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Tag: Tom Cole

  • New Law Requires People Who Publicly Announce They Need To Take A Piss To Register As Sex Offenders

    New Law Requires People Who Publicly Announce They Need To Take A Piss To Register As Sex Offenders

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    WASHINGTON—With the passage of a landmark bill that received widespread bipartisan support in Congress and was immediately signed into law by President Biden, a new federal statute requires anyone who publicly announces their need to take a piss to register as a sex offender. “Those who loudly declare to people around them that they are going to ‘take a leak’ will now be charged with a class A misdemeanor and added to their state’s sex offender registry,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a co-sponsor of the bill, who explained that announcing one’s plan to “empty the bladder” or referring to one’s genitals as a lizard that must be drained would result in a maximum fine of $100,000 and up to a year in jail. “Whether you are in a restaurant, bar, or other public area, proclaiming that you need to see a man about a horse is illegal and requires the offender to register annually in person with local authorities for the next five years. In addition, perpetrators found guilty of verbalizing their intention to shake the dew off the lily, whiz like a racehorse, or siphon the python must inform their neighbors of their status as a sex criminal and stay at least 500 feet away from any public toilet.” Cole added that the new law was in line with a current statute that imposes a 20-year prison sentence on anyone who tells others, without their consent, that they are going to “drop the kids off at the pool” or “let loose a deuce from the ol’ caboose.”

    No One Wanted To Adopt This Poor Dog Because He Was A Registered Sex Offender, But He Found A Home With Me

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  • ‘I don’t know how they will get to 218’: House GOP struggles to find consensus on averting shutdown | CNN Politics

    ‘I don’t know how they will get to 218’: House GOP struggles to find consensus on averting shutdown | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    House Republicans are still struggling to reach consensus on a plan to fund the government, with lawmakers going back-and-forth over the issue and leadership forced to delay a planned procedural vote as they work to find agreement within their ranks.

    GOP leaders are planning to plow ahead with a vote on their proposal this week, even as some conservative hardliners are still digging in and threatening to oppose a procedural vote, which would prevent the bill from coming to the floor. GOP lawmakers stood up during a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday morning to make their case for – or against – the plan, which would temporarily fund the government and beef up border security but is dead-on-arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

    House GOP leaders canceled a procedural rule vote on the proposal originally slated for Tuesday morning amid that opposition from hardliners. It’s unclear when or if that vote will get rescheduled.

    “There are a lot of ‘No’ votes in that room. I don’t know how they will get to 218,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, exiting a conference meeting on Tuesday morning. “Without a deal with Democrats, I don’t see it passing. … It is going to be a long two weeks.”

    Government funding is slated to run out on September 30.

    In another closed-door meeting Tuesday afternoon – this time in the office of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer – members of the GOP conference from all corners of the party engaged in talks to try and salvage a GOP spending bill that would fund the government for a month, with little progress to flag after more than four hours.

    Republican steering committee chairman Kevin Hern, exiting the meeting, said he plans to introduce an amendment on the short-term funding bill to cut spending that would move three members from “No” to “Yes” on the embattled measure. The amendment is a new statutory spending cap, Hern said.

    Amid the impasse in the House GOP conference, there are discussions underway among some Republicans and Democrats about teaming up on a so-called discharge petition to fund the government if the House Republican-brokered plan fails on the floor this week.

    House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries will huddle with the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus on Wednesday, two sources told CNN, amid ongoing discussions between moderate Republicans and Democrats over a plan to avoid a shutdown. Politico first reported the meeting.

    In another sign of the divisions within House Republicans, the House has failed to pass a procedural vote that would bring a bill to fund the Department of Defense for the next fiscal year to the floor for final passage. Five Republicans – most of them from the right flank House Freedom Caucus – voted against the rule, denying House GOP leadership of the 218 votes it needed for passage.

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy encouraged members who are opposed to the GOP government funding proposal brokered over the weekend to work out their difference in Emmer’s office, according to sources in the room.

    And Rep. Scott Perry, a conservative Republican from Pennsylvania and the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus who helped negotiate the deal, told members during the meeting that if they are opposed to the current plan but think there’s something else that might support, “please tell someone what that is,” sources said.

    Some conservative hardliners are now floating the idea of amending the proposal to include lower spending cuts. Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia said leadership is “entertaining everything” at this point, and said that even though the deal was negotiated by some members of the Freedom Caucus, he made clear they were not representing the entire group.

    But he also predicted it would be hard to avoid a government shutdown at this point, though he added, it should not be something that they “fear.”

    Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, said he thinks they should work through the weekend until they are able to find agreement among House Republicans on how to keep the government open. He said he accidentally voted to support a rule for the short-term funding bill, saying he was “asleep at the wheel” during the meeting on Monday night, but plans to vote against the rule when it comes to the floor.

    Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and one of the negotiators of the package, suggested that one of the potential ways to move forward would be for the speaker to lay out a topline spending number and spending numbers for each of the appropriations bills to help members who are still on the fence see the full picture.

    “I think the biggest thing that I have heard – and this is where my colleagues I think have a really important point – what do we do next? The speaker needs to set a topline, needs to set a structure, a target,” Roy said. “I have been saying that for months. We are here in my opinion because we haven’t had a clear target.”

    But Roy did blast some of the opposition.

    “I find it extremely difficult to explain or defend opposition to an 8% cut over 30 days in exchange for the most conservative and strong border security measures we’ve ever passed out of this body,” he said. “I think that is inexplicable. I think it is malpractice, and I think there are some outside groups … who are trying to advance themselves that are a part of this that are pushing this narrative that it is somehow malpractice to do that when what would be true malpractice is to head into a shutdown without a coordinated and concerted message.”

    Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds said that members who negotiated the bill are willing to talk.

    “I want to get real conservative wins, not talking points, not tweets, not any of that stuff,” Donalds said.

    Perry said he continues to try and sell the bill to his colleagues and his message is simple, they can keep making changes but at some point, they have to decide: Do they want to pass something or get jammed by the Senate?

    “This is a proposal. I speak for myself. It doesn’t mean that I love it, but I am working with my colleague to secure one of two paths. The one path is where we offer something and the American people can see what we stand for, the other path is quite honestly accepting whatever the Senate sends us,” Perry said. “You are not going to get every single thing that you want, but if you don’t do something, you aren’t going to get anything.”

    GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is seen on his way to a House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol on September 19, 2023 in Washington, DC.

    There are at least 15 members currently opposed, and more that are undecided, according to an CNN whip count. Among those who are opposed: Reps. Good, Norman, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Eli Crane of Arizona, Cory Mills of Florida, Wesley Hunt of Texas and Paul Gosar of Arizona.

    Those 15 “No” votes would easily sink the bill without any Democratic support, as Republicans control 221 seats to Democrats’ 212. It’s unclear, which votes Hern said would flip to “Yes” votes amid additional provisions being added to the proposal.

    Burchett told reporters he is aware of at least 16 to 17 holdouts.

    “Every day is progress, but I don’t see us doing a whole lot,” he said. “I think part of the problem is some of the folks that need to be in the room or not in the room.”

    Among the five Republicans who opposed the procedural vote Tuesday that would have brought the Defense funding bill to the floor for debate and final passage were four known “No” votes – Bishop, Biggs, Rosendale and Norman – as well as Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado.

    House Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma had told reporters he planned to go to the floor Tuesday with the rule on the continuing resolution, but House leaders pulled a procedural rule vote on their short-term spending bill later Tuesday morning, in another sign that House Republicans are deeply divided on the path forward.

    Even if his own party sinks the bill, Cole said he is not worried about the overall strategy.

    “Welcome to politics,” Cole told reporters.

    Cole, who said some of the “No” votes are “movable,” warned his colleagues who are withholding their votes for the wrong reasons.

    “That’s not good legislation and that’s blackmail,” he said.

    This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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  • Smoke-Filled Rooms Back In Capitol Under Republicans

    Smoke-Filled Rooms Back In Capitol Under Republicans

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    In a flashback to decades past, some congressional offices are filling up again with pungent cigar smoke from apparently lung-cancer-blasé Republicans, evoking renewed images of smoky rooms filled with cigar-chomping deal makers.

    Reuters reporter Patricia Zengerle believes the smoke is prevalent now because there are more Republican smokers — perhaps opting to partake in cigars in their offices — since the party won the House majority.

    “So there’s indoor smoking on the House side of the Capitol now that the Republicans have taken control,” Zengerle reported earlier this week.

    Some reporters quipped the lawmakers were “hotboxing” cigar smoke — smoking in confined spaces, which is used more typically to refer to inhaling joints.

    “When you have a change in party control, and they move offices like they just did if the member who moves into the office is … a cigar smoker — you have smoke,” Zengerle wrote.

    The District of Columbia requires all public buildings to be smoke-free, and an executive order signed by former President Bill Clinton prohibits smoking in federal buildings. But House lawmakers’ private offices are exempted, making the Capitol one of the few “office buildings” left in the nation where smoking is allowed inside, Bloomberg noted.

    A Daily Beast political reporter complained in a tweet about “cigar hotboxing” in a “certain Rules Committee chairman’s office” near the House press gallery. She added that the smell permeates “multiple floors” because his office is near a “high-use” elevator.

    House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma (R-Okla.) can often be found smoking in his committee’s area on the third floor of the Capitol, Bloomberg noted. In addition, Cole has been a speaker at Cigar Association events.

    Pressed about the smoke oozing outside his office this week, Cole reportedly vowed: “I’m not giving up cigars.”

    Several others on Twitter shared concerns about the health impact of those inhaling second-hand smoke and the possible airborne nicotine damage to the walls and treasured artwork in the Capitol.

    A long series of efforts beginning in 1871 to sharply curtail smoking in the Capitol did not block congressional lawmakers from smoking in their offices, subjecting visiting constituents and staff to the smoke.

    Republican leaders have a particular reputation as smokers.

    Former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) smoked so many cigarettes that incoming Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) needed new carpets, new paint and an ozone machine to purify the air — at taxpayer expense — to make the place usable again in 2015, The New York Times reported at the time.

    Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) banned smoking from much of the building in 2007, including the popular speaker’s lobby, when Democrats were in charge — but members could still smoke in their offices.

    Smoking is not permitted anywhere on the Senate side of the Capitol. The Centers for Disease Control says cigarette smoking is responsible for 480,000 deaths a year in the U.S., with about 41,000 of those due to inhaling second-hand smoke.

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  • US House panel eyes prospect of seating Cherokee delegate

    US House panel eyes prospect of seating Cherokee delegate

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    The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma moved a step closer on Wednesday to having a promise fulfilled from nearly 200 years ago that a delegate from the tribe be seated in Congress.

    Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin was among those who testified before the U.S. House Rules Committee, which is the first to examine the prospect of seating a Cherokee delegate in the U.S. House. Hoskin, the elected leader of the 440,000-member tribe, put the effort in motion in 2019 when he nominated Kimberly Teehee, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, to the position. The tribe’s governing council then unanimously approved her.

    The tribe’s right to a delegate is detailed in the Treaty of New Echota signed in 1835, which provided the legal basis for the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from its ancestral homelands east of the Mississippi River and led to the Trail of Tears, but it has never been exercised. A separate treaty in 1866 affirmed this right, Hoskin said.

    “The Cherokee Nation has in fact adhered to our obligations under these treaties. I’m here to ask the United States to do the same,” Hoskin told the panel.

    Hoskin suggested to the committee that Teehee could be seated as early as this year by way of either a resolution or change in statute, and the committee’s chairman, Massachusetts Democratic Rep. James McGovern, and other members supported the idea that it could be accomplished quickly.

    “This can and should be done as quickly as possible,” McGovern said. “The history of this country is a history of broken promise after broken promise to Native American communities. This cannot be another broken promise.”

    But McGovern and other committee members, including ranking member Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, acknowledged there are some questions that need to be resolved, including whether other Native American tribes are afforded similar rights and whether the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is the proper successor to the tribe that entered into the treaty with the U.S. government.

    McGovern said he has been contacted by officials with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Delaware Nation, both of which have separate treaties with the U.S. government that call for some form of representation in Congress. McGovern also noted there also are two other federally recognized bands of Cherokee Indians that argue they should be considered successors to the 1835 treaty: the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians based in North Carolina, both of which reached out to his office.

    The UKB selected its own congressional delegate, Oklahoma attorney Victoria Holland, in 2021. Holland said in an interview with The Associated Press that her tribe is a successor to the Cherokee Nation that signed the 1835 treaty, just like the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

    “As such, we have equal rights under all the treaties with the Cherokee people and we should be treated as siblings,” Holland said.

    Only a few Native Americans serve in Congress, including Cole and U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who was elected earlier this month to the U.S. Senate, where he will become the first Native American in that body in nearly 20 years.

    “As a member of the Cherokee Nation, I firmly believe the federal government must honor its trust and treaty responsibilities to Indian Nations,” Mullin said in a statement. “We are only as good as our word.”

    Members of the committee seemed to be in agreement that any delegate from the Cherokee Nation would be similar to five other delegates from the District of Columbia, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the Virgin Islands. These delegates are assigned to committees and can submit amendments to bills, but cannot vote on the floor for final passage of bills. Puerto Rico is represented by a non-voting resident commissioner who is elected every four years.

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