Exclusive with incoming Rep. Tom Barrett – 11/21/24 Edition

Senate shakeup scoop 1: Senate Democrats are changing up their committee leadership for the next Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) is remaining atop the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) is taking over Agriculture and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.) is taking over the Budget Committee. Senate shakeup scoop 2: Sen. Roger Marshall (R., Kansas) is likely to join the Finance Committee if Republicans add another seat to it. Dick Durbin and Hamas: Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) surprised his colleagues and Senate staff by voting on Wednesday night to restrict weapons deliveries…

Gov. Kristi Noem (R., S.D.) will likely leave office soon to assume her role as America’s next head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); but the race to succeed her, especially assuming the seat becomes open quickly, is a jump ball between the state’s lone representative in Congress, Dusty Johnson, and the state’s attorney general, Marty Jackley.

According to a poll obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, and conducted shortly before the 2024 election, Johnson and Jackley are almost tied, with the former scoring support from 25 percent of respondents and with the latter netting 28 percent support — a difference within the margin of error of the poll, which was conducted on behalf of co/efficient.

“We are already seeing a close race between Marty Jackley and Dusty Johnson,” co/efficient noted. “Key voting groups are nearly tied in their support for the two candidates, and half of voters are still to be persuaded. The candidate who can secure the former president’s endorsement will be well-positioned to win the GOP nomination.”

An American energy independence advocacy group has launched Lame Duck Watch in an effort to hold the Biden administration accountable in its waning days, and to “expose any attempted malfeasance” as Democratic political appointees exit Washington, D.C.

Power the Future, which launched Lame Duck Watch, will focus on three potential areas of corruption: green energy grift; “highlighting last-gasp efforts to shell taxpayer dollars toward so-called green projects”; and “monitoring Biden officials who find a cozy landing spot at the environmental groups they have been funding at every turn.”

With just weeks before Donald Trump assumes office, Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) has warned the Department of Justice (DOJ) against improperly deleting records, according to a letter he sent to the department’s Assistant Attorney General, Jonathan Kanter.

“According to information available to the [Judiciary] Committee, the Antitrust Division aggressively moved to escalate its regulation of American businesses shortly following the election of President Trump,” Jordan wrote to Kanter. “Specifically, we have received allegations that the Division sent demand letters to numerous businesses indicating an intention to start enforcement actions in the final days of the Biden-Harris administration.”

Nineteen Senate Democrats have voted for legislation that would restrict U.S. weapons sales to Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Some foreign policy observers told the Washington Reporter the votes group such Democrats into a “Hamas Caucus.”

The measures, put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), would restrict additional American weapons from being sold to Israel while the country is in the midst of an existential multi-front war. The Reporterfirst covered Sanders’s plans to delay these votes until after the election, which would allow more Democrats to vote against America’s ally, without fear of electoral repercussions.

Jewish voters across America shifted drastically to the right this election cycle, as Bonnie Glick and the Republican Jewish Coalition’s (RJC) Matt Brooks noted in a Washington Reporter op-ed. “Dangerous, disgraceful” votes to cut off aid to Israel, the RJC said, are “a major reason why Democrats continue to hemorrhage Jewish support.”

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R., Mich), a top contender to chair the House’s Financial Services Committee next Congress, has donated more than $10 million to elect House Republicans since he first won in 2010 — all while Democrats spent over $1 million dollars to defeat him in one of America’s most pivotal swing states.

Huizenga, his team told the Washington Reporter, has given almost $5 million directly to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), has raised $4.1 million directly to Republican incumbents and candidates through his Beers with Bill series, and has given an additional $2.2 million to Republican candidates through his leadership PAC. Huizenga himself traveled to battleground districts across America with members of House leadership this cycle.

For too long, we have seen countless Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing at a disproportional rate. While the issue has received greater attention in recent years, we must continue bringing awareness to these heartbreaking tragedies so that affected families may find the justice they deserve. We must continue to do what we can to address the devastating rates of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and Girls.

For decades, our American Indian and Alaska Native brothers and sisters have dealt with high rates of violence in their communities. Homicide is the number three leading cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native females between the ages of 10 and 24 and the number five leading cause of death for 25 to 34-year-olds. Additionally, 40 percent of all victims of sex trafficking are identified as American Indian and Alaska Native women.  In 2023 alone, over 5,800 American Indian and Alaska Native females were missing—and 74 percent were children.

In about 65 days, President Donald Trump will be sworn into office. On day one, he’ll fulfill one of his most important promises: firing Gary Gensler, President Joe Biden’s handpicked Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Over the past four years, Gensler has led a body in charge of regulating a major source of America’s economic strength: our capital markets. When he is relieved of his duties next month, he will leave a legacy that should never be repeated.

Let’s take a look back at Gensler’s time as SEC Chair — a chapter for America’s financial markets that was marked by chaos.

As the magnitude of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory reverberates from coast to coast, some New York Democrats are scrambling to understand what went wrong. Take Rep. Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.), who noted, that “the working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling.” Or Rep. Tom Suozzi (D., N.Y.), who said that, “the Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left.”

Granted, after Trump narrowed his margin by 20 points in Torres’s Bronx and outright won Suozzi’s Nassau County, there could be some political expedience behind these statements. Both men know full well they will face voters again in two short years. But give them some credit for at least nodding to reality.

Then there’s Gov. Kathy Hochul (D., N.Y.). Days after labeling Trump supporters as “anti-American” and calling his rally at Madison Square Garden “the white flag of surrender,” Hochul held a press conference alongside Attorney General Letitia James, the original architect of the left’s unceasing and unsuccessful lawfare campaign against Trump, warning the incoming administration of a pledge to “fight you every step of the way.”

As the Vice Chairman of an energy company, I’ve observed with keen interest the recent appointments to key positions in the Trump administration that directly influence our nation’s energy policies. I see these choices as strategic and forward-thinking, setting the stage for policies that will harness our nation’s rich energy resources, while maintaining effective, results-driven environmental stewardship.

The selections of former Rep. Lee Zeldin for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator and of Gov. Doug Burgum for Secretary (R., N.D.) to be Secretary of Interior (DOI) signal a robust potential for a return to pragmatic energy strategies that could significantly benefit both our industry and the nation at large.

After the pandemic, parents across the nation ran straight to the polls to elect candidates who opposed DEI and CRT in grade schools. Their efforts to elect conservative candidates — and to ensure their children were being taught to love, not hate America — were largely successful, and even a handful of our nation’s largest universities have eliminated these types of departments.

Now those winds of change have shaken Washington, D.C. itself. In 2024 the American people have sent a clear-cut message: things can’t go on as they have for the last 4 years, especially when it comes to education.

But in order to fix these problems, it’s important to understand how things got to be so bad in the first place. For the past few years, normal, traditional education has come under attack. How and why did this happen?