Tag: republicans

Ohio GOP Leaders Claim Bill To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization Law Doesn’t Disrespect Voters

Ohio’s Senate president is pushing back against criticism of a bill that would scale back parts of a voter-approved marijuana legalization law, claiming that the legislation does not disrespect the will of the electorate and would have little impact on products available in stores.

“My definitive message is: If you want to go purchase marijuana products from a licensed dispensary, that is going to be unchanged by Senate Bill 56,” Senate President Rob McColley (R) said on a podcast posted on Friday. “The only difference you’ll notice is the packaging may not look as appealing to children, but you’ll still be able to buy the same products.”

McColley was speaking on a The President’s Podcast, produced and published by Ohio Senate Republicans. He and host John Fortney, the communications director for the Senate GOP caucus, spent the first half of the podcast defending SB 56, which would amend the cannabis law passed by voters in November 2023.

Among other changes, the bill would halve the number of plants that adults could grow, add new criminal penalties around cannabis conduct and remove select social equity provisions in the law.

The Senate approved the proposal on a 23–9 vote last week.

Critics, such as Sen. Bill DeMora (D), who spoke against the measures on the Senate floor, contend that the plan “goes against the will of the voters and will kill the adult industry in Ohio.”

Fortney began the podcast by acknowledging “a lot of controversy around Senate Bill 56,” asserting that “all it did was preserve access to what the voters approved in November of 2023, the initiated marijuana statute, and put some safety and security parameters around it for—of all things, Mr. President—children.”

“The far left, the Democrat narrative, the narrative of the legacy media, has been, ‘Republicans are trying to take away what the voters approved,’ which is patently false,” Fortney continued. “What a lie.”

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GOP Congressman Tells Welfare Recipients To ‘Stop Buying The Medical Marijuana’ And Eating Cheetos

A GOP congressman is peddling a stigmatizing message to justify a new bill on adding work requirements for certain federal benefits, implying that it’s necessary to prevent people from buying marijuana with taxpayer dollars and lazing around on the couch while eating Cheetos.

During an appearance on Fox Business on Wednesday, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) was asked about recently filed Republican legislation that would impose restrictions on access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—specifically mandating that able-bodied people under 65 work at least 20 hours per week in order to receive the assistance.

That’s already part of federal law, but lead bill sponsor from Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) claims his America Works Act would close “loopholes” that have been exploited in certain states.

Fallon, for his part, decided to justify the legislation by playing into cannabis stereotypes and arguing that federal dollars are going toward medical cannabis purchases by welfare recipients.

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Republicans Introduce Bill to Defund ‘Liberal Propaganda’ National Public Radio

Conservatives have wanted to yank taxpayer funding for National Public Radio for years. Could it finally happen?

Two Republicans, one in the Senate and one in the House, have introduced a new bill that would accomplish this task, and in our current environment of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, the time is right to strike.

Even liberal law professor Jonathan Turley recently said it was time to end NPR’s taxpayer funded gravy train.

The GOP needs to get this done.

Breitbart News reported:

Exclusive – Sen. Jim Banks, Rep. Kat Cammack Introduce Bill To Defund ‘Liberal Propaganda’ NPR

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) believe American taxpayers shouldn’t be keeping National Public Radio (NPR) afloat.

The pair are introducing legislation in their respective chambers to put an end to taxpayer subsidizing of the notoriously left-leaning media outlet, Breitbart News learned exclusively Wednesday.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund NPR’s liberal propaganda,” Banks told Breitbart News. “If NPR can’t stay afloat without government funding, that tells you all you need to know about the quality of their news.”

Banks’ Defund NPR Act would prohibit federal funding for National Public Radio by amending section 396 of the Communications Act so that no funds may, directly or indirectly, be made available to or used to support the National Public Radio, including through the payment of dues to or the purchase of programming from the organization.

Conservatives should not be forced to fund a news organization that does nothing but attack conservatives.

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Crenshaw Facing Ethics Complaint After Threatening To Kill Tucker Carlson

James Copenhaver, a former undercover narcotics detective who spent years coordinating and liaising with numerous federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and served on the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, has filed an official ethics complaint against Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw, following him being caught on a hot mic saying he’d “fucking kill” journalist Tucker Carlson.

“On February 24, 2025, during an exchange with a British journalist, Representative Dan Crenshaw was caught on a hot mic making a violent and threatening remark about former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, stating, “If I ever meet him, I’ll fucking kill him.”

This shocking statement, made in an unguarded moment following an interview with GB News, is not only unbecoming of a sitting member of Congress but may also constitute a violation of House rules regarding conduct and threats of violence.

This incident is not an isolated lapse in judgment but part of a pattern of unethical behavior that raises significant concerns about Rep. Crenshaw’s ability to uphold the integrity of the House,” reads the introduction of Copenhaver’s complaint that was filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics earlier today.

Copenhaver, a decorated former undercover DEA agent and member of the FBI’s violent Crime Task Force, made sure to list another five disciplinary offenses by Crenshaw, ranging from failing to disclose stock trades and campaign finance violations.

GP reported on how “Eye Patch McCain” had a Christmas meltdown after popular X meme account Catturd called out his illegal campaign contribution scheme.

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Kansas Republicans Reject Amendment To Grant Terminally Ill Patients The Right To Try Medical Marijuana

A Senate Democrat unsuccessfully attempted to insert “medicinal cannabis” among treatments allowed under a bill meant to broaden Kansans’ access to experimental drugs.

Democratic Sen. Cindy Holscher, who introduced Wednesday the amendment that would have legalized medicinal cannabis for terminally ill patients, later emphasized her intention was not to create a public medical marijuana program.

“I think most of you realize I would not bring something of that magnitude to an important bill like SB 250,” said Holscher, of Overland Park, Wednesday evening. “That amendment, rather, was to mirror what was approved by President Trump in the Right to Try Act, which is a very defined, narrow scope only for terminally ill patients.”

Senate Bill 250, introduced and carried on the Senate floor by Eudora Republican Sen. Beverly Gossage, would create the Right to Try for Individualized Investigative Treatments Act. Investigational treatments can also be referred to as experimental drugs, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The bill would permit people who are unable to find relief from rare, life-threatening or debilitating conditions to access individualized, genetics-based medical treatment. The drug trial evaluation system in the U.S. is designed to evaluate medications meant to help larger populations, leaving behind drugs that can be individually tailored to a patient’s unique genetic makeup, Gossage said.

“Individualized treatments are being pioneered in the U.S. and abroad, but often patients in the U.S. travel thousands of miles,” she said.

The bill passed the Senate and is awaiting approval in the House.

Holscher supported the bill as a whole but voiced concerns.

“I don’t want to give people false hope,” she said, “yet I certainly would not stand in the way of a parent or individual trying to get medical help for a family member.”

Her amendment added medicinal cannabis to the list of treatments allowed under the definition of individualized investigative treatment.

Cannabis “has been found to have proven benefits for those with life-threatening or debilitating diseases,” Holscher said.

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House Republicans demand UFO transparency

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and some of President Trump’s most vocal supporters in the House do not agree on much, but they are in agreement that the government is hiding critical information on UFOs — also known as unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAP — from the American public.

Schumer and key House Republicans say that the government must come clean on what it knows about this decades-long mystery, which has seen 80 years of highly credible, consistent, multi-witness reporting of objects exhibiting extreme performance characteristics.

On Feb. 11, House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced the establishment of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), a member of the bipartisan UAP Caucus, will lead the effort.

Comer and Luna sent letters to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe requesting a briefing on all UAP-related records in their possession, with the ultimate goal of “deliver[ing] transparency to the American people.”

Notably, Rubio and Ratcliffe, along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Trump himself, have made remarkable statements about UAP in recent years.

Ditto for Schumer. Shortly after Trump signed an executive order declassifying all government records on the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., Schumer challenged Trump to extend the same transparency to UAP.

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A Tale of Two Parties: Kids Edition

“All progressive social experiments require children to make sacrifices, whether it’s abortion, gender ideology, race-based DEI education, or shutting down schools for COVID-19. The voiceless and most vulnerable are always made to pay the price.” 

That’s a quote from the book “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion” by Allie Beth Stuckey. While I haven’t read the book, our editor, Chris Queen has and loved it, and he happened to send me that quote last month. I’d planned to write an article about it, but I never got around to it. 

Still, the words have lingered in my mind ever since. Because they’re true. I don’t need to explain to you that the entire Democrat platform, especially over the last four or five years, has largely centered around experimenting on children, whether they’re injecting them with hormones, teaching them racism, or preventing them from even being born at all. 

Here’s one of countless examples: In November, I wrote about how one of the founders of La Leche League International (LLLI), one of the largest and oldest parenting organizations in the world, resigned from the board — along with other members of leadership — because they were “ridiculed and abused” and compared to Nazis when they questioned the desire to allow “breastfeeding men” into women’s meetings. 

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House Republicans launch group for comprehensive data privacy legislation

Republican leaders on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are forming a working group designed to help write a comprehensive data privacy bill.

John Joyce of Pennsylvania, the committee’s vice chairman and a physician, will lead the group, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. The working group currently includes nine Republicans and no Democrats.

The committee is inviting “stakeholders” to work with members to draft legislation that can “get across the finish line,” the press release said, quoting Joyce and committee Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky.

Congressional leaders have worked on comprehensive data privacy legislation in the past, but have never succeeded in getting a floor vote due to sharp dissent over what protections and consumer rights should be included. In that vacuum, 13 states have enacted their own.

“We strongly believe that a national data privacy standard is necessary to protect Americans’ rights online and maintain our country’s global leadership in digital technologies, including artificial intelligence,” the Republicans’ announcement says. “We are hopeful that we can start building a strong coalition to address this important issue.”

In January, more than three dozen industry groups sent a letter to Republican and Democratic leaders of the Commerce Committee on each side of Congress, imploring them to pass data privacy legislation that would preempt the state laws.

The provisions proposed by the industry groups are similar to laws in states like Texas and Kentucky, which experts say are weaker than those in other states.

Data privacy legislation had been scheduled for a House Energy and Commerce markup last June but it was cancelled due to controversy over its text. 

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Montana GOP Senator’s Bill Would Require People To Register And Pay A $200 Annual Fee To Use Recreational Marijuana

Marijuana reform advocates are sounding the alarm after a Montana GOP senator filed a bill that would require adult-use cannabis consumers to register and pay a $200 annual fee to participate in the legal program that voters approved in 2020.

Sen. Greg Hertz (R) introduced the legislation, SB 255, last week. It would create a registration system similar to what’s in place for medical cannabis in many states—except that this would be for adults in a recreational market, with a significantly higher annual fee.

Adults would need to pay the $200 fee to obtain a cannabis card from the state Cannabis Control Division (CCD). Participants would need to pay that fee each year for renewal under the proposal.

Upon applying for the card, there would be a 60-day period where adults could access marijuana from licensed retailers. But if they don’t pay the fee by the end of that window, the division “shall cancel the temporary marijuana identification card.”

“This is an outrageous attempt to gut the will of the people and re-criminalize cannabis for most Montanans. Voters legalized cannabis for all adults 21 and older,” Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), told Marijuana Moment on Thursday.

“No other adult-use state forces cannabis consumers to enroll in a state registry, and the people’s initiative explicitly prohibits this surveillance and government overreach,” she said. “Re-criminalizing cannabis for anyone who does not pay $200 per year to register with the state is an affront to Montana voters who made their voices clear when they passed Initiative I-190.”

The text of the bill states that a “marijuana cardholder shall keep the individual’s marijuana identification card in the individual’s immediate possession at all times. The marijuana identification card and a valid photo identification must be displayed on demand of a law enforcement officer, justice of the peace, or city or municipal judge.”

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