Alabama delegation committee assignments for the 116th Congress
With the 116th Congress officially underway, members of the Alabama delegation have been announcing their committee and subcommittee assignments for the next two years. Here’s where the delegation will be serving: 1st District U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne: House Armed Services Committee: Subcommittee assignments will be announced in the coming weeks. “Given Alabama’s many military installations and national defense programs, I am honored to again serve on the Armed Services Committee,” said Byrne. “Whether it is fighting for the Austal shipyard in Mobile or supporting missile defense programs critical to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, I look forward to continuing to be a steadfast advocate for a stronger, more capable U.S. military.” House Education and Labor Committee: Subcommittee assignments will be announced in the coming weeks. “The Education and Labor Committee is really all about supporting the American workforce and Alabama’s economy. In order to have a strong economy, we need an education system that builds a skilled workforce and keeps decision making authority at the local and state level,” Byrne explained. “We also need labor policies that benefit workers, not Big Labor bosses or Washington bureaucrats. On the Education and Labor Committee, I will fight every day for Alabama’s students, teachers, and workers.” 2nd District U.S. Rep. Martha Roby: House Appropriations Committee: Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, the Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science. “I am honored to have the opportunity to continue serving on the House Appropriations Committee during the 116th Congress,” said Roby. “These subcommittee assignments give me a seat at the table to advocate for the conservative funding priorities that are important to the people I represent in Alabama’s Second District, including properly supporting our national security interests at home and abroad, ensuring adequate resources and care for our nation’s veterans, and more.” House Judiciary Committee: will serve as the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. “I am humbled to have been selected to serve as the top Republican on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet,” Roby added. “As an attorney, I’m excited to work closely on the important issues this subcommittee touches and to be a stronger voice in this leadership capacity on behalf of my district and state.” 3rd District U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers: House Agriculture Committee House Armed Services Committee House Homeland Security Committee
Alabama’s delegation sworn in for 116th Congress
Alabama’s nine federal lawmakers — two Senators and seven Representatives — took their oaths of office Thursday as the 116th Congress got underway. Here’s what they had to say about their swearing-in: U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby: As we begin the 116th Congress, I look forward to continuing to serve the American people and welcome my eight new colleagues in the Senate. Let’s get to work! #116thCongress 2nd District U.S. Rep. Martha Roby: I am honored and deeply humbled to represent Alabama’s Second District in Congress and serve as a voice for our shared conservative priorities. With every vote I cast, my guiding principle is that Alabama always comes first. From supporting Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base and Fort Rucker to improving veterans’ health care and advancing smart agriculture policy, I will continue to fight for the issues that impact Alabamians. 5th District U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks: As the 116th Congress begins its work, I am deeply honored to again have the opportunity to serve the people of Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District. As a Congressman, I have fought hard to defend the foundational principles that have made America the greatest nation in world history. I will continue to fight for those values in the face of stiff and majority-controlling Socialist Democrats in the 116th Congress. In particular, I will work to rein in out-of-control Washington spending, secure America’s borders and elections, defend free-enterprise policies from a strong and dangerous but naïve Socialist agenda, while also promoting strong national security and technological advancement NASA promotes for the benefit of all. The prosperity and freedom of America’s future generations is at stake. I appreciate the trust citizens of the Tennessee Valley have placed in me, and I look forward to a fifth term in the U.S. House. 6th District Rep. Gary Palmer: It was a great honor and privilege to stand on the House floor for the third time and pledge to support and defend the U.S. Constitution,” Palmer said. “I look forward to continuing to serve the people of Alabama’s Sixth District in Washington and pursuing sound policies for the good of the country during the 116th Congress. There is much to do over the next two years and I am eager to get back to work. 7th District U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell: I am deeply honored to represent the constituents of Alabama’s 7th District here in the House of Representatives. As Democrats take the majority in the 116th Congress, we have work to do advancing priorities from wage growth to infrastructure investment to affordable health care. American voters have also made democracy reform a top issue, and in the new Congress I hope to secure broad support for passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill which strengthens voter access to the polls and combats discrimination in our elections. Today I am deeply moved to see the most diverse Congress in history sworn into office. We deserve a Congress that reflects the diversity of the American public, and last year I fought to break down barriers for women and working candidates running for office. The 102 women who were sworn into the House today are a testament to the power of the women who have marched, protested, and voted for their seat at the table. Watch the full House swearing-in ceremony below:
Day 13: New Congress, same old impasse over Donald Trump’s wall
The partial government shutdown entered a 13th day Thursday with House Democrats prepared to pass their plan to reopen government and President Donald Trump accusing them of playing politics with an eye on the 2020 election. Both sides appeared at an impasse over Trump’s demand for billions of dollars to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Congressional leaders will meet with Trump on Friday to try for a resolution. The new Congress convenes Thursday with Democrats taking majority control of the House, and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, expected to be elected speaker, said they’d quickly pass legislation to re-open the government — without funds for Trump’s border wall. “There is no amount of persuasion he can use” to get her to fund his wall, Pelosi said in an interview airing Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show. She added: “We can go through the back and forth. No. How many more times can we say no?” Trump shot back Thursday, accusing the Democrats of playing politics. “The Shutdown is only because of the 2020 Presidential Election,” he said on Twitter. “The Democrats know they can’t win based on all of the achievements of “Trump,” so they are going all out on the desperately needed Wall and Border Security – and Presidential Harassment. For them, strictly politics!” The Democratic package to end the shutdown would include one bill to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels — with $1.3 billion for border security, far less than Trump has said he wants for the wall — through Feb. 8 as talks would continue. It would also include a separate measure to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and others closed by the partial shutdown. That measure would provide money through the remainder of the fiscal year, to Sept. 30. The White House has rejected the Democratic package, and Republicans who control the Senate are hesitant to take it up without Trump on board. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called it a “total nonstarter.” Trump said ahead of his White House session with the congressional leaders that the partial shutdown will last “as long as it takes” to get the funding he wants. In public, Trump renewed his dire warnings of rapists and others at the border. But when pressed in private Wednesday by Democrats asking why he wouldn’t end the shutdown, he responded at one point, “I would look foolish if I did that.” A White House official, one of two people who described that exchange only on condition of anonymity, said the president had been trying to explain that it would be foolish not to pay for border security. “Could be a long time or could be quickly,” Trump said during lengthy public comments at a Cabinet meeting, his first public appearance of the new year. Meanwhile, the shutdown has closed some parks and leaving hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay. Democrats said they asked Trump directly during Wednesday’s private meeting held in the Situation Room why he wouldn’t consider their package of bills. One measure would open most of the shuttered government departments at funding levels already agreed to by all sides. The other would provide temporary funding for Homeland Security, through Feb. 8, allowing talks to continue over border security. “I said, Mr. President, Give me one good reason why you should continue your shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said afterward. “He could not give a good answer.” At another point Wednesday, Trump told Pelosi that, as a “good Catholic,” she should support the wall because Vatican City has a wall, according to a congressional aide. Trump has mentioned the Vatican’s centuries-old fortifications before, including at the earlier Cabinet meeting. But Democrats have said they don’t want medieval barriers, and Pelosi has called Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border immoral. “I remain ready and willing to work with Democrats,” Trump tweeted after the meeting. “Let’s get it done!” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said that there’s no need to prolong the shutdown and that he was disappointed the talks did not produce a resolution. He complained that Democrats interrupted Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen as she was trying to describe a dreadful situation at the border. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Fox that Pelosi will be “more able to negotiate” once she is elected speaker, as expected Thursday. The two sides have traded offers, but their talks broke down ahead of the holidays. On Wednesday, Trump also rejected his own administration’s offer to accept $2.5 billion for the wall. That proposal was made when Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials met at the start of the shutdown with Schumer, who left saying they remained far apart. On Wednesday Trump repeatedly pushed for the $5.6 billion he has demanded. Making his case ahead of the private afternoon session, Trump said the current border is “like a sieve” and noted the tear gas “flying” overnight to deter arrivals. “If they knew they couldn’t come through, they wouldn’t even start,” he said at the meeting, joined by Cabinet secretaries and top advisers, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. With no negotiations over the holidays, Trump complained he had been “lonely ” at the White House, having skipped his getaway to Mar-a-Lago in Florida. He claimed his only companions were the “machine gunners,” referring to security personnel, and “they don’t wave, they don’t smile.” He also criticized Pelosi for visiting Hawaii. She responded Thursday, saying, “The president may not know this, but Hawaii is part of the United States of America.” She says she was available on 24 hours’ notice. The partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Democratic leadership taps Terri Sewell as Chief Deputy Whip for the 116th Congress
Alabama 7th District U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell will once again work Democratic leadership to help formulate policy and rally support for the Caucus’ legislative priorities on the House Floor. On Thursday, House Majority Whip-Elect James Clyburn announced he selected Sewell to serve as Chief Deputy Whip for the 116th Congress when it convenes in January, a post she has held since 2013. “I am proud to accept the honor of serving as one of Democratic Whip James Clyburn’s Chief Deputy Whips for the 116th Congress,” said Sewell. “I am thrilled to work side-by-side with our Democratic leadership team supporting an agenda focused on good-paying jobs, access to affordable health care, infrastructure investments, and democracy reforms. Working to advance these priorities with our Democratic leadership team and with my colleagues on the Steering and Policy Committee, I believe we can make a real difference for working families in Alabama and across the country in the new year.” Party whips are responsible for mobilizing the party vote on important legislation before they come to the floor to be voted on. The whip also acts as a liaison between the Members and the Caucus, to help build strong support for the Democratic agenda. Clyburn announced ten total representatives who will serve as Chief Deputy Whips in the 116th Congress, including: Rep. John Lewis (GA-05) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) will serve as Senior Chief Deputy Whips. Meanwhile Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23), Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC-01), Rep. Peter Welch (VT-AL), Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07), Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee (TX-18), Rep. Dan Kildee (MI-05), Rep. Pete Aguilar (CA-31), and Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX-28) will serve as Chief Deputy Whips. “In my campaign for Majority Whip, I promised to involve every segment of our Caucus and empower the next generation of leaders as integral parts of the Whip team,” said Clyburn. “I am very excited for the diverse set of experiences and talents these members and staff will bring to the table.”
