Connect with us

Congress

Lawmakers seek to limit DHS power to shuffle cash in funding bill

Published

on

Top appropriators on Capitol Hill are seeking to tighten limits around how much money DHS can shift between accounts as they finalize funding bills ahead of the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline.

Rep. Mark Amodei, the Nevada Republican who chairs the DHS funding panel, told reporters Tuesday night that House and Senate appropriators are crafting their spending measure to make it “harder to make the money mobile.” The effort comes as the Trump administration has spent the past year testing the limits of its power to disregard congressional intent and reprogram billions of dollars between accounts.

“We did a bunch of reprogramming,” Amodei said of Republicans in the White House. “It’s like, hey, that’s bullshit.”

To limit the Trump administration’s ability to shift cash, appropriators plan to include tables within the bill that show exactly which accounts should be funded and lower the percentages of cash that can be used for other purposes, Amodei continued.

Appropriators have briefed President Donald Trump’s budget office on the funding bill they hope to pass and have taken OMB’s input into account, Amodei said. Still, he acknowledged that some Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, will not be fond of new restrictions on moving around cash.

“Now I know that the secretary doesn’t like that,” Amodei said. “And it’s like, well, we’ve all got our unlike departments. And so welcome to the club.”

He also divulged that the funding bill will provide enough cash for DHS to keep 44,500 immigrants in detention facilities at any given time. Appropriators will be tracking detention capacity every month and expect the Trump administration to fill that “detention bed” capacity, he added.

“They better, by God, be full,” said Amodei.

Amodei is in the midst of final negotiations with senior Senate appropriators on the DHS funding bill. “We’re real close,” he said. “We want to be able to publish the bill this week.”

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Congress

Steny Hoyer set to announce retirement from Congress

Published

on

Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer is set to announce his retirement from the House as soon as Thursday, capping off a decades-long career in Congress, according to two people who were granted anonymity to confirm the news ahead of a public announcement.

Hoyer, who represents a district stretching from the eastern Washington suburbs to southern Maryland, has served since 1981, rising up through the ranks to become the second-ranking House Democrat under Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

He stepped aside from his senior role after Democrats lost the House in 2022 as part of a broader changing of the guard but remained in Congress, retaking a senior post on the House Appropriations Committee.

Only two sitting House members — GOP Reps. Hal Rogers of Kentucky and Chris Smith of New Jersey — have served longer than Hoyer, and only by a few months.

Now 86, Hoyer remained circumspect about his plans to run for re-election. The decision comes as numerous senior Democrats are facing primaries from younger candidates or choosing not to run for reelection. Pelosi announced in October she plans to retire at the end of her term.

A Hoyer spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His decision to step aside is likely to create a free-for-all for the deep-blue seat. One candidate, Harry Jarin, is already in the race after launching a primary in May that specifically targeted Hoyer’s age.

Jonathan Martin contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Congress

House Oversight panel to issue more subpoenas in Epstein case

Published

on

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will subpoena Les Wexner, the longtime friend and client of Jeffrey Epstein, along with two men who worked for the late convicted sex offender.

It was the culmination of a flurry of subpoena requests Wednesday from rank-and-file members of the panel, several of which were ultimately approved. The committee also voted to subpoena Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn — Epstein’s lawyer and accountant, respectively.

It shows how the House Oversight Committee could continue to find itself at the center of efforts to re-investigate the Epstein case as the Justice Department presides over a prolonged and rocky rollout of materials.

The successful motions, brought by the top Democrat on panel, California Rep. Robert Garcia, appeared to be the result of an agreement between Garcia and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who also successfully moved to subpoena American businessman Neville Singham and journalist Seth Harp.

“There is probably no one more important as it relates to the financing and the work of this investigation, which both sides of the aisle are interested in,” Garcia said, of Wexner. “Public reporting has documented their longstanding ties. He should answer our questions in a non-partisan way to get the truth.”

Luna concurred: “I think that this is a sound motion for subpoena because Les Wexner has been named by victims and also, too, is in a number of documentaries,” she said and urged her colleagues to join her in supporting the effort.

In moving to subpoena Singham, Luna cited a letter signed by then-Sen. Marco Rubio, who now serves as Secretary of State, suggesting the entrepreneur may have been connected to activities that violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Luna also claimed Singham was funding groups that were adverse to American interests.

Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) questioned why Luna was making her motion at this time. Still, Garcia recommended lawmakers vote “yes” despite Min’s concerns, explaining “the representative made clear her support for the deposition that we’re going to have with Mr. Wexner.”

In an interview after the Wexner vote, Garcia said he did not negotiate the matter with Luna before the hearing.

“[Congress is] about compromise, and I think for us, the Les Wexner subpoena is at the center of this investigation,” he said.

Garcia also supported Luna’s motion to subpoena Harp, who has been accused of doxxing a Delta Force official involved in the operation to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Separately, the committee rejected a bid from Democrats to subpoena the Department of Homeland Security for records related to the Wednesday shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.

The panel struck down an attempt from Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) to issue the subpoena at the end of an hours-long hearing around the welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota. Pressley requested “documents and footage” of the fatal incident.

Garcia said he was hopeful the panel would investigate the episode.

“We’re talking about Minnesota right now,” he said. “This was a killing by an ICE agent. There are videos that are now online. There’s testimony that’s being brought to light. It’s horrific. I encourage folks to watch those videos and see what’s happened for themselves.”

Continue Reading

Congress

Trump has ‘greenlit’ Russia sanctions bill, Lindsey Graham says

Published

on

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday after meeting with President Donald Trump that the Senate could vote as soon as next week to impose new sanctions aimed at pressuring Russia to end its war with Ukraine.

“After a very productive meeting today with President Trump on a variety of issues, he greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that I have been working on for months with Senator [Richard] Blumenthal and many others,” Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement, referring to the Connecticut Democrat who coauthored the long-stalled legislation.

Spokespeople for the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Graham said a Senate vote would take place “hopefully as early as next week.”

Graham and Senate Republican leaders have been working with the White House for months to try to reach an agreement on a final version of the legislation — and this isn’t the first time Graham has declared that his bill could soon move, for it to only stall out again.

The legislation would place secondary sanctions on countries such as China and India that buy oil and gas from Russia in a bid to cut off the cash flow for President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

“Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent,” Graham said, saying the legislation would be “well-timed.”

A spokesperson for Graham didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether changes will be incorporated at Trump’s request. The president has previously requested absolute flexibility to impose and retract any sanctions at will.

Continue Reading

Trending