In The Spotlight Blog

In the News: Blog 08/2/2012
The Daily Caller: DeMint, colleagues take stand against pointless $400k Senate resolutions
A bipartisan group of senators led by South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint introduced the Pay for Printing Act Thursday, which would require senators to pay for celebratory “simple resolutions” with money from their own budgets. During the 112th Congress, the Senate has already passed over 350 simple resolutions, and introduced over a 100 more. They have mostly been symbolic, feel-good declarations including, as The Daily Caller reported in June: “National Chess Day,” “National Safe Digging Month,” “Year of Water,” “National Inventors Month,” “Collector Car Appreciation Day,” and “The Year of the Family Caregiver.” DeMint’s office points out that each resolution page costs an estimated $1,200. A Daily Caller investigation in June revealed that the 318 simple resolutions passed since January 2011 cost taxpayers $381,600. Dozens of additional simple resolutions have been passed since then, and their total price tag in this Congress now amounts to more than $400,000.
In the News: Blog 08/2/2012
Roll Call: Conservatives Surprise on CR
In a surprising contrast from their hard-line stances during the spending and debt ceiling standoffs earlier this Congress, conservative Republicans, led by Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.), became the leading voice for punting on a would-be standoff on fiscal 2013 spending. Their endorsement helped propel a drama-free spending deal announced Tuesday by Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid at levels higher than preferred by the right. But for conservatives, rather than a recognition that spending standoffs are wrongheaded, the move was instead a vote of no confidence that their own leadership had the backbone — or the wherewithal — to wage such a fight so close to the elections.
In the News: Blog 08/2/2012
The Daily Caller: Senators: ‘bloated’ government IT departments need to clean house before ‘dictating standards to businesses’
The federal government needs to be able to protect itself from cyber attacks before it regulates security standards for private industry, two senators said Tuesday, echoing a consistent theme of opposition to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. In an op-ed for Politico, Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin wrote that the federal government needs to be able to meet the same cybersecurity obligations it expects to place upon the private sector. “In 2011, incidents on federal networks went up again — this time by 5 percent. At the same time, only 18 percent of federal agencies’ nearly $76 billion information technology budget was spent on security,” they wrote. “Of that amount, 76 percent of IT security costs at nondefense agencies were spent feeding a bloated bureaucracy.”
In the News: Blog 08/1/2012
Federal Computer Week: Agency customer service efforts could come under increased scrutiny
Agencies may have a new Office of Management and Budget special team to examine their future customer services, according to a new bill. Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) introduced bipartisan legislation July 30, aiming to improve customer service delivery across agencies. The Government Customer Service Improvement Act (S. 3455) would require OMB to work with agency officials to develop specific standards for customer services. The bipartisan legislation also would establish what Warner dubbed a "SWAT team." It would be a special unit within OMB to temporarily assist those agencies that consistently fail to meet customer service standards.
In the News: Blog 07/31/2012
The Hill: Senators propose customer service standards for federal agencies
Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) proposed a bipartisan bill on Monday that would require the federal government to establish customer service standards for federal agencies. "Government customer service delivery breakdowns appear in the headlines all too often. Many of our veterans wait too long for critical medical services, and federal retirees often wait months before they begin to receive full benefits. That simply is not acceptable," Warner said.
In the News: Blog 07/26/2012
WXOW: Senate Votes on Tax Cut Extensions
LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (WXOW) – The United States Senate voted against extending the George Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans Wednesday – instead opting to endorse a Democratic proposal to only extend the cuts for people earning less than $250-thousand annually. Democrats say the wealthiest two percent of Americans need to pay their fair share, to help the middle class grow and invest in the economy. "I would hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would vote with us," said Senator Al Franken (DFL, Minnesota) who supports the Democrats' proposal.
In the News: Blog 07/26/2012
The Wall Street Journal: Avoiding Another Shutdown
Republican leaders in Congress haven't done very well negotiating on the budget, and now a new threat looms: a showdown in the fall, before Election Day, that could force Republicans to choose between more spending and higher taxes or the risk of a government shutdown. That increasingly looks to be the Democratic strategy, pushed quietly by the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Senate Democrats are refusing to complete individual spending bills, much less an overall budget, and the federal government will run out of money at the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
In the News: Blog 07/22/2012
WEAU: Colorado Theater Massacre: Wis. Sen. Johnson says guns are not the problem
(WEAU) - The mass shooting at a Colorado theater showing The Dark Knight Rises is once stirring the gun control debate in Washington. On Sunday, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin defended the 2nd Amendment and gun rights. "This isn't an issue about guns. This is really an issue about sick, demented individuals. It's a tragedy, and I don't think there’s a solution in Washington to solve that problem, other than look to our families, look to our communities, starting with our education system. We've got to re-instill values in what we're teaching our children. We need to look at families and the education system,” the Republican Senator said on Fox News Sunday.
In the News: Blog 07/20/2012
The Daily Caller: Sen. Johnson: It’s time for Republicans to play offense on spending
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson told The Daily Caller that House Republicans must go on offense now and pass a spending plan that funds the government into 2013 or else congressional Democrats will try raising taxes in the post-election lame duck session of Congress. “Let’s get out in front of this thing,” Johnson told TheDC. “Let’s do what’s reasonable. Let’s create some certainty.” In a Thursday phone interview, the Wisconsin legislator argued that Republicans passing a government spending plan now will prevent Democrats from being able to use the threat of another government shutdown at the end of the year to push through tax increases.
In the News: Blog 07/19/2012
Investors Business Daily: The Budget Measure That Could Be A Godsend For Romney
Fiscal Cliff: Prominent Republicans are pushing a bright idea to prevent Democrats' promise of a post-election fiscal crisis: a stopgap funding measure that could also put Mitt Romney back on offense. Some 20 GOP members of Congress — including John McCain and 10 other senators — are proposing a measure as sensible economically as it is smart politically. Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Marco Rubio of Florida and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, among others, have joined with congressmen like Jim Jordan of Ohio and Joe Wilson of South Carolina. All back the idea of passing, before August's recess, a six-month continuing resolution in the House of Representatives to fund the government into next year.