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Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17), Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Jim McGovern (MA-2), Chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) led over 50 of their colleagues in urging Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to release human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and other prisoners of conscience before their unjust imprisonments become death sentences in the face of massive COVID outbreaks in Egyptian prisons.
Egypt's authoritarian regime has jailed thousands of political opponents, human rights activists and pro-democracy lawyers, often on flimsy or trumped-up charges. That has triggered widespread condemnation, yet the jailings have continued.
Now congressional Democrats are signaling to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi that human rights abuses will not be tolerated if Joe Biden wins the presidency next month.
Last Friday, the Trump administration offered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a $1.8 trillion stimulus deal, which she promptly rejected. It's $400 billion smaller than the House Democrats' plan and probably wouldn't pass the GOP-controlled Senate. A handful of Democrats are calling on Pelosi to take it anyway, and dare Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to be the one to kill it. Now, Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are back on the phone, and reportedly inching closer to an agreement.
Supreme Court justices are not answerable to the people of the United States. Nominated by partisan executives and confirmed by partisan legislators, justices join a largely unaccountable third branch of the federal government that has in the past seized opportunities to overturn popular legislation enacted to protect voting rights and women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and labor rights, and that could in short order undermine the protections outlined in the Affordable Care Act.
Good afternoon. I hope you and your loved ones are faring well during these trying times. There have been several developments in Congress I would like to share with you.
Mourning the Loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Washington, DC – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Member of Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Member of the House Armed Services and Oversight and Reform Committees, formally requested that the Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General (IG) investigate reports that the Pentagon redirected hundreds of millions of dollars of funds meant for COVID-19 response via the Defense Production Act (DPA) to defense contractors for "jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms."
Washington, DC – Amidst the latest Supreme Court fight, Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) will introduce the Supreme Court Term Limits Act to fundamentally reframe the power of our nation's highest court. Khanna's bill would establish 18-year term limits on any Supreme Court Justices approved after his bill's passage. After their 18-year terms, justices would then be allowed to continue their service on lower courts, as former Justices Souter and O'Connor currently do. Current justices would be exempt from the term limits.
House Democrats plan to introduce a bill next week that would limit US Supreme Court justices' lifetime appointments to 18 years, a largely symbolic response to the high-stakes battle in Congress over the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
A pair of Democrats is asking the Pentagon's internal watchdog to investigate how the department used $1 billion in coronavirus relief funds.
In a Friday letter to the Pentagon's inspector general, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) asked the watchdog to "review the potential misuse of funds by the department that were meant 'to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally.' "
Seeking a "regular, fair process that doesn't reshape the court for decades at a time," Rep. Ro Khanna on Friday announced legislation to "fundamentally reframe the power" of the U.S. Supreme Court by establishing 18-year term limits for justices and allowing presidents to nominate two new appointees per four-year term.
"We can't face a national crisis every time a vacancy occurs on the Supreme Court," said Rep. Khanna (D-Calif.) while announcing the Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act (pdf).