Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Scalise (1st District of Louisiana)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox Business Network’s Varney and Co. to discuss the need for the Senate to act quickly to pass the House budget bill in order to move on President Trump’s whole agenda, following last night’s Joint Address. Leader Scalise highlighted how the resolution looks out for American families, workers, and small businesses by extending President Trump’s tax cuts and avoiding massive tax hikes that target lower and middle-income Americans.

Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise’s full interview. 
On the importance of securing tax cuts:“[Trump tax cuts have] to get done. In fact, that’s why we came together in the House, Stuart, and passed the budget last week to lay the foundation not just for border and energy policy but for tax cuts. There was this debate over one bill versus two. I was always advocating for one, meaning let’s do it all in one big bill. Taxes are part of that because you’re not going to get certainty in the economy. You’ll see the stock market go up, go down, bounce all around until we have the certainty that there won’t be a massive tax hike on the American workers and small businesses of this country. That’s why it’s important we put that tax provision in the bill that also secures the border, funds the wall, border technology, energy policy, and regulatory reform.”On President Trump’s call to action for the Senate to pass the budget bill to prevent tax hikes:“Well, we continue to meet and work with them as we do with every element of our caucus on the Republican side. You go back and look at last week’s vote. Nothing is easy. We have a two-vote margin. One member voted no. If two members voted no, the bill would have been dead. And so we worked with everybody for weeks and weeks to thread that needle and get the budget passed. The Senate has it now, by the way. They need to do their part. They need to move. And I think last night was a call to action by President Trump to the Senate to say, look, the house delivered on my full agenda, it’s over in the Senate. Let’s get it moved through the Senate so we can get this agenda working for the American people. “The Democrats aren’t going to help us. They showed that last night. Sadly, they want to sit on their hands while American families face a massive tax hike. This isn’t the millionaires and billionaires we’re talking about. You’re talking about middle and low-income families.No tax on tips. The average tip worker makes about $32,000 a year. Elon Musk doesn’t make tip money, so it’s not people like him that would benefit. It’s the waiter and waitress working at your local restaurant that the Democrats don’t want to help. We will help them.”

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Scalise (1st District of Louisiana)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) issued the following statement after President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress:“Tonight’s Joint Address from President Trump was a welcome change from what we heard for the last four years. In less than two months, President Trump has already taken action at a whirlwind pace to turn our country around, reversing the damage done by President Biden and Vice President Harris, and making serious down payments on the promises he made to the American people to put America first. President Trump is working tirelessly for families that have been struggling for four years, from securing the border, to combating Bidenflation and cutting wasteful spending, to unleashing American energy, and reinstating common sense in Washington.  “Starting on day one, President Trump issued critical executive orders to reverse the Biden border crisis, with immediate results: in February, Border Patrol recorded only 8,326 encounters and apprehensions at the southern border – the lowest documented numbers in history – compared to 189,913 in February 2024 under President Biden. That represents an over 90% drop in illegal border crossings in just one full month of Donald Trump’s Presidency!“President Trump has also begun dismantling the Biden Administration’s anti-American energy agenda, rescinding Biden’s production-killing regulations, pushing policies that unleash American energy, shoring up our energy security, and empowering consumer choice in everything from vehicles to household appliances.  “Through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the President has taken major strides to return common sense to the way Washington spends taxpayer money, cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from the government agencies, even while far left Washington progressives fight him at every turn. He also passed executive orders to cut harmful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion mandates and reinstate merit-based hiring. To protect women, President Trump issued an executive order preventing biological males from participating in women and girls’ sports, preserving fairness and safety for female athletes. “Under the leadership of President Trump, America once again commands respect on the world stage. President Trump has stood up to terrorists, from Hamas to Mexican drug cartel members, and made clear that the United States will pursue peace through strength on a global level. As America’s greatest negotiator, he has fought against unfair trade policies and agreements that take advantage of the United States, empowering American workers and businesses. “Thanks to President Trump, the state of our union is finally getting stronger. Our President has already accomplished so much in just a few weeks, but the best is yet to come. There is much work left to do, and House Republicans will continue working closely with President Trump to enact his America First agenda and usher in the golden age of the United States of America. The renewal of the American Dream is finally here!”

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Frank Pallone (6th District of New Jersey)

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) today blasted a sweeping education funding rollback by Donald Trump and Elon Musk that would gut federal support for public schools and result in the firing of nearly 300,000 teachers nationwide—including 6,914 in New Jersey and 399 in the Sixth Congressional District alone.

Pallone denounced the plan as part of a broader billionaire-driven effort to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and eliminate Title I grants, which provide critical resources to schools serving low-income students.

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are teaming up to destroy public education in this country,” said Pallone. “Their plan to eliminate Title I funding is a direct attack on working families. In New Jersey alone, millions of students would be left behind. This is cruelty masquerading as reform. At the same time, Trump and Republicans are working to give trillions of dollars in tax breaks to big corporations and billionaires.”

The proposed cuts stem from Trump’s recent executive order to dismantle the Department of Education and slash Title I grants, as well as Title II teacher support and IDEA special education programs. The result: fewer teachers, larger class sizes, and an increased burden on local taxpayers to keep schools afloat.

Pallone and members of the New Jersey congressional delegation sent a letter on March 24 to Education Secretary Linda McMahon warning that the Trump-Musk proposal would have devastating consequences for New Jersey’s students, educators, and school districts. The letter outlines how the plan would decimate education budgets, trigger mass layoffs, and force local governments to raise property taxes to cover the shortfall.

Pallone, who serves as the Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has long fought to preserve robust federal investments in public education and is now leading efforts to block what he calls “a billionaire power grab that leaves our kids in the dust.”

“Every student deserves a teacher who believes in them—not a billionaire who wants to balance the budget on their backs,” Pallone added. “We won’t let them get away with it.”

Pallone’s full March 24 letter can be found here.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Frank Pallone (6th District of New Jersey)

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr (NJ-06), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today lashed out at PJM, the organization that manages New Jersey’s electric grid, for raising electricity bills in the state.

Pallone explained over 27 years ago, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 888 brought competition to electricity markets around the country. Since that time, the competition encouraged by these markets has broadly lowered wholesale energy prices and made the grid cleaner, all while ensuring reliability.

“But that’s not guaranteed, and I’m worried that some of the rules of the road that govern PJM and other Regional Transmission Organizations could start to harm consumers. Last year, partially as a result of poor market design, capacity prices in the PJM region exploded from $29 to $270 per megawatt-day. These price increases aren’t abstract – they are directly responsible for a roughly $25 per month increase in New Jersey power bills that my constituents will start feeling in June,” said Pallone.

“For the third time this Congress, we’re having an important hearing focusing on the reliability and affordability of electricity in this country. And for the third time, my Republican colleagues are going to purposefully ignore the fact they’re attempting to repeal the single biggest incentive to build electricity capacity in this country – the Inflation Reduction Act,” said Pallone. “Repealing billions of dollars in technology funding for all types of new energy is not the way you address the increasing need for energy.”

“It also ignores the fact that the Trump Administration is freezing federal funding and trying to rescind grants for grid reliability projects that the grid operators sitting before us today have said are vital to addressing increasing energy demand. It also ignores the fact that President Trump is attempting to put tariffs on electricity imports from Canada, which could seriously drive-up energy costs for people in the Midwest and Northeast,” Pallone continued.

Pallone mentioned that last week, yet another study came out – this time from Energy Innovation – showing that repealing the Inflation Reduction Act would increase American families’ power bills. Pallone said that Republicans are talking about the importance of affordability, but their actions don’t match their words.

“As we continue this discussion today, it’s important we recognize that in this time of increased demand for electricity, families are increasingly at risk of their power bills becoming unaffordable. Grid operators – and, frankly, FERC – must remember that they have a legal obligation to ensure that their policies are just and reasonable. Anything else does a disservice to the American people who depend on you,” Pallone continued.

The interconnection process — how regional grid operators like PJM approve new energy projects — has become one of the biggest bottlenecks to expanding affordable, clean electricity. It now takes up to five years for a typical wind or solar project to gain approval, compared to less than two years in 2008. In response, FERC issued Order 2023, which requires grid operators to shift from a “first-come, first-served” approach to a “first-ready, first-served” model that prioritizes viable projects and penalizes delays. While PJM has filed a plan to comply with Order 2023, FERC found the proposal lacking in detail and has yet to approve it. Until PJM fully complies and clears its interconnection backlog, consumers will continue bearing the cost of inaction — both in higher bills and in lost opportunity to add low-cost, low-carbon energy to the grid.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)

Toledo, Ohio — Today, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) released the following statement in response to the economic impact and fallout of President Trump’s tariff announcements this week.

“America’s enemies around the world today are applauding. They also are plotting as they watch US stock markets plummet even further. Nearly $5 Trillion more in US wealth has been lost this week due to chaotic moves on tariffs arbitrarily imposed by the Trump administration. None of the tariffs that the President has proposed and implemented have ever had a single vote in the US Congress. This is unconstitutional.  

“Where is Speaker Johnson… asleep at the wheel?  Where is the Ways and Means Committee…asleep at the switch?  The Trump Administration’s dangerous overreach is totally damaging to the US economy and unnerving to America’s Allies around the globe. Crashing the US economy is not in the short nor long term interest of the American people. What has occurred in America’s markets this week is dangerous. Descent into economic chaos is consequential to every single citizen. Retirement plans are put at risk. Jobs are put at risk. Savings are put at risk. Investments are put at risk. 

“I have spent the majority of my time in the House trying to repair the economic damage to our economy of poorly conceived trade agreements that hollowed out the industrial and agricultural economy of our region. As a private businessman and billionaire, Donald Trump never lifted a finger to help us as industrial firms, his included, shipped jobs offshore or collapsed family farm after farm through consolidation. 

“Now this unnecessary market implosion has been forced on the American people without a single vote in Congress. I call on Speaker Johnson to do his job. Call the House back into Special Session to address this illegal tariff regime. Our grandparents and millions of Americans suffered through the ‘Great Economic Depression’ in the last century. That is not a route any American wants to endure.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Donald Norcross (1st District of New Jersey)

CHERRY HILL, NJ — Today, Representative Donald Norcross (NJ-01) earned recognition as the “2025 Public Servant of the Year” from Jersey Nurses Economic Security Organization (JNESO) District Council 1 IUOE-AFL-CIO, the professional healthcare union. JNESO presents this award to local lawmakers who support healthcare professionals.

“Healthcare workers keep our kids safe and our communities healthy. Let us never forget the sacrifices they made during the pandemic; healthcare heroes were on the frontlines putting their lives at risk every day for our families. I have been proud to work alongside JNESO and its members to advocate for healthcare workers to get fair wages, affordable healthcare benefits, and hard-earned retirement security. That’s why I’m honored to accept the Public Servant of the Year award and continue fighting to protect our healthcare workers,” said Congressman Norcross. “As the co-founder of the Congressional Labor Caucus, I will continue fighting in Congress to give healthcare workers the resources they need to be successful in their mission.”

“Congressman Donald Norcross has been a friend and supporter of JNESO for more than two decades, and we are proud to name him JNESO’s 2025 Public Servant of the Year,” said Douglas Placa, Executive Director of JNESO, which represents nearly 5,000 nurses and technologists in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. “He has made his mark both as a former labor leader and in Congress, standing up for workers’ rights, fighting for fair wages, and supporting the efforts of labor unions. He is a tremendous asset to N.J., and to the nurses and healthcare workers of our great state.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)

Washington, DC — Today, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, responded to reports of plans for potential mass reductions in force (RIF) at the Department of Energy, which could reduce the Department’s staffing levels by nearly 50% and affect even critical offices charged with protecting our nation’s nuclear security.

“Arbitrary staffing cuts across the Department of Energy would recklessly jeopardize its ability to fulfill its mission to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing our energy, environmental, and nuclear security challenges. Gutting the Department will raise energy costs for American families and businesses, slow innovation, and put our national and global security at risk,” said the Members. “It is extremely concerning that the Department is reportedly considering firing the very experts tasked with maintaining a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile. These dangerous cuts should not transpire. We call for this foolishness to be set aside and for cooler heads to prevail for the sake of our communities, country, and world.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman David G Valadao (CA-21)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman David Valadao (CA-22) announced his office is now accepting submissions for the 2025 Congressional Art Competition. Each spring, a nationwide high school art competition is sponsored by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Congressional Art Competition is an opportunity to recognize and encourage creativity for students across the country.

“The Congressional Art Competition is a great opportunity for Central Valley students to demonstrate their creativity and artistic talent at the national level,” said Congressman Valadao. “This is a competition I always look forward to, and I can’t wait to review this year’s submissions.”

Students must submit their artwork and a student release form by 5:00 pm PST on Friday, April 25, 2025.

The winner of the 2025 Congressional Art Competition will have their artwork displayed for one year in the U.S capital and will be invited to attend a winner’s reception in Washington, D.C. during the summer of 2025. Students must be in high school (Grades 9-12) to participate.

Artwork must be two-dimensional. Each framed artwork can be no larger than 26 inches high, 26 inches wide, and 4 inches deep. No framed piece should weigh more than 15 pounds.

Accepted mediums for the two-dimensional artwork are as follows:

• Paintings: oil, acrylics, watercolor, etc.
• Drawings: colored pencil, pencil, ink, marker, pastels, charcoal. It is recommended that charcoal and pastel drawings be fixed.
• Collages: must be two-dimensional
• Prints: lithographs, silkscreen, block prints.
• Mixed media: use of more than two mediums such as pencil, ink, watercolor, etc.
• Computer-generated art
• Photographs

All additional rules and regulations can be found here.

Before submitting their work, students should review the Student Submission Checklist here.

To submit your art, please send a high-resolution picture of your artwork (jpeg format) and the Student Release Form to William.Klepp@mail.house.gov by 5:00 pm PST on Friday, April 25, 2025. All submission or rule questions should be directed to William Klepp at William.Klepp@mail.house.gov or by calling (202) 225-4695.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE)

As we near the final days of tax season, customer service at the IRS is on the minds of many Americans. Most Americans work hard and pay their taxes in good faith, yet in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, 32 percent of customers said they were dissatisfied with their experience with the agency’s Independent Office of Appeals. Sadly, these rates have trended in the wrong direction since Democrats poured $80 billion into the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents in 2022. In FY21 just 19 percent of taxpayers reported dissatisfaction with the IRS.

I continue to champion efforts to hold the IRS accountable and focus on improving customer service. The most recent government funding legislation I supported reduced this funding by another $20.2 billion. In fact, I sponsored legislation previously passed by the House to reclaim the entire $80 billion. Rather than hiring agents to supersize “enforcement” and audits, the IRS should be doing everything possible to maximize efficiency and excellent service.

In March, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) released a report detailing how the IRS inappropriately diverted $4.6 million to maintain outdated technology systems. These funds had been designated for systems modernization and were legally prohibited from being redirected to legacy systems.

Updates to IRS technology are needed to better protect Americans’ personal data and serve taxpayers. The misuse of tax dollars to maintain business as usual was a hallmark of the Biden administration’s misaligned priorities. The past administration pursued unauthorized tax prep services and schemes to audit more Americans across the income spectrum, including the 1099-K Babysitter Tax and other new ways to audit tips received by service workers.

Another March TIGTA report found the IRS underreported the cost of its unauthorized pilot program to compete with existing free tax preparation providers. Through this program, the Biden administration sought to increase the IRS’s intrusion into the private finances of Americans to an unprecedented degree. This in-house tax preparation program has not been authorized by Congress, and having the tax enforcement and collection agency calculating how much a given taxpayer owes raises serious conflict of interest concerns.

Too often, the IRS and the taxpaying process are clouded by an air of suspicion. The last thing American taxpayers need is an IRS calculating tax liability with no incentive to ensure they are not accidentally overpaying, while simultaneously threatening to audit them. I am the lead sponsor of a bill to eliminate this so-called Direct File program.

We should be crafting policy which modernizes systems and improves customer service at the IRS, not creating costly redundancies which put the IRS into the role of both tax preparer and tax auditor. The IRS Free File program is an existing option for taxpayers who wish to file their taxes for free. More than 70 percent of American tax filers qualify to use Free File. I encourage you to visit irs.gov/FreeFile to confirm your eligibility and learn more.

Through Free File, which is authorized by Congress, Americans can file their federal taxes through private third parties without cost to themselves, virtually no cost to the federal government, and minimal administrative burden to the IRS.

Law-abiding middle-class taxpayers and small businesses should not live in fear of a burdensome, unnecessary audit from an overreaching IRS. Free File fills a need for taxpayers in an efficient, cost-effective way—just the sort of thing we should be doing more of in Washington.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steny H Hoyer (MD-05)

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Steny Hoyer (MD-05) joined Labor Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Mark Pocan (WI-02), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Steven Horsford (NV-04) and Debbie Dingell (MI-06), alongside Vice-Chairs Reps. Glenn Ivey (MD-04) and Stephen Lynch (MA-08), and every single House Democrat to call on President Trump to rescind his executive order stripping collective bargaing rights from over 1 million federal employees. The lawmakers highlighted the illegality of the order and called on the President to restore the collective bargaining rights that federal employees are statutorily entitled to.

“Collective bargaining is the strongest tool that workers have available to create a fair workplace,” wrote the lawmakers. “This action strips away those hard-earned rights – which have been upheld by presidents from both parties for decades – from federal workers who keep our country running, including nurses who care for veterans, inspectors who keep our food safe to eat, teachers who educate our children, and so many more.”

“Furthermore, this EO not only undermines the principles of fair labor practices but also threatens the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal government, jeopardizing the delivery of critical services to the American people,” continued the lawmakers. “The freedom to join a union and collectively bargain is central to achieving the American dream for millions of American workers. This action is the single most anti-worker and anti-union presidential action since Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981, and it must be reversed immediately.” 

“We urge you to immediately rescind this harmful, unlawful EO and to reaffirm the rights of federal workers to unionize and collectively bargain. The American people deserve a federal workforce that is protected, respected, and empowered to carry out its duties effectively,” concluded the lawmakers.

While Congress granted the President narrow authorities to exclude some agencies from collective bargaining, those exclusions can only be made if that agency has a primary function in intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work, and only if the statute cannot be applied “in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.”  However, this Administration has made clear that the EO’s exclusions are not based on national security concerns, but instead as retaliation for labor unions defending their members’ rights and making it easier to fire federal employees.

A full copy of the letter can be found here. The letter was signed by every single House Democrat.