More NEPA streamlining probable in highway negotiations

In a stinging rebuke to President Barack Obama by Republicans and Democrats, the House ignored a veto threat Thursday and overwhelmingly approved GOP legislation erecting fresh hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees trying… Its latest iteration, S. 280, was reported favorably out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in May with bipartisan support in a vote of 12-1.

Forty-eight cowardly House Democrats repeated the mistakes of 9/11 by giving into the politics of fear and voting with Republicans on a bill that exploits the Paris terrorist and demonizes refugees. It was subsequently folded into the surface transportation and highway reauthorization package. “Americans demand it, and our economy depends on it”, Inhofe said. “I don’t think we’ll be dealing with it over here”.

With the House’s 246 Republicans expected to solidly support the legislation, the administration was eager to keep the final tally for the bill below 290 – the number required to override a veto.

In addition to the Portman-McCaskill language, the bills contain a number of other NEPA amendments. According to a new Bloomberg politics national poll released on Wednesday, November 18, 53 percent of Americans oppose resettling Syrians in the U.S., 28 percent believe the screening program is fine the way it is now, while 11 percent would only admit Christian Syrians, a plan Obama absolutely opposes. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., to allow states to set a cap on the time or number of standardized tests they give each year. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania) was named the chairman of the conference committee and vowed that the uncertainty surrounding highway funding and endless short-term extensions would soon be over.

“Everything is good on our side of the Capitol”, he said.

As you may have seen, Senate leadership filed cloture on the Transportation and Housing Bill, without my germane amendment on welfare for new refugees.

“This is the last extension”.

“I know our bill is a little worse than in the Senate, but something is getting in”, he said.

“They are the most important provisions in the bill”, he said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, plans to introduce legislation after the Thanksgiving recess that would block from the visa waiver program for people who have traveled to Iraq or Syria in the past five years.

-“Today’s conference committee vote is another encouraging step in the process to update the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and on behalf of state chiefs, I applaud the work of the committee”, said Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers.