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Quotes of the week

Today I voted to fund ICE and CBP. Every Democrat voted against it. What is it about border security that Democrats hate so damn much?
– U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, on House Republicans’ passage of a more than $70 billion funding package for ICE and Border Patrol. 

Congress should not give billions to an agency that continues to ignore the Constitution and that abuses and kills Americans in our streets.
– U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, ahead of the vote.

This week’s news

— U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil in a hearing said ActBlue had “violated” the principles of U.S. elections as the GOP Congress focused on the platform’s alleged failure to police donations from foreign nationals. 

“We believe in the principle that only Americans should decide American elections. ActBlue has violated that principle,” Steil, R-Janesville, said at a hearing of the House Administration committee yesterday. 

Steil, who chairs that committee, made his remarks before questioning ActBlue’s chief executive, Regina Wallace-Jones.

Wallace-Jones had already announced she would invoke the Fifth Amendment in an op-ed published yesterday morning in the Washington Post, saying the hearing was part of a “coordinated campaign of political retribution.”

She specifically cited Steil’s remarks on a conservative Milwaukee radio show that he was working to provide information to the U.S. Justice Department – which President Donald Trump last year ordered to investigate ActBlue – and accused Republicans of hypocrisy for failing to scrutinize a GOP fundraising platform WinRed. 

“Invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission, or even an insinuation, of guilt. It is not a retreat. It is the only reasonable response to a proceeding that from the beginning has been about harassing a political opponent’s fundraising platform, not genuine oversight. Now it has become something far more dangerous,” Wallace-Jones wrote in the Post. 

Congressional Republicans have been investigating ActBlue since 2023.

An April 2 report by the New York Times detailed concerns by ActBlue’s lawyers that Wallace-Jones potentially misled GOP investigators on how the platform vetted donations to ensure they were not illegally coming from foreign nationals.

Steil repeatedly invoked the Times’ report in his opening remarks and subsequent questions, each of which Wallace-Jones answered by invoking the Fifth. 

“So now you’re following the advice of your legal counsel,” he remarked at one point. 

Wallace-Jones is not the first ActBlue employee to refuse to answer Republicans’ questions. Five former ActBlue officials have refused to answer more than 160 questions in closed-door interviews conducted by the committee.

Last week, Steil and two other committee chairs in a letter demanded more documents from ActBlue, including all documents and communications prepared for meetings of ActBlue’s board of directors as well as transcribed interviews with board members. 

Congressional Democrats focused their attention on alleged corruption by Republicans and the president, particularly illicit donations to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign facilitated by WinRed. 

The Associated Press last year found foreign donors gave 1,600 individual contributions to Trump’s presidential campaigns, including $5,000 from a Chinese businessman who listed a La Quinta Inn as his address.  

“The American people understand that congressional Republicans and this administration willingly tolerate corruption when it benefits them,” said the committee’s ranking Democrat, U.S. Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York. 

— Wisconsin’s House delegation split along party lines over a $70 billion immigration enforcement package, sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk after it narrowly passed in the chamber.

U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, praised the package to fund the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The House signed off 214-212 on the measure, which Trump signed into law yesterday. 

“Republicans will never back down when it comes to border security,” Fitzgerald said. “Democrats, on the other hand, have repeatedly voted against funding for ICE and CBP.”

The legislation is expected to fund immigration enforcement through the remainder of Trump’s second term.

“House Republicans introduced their latest budget bill and not a single dollar goes toward lowering your cost of living,” U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, posted on X. “Instead, they are using your tax dollars to give ICE & CBP another $70 billion with no oversight. This bill also does nothing to prevent Trump from using his $1.8 billion slush fund to reward violent insurrectionists. I voted NO.”

Pocan’s comments reference the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund Trump proposed, which drew concerns that it could be used to compensate his allies and participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack, including those who attacked law enforcement. 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the administration is “not moving forward with the fund, period” after a federal judge temporarily blocked it. Trump has continued to defend the effort, calling it a “great idea” in an NBC interview that aired over the weekend, and saying he would be disappointed if it isn’t approved. 

— U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden this week backed Trump’s push to fire the Senate parliamentarian in order to pass a bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Trump’s latest call to fire Elizabeth MacDonough comes after she ruled the SAVE America Act couldn’t be included in a budget reconciliation package, which can be passed by a simple majority and avert the Senate filibuster. 

The GOP proposal, which would also establish voter ID requirements for federal elections, has failed to earn the 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate. 

Trump in a post on Truth Social said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., should “immediately fire” MacDonough. He labeled her a “Radical Left Lunatic that caters to Democrats, and has no respect for Republicans, or Republican Ideology.” 

Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, echoed Trump’s stance in a post on X, saying the parliamentarian “has amassed more power than the entire House of Representatives.” 

“This is shameful. @realDonaldTrump is spot on, she needs to be fired and controls put on every future parliamentarian,” he added. 

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, mocked Van Orden in a reply. 

“To hell with democracy and norms within the Senate. Donald Trump wants something and every pathetic sycophant will want to deliver,” he wrote.

— U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, announced he has been appointed to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

“Thank you to Leader Jeffries and Ranking Member Meeks for your trust in appointing me to the Foreign Affairs Committee,” Pocan said. “President Trump has done significant damage to America’s standing on the world stage. I look forward to using my position to hold him accountable, repair our reputation, and advance human rights.”

Pocan will continue to serve on the House Appropriations Committee. 

Pocan, a vocal critic of Israel, was appointed alongside two pro-Israel Dems, U.S. Reps. Wesley Bell of Missouri and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. 

The appointments follow the departure of former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida from the committee in April. Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from Congress ahead of an expected expulsion vote after the House Ethics Committee found she had laundered millions in COVID-19 relief funds. 

–Trump during an appearance at Custer Farms in Chippewa Falls said his administration’s policies have helped farmers, while vowing the United States will be out of Iran soon and bring down prices.

“We’re going to come out and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down just like they were four months ago. Your fertilizer’s down, your energy’s down, your oil, your gas is all coming way down. And frankly, I thought it would go much higher than it did,” Trump said during the visit last Friday, his first in Wisconsin of his second term.

While the appearance was billed as a roundtable with farmers, Trump spoke for the majority of the event.

He voiced support for U.S. Reps. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, and Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, who were all at the roundtable. Trump has endorsed Tiffany for governor and Van Orden’s reelection bid.

He praised Tiffany as “one of the best congressmen in our country” and called Van Orden “a real fighter.”

The president also hit on various non-agriculture topics during his remarks, including criticizing former President Joe Biden, blasting “rigged” elections, cracking down on crime in Washington, D.C. and spending several minutes touting the repainting of a reflecting pool at the Washington Monument and efforts to revamp fountains in the city.

Read more here.

Posts of the week

ICYMI

Spectrum News 1: Milwaukee Congresswoman ‘very concerned’ about constituent in ICE custody

Green Bay Press-Gazette: Will Congress change NFL broadcast rules and hurt the Packers?

Crypto.news: Congress wants to ban lawmakers from prediction markets

The Hill: Freedom Caucus set for revamp as big names depart Congress

USA Today: The Republicans who rejected 2020 election result running for governor

Spectrum News 1: Milwaukee congresswoman dismisses reported FBI investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 election

Politico: Farm country loves Trump. His policies are making life difficult for this ally.