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Republican Senators Vote to Formally Silence Elizabeth Warren New York Times WASHINGTON Republican senators voted on Tuesday to formally silence a Democratic colleague for impugning a peer, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, by condemning his nomination for attorney general while reading a letter from Coretta Scott King. Republicans vote to rebuke Elizabeth Warren, saying she impugned Sessions's characterWashington Post Jeff Merkley Defies Senate Republican Leader by Reading Coretta Scott King's Words on the Floor of CongressWillamette Week Republicans Vote To Silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren In Confirmation DebateNPR The Hill (blog) -The Guardian -Vox -YouTube all 378 news articles »

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Republican Senators Vote to Formally Silence Elizabeth Warren - New York Times

Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., hold a news conference after unveiling immigration legislation they say is aimed at cutting the number of green cards issued annually by the United States in half. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption

Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., hold a news conference after unveiling immigration legislation they say is aimed at cutting the number of green cards issued annually by the United States in half.

When he was running for president, Donald Trump pledged to reduce immigration both the illegal and legal varieties.

His allies in Congress hope to make good on that promise, and two Republican lawmakers have introduced new legislation targeting legal immigration.

The landmark Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 eased the path across the nation's borders for people from Asia and Africa parts of the world that previously had limited opportunity to immigrate to the United States.

Today, a new generation of immigration restrictionists thinks it's time to reduce the overall flow. The junior senators from Arkansas and Georgia, Tom Cotton and David Perdue, are proposing a new law.

"The goal here is to get our immigration levels back to historical norms, to take something of a pause to allow the economy to catch up with the immigrants that we have allowed into our country over the last two generations," Cotton says, "and to focus on the well-being of American citizens, those citizens who are here today, many of whom are struggling economically."

Their bill would do three things: First, limit the number of foreign nationals who are able to get green cards to reunite with their families already in the U.S. currently the largest category of legal immigrants; second, cut the number of refugees in half; third, eliminate the diversity visa lottery a program that gives visas to countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Cotton says the number of green cards awarded each year about a million is excessive.

"In one year, this would reduce it to around 600,000," Cotton says. "Over the span of the 10-year window it would fall to about 500,000."

A plan to cut immigration in half faces entrenched opposition among immigration-friendly Republicans, pro-immigrant Democrats, and business lobbies that favors high immigration rates.

But the proposed law has friends in a high place: Cotton says he's been coordinating with the Trump administration and its coterie of longtime anti-immigration figures, including chief strategist Steve Bannon, Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, and Julie Kirchner.

Kirchner, the former executive director of the far-right immigration restrictionist group Federation for American Immigration Reform, is now a special political adviser in U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Linda Chavez, a conservative political commentator who served in the Reagan White House, says these restrictionist voices are being amplified this year.

"I've been around this issue for 35 years," she says. "We've never seen the kind of reception for these groups that we're seeing in the Trump administration."

The idea that the time has come to invite fewer people from around the globe to become Americans is based on the belief that there are simply too many unskilled immigrants, and that they are competing with low-skilled Americans for jobs.

Economists have done studies for and against this theory, and each side fervently defends its case.

"It would be serious, serious changes to the dynamism of the American economy and the American spirit," says Tamar Jacoby, head of Immigration Works USA, a pro-business group that wants more legal immigrant workers.

The arguments are not all economic there is a cultural component, the notion that it's time to let the American melting pot cool down for a spell.

In the House of Representatives, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, expects to propose a companion bill to reduce immigration. He is concerned about immigrant enclaves growing in metropolitan areas.

"When you have so many immigrants being admitted, they tend to cluster together, they tend to maybe be a bit more slow in learning the English language, to becoming acculturated, to becoming patriotic Americans," Smith says.

The bill is the first in a series of GOP measures intended to redesign the American immigration system. Everyone agrees immigration desperately needs fixing, but it remains to be seen if Congress is ready to narrow the gate.

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Republican Lawmakers Propose New Law To Reduce Legal Immigration - NPR

On 7 February 2017, Kentucky lawmaker Thomas Massie announcedthat he had written an eight-word bill that proposes the elimination of the federal Department of Education. The bill reads, in its entirety:

The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.

In a statement released to the media, Massie advocated leaving education up to parents, teachers, and local leaders:

Massie said, Neither Congress nor the President, through his appointees, has the constitutional authority to dictate how and what our children must learn."

Massie added, "Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our childrens intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school."

For years, I have advocated returning education policy to where it belongs - the state and local level, said Rep. Walter Jones, an original co-sponsor. D.C. bureaucrats cannot begin to understand the needs of schools and its students on an individual basis. It is time that we get the feds out of the classroom, and terminate the Department of Education.

Ive always been a proponent of empowering parents, teachers and local school boards who best know our children and their needs," said Rep. Raul Labrador, another original co-sponsor. "Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education is the most important step we in Congress can take in returning decision making to the local level.

That sucha bill comesfrom Massie, a United States representative from Kentucky, is not particularly surprising, as he tends tochampion small government. Efforts to abolish the federal Education Department (which was founded by President Jimmy Carter in 1979) are also not new for the Republican Party:

Massie and his co-sponsors are not the first to call for an end to the Education Department. During his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan recommended that the department then about a year old be abolished, but by the beginning of his second term, he abandoned the plan because of heated resistance from Congress.

Other Republican leaders, including Trump, have spearheaded campaigns and pushed platforms which angled on eliminating or slashing funding to the Education Department. During his unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign, Former Texas governor and current Energy Secretary Rick Perry also said hed eliminate the Education Department.

Perhaps the most coordinated of such pushes was packaged in the 1996 Republican party platform. Our formula is as simple as it is sweeping: the federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the workplace, the platform read. That is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, and promote family choice at all levels of learning.

Massie also supports efforts to do away with the Environmental Protection Agency and for the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations. However, given that the Senate confirmed a Secretary of Education (Betsy DeVos) on 7 February 2017, they appear to be in no real rush to dismantle the agency.

Originally published: 07 February 2017

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Skylines

Press Release. "Rep. Massie Introduces Bill to Abolish Federal Department of Education." 7 February 2017.

Olumhense, Ese. "Republican Introduces One-Sentence Bill to End Education Department." Tribune Media Wire Service. 7 February 2017.

Cincinnati Enquirer. "Massie Bill: Eliminate US Education Dept." 7 February 2017.

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Republican Introduces Bill That Would Abolish the Department of Education - snopes.com

This article first appeared on The Daily Signal.

When the 115th Congress arrived January 3, the majority had an ambitious agenda. With Republicans in control of the House and Senate, and soon the White House, it was the first time in 10 years they could advance their policy agenda unobstructed by Democrats.

Yet a month later, the GOP-led Congress has produced just three bills for President Donald Trump to sign: a waiver allowing retired Marine GeneralJames Mattis to serve as defense secretary, a joint resolution repealing the Obama administrations stream protection rule and another resolution reversing a Securities and Exchange Commission rule pertaining to energy companies.

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Republicans have delayed action on campaign promises such as repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood.

In the Senate, Republicans are struggling to overcome Democrat delays in confirming Trumps Cabinet nominees.

Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) during a luncheon at the Congress of Tomorrow Republican Member Retreat January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia. Rachel del Guidice writes that there is growing frustration among conservatives that the GOP isnt moving quickly enough to capitalize on Trumps first 100 days and the limited window of opportunity in Washington. Alex Wong/Getty

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said those delays have made the Senates job unnecessarily difficult. In a statement provided to The Daily Signal, the Kentucky Republican said:

Democrat obstruction has reached such extreme levels that the smallest number of Cabinet officials have been confirmed in modern history at this point in a presidency. Its a historic break in tradition, a departure from how newly elected presidents of both parties have been treated in decades past.

The result is growing frustration among conservatives that the GOP isnt moving quickly enough to capitalize on Trumps first 100 days and the limited window of opportunity in Washington.

Related: Trump's National Security Handover Chaotic, Officials Say

This week, for instance, the House will work just two days due to a Democrat retreat. Last month, Republicans decamped for three days for their own retreat in Philadelphia.

Last year, when House Speaker Paul Ryan outlined his A Better Way agenda, the Wisconsin Republican billed it as the GOPs blueprint for the coming year.

This is our game plan for 2017, Ryan told reporters in October.

A month later, after Trumps victory in November, a jubilant Ryan boasted about the forthcoming dawn of a new unified Republican government.

If we are going to put our country back on the right track, we have got to be bold and we have to go big. This country is expecting absolutely no less, Ryan said in November. We want to make sure we hit the ground running in January, so we can deliver on the new presidents agenda.

In December, Ryan told CBS Newss 60 Minutes that the first bill were going to be working on is our Obamacare legislation.

And while the House took the first step January 13 by approving a resolution establishing the framework for repeal, lawmakers missed their January 27 deadline to draft the Obamacare repeal legislation.

A senior congressional aide told The Daily Signal that Republicans are determined to provide Obamacare relief for struggling Americans.

The Senate began consideration the first day of the new congressional session, the aide said of the drive to repeal and replace Obamacare, adding:

After [the Senate passed] that resolution, which is the start of the repeal process, the House passed the resolution immediately upon receiving it. House committees are now writing the reconciliation [bill] to repeal and potentially even include some replace.

Ryan also said defunding Planned Parenthood would be included in the budget reconciliation package, just as it was in a 2015 bill the Republicans passed and President Barack Obama vetoed early in 2016.

The latest timeline, according an internal House schedule leaked last week, suggests the reconciliation bill could be considered in Marchalthough it could slip until April.

Congresss lack of progress on the Obamacare repeal and Planned Parenthood defunding stand in contrast to the activity of the 111th Congress during Obamas first weeks in office.

In 2009, Obama signed into law three significant bills passed by the Democrat-led Congress. They included the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion economic stimulus package; the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which proponents said would end pay discrimination against women; and the Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, which provided states with new funding and programming for childrens health care coverage through Medicaid.

Congress introduced each bill either right before or soon after Obama was sworn into office; Obama signed them within his first 36 days.

Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter bill January 27, the childrens health bill February4and the stimulus package February 13.

So far in the 115th Congress, lawmakers passed the Mattis waiver, approved a resolution undoing requirements for coal mining operations, and approved another resolution loosening restrictions on the extraction of natural resources.

In his first two weeks as president, Trump has kept busy despite the lack of congressional activity. He signed eight executive orders, including one that begins the process of dismantling Obamacare.

The budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress in 2015 repealed Obamacare and defunded Planned Parenthood. Although that bill could not repeal the entirety of Obamacare due to Senate rules, it could dismantle a large portion.

Rachel Bovard, a former Senate aide who is director of policy services at The Heritage Foundation, said Congress could have presented a repeal bill to Trump on January20, the day he took the oath of office.

Congress has been a disappointment so far, considering the fact that there is unified control of the government, Bovard told The Daily Signal. Congress could have had an Obamacare repeal bill on Trumps desk at 12:01 p.m. on Inauguration Day, especially if theyd used the 2015 repeal bill that passed both Houses.

There is no excuse for the lack of action, she added. And, indeed, by delaying it, theyve allowed the debate to get muddled, slowed the momentum considerably, and in doing so made the task that much harder.

With midterm elections coming November6, 2018, some conservatives argue that Republicans have no place to hide.

The Washington, D.C., Republicans are out of excuses, Drew Ryun, national director of the Madison Project, a conservative political action committee, said in an email to The Daily Signal. Ryun added:

There are no more electoral goal posts to move. They have the House, the Senateand with Trump in the White House. For years they have campaigned on the promises of repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood.

Unfortunately for them, their inaction is proving two things: They may really be a party without ideas as well as one that pays lip service to its base with no intent of action. This is a dangerous position for them to be in, with midterms just around the corner.

Rachel del Guidice is a reporter for The Daily Signal.

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Democrats Reduce Republican Reforms to a Trickle - Newsweek

Rich McKinless, a card-carrying Republican who voted for neither Hillary nor Bill Clinton, nor Barack Obama, has made a habit of opening his doors to those in need of shelter. And, of late, that group often has included Muslim refugees.

"My parents are no bleeding-heart liberals. You will not find them protesting at Dulles (airport)," she wrote. "But they are Christians, and they love the United States."

Also joining Baldwin on "CNN Newsroom," the younger McKinless offered a glimpse into what she described as an enriched upbringing.

"I learned welcoming the stranger is not a burden. It's really a joy, an opportunity to learn about people who are differentfrom you and to create lifelong friendships."

Within his Manassas community, which lies roughly 30 miles west of Washington, D.C., McKinless notes that he's been met with nothing short of support from neighbors and friends alike.

"Everybody saw it as an opportunity to jump in and welcome new Americans," he said.

Though the McKinless family has made a practice of hosting those needing refuge for years, it was Ashley's article and video -- published online last week in response to the President's executive order barring travel for people from certain countries -- that shined a light on their own open-door policy.

Writing about her time living at home, Ashley noted that she could "scarcely remember a time growing up when we did not have a cousin or a friend of a friend or a complete stranger living in the guest room."

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Republican family opens home to Muslims seeking refuge - CNN