Sam Knight - page 73

A Republican lawmaker took to the floor of the Senate on Monday to say that last week’s violence in France justifies tougher immigration laws in the United States. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) cited the Islamist attacks in Paris and just outside the French capital as reasons to oppose President Obama’s executive order on immigration and to call for the implementation of a biometric visa system that has been criticized by civil liberties advocates. “Attacks on the people of France demonstrate in the most chilling terms… Keep Reading

Amid a fledgling primary campaign, rural Iowa state lawmaker Joni Ernst crafted a quirky hardscrabble persona that propelled her to both the forefront of the race and, eventually, the United States Senate. In a 30-second spot that gained attention for its employment of hog castration imagery, Sen. Ernst (R-Iowa) claimed that her farmer parents “taught us to live within our means” and said that “it’s time to force Washington to do the same.” The Washington Post said the ad “transformed” the race and was “a vivid reminder… Keep Reading

Congress will likely take up a bill next week that would effectively hogtie all federal regulators, watchdogs have warned, but it stands little chance of gaining Presidential approval. The Regulatory Accountability Act, which the House is expected to vote on this Tuesday, would force federal agencies to subject proposed rules to an additional layer of scrutiny that has been decried has frivolous. “The current rulemaking process is already plagued with lengthy delays, undue influence by regulated industries, and convoluted court challenges,” officials from Public Citizen and the… Keep Reading

As Democrats celebrated the latest positive press release, published Friday, about the economy, a Republican senator played killjoy by taking a closer look at jobs numbers. “It is good news that the unemployment rate has decreased to 5.6%,” Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) said in the first of two tweets. “The bad news behind this statistic is that too many discouraged, working-age Americans are opting out of the job market,” he added. Indeed, while the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that unemployment fell by… Keep Reading

A full inspector general report published this week showed that The Federal Reserve Board of New York pushed back against oversight claims made last year about its supposed interagency “London Whale” failures. But one of the top Fed officials who defended the institution was aware of widespread problems her own examiners were encountering from their bosses by early 2012. Sarah Dahlgren, the regulator’s head of supervision, and Thomas Baxter, its general counsel, accused the inspector general of reading history backwards. The internal probe, which was first… Keep Reading

The Senate voted to renew the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) on Thursday afternoon, after shooting down an effort to scupper a deregulatory measure attached to the legislation. The bill passed the chamber by a vote of 93-4. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were the quartet to disapprove of the measure. Warren and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced an amendment that sought to strip a provision from the bill that prevents regulators from imposing collateral requirements on… Keep Reading

A congressman who has been called “Wall Street’s Favorite Democrat” said emotion and misperception are fueling his party’s opposition to financial deregulation, and accused Sen. Elizbaeth Warren (D-Mass.) of speaking about the issue in bad faith. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) lamented the level of scrutiny of big banks within his caucus and decried the failure of the House this week to delay, without debate, the implementation of a Dodd-Frank provision on risk. “There is a very strong movement out there, that any adjustment to Dodd-Frank of… Keep Reading

Details of a US-EU trade deal with “unprecedented public interest” were officially published Wednesday for the first time, but a European watchdog said that the revelations were insufficient, and that opacity at the behest of American officials could violate EU rules. European negotiating positions on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) were revealed Wednesday by EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. The documents covered EU proposals on competition, agricultural safety, certain trade barriers, small and medium-sized businesses and state-state dispute settlement tribunals. Malmström said, according to… Keep Reading

While many observers expect consumer interest rates to rise over the next few months, President Obama will make it easier this week for first-time homeowners to obtain mortgages. The White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said Wednesday that it will lower fees on federally-insured home loans by a half-point. The move, which will affect mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, is expected to save new borrowers about $900 on an annual basis, according to White House calculations. Sen. Barbara Boxer… Keep Reading

The House of Representatives failed on Wednesday afternoon to ram through a bill that would further delay implementation of Dodd-Frank financial reform. Republicans attempted to pass the measure after suspending House rules–a procedure which denies members the right to amend or debate a bill, but requires two-thirds of the chamber’s support for it to advance. Only 276 Congresspeople voted in favor of the bill, while 146 opposed it. Prominent Democrats managed to marshal sufficient opposition to the maneuver, with Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Rep. Keith… Keep Reading