Congress
February 3, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From The Hill newspaper, House sends funding package ending partial shutdown to Trump’s desk. What shutdown? It turns out that large parts of the federal government were “show down” for the past three days. Funding for Homeland Security has been approved for the next two weeks and the rest is fully funded (at bloated levels) through the end of September. Democrats will continue complaining about the ICE part of DHS
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January 31, 2026 — Bill Glahn
News from Washington: the “shutdown” has been kicked down the road for two more weeks. From Politico, Senate passes $1.2T government funding deal — but a brief shutdown is certain. The “T” stands for “trillion.” If the U.S. House of Representatives goes along with the deal Monday evening, all but a few federal agencies will be full funded through the end of September, with parts of Homeland Security just getting
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January 21, 2026 — Bill Glahn
Today, it was YouTuber Nick Shirley’s turn in the witness chair at a Congressional hearing. This morning, the occasion was a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance. The hearing was captioned, When Public Funds Are Abused: Addressing Fraud and the Theft of Taxpayer Dollars. The hearing begins at 28:10, Mr. Shirley first appears beginning at 1:07:02. He did a fine job. Personally, I
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January 17, 2026 — Bill Glahn
At this point, Minneapolis exists as little more than a cautionary tale to the rest of America, and the lesson is being learned. From the New York Post, Grinning anti-ICE agitator arrested after allegedly punching Florida trooper as DeSantis warns: ‘This is not Minneapolis.’ Just so. Unfortunately, the lesson is not being learned, back in Minneapolis. From the St. Paul Pioneer Press (PP), State disputes ICE claim: ‘1,360 criminal illegal
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November 19, 2025 — Scott Johnson
All but one congressman in the House and the Senate voted in favor of The Epstein Files Transparency Act. The bill directs the Attorney General to release the documents under her control related to Jeffrey Epstein. It is now to be submitted to President Trump, who has said he will sign the bill when it gets to his desk.. The lone dissenter was (Republican) Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins. Higgins posted
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November 18, 2025 — Bill Glahn
From The Hill newspaper, Senate unanimously approves bill to force release of Epstein files. No doubt that Pres. Trump will quickly sign the measure. Also from The Hill, The Senate agreed by unanimous consent Tuesday to approve a House-passed bill to require the Justice Department to release all unclassified records and documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sending the bill to President Trump’s desk for a signature. UNCLASSIFED?
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November 16, 2025 — Bill Glahn
From the BBC, Trump calls on House Republicans to vote to release Epstein files. USA Today reports, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide. Trump and the Republicans have nothing to hide because there are no “Epstein files,” at least not in the sense understood in the fever swamps. What is imagined to exist is a list of names (in Epstein’s handwriting?
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November 14, 2025 — Bill Glahn
From Politico, House plans to vote Tuesday on releasing Epstein files. I expect the vote will pass with a big margin. Then what? Where are the files? What’s in the files? What is the point of this exercise? After it passes the House, the bill would then go to the Senate (where it won’t pass) and then to Pres. Trump (who won’t sign it). But it will generate headlines all
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November 13, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Byron York made an excellent suggestion today, The fever swamps have become so excited about the Epstein emails that we need someone to come up with a new grand unified theory to fit the tidbits. I don’t have one. In fact, the more I look into the Epstein matter, the more the real meaning recedes beyond the horizon. About those emails: The Hill: Looming House vote deepens Trump’s Epstein woes
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November 12, 2025 — Bill Glahn
In the end (if this is the end) what was it all about? The record-long federal government shutdown (43 days, over six weeks) could end as early as tonight, if the House of Representatives goes along with the deal passed by the Senate on Monday. My theory is it all had to do with the odd-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia. A week later, everyone now believes that last
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November 11, 2025 — Bill Glahn
It looks like Congress took the holiday off today, seeking to reassemble tomorrow (Wednesday) to pass the legislatiion needed to end the 42-day (six-week) federal government shudown. From the New York Post, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has summoned the House back into session to pass a stopgap funding bill as soon as Wednesday that would end the longest government shutdown in US history. Now, it’s possible that Johnson’s own
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October 29, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Meh. Probably not. But after more than four weeks of “shutdown,” perhaps some fatigue is creeping in. From Politico, Capitol agenda: Thune says shutdown talks are picking up: Some Republicans appear increasingly convinced that enough centrist Democrats are getting ready to fold — potentially by early next week. Maybe. Maybe not. The idea is to convince another half-dozen or so Senate Democrats to flip to reach 60 votes to re-open
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October 22, 2025 — Bill Glahn
After three weeks of government “shutdown” are we finally seeing some cracks in the armor? The latest stoppage is now, officially, the second-longest ever. Of course, the general public has seen remarkable little impact from “shutdown,” but perhaps members of congress are ready to get on with their lives. Headlines from The Hill newspaper, Pressure grows as shutdown enters fourth week Mike Johnson, John Thune eye new stopgap spending measure
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September 21, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Teddy Kennedy became the lion of the Senate and of American liberalism. His legislative accomplishments have done much to shape the United States into the form he desired. We will be living with, and taking the measure of, his legacy for a long time to come. Certainly in one respect, Senator Kennedy’s contribution to our public life has been indisputably negative. In the role he played opposing the nomination of
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August 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Accusations about gerrymandering are in the news, but this is actually something that can be studied objectively. American Experiment economist John Phelan developed a methodology to measure how much a state is, or is not, gerrymandered. He explains: First, we take the Democratic party’s vote share in each state. Second, we take the share of each state’s seats won by the Democratic party. Third, we subtract the latter from the
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July 3, 2025 — Bill Glahn
The Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) reached the finish line today, with the U.S. House repassing the bill 218-214. From The Hill newspaper, House sends GOP’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to Trump’s desk in major win for Republicans. John has been saying for some time, not only did the bill have to pass, but it that would eventually pass as Republicans came around to recognizing the national (and their own) interests at
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July 1, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Few headlines have the power to shock. From The Hill newspaper, Republicans in Congress see highest approval rating in more than a decade: Poll. Wut? And by “more than a decade,” they mean “ever,” as this poll has been measuring the subject only since 2011. Still, nothing to brag about, In the survey, conducted in late June, 36 percent of registered voters approve of the job Republicans in Congress are
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