Letters from Capitol Hill that Members of Congress have written and signed on to lately.
Dec. 21 | APPROX 1:00 AM ET
With not a moment to spare to avoid a shutdown, the Senate passed a continuing resolution (CR) funding bill to keep the federal government open through mid-March.
Around six hours following a sailing passage in the House, the Senate voted 85 to 11 to pass the measure, including more than $100 billion in aid for natural disaster victims and farmers.
The Senate vote on the legislation, likely the last of the 118th Congress, became law after President Biden signed the bill around 11:30 a.m. ET.
Following pushback from President-Elect Trump and advisor Elon Must, support for an original spending bill collapsed.
A second version of the CR also failed, despite capitulation to Trump’s Tweets and posts on Truth Social demanding an extension of the national debt limit, with 38 Republicans maintaining a ‘no’ vote.
With House Speaker Johnson facing an increasing stronghold among his Republican Members refusing to waiver on government spending principles, outcomes of the 119th session leader vote scheduled for Jan. 3, 2025, are less than certain.
Per his posts on X, Musk’s red lines on the bill, causing objections from Trump, followed by failure of the first two drafts of the CR, centered around concerns for the special interest earmarks decoration on the clean, base text extending current administration spending levels.
Colloquially called a Christmas Tree for the year-end timing of the CR, with the earmarks as ornaments, Trump 2.0 may see an end to these special interest provisions, which only made their return in recent sessions of Congress.
A number of Americans fundamentally object to earmarks for their associated additions to costs of legislation; however, they have once again become an accepted bargaining tool to achieve consensus across an increasingly partisan Capitol Hill.
____
Dec. 20
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging greater transparency in how the Department of State implements visa restrictions mandated under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. This law bars the entry of foreign government officials implicated in significant corruption or gross human rights violations from entering the United States.
____
Dec. 20
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its first-ever report on artificial intelligence (AI) commissioned by the House Budget Committee. This report entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Its Potential Effects on the Economy and the Federal Budget” sheds light on the real economic impacts of AI technology, providing critical insights into its economic benefits and challenges.
____
Dec. 20
Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Tyson Foods CEO Donnie King blasting the company’s efforts to allegedly silence Missouri farmers who sued the company following the closure and sale of the Dexter, Missouri chicken plant.
____
Dec. 20
U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), raised concerns about the growing risks posed by the private credit market. In a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Vice Chair Michael Barr, the Senators once again urged federal banking regulators to take action to protect savers and consumers from the risks posed by private credit as it grows in size, complexity, and interdependence with the banks Americans rely on.
____
Dec. 20
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Representatives Robin Kelly (D-IL-02), Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03), Jesús G. “Chuy” García (D-IL-04), Mike Quigley (D-IL-05), Sean Casten (D-IL-06), Danny Davis (D-IL-07), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08), and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-09), sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore urging her to immediately allocate funds under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) to begin the process of characterizing contaminated sediment in the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS). As the lawmakers note in their letter, if these funds are allocated to clean CAWS, EPA could begin cleaning up the pollution that has plagued the south fork of the south bend of the Chicago River, known as Bubbly Creek.
____
Dec. 20
Congressman Deluzio (D-PA-17) and Congressman Mike Rulli (R-OH-06) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin raising major concerns over the Department of Defense’s (DOD) efforts to receive approval to incinerate polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at a plant in East Liverpool, OH. Represented by Congressman Rulli, East Liverpool is a community in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District along the Ohio River and is just a few miles upwind of Allegheny and Beaver County communities in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, represented by Congressman Deluzio.
____
Dec. 19
Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to provide TikTok owner ByteDance with a 90-day extension to either sell TikTok or face a ban in the United States, as authorized by the Protecting Americans Data from Foreign Adversaries Act. The lawmakers urged the Biden administration to trigger the 90-day extension before January 19, the deadline by which ByteDance must either divest TikTok or face a ban. On January 10, the U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments to consider whether the law violates the First Amendment.
____
Dec. 19
U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo (both R-Idaho) demanded the Biden administration answer for the sale of border wall construction materials. The auctioning of border wall components has exacerbated the illegal immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and undermines the Department of Defense’s (DOD) duty to fortify national security and protect Americans.
____
Dec. 19
U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), along with Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) sent a letter to President Biden urging him to take action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) to protect unleased and at-risk areas of the Outer Continental Shelf from fossil fuel development.
____
Dec. 19
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) wrote to the leaders of each of the top 10 U.S. automakers with concerns about the companies’ fierce opposition to car owners’ right to repair the vehicles they own in the way they choose. The letters were sent to General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai Group, Stellantis, Honda, Nissan, Tesla, Subaru, and Volkswagen.
____
Dec. 19
U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06), Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-32), and Congresswoman Andrea Salinas (OR-06) sent a letter to Robinhood questioning their recent decision to allow customers to bet on the results of the presidential election.
____
Dec. 19
Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández, alongside U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, and Representatives Melanie Stansbury and Gabe Vasquez, sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging the designation of the Caja del Rio Plateau as a national monument under the Antiquities Act. This request highlights the urgent need to protect one of New Mexico’s most ecologically, historically, and culturally significant landscapes.
____
Dec. 19
Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Representatives Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07) and Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03) led ten of their colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the administration to publicly condemn the prosecution of Indigenous environmental defenders by the Guatemalan government and conduct due diligence to better avoid providing support for projects that violate environmental and human rights abroad.
____
Dec. 19
Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) joined with a group of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Republicans in writing a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing concerns about the Biden Administration’s renewal of the U.S.-People’s Republic of China (PRC) Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement (STA) for an additional five years.
____
Dec. 19
U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) urged the U.S. Department of Commerce to finalize its recently announced rule that would protect American consumers and companies against the national security threats posed by allowing vehicles and technologies controlled by Chinese Community Party-backed (CCP) companies to be imported or sold in the United States. The letter underscored the significant national security concerns associated with key Chinese-controlled vehicles and connected technologies in vehicles. This rule would also help to secure the U.S. automotive supply chain and protect the United States’ global leadership in automotive innovation as China seeks to flood the global automotive market with highly subsidized Chinese vehicles.
____
Dec. 19
House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), released the seventh letter he sent to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough on the mismanagement by the Biden-Harris administration’s top leadership at the Veterans Benefits Administration of the Digital GI Bill (DGIB) program. The Digital GI Bill was intended to automate and streamline veterans’ education claims, but the effort has been mired in delays and cost overruns. Chairman Bost and Committee members have repeatedly pressed Secretary McDonough, Undersecretary for Benefits Josh Jacobs, and other VA officials for answers, including most recently at an oversight hearing on this topic in September.
____
Dec. 19
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) led a letter with members of the Blue Dog Coalition urging House Leadership to prioritize the renewal of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party in the 119th Congress.
____
Dec. 19
Congressman Raul Grijalva is asking the Department of Homeland Security to explain how it is using artificial intelligence to make important immigration decisions such as when to deport someone or grant them citizenship.
____
Dec. 19
In a new letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General Christi Grimm, House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans requested an investigation into the strength, quality, and types of evidence-based scientific and pediatric medical literature relied on by the department to promote gender transition procedures for children.
____
Dec. 19
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Wellpath — one of the nation’s largest private providers of prison healthcare — following its declaration of bankruptcy, urging them to ensure that incarcerated patients with credible, serious tort claims against the company — as well as staff and other creditors — receive fair notice and fair compensation in the course of Wellpath’s bankruptcy proceedings.
____
Dec. 19
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the deceptive advertising and marketing practices of youth residential treatment facilities (RTFs) and the role third-party marketing affiliates play in securing placements for children in child welfare system in these facilities.
____
Dec. 19
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Rep. Summer Lee sent a letter demanding answers from the Texas Department of State Health Services after the state’s maternal mortality committee decided not to review pregnancy-related deaths between 2022 and 2023—the period after Texas imposed a strict abortion ban. The Members raised concerns that the state is abandoning this data review as fewer Texas women have access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare in the wake of the state’s abortion ban, and amid public reporting on several tragic and preventable maternal deaths in Texas.
____
Dec. 19
In solidarity with the 28,000 flight attendants who have been working for nearly four years without a much-needed pay raise or quality-of-life improvements, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 24 Democratic senators called on United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby to return to the bargaining table and deliver a fair contract.
____
Dec. 19
U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), joined by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ), sent a letter to Anthony Ibargüen, Chair of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank Board of Directors and Presidential Search Committee, urging a fair, transparent, and inclusive process in selecting the next President & CEO of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank.
____
Dec. 18
In a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Education (ED), U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) revealed the alarming findings of a Senate investigation into millions of consumer credit reporting errors that occurred during the transfer of student loan accounts from Nelnet to MOHELA in 2023. The senators urged the CFPB and ED to investigate these errors and use their supervisory and enforcement authority to hold the appropriate parties accountable.
____
Dec. 18
Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) sent a letter urging President Biden to commute the sentences of the forty individuals currently in federal custody on death row.
____
Dec. 18
Chairman Moolenaar wrote to the U.S. International Trade Commission today, urging the commission to follow through on a ruling and bar a Chinese company, BOE Technology Group, from importing products to the United States. In November, the ITC found that BOE infringed on multiple U.S. patents, however the ITC is set to still permit BOE products in the United States, despite the company being guilty of flagrant Chinese Communist Party-sponsored IP theft.
____
Dec. 18
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell, Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr, and Acting Comptroller for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Michael Hsu, slamming the agencies for being “asleep at the wheel” in following their mandate to prevent dangerous and anticompetitive bank mergers. The letter comes as Capital One reportedly received state regulatory approval to buy Discover, moving one step closer to completion of the dangerous merger. Senator Warren demanded that the agencies update and strengthen their bank merger policy guidelines and use these new guidelines to scrutinize the deal.
____
Dec. 18
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Representative Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter requesting the Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General investigate reports that the DoD mishandled a case involving U.S. Marines killing civilians in Haditha, Iraq, and DoD’s continued efforts to cover up the alleged war crimes.
____
Dec. 18
Chairman Moolenaar, and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi joined Rep. Jake Auchincloss and other bipartisan lawmakers to call on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to sponsor a federal prize competition in support of satellite technology that offers internet accessibility for repressed citizens of authoritarian nations like China or countries at war.
____
Dec. 17
U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), and U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) spearheaded an effort urging the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the cost of implementing the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program, which the state has used to limit access to Medicaid coverage.
____
Dec. 17
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote a letter to President Biden, Energy Secretary Granholm, EPA Administrator Regan, and senior White House officials urging them to reconsider issuing an executive order that would streamline the buildout of data centers powering artificial intelligence technology, and reportedly allow new data centers to exceed clean air and water standards and to receive priority access to the grid over households and other industries.
____
Want to receive Proxenos' Hill Letters updates as they're published?