Month: July 2023

McCarthy walks balancing act one more time before long summer

Posted on (Updated by Mychael Schnell

House Republicans are set to meet as a group one final time ahead of the August recess on Wednesday amid tensions over the annual appropriations process, a push to expunge former President Trump’s impeachments and questions over who they might impeach in the Biden administration. 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has shaken up the final question by suggesting in an interview on Fox News on Monday night that the impeachment targets could include the president himself.

He told Fox’s Sean Hannity that Republican-led investigations into Biden are “rising to the level of impeachment inquiry” and didn’t back away from the suggestion in remarks to reporters Tuesday.

The statements by McCarthy offer red meat to the GOP base and hard-line conservatives in the conference who are jumping at the chance to go after Biden amid anger over what many Republicans see as favorable treatment by the Department of Justice.

They also come as McCarthy is trying to soothe conservatives angered by the direction of federal spending.

It’s the latest balancing act for the Speaker, who is managing a razor-thin majority and must navigate differences between conservatives and more moderate members of his conference, some of whom do not support as steep of spending cuts and do not want to expunge Trump’s impeachment or impeach Biden.

“We’ve got a narrow majority and we’re trying to work our way to a consensus and hopefully we will,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the chairman of the Rules Committee, said of the appropriations process.

McCarthy must also contend with Trump, the leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, whom he risks angering should he fail to schedule a vote to expunge his impeachments. That dynamic could grow if Trump is hit with his third indictment of 2023 this week.

Wednesday’s Republican conference meeting — its regular weekly gathering — provides McCarthy with one final opportunity to alleviate tensions and rally his GOP troops ahead of a critical week, and a long summer break.  

Top of the legislative to-do list is appropriations, as Congress stares down a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown. The House is scheduled to vote on the first two of 12 appropriations bills this week, even as conservatives remain skeptical of leadership's efforts to cut spending.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus put GOP leadership on notice Tuesday, announcing they want to review all 12 appropriations bills — and assess the overall price tag — before voting on any individual measures. All appropriations bills have been released by the Appropriations Committee, but two are still being marked up.

“We are united in the belief that we have to see what the entire cost is before we can start working on individual pieces of it. Because again, you will be left with a very small piece of that pie that we might have to take a lot of the spending out of,” Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), one of the Freedom Caucus members, said Tuesday.

That posture could make it tougher for McCarthy to pass the first two appropriations bills, which Democrats are expected to oppose because they were marked up at levels below the debt limit deal. If liberals are united in opposition, the Speaker will only be able to lose a handful of his members.

McCarthy brushed aside any concerns Tuesday.

“It’s your same question every week, and I haven't changed my opinion yet,” he told reporters.

The appropriations fight is at risk of being drowned out by Trump, with the former president on indictment watch and House conservatives pushing for a vote on expunging his impeachments.

Trump last week said the Justice Department informed him that he is a target in their investigation into his efforts to remain in office following the 2020 presidential election — which includes the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — a notification that often precedes charges being filed.

That news came within days of a Politico report that said McCarthy — in an effort to ease tensions with Trump after the Speaker questioned his strength as a candidate — promised to stage a vote on resolutions to expunge the former president's impeachments by the end of September, the constitutionality of which has been questioned by some.

McCarthy, who is in favor of expungement, denied ever vowing to hold a vote on the measures. But the report nonetheless resurfaced conservative calls to wipe away the impeachments, much to the chagrin of moderate Republicans.

“President Trump was wrongfully impeached twice — twice — and both of these impeachments must be expunged by the House of Representatives,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a lead sponsor of one of the expungement resolutions, said on the House floor Tuesday.

Those demands will likely grow louder if Trumps is indicted.

McCarthy risks angering Trump and his allies if he does not schedule a vote on the resolutions; but if he does, they would almost certainly fail amid opposition from moderates.

The risk of angering Trump and hard-line conservatives is especially acute as appropriations season heats up — a time when McCarthy is trying to unite his conference behind spending bills to avoid a shutdown.

Some conservatives, however, were pleased with McCarthy opening up the possibility of an impeachment inquiry, a move that could help simmer tensions between the Speaker and his right flank in the sprint to Sept. 30.

“I don’t think there’s any question that him speaking to that has caused a paradigm shift,” Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) said Tuesday.

Emily Brooks contributed.

This story was updated at 8:12 a.m.

Senate Republicans see Biden impeachment as fraught with risk

Posted on (Updated by Alexander Bolton

Senate Republicans see impeaching President Biden ahead of the 2024 election as a risky political strategy that could turn off moderate voters and are hoping to wave their House GOP colleagues off from marching down that road.

GOP senators say the party is better off focused on how to improve Americans’ lives in the future instead of fighting messy battles to settle past political scores. 

“Staying focused on the future and not the past is in my view the best way to change the direction of the country and that’s to win an election,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) told reporters Tuesday.  

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairwoman Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said Tuesday she would prefer to focus on national security policy, which the Senate is debating this week as it wraps up work on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  

“I’m really focused on NDAA right now. I really want to see it get done and I want a bipartisan deal between the House and the Senate. I think that’s what we’re focused on,” Ernst told reporters. “We need to get our [appropriations] bills done, too. So, that’s what we’re going to focus on in the Senate.” 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday strongly signaled to reporters that the House could move forward with an impeachment inquiry.

“How do you get to the bottom of the truth? The only way Congress can do that is go to an impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. “What an impeachment inquiry does, it gives us the apex of the power of Congress for Republicans and Democrats to gather the information that they need.”

However, McCarthy later said no decision had been made, raising doubts about whether he’d move forward with the step.

“I wasn’t announcing it,” he said. “I simply say … that the actions that I'm seeing by this administration, with holding the agencies from being able to work with us — that would rise to the level of an impeachment inquiry. We … still have a number of investigations going forward.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) declined to comment on McCarthy's impeachment push when asked about it on his way to the Senate floor. 

Senate Republicans have generally kept their distance from the House Republican-led investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings and earlier this summer dismissed what they saw as a hastily filed motion by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) to impeach Biden for lacking evidence and due process.  

“I know people are angry. I’m angry at the Biden administration for their policies at the border and a whole host of other things, but I think we also need to look at what’s achievable,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said last month in response to Boebert’s impeachment resolution.  

“And with a Democratic majority in the Senate, I don’t think that’s achievable,” he warned.  

Cornyn on Tuesday remarked that the House standards for impeaching a president have dropped in recent years. 

House Democrats impeached former President Trump in December of 2019 and then again in January of 2021.

He told reporters that impeaching presidents is getting to be "a habit around here," and that's not a good thing.

“Unfortunately, what goes around, comes around,” he said. 

Remembering when it backfired 

Senate Republicans remember the last time a Republican-controlled House impeached a Democratic president in the fall of 1998, it backfired on their party in that year’s midterm election.   

Democrats picked up five House seats that year, marking the first time in 64 years the president’s party didn’t lose any seats in Congress during a midterm election.   

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted twice to convict Trump on impeachment charges during two separate Senate trials, said it’s not unusual for lawmakers to launch baseless attacks against a major party’s nominee for president, as happened to him in 2012.   

Romney said Biden should open up about his family’s business dealings to reassure the public.  

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“There are all sorts of accusations and allegations. I had something of that nature launched against me when I was running for president. I found the best way to respond was full disclosure and transparency. My guess is that’s the way to make it go away,” he said. “I’ll expect to see that from the Biden team.   

Romney reminded his House colleagues that the “bar” for impeachment is “high crimes and misdemeanors.”  

“That hasn’t been alleged at this stage, but we’ll see what develops. I certainly hope that that’s not going to confront us again,” he said.   

Cornyn warned Tuesday that further lowering the bar for impeachment will set a precedent for future Congresses.   

“Once a precedent is established around here, you can pretty well guarantee people will cite that as justification or lower the bar further. I don’t think it’s a healthy thing,” he said.   

Even so, Cornyn acknowledged that House investigators have uncovered some troubling evidence shedding light on Hunter Biden’s business dealings.  

“I’m very disturbed by some of the revelations in the House about the Biden family business,” he said.   

Not eager for battle 

GOP senators are not eager to get drawn into a protracted battle with Democrats over an impeachment trial that may wind up dividing their conference if House investigators fail to come up with compelling evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, the standard set by the Constitution.  

Investigations by the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees into Hunter Biden’s business dealings and whether he received favorable treatment from the Department of Justice have failed to gain much public traction, or even support from Senate Republicans on the other side of the Capitol.  

Trump on Monday vented his frustration with Senate Republicans for not showing much interest in pursuing Biden.  

“Why hasn’t Republican ‘leadership’ in the Senate spoken up and rebuked Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats, Fascists, and Marxists for their criminal acts against our Country, some of them against me. How long does America have to wait for the Senate to ACT?” Trump demanded in a post to his social media site, Truth Social. 

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines (Mont.) told reporters Tuesday that it’s the job of the House, not the Senate, to investigate Biden.  

“It will be up to the House to determine what the facts lead them to vote on in the future. That’s their job,” he said.  

Some Republican senators, however, argued Tuesday that House Republicans are justified in moving forward with an impeachment inquiry. 

“Considering what the House Oversight Committee is unearthing — we can’t help that the FBI didn’t do their job for five years — now they’re finding all this information out. They’re still digging and appropriately so,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who asserted that House investigators have found “pretty strong evidence of serious crimes.” 

“Whether we like it or not, we may have to deal with it,” he said. “I think the Speaker is doing what he needs to do and what’s appropriate to do, quite honestly.” 

Asked about his Senate Republican colleagues’ reluctance to wade into another impeachment fight, Cramer said: “I’m not eager to get on an airplane every Monday morning.” 

“We don’t do this for our own convenience, we do this because we pledge an oath and we have a president who clearly has over the years been running a really awful family crime syndicate,” he said. “We’ve got to look into it.” 

He said when Democrats controlled the House during the Trump administration, “We impeached the president twice with no evidence in the kangaroo court.” 

Speaker McCarthy reveals red line for possible Biden impeachment inquiry

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy revealed Republicans' red line for possible impeachment proceedings against President Biden, telling Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that his party would, for now, continue seeking information related to the Biden family finances unless that information began being withheld.

"What I've said is if they withhold information, the impeachment inquiry allows Congress to have the apex of power to get all the information they need. All this information people are finding out now is only because Republicans have investigated," McCarthy told Fox. 

"The people of America have a right to know what went on. They have a president who lied to the American public and said they didn't get any money from China. We know that's true. We've had whistleblowers from the IRS come say the Biden family is treated differently and that other things were going on. And then you have a[n] informant with the FBI saying there was a bribe. We need to know the answer to this," he said. 

McCarthy added that if "at any time" he felt they weren't going to be able to get the information they needed to progress through the investigation, then they "would have to rise to the level of impeachment inquiry." 

MCCARTHY: BIDEN CASE WILL ‘RISE TO IMPEACHMENT’ AS 16 ROMANIAN PAYMENTS ALLEGEDLY WENT TO ‘SHELL COMPANIES’

"That's not happening today. But what I'm explaining to everybody that if we don't get the information, I will go to impeachment inquiry to make sure we get all the answers," he said.

When asked whether he thought a sitting U.S. president could be impeached based off actions that occurred before they took office, McCarthy dismissed dealing in hypotheticals.

"What we're looking right now is getting an answer to the questions and seeing, did [Attorney General Merrick] Garland lie to the American public or not? We know what has been said in these meetings, and we're going to get the answers," he said.

McCarthy predicted during a Monday appearance on Fox News' "Hannity" that House Republicans would soon have enough evidence gathered to mount an impeachment inquiry against Biden as the corruption scandal enveloping him and his son Hunter continues to grow.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES HUNGRY FOR BIDEN IMPEACHMENT AFTER MCCARTHY'S COMMENTS: ‘GROUND SHIFTED’

During the interview, McCarthy said that 16 of the 17 payments the Bidens allegedly received from a Romanian national went to what he described as "Biden shell companies" while Biden was vice president. According to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., the elder Biden had been "lecturing Romania on anti-corruption policies" while instead being a "walking billboard for his… family to collect money."

"When President Biden was running for office, he told the American public that he's never talked about [Hunter's] business. He said his family has never received a dollar from China, which we now prove is not true," McCarthy said during the interview.

Biden has long denied discussion or involvement in Hunter's business deals, recently rebuffing a New York Post reporter who asked why he is reportedly referred to as the "big guy" in the FBI form – which is the same nickname purportedly used as a pseudonym in a message gleaned from previously released documentation connected to Hunter.

DOJ OFFERS HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATOR FOR TESTIMONY BEFORE THE HOUSE

McCarthy's comments have riled up members of the House Freedom Caucus, who appeared eager Tuesday for him to make good on his veiled impeachment threats, with one saying the leader's words marked a "paradigm shift."

"When he does speak to … impeachment, it carries a tremendous amount of weight. And that's why I think the ground shifted on that a little bit when he opened up the door," Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., said after the group's Tuesday press conference. "I don't think there's any question that him speaking to that has caused a paradigm shift."

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Fox News' Charles Creitz and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

Joe Biden laughs, ignores questions about potential impeachment by House Republicans

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

President Biden brushed off and smiled at reporters who peppered him with questions Tuesday evening about a potential impeachment by Republicans in the House.

Following a speech in the East Room of the White House about expanding access to mental health care, Biden made his way to the exit where a group of reporters eagerly asked for his thoughts about the growing discussion by Republicans to impeach him.

Amid numerous questions, one reporter asked, "Mr. President, McCarthy says he may [consider] an impeachment inquiry to get to the bottom of —"

Smiling from ear to ear in one clip shared to social media, Biden quickly passed by the noisy group of reporters.

MCCARTHY: BIDEN CASE WILL 'RISE TO IMPEACHMENT' AS 16 ROMANIAN PAYMENTS ALLEGEDLY WENT TO 'SHELL COMPANIES'

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says Republican lawmakers may consider an impeachment inquiry of Biden over claims of financial misconduct.

Speaking Tuesday at the Capitol, McCarthy said the questions House Republicans are raising about the Biden family finances need to be investigated. He said an impeachment inquiry "allows Congress to get the information to be able to know the truth" about whether Biden committed any wrongdoing.

An impeachment inquiry by the House would be a first step toward bringing articles of impeachment. Such a probe could be as lengthy or swift as the House determines, potentially stretching into campaign season.

Other Republicans also appear to be on board with the idea of impeachment, specifically House Freedom Caucus members.

"When he does speak to … impeachment, it carries a tremendous amount of weight. And that's why I think the ground shifted on that a little bit when he opened up the door," Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., said after a Freedom Caucus press conference on Tuesday. "I don't think there's any question that him speaking to that has caused a paradigm shift."

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., suggested there would be "an uprising" against Biden if the House did not move forward with trying to remove him.

"Look, the evidence is mounting against this guy. Look at what he’s done," Norman said. "What Donald Trump’s done with papers pales in comparison."

Norman said there was a "difference of opinion" on whether to take such a severe step but dismissed the idea of risking an impeachment vote that fails.

"Some people think that what he’s done isn’t that bad. A lot of us in general — the public, it’s gonna be an uprising against this guy, I think, at the end of the day."

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES HUNGRY FOR BIDEN IMPEACHMENT AFTER MCCARTHY’S COMMENTS: ‘GROUND SHIFTED’

McCarthy predicted Monday that Republicans will gather enough evidence soon to mount an impeachment inquiry against Biden, as the corruption scandal enveloping him and his son Hunter continues to grow.

McCarthy made reference to a relatively new revelation from the House Oversight Committee that — while Joe was vice president — Hunter Biden "capitalized" on a financial relationship with a Romanian national later convicted on corruption charges.

According to prepared remarks from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., in June, the Bidens received more than $1 million in 17 increments.

McCarthy, during an appearance on Fox News, said that 16 of those 17 payments went to what he described as "Biden shell companies" while President Biden was vice president. According to Comer's prepared remarks, the elder Biden had been "lecturing Romania on anti-corruption policies" while instead being a "walking billboard for his … family to collect money."

"When President Biden was running for office, he told the American public that he's never talked about [Hunter's] business. He said his family has never received a dollar from China, which we now prove is not true," McCarthy said on "Hannity."

He said evidence and legitimacy of their caucus' probes are mounting, as he described the two IRS investigators who testified before Congress last week as "some of the most credible" to come forward.

McCarthy cited the FBI 1023 form wherein a confidential human source told the bureau that Biden was paid $5 million by a Burisma executive while he was vice president and while Hunter was on the board.

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Biden has long denied discussion or involvement in Hunter's business deals, recently rebuffing a New York Post reporter who asked why he is reportedly referred to as the "big guy" in the FBI form — which is the same nickname purportedly used as a pseudonym in a message gleaned from previously released documentation connected to Hunter.

McCarthy on Tuesday gave no timeline for launching an impeachment inquiry into Biden.

Fox News' Charles Creitz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

UFOs, UAPs and angels: Lawmakers have different views on extraterrestrial explanations

Posted on (Updated by Emily Brooks

As the House prepares to hear from a UFO whistleblower who claims the U.S. is concealing evidence of nonhuman craft, the question looms over members of Congress: Are we alone?

Many members insist they have not seriously considered the question or are keeping their concern focused on national security risks from not knowing the cause of UFO sightings.

But some members say they have seen enough to think that the unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) — a more recent term for sightings of strange objects or effects in the sky — are of nonhuman extraterrestrial origin.

“It’s either something extraterrestrial, or something extraterrestrial that they reverse-engineered,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a leader of Wednesday’s UAP hearing, said when asked about the possibility of the sightings being secret Chinese or Russian technology.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) also said he thinks the UAPs were of nonhuman extraterrestrial origin.

“Listen, God made a phenomenal planet with phenomenal people, even though we disagree, we have our own issues. I don’t think we’re the only ones in the universe,” Donalds said.

“Do I think that our federal government has hidden information from the American people? 100 percent. Not even close,” he added. 

But while most of the focus around the UAPs is on whether their source is dangerous technology from adversaries such as China or Russia or extraterrestrial, some people have pointed to a third explanation behind the sightings. 

“I’m a Christian and I believe the Bible,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). “I think that to me, honestly – I’ve looked into it. And I think we have to question if it’s more of the spiritual realm. Angels, or fallen angels. And that’s my honest opinion.”

Wednesday’s hearing will feature David Grusch, a former intelligence official who is now a whistleblower alleging that the government is concealing evidence of a crash retrieval program focused on wreckage of “nonhuman origin.”

“These are retrieving nonhuman origin technical vehicles, call it spacecraft if you will. Nonhuman exotic origin vehicles that have either landed or crashed,” Grusch told NewsNation last month, going as far as to suggest that some crash retrievals have included recovery of “dead pilots.”

In the UFO enthusiast community, Grusch’s claims were a bombshell. But they did not land that way with all members of Congress.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) brushed off a recent question about whether he believes in extraterrestrial life.

“I will continue to see, but I think if we had found a UFO, I think the Department of Defense would tell us, because they probably want to request more money,” McCarthy said. “I’m very supportive of letting the American public see whatever we have.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, also rebuffed concern about UAPs and their origins.

“There are so many things that we get an opportunity to dig into and talk about here. It’s really the reason why people run for Congress, is to help their constituents and to weigh in on serious things. And this is just not in my top 20 that constituents in my district are asking me about or talking about,” Aguilar said.

But there is some UFO and UAP alarm among leaders on the other side of the Capitol.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) spearheaded an amendment that was added to the chamber’s annual defense bill that would require government records related to UAPs be declassified and disclosed unless a review board says they must be kept classified.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, recently told The Hill that he is concerned about the national security implications of the UAPs and the whistleblower claims.

“Either A, they’re telling the truth or some version of the truth, or B, we have a bunch of people with high clearances and really important jobs in our government [who] are nuts. Both are a problem,” Rubio said.

But do not expect any hard answers in the meeting about whether Earth has been visited by aliens.

“I don’t think we’re gonna get into little green men,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who is helping lead Wednesday’s UAP hearing.

The focus, he said, is on government transparency about UAPs.

“What does the government know? And why aren’t they telling the American people?” Moskowitz said. “Even just trying to get this hearing done — there are different factions of the government that tried to stop the hearing from happening. Why?”

Last year, a House Intelligence subcommittee held a rare open hearing on UAPs, with lawmakers seeking to destigmatize reporting of the sightings and stressing that they are a national security concern. But it did little to provide an explanation for the hundreds of recorded UAP encounters.

“I’m on the Intelligence Committee, and yes, we do have hearings on this stuff,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio). But while most of those are closed hearings, Wenstrup said they “might as well be open,” alluding to a lack of explanation about the encounters.

Despite the intense outside interest, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is leaving exploration of the topic to Burchett and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).

“I’m just gonna sit there. I’m gonna yield my time to Luna,” Comer said. “I’m just there to listen and learn.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), top Democrat on the Oversight panel, said that bipartisan interest in UAPs is a “positive thing.” But as of last week, he had not deeply looked into the issue.

“With climate change and extreme fanaticism running loose on earth, other planets are seeming more and more attractive to people,” Raskin said. “So, I don’t blame them for wanting to have this hearing.”

Manchin and Tuberville unveil bill making sweeping changes to college sports

Posted on (Updated by Sarah Fortinsky

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) unveiled legislation Tuesday that would establish a national standard for the handling of college athletes' name, image and likeness (NIL), two years after the Supreme Court decided the NCAA’s rules restricting certain student-athlete compensation were illegal.

The “Protecting Athletes, Schools and Sports Act” would require that collectives and boosters be affiliated with a college or school, prohibit inducements and give the NCAA the authority to prohibit certain NIL agreements, including those that would “involve alcohol, drugs, or conflict with existing school and conference licenses.” 

The NCAA would also have oversight over NIL activities and the authority to investigate them. The legislation also empowers the Federal Trade Commission, allowing the NCAA to report violations to the FTC.

It would also make changes to the transfer portal by requiring athletes to complete the first three years of academic eligibility before being allowed to transfer without penalty, with a few exceptions, according to a press release. 

The legislation would require four-year schools and colleges to offer health insurance to athletes who are uninsured for eight years after they graduate. Institutions whose athletics departments generate a certain revenue threshold would be required to pay out-of-pocket expenses. If the institution makes more than $20 million in athletics revenue, it would be required to pay expenses for two years; if it makes more than $50 million, it would be required to pay four years. 

Manchin, a former West Virginia University football player, and Tuberville, the former head football coach at Auburn University, said the legislation is a result of a years-long collaborative process during which time they heard from a wide range of stakeholders. 

“As a former college athlete, I know how important sports are to gaining valuable life skills and opening doors of opportunity. However, in recent years, we have faced a rapidly evolving NIL landscape without guidelines to navigate it, which jeopardizes the health of the players and the educational mission of colleges and universities,” Manchin wrote in the press release.

“Our bipartisan legislation strikes a balance between protecting the rights of student-athletes and maintaining the integrity of college sports. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to consider this commonsense legislation as a way to level the playing field in college athletics,” he added.

“Student athletes should be able to take advantage of NIL promotional activities without impacting their ability to play collegiate sports,” Tuberville wrote in the release. “But we need to ensure the integrity of our higher education system, remain focused on education, and keep the playing field level. Our legislation with Senator Manchin will set basic rules nationwide, protect our student-athletes, and keep NIL activities from ending college sports as we know it.”

The pair of senators included statements praising the legislation from NCAA President Charlie Baker, the Big 12 Conference, the Southeastern Conference and from presidents of universities to which they were connected.  

Last week, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) also introduced draft legislation to tackle college athletics. It is similar to Manchin and Tuberville’s bill, but it also establishes a third-party entity to serve as the hub, rulemaker, investigator and enforcer of best practices and rules relating to student-athletes’ rights.

GOP lawmaker slams ‘war pimps at the Pentagon’ ahead of UFO hearing 

Posted on (Updated by Lauren Sforza

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) slammed the Pentagon on the eve of a UFO-focused hearing slated to be held by a House Oversight subcommittee on Wednesday.

Fox News’s Martha MacCallum asked Burchett what people should expect from the hearing, where three witnesses will address the Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs. MacCallum also showed footage of the so-called “Tic Tac” videos that were released by the Department of Defense of suspected unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

“So this — the Tic Tac videos, which you showed earlier ... The military denied that that even existed, and then it was put out and they said they were fakes and then they eventually came around," Burchett said.

“The Pentagon is coming around because they smell dollars, man, the war pimps at the Pentagon, all they want to do is drain more dollars from us,” he continued. “We don't need any more dollars. All we need is transparency. That's the job of you all in the media and us in Congress.”

When reached for comment, Burchett doubled down on his criticism of the Pentagon to The Hill.

“You hear me talk about them all the time,” he said. “The industrial war complex always wants to hit a lick so they can go fail another audit or misplace the money. The Pentagon loses over a billion dollars a year. We can’t have that.”

During the hearing, titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency,” lawmakers are expected to hear from three witnesses: David Grusch, the whistleblower who has accused the government of withholding information related to UFOs, Ryan Graves, the executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, and Rt. Commander David Fravor, the former commanding officer of the Navy’s Black Aces Squadron.

Frustrated lawmakers have been demanding more information on UFOs and UAPs after Grusch claimed that the government is holding some back.

Burchett, who has been a leading voice on getting more information on UFOs, said Tuesday that members have spoken to pilots who destroyed evidence in connection to the UAPs.

“We need to turn loose the files, and we need to quit with all the nonsense,” he said. “This is ridiculous. We have Mr. Grusch is a — he's a combat veteran and apparently he's decorated. You know up here in Washington that doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot obviously, but in Tennessee it sure as heck does. We value our veterans and we value their opinion.”