The House and Senate are out of session this week but return next week for a two-week sprint before Memorial Day weekend.
Last week, the House and Senate pushed through a significant number of policies, setting up a busy summer.
First, the House of Representatives passed a 45-day extension of FISA along the Senate’s budget resolution.
The Senate’s resolution will tee up a very narrow reconciliation bill that funds ICE and Customs and Border Patrol—-the two parts of the Department of Homeland Security that liberals have refused to fund because of their role in mass deportations.
The House also passed a piece of legislation, led by Majority Leader John Thune, that funds the rest of DHS through the end of the fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court handed down one of its most consequential decisions in recent memory—effectively ending the practice of racial gerrymandering. In its gutting of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the court reasoned that this practice violates citizens’ (voters’) guarantee of equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
As critics bemoan this pivotal decision of “Trump’s Court,” some southern states have called special sessions to redraw congressional district lines—potentially adding many more conservative seats.
Speaking of good work going on in the states: Thomas Murray is the vice president of policy at the State Leadership Initiative, a group that’s building powerful coalitions in red states to put an end to massive bureaucracies, vast regulatory schemes, and rampant corporate welfare.
Thomas recently stopped by CPI to talk with us about the work that his group is doing in the states alongside organizations like the State Freedom Caucus Network and American Accountability Foundation.
Check out his interview below, in which he shares highlights from a major new report from State Leadership Initiative explaining step-by-step how red states are infiltrated and captured by a system of state associations that result in red states being run like blue ones.
ICYMI…
- The Federalist: Hemingway: Justice Alito Is “One of the Best” at Oral Argument
- Chronicles Magazine: California’s Election Fraudyssey