claims were easily debunked by the press. DOGE's failure to improve the technical capacity of the Social Security Administration has led management to simply focus on reducing agency staff and cutting funding for IT infrastructure. This has led to widespread breakdowns in service delivery, which will impair the agency's ability to deal with the SSFA or other workloads. DOGE has also brought a work culture to the Social Security Administration that devalues privacy and data security. It recently released a data file to the public showing total SSFA retroactive payments by ZIP code, including cases where only a single beneficiary in a given ZIP code received a payment. That almost certainly violates agency disclosure guidelines that have been applied in the past — and leaves some beneficiaries potentially exposed to fraudsters. Congress should learn a few lessons from this experience. First, large-scale legislation needs to go through an orderly legislative process and any implementation costs need to be explicitly covered. Second, congressional oversight needs to examine all workloads, not just new ones. Finally, Congress should realize that DOGE, which has struggled in recent weeks even to keep Social Security's websites operational, is not a technology effort. When DOGE proposes technology initiatives, Congress should realize that is just misdirection. Congress should, instead, focus on real-world issues: how to provide the Social Security Administration with sufficient staff and how to improve the management and leadership skills of DOGE executives. David A. Weaver, Ph.D., is an economist and retired federal employee who has authored a number of studies on the Social Security program. His views do not reflect the views of any organization. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
17-04-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Congress, DOGE turned the Social Security Fairness Act from a win to a loss
This year's Social Security Fairness Act represents the largest change to Social Security in decades, increasing benefits for 3 million government retirees at a cost of $190 billion over 10 years. But the chaotic process that brought the bill to fruition, and the failure of Congress to sufficiently fund the administrative costs of the new law, have placed a heavy burden on the already-struggling Social Security Administration. Indeed, the SSFA contained what was likely a technical error — and one that has made the implementation of the new law very difficult. The effective date of the legislation was never updated during the two years of the 118th Congress. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to move the date forward in the closing hours of the 118th Congress, but time ran out. As a result, the Social Security Administration has had to retroactively entitle millions of individuals to benefits for a period that actually predates the enactment of the legislation. The start-up administrative costs of the Social Security Fairness Act are plausibly about $200 million. When Congress was considering the full-year continuing resolution in March, it simply chose not to provide the Social Security Administration with sufficient funding to implement the law. As a result, Congress has created a zero-sum environment at the agency: additional service to one group means less service to another. In the months since enactment of the SSFA, the Social Security Administration has taken an additional 146,000 new benefit applications related to the new law. That means 146,000 other Americans did not have their applications considered. Additionally, the agency has had to field 450,000 calls (6,000-7,000 per day) from the public requiring agency staff to explain the new law and resolve benefit problems. That means 450,000 other Americans did not get their Social Security problems resolved. Most alarmingly, the agency's automation efforts for retroactive payments fell short. Social Security indicated that automation would result in these payments being deposited in bank accounts 'by the end of March.' After its automation runs in March, however, there were still 500,000 to 700,000 cases to be processed. These will have to be handled manually over time. The Social Security Administration plans to prioritize this manual workload, but all that means is that up to 700,000 other Americans in the agency's very large payment backlog will not have their benefit payments processed. Shortly after the law's enactment, the Social Security Administration was effectively taken over by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. While DOGE's stated mission is related to technology, DOGE engineers have struggled to get even a basic understanding of Social Security's data systems and structures. Their confusion over the agency's death data, for example, led to wild claims of tens of millions of people over the age of 100 receiving benefits; the claims were easily debunked by the press. DOGE's failure to improve the technical capacity of the Social Security Administration has led management to simply focus on reducing agency staff and cutting funding for IT infrastructure. This has led to widespread breakdowns in service delivery, which will impair the agency's ability to deal with the SSFA or other workloads. DOGE has also brought a work culture to the Social Security Administration that devalues privacy and data security. It recently released a data file to the public showing total SSFA retroactive payments by ZIP code, including cases where only a single beneficiary in a given ZIP code received a payment. That almost certainly violates agency disclosure guidelines that have been applied in the past — and leaves some beneficiaries potentially exposed to fraudsters. Congress should learn a few lessons from this experience. First, large-scale legislation needs to go through an orderly legislative process and any implementation costs need to be explicitly covered. Second, congressional oversight needs to examine all workloads, not just new ones. Finally, Congress should realize that DOGE, which has struggled in recent weeks even to keep Social Security's websites operational, is not a technology effort. When DOGE proposes technology initiatives, Congress should realize that is just misdirection. Congress should, instead, focus on real-world issues: how to provide the Social Security Administration with sufficient staff and how to improve the management and leadership skills of DOGE executives. studies
Axios
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
House GOP chaos erupts after Mike Johnson pulls budget vote
The House fell into uncertain territory Wednesday evening after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pulled a scheduled vote on a key budget measure in the face of intractable right-wing opposition. Why it matters: It is not clear what Johnson's next steps are, with the speaker conceding to reporters that a Thursday vote is not assured. The GOP speaker said he doesn't have "any intention to have us working here this weekend," but added, "If we have to come back next week, then we'll do that." The vote was nixed after dozens of conservative fiscal hawks refused to back the Senate version of the budget blueprint that requires far fewer spending cuts than the version the House passed in February. What we're hearing: The withdrawn vote touched off a round of internal GOP finger-pointing reminiscent of the tumultuous days of the 118th Congress. "The speaker sadly hasn't communicated with any of us what's happening," griped one House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "I don't know why they're pulling out, and that hasn't been communicated to the rest of the conference." The lawmaker added: "It's incredibly sad, disappointing and embarrassing that once again we've pulled another piece of legislation off the floor, and it just shows how ineffective the speaker is at his job." State of play: Johnson is now being pulled into negotiations with his right flank as he tries to find a way out of his bind.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Report: 3 of the most effective legislators are from Missouri
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Three U.S. Representatives from Missouri ranked in the top 20 for most effective legislators, according to a policy think tank that looks at how individual lawmakers are effective at their jobs. U.S. Congressman Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, came in at number one overall out of 435 members of the U.S. House. The report points to his work in transportation as a key component to the top spot. Graves is currently the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Also making headway for his own committee chairmanship if Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican who represents much of southeastern Missouri. Smith, the Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, ranked 10th overall for effectiveness. 'I have always strived to get things done for Missouri in Congress. You can accomplish a lot by working hard to push legislation forward. That's why it is an absolute honor to be recognized as the most effective lawmaker of the 118th Congress by the Center for Effective Lawmaking,' Graves said. 'It's an honor to work for the people of North Missouri and I look forward to getting more accomplished this year! Congresswoman Ann Wagner, a Republican from western St. Louis County, came in at the 18th spot. Wagner, a former U.S. Ambassador, ranked high in foreign affairs, financial services as well as 'law, family and crime.' Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now The report notes all three Missouri Reps. listed in the top 20 have had at least two bills become full-fledged laws, with Smith having three. A partnership with the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt, the Center for Effective Lawmaking's report on the new 118th Congress says that ' effective lawmaking continued, despite divided government and internal struggles within closely divided chambers.' It adds, ' The pattern of behind-the-scenes lawmaking continued, with bill language modified and attached to must-pass legislation, such as omnibus appropriations packages and the National Defense Authorization Acts.' According to their website, the Center for Effective Lawmaking 'seeks to advance the generation, communication, and use of new knowledge about the effectiveness of individual lawmakers and U.S. legislative institutions.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
