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Anonymous ID: 73dbf8 Jan. 31, 2019, 8:13 p.m. No.4984537   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4590 >>4650 >>4793 >>4871 >>5054 >>5150

Democrats Reject GOP Proposal to Block Raises for Federal Employees Guilty of Sexual Misconduct

 

A Republican proposal, which would add a provision to block federal employees disciplined for sexual misconduct from receiving the same pay raise as their colleagues, was rejected by House Democrats on Jan. 30. Although 17 Democrats crossed the aisle to support the amendment, most voted to reject the legislation in a 216–206 vote that successfully blocked it. Republicans added the provision to a bill that would give a 2.6 percent pay raise to all civilian federal employees. “During calendar year 2019, no increase in pay as authorized under this Act may be provided to any Federal employee who has been disciplined for sexual misconduct under chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code, or any other provision of law,” the proposal text by the GOP read. The bill passed without the amendment and now goes to the Senate.

 

The rejection of the amendment drew sharp rebukes from Republicans. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said the blockage was “outrageous.” “House Democrats just voted to give pay increases to federal bureaucrats with a history of sexual misconduct with your tax dollars,” he wrote on Twitter Jan. 31. “Outrageous.” Mark Walker (R-N.C.) said the move was hypocritical, given the Democrats’ talk of the #MeToo movement. “Democrats blocked us from preventing federal workers disciplined for sexual misconduct from getting a pay raise. I’m grateful to the 17 Democrats who voted their conscience. So much fake outrage in Washington,”he wrote on Twitter.

 

Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.) was one of the Democrats who voted against the proposal. Cardenas, who chaired the vote for the Democrats in the House, was accused last year of drugging and groping a 16-year-old girl in 2007 and is being sued by the woman in civil court. Cardenas has denied the allegations. A spokesperson for House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said GOP members will continue to push for fair pay. “As Washington Democrats continue their ill-advised push for unilateral pay raises for federal employees, regardless of their performance, Republicans continue to ask Democrats to amend their legislation,” said Erin Perrine. “Currently, this bill treats victims the same as their harassers. That makes no sense.”

 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/democrats-reject-gop-proposal-to-block-raises-for-federal-employees-guilty-of-sexual-misconduct_2786235.html

 

Proposal Text by the GOP

https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MTR_HR790_xml.pdf

 

Rep. Tony Cardenas Accused Of Molesting And Drugging Teen

https://patch.com/california/northhollywood/rep-tony-cardenas-accused-molesting-drugging-teen

Anonymous ID: 73dbf8 Jan. 31, 2019, 8:28 p.m. No.4984689   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4690

Senate GOP Readies Battering Ram Against Dems’ Confirmation Blockade

 

WASHINGTON—Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and his Republican colleagues are sick and tired of Democrats constantly delaying confirmation of President Donald Trump’s judicial and executive appointments. And they aren’t going to take it anymore. Maybe. The issue took on new urgency last month when 376 Trump nominations were returned to the White House, not due to Senate rejection, but because “the world’s greatest deliberative body” never voted them up or down.

 

As a result, hundreds of key positions throughout the federal government remain vacant or are being filled on an acting basis by lower-level officials. Important decisions aren’t made, needed new initiatives are stalled, and the routine flow of the public’s business is seriously disrupted. Among the returned nominations in December were the general counsel for the Department of the Navy, the inspector general of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, governors for the U.S. Postal Service, an assistant secretary of Commerce, and ambassadors to Morocco and Colombia.

 

Lankford took the Senate floor earlier this week and warned his colleagues that, “[if] we don’t resolve this now and allow this president to be able to function with his nominees, as any president in the past has, then this is going to just keep going. And it will hurt the long-term functioning of our government.” At the heart of the debate is how long the Senate should debate a nomination after the nominee has cleared an FBI background investigation and been referred by the relevant committee to the Senate floor for final consideration. Most nominees have traditionally gone from committee to Senate floor to final votes relatively quickly, but the first two years of the Trump administration saw 128 cloture votes on ending debate on nominations. Once debate is ended with the cloture vote, Senate rules stipulate 30 hours of debate. But, as Lankford pointed out earlier this week, there is typically at least another day of delay before the 30 hours begins.

 

Senate leaders also have more ways to delay things via the chamber’s schedule, and Democrats and Republicans have both used them. As James Wallner, senior fellow in governance at the R Street Institute, told The Epoch Times Jan. 31 that right after cloture is invoked, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) often “asks unanimous consent to put the Senate in morning business for the purpose of debate only.” That means voting on the nomination is again delayed because, Wallner continued, “he’s taken the nomination the Senate just ended debate on, he’s taken that nominee off the floor.” Wallner is a former executive director of the Senate Steering Committee under Republicans Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mike Lee of Utah.

 

Lankford’s proposal would require that the 30 hours of debate apply only to Supreme Court and presidential cabinet nominations, with no more than eight hours for important but less visible jobs and only two for others such as sub-cabinet level posts and federal district court judges. The Oklahoma senator said his proposal is similar to one adopted with Republican agreement in 2013 as a temporary measure under then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). The deal allowed President Barack Obama’s nominations to move to confirmation much faster than Trump’s have since 2017. The Lankford proposal must be approved by the Senate Rules Committee chaired by Sen. Roy Blount (R-Mo.), then receive 60 votes on the floor. The 53 Republicans would need seven more votes from among the Senate’s 45 Democrats and two Independents to support the change to be made.

 

Hanging over the controversy are Republican threats to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” with a standing order requiring only 51 votes, as Reid did to eliminate filibusters on top-level nominees in 2013. Also adding pressure on Senate Republicans is the festering impatience among conservative voters for an end of Democratic blocking of Trump appointees, especially those to the federal judiciary.

 

“This rule change is long overdue and will significantly limit pointless obstruction tactics regularly used by Senate Democrats,” GOP campaign consultant Matt Mackowiak told The Epoch Times. “Noncontroversial nominees should not require 30 hours of debate. This rule change will move judicial and executive branch nominations more quickly, which is a very good thing,” he said. Mackowiak was press secretary for former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas).

 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/senate-gop-readies-battering-ram-against-dems-confirmation-blockade_2786537.html

Anonymous ID: 73dbf8 Jan. 31, 2019, 8:49 p.m. No.4984915   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4987 >>5042 >>5054 >>5078 >>5150

Testimony Reveals FBI Official in Charge of Clinton, Trump Probes Was Excluded From Key Meetings, Decisions (1 of 4)

 

Closed-door testimony by former head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap reveals handpicked group ran the investigations outside of his control.

 

Bill Priestap, the high-ranking FBI official responsible for overseeing both the Clinton email investigation and the agency’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign appeared to not have been in real control of his own investigations. In closed-door testimony before congressional lawmakers in June last year, Priestap, who served as the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, acknowledged it was mostly FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI analyst Jonathan Moffa who were “driving the train.” Talking to lawmakers, Priestap described the unusual circumstances under which he inherited the team in January 2016, saying the members had been previously handpicked by an unknown high ranking official at the FBI.

 

In his June 5, 2018, testimony—a transcript of which was reviewed for this article—Priestap appears to have been unaware of key meetings that took place between Strzok and the second highest ranking official at the FBI, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Priestap’s congressional interview was conducted in an unclassified setting, with the appropriate agency counsel present to ensure that classified information didn’t enter into the unclassified setting. When questioned about text messages sent between Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page that showed a strong bias in favor of Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump, Priestap told lawmakers “it wasn’t the Pete Strzok that I know.”Priestap also said he was unaware of a meeting Strzok had with McCabe and Page—who served as counsel to McCabe—that was described in the now-infamous “insurance policy” text message. “Somebody talking about an insurance policy, I would have asked, ‘What the heck do you mean by that?’” Priestap said in the interview before the House judiciary committee.

 

The FBI investigation into Clinton was opened on July 10, 2015, by Randall Coleman, then-head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division and predecessor to Priestap. At this time, McCabe was the assistant director in charge at the Washington Field Office and Strzok was an assistant special agent in charge at the Washington Field Office. On July 30, 2015, McCabe was suddenly promoted to the No. 3 position within the FBI as associate deputy director and was transferred to FBI headquarters. Strzok would soon be transferred to headquarters as well. Approximately two months after the opening of the Clinton investigation, FBI leadership asked for the transfer of hand-selected agents from the Washington Field Office. Strzok was one of those chosen and he was moved to FBI headquarters probably in Sept. or Oct. of 2015.

 

According to Priestap, Coleman had “set up a reporting mechanism that leaders of that team would report directly to him, not through the customary other chain of command” in the Clinton email investigation.Priestap, who said he didn’t know why Coleman had “set it up,” kept the chain of command in place when he assumed Coleman’s position in January 2016. On Jan. 29, 2016, FBI Director James Comey appointed McCabe to the No. 2 position within the FBI as Deputy FBI Director. McCabe had served in the number three slot at the FBI for only six months.