Jason Smith

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. President Donald Trump began making good on his campaign promise to close the U.S. Department of Education, which announced this week it would slash [...]The post At the Races: We don’t need no Education (Department) appeared first on Roll Call.

Nebraska is one of five states with an inheritance tax; a legislative proposal may let voters change that.

U.S. tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China go into effect as President Trump prepares to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress. House Ways & Means Chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss budget negotiations and backlash GOP lawmakers are facing at town halls. President Trump orders a pause on military aid to Ukraine following the Oval Office clash with President Zelenskyy.

Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) discusses the impact of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico ahead of the president's address to a joint session of Congress. Rep. Smith also explains his vision for the budget reconciliation process.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has set new execution dates for four inmates after a nearly three-year pause

In a desperate attempt to save President Donald Trump’s "big, beautiful" budget that cuts taxes for his rich friends, House Republican leadership is lying to both their own members and the public about what is in the legislation, saying it doesn't call for cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.“The word Medicaid is not even in this bill,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) said at a Tuesday news conference on Capitol Hill, the same statement he made to Republican lawmakers in a closed-door conference meeting. “Democrats are lying about what’s in the bill.”stHowever, while it is technically true that the word “Medicaid” isn’t explicitly in the budget, the level of cuts the budget demands would necessitate massive slashes to the health care program that covers 72 million low-income Americans.Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, explained at a Tuesday news conference on Capitol Hill:"Their resolution calls for at least, as a floor, $880 billion to be cut by what is under the purview of the Energy and Commerce Committee. If Energy and Commerce Committee said, 'We don't want to cut Medicaid, instead we will cut literally everything else we possibly can, 100%.' That only gets you about halfway to the $880 billion. So by definition, they have to, at a minimum, cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid."xRep. Boyle (D-PA) explains why Medicaid would have to have cuts in the budget resolution after I asked about Scalise and Johnson said dems were "fearmongering" over medicaid cuts.@GrayDCnews pic.twitter.com/b1TR6MgAKW— Leah Vredenbregt (@LeahVredenbregt) February 25, 2025It’s not just Medicaid cuts that Republicans are lying about. Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), chair of the House Ways Committee, claimed in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday, that the budget doesn't cut food stamps when it does.Bartiromo: What do you want to say to those people who are upset about these cuts to the SNAP and nutrition assistance—$230 billion in cuts to SNAP and nutrition assistance?Smith: For one, you can't say that it's cuts to SNAP. This resolution just says the ag committee has to cut more than $200 billion. What you have is other people like the Democrats going out there and saying, ‘You’re going to cut Medicaid, you’re going to cut benefits.’ Nowhere, Maria, in the resolution does it say what the cuts are. It just sets the goal and the target rate of how much we’re going to cut. xBARTIROMO: What do you want to say to those people who are upset about these cuts the SNAP and nutrition assistance? $230b in cuts to SNAP and nutrition assistance.JASON SMITH: For one, you can't say that it's cuts to SNAP. This resolution just says the ag committee has to cut more than $200b. — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-02-25T14:56:36.417ZBut the level of cuts Republicans are demanding from the House Agriculture Committee would necessitate slashing food stamp benefits. In fact, Politico reported earlier in February that two GOP lawmakers admitted that the GOP budget requires food stamp cuts. Democrats, meanwhile, spent Tuesday explaining the perils of the House Republican budget, holding a news conference on the steps of the Capitol with people who would be impacted by Medicaid cuts to try to spark backlash."I am one of the more than 630,000 Virginians who will be kicked off Medicaid if Republicans in Congress get their way," Katina Moss, a Virginia Medicaid recipient said at the news conference. "Yes, that's right. They want people like me to lose our health care in order to pay for Donald Trump's tax cuts for the rich. As a Gen Xer with elderly parents, Medicaid supports my family's well-being. It allows me to run my own business, care for my parents, and still have health care for myself. Medicaid works. But now Republicans in Congress are looking high and low for ways to pay for another round of tax handouts for billionaires like Elon Musk, and their eyes are locked in on Medicaid."Republicans, for their part, are supposed to vote on the budget at 6:30 PM ET on Tuesday. However, at press time it appeared that Republicans don't have the votes from their own members to pass the bill, calling into question whether the vote will happen at all.Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported that Johnson did not sound optimistic about the budget’s odds.“There may be a vote tonight. There may not be,” Johnson told Sherman.That means there is time yet for voters to call their lawmakers and urge them to vote against the budget. A list of House Republicans with the largest populations of Medicaid recipients, and their office phone numbers, can be found here. Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

President Donald Trump is working to restore the Keystone XL Pipeline construction project and asking the company who was initially tasked to build it to come back and resume operations.

The Lakers host Dallas on Tuesday night, giving the Slovenian star an early showdown against the team that shipped him away three weeks ago in a shocking trade.

So far, 17 people have been sentenced for their roles in the drug trafficking ring, and another five await sentencing.

The calls escalate an already-heated debate that Donald Trump embraced on the campaign trail over the rights of transgender Americans.

Buttigieg has the tools to lead his party on a national scale if he wants.

Another week of Donald Trump's presidency is in the rearview. And like the two weeks before it, it was filled with lawless actions, lies, and ridiculous behavior that Republicans lined up to defend.Trump threw Ukraine under the bus and appears likely to let murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin seize control of the sovereign nation. He also fired more independent watchdogs, let more corrupt politicians off the hook, slashed grants to medical research, and he even said he might ignore court rulings blocking his unlawful actions.And like the pathetic lapdogs they are, Republicans defended every move.After multiple federal judges of all ideological stripes blocked some of Trump’s executive actions, Republicans pushed the country further into a constitutional crisis by backing Trump when he suggested he’ll ignore those court orders and do whatever he wants.“It seems hard to believe that a judge could say, ‘We don’t want you to do that.’ So maybe we have to look at the judges. ‘Cause I think that’s a very serious violation,” Trump said on Tuesday.Trump likely got this idea from his own vice president, who wrote in an X post on Feb. 9 that judges shouldn’t be allowed to stop the president’s executive power. “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he wrote.And other Republicans agreed with the false statement that the courts are not allowed to check the president’s power—when that’s exactly what the Constitution dictates.“Of course the branches have to respect our constitutional order but there’s a lot of game yet to be played. This will be appealed, we’ve got to go through the whole process, and we’ll get the final analysis. In the interim, I will say that I agree wholeheartedly with Vice President JD Vance, my friend, because he’s right,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a news conference on Tuesday.Later that day, he said that the courts should back off of Trump altogether.“I think that the courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out. What we’re doing is good and right for the American people,” Johnson told reporters, specifically referring to the cuts co-President Elon Musk is trying to make with his fake agency, the Department of Government Efficiency.Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah"I don't believe judges, courts have the authority or power to stick their nose into the constitutional authority of the president,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said.“These judges need to back off and get out of the way of what the executive branch is doing to administer the government,” Roy said on Fox News.Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also expressed agreement that courts don’t have the power to challenge Trump’s executive orders.“These judges are waging an unprecedented assault on legitimate presidential authority, all the way down to dictating what webpages the government has. This is absurd,” he wrote on X.Rep. Darrel Issa, Republican of California, claimed that “nowhere in our Constitution is a single federal judge given absolute power over the President or the people of the United States.”But, of course, the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark 1803 Marbury v. Madison case that the judiciary has the power to declare laws or actions unconstitutional. On the other hand, Sen. Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota seemed to acknowledge that ignoring court orders is wrong, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to criticize Trump.“I think what you're seeing right now is the natural give and take between branches of the government,” he said.A handful of other Trump sycophants went a step further, saying that they would launch an impeachment effort against the judges who block Trump's actions.“I’m drafting articles of impeachment for US District Judge Paul Engelmayer. Partisan judges abusing their positions is a threat to democracy. The left has done ‘irreparable harm’ to this country. President Trump and his team at @DOGE are trying to fix it,” Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona wrote on X, referring to the federal judge who blocked Musk from accessing Treasury data.And Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia wrote on X that he is backing Crane’s efforts.“The real constitutional crisis is taking place in our judicial branch. Activist judges are weaponizing their power in an attempt to block President Trump’s agenda and obstruct the will of the American people. [Crane] and I are leading the fight to stop this insanity,” he wrote.Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called for the impeachment of another federal judge who blocked Trump’s freeze on congressionally appropriated federal funds.“This judge is a Trump deranged Democrat activist. Below is proof he is not capable of making good decisions from the bench. He should be impeached,” Greene wrote on X.Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio backed those efforts, saying the judges blocking Trump’s actions “should be mocked and ignored while articles of impeachment are prepared.”“These clowns are undermining every lower court, leaving the sole burden on SCOTUS. This is not sustainable. Sadly, excesses in judicial and executive authority are a symptom of the real problem: Congress keeps failing to take action. Time for #DeedsNotWords,” he wrote on X.Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, once a fierce defender of watchdogs, was fine with Trump axing the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development who said that Trump's unlawful shuttering of the agency let hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food aid go to waste. Grassley said that he "should have been fired," and gave Trump a workaround to make the firing legal. "I'm just trying to make the president's job easier," Grassley said, completely ditching his past watchdog advocacy to bow down to Trump.Other GOP lawmakers chose Trump over their own constituents, who are being directly harmed by the president’s actions.Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio said that Trump’s decision to drastically cut back National Institutes of Health funding for medical research institutions is a good thing, even though it would decimate institutions in his own state and beyond.“Well, I think what happens is the president is exactly right. I think if you ask the average American if we were spending a billion dollars to cure childhood cancer, how much of the billion dollars would go towards during childhood cancer? They’d probably say a billion. The idea that 60% goes to indirect cost and overhead is insane. And so I applaud the president,” he told the BulwarkAnd Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri said that Trump's funding freeze, which is hurting farmers who are not being paid for contracts, is just a "little bit disruptive."“But that's what this administration promised whenever they were coming to Washington,” Smith said on CNN, “is that they would be disruptive.”xRep. Jason Smith dismisses farmers in his state who are getting stiffed by the US government not fulfilling contracts: "Right now it's a little bit disruptive, but that's what this administration promised whenever they were coming to Washington is that they would be disruptive."— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-02-11T17:38:10.608ZThank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

The House GOP’s budget resolution could be in jeopardy of not clearing the full chamber amid concerns from moderates over likely cuts to social safety net programs — particularly Medicaid — with a handful undecided on whether they will support the key measure. Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) — both of whom [...]

FIRST ON FOX: House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith is calling for a complete overhaul of the Internal Revenue System, demanding the agency be de-weaponized, and telling Fox News Digital that “business as usual at the IRS is unacceptable."

Hardline conservatives and House GOP leadership struck an agreement on the conference’s budget resolution shortly before a key vote on Thursday, putting the measure on a path to advance out of committee if it holds. According to House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.), the agreement — which still has to be approved by the [...]

Opinion: The Montana Senate has always prided itself on its decorum. An almost cloying genteelness is expected. Until this session, I guess. Last Thursday decorum on the Senate floor once again went up in smoke.

Chairman Jodey C. Arrington, R-Texas, right, and ranking member Brendan F. Boyle, D-Pa., are seen during the House Budget Committee markup on Thursday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

House and Senate Republicans are on a collision course as they both race to pass their respective blueprints to enact President Donald Trump's agenda.

House Republicans are scrambling to find a solution to internal disagreements over their plan to pass President Trump’s sprawling agenda, an effort that kicked into high gear after leadership was forced to punt a key vote this week — and as the Senate inches closer to moving ahead with its alternative plan. During a late-night [...]

Shelby Loring, 29, and others conspired to distribute meth and fentanyl in Penobscot and Aroostook counties.

The case had been sent back to the Fourth Circuit by the Supreme Court just before the 2024 election.

At least 240 employees are known to have been fired, reassigned or designated to be laid off.

Experts say that reopening the Keystone pipeline after the premier of Alberta, Canada, said she wants to talk to Trump about restarting construction of the oil system.

Nebraska Sen. Rick Holdcroft proposed a law that would end "no-excuse" mail-in voting in a move that he said is meant to "build up people's confidence" in elections.

During his first term as president, Donald Trump led the effort to ban TikTok. But as he returns to the White House, he's being hailed as the app's savior.

Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras reiterated the administration’s “full support” of the measure, which would force judicial candidates to declare a party for the first time in Montana since 1935.

Until now, Banks has been serving as the Lone Star State's first-ever border czar — a position created by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2023 to deal with the unprecedented influx of migrants.

Critics of the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) piled on the group Wednesday after it agreed to pay a Department of Justice (DOJ) settlement over allegations that it fraudulently took COVID-19 relief funds.

Jeremy Smith, 42, was arrested at Downeast Elementary School on Wednesday.

Republican plans to pass a massive new tax cut in the early days of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term are running into a major obstacle: the price tag.

Here's a breakdown of the top-grossing films that defined the year.

STM Sunkist Shootout

Our children are drowning emotionally, and we’re standing on the shore, reacting only when they go under.

TikTok asked the Supreme Court to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agreed to sell it.

Lawmakers are demanding briefings about mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey, as the White House downplayed any potential threats to national security or the public.

Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) threw his support behind Senate Republican leadership's plan to move a border package as the party's first big legislative push at an Axios event on Thursday morning.Why it matters: The plan from top Senate Republicans has split the party. Key House conservatives want to move one big package that also includes a major tax bill.Moreno, a Trump-endorsed conservative, told Axios' Stef Kight that a two-step legislative process makes "much more sense."Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) wants to move a border package before acting on a tax bill, which is another one of the GOP's top priorities."Republicans need that little muscle memory around winning and getting things done," Moreno said.The big picture: Thune's plan has been met with support from fellow Senate Republicans, including allies of President-elect Trump like Moreno.But House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who is the top tax Republican in the House, has bristled at the plan.

'He will deliver'

To save $30 billion over 10 years and reduce the service’s carbon footprint, Postal Service plans to add one day to deliveries made to rural areas.

Congressional Republicans are divided over how to proceed with massive conservative policy overhauls next year.

Tagovailoa sealed it with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jonnu Smith in overtime to help the Dolphins spoil Rodgers' first 300-yard passing game in nearly three years and beat the Jets for the ninth straight time in Miami.

The reasons the president cites for pardoning his son could have been made when he rejected a pardon.

Despite the intent to find solutions following the assassination attempt of President-elect Trump back in July, bipartisan lawmakers got into a heated exchange.

Now that Donald Trump will be headed to the White House, it is all but certain that he will pursue significant new taxes on imported goods. Although a widely criticized policy, there is little stopping him from doing this due to trade powers that Congress has given the executive branch over the years. Before President Joe Biden leaves office, his administration and the current Congress should consider scaling back the president’s power to unilaterally enact tariffs. This restraint would protect households from large tax increases, prevent economic harm and ease relations with our major trading partners.

The military's commitment to religious diversity throughout a U.S. military with 1.3 million active-duty troops could be strained if Pete Hegseth is confirmed as the next Pentagon leader.

Sen. John Thune plans to make border security one of his first legislative focuses in 2025, the Republican told colleagues during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.

President Biden pardoned son Hunter Biden this week, sparking renewed interest about who else the 46th president may pardon before his exit from the White House next month.

While Donald Trump has attacked the Justice Department for years, Joe Biden, pardoning his son Hunter, has ripped into the agency for 'selectively and unfairly prosecuting' his son.

This is a list of my favorite albums of 2024. It is important to say, “favorites” and not “best” because music is subjective.