Category: Federal

  • U.S. Senators Lee and Hawley propose increasing presidential control of agency officials

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    U.S. Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a bill that would give presidents more control over the administrative state. The Take Care Act, introduced on June 5, 2019, would repeal limitations on the president’s authority to remove Senate-confirmed officials in the executive branch and at independent agencies. The bill aims to make…

  • Federal Register weekly update; lowest weekly proposed rule total since April

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    The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity.   During the week of June 10 to June 14, the number of pages in the Federal Register increased by 1,168 pages, bringing…

  • A closer look at Trump’s twice-nominated judge: Peter Phipps

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    President Donald Trump (R) has announced 190 Article III judicial nominations since taking office on January 20, 2017. Two of those individuals, Peter Phipps and A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., were nominated twice to different courts.   On February 15, 2018, Trump first nominated Phipps to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Western District…

  • Sixteen Democratic presidential candidates have called for Donald Trump impeachment proceedings

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    Sixteen of the 24 noteworthy Democratic candidates for president have called for President Donald Trump’s (R) impeachment.   The most recent candidates to join in impeachment calls did so last Friday. Both Bill de Blasio and Amy Klobuchar called for impeachment following statements made by Trump last week on ABC News. In an interview, Trump…

  • Presidential pageviews update: Buttigieg receives most Ballotpedia pageviews, followed by Biden and Yang

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    Each week, we report the number of pageviews received by 2020 presidential candidates on Ballotpedia. These numbers show which candidates are getting our readers’ attention.   South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg racked up 3,771 pageviews for the week of June 9-15. That represents 8.1 percent of the pageviews for all Democratic campaigns during the…

  • 2020 Democratic presidential field split on impeachment

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    Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) became the fourteenth Democratic presidential candidate to support initiating impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump (R) Thursday.   The first calls for impeachment proceedings came in April after the U.S. Department of Justice released special counsel Robert Mueller’s report investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, coordination between…

  • House committee holds Trump officials in contempt for refusal to release citizenship question documents

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    The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted 24-15 on June 12, 2019, to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas requesting documents related to the decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.   The vote occurred hours after President…

  • A new way to look at the presidential field

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      Long before candidates such as Donald Trump (R) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) won their elections, they had bested their opponents in pageviews on Ballotpedia.   What trends might emerge from this year’s political contests? As part of our 2020 election coverage, we will be publishing our weekly pageview statistics for presidential campaigns. These numbers…

  • DNC guidance on polling criteria for first presidential debate puts Bullock on the bubble

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    The Democratic National Committee (DNC) provided additional guidance Thursday on its polling criteria for this month’s presidential debate, knocking Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) out of qualifying.   The DNC will not count two ABC News/Washington Post polls that used open-ended questioning. Without those polls, Bullock now has only two of three necessary polls to…

  • GOP Senate Judiciary Committee members oppose Trump judicial nominee

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    Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Ted Cruz (Texas), both Republicans and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opposed the nomination of Michael Bogren to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. President Donald Trump nominated Bogren to the court on March 11, 2019, and the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on…