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House Tea Party Defiance Will Kill Amnesty Bill

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Photo Credit: APElites of both parties are united in support of Marco Rubio’s immigration bill. That sort of unity is remarkable in Washington, but not unheard of.

Here’s the unprecedented part: The elites are going to lose.

The Tea Party has cultivated in House Republicans such a distrust of the establishment and such a disregard for party unity that even when the issue isn’t a Tea Party issue — and immigration isn’t, really — the GOP rank and file have little interest in doing what they’re told.

…Republicans elected since 2010 simply do not feel they need to answer to K Street, the GOP leadership, or any party elites. Newer Republican members came to Washington without the help of business PACs, often running against K Street in primaries and general elections…

So, unlike the days when Bush, Armey and Delay dragged the GOP caucus around, the Republican rank and file today calls the tune for its leadership. Speaker John Boehner, no enemy of K Street, has declared Rubio’s bill DOA in the House.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Republicans Launch Investigation Into Employer Mandate Delay

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

House Republicans said Wednesday they are launching an investigation into the Obama administration’s decision to delay the “employer mandate” provision in the new health care law.

Members of the Energy and Commerce Committee argued the White House’s consultations with business leaders ahead of Tuesday’s announcement were conducted in secret and raise questions about the administration’s ability to carry out other facets of the Affordable Care Act.

“Just as the law was crafted out of sight from the American people, the administration is again taking care of some interests behind closed doors while struggling Americans are left to pay for the looming rate shock and grapple with the law’s complex mandates,” said committee Chairman Fred Upton, Michigan Republican.

The employer mandate required businesses with more than 50 workers to offer insurance to all full-time employees, or else pay a fine of $2,000 per worker. Business lobbied heavily against the mandate, and now it will not go into effect until after the 2014 mid-term elections.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Conservatives Promise to Oust Boehner if he Break His Oath and Moves Amnesty Bill Without Majority Support

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

House Republican conservatives warned Wednesday they would move to oust Speaker John Boehner if he puts an immigration reform bill up for a vote that doesn’t have the support of a majority of GOP members.

“There gets to be a time when there is a straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back,” Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said at a monthly question and answer event featuring a group of conservative lawmakers.

Salmon, along with Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho; Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas; and Rep. Tom McClintock, of California, said they do not support the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform plan now advancing in the Senate, despite the passage of an amendment that would at 20,000 border agents and other border security measures to the bill.

Boehner, R-Ohio, told Republicans today he will not take up the Senate bill, repeating a pledge he made in writing last month, and instead plans to move House-authored legislation. But many in the conservative wing of the GOP conference fear Boehner will allow a bill on the floor that includes legalization or a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants but does not include the level of border security they believe is needed to stop illegal migration.

Such a bill could pass with mostly Democratic support and a fraction of the Republican conference backing it.

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Farm Bill Comes to Stunning Defeat in House

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

While Americans have been understandably focused on important issues such as the Immigration Bill and the Obama administration scandals, on Thursday, by a vote of 195-234, the House defeated the nearly $1 trillion farm subsidy and food stamp bill–known collectively as “The Farm Bill,” in a searing rebuke to House leadership.

The Wall Street Journal refers to the shocking defeat of the farm legislation as a “revolt,” and describes how the House’s more conservative members who believed the bill spends too much money, including Paul Ryan and Jeb Hensarling, joined with Democrats who said the bill did not offer enough in entitlements to bring the legislation to its knees.

The WSJ states that the reason for the surprising defeat of the House farm bill was its “mind-boggling price tag–$740 billion for food stamps and $200 billion for farm payments” and other freebies. The taxpayer-funded farm payment subsidies have been shown to find their way into the pockets of wealthy farm owners, agribusiness lobbyists, and even members of Congress who vote on the bill.

While conservatives note that food stamps have grown to an $80 billion per year program, up by about 70% in less than five years, Democrats called the $2 billion in cuts and the addition of a work requirement in the legislation too severe.

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Source: Boehner Will Not Bring Amnesty Bill to Floor Unless Majority of House GOP Support it

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

House Speaker John Boehner appears to have put to rest rumors that he may break what is informally called the “Hastert Rule,” an unwritten guideline that a majority of the majority party should be needed to bring a bill to the House floor, in order to pass a version of amnesty like the “Gang of Eight” bill currently moving through the Senate.

A source with direct knowledge of these matters told Breitbart News that Boehner has decided to abide by the Hastert Rule in regards to immigration reform. “No immigration bill will be brought to the floor for a vote without a majority of the Republican conference in support,” the source told Breitbart News on Monday.

Around Washington, conservatives have worried that Boehner may back down from conservative principles on immigration and support the Gang of Eight bill. They fear he may rush the bill to the floor if the Senate passes it and try to move it through the House with a majority of Democratic votes.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Votes to Exempt Military From D.C. Gun Laws

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Photo Credit: Washington Times

Photo Credit: Washington Times

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution Friday that expresses the sense of Congress that active duty military living or stationed in the District of Columbia should have the right to carry a gun.

The measure sponsored by Rep. Phil Gingrey, Georgia Republican, was passed by voice vote as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes the Pentagon’s budget for 2014. Mr. Gingrey has followed my series on active-duty veterans who have been thrown in jail for mere possession of unregistered guns or ammunition.

First Lieutenant Augustine Kim, Sgt. Matthew Corrigan and Spc. Adam Meckler were all arrested in D.C. in the last couple years for inadvertently violating the city’s unique laws, set in place after Heller in order to dissuade legal gun ownership.

“Our servicemen and women are highly-trained, highly-skilled, and the most professional fighting force in the world,” Gingrey said after the vote about those cases. “That this could happen to our veterans is a travesty. I will continue fighting to protect our Second Amendment rights.”

Read more from this story HERE.

House Adds Rape Exception to Abortion Ban Bill

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Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey

Rep. Trent Franks’s (R-Ariz.) bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks nationwide now includes an exception for rape and incest after his remarks about rape and pregnancy created an uproar.

And it’s not Franks’s bill anymore — or more precisely, he won’t be managing his own bill when it goes to the House floor Tuesday. He’s being replaced with a high-profile House GOP woman…

Franks caused a stir Wednesday when during a House Judiciary markup of the bill, he said that “the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low” when stating his opposition to a Democratic amendment that would have allowed abortions in the case of rape and incest.

The GOP change to the bill on rape includes a requirement that the rape or the incest had been reported to the appropriate legal authorities. The Democrats’ amendment had not included such language…

Democrats said Franks’s rape comment was reminiscent of Republican Todd Akin’s quote regarding “legitimate rape” during his failed Senate campaign last year.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Committee Votes Wednesday on Bill Banning Abortions at 20 Weeks

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Photo Credit: Life News

The full House Judiciary Committee will vote on Wednesday on a Congressional bill that would ban abortions nationwide at 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Last week, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice voted on a party-line vote 6-4 for the bill, with Republicans supporting the ban on late-term abortions and Democrats opposing it.

During the hearing, former abortion practitioner Anthony Levatino told members of the committee the gruesome details of his former abortion practice and how he became pro-life following the tragic automobile accident of his child.

Another bombshell dropped during the hearing came from Dr. Maureen Condic, who is Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She testified that the unborn child is capable of reacting to pain as early as 8-10 weeks. This is when most abortions in America take place.

The committee also saw graphic pictures of babies who were killed by Douglas Karpen, who is considered the second Kermit Gosnell.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Votes to Limit Homeland Security’s Gun Ammunition Buys

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Photo Credit: M. Spencer Green

Lawmakers voted late Wednesday for limits on the amount of ammunition that can be purchased by the Department of Homeland Security.

The measure — a proposal to amend the DHS spending bill — came by way of Republican Rep. Mark Meadows and passed 234-192, The Associated Press reported. The amendment prohibits taxpayer dollars from being sent to DHS for ammunition buys unless the agency first sends a report to Congress detailing its previous like purchases.

The report must also include the agency’s past ammunition usages, AP reported.

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House Committee Wants to Hear From Anyone Targeted by the IRS

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Photo Credit: kenteegardinClaims of political targeting by the Internal Revenue Service are flooding into the House Ways and Means Committee, bolstered by evidence that includes secretly recorded conversations with IRS officials.

Ways and Means has created a website inviting Americans who believe they were targeted to share their stories, and among the information being forwarded to committee investigators are surreptitious recordings of interviews with the IRS. The recordings and other evidence are coming from conservatives who believe they were subjected to tax audits because of their political activism, or from members of conservative groups who believe their organizations’ requests for tax-exempt status was subjected to extra scrutiny.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, a member of Ways and Means, confirmed to The Washington Examiner on Thursday that the evidence being sent to the committee includes secret recordings with IRS officials. This information comports with legal sources who have clients who believe they were targeted by the IRS because they are politically active conservatives who opposed President Obama’s re-election.

Read more from this story HERE.