Category: Federal

  • No Article III federal judges confirmed in January; Trump has appointed second-most through third year of a presidency

    Posted on

    Donald Trump appointed and the Senate confirmed 187 Article III federal judges through February 1, 2020, his fourth year in office. This is the second-most Article III judicial appointments through this point in a presidency of all presidents dating back to Theodore Roosevelt. Only Jimmy Carter (197) had more. The average number of federal judges…

  • RNC outraises DNC for eighth consecutive month, Democrats lead in national Senate and House committee fundraising

    Posted on

    The Republican National Committee (RNC) outraised its Democratic counterpart by more than two-to-one for the eighth consecutive month, while the Democratic House and Senate committees outraised their Republican counterparts, according to year-end 2019 campaign finance reports filed with the FEC Jan. 31. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raised $7.3 million and spent $6.0 million…

  • Presidential candidates have collectively raised over $1 billion

    Posted on

    Michael Bloomberg (D) led presidential candidates in fundraising for the fourth quarter of 2019, according to financial reports filed Jan. 31. Bloomberg raised $200 million during the quarter, all self-funded. He was followed by Tom Steyer (D), who raised $156 million, including $155 million self-funded. As of the December 31, 2019, reporting cutoff, President Trump…

  • DNC eliminates donor threshold for Feb. 19 debate in Las Vegas

    Posted on

    The Democratic National Committee released its criteria for the Feb. 19 presidential primary debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday. Candidates have three paths to qualify: (1) receive at least one pledged delegate in the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary; (2) receive 10 percent support in four national, Nevada, and/or South Carolina polls; or…

  • U.S. Rep. Doug Collins seeks election to Senate, 2,456 major party candidates filed for 2020 Congress elections

    Posted on

    U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (R) announced January 29 that he is running in the special election for U.S. Senate in Georgia. Former Sen. Johnny Isakson (R) resigned in December. Collins has represented Georgia’s 9th Congressional District in the House since 2013. He is the third member of Georgia’s congressional delegation to announce he would not…

  • OIRA reviewed 31 significant rules in January

    Posted on

    The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) reviewed 31 significant regulatory actions issued by federal agencies in January 2020. The agency approved one rule without changes and approved the intent of 28 rules while recommending changes to their content. Agencies withdrew two rules from the review process. OIRA reviewed 17 significant regulatory…

  • Federal tobacco age restriction increase followed five years of state increases

    Posted on

    On December 20, 2019, President Donald Trump (R) signed H.R. 1865 into law setting the federal tobacco age restriction at 21. At the time H.R. 1865 was signed into law, 54% of the country’s population already lived in states that had signed legislation setting their tobacco age restrictions at 21. The first law in the…

  • U.S. Supreme Court releases March argument calendar

    Posted on

    The U.S. Supreme Court has released its March argument calendar for the 2019-2020 term. The court will hear 11 hours of oral argument in 14 cases between March 23 and April 1. As of January 2020, the court had agreed to hear 73 cases and had issued decisions in four cases during its 2019-2020 term.…

  • Democratic pageviews increase ahead of Iowa caucus; Delaney accumulated 62k pageviews by end of his campaign

    Posted on

    Each week, we report the number of pageviews received by 2020 presidential campaigns on Ballotpedia. These numbers reflect the time investments of our community of thousands of readers who visit Ballotpedia because they think the candidate is worth knowing more about, whether they believe the candidate has a strong chance of winning or is an…

  • Senate rejects motion to allow witnesses in impeachment trial

    Posted on

    On January 31, 2020, the U.S. Senate rejected a motion to allow witnesses and documents to be subpoenaed in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump by a vote of 51 to 49. • All 47 Democrats and two independents (Sens. Angus King and Bernie Sanders) voted yes. • 2 Republicans (Sens. Susan Collins and…