Latest news with #LakenRileyAct
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Congress has only passed three laws this session. So what are they doing?
If Congress were a character in Mike Judge's cult classic 'Office Space," they'd be sweating bullets waiting for their meeting with the Bobs. You remember the Bobs, right? The pair of efficiency experts were all about trimming the fat at Initech. Their go-to question, delivered with soul-crushing serenity, was simple: 'What would you say… you do here?' Judging by the legislative output so far, we should be asking the same of our elected representatives in Congress. As of late May 2025, deep into the first session of the 119th Congress, our fearless political leaders have enacted exactly three – yes, T-H-R-E-E – laws and 11 regulatory disapproval resolutions. Those numbers aren't typos. To be fair, legislating is complex. It's supposed to be deliberative. Not every problem needs a new federal law; in fact, most probably don't. But even as a conservative, I still want Congress to make laws which rein in the size and scope of the federal government. Opinion: Tariffs and price-fixing? It's time to make Republicans conservative again | Opinion This government-by-executive-order from one president to the next is hogwash that creates economic and political whiplash. But three laws over five months suggests something beyond deliberation. It's political nihilism. Of the enacted laws, the most recent was Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) TAKE IT DOWN Act. Another was the nothingburger measure to keep the government funded, and the other was the Laken Riley Act. Good on Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama) and Cruz for demonstrating the ability to draft effective legislation, shepherd the measure through the House and Senate, and get the president to sign their bills. Peter Gibbons' 'Office Space' epiphany is instructive here: "Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day long, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements." Maybe members of Congress weren't meant to just sit in committee rooms, give fiery speeches to empty chambers for C-SPAN, rush to cable news studios, and fire off angry tweets. Maybe, just maybe, they were meant to legislate. The problem isn't necessarily that individual members aren't busy. Their schedules are packed, fundraisers are attended, and media hits are frequent. The problem is that all that activity produces nothing. It simply gives the illusion of effective leadership while office holders fail at their central task. Letters: Readers question motivations, actions of Tennessee's elected officials We've traded substantive legislative work for performative outrage and B-list celebrity status. Congress increasingly resembles a reality TV show where the prize is reelection, not effective governance. The only real difference between most Democrats and Republicans in Congress is whether they're clapping or booing for the current resident of the White House. So, what's the fix? How do we get Congress back to doing… well, something? One idea that keeps bubbling up is the REINS Act (Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act). The basic concept is straightforward: any major new regulation from the executive branch – i.e. rules with significant economic impact, often dreamed up by unelected bureaucrats – would require explicit approval from Congress before taking effect. While primarily aimed at reining in the administrative state (a worthy goal in itself), the REINS Act could have a side effect: forcing Congress to take more ownership. If agencies can't just issue sweeping edicts on their own, Congress might feel more pressure to actually debate and pass laws addressing the issues those regulations were meant to tackle. It puts the legislative ball back squarely in Congress's court. The legislation would spell it out for them: "This is your job." Opinion: TN Republicans may lose political control and respect by supporting Trump Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) recently had the audacity to tell the truth and suggest that Congress, not the president, must hold the power of taxation. President Donald Trump's tariff gamble is entirely predicated on a gross delegation of authority from Congress and a funky declaration of a national emergency. If Congress agrees with Trump's reimagination of the global economy, it should enact the tariff policies with an actual law. It could be number six. Then we'd at least be counting on two hands. We also need a way to differentiate between the workhorses and the show ponies. Maybe it's time we started calculating a legislative 'batting average' for members of Congress. Forget just counting how many bills someone introduces — that's like judging a baseball player by how many times they swing the bat, regardless of whether they hit anything. Instead, let's look at the ratio: How many bills did Representative X or Senator Y introduce or meaningfully co-sponsor compared to how many actually became law? No, it won't capture all the effort in Congress. Sometimes important work happens behind the scenes. Leaders shape bills without being the prime sponsor. A member champions a vital cause that faces impossible political headwinds. We should be honest about those efforts. But a batting average could offer a clue. It would help voters distinguish between those diligently working to craft passable legislation and those who specialize in filing "messaging bills" designed solely to generate fundraising emails and rile up the base, with zero chance of ever becoming law. It might incentivize members to focus on building consensus and achieving tangible results, rather than just grabbing headlines. We wouldn't tolerate 'Office Space'-level productivity in most jobs. We expect results. Yet, we seem to have accepted a Congress where tough talk is the norm and actual lawmaking is a rare exception. It's time we, the constituents, became our own version of the Bobs, asking calmly but firmly: "What would you say… you do here?" We must demand answers that involve more than pointing fingers and cashing campaign checks. Passing three laws isn't cutting it. That's all Congress is doing here. Don't let them tell you otherwise. USA TODAY Network Tennessee Columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney raising four boys in Nolensville, Tennessee, with his particularly patient wife, Justine. Direct outrage or agreement to or @DCameronSmith on Twitter. Agree or disagree? Send a letter to the editor to letters@ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Congress isn't doing its job. We deserve to know why | Opinion
Fox News
a day ago
- General
- Fox News
'Chaos,' 'unacceptable': Fetterman rips Democratic handling of border in bipartisan discussion
Both Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and GOP Sen. Dave McCormick spoke in a bipartisan forum about the importance of border security, with Fetterman going so far as to call out his own party on the issue. "I've kind of, I've lost some support in my party. I thought the border was really important, and our party did not handle the border appropriately," Fetterman told "Fox News Sunday" host Shannon Bream during a FOX Nation presentation of The Senate Project series on Monday. "Look at the numbers, 267,000, 300,000 people showing up at our border. And, you know, we can all agree that's roughly the size of Pittsburgh. Now, that's unacceptable. And that's a national security issue. And that's chaos. So a secure border, being very pro-immigration, that's who I am as a Democrat." Fetterman, who drew the ire of many Democrats when he supported the Laken Riley Act, explained how he has been at "odds with his base" but his values have "never changed" on the immigration issue, which polling shows was a key factor in President Donald Trump's election victory in November. "We are going to disagree and vote on different things," Fetterman said. "But for me, it's about trying to find the things we can win together and deliver those kinds of wins for Pennsylvania and ultimately for America." Fetterman bucked his own party at multiple points in the discussion with McCormick, including as it relates to his party's handling of antisemitism on college campuses and in the streets. "What happened yesterday in Boulder? It's astonishing," Fetterman said, reacting to what the FBI is calling a terrorist attack against a pro-Israel group in Boulder, Colorado, over the weekend. "You know, the kinds of, the rank antisemitism, it's out of control. And for me and as my friend just pointed out, this is just rampant across all the universities for all of these places, too. I mean, we really need to call it what it is. And now and for me, politically, being very, very firmly on the side of Israel, that kind of put parts of my party at odds for that." The Senate Project series brings together sitting senators from opposing parties for civil dialogue about current political issues, with the goal of identifying solutions and bridging partisan divides. The series reflects the shared mission of the Kennedy Institute and Hatch Foundation to advance bipartisanship. "Vigorous and open dialogue is an essential part of our democracy and having these two senators from opposite sides of the aisle discuss important issues of the day is a valuable contribution to the public discourse," Kennedy Institute Chairman Bruce A. Percelay said in a statement.
USA Today
18-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
ICE adopts new tactic: Deport before court, removing people facing criminal charges
ICE adopts new tactic: Deport before court, removing people facing criminal charges Suspects and witnesses are being deported without justice being served, prosecutors and legal experts say. Show Caption Hide Caption Venezuelans in El Salvador prison plead for freedom in video Venezuelans held in a high-security prison in El Salvador shouted 'freedom' and used a hand signal for help in a video published by the far-right One America News Network, a rare glimpse of the detainees since they were sent there by the U.S. in March. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener. DENVER ‒ Some suspects in violent assaults and sex crimes are escaping American justice because they're being deported before they can stand trial, according to a number of prosecutors and legal experts across the country. In one suburban Denver county, the district attorney has tallied at least six criminal cases he's had to shelve or drop because Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained or deported suspects before he could prosecute them. In another case in the city of Denver, a man suspected of attempted murder was released because ICE had deported the witnesses against him, forcing prosecutors to drop the charges. That suspect then tackled an ICE agent trying to detain him outside the jail. And in Boston, a judge was forced to drop charges against a man accused of using a fake name on a driver's license after ICE took him into custody mid-trial and refused to return him. Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden called ICE's actions "troubling and extraordinarily reckless," because the agents prevented him from prosecuting the detainee. Across the country, prosecutors, defense attorneys and legal observers say they've seen an uptick in ICE agents choosing to deport criminal suspects, instead of keeping them in custody and producing them for local court proceedings. "It's not only undermining to the justice system but also impacting community safety," said Adams County District Attorney Brian Mason, who serves a suburban area northeast of Denver. These rapid deportations mean some innocent people are being denied the chance to clear their name in a U.S. courtroom. For crime victims, it means they never see the satisfaction of their assailant behind bars. And it could be making all Americans less safe, legal experts say, when people with criminal backgrounds and no respect for the law cross back into the United States and commit more crimes. "My fear that is that people will get deported, will essentially avoid criminal prosecution, will sneak back into the country ... and live under the radar and never be held accountable and suffer no consequences whatsoever for their actions, and potentially perpetrate more crimes against other victims," Mason said. The Laken Riley Act effect Legal experts say the increase appears to being driven in part by the new federal Laken Riley Act, which requires ICE to detain people living illegally in the United States once they have been accused or charged with certain crimes, including theft or shoplifting. Although the Riley Act, named for a Georgia nursing student killed in 2024 by an immigrant, doesn't require deportations, at least some of the people detained under the law have subsequently been removed from the United States, experts told USA TODAY. Sometimes that means those people are escaping prosecution for assaults, domestic violence or thefts. In other instances, prosecutors have dropped cases because ICE deported the witnesses. The people ICE targeted are accused of living illegally within the United States. In another Massachusetts case, ICE detained a man facing state driving charges and refused to produce him for his trial, prompting the ACLU to ask a federal judge to intervene. The judge ordered ICE to produce the man, and he was found not guilty of the state charges. He was then returned to ICE custody, which had been the prior procedure. President Donald Trump campaigned on tough new immigration policies, and ICE agents nationwide have been conducting high-profile detention operations, which the president said are primarily targeted at violent criminals and gang members. And he has chafed at judicial limits placed on deportations of people targeted because they were accused but never convicted. "Murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even the mentally insane will make their home in our country, wreaking havoc like we have never seen before," Trump posted to social media in late April. "It is not possible to have trials for millions and millions of people. We know who the criminals are, and we must get them out of the U.S.A. and fast!" ICE as a 'getaway driver' Prof. Michael Kagan, who runs the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas law school, said the deportations-before-prosecution policy risks creating a two-tiered justice system: American citizens are imprisoned if convicted, but someone who commits the same crime while living illegally in the United States could be released with no punishment other than a free trip home. "If you think that it's worth incarcerating a citizen who has committed a crime, it becomes very hard to justify not incarcerating a non-citizen convicted of the same crime," said Kagan, whose clinic provides legal aid to people facing deportation. Kagan said some immigration experts have begun referring to ICE as a "getaway driver" because they believe the new system is ripe for abuse by offenders: "The U.S. citizen has to face trial and serious prison time while the non-citizen could just ask ICE to give him a ride to Mexico and get off free." Nicholas Reppucci, the chief public defender in Charlottesville, Virginia, said he's already seeing less willingness by immigrants to testify as witnesses over the aggressive new approach. "It is having a very significant negative impact, not just for criminal defendants but for complainants or people who have been victimized by crimes," he said. "Inherently, in my option, people are less likely to come to court to have wrongs righted." Mason, the Colorado district attorney, said he previously worked with ICE agents to secure what are known as U visas, which grant crime victims the right to remain in the United States so they can testify in local criminal cases. Now, the collaboration is gone, he said. "If a victim of crime is afraid to come to the Adams County courthouse because she's afraid she'll get detained in the parking lot by ICE, then I can't prosecute that case," he said. "It's not only undermining to the justice system but also impacting community safety."
New York Post
14-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Junk judge John McConnell is helping destroy democracy, just like Hannah Dugan
Another day, another judge burdened by obvious conflicts of interest rules against the Trump administration's sane and necessary policies. US District Judge John McConnell has ordered the reversal of Team Trump's freeze on certain forms of federal assistance, yet he sat for nearly two decades on the board of a homeless services provider, Crossroads Rhode Island, rising to chair it — and the Crossroads group directly benefited from federal grants via the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the tune of more than $15 million since 2010. This astonishing fact came to light thanks to a complaint filed against Judge McConnell by America First Legal, a conservative watchdog group. McConnell's chief defense is that he left the board in April of 2024, as if that somehow makes it kosher. How many friends does he still have on the board? How much direct communication does he still have with the overall group? How on earth could he ever be expected to rule without favor here? These questions show how insane it is a judge would ever sit on the board of such an organization to begin with. And how much more insane that someone with this kind of entanglement would fail to recuse himself in a related case. But that's how it goes with our tinpot bench emperors: The rules don't apply to them, and they are more powerful than the Commander in Chief and wiser than the voters. Like Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan, now indicted for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade ICE. Or DC Circuit Judge James Boasberg, who ruled against Trump's move to deport criminal illegal aliens even as his daughter works at a nonprofit getting millions in taxpayer dollars and headed up by an opponent of the Laken Riley Act. Somehow, it's always these Defenders of Democracy™ who end up being its frontline destroyers.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Knives out for Fetterman: Maverick senator joins long line of Dems punished for breaking from left
On border security, support for Israel and diplomacy with President Donald Trump, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has bucked the Democratic Party on key issues since assuming office in 2022. A string of media reports emerged this month detailing Fetterman's alleged cognitive decline and waning support within the Democratic Party. A New York Magazine report sparked questions about Fetterman's mental stability. Subsequent reports by the Associated Press, detailing an outburst during a union meeting, and by Politico, which indicated he is losing traction among Pennsylvania Democrats, were slammed by several of his Capitol Hill colleagues as a coordinated smear campaign. In an era of partisan politics, Fetterman has embraced bipartisanship with newly elected Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa. When McComrick was elected in November, the Pennsylvanians traded jabs for joint dinners as Fetterman built his reputation for being willing to reach across the aisle. Fetterman also met with Trump's controversial Cabinet picks and worked with Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., to pass the Laken Riley Act this year. While Fetterman, who suffered a stroke during his 2022 Senate campaign, shut down questions about his mental fitness amid the relentless reports, it's not the first time a Democrat has been targeted after falling out of line with the party. Leaks To Media About Fetterman Are A Coordinated Smear Campaign, Hill Colleagues Say Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., faced the ire of the Democratic Party earlier this year when he joined Fetterman in voting to pass the Republicans' spending bill and avoid a government shutdown. Schumer, currently Senate minority leader, was slammed by progressive Democrats while the future of party leadership hangs in the balance. Read On The Fox News App Democratic Senator Says There 'Needs To Be Space' For Fetterman In Party As Republicans Come To His Defense Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., was once a Democrat but later registered as an independent. While she continued to caucus with her party, Sinema ruffled liberal feathers by opposing efforts to eliminate the filibuster rule and opposed former President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" plan. In 2022, Sinema said she was leaving the party, adding that "nothing will change about my values or my behavior." Sinema became the first senator to switch parties since the late Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter – then Republican – famously announced that "my change in party will enable me to be re-elected" in 2009. Soon after Sinema came now-former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. Long seen as a moderate thorn in the side of the increasingly liberal Democrats, Manchin often clashed with his former party on environmental issues, given the Mountain State's reliance on the fossil fuel industry. Things came to a head in Charleston when then-Gov. Jim Justice held up his bulldog Babydog backward in the legislative chamber and told actress Bette Midler – who had trashed the state over one of Manchin's such votes – to "kiss her heinie." Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard was once considered a rising star in the Democratic Party until her comments and behavior drew the ire of party elders like Hillary Clinton. The anti-interventionist Gabbard, who had appeared in the Moscow media, was anonymously slammed by Clinton in 2019 when she said that "somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary" was a "favorite of the Russians." An advisor later said Gabbard was the figure in question. Since then, Gabbard has gone on to make a full partisan 180, becoming a member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet. During Rep. Nancy Pelosi's, D-Calif., historic speakership, another Democrat famously bucked the party and ultimately retired soon after trying to proverbially oust the queen. North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler became disaffected by the liberal progression of the party and mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Pelosi's leadership role after Democrats suffered massive losses in the 2010 midterms. Shuler, a former then-Washington Redskins quarterback, had been the leader of the moderate Blue Dog Democrat caucus when he took aim at the speakership. Fetterman's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for article source: Knives out for Fetterman: Maverick senator joins long line of Dems punished for breaking from left
