By Rebecca Gale
Dec. 13, 2012 – 1:30 p.m.
Some Latino groups have put Congress on notice.
As reported in Roll Call, a coalition of Latino advocacy groups will begin grading members of Congress on their efforts to pass a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws.
The report cards will be issued in advance of the 2014 elections “to make sure that our community understands who stood with us and who stood against us,” Ben Monterroso, the executive director of Mi Familia Vota, told reporters. “That way they will be properly informed when they vote.”
Read the full story on RollCall.com.
Also in Roll Call, a new GOP poll shows that the Republican brand is not as strong among Hispanics. Full story is here.
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By Rebecca Gale
Dec. 12, 2012 – 1 p.m.
President Barack Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner have quietly traded offers in the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations.
Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call
Boehner, above, and Obama have privately traded plans on the fiscal cliff.
Roll Call’s Meredith Shiner and Niels Lesniewski report:
The White House and Congress continued their awkward tango near the edge of the fiscal cliff Tuesday, publicly lamenting long-held policy disagreements while House Republicans and President Barack Obama privately exchanged plans.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the office of Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, divulged that Republicans had made another counteroffer to the White House, in response to a previously unreported second offer from Obama. In that offer, the president reduced his demand for new revenues from $1.6 trillion to $1.4 trillion.
Read the entire story and follow the fiscal cliff debate on RollCall.com.
By Rebecca Gale
Dec. 10, 2012 – 2 p.m.
Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint announced his resignation. This week it seems a new star is in the making: The Heritage Foundation.
Photo by CQ Roll Call
Sen. Jim DeMint, seen here at the Conservative Political Action Conference, is resigning from the Senate to lead the conservative Heritage Foundation.
As Roll Call‘s Niels Lesniewski and Janie Lorber report, the marriage of DeMint and The Heritage Foundation looks poised to raise the political influence of both the man and the think tank.
As a rank-and-file senator, the South Carolinian has long sought to make the Republican Conference into a group much like himself: uncompromisingly conservative and more interested in ideological purity than bipartisan accomplishments.
From the helm of Heritage, DeMint will have a louder megaphone from which to preach and impose that viewpoint on the party at large, and he will be able to extend his reach far beyond the Senate.
Read the full story on RollCall.com.
Read more about the South Carolina senate race at At the Races.
By Rebecca Gale
Dec. 7, 2012 – 1:45 p.m.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has changed his tune on Israel.
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
Paul, who has called to end all U.S. foreign aid, is prepared to make an exception for Israel.
Paul, a longtime opponent of U.S. foreign aid, has called for an end to U.S. foreign aid and previously stated Israel should not be an exception. In his comments this week, he softened his stance.
“What I’ve said is that we can’t continue to spend a trillion dollars we don’t have, so we have to look everywhere for cuts, and foreign aid is one of those areas,” [Sen. Paul] said Tuesday. “Within foreign aid, I would start with cutting those who don’t appear to be our allies. The one thing you can say about Israel is there doesn’t seem to be any mobs burning our flag there.”
Paul plans to make his first trip to Israel in the spring. He said he would be traveling with a group of evangelical Christian clergymen. Evangelicals, for whom support for Israel is as important as such social issues as opposing abortion, are a key constituency for any GOP presidential hopeful.
“I’ve never been a proponent of saying, ‘Oh, let’s go punish Israel,’” Paul said. “I’ve made general statements about foreign aid that some in the pro-Israel community have misinterpreted to mean that I have some sort of animosity toward Israel. That’s not true.”
Jonathan Broder has the full story on RollCall.com.
Want to take action on foreign aid? Click here to contact your representatives.
By Rebecca Gale
Dec. 6, 2012 – 2 p.m.
Breaking news today on Capitol Hill: Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., will resign his seat to take over as head of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
Photo by CQ Roll Call
Sen. Jim DeMint announced his resignation from the Senate to head up conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
“I’m leaving the Senate now, but I’m not leaving the fight,” DeMint said in a statement. “I’ve decided to join The Heritage Foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas. No organization is better equipped to lead this fight and I believe my experience in public office as well as in the private sector as a business owner will help Heritage become even more effective in the years to come.”
Full story is available on RollCall.com.
