Latest news with #HouseofRepresentatives.
Hindustan Times
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
$21mn USAID for voters in India never existed: Congressman Gregory Meeks
On Saturday, senior US politician Congressman Gregory Meeks rebutted President Donald Trump's claim that American government funds had been spent to boost voter turnout in India. Democrat Gregory Meeks is the top opposition lawmaker on the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee in the US House of Representatives.(AP) 'The President claimed there was a wasteful $21 million dollar grant to India. That grant never existed,' said Meeks in a speech that slammed Trump's cuts to foreign assistance spending. Meeks, who belongs to the Democratic Party, is the senior most opposition lawmaker on the influential Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, America's lower house. Earlier this year, President Trump repeatedly claimed that the United States Agency for International Development spent $21 million dollars on a grant to boost voter turnout in India. 'And $21 million going to my friend Prime Minister Modi in India for voter turnout. We're giving 21 million for voter turnout in India. What about us? I want voter turnout too,' Trump said on one occasion. Trump also insinuated that USAID attempting to sway election outcomes in India. Trump's statement stoked a political controversy in India even as India's Foreign Ministry said it was looking into the 'deeply troubling' allegations. 'We have seen media reports regarding the alleged allocation of US funds for election-related activities in India. This is deeply troubling and all relevant government agencies are examining the matter. India takes its sovereignty and electoral integrity very seriously,' said Randhir Jaiswal, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, on the matter. 'It's worrisome. If there's something to it, then the country should know. We will investigate the matter thoroughly and, if necessary, ensure transparency. India's elections are for Indians, and we have zero tolerance for foreign influence of any kind,' said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in February this year. However, it was unclear even at the time whether any grant funds had actually been disbursed to Indian organisations. Reports in the US media stated that the $21 million grant had been destined for Bangladesh, which was also going into a national election, and not for India. Meeks' statement on Saturday directly contradicts President Trump's assertions on the matter.
Politico
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Al Green censured for joint session outburst
The House voted 224-198 Thursday to censure Rep. Al Green for disrupting President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress this week. Green shouted at Trump during the Tuesday night address and was ordered removed from the House chamber by Speaker Mike Johnson, prompting a flurry of GOP efforts to punish him for the disruption. The censure measure was introduced and called up by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) through a fast-track process allowing for quick consideration on the House floor. Democratic leaders didn't formally whip against the measure, and 10 Democrats voted with all Republicans in support of the censure. Typically a censured member is immediately made to stand in the well of the House to formally receive punishment. But Green and more than a dozen colleagues stood in the well singing "We Shall Overcome" after the vote, forcing Johnson to put the House in recess instead. 'We must maintain a standard in the House of Representatives. and any member's refusal to adhere to the speaker's direction to cease such behavior, regardless of their political party, regardless of who is at the lectern giving a speech, this has to and must continue to be reprimanded. we cannot afford to let it go by,' Newhouse said Wednesday on the House floor. Censures, once a rare congressional punishment, have become increasingly common. House Republished punished several Democrats last Congress, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) for triggering a Capitol fire alarm and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for her views on the Israel-Hamas war. Green is not the first member to be sanctioned for a joint-session outburst. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) was reprimanded by the House in 2009 for interrupting then-President Barack Obama's speech by shouting 'you lie.' Democratic leaders urged lawmakers not to disrupt Trump's speech and to mount a "solemn" response, but many Democrats -- itching for a fight with Trump -- opted to shout, walk out or otherwise protest on Tuesday night. Green has described his protest as a spontaneous decision and has said he was prepared to accept the consequences for his actions. He said he is also planning on introducing articles of impeachment against Trump, something he did twice before curing Trump's first term.
BBC News
26-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
US congresswoman votes with newborn in arms after proxy vote ban
Four weeks after giving birth to her second child, Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen cradled her newborn son in her arms as she cast a crucial vote on the House to vote remotely due to congressional rules, the Colorado Democrat flew across the country to oppose a multi-trillion-dollar budget deal, which narrowly passed in the House of Representatives."Unfortunately, I wasn't given the opportunity to vote remotely after giving birth, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from representing my constituents," Pettersen said on congresswoman - the 14th lawmaker to give birth while in office - now leads a bipartisan push for more flexibility for members with growing families. In January, she introduced legislation allowing proxy voting for up to 12 weeks for members who have "given birth or whose spouse have given birth and pregnant members who are unable to travel safely or have a serious medical condition". The bill has 137 bipartisan co-sponsors. Proxy voting - where a lawmaker designates another to vote on their behalf - was temporarily allowed during the pandemic, but current House rules prohibit it. The restriction allowed some to see the unintended benefits of proxy voting for those recovering from childbirth or illness, but critics argued the policy was being abused. More than 100 Republican members of the House of Representatives, including current Speaker Mike Johnson, filed lawsuit to end the practice, arguing it was legal argument failed, but when Republicans regained control of the House in 2023, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy ended proxy voting. Pettersen and another Republican congresswoman who gave birth in 2023 continue to push for flexibility for new parents on Capitol Hill. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican who gave birth in 2023, missed 137 votes in the weeks after she gave birth. Doctors had advised her not to travel while recovering from a difficult called the inability to proxy vote a "slap in the face to every constituent" who elected her. "How is it not discriminatory to tell a duly elected member of Congress that she can't vote because she gave birth to a child?" she said in a video statement last month. "New mothers in Congress should not be forced to choose their careers over children or choose children over careers."But Republican leadership has yet to budge."I have great sympathy, empathy for all of our young women legislators who are of birthing age. It's a real quandary," Johnson said in a statement last month. "But I'm afraid it doesn't fit with the language of the Constitution, and that's the inescapable truth that we have."Jean Sinzdak, associate director at the Center for American Women and Politics, said the pushback, in part, is cultural: many of the leaders of institutions like congress are older men who are not concerned about the trials of young parents and families."It doesn't behove the leaders of these institutions to change this process because it's not affecting them directly," Ms Sinzdak told the and Luna are now trying to bypass Johnson and put the legislation to a floor vote - it is a tough road but it may be their best shot unless the thinking surrounding proxy voting changes.
