In our latest edition, we have a KOSA markup scoop, interviews with Rep. Tom Cole & Darrell Issa, stories on the Gold Star families and Israel, and much more.
By: Matthew Foldi
Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) told the Washington Reporter this summer that “the bottom line … is we’re not going to finish [appropriation negotiations] by September 30.” Now, days before a potential government shutdown, Cole’s prediction stands. Cole, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, spoke at length with the Reporter about where the GOP should go next in the showdown over government spending.
Following “Democratic obstructionism,” the GOP’s plans to attach the SAVE Act, a bipartisan measure that prevents non-citizens from voting in federal elections, look uncertain — as do plans to fund the government before the fiscal year ends at the end of the month.
Click HERE to read more of what Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) thinks is going to happen with the government funding battle. Click HERE to read our interview with him from over the summer where he predicted how we’d get here.
Some defense hawks had concerns over the defense spending being too low. What is your message to them?
Matthew Foldi
Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Reporter
My message would be number one, I agree with you, I think it is too low. Number two, once we get to the bargaining table, it’s going to go up. The reality is, the Senate is well above us. And if you look at the basic negotiating paradigm, what’ll happen is we’ll go into negotiation really below the Fiscal Responsibility Act plus side deals level. The Senate will come into it considerably above that. So the number is going to be somewhere in between. We’re not going to go automatically up to the Senate number, so I still think defense spending will go up.
Rep. Tom Cole
Chairman, House Appropriations Committee
House:
Senate:
What we’re hearing from people we trust on and around the Hill – please send us more tips!
By: Matthew Foldi
House and Senate staffers have received invitations from an anti-Israel organization to participate in a Leadership Learning Mission (LLM 9.0) that will visit “Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Amman.”
Middle Eastern experts describe the organization, Rebuilding Alliance, as “anti-Israel” to the Washington Reporter. It endorses the anti-Semitic movement to boycott Israel, and its blog falsely accuses Israel of both “state terrorism” and “ethnic cleansing.” Its invite also downplayed a recent terror attack in which a Jordanian man opened fire at a border crossing, murdering three Israelis as a “security incident.”
“[Update] In light of the security incident at the Allenby bridge on Sunday, we may be adjusting our itinerary,” it reads.
Click HERE to read more about the staff delegation invite that an anti-Israel group flooded House and Senate inboxes with.
By: Matthew Foldi
A bipartisan national security coalition is urging Congress to embrace the “whole of society” approach America took to winning the Cold War, and to “align around policies that both counter China’s ambitions and accelerate innovation here at home,” following the House’s week of legislation designed to counter the Chinese Communist Party.
“If policymakers fail to embrace private sector companies as essential strategic partners in our tech competition with China, we will lose this race, and hand China a decades-long advantage in national security, economic prosperity, and the advance of their values, not ours,” Doug Kelly, the CEO of the American Edge Project, wrote, in a letter first obtained by the Washington Reporter.
Kelly’s organization is composed of bipartisan organizations and individuals who “believe that America and its leaders must do everything in our power to stay ahead in the race for global tech leadership, especially in the face of foreign adversaries such as China working swiftly and strategically to overtake us.”
Click HERE to read the full letter the American Edge Project is sending to Congress, which includes its recommendations on how to combat the Chinese Communist Party.
By: Matthew Foldi
Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D., Mich.) office in Washington, D.C. seems to be closed, despite session resuming last week. At around 10:30 a.m. on Monday, September 9,, her office was “closed” and “locked” with the “lights off,” a labor union watchdog told the Washington Reporter.
Stabenow, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, is the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, which is currently working to finalize a Farm Bill.
Click HERE to read more about the work Public Labor Unions Accountability Committee (PLUAC) is doing to keep our government accountable.
By: Matthew Foldi
Prior to this weekend’s Washington Post hit piece on the 13 Gold Star families, whose loved ones were killed during Joe Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, and their primary organizer, Marlon Bateman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) told the Washington Reporter that its premise is off base. Bateman, he said, is “a hero.”
Post reporters Dan Lamothe and Isaac Arnsworth wrote an article over the weekend which attacked Bateman, and argued that Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery, during which he participated in a wreath-laying ceremony for the 13 slain servicemembers, was a “publicity stunt.” Multiple Gold Star family members — who invited Trump to the event — have already refuted such claims.
“First the media ignored the Gold Star families. Now the media are targeting them,” Issa said.
Click HERE to read more about the media’s failures to cover our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
By: Matthew Foldi
“The American Dream is in decline,” the president of a center-right think tank warned, after releasing an alarming report showing that almost no Americans believe that the American Dream is “much more” attainable than it was just ten years ago.
Sarah Hunt, the president of the policy research think tank Rainey Center, told the Washington Reporter in an interview that “unfortunately, new polling data released by our organization shows that voters think the American Dream is in decline. An overwhelming 66 percent of voters believe the dream is less attainable than it was a handful of years ago. More concerning, only one in five voters polled believe they have reached the American Dream.”
Click HERE to read more from the Rainey Center about its work to ensure that the American Dream doesn’t remain out of reach for Americans.
By: Attorney General Dave Yost
It’s not who, it’s how many.
Springfield, Ohio — a small city in the state where I serve as attorney general — is groaning under the weight of Haitian immigrants numbering as many as a third of its population in the last census.
The media is using all of its incantations — xenophobic, racist, even “conspiracy theory” — to try to shut down the debate around this real-life example of the administration’s failed immigration policies. But it’s not who, it’s how many.
Click HERE to read more from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost about what coverage of Springfield, Ohio, is missing.
By: Rep. Paul Torkelson
As American citizens, there is nothing more sacred to us than our right to vote. In order to be able to cast a ballot, common sense would dictate that if you are not a legal citizen, there is no chance you will be able to vote.
But as we’ve seen time and again in the State of Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz’s actions often defy what many consider common sense. The latest example has allowed non-Americans to be placed on our state’s voter rolls and given ballots.
In 2023, Walz signed a bill championed by Minnesota’s Democratic Party majority that allows illegal immigrants to obtain the same driver’s licenses that Minnesota’s residents receive if they choose not to apply for a Real ID or an enhanced driver’s license.
Click HERE to read more from Rep. Paul Torkelson about Gov. Tim Walz’s election integrity failures.
By: Shawn Gremminger and Bret Jackson
Many Americans consider their local hospitals pillars of their communities. Hospitals are often the largest employers in a community, sponsors of little league teams, and deliver generations of children for families. What many may not realize, however, is that this local hospital is likely owned by a large corporation that is manipulating the market to extract more money from the very people they claim to serve.
In a traditional, competitive market, if a hospital’s prices are too high, plans would move better-value providers in-network, meaning the employers are paying for the best care at the lowest cost. However, currently, over three-quarters of hospital markets are considered “highly concentrated,” due to corporate hospital systems merging at unprecedented rates. And it’s only getting worse. From 2022 to 2023, there was an 18 percent rise in the number of mergers according to a report from Kaufman Hall.
Click HERE to read more on the problems posed by mass hospital consolidation, and what can be done to fix them.
