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Dana Milbank’s recent article on the record number of “closed rules” approved by the Republican-led House leaves out one important factor: fundraising. The House Rules Committee is one of the chamber’s most powerful committees as it sets the parameters for floor debate. The committee determines how long each bill will
Last December, the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted a drone strike in Yemen that appears to have gone horribly wrong by mistakenly targeting a wedding convoy and killing scores of civilians. By early January of this year, U.S. officials had launched an internal investigation of the strike and in
The Fix recently wrote about how “A 2015 rebellion against John Boehner would be unprecedented.” In the piece Philip Bump argues that “no speaker has overseen a pick-up of House seats and subsequently lost his job.” Setting aside problems in closely connecting congressional elections and the speakership election across this
The Washington Post’s Wonkblog had a write up on congressional productivity not long ago. Its central thesis is Congress is more productive in election years than in non-election years. This is a good counter-intuitive point. Many pundits discuss congressional productivity only in terms of major bills passed. However, Congress often
Earmark reform is a hot topic on Capitol Hill and in the advocacy community. Earlier this week, Senator Reidcommented on the need to repeal the ban on earmarks. This is not a new sentiment for many members of the House and Senate. What is new is for a congressional leader
Last Friday Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced that he would appoint a select committee to further investigate the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound and the CIA facility in Benghazi, Libya. This decision comes in the midst of a midterm election season and predictably it has
A story of note this week revolves around Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) and accusations that he hid money from the IRS while running a health food store in Manhattan. He is also the subject of an ongoing investigation for potentially mismanaging funds during his 2010 congressional campaign. Senior Fellow Charles
The race to succeed Henry Waxman (D-CA) as the top-ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee began within days of Waxman announcing that he would retire from Congress at the end of this year. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the third-ranking Democrat on the committee, immediately threw his hat in
“Tell me how this ends” This is what former CENTCOM Commander and CIA Director David Petraeus had posited to journalist Rick Atkinson back in early 2003 when he was still a commanding officer of the 101st Airborne Division and in preparation to invade Iraq. While General Petraeus had made this
When asked what they remember as the most significant event of 1994, people tend to be divided between the massive 6.7 magnitude Northridge earthquake that devastated Los Angeles and the arrest of O.J. Simpson on murder charges following the infamous slow motion car chase in the white Bronco. Some of
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