#119th congress

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alex Bollinger at LGBTQ Nation:

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) have introduced a bill to ban Medicaid from covering all gender-affirming care for transgender minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery, The Center Square reports. Republicans are claiming that the bill should be seen as a narrow fiscal matter, meaning that it could bypass the Senate filibuster and become law more easily. “Using Medicaid funds for unproven and irreversible procedures on minors is not only medically irresponsible but also a betrayal of public trust,” Crenshaw said in a statement after filing the “Do No Harm in Medicaid Act.” “This bill ensures that Medicaid’s limited resources are used only for evidence-based, medically necessary care.”

Crenshaw is incorrect. Transgender health care has been shown to be safe and effective and American professional medical associations back best-practice gender-affirming care as a way to treat gender dysphoria. Moreover, what Medicaid covers is determined by states in accordance with federal guidelines. Crenshaw didn’t explain why so many states are covering gender-affirming if there really is no evidence to support its efficacy or why federal intervention would be needed to specifically prohibit these treatments and only for a subset of people seeking them. He said the bill contains exceptions for cisgender people to get gender-affirming care under some circumstances.

[...] Republicans now control majorities in both the House and the Senate, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has made his opposition to gender-affirming care clear in the past, claiming that kids aren’t transgender but instead are being turned transgender by their parents. [...] Usually, the Senate’s requirement for 60 votes to end a filibuster has been a significant roadblock to legislation passing Congress in the past. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate so they will need at least seven Democratic votes over the next two years to pass legislation. But Crenshaw says that the bill is narrowly tailored to get through the Senate using the reconciliation process, which is a loophole reserved for certain fiscal bills. Only a simple majority – or 51 votes, or 50 votes plus the vice president as a tie-breaker – are needed to pass legislation under reconciliation.

House Republicans plan to do a sneaky end-around to get a gender-affirming care ban passed by tucking it into a reconciliation bill to make it much easier to pass by tailoring it to a Medicaid ban on covering GAC.

[saywhat-politics]

[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.

[justinssportscorner]

Ryan Adamczeski at The Advocate:

The U.S. House of Representatives is under extreme scrutiny from LGBTQ+ rights groups after passing a bill that would effectively ban transgender women and girls from school sports. The House voted on the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 Tuesday after Republicans listed it as priority for early votes, passing with a vote of 218-206. The bill threatens to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply, and a companion bill has been introduced in the Senate. The bill is among several policies the GOP has expedited targeting trans people, which would mandate that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 be enforced based on “biological sex" — though it does not define “biological sex" — impacting trans people’s access to bathrooms, locker rooms, and protections from discrimination under the law. Transgender people are only 0.6 percent of the overall population, according to the Williams Institute, and they make up an even smaller percentage of student athletes — National Collegiate Athletic Association head Charlie Baker told a Senate panel last month that out of 510,000 athletes in U.S. NCAA schools, there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes who currently compete in college sports (0.002 percent).

The legislation has an “intrusive focus on scrutiny of students’ bodies,” according to over 400 human rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and Advocates for Trans Equality. The groups issued an open letter to the legislature in opposition to this and other bills, which they said “invite scrutiny and harassment of any other student perceived by anyone as not conforming to sex stereotypes.” The groups also called the conservative legislators pushing anti-trans legislation “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” as their “agenda is not about the rights of women and girls.”

The GOP majority passed the transphobic bill deceitfully named “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” (HR28) to ban trans girls and women from women’s sports 218-206, and the Senate is the next stop (but it has its own companion bill).

HR28 (aka the GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act) does NOT do a darn thing about “fairness in women’s sports” nor “protect women” but gives license to privacy invasion and humiliating genitalia inspections.

The good news is this: House Democrats stayed almost all united in voting against the GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act, with only 2 Democrats (Cuellar, Gonzalez) voting in favor and a 3rd voting President (D. Davis). Hopefully enough Dems in the Senate block this crud at the cloture stage.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Two Democrats help House Republicans pass anti-trans sports ban

Law Dork: GOP-led House passes bill to ban trans students from girls' sports

[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

[thenewdemocratus]

Jessica Tarlov: Donald Trump Doesn't Like To Share Power With Anyone Else

Jessica Tarlov: “What’s going on is that Donald Trump doesn’t like sharing power with anyone else. He thinks that Congress is irrelevant and he wants to run all over us. He doesn’t believe in separation of powers, he doesn’t care that Congress appropriates money.” Source:FOX News commentator Jessica Tarlov. From Vince D. Monroy From Congress.Gov: “The amendment that grants Congress the right to…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

With a simple yet striking sign, U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, a Washington Democrat, is making a bold statement against Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s new bathroom policy, which bars transgender people from using Capitol facilities aligned with their gender identity. Outside Randall’s fifth-floor Washington, D.C., office in the Longworth House Office Building, a colorful sign reads, “All Gender Restroom.” Below, it cheerfully proclaims, “All are welcome to use our restroom regardless of gender identity or expression, political ideology, or shoe size.” The sign hangs beneath an embossed seal of the State of Washington, accompanied by the words “Welcome, Please Come In.” She announced the open-door policy on Instagram during her second week in Congress. “There’s been a lot of chatter here on the hill about who’s allowed to use the bathrooms and where, which is weird, frankly, but I want to make sure that anyone who comes to visit the People’s House has access to the things that they need to be comfortable and to advocate for the issues that matter to them,” she said in the video, adding, “So if you need to go to the bathroom while you’re here in D.C., you can use ours.” Randall, the first out queer woman to represent Washington state in Congress, shared her motivation for the sign during a tour of the space with The Advocate. “When I heard about these restrictive bathroom rules, I knew we needed to do something to push back, even in a small way,” she said. “Our office is a place where everyone should feel safe and respected. That’s what this sign represents.” The welcoming gesture stands in stark contrast to Johnson’s policy, quietly enacted earlier this month, which mandates single-sex restroom use based on sex assigned at birth. [...] Randall’s decision to open her office restroom to all is more than a practical solution—it’s a symbolic act of defiance in a Congress where LGBTQ+ rights are under increasing attack. Visitors to her office are greeted by the colorful sign and her small dog, Bad Bunny, who has become a cheerful and a bit temperamental mascot for the inclusive space. Randall said the idea for the open-bathroom policy came during new member orientation when she first learned of Johnson’s plans. “Making it harder for people to use the bathroom doesn’t help anyone,” she told The Advocate. “We have so much important work to do—on cost-of-living issues, health care, education—but instead, we’re seeing attacks on marginalized communities being used as political distractions.”

Happy to see Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA) defy House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)’s capricious anti-trans bathroom rules in the Capitol. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[saywhat-politics]

Republicans are now blocking an effort to allow new mothers in Congress to vote remotely shortly after giving birth.

GOP Rep. Chip Roy says, “I don’t give a crap who you are or whether you just had a baby in the last six weeks.”

[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.