WHAT WE’RE WATCHING: A New Standard of “Influence?” Last week, the House of Representatives passed the Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act (H.R. 22), which would prohibit the Department of Energy (DOE) from selling petroleum products from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to any entity that is “under the ownership, control, or influence … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Tax-Writers to Scrutinize Obama’s Budget With President Obama set to release his FY 2017 Budget Proposal on the morning of Tuesday, February 9, House and Senate tax-writers this week have scheduled numerous hearings to review the tax and revenue portions of the Budget. The proposals – at least some of which are sure … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity U.S. Secret Service Allegedly Released Information on Congressional Leader This week, allegations surfaced that the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) had leaked sensitive information on Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) just as the Congressman had been investigating the agency. An Inspector General’s report found that senior USSS officials released information on the head of the … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Banking Committee Markup Not Yet Scheduled This week, the Senate Banking Committee was expected to hold a markup regarding proposals to provide regulatory relief to small banks. However, the markup has not yet been scheduled, as Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) has not agreed to limit the upcoming markup to … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House and Senate Hold Hearings on FCC Oversight On March 18 and 19, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (Senate Commerce Committee) and the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s (House Commerce Committee’s) Subcommittee on Communications and Technology respectively held hearings concerning oversight of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) policy decisions and … Continue Reading