All posts tagged: lawmakers

Lawmakers Says Trump NFL Probe Aimed at Helping Fox Get a Better Deal

Lawmakers Says Trump NFL Probe Aimed at Helping Fox Get a Better Deal

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – A senior U.S. lawmaker on ⁠Wednesday ⁠said an investigation by the Justice ⁠Department into whether the National Football League has engaged in anticompetitive tactics in ​broadcast rights appears aimed at helping Fox Corp. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, at a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee hearing ‌on sports broadcasting rights cited a ‌report that Fox Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch personally lobbied President Donald Trump at a White House dinner to ⁠crack down on ⁠the NFL streaming deals. “The DOJ’s investigation, like this hearing, appear to be all ​about helping Mr. Murdoch get a better broadcast deal for Fox,” Raskin said. Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The hearing on Wednesday addressed the growing shift of live sports to pay TV and subscription services away from broadcast networks. Representative ​Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, also suggested the hearing was called “because Rupert Murdoch personally lobbied the ⁠president ⁠at a White House dinner ⁠in February, warning that ​the NFL streaming deals would ‘kill’ broadcast networking.” The …

Lawmakers accuse Trump admin of “staggering” corruption over Don Jr.-linked deal

Lawmakers accuse Trump admin of “staggering” corruption over Don Jr.-linked deal

Published by Sam Flores

A group of lawmakers demanded answers from the White House this week following a ProPublica investigation revealing that a top aide to the president intervened to secure a $620 million Pentagon loan to a startup linked to the president’s eldest son. ProPublica’s reporting “reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence peddling that superseded this process, enriching the President’s son at the expense of U.S. national security and taxpayer dollars,” wrote the group of Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii as well as Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado and Mike Levin of California. Last year, the Pentagon announced the loan to Vulcan Elements, a small North Carolina startup, about three months after Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm took a stake of undisclosed size in the rare-earth magnet company. Interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to lend to the firm was made by Peter Navarro, who serves as the president’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing and is …

Congress Has Taken on Epstein. but Lawmakers and Survivors Are Still Searching for Accountability

Congress Has Taken on Epstein. but Lawmakers and Survivors Are Still Searching for Accountability

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — For nearly a year, public demand and increasingly outspoken calls from the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse have driven Congress to mostly set aside party politics and search for accountability. Yet even after interviews with some of the highest-ranked officials to ever appear before a congressional investigation, including a former president, lawmakers have little to show in terms of criminal culpability for Epstein’s crimes or a definitive acknowledgment of government failure. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who sponsored legislation to force the release of case files on Epstein, told The Associated Press he is still asking, “Why there has not been a single investigation of people who have allegedly abused or committed financial crimes?” Lawmakers hoped to get some answers to those questions during a transcribed interview Friday with Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump’s former attorney general who oversaw the release of the files. But the interview left Democrats fuming at Bondi’s decision to defend the Trump administration’s handling of that material, as well as her refusal to answer questions …

Escalating tensions at Newark migrant prison draws ire of lawmakers

Escalating tensions at Newark migrant prison draws ire of lawmakers

Published by Sam Flores

Calls for the closure of a notorious private immigration jail in Newark, New Jersey are growing by the day after 300 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees launched a hunger and labor strike over the Memorial Day holiday and issued a letter that drew attention to their miserable plight inside the facility that’s owned by The GEO Group, a private prison corporation and major Trump donor. For months, detainees, their families and advocates have said GEO Group was serving up inedible food and was failing to provide essential medical care despite the fact GEO Group has a billion dollar contract with the federal government. Detainees are paid $1 a day if they help maintain the facility, while GEO Group CEO George Zoley gets $11.2 million in annual compensation. Many of the detainees are without any legal counsel or fallen prey to fly-by-night immigration attorneys. Advocates say that others have secured court orders for their release but remain incarcerated. Some have actually signed voluntary self-deportation papers but have languished for months while GEO profits from their incarceration. …

Pam Bondi tells lawmakers ‘redaction errors’ were made in Epstein files release

Pam Bondi tells lawmakers ‘redaction errors’ were made in Epstein files release

Published by Sam Flores

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi told lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee on Friday that the Justice Department made “redaction errors” in its release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a copy of her opening statement obtained by NBC News. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Bondi told the panel during her closed-door interview on Capitol Hill that she was assured by the team that reviewed the documents that “the only materials that were withheld were either non-responsive, privileged, or duplicative,” according to the opening statement. “To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Our diligent and good faith effort to collect materials ensured that all potentially responsive documents that could be reasonably located would see the light of day,” she planned to say in her opening statement. Bondi, whom Trump fired last month, said she didn’t lead every aspect of the review of the Epstein files and delegated oversight of the process to then-Deputy …

Illinois Lawmakers Just Passed America’s Strongest AI Safety Bill

Illinois Lawmakers Just Passed America’s Strongest AI Safety Bill

Published by skeptic

The Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday requiring frontier AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to have their safety practices audited by a third party. If signed into law, AI safety experts tell WIRED, it would be the nation’s leading check on the power of major AI companies. The bill, SB 315, now heads to governor JB Pritzker’s desk. In a post on social media on Wednesday, Pritzker said he plans to sign the bill, citing a need to hold Big Tech accountable. Since Congress has yet to pass any meaningful AI safety legislation, state lawmakers have happily stepped up in recent years to promote bills that show their constituents they’re keeping Silicon Valley in check. As AI tools become increasingly popular, and the companies behind them race toward massive IPOs, polls show that American voters are looking for more AI regulation. As a result, safety advocates and tech companies have zeroed in on state legislatures as the primary battleground to hash out how these laws should look. OpenAI’s chief …

‘They were p*****’: Republican lawmakers were ‘screaming’ at Todd Blanche during anti-weaponization fund briefing

‘They were p*****’: Republican lawmakers were ‘screaming’ at Todd Blanche during anti-weaponization fund briefing

Published by Sam Flores

Republican senators erupted behind closed doors this week as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to defend the Trump administration’s controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, according to a prominent GOP lawmaker. It was a meeting that Sen. Ted Cruz later described on his podcast as one of the “roughest” he has witnessed during his time in Congress. “Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said Friday on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz.” “My guess is there’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were p*****.” The “anti-weaponization” fund was announced Monday after Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. Cruz said many GOP lawmakers argued the proposal would be politically impossible to defend because it appeared President Donald Trump had “cut a deal with himself,” NBC News reported. “There were multiple senators yelling at the attorney general, saying this feels like self-dealing,” Cruz said. “I got to tell you, the Republican senators were p***** – people were the …

Possible Deal on Iran Divides US Lawmakers Largely Along Party Lines

Possible Deal on Iran Divides US Lawmakers Largely Along Party Lines

Published by Sam Flores

May 24 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers appearing on Sunday morning talk ⁠shows ⁠split sharply over a potential deal ⁠to end the Iran war, with Republicans mostly backing the publicly reported ​contours of an agreement being negotiated by President Donald Trump and Democrats dismissing it as accomplishing little. • Senator ‌Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat ‌and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the reported outlines of a deal ⁠sounded like ⁠little more than “the pre-war status quo” with Iran. “I think this was a ​blunder,” Van Hollen said on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “When you’re digging a hole, you should stop digging, and that sounds like maybe what we’re doing finally.” • Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who sits on the House ​Foreign Affairs Committee, praised Trump’s approach to talks with Iran. “I think on the whole what ⁠the administration ⁠has been able to ⁠do for the ​first time in 47 years is force the remnants of this regime into a negotiation, a ​real negotiation,” Lawler said on ⁠CBS’ …

Religious leaders, lawmakers push for billion to secure houses of worship : NPR

Religious leaders, lawmakers push for $1 billion to secure houses of worship : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Eric Fingerhut, the president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, speaks at an event in D.C. on May 18, 2026. JFNA organized an advocacy fly-in of more than 400 Jewish leaders to Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to support more funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which offers funding to strengthen security at houses of worship. Photo courtesy of the Jewish Federations of North America hide caption toggle caption Photo courtesy of the Jewish Federations of North America At a recent Shabbat service in West Bloomfield, Mich., Rabbi Jen Lader shared plans to lobby Congress to pour more funding into a federal program that strengthens security at houses of worship. “We are not asking Congress to just protect Jews – we are asking Congress to protect every community of Americans that gathers to pray. And we are asking with the full weight of what we have just lived through behind us,” she said, referencing the March attack on her congregation of Temple Israel.  The fact that no one was killed other …