Tag Archives: Congress

House to weigh $622.1 million in new zika virus funding

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen at the Laboratory of Entomology and Ecology of the Dengue Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in San Juan, March 6, 2016.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the House of Representatives will try to pass legislation this week providing $622.1 million in emergency funds to fight the spreading Zika virus, far less than the Obama administration has been seeking.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers introduced the measure on Monday, according to a statement. The bill would offset the new spending by taking $352.1 million from an Ebola fund and another $270 million from a Department of Health and Human Services administrative account.

The Obama administration and health officials have expressed concerns in the past with taking money from Ebola programs to pay for Zika virus efforts.

President Barack Obama in February called for $1.9 billion in emergency funds that would not result in any government spending cuts elsewhere.

The House bill is also at odds with legislation being debated in the Senate. Competing proposals there would either give Obama the full $1.9 billion or at least $1.1 billion.

The Senate is expected to cast initial votes on the alternatives on Tuesday.

If the House and Senate approve competing versions they would have to reconcile their differences and pass one uniform bill before sending it to Obama for signing into law.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been linked to severe birth defects and other neurological disorders and is beginning to show up in warm climates in U.S. southern states such as Florida.

Of the $622.1 million proposed by House Republicans, $230 million would go to the National Institutes of Health to help support the development of vaccines to stop the spread of Zika.

Other funds would be contributed to global health programs, through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, and for the development of rapid diagnostic tests.

(Reporting By Richard Cowan; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Senate negotiators zero in on Zika virus funding

An anti Zika virus kit, including a bug net, mosquito repellent, condoms, literature and anti mosquito dunks,

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate negotiators on Wednesday tried to reach a deal to provide more than $1 billion to battle the Zika virus that is feared will creep north into the United States with the onset of warmer weather, which breeds mosquitoes that could carry the disease.

Senior Senate Democratic aides said details were still being worked out, but votes could come by next week on whether to approve the new money.

In February, President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency funds, but Republicans balked, with some arguing that $1.1 billion is more in line with what is needed. Many Republicans also want any Zika funds to be offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

These are among the details that still have to be worked out, according to aides.

Republican Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri and Democratic Senator Patty Murray from Washington, the two senior senators on an appropriations panel that oversees healthcare spending, have been trying to hammer out a deal.

An aide to Murray said in a statement: “Senator Murray is having conversations with Chairman Blunt and others about the path forward on emergency funding to respond to Zika.”

The aide said Murray still supports Obama’s $1.9 billion request.

Amid congressional inaction, the Obama administration shifted $589 million to help federal agencies prepare for Zika. Most of that money came from a fund to fight the Ebola virus and will have to be replenished, according to officials.

Senator Marco Rubio, however, is one Republican pushing for both immediate, emergency funding and longer-term money to be made available starting on Oct. 1 to battle the disease that can cause severe brain deformities in babies born of infected mothers and other illnesses.

“This is going to be an ongoing issue beyond this year,” Rubio said, adding, “We need to jump on it now.”

There are fears that Rubio’s home state of Florida could be the first place in the continental United States to get hit hard by Zika because of its tropical climate.

“For the first time, I’ve seen high-level conversations about a way forward here in the Senate and that’s a positive development,” Rubio said in a brief hallway interview with Reuters.

Republicans in the House of Representatives are still deeply divided over new funding for Zika, according to two senior aides.

(Reporting By Richard Cowan; Editing by Bernard Orr)

After Calling out the Supreme Court, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn Returns to the Jim Bakker Show May 24th and 25th!

“As ancient Israel turned away from her God and His ways, so, too, has America!”   Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s thundering voice echoed through the chambers as he spoke to the dozens of members of Congress who came to pray.  

This is the Rabbi that we know and love.  This is the Rabbi who is not afraid to stand up to whatever earthly authority that will allow him to speak. The people are hearing his words and turning to the highest most loving authority that exists; our Father and Heavenly God.

Please join us on Grace Street as author of The Harbinger,  Rabbi Jonathan Cahn returns to the Jim Bakker Show.  When Rabbi comes to visit, we never experience only a show taping, but an adventure of the Words and Power of the Lord from a voice that is being heard around the world.  

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn knows God’s Word and creatively reminds you of His divine plan for ordinary people, just like you and me, whose lives can become extraordinary once we bow to the Will of God and capture the blueprint that God had drawn up for us. The extraordinary life of Rabbi Jonathan Cahn will never fail to inspire!

We hope to see you here at Morningside Tuesday, May 24th and Wednesday, May 25th at 11:30am right on Grace Street.  This show will not be live streamed but will be available on the PTL Television Network on ROKU and the PTL video on demand at www.ptlnetwork.com before airing on national television. We hope you can be here for our live studio audience!  It is always a remarkable spirit-filled time at the Jim Bakker Show!  

House Speaker Ryan: All options open on Zika funding

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said a range of options to provide funds to fight Zika, adding that lawmakers take the threat seriously but have not yet decided the best way to allocate resources to prevent and combat the deadly virus.

“We’re looking at all different options,” adding that the White House has begun providing congressional staff with answers to questions over President Barack Obama’s funding request. “The administration has a bit of a track record of over-requesting what they need.”

(Reporting by Susan Heavey)

Most House members sign letter backing Israel at U.N.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 90 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives has signed a letter urging President Barack Obama to use U.S. veto power to block any United Nations resolutions seen as biased against Israel, one of the letter’s lead sponsors said on Friday.

U.S. Representative Nita Lowey said 394 members of the 435-member House signed the letter that was sent to Obama on Thursday.

It was written as the Palestinian Authority renewed its drive to persuade the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The United States vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council five years ago.

With U.S. efforts to broker a two-state solution in tatters since 2014, France has been lobbying countries to commit to a conference that would get Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiations to end their conflict.

The congressional letter backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but insisted that negotiations between the two sides are the only path to peace, not United Nations action or an international conference.

“The only way you can get there is if the two parties can be brought together and really go over all the issues,” Lowey said in a telephone interview.

Lowey is the top Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid. Republican Representative Kay Granger, who chairs the subcommittee, also sponsored the letter.

Lowey said she had not yet had a response to the letter, but she hoped administration officials were carefully reading it.

Support for Israel is one of the few issues that has the support of Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Fiona Ortiz)

House backs tighter North Korea sanctions, sends bill to Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation on Friday broadening sanctions against North Korea, sending the measure to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Lawmakers said they wanted to make Washington’s resolve clear to Pyongyang, but also to the United Nations and other governments – especially China, North Korea’s lone major ally and main business partner.

The sanctions would target not just North Korea but also those who do business with it.

The vote was 408-2, following a 96-0 vote in the Senate on Wednesday.

Impatient with what they see as Obama’s failure to respond to North Korean provocations, many of his fellow Democrats as well as the Republicans who control Congress have been clamoring for a clamp down since Pyongyang tested a nuclear device in January.

Pressure for congressional action further intensified after last weekend’s satellite launch by North Korea.

Obama is not expected to veto the bill, given its huge support in Congress. Ben Rhodes, his deputy national security adviser, said the White House would review the measure but does not oppose Congress’ efforts.

“I think this is an area where we and Congress are in the same space and agree on the need for increased sanctions,” Rhodes said at an event at the Center for American Progress on Thursday.

The legislation would sanction anyone who engages in, facilitates or contributes to North Korea’s proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms-related materials, luxury goods, human rights abuses, activities undermining cyber security and the provision of materials for such activities.

Penalties include the seizure of assets, visa bans and denial of government contracts.

Unusually, the measure makes most of the sanctions mandatory, rather than giving the president the option to impose them. He can temporarily waive them by making the case that doing so would threaten national security.

The House had backed the sanctions measure 418-2 in January, but the Senate included some new provisions, including cyber security measures, in its version, sending it back to the House.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Richard Cowan and Bill Trott)

Senate blocks bill for tighter Syrian refugee screening

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Democrats narrowly blocked legislation on Wednesday that would slow the entry of refugees from Syria and Iraq into the United States in a contentious vote cloaked in presidential election-year politics.

The vote was 55-43, with “yes” votes falling short of the 60 needed to advance the Republican-backed measure in the 100-member Senate. No Republicans voted against the bill, and only two Democrats backed it.

Among other things, the bill would have required high-level U.S. officials to verify that each refugee from Iraq and Syria posed no security risk before being allowed into the United States.

Republicans said the tighter screening was essential to ensure the safety of Americans and prevent attacks within the country by Islamic State and other militant groups.

Democrats called the legislation an attack on people who are fleeing war. They accused Republicans of holding the vote to allow their 2016 presidential candidates in the Senate to back legislation touted as tough on security.

All three of the Senate Republican 2016 presidential hopefuls, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, backed the bill.

Democrats had also sought to play politics. They tried and failed to reach a deal with Republicans that would have set up a vote on an amendment establishing a religious test for would-be immigrants.

That vote was planned to see if Republicans would side against 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has advocated barring Muslims from entering the United States.

The Syria refugee bill passed the House by a large, bipartisan margin in November days after the Nov. 13 Islamic State attacks in Paris, supported by dozens of Democrats who broke from their party despite Democratic President Barack Obama’s threatened veto.

“We need to talk about efforts to defeat ISIS, not creating more paperwork for cabinet secretaries,” Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, told reporters before the vote.

It currently takes 18-24 months for Syrian refugees to be screened before they can move to the United States.

The United States has offered refuge to far fewer of the millions fleeing war in Syria and Iraq than many of its closest allies in Europe and the Middle East.

Obama announced last year that he would admit 10,000 Syrians, a plan opposed by many Republicans as a potential threat to U.S. security.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Eric Beech and Cynthia Osterman)

U.S. House Approves Syrian Refugee Screening Bill Despite Veto Threat by Obama

Reuters reports that the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a new bill on Thursday that would suspend President Obama’s plan to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States within the next year and intensify the screening process.

The bill was quickly drafted this week after the terrible attacks in Paris by the Islamic State that led to the deaths of 129 people. The vote was approved 289 to 137 with 47 Democrats voting for the bill, according to Fox News.

As previously reported on our website, the issue of allowing Syrian refugees into our country has become a deeply controversial issue. While several government officials want to welcome refugees into our country to help them escape the evils of ISIS and civil war, other officials believe that ISIS could infiltrate the United States within the refugees. Their theory comes from the fact that one of the Paris attackers may have entered Europe with Syrian refugees.

Supporters for Obama’s plan to admit the 10,000 refugees also state that there is a “very, very small” chance of any of the refugees being a “terrorist.” Haaretz reports that the White House also believe the bill would place “unnecessary and impractical requirements” that would keep the U.S. from being able to help the refugees.

In a response, President Obama did tell Voice of America News that he would veto the bill if it passed the Senate.

“My expectation is, after the initial spasm of rhetoric, that people will settle down, take a look at the facts, and we’ll be able to proceed,” Obama said while attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila.

Pope Address U.N. Encouraging Humanity over Politics

Just a day after his historic speech to the U.S. Congress, Pope Francis addressed the U.N. calling for world powers to stop putting political interests ahead of human suffering in the Middle East.  

“We cannot permit ourselves to postpone ‘certain agendas’ for the future. The future demands of us critical and global decisions in the face of worldwide conflicts which increase the number of the excluded and those in need.”

Pope Francis, the 5th Pope to address the U.N. in history, also stressed a call for peace and environmental justice, and blame the exploitation of natural resources on “a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity.”

The Pope addressed issues such as the environment, weapons of mass destruction, persecution of Christians and all religious groups and the importance of remembering those who are cast off and forgotten.  

“The common home of all men and women must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic.”

After concluding his speech the Pope’s next stop was an emotional visit to the 9/11 Monument. Speaking in Spanish, Pope Francis addressed the crowd,

“This is a place where we shed tears” he said. “We weep out of a sense of helplessness in the face of injustice, murder, and the failure to settle conflicts through dialogue. Here we mourn the wrongful and senseless loss of innocent lives because of the inability to find solutions which respect the common good. This flowing water reminds us of yesterday’s tears, but also of all the tears still being shed today.”

Pope Francis Gives Historic Address to Congress

In an historic two hour speech, Pope Francis, the first-ever pontiff to address a joint meeting of Congress, encouraged the United States to use its power to heal the “open wounds” of a planet torn by hatred, greed, poverty and pollution.  Using biblical and historical references, Pope Francis reminded political leaders, “All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity”   

Pope Francis urged the United States not to turn its back on undocumented immigrants or to reject the victimization of religious and ethnic minorities.  He also addressed what is happening with the increasing violence in our world today.  

“All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.”

The Pope asked lawmakers to wage a constant battle against poverty and to ensure the wealth of the world is equitably shared and used to create jobs.

Francis, who is on a six-day U.S. visit, was watched not only by a packed chamber of lawmakers but also thousands of people who gathered outside the Capitol. After his lunch with the homeless at a Catholic charity in Washington, Francis will head to New York where he will ride his popemobile through Manhattan and lead evening prayers at St Patrick’s Cathedral.