MIL USHOR-2b Engine

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Dina Titus (1st District of Nevada)

Congresswoman Dina Titus today introduced a resolution in the House demanding that the Trump administration provide all documents and communications relating to its threatened takeover of Greenland, including any plan to use military force to seize the Danish territory.

“We need to know if there is anything behind President Trump’s saber-rattling – whether there are concrete plans to invade a country that has been one of our strongest NATO allies,” Congresswoman Titus said. “Denmark fought with us in Afghanistan, and 44 Danes lost their lives. Is this how we treat our allies?” 

Congresswoman Titus said the takeover of Greenland would be unprecedented and could mean the end of NATO. 

“By levying threats of force against a NATO member, Trump has already broken Article 1 of the North Atlantic Treaty. If he continues down this path, NATO will be dissolved and the strongest, most effective military alliance in history will crumble because Donald Trump wants to play strongman in the hemisphere.” 

The Resolution of Inquiry introduced by Congresswoman Titus directs the President and Secretary of State to turn over documents, communications, plans, analyses, and assessments by the Administration pertaining to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and the autonomous governing status of Greenland.

“We have heard Trump bluster about invading Mexico, Colombia, and Cuba,” Congresswoman Titus said. “Congress and the American people need to know whether Greenland is a blueprint for other planned Trump conquests.” 

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Norma Torres (35th District of California)

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (1st District of Washington)

Today, Representatives Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Lois Frankel (FL-22), Kim Schrier, MD (WA-08), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Greg Landsman (OH-01), Ami Bera, MD (CA-06), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), and Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), along with 62 colleagues, urged House and Senate leadership to include language that would prohibit the implementation of new prior authorization requirements through artificial intelligence claims review in traditional Medicare in any final Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) funding agreement.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) model began January 1, 2026, in New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and Washington. The model adds new red tape to traditional Medicare by contracting with private companies that use artificial intelligence to require prior authorization for certain services and treatments, including treatments for chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, sleep apnea, and wound care.

“While we support innovation, efficiency, and eliminating waste, we are concerned that this pilot will delay care for essential services to treat pain, injuries, and chronic conditions,” the Members wrote in a letter to House and Senate leadership.

Concerns about prior approval are well-documented in Medicare Advantage and other private health plans. Federal watchdogs have found that insurers often deny care that later meets Medicare’s coverage rules, forcing patients and providers to navigate appeals, paperwork, and delays before care can move forward.

“These denials delay patient access to care while creating unnecessary administrative burdens for providers,” the lawmakers added.

Last August, DelBene and 16 other colleagues raised similar concerns directly with CMS and requested details about how the model would be carried out and how patients would be protected from delayed or denied care. CMS did not respond and has since moved forward with implementation despite these unresolved concerns. DelBene also introduced legislation to help seniors get the care they need when they need it by reforming prior authorization in Medicare Advantage.

Last September, the House Appropriations Committee unanimously adopted an amendment offered by Frankel to halt the implementation of WISeR in the Labor-HHS funding bill.

The full letter can be found here.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (7th District of Washington)

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the Monopoly Busters Caucus Chairs U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Pat Ryan (NY-18), and Angie Craig (MN-02) are demanding answers from major U.S. oil companies on their role in the Trump Administration’s military operation in Venezuela. 

The Chairs are calling for a full accounting of each oil firm’s involvement in the planning and execution of the U.S. attack and planned occupation of Venezuela. President Trump claimed he briefed oil executives before and after the attack, describing the oil industry as committed to investing at least $100 billion to rebuild the Venezuelan energy sector and asserting that the corporate expansion would receive military backup. 

“Public statements from President Trump suggest a level of pre-planned corporate-military integration that is as deeply troubling as it is legally fraught,” the Chairs wrote. “The claimed alignment between private profit and military force raises serious legal questions about the nature of your firm’s involvement in the operation and the planned occupation.”

The Members note that actions to help facilitate the military expedition or unauthorized negotiations with foreign actors may violate long-standing federal statutes like the Neutrality Act or the Logan Act. The Chairs also highlighted the risk of illegal collusion on Venezuelan ventures given the industry’s history of anticompetitive behavior.

“The American people deserve to know if our military is being used as a private security force for the oil industry,” the Members continued. “Congress has an important oversight and investigative role, and it is incumbent upon us to represent their frustration and concern.”

The oil companies have been given until January 30 to provide written responses and all relevant internal documents with information on:

• Executive Branch Coordination: Details of all meetings and communications with the Executive Branch regarding the military intervention and planned infrastructure development.
• Intelligence Sharing: Any intelligence, technical specifications, or data related to Venezuela that firms provided to the Executive Branch.
• Reimbursement and Assets: Agreements regarding the Venezuelan oil the President intends to personally control or reimbursements for any planned industry investments.
• Legal Risk and Immunity: Internal analysis of legal risks and any promises of legal immunization offered by the Trump Administration.
• Labor and Affordability: Projected impact of potential multi-billion-dollar investments in Venezuela on domestic workforce and energy prices.

The letter was sent to the large U.S. oil companies that reportedly met with the Trump Administration on January 9 at the White House (letters linked): Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Continental Resources, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Valero Energy Corporation, and Halliburton Company.

Issues: Science, Technology, & Antitrust

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Sean Casten (IL-06)

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA)

WASHINGTON—Today, Rules Committee Ranking Member James P. McGovern (D-MA) announced a statewide End Hunger Now Tour, during which he will visit every congressional district in the Commonwealth to hear firsthand from people struggling to put food on the table, see how the Trump administration’s cruel cuts to nutrition assistance are hurting our communities, and spotlight the courageous people and organizations making a difference in the fight against hunger.

                                                                                       

“Republicans cut nearly $200 billion in nutrition assistance just to give their billionaire donors another massive tax break in their Big Ugly Bill,” said McGovern. “I’ve warned for months about how disastrous their policies will be for hungry Americans and working people, and we’re now starting to see the devastating impacts. Unlike my Republican colleagues, I’m listening to the people who are getting screwed by Trump’s economy, and I’m going to keep fighting on behalf of the people all across Massachusetts and the country who don’t know where their next meal is going to come from.”

McGovern’s tour comes as people across the country are starting to see substantial cuts to nutrition assistance after Republicans enacted the largest cut to food assistance in American history. The Big Ugly Bill cuts SNAP benefits for all 42 million beneficiaries, including 16 million kids, 8 million seniors, 4 million people with disabilities, and 1.2 million veterans. The bill takes food benefits away from 5 million people nationwide, including nearly 100,000 Massachusetts residents, by enacting draconian and onerous new red tape—requiring veterans, families with teenagers, older adults, homeless individuals, and former foster youth to jump through hoops just to get the food assistance they desperately need.

“Not only is this administration making hunger worse—now they’re trying to hide it by canceling USDA’s research and reporting on hunger in America,” continued McGovern. “Not on my watch. I’m launching this tour to hear directly from folks struggling with hunger, local officials, and the incredible nonprofit leaders on the front lines of fighting food insecurity in Massachusetts.”

Congressman McGovern’s statewide End Hunger Now Tour officially begins on Friday, January 16th, with events in Massachusetts’ 8th and 7th congressional districts. Details for both stops will be announced shortly.

“I’m thankful that Congressman Lynch and Congresswoman Pressley are hosting the first leg of my tour, and I look forward to joining more of my Democratic colleagues in their communities later this month,” McGovern concluded.

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McGovern is a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee and a leading national voice in the fight to end hunger. For decades, he has championed working families and vulnerable communities—fighting back against repeated efforts to cut food assistance and spearheading efforts to strengthen and expand programs like SNAP, school meals, and summer nutrition. He helped to create and maintain the Gus Schumacher nutrition incentive program to bolster access to fresh local food. During the COVID-19 pandemic, McGovern’s advocacy helped deliver historic increases in nutrition benefits, keeping food on the table for millions of families across the country. McGovern is also the Co-Chair of the House Hunger Caucus and founded the Food is Medicine Working Group, where he has pushed to treat hunger as both a moral failure and a public health crisis. He played a pivotal role in convening the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health—the first in more than 50 years—successfully securing funding for the conference and helping produce a national strategy to end hunger by 2030. McGovern is also a principal author of the George McGovern–Bob Dole International Food for Education Program and has been recognized for his leadership with a James Beard Leadership Award and the McGovern-Dole Leadership Award from World Food Program USA.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (1st District of Washington)

Today, Representative Suzan DelBene (WA-01) joined 115 of her colleagues in a letter led by Representative Kim Schrier (WA-08) in urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to save lives by restoring the previous childhood immunization schedule. The letter comes on the heels of the Secretary Kennedy-led Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcing they will gut the childhood immunization schedule by reducing the number of universally recommended vaccines without substantive input from relevant scientific and medical experts.

“As Members of Congress, we are outraged at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) decision to endanger children and families by undermining the established science-driven and expertly considered U.S. childhood immunization schedule. As Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), your duty to this country is to enhance the well-being of all Americans, and yet this decision will put Americans at unnecessary risk of illness and cost lives,” the Members said.

“Your agency’s decision to overhaul decades of evidence-based science is arbitrary and driven by ideology. This announcement completely bypasses the recommendations made by the previously esteemed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a panel that you have replaced with your own hand-picked members, most of whom have long track records of anti-vaccine activism,” the letter states.

“We demand that you reinstate the previous childhood immunization schedule, restore sanctity to the ACIP, and protect the health and well-being of children,” the letter concludes.

The full text of the letter is available here.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Levin (CA-49)

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04)

WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino on America’s Newsroom on Fox News to discuss the success of Republican economic policies, Democrat calls to defund and abolish ICE, and false claims from Democrats about the Stop Insider Trading Act.

Watch Speaker Johnson’s full interview here.  

On Republican efforts to reverse the Democrats’ cost of living crisis:

What the President is referring to when he calls [affordability] a “hoax” is the Democrats’ spin; it is Bidenomics that got us into this mess. It is Bidenomics, the outrageous spending levels that drove inflation to 40-year highs, that’s why prices are up now. We got to work on it immediately in January when Republicans took over the Congress, the House, the Senate, and the White House, and we did exactly what we said we were going to do: bring down inflation, cut taxes and grow the economy. And that’s what all the indicators are saying. Now, inflation is going down, gas prices at a five-year low, the growth rate is over 5%. That would’ve been unimaginable, even conservative economists didn’t think that was possible. But it is evidence that when our policies are implemented, they work. Trump policies, Republican policies, are doing right by the American people and they’re going to reward that at the ballot box in this upcoming midterm election in November.

On Democrat calls to defund and abolish ICE:

They can’t because Republicans control Congress. This is no time to be playing games with national security and public safety. And that’s what Democrats are doing, beating the drums up here. Remember what ICE stands for? It’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They are enforcing the law. They are apprehending the dangerous criminals who were allowed into our country because Joe Biden kept the border wide open for four years. It is estimated more than 20 million people came in, many of them were a great danger to our community. A lot of them have collected in cities like Minneapolis, you know, these sanctuary cities. They’re all there. And so, ICE has to go and do its job. There’s a lot of spin on the Democrat side. They’re assaulting our law enforcement officers and they’re breaking the law. They need to get out of the way and allow federal law enforcement to do its duty that serves all the American people.

On false claims about the Stop Insider Trading Act: 

[AOC is] wrong as usual, she clearly hasn’t read the legislation. It bans trading stocks for anyone in Congress. And this is an important step to go forward because there have been a handful of people who have abused that over the years, and they’ve enriched themselves and they’ve engaged in insider trading. It’s against the law, but we have to police it here because it’s people’s belief in, faith and trust in Congress that’s at stake. So, this is a very important step forward. AOC as usual has no idea what she’s talking about. It wasn’t drafted by wealthy lawmakers; it’s by rank-and-file members who are here serving our constituents, and we want to send that signal to the American people that they can trust Congress. This is a big step forward.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (First District of Colorado)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-01) released the following after cosponsoring articles of impeachment of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem ahead of their introduction: 

“Secretary Kristi Noem is unfit to serve as DHS Secretary because she has committed numerous impeachable offenses. She has obstructed Congressional oversight, directly violated a court order, violated public trust, and engaged in corruption to enrich herself and close associates. 

“Secretary Noem’s actions have led to a masked authoritarian police force terrorizing our citizens — from Denver’s neighborhoods to streets in Minneapolis and across the country. Her aggression has caused innocent citizens to be arrested, assaulted, and even killed. She must be held accountable.”