Todd Blanche, Next US AG?

President Trump has nominated Todd Blanche to be Attorney General, replacing Pam Bondi. Blanche had been acting in the role since April 2, 2026, when Bondi left for an “essential and much‑needed new role” in the private sector, after her tenure as AG became untenable.

Blanche’s audition for the president went well enough to be nominated, and today he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Alabama Senator Katie Britt serves on the committee and will no doubt support Blanche — I’m unaware that she’s ever deviated from the president — warranting an email hoping to stir her moral values.

I urge you to oppose the nomination of Todd Blanche to be Attorney General. His actions serving in the Trump administration make him unfit to lead the Justice Department. Citing chapter and verse:

He slowed — and is still blocking — release of the Epstein files, preventing a full accounting of the heinous abuse of young women. Presumably to protect the president and obtain Ghislaine Maxwell’s silence, Blanche arranged for her to move from a low security prison to a minimum security facility, overriding Bureau of Prison rules.

He created the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund the president still wants to “reward” his cronies and followers.

Blanche crafted and signed the so-called “settlement” that forever protects the president, his family, and their business from tax audits and related claims. In a ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams wrote the initial lawsuit and subsequent settlement were an attempt to “manipulate the judicial process” because the parties were colluding. The judge has recommended disciplinary action against Blanche for possible ethics violations.

He has enabled the Justice Dpartment to continue acting as the president’s personal legal firm, weaponizing it against the president’s enemies — yielding the absurd indictment of James Comey for freedom of speech on the beach.

Blanche should be debarred, not appointed Attorney General.

The $1.776 Billion Slush Fund

I am so distraught and angry that I can physically feel my stomach churn:

The latest and most egregious example of the Trump administration’s corruption is the outrageous $1.776 billion slush fund to reward his loyal subjects who claim the government was “weaponized” against them, particularly those who rioted at the Capital on January 6. I’d call that an insurrection aiming to keep President Trump in office.

Tied to this slush fund, the president’s personal attorney who now heads the Justice Department “negotiated” a deal to protect the president, his family, and businesses from IRS audits or future claims — despite a federal law that bars the president from interfering with the IRS.

Add all the stock trades timed to benefit from the president’s insider knowledge, the jet from Qatar, and the blatant business deals enriching his family.

(Hunter Biden was such an amateur.)

The president claims his administration is the most transparent in history. Yes, the most transparently corrupt.

This week when I filled my car, I paid $4.19 a gallon for the lowest grade of regular, the highest price since the president unilaterally attacked Iran. There’s no end in sight regardless of his yo-yo optimism, well timed to play the market.

Despite the war with Iran and the escalating cost of living, the president seems more interested in his big beautiful ballroom. I recall he said it would be funded with private donations; now he wants Congress to kick in $1 billion.

All these billions, not counting the to-be-defined cost of the Iran war, yet Republicans say we must cut programs that benefit Americans, like Medicaid and the tax credits to reduce the cost of health insurance.

By enabling the president to do whatever he wants, the Republican Congress is abetting his authoritarian hold on the country and undermining the Constitution. The words of Liz Cheney ring in my ears:

“I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

The War Goes On With No Obvious End

As the war goes on, another letter to Congress:

Within a few days of the U.S. and Israel attacking Iran, gasoline jumped to $3.00 a gallon here in Opelika. Now, in the fourth week of this war, gasoline is $3.50, $1 more per gallon than the price before the preemptive and destabilizing attack. Other than raising prices, what has the administration’s war accomplished?

The Strait of Hormuz is blocked; the only oil and cargo transiting are ships allowed by Iran.

The president’s goal of a new regime in Iran? The new leader is the son of the former leader and cut from the same theocratic cloth.

The enriched uranium, which the president called an imminent threat, is still there.

While we have extensively damaged Iran’s military capabilities, the destruction seems to have strengthened the regime’s resolve.

Whatever trust we built through negotiation is gone. The president’s bellicose rhetoric intended to scare Iran into submission is not working.

The Pentagon now asks for $200 billion to fund the war. $200 billion could have reduced the nation’s debt, been invested in critical infrastructure, or restored the health insurance subsidies Congress refused to extend.

Astonishingly, the president is now talking about taking over Cuba.

Those of us who lived through the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 recall the aphorism “if you break it, you own it.” Donald Trump owns this war and its vast economic and humanitarian consequences.

I urge you and your Republican colleagues to exercise Constitutional oversight to end the war and limit President Trump’s imperial ambitions. Don’t be complicit by your support or by hiding in silence.

My State of the Union Address

Last week, we heard President Donald Trump’s “State of the Union” address to Congress. I'd like to share my own view of the state of our union:

Cost of Living

Prices and inflation are still high.

I’m reminded every morning when I make coffee. Thanks to the president’s delusional tariffs, I’m paying $22 to $24 a bag for coffee beans from a small roaster here in Opelika. I used to pay $16 to $18. My friends who own this small business tell me their prices for green beans jumped with the tariffs and have not come down.

Health insurance premiums also jumped at the start of the year. Last year, my son’s ACA coverage was fully subsidized. This year, his same Bronze plan costs $484 per month. The premium for my wife’s Bronze plan jumped 27% to $1,144 per month.

Affordability is not fake news, Mr. President.

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling against the president's unilateral tariffs, he is doubling down and pursuing ways to maintain them. Tariffs are a hammer he can use to threaten and bully countries and companies to accede to his wishes.

As waves of economic uncertainty ripple across the globe, Republicans in Congress remain stone faced rather than exercising their Constitutional responsibility.

Immigration

The president claimed his administration would target only criminals illegally in the country. Yet he sent invasions of masked ICE and CBP agents into Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, and Minneapolis creating terror: Separating families. Detaining immigrants who are legally in the country. Deporting people without due process. Killing innocent Americans and labeling them domestic terrorists. Ignoring court orders.

Reuters reported that the administration unlawfully detained immigrants more than 4,400 times between October and mid-February.

In the case Anderson Jesus Urquilla-Ramos v. Donald J. Trump, et al., Judge Joseph R. Goodwin wrote

“Across the interior of the United States, agents of the federal government — masked, anonymous, armed with military weapons, operating from unmarked vehicles, acting without warrants of any kind — are seizing persons for civil immigration violations and imprisoning them without any semblance of due process.”

Another example of DHS’ cruel and inhumane treatment was Nurul Amin Shah Alam, nearly blind, who froze to death in Buffalo after Border Patrol agents left him at a closed Tim Hortons, jail booties the only protection on his feet. True to form, DHS lied about the incident, claiming agents left him at “a warm, safe location.”

Despite these flagrant, cruel, and illegal violations of law — a white nationalist strategy to purge the country of people of color — Republicans in Congress show no interest in reforming immigration laws. The country needs immigrants for our high technology industries as well as farms, food processing, and hospitality.

Corruption

The President has been using his power to enrich himself, his family, and members of his cabinet. David Kirkpatrick estimates the president and his family have made some $3.4 billion from crypto, real estate, branding, and other ventures. The jet from Qatar is arguably the most visibly egregious.

The corruption trickles down, such as the Boeing 737 Max 8 executive jet that Secretary Noem has been leasing, claimed to be for immigrant deportation flights. Yet the interior includes a bedroom suite.

Nary a murmur from Republicans in Congress.

Epstein Files

Is the Justice department incompetent or protecting the president? Certainly incompetent and, I believe, covering for the president.

With all the examples of philandering throughout Donald Trump’s storied life, I think the charge that he raped a minor is plausible. That he is morally bereft is more than plausible.

Iran

Now the President has unilaterally started a war with Iran, ignoring the Constitution, Congress, and international law. There is no legal or moral justification for preemptively attacking another country and targeting its leaders, no matter how heinous those leaders are. Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the U.S. Blatant and self-serving lies that Iran was close to having a nuclear bomb or had developed ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S.

We’ve now lost American lives, and the president predicts “there will likely be more.” For what end?

The state of the U.S.?

This administration and the Congressional Republicans supporting it do not reflect American values, the values outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We have an imperialist president who is attempting to rule the world, a narcissist dismembering our country and enabled by Republican robots in Congress. That’s the state of the union I see.

Are We At War With Narco-Terrorists?

Since September, the U.S. military has been striking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that the Trump administration claims are transporting drugs to the mainland. The administration also claims destroying the boats and killing the crews are warranted because we are at war with "narco-terrorists."

The first boat to be struck, on September 2, left two survivors with the remains of the boat. They were killed in a subsequent attack, intended to kill them. Was killing them a war crime or murder, since they posed no imminent threat to the military or U.S. mainland?

Regardless of the legal determination, my view is that killing them and the crews of the other boats is immoral, which prompted letters to Senator Britt and Representative Rogers.

I am writing to express my horror and disgust at the Trump administration’s policy of attacking boats in international waters, boats it claims are ferrying drugs into the U.S.

The location of these strikes belies the claim that they threaten the U.S. and warrant such a severe response. The Coast Guard’s longstanding interdiction process of disabling a boat and arresting the crew could be adopted by the military, yet that wouldn’t create the machismo, reality TV show of force to glorify the administration’s fake narrative.

These strikes are counter to the American values of presumed innocence and due process. The administration’s justification for a double-tap strike on September 2, to kill the remaining two crew members floating in the ocean with the shell of their boat, is absurd. Located so close to the coast of Venezuela, they posed no threat to the U.S. mainland or our military. The action was explicitly counter to the DoD Law of War Manual. making it a war crime or murder. Regardless of the legal definition, it was immoral.

If we are indeed at war with “narco-terrorists,” Congress should formally declare war. That Republicans in Congress remain mum, except for Senator Rand Paul, reflects the party’s lack of integrity, placing fealty to the president over their oath to the U.S. Constitution.

During my 72-year lifespan, the Trump presidency poses the worst challenge to the American democracy, and Congress is failing the Constitutional test.

 

Mr. Speaker, We Love America. We Don't Want A King.

The second No Kings rally will be on Saturday, October 18, with more than 2,000 events planned across the U.S., Europe, and other nations.

The first rally, in June, attracted an estimated 5 million protesters, including me. I stood with more than 100 at the courthouse in Opelika.

Saturday’s event should draw even more of us, frightened and angry, who feel the Trump administration is destroying American democracy while an obsequious Republican Congress tacitly rubber stamps his every action.

To undermine any legitimacy for the upcoming protests, Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, won’t even say No Kings, substituting “hate America.”

”This hate America rally that they have coming up for October 18, the Antifa crowd and the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists, they’re all going to gather on the Mall.”

As a small protest against the Republican propaganda, I wrote the following letter to the Speaker:

Mr. Speaker,

I’ve heard you describe the upcoming No Kings rally as a “hate America” rally. I am planning to join the crowds this weekend and want you to know that your characterization is untrue.

I am a patriot and love my country. As Mark Twain said, “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."

Right now, the president and Republican Congress don’t deserve it. President Trump promised us lower prices, yet inflation continues, fueled by his misguided tariffs and resulting trade wars.

In addition to inflation, you’ve given us that big ugly bill that disproportionately benefits the rich — they hardly need tax relief — and raises the federal debt. We’re also facing the expiring enhanced premium tax credits for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which likely means unaffordable premiums for two in my family and many of the 24 million with ACA policies.

I wonder why you and your Republican colleagues favor tax cuts for the wealthy over Medicaid, SNAP, and health insurance that help the quality of life for so many Americans. I guess we don’t donate enough to your campaigns to deserve consideration.

The Depravity Just Keeps Piling On

Like my mother's old pressure cooker, when the pressure builds to a certain level, the valve must release it. In this case, it was this news about the SecDef that triggered an email to Senator Britt.

Pete Hegseth’s recent post on X, sharing the CNN documentary with Pastor Doug Wilson of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches and adding “All of Christ for All of Life,” is troubling:

How does the SecDef have time to post on X, given his vast responsibilities to preserve national security? Hegseth should be focused on ensuring that the U.S. defense capability will counter the threat from China. Instead, he seems focused on culture war issues like cruelly discharging trans people from the service. China’s president Xi Jinping and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin must relish every moment U.S. officials are distracted from their core responsibilities.

Also troubling is the inferred endorsement of a theology that repeals a woman’s right to vote and returns women to the household to submit to their husbands. Senator, if you can’t vote, you certainly can’t serve in the U.S. Senate. I hope you regret your vote to confirm Hegseth as SecDef.

Prices are rising. Legal immigrants and U.S. citizens are being kidnapped by masked ICE goons, detained and deported without due process. Off-and-on tariffs are stalling business investment. After being interviewed by the Deputy Attorney General, Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a minimum security prison, suggesting a quid pro quo to preserve the president’s “innocence.” The president’s new golf resort in Scotland adds to a growing list of corrupt actions, from the meme coin to accepting a 747 from Qatar that will require close to $1 billion to serve as Air Force One. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ongoing, while innocent Palestinians are dying in Gaza with no clear path to freeing the remaining Israeli hostages.

The Republican Congress is enabling this authoritarian regime. You’ve lost all moral standing and will be judged harshly by history. Is this the legacy you want to leave for your children?

One Big Beautiful Bill Passes

Vice President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to approve the BBB in the Senate; today, the House passed the bill — despite the substantial changes in the Senate — by 218 to 214. The president will sign it tomorrow, July 4, the deadline he imposed.

Perhaps this will give the Democrats a needed boost. We'll have to await the 2026 midterm election to see whose narrative prevails: the Republican's extending the tax cuts and securing the border or the Democrat's taking from the poor (cutting Medicaid and SNAP) to give tax breaks to the rich.

Not content to wait for the midterms, I shared my views with Senator Britt and Representative Rogers:

The passage of the misnamed One Big Beautiful Bill Act is the low point of my 72 years as an American. A corrupt president and a sycophant, Republican-led Congress have enacted legislation that robs services from the poor and infirm to reward the richest Americans, who do not need financial support yet provide the money to line Congressional pockets.

With the passage of this legislation, your own Congressional Budget Office estimates at least 11 million will lose health insurance due to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts. More than 3 million will lose SNAP benefits. These numbers belie the absurd Republican claim that the bill will only reduce waste and fraud.

Beyond Congress ignoring the adverse impact on so many Americans, the CBO estimates the bill will raise the federal debt by some $3.4 trillion to 124 percent of GDP. Increasing the debt used to be the third rail for Republicans — at least when a Democrat was president.

I cannot fathom your “proud” vote to support this legislation and your fealty to a corrupt, authoritarian administration that is desecrating the founding principles and Constitution.

Given your disregard for the values that have been the bedrock of my life as an American. I will do all I can to elect non-MAGA representatives to the Senate and House who will faithfully serve in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

King Trump and the Republican Congress. Image generated by ChatGPT.

Kill The One Big Beautiful Bill

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act — yes, that's the actual name — is moving through Congress, approved by the House and now being considered by the Senate.

With so many provisions in the legislation, passing it in the House was a near miracle, aided by urging with threats from President Trump. The Senate has started changing the bill while being pushed to pass their version and send it back to the House for approval in time for the president to sign it by July 4.

With significant policy divisions among Republicans in the Senate and between the Senate and the House, passage is uncertain. Yet the president's coaxing and threats that moved it through the House have given it momentum. More coaxing and threats aimed at hesitant Republican Senators may well get the bill through the Senate, with the same strategy used to gain House approval of the Senate's bill.

Despite the odds of betting against the fealty of Congress, I've urged my Senators to vote "no."

Please vote against President Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” Big, yes. Beautiful, no.

The CBO estimates the version approved by the House will increase the debt by $2.8 trillion. Increasing the nation’s debt is supposedly antithetical to Republican orthodoxy, justifying a vote against the bill.

Attempting to minimize this increase, 8–11 million people will lose Medicaid benefits, millions more who receive SNAP assistance. This is hardly just waste, fraud, and abuse. The cuts will hurt the lowest-income Americans to benefit those with the highest incomes. Another reason to vote against the bill.

The provision to shield AI companies from state and local laws for 10 years will simply enable AI companies to exploit the public and the economy without accountability for the adverse effects, which will likely be irreversible. Historically, technology companies have not addressed the negative impact on society until forced by regulation, often too late. Consider the impact social media has on our children. Congress lacks the intelligence and the will to effectively manage AI. Our only hope lies with the states. Yet another reason to vote “no.”

There are numerous other adverse effects hidden within this bill that will take years to discover and will be difficult to undo.

I urge you to vote “no” and demonstrate that Congress is an equal branch of government, not simply a rubber stamp for the president.

The People’s Town Hall for Mike Rogers

Indivisible Auburn-Opelika held a town hall meeting for Representative Mike Rogers last night. Well over 100 of us showed up to listen to speakers and express our concerns and questions to the absent Congressman, represented by a cardboard figure.

The invited speakers described the impact of the Trump administration’s funding cuts locally, which have degraded university research, health policy, USAID program support in the U.S., disaster relief, and military preparedness.

I learned many specifics about how the administration’s actions are harming the state and local region and felt the satisfaction of showing up and being seen. “A people united cannot be defeated.”

After the event, I sent the following to Mike Rogers:

I was disappointed that you did not attend tonight’s town hall meeting in Opelika to hear and respond to your constituents’ concerns and questions. Since you weren’t there, I will relay my thoughts via this email.

I have a long, long list of concerns about President Trump’s administration and Republicans in Congress enabling his malfeasance. However, I’ll shorten my list to the following:

Despite the Republican talking points, the proposed budget that the House is developing will slash safety net programs like Medicaid. The cuts will hurt many Alabamians, pushing them even deeper into financial despair.

To propose such cuts to extend Donald Trump’s tax cuts without any tax increase on the richest Americans is unconscionable. Any member of Congress who votes for this draconian legislation seems either tone deaf or uncaring, arguably subservient to the oligarchs.

I ask you to vote against these cuts and, if you’re serious about reducing the deficit, to support tax increases on the wealthiest Americans.

Second, President Trump has called for ending the CHIPS and Science Act, claiming his tariffs will restore America’s manufacturing base, including semiconductors.

I’ve spent my 45-year career in the semiconductor industry and have witnessed the loss of U.S. leadership in the latest process technologies and wafer fabs. The CHIPS Act is a successful public-private partnership to establish process technology and manufacturing within the U.S. One focus is developing high-performance and trusted manufacturing capabilities for defense systems.

A new wafer fabrication facility is a multi-billion-dollar investment with a decades-long life cycle. Halting the investments started under the CHIPS Act because of the president’s ignorant, ill-conceived, and mercurial tariffs will undermine the country’s ability to invest in our semiconductor future.

Please oppose any legislation or executive order to curtail or cancel the CHIPS Act.

Trump's Vulnerability Flows Downhill

In a recent Substack post, Timothy Snyder identifies a core weakness of President Trump that weakens America: his belief that everyone is ripping him off, or trying to unless he gets them first. It’s a zero-sum game.

This fueled his apparently long-held belief that a trade deficit is bad and tariffs are the solution, which led him to launch a trade war with virtually every country on the globe. Only the rising interest rate on 10-year Treasury notes prompted him to pause before we saw economic Armegadden.

Snyder’s article inspired me to write my Congressional representatives in Washington. I don’t expect to change their opinions, but I felt better hitting “send.”

Historian Timothy Snyder points to President Trump’s core vulnerability: He always thinks everyone is trying to rip him off. This deep-seated irrationality focused on the balance of trade caused the maelstrom around tariffs. Only the rising rates on 10-year Treasury notes prompted the president to largely retreat — except for tariffs on China, which won’t kiss the president’s ring.

Other than keeping reporters and cable and podcast pundits busy, the outcome of this insanity will be higher prices for consumers.

In a recent Substack article, Snyder writes, “We have thousands of years of political theory and indeed great literature to instruct us on this point: too much power brings out the worst in people — especially among the worst of people. As the founders understood, the purpose of the rule of law, of checks and balances, of regular elections, is to prevent precisely such a situation. Allowing our republic to be compromised has many costs, for example to our rights, and to our dignity. But it also has costs in a very basic economic sense. When you elevate the mad king, you elevate the madness.”

Are you willing to enable four years of madness?

Starve the Poor to Feed the Wealthy

The New York Times headline reads

House Passes G.O.P. Budget Teeing Up Enormous Tax and Spending Cuts
The vote cleared the way to enact major elements of President Trump’s domestic agenda and escalated a bitter fight among Republicans over what federal programs to shrink to finance major tax cuts.

Before the vote, I sent the following email to my Congressional representative, Mike Rogers:

I am horrified by President Trump's agenda to dismember the federal government and Congress abdicating its role as co-equal to the executive branch.

To focus on a specific concern, the proposed cuts to Medicaid will impose unconscionable suffering on many Alabamian families — particularly children — while using those "found funds" to further enrich the wealthy. They need no financial assistance and should be paying far more in taxes to support the country that enabled them to become wealthy.

Please put your country above your fealty to the president.

2022 Midterm Elections

Almost two weeks after the midterm election, votes are still being counted — recounted in some elections — and a runoff on December 5 will decide whether Raphael Warnock, the incumbent, or Herschel Walker will represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate. We are certain the Democrats will retain control of the Senate, regardless of the outcome of Georgia’s runoff, and Republicans have won enough districts to become the majority party in the House, taking control from the Democrats.

Despite Republicans controlling the House, this outcome is a relief, much better than I expected from the polls and punditry prior to the election. The historical trend is that the party in power loses seats in Congress in the midterm election, and this seemed destined because polls consistently showed voter dissatisfaction with the state of the economy and President Biden’s performance. Inflation remains high, reflected in the food and gas prices Americans pay every day. If that weren’t obvious, Republicans unceasingly blamed the president — ignoring that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted energy and food supplies from both countries.

Fortunately, the Republican majority in the house will be slim. Whoever leads that fractious party, Kevin McCarthy or a more conservative challenger, will have to bow to conservative pressure to investigate the Biden administration. The investigations will begin with son Hunter and his laptop and could lead to impeachment hearings. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia introduced a resolution calling for the president’s impeachment for “abuse of power by enabling bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” See H.Res.57.

Adding to the gravitational pull distorting the next two years, the former president — whom I shall not name — has declared he’s running for president again.

”In order to make America great and glorious again. I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States." — former president Donald Trump

Back to the hopeful outcome of the midterm election, despite the near certainty of a gridlocked Washington for the next two years: despite voter dissatisfaction with the economy and the president’s performance, many voters apparently agreed with President Biden’s argument that the election was a referendum on democracy. The candidates who embraced Donald Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen largely lost their races for the House, governor, and secretary of state. While the races were often close, enough voters seemed concerned by threats to future elections.

Losing access to abortion, with the federal right overturned by the Supreme Court in June, was also a strong factor, which can be inferred from the ballot initiatives in Kansas, during the summer, and California, Kentucky, Michigan, and New York in the midterms.

While the election outcome was not as definitive as I would like, it was far better than my fears, which were turning to depression from the drumbeat of reporting as the election neared. Analyzing the unexpected result, Astead Herndon and Shane Goldmacher in a post-mortem assessment on The Run-Up podcast suggested anti-democracy concerns motivated voters more than dissatisfaction about the economy and President Biden. I concur with that, fro my own fear of Donald Trump or his minions again taking control of government. I can only hope that fear will carry America through the 2024 election, if that’s what it takes.

Time to Eliminate DACA

On Thursday, the Supreme Court stopped President Trump’s move to rescind DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a policy announced by President Obama on June 15, 2012. Reflecting a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court ruling only said the Trump administration acted improperly when it terminated the program, by not adhering to the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act.

Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said the court considered “only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action” and concluded it failed to do so. This ruling, while positive, leaves the door open for the Department of Homeland Security to resume its effort by beefing up the argument for rescinding DACA.

A permanent resolution to the DACA limbo lies with Congress passing legislation — assuming the president signs it or Congress overrides a veto — providing permanent legal residence and a path to citizenship for those in the DACA program. As the House passed legislation last June (the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019), the responsibility falls to the Senate.

To encourage Senate action, I sent the following letter to Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, and a slightly modified version to Republican senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Mitt Romney (Utah).

Subject: Legal Status and Path to Citizenship for DACA Participants

While the Supreme Court’s ruling this week provides a reprieve for those who have enrolled in the DACA program, the decision does not provide a permanent solution for the children who were brought to the U.S. by their parents and grew up here —most now strengthening American society.

It’s time for Congress to pass legislation to provide those participating in DACA with legal residency and a path to U.S. citizenship, ending their Kafkaesque limbo.

As you know, the House of Representatives passed the Dream and Promise Act last June, one year ago. The Senate must now act — and do so before President Trump marshals a renewed effort to address the Supreme Court’s concerns and rescind DACA. In your role as Majority Leader, you have the responsibility to put this on the Senate’s agenda.

Lame-Duck Congress

Can this lame-duck Congress redeem itself and deal with the looming fiscal cliff?

The roles haven't changed: the Republicans still control the House, the Democrats the Senate, and President Obama was reelected to a second term. But perhaps, hopefully, the election sent a message to our elected officials that it's time to reach across the aisle and find bipartisan solutions to the nation's financial challenges.

In that spirit, today I sent the following email to my New Hampshire delegation, Speaker Boehner, Senator McConnell, and Senator Reid:

As you return to Congress following the 2012 election, I urge you to take the necessary steps to avoid the fiscal cliff, reduce the debt, and ensure the long-term viability of Social Security and Medicare. 

To accomplish this challenge, I believe spending must be reduced – defense included – and tax revenue increased. The latter should include increased tax rates, on the most financially fortunate Americans, and reductions in tax deductions.

No sacred cows or rigid ideologies. Please leave your political affiliation at the door and approach this vital work as an honest broker.