#119th congress

[saywhat-politics]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: suspend the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade during the next Democratic trifecta

Alexander Bolton at The Hill:

Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced Wednesday that there are currently enough votes in the Senate to suspend the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade and abortion rights if Democrats win control of the House and keep the Senate and White House. “We will suspend the filibuster. We have the votes for that on Roe v. Wade,” Warren said on ABC’s “The View.”

She said if Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2025, “the first vote Democrats will take in the Senate, the first substantive vote, will be to make Roe v. Wade law of the land again in America.” The Massachusetts Democrat said her party would only need “skinny” majorities in the House and Senate to override the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the national right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. “We can make Roe v. Wade law of the land if we have, and I have to be clear, we’ve got to have a majority in the House — skinny majority. We can take a really skinny majority in the Senate, I’ll take fifty. And a Democrat in the White House. We have those three things we will suspend the filibuster,” she said.

Speaking on ABC’s The View Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) supports the idea of suspending the filibuster to pass a Codify Roe bill should the Dems get a trifecta.

From the 07.17.2024 edition of ABC's The View:

[tomorrowusa]

While House Republicans all publicly display fealty to Donald Trump to some degree, the situation just beneath the surface is more complex.

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05) will still be a GOP House member, but she is taking the radical step of refusing committee assignments and boycotting House Republican Caucus meetings.

Rep. Victoria Spartz announced Monday that she is opting out from serving on committees next year and will boycott the House GOP conference meetings, a rare move given she also stated her intention to remain a Republican. “I will stay as a registered Republican but will not sit on committees or participate in the caucus until I see that Republican leadership in Congress is governing. I do not need to be involved in circuses,” Spartz wrote on X. The decision to step down confused some Republicans, but others suspected the move had something to do with the House GOP Steering Committee not giving her a coveted post on the House Ways and Means Committee, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

With Republicans down to a 5-seat majority in the House, every member who deviates from strict adherence to the caucus is a new headache for the GOP leadership.

A House Speaker needs 218 votes to get elected. Several Republican House members have already said they would not vote for Mike Johnson. In early January, the House will be quite a spectacle.

[deadpresidents]

trump and mike johnson keep talking about a little secret, do you think johnson is going to help trump steal the election when the electoral votes are counted since he is speaker of the house?

Fun fact: Hakeem Jeffries will probably be the Speaker of the House on that day, not Mike Johnson!

The certification of the Electoral College results is January 6, 2025. The new Congress begins on January 3rd. No matter what happens everywhere else, it looks as if the Democrats will most likely win control of the House of Representatives next week. Unlike the Republicans, the Democratic caucus in the House won't need several weeks to elect a Speaker. It's going to be Hakeem Jeffries, and when that happens, whatever the "little secret" that Trump and Johnson keep giggling about might be, Johnson is going to be, at best, House Minority Leader on January 6th. And don't forget that the Joint Session on January 6th will be presided over by the Vice President and I think we know where she stands on the issue.

[mstornadox]

Stacey Plaskett asking why the representatives from US colonies and territories were not called to vote for the speaker. Short answer is that they are non-voting members.

Note that the audio cuts out right as she says “—they have a voice!” If you watch the clip on MSNBC, you can hear more of her words, but the CC only states [applause]. This would be so trite and heavy-handed and unbelievable were it a scene in a movie.

And yes, the US does have a colonies and territories problem. They should become states or countries or whatever their people want. In the meantime, though, MAKE THEIR REPRESENTATIVES FULL VOTING MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.

[emily20201]

Congress races to avoid government shutdown before the holidays

Congressional leaders are racing to finish up this session’s legislative work, including a short-term spending bill that will need to be approved this week to avoid a government shutdown right before the holidays. Learn More

[africanamericanreports]

The Congressional Black Caucus held member elections for the CBC Executive Committee for the 119th Congress. The CBC will begin the 119th Congress on January 3, 2025, with 62 members – the largest membership in the caucus’ history. #congresionalblackcaucus #119thcongress #YvetteDClarke #AfricanAmerican

[eugenedebs1920]

I’m not sure why, but I am honestly shocked by the capitulation and subservient nature of the Republican lawmakers.

I do my best to not travel in conspiracy theories, abide with more of an Occam’s razor approach. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. So in my mind the weakness and the refusal to even slightly object to some incredibly egregious orders and actions from the new administration was based on their fear of being primaried and losing their seat, or fear of reprisal from their more extreme maga constituents.

My mind wonders into other possibilities though…

If you dive into the rightward swing of the judiciary after the very progressive and open minded liberties ruled upon by the Warren court you begin to spiral down a vortex of Christianity, very wealthy capitalists, right wing indoctrination of Ivy League students, and individuals who perceive democracy as more of a hindrance to their success than a fair system of self governance.

Quick side story. Most people are not aware that the “pro-life” movement was born (pardon the pun) out of the desegregation of schools. Jerry Faldwell was opposed to mandated desegregation, long story short, the government threatened to tax the church if they were unwilling to comply with the Civil Rights Act. Faldwell had very recently stumbled upon what would become the modern day mega church style of reaching an enormous audience and was making money hand over fist. As most people with copious amounts of wealth they opposed contributing to society by paying their fair share in taxes on their revenue. Opposing taxation because you were racist and didn’t want children of color in your classrooms was an unflattering position to stand on. He needed something controversial, something that contained strong opinions on both sides of the argument that wasnt racism. He settled on abortion as the hot button topic in which to levy his protest against complying to desegregation, or having to contribute tax revenue.

Anyway, I digress…

When you look at the current court, the Federalist Society plays a major role in the installation of justices, the bonkers textualist stance, the ideology of the “conservative” justices generally.

I don’t want to, nor do I have time today to go down that great expanse of a rabbit hole regarding the Federalist Society, The Heritage Foundation, Harlan Crow, Clarence Thomas, etc etc, but I will say they have had an itinerary for the the implementation of the theocratic agenda they desired going on more than 40 years now.

Fortunately for us society is moving away from the mythological explanations of the unknown used to control the masses and quiet dissent from the peasantry for the exploitation of their labor to enrich the ruling class hoarding the majority of societies capital, and into a more scientific explanation with spirituality being a more personal experience.

The conservative platform is not popular. The policies of the right overwhelmingly benefit the incredibly wealthy through the abuse and neglect of the workers. As technology and society progressed, the traditional viewpoints of patriarchy, whites superiority, and the dominance of a ruling class have become less and less popular.

Yet through patience, planning, scheming, and corruption, the religious right has perpetuated a minority rule. The electoral college, the equal representation to disproportionate constituency of the senate, and good ol fashioned cronyism poised the increasingly less relevant political stance to acquire disproportionate power despite the populations copacetic views of it.

What if this is where the 40 plus years of planning has finally come to fruition? What if the conditions were set to make that move to circumvent democracy and self rule to finally implement the authoritarian, kleptocratic, theocracy they sought? Like a cornered animal, dangerous and desperate, pouncing on what they perceive as a threat on the plan they strived so long to achieve.

A useful idiot in the executive. A stacked judiciary of their members. A manufactured division of the citizens. A complacent and feckless legislature. An abundance of wedge issues. A media apparatus existing in a fact free platform of their chosen propaganda. A society unable or unwilling to obtain objective truth.

I’m not confident this is t the case. I can see the dominos in line to topple. The behavior and rhetoric coming from the new administration, mixed with the misinformation sphere of today’s information platforms. The utter disdain created between a two party system against one another.

Some things are too coincidental to be a coincidence. If you don’t read the road signs what are they there for. JD Vance, Steven Miller, Russ Vought, they look, act, and think like commanders from the Handmaids Tale. Their policies fit as well.

Hopefully I’m just paranoid and this is all some crazy conspiracy theory in my head from reading Orwell and watching too many movies and shows.

Although…. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you 

A House hearing Tuesday descended into chaos when Chairman James Comer (R-KY) threatened to have Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) forcibly removed for calling President Donald Trump a “grifter.”

During his speaking time, Frost called Trump the “grifter-in-chief” and accused both him and Elon Musk of using their positions to “enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars.”

“So if we wanna look at waste, fraud, and abuse — which I’m down to do — why is there complete silence on the other side of the aisle about looking at the complete grifter that is the President of the United States,” Frost said, “and the richest man on the Earth, which is looking into things like social security and different things like that? Why don’t we investigate the real corruption?”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Elizabeth Warren at LGBTQ Nation:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wasn’t having it when Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth suddenly claimed to support women serving in combat roles. “Women in our military, as I have said publicly, have and continue to make amazing contributions across all aspects of our battlefield,” Hegseth said during his Senate confirmation hearing, despite several public claims that women in combat make the military weaker. During Warren’s line of questioning, she read a list of the many times Hegseth blasted the idea of women in combat. She included dates, quotes, and media outlets where he spoke about these beliefs. “I’ve heard of death bed conversions,” she said, “but this is the first time I’ve heard of a nomination conversion.”

Good on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for calling out Pete Hegseth’s past opposition to women serving in the military to his face Tuesday.

[tomorrowusa]

GOP Senate President Pro Tem predicts Dems quickly to rebound

Eugene Daniels – White House correspondent for POLITICO: [I]t also seems the Republican Party is more unified behind him than it was in 2017. And Democrats seem to lack a clear, coherent message against Donald Trump this time around.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) – Senate President Pro Tem: I think that we Republicans ought to be cautious about what appears to be disarray in the Democratic Party, because I think they have the ability to reunify and get back. They’re going to be a strong minority. They don’t look like it today on Jan. 22, but I’ll bet Jan. 22 of 2026, it’ll be a whole different show. It’ll take them a while to get there, but we can’t take anything for granted that we’re going to have a weak Democratic Party. Daniels: What gives you that feeling that they are going to get things together? Because every Democrat that I’ve spoken with feels the opposite. Grassley: They have the ability to sing off the same song sheet. That’s something Republicans are very bad about. I mean, it may not appear to you today that it’s that bad of a situation for Republicans. But I’m telling you, Democrats are more unified and on the same message. It may not appear today, but they’ll get back there and get back fast.

Yep, a very senior Senate Republican sees Democrats as more unified and more on message than Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Lately, pundits and pollsters have lapsed into their predictable "Democrats in disarray" mode while they are also glossing over fissures in MAGA.

Regardless, in the only elections of 2025 so far, special elections for the Virginia legislature, Democrats held their own and retained control of the legislature.

There are general elections in Virginia and New Jersey this year as well as a number of special legislative elections. This graphic shows the ones scheduled to date.

Not sure which legislative district you're in? Check this out...

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

Political power begins at the state level, it's in the very name of the country – the United States.

State legislatures are at the base of the constitutional pyramid in the US. Constitutional amendments require approval of 75% of legislatures. And they also determine how the state's Electoral Votes are cast.

State governments also have wide powers over education, health, voting, and transportation.

Ignoring state politics is the most passively destructive thing you can do politically when there is an unhinged wannabe autocrat in the White House.

So get involved – and live up to Sen. Grassley's prediction of a Dem bounce back this year.

[justinssportscorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

After Mike Johnson’s election as Speaker of the House, Republicans unveiled their top legislative priorities for 2025. Leading the list was a bill targeting transgender participation in sports—a measure so expansive it could impact everything from team sports to activities like dancing, darts, and even chess. On Tuesday, the House is set to take up the bill, with a Senate vote anticipated shortly thereafter. If enacted, the legislation would have immediate and far-reaching consequences: transgender individuals could be barred from participating in sports, forced to publicly out themselves, and face the erosion of legal recognition for their gender identity in broader aspects of U.S. law.

When asked about the bill’s prospects, sources familiar with the proceedings described the Senate vote as “close.” With a 60-vote threshold required, it remains unclear how many Democrats will support banning transgender participation in sports, but enough are considering doing so to bring the vote down to the wire. This vote will mark the first major direct congressional vote on transgender issues for many of the elected officials. Republicans appear poised to replicate a strategy that has driven the passage of hundreds of anti-trans laws and policies in recent years: begin with sports bans, normalize denying the legitimacy of transgender identities, and expand to restrictions in broader aspects of life.

Democrats have largely managed to sidestep taking direct, floor-wide votes on transgender issues post-election. During the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, an anti-trans provision barring the children of U.S. service members from receiving coverage for gender-affirming care was included in the final legislation. The bill passed with the support of 81 Democratic House members and was signed into law by President Biden, marking the first national anti-transgender law enacted in the modern wave of legislative attacks on transgender rights in the United States. While the transgender provision was just one small part of a broader budgetary bill—a strategy Republicans are likely to replicate in future fights—the precedent it sets is significant. A Senate vote to strip the provision was blocked by Democratic leadership, signaling that Democrats may be on the brink of conceding on transgender issues even in the one chamber where they currently hold enough power to offer meaningful protection.

The bill, set for a hearing on Tuesday, stipulates that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” It prohibits transgender female participation by barring “recipients of Federal financial assistance who operate, sponsor, or facilitate athletic programs or activities” from allowing “a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.” If passed, the legislation would result in the immediate outing and exclusion of transgender athletes in sports programs at schools and colleges across the United States. Moreover, it would mark the first instance in recent U.S. law where transgender individuals are explicitly defined as not legally belonging to the gender with which they identify, as recognized by their identification documents and court rulings. While the bill is expected to impact sports that have become hot-button issues for conservatives, such as swimming and volleyball, it is also poised to have far-reaching—and perhaps intended—consequences for other areas of competition. The legislation prohibits athletic associations from making case-by-case judgments for competitive fairness and instead imposes a blanket ban on transgender participation. This sweeping approach means transgender individuals could be excluded from activities such as darts, billiards, dancing, disc golf, fishing, and other sports where claims of unfair advantage are tenuous at best. Even chess—recognized as a sport by multiple universities—could fall under the bill’s scope, echoing a recent move by FIDE, the international chess organization, to bar transgender women from women’s chess competitions. Notably, each of these sports has seen targeted attacks from Republicans in recent years.

[...] There is also no sign that selectively voting in sports bans is politically effective for elected leaders who decide to do so under the false pretense that it will save their jobs. In New Hampshire, one of the states where Democrats arguably capitulated the most on transgender rights—with 16 Democrats voting in favor of or “present” on a transgender sports ban, allowing it to pass—the Democratic candidate for governor lost, and Republicans gained several seats in both the House and Senate, and they have named forced outing of trans students as their next priority. Meanwhile, in Montana, where Democrats fought back fiercely against anti-trans legislation, they gained 10 seats in the House—their largest gain in the past 30 years. With House action expected Tuesday and a Senate vote expected in coming weeks, those who wish to speak to their elected officials about the policy can call them using the address lookup tool provided by Datamade.

Dear House and Senate Democrats, don’t you even entertain thoughts of capitulation and throwing out trans folk. Bans on trans people participating in sports competitions aligned with their gender identity are just the beginning step to make other anti-trans policies palatable.

Hopefully the Senate Dems stand strong and stop cloture of this harmful bill that doesn’t do jack squat about “protecting women’s sports.”

See Also:

Outsports: Republicans push new federal ban on trans athletes as bill faces an early vote in new Congress

[arcadiaberger]

Compete in EVERY Race: Two Under-the-Radar WINNABLE Senate races Florida...

#North Dakota  #Florida  #Compete In Every Race  #119th Congress  #50 States  #RIPGOP   project2025.com

[cynicalclassicist]

But only if people make sure to vote all over! Don't give the Republicans an inch, or you may lose a mile!

trump and mike johnson keep talking about a little secret, do you think johnson is going to help trump steal the election when the electoral votes are counted since he is speaker of the house?

Fun fact: Hakeem Jeffries will probably be the Speaker of the House on that day, not Mike Johnson!

The certification of the Electoral College results is January 6, 2025. The new Congress begins on January 3rd. No matter what happens everywhere else, it looks as if the Democrats will most likely win control of the House of Representatives next week. Unlike the Republicans, the Democratic caucus in the House won't need several weeks to elect a Speaker. It's going to be Hakeem Jeffries, and when that happens, whatever the "little secret" that Trump and Johnson keep giggling about might be, Johnson is going to be, at best, House Minority Leader on January 6th. And don't forget that the Joint Session on January 6th will be presided over by the Vice President and I think we know where she stands on the issue.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Bramhall

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 3, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 04, 2025

Today a new Congress, the 119th, came into session. As Annie Karni of the New York Times noted, Americans had a rare view into the floor action of the House because the party in control sets the rules for what parts of the House floor viewers can see. Without a speaker, there is no party in charge to set the rules, so the C-SPAN cameras recording the day could move as their operators wished.

Republicans took control of both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. All eyes were on the House, where Republicans will hold 219 seats. Initially, though, that number will be 218: The seat to which Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was elected will be empty since he resigned from the previous Congress and, after the House Ethics Committee released a report saying there was “substantial evidence” that Gaetz had broken state and federal laws, apparently decided to focus on his new media show rather than return to the House. When the clerk announced that Gaetz would not take a seat in the 119th Congress, applause broke out.

The Democrats hold 215 seats, and everyone showed up to opening day, including Dwight Evans (D-PA), who has been absent since suffering a stroke last May, and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who fell and broke her hip on a congressional trip to Luxembourg in mid-December. Scott MacFarlane reported that Pelosi, who received a hip replacement at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, entered the chamber smiling. C-SPAN reported that she had replaced her trademark high heels with flats.

Notably, there are fewer women in the 119th Congress than in the previous one, and there will be no women chairing committees in the Republican-dominated House.

The first problem for the Republicans to solve was the election of a House speaker. It took 15 ballots to elect Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) when the Republicans took control of the House in 2023, and McCarthy had made so many concessions to the far right that they were able to remove him from office just ten months later, the first time in history that a party removed its own speaker in the middle of a session. Then they cycled through four candidates and four votes before settling on backbencher Mike Johnson (R-LA) for speaker. But while Johnson’s evangelical Christianity and support for Trump’s Big Lie about having won the 2020 presidential election indicated he was an extremist, Johnson immediately infuriated the far-right wing of the Republican Party by agreeing to fund the government without incorporating their extreme demands.

Far-right members want to use the need to fund government operations as leverage to get what they want. In a memo before today’s vote, they claimed that Trump and the Republicans hold a “historic mandate,” although in fact Trump won less than 50% of the vote in one of the smallest margins in U.S. history. They have said publicly they would not vote for Johnson as speaker again, likely to extract concessions that give them more power, but Johnson vowed not to make any concessions to them.

Trump was mad at Johnson for backing the passage just before Christmas of a continuing resolution to fund the government without getting rid of the debt ceiling as Trump demanded. But, likely recognizing that the House needs to be organized before it can count the electoral votes that will make him president, Trump endorsed Johnson on social media and worked the phones to support him before today’s vote.

In the first ballot today, all 215 Democrats voted for Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), with him and former House speaker Pelosi sharing a hug when she voted for him. A number of Republicans declined to vote initially, then 216 voted for Johnson while three others voted for someone else, leaving Johnson two votes short of the 218 he needed to be elected.

It was a dramatic rejection not only of Johnson, but also of Trump, who had posted that “[a] win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential Presidential Election!!—A BIG AFFIRMATION, INDEED. MAGA!” But his candidate still could not get the votes he needed from within his own party to run the House.

Scenes like this explain why I remain astonished by the persistence of the narrative that the Democrats are divided while the Republicans are in lockstep.

After the initial vote but before it was gaveled to a close, Johnson went into his office with eight members of the far-right Freedom Caucus, while Trump and incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles called the holdouts. When they emerged, two of the members who had voted for people other than Johnson switched their vote to him, giving him the votes he needed to become the speaker of the 119th Congress. One of the holdouts, Ralph Norman (R-SC) was the man who urged Trump to declare “Marshall Law” on January 17, 2021, to keep President-elect Joe Biden from taking over the presidency.

As soon as they had voted for Johnson, eleven far-right representatives sent a letter to their colleagues saying they had voted for Johnson because they wanted to make sure they didn’t mess up the January 6 counting of Trump’s electoral votes. But they warned that if Johnson didn’t reduce the deficit by enacting “real” spending cuts, stop working with Democrats, and only entertain measures supported by a majority of Republicans, they would challenge his speakership.

For his part, Democratic leader Jeffries said to the House: “Our position is that it is not acceptable to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut veterans' benefits, or cut nutritional assistance from children and families in order to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations.”

So Johnson is speaker again, but he’s already caught between the MAGAs demanding significant budget cuts and the Democrats’ promise to call attention to every one of those cuts. And popular anger at billionaires seems to be increasing daily: today Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonist Ann Telnaes left the Washington Post after her editor killed a cartoon criticizing the tech and media leaders who have been currying favor with Trump. “[E]ditorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate,” she wrote, and after watching colleagues overseas “risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to…hold their countries’ leaders accountable,” she chose to leave so she could continue to speak truth to power.

This afternoon, Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump to report in person or virtually for sentencing in the election interference case in which a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies related to payments he made to film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public with the story of their sexual encounter before the 2016 election. Trump had tried to get the case dismissed because he had been elected president. His spokesperson called the sentencing order a “witch hunt.”

Merchan indicated he would not sentence Trump to serve time in jail.

Meanwhile, at the White House today, President Joe Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to five Korean War veterans who may have been denied the nation’s highest award for military valor because of their race or ethnicity, and upgraded awards of the Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor for two veterans of the Vietnam War. Specialist Fourth Class Kenneth J. David was the only one of the men who could receive the honor personally. Biden also awarded fourteen individuals with the National Medal of Science and nine people and two organizations with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He also awarded the Medal of Valor to eight public safety officers for acting above and beyond the call of duty. The awards went to officers who ran toward gunfire to save children during the Nashville Covenant School shooting, swam through freezing water to save a drowning woman, and rushed into burning buildings to rescue women and children.

Biden honored the military personnel for their bravery, and the scientists for their “discoveries that are helping us meet the climate crisis, treat crippling disease, create lifesaving vaccines, pioneer the way we communicate, and significantly improve our understanding of the universe and our place within it.” But it was his remarks about the eight public safety officers awarded the Medal of Valor for acting above and beyond the call of duty that stood out.

He called in the press and said: “Folks, I wanted you to come in because…I think it’s very important that the public see them and know who they are…. There’s a lot fewer empty chairs around the kitchen table and dining room table because of what these guys did.” Biden thanked their families, “because if you’re the spouse of a firefighter or a police officer, you always worry about that phone call,” and told the award recipients: “You’re the best America has to offer.”

Yesterday, Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, given to those “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” to twenty Americans including former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who served on the January 6 committee. Today, Trump attacked Cheney and others who investigated the events of January 6, 2021, as “dishonest Thugs.”

Cheney responded: “Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us. Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened? Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you. Remember how you sent a mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember. And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic—to protect the America we love from you.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[saywhat-politics]

BREAKING: Republican Congressman Andy Biggs has introduced a bill to abolish OSHA. The entire text of the bill reads "The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is repealed. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is abolished."

What this bill would mean is the complete elimination of federal workplace safety protections. Millions of jobs in numerous states where the state-level protections are below the federal minimums would immediately become more dangerous.