The lawmakers requested the probe into Chao, who is married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
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The OIG referred its findings to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which declined to open a criminal investigation. The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section also declined to open an investigation.
DeFazio said in a statement that he was “disappointed” that the OIG didn’t finish the investigation while Chao was in office, and that DOJ declined to take up the investigation.
“Public servants, especially those responsible for leading tens of thousands of other public servants, must know that they serve the public and not their family’s private commercial interests,” he said.
Democrats are trying to expedite Judge Garland’s confirmation vote. I’m blocking them because Judge Garland has refused to answer basic questions, including whether illegally entering the country should remain a crime, Cotton said in a string of tweets explaining his opposition.
Under the Senate s rules, any one member can slow down a nomination and force Senate leadership to eat up days of time before a final vote.
Cotton pointed to a laundry list of issues where he said Garland s answers during his confirmation hearing last month had been inadequate including the death penalty, immigration and gun sales.
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“I believe and I believe my caucus believes that we need big, bold action, and we’re going to figure out the best way to get big, bold action on a whole lot of fronts,” Schumer said, vowing that “people are going to be forced to vote on them.”
But the White House on Tuesday sought to avoid the issue in some ways: Biden didn’t take questions from Democratic senators on Tuesday during a brief, eight-minute call to their weekly luncheon.
The call ended up serving as a pep rally ahead of the vote this week on the relief measure, but by taking no questions, Biden also avoided hearing from liberal senators about the filibuster or the push for a $15 minimum wage, which was included in the initial COVID-19 relief bill passed by the House early Saturday morning but is now on ice.
House Democrats ambitious agenda set to run into Senate blockade thehill.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehill.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Democrats on Wednesday were grumbling over the prospect of having to factor an additional 10 hours of floor time into passing the bill.
Any senator can force a reading of a bill on the floor, but the formality is almost always skipped by unanimous consent to avoid wasting time.
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Now senators will likely have to spend 10 hours listening to the bill be read aloud, which will come on top of the 20 hours of debate time scheduled for the legislation.
A Republican senator said Johnson will force a reading of the Senate substitute, which will include several changes compared to the 630-page relief bill that passed the House.