A group of Republican senators led by Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Wednesday threatened to withhold their votes to advance the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) if the chamber doesn’t vote on whether to end the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the military. 

Paul said 20 Senate Republicans have signed a letter signaling they will vote against cloture on the NDAA. However, 41 senators are needed back the effort in order to grind the NDAA action to a halt. Senate and House negotiators have reportedly agreed to authorize $847 billion for the annual defense bill, a $45 billion increase from the Biden administration’s initial ask. The current defense funding expires later this month. Read Full Story

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House Republicans are weighing an effort to tie next year’s funding for the Pentagon to a number of demands, as conservatives push their GOP colleagues to punt a vote on the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act to January when the GOP will control the lower chamber.

In a letter last month, members of the House Freedom Caucus urged lawmakers to end “the contamination of our military by radical Leftist ‘woke’ ideologies and the prioritization of politics over combat readiness,” end defense funding for “pet climate projects,” and appoint a special inspector general to oversee the U.S. support for Ukraine… Read Full Story

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In January 2022, vaccine exemptions for Canadian and American cross-border truckers ended, leaving about 15,000 Canadian truckers who regularly cross the border in the performance of their jobs suddenly unemployed.

Their response was heartening. Thousands of truckers joined “Freedom Convoys,” shutting down border crossings and finally ending up in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, where they virtually occupied Parliament Hill.

Canadian authorities wrung their hands for a while and then decided to declare a national emergency and invoke emergency powers. This allowed them to freeze protesters’ bank accounts, ban travel to protest sites, and compel trucks to tow vehicles blocking streets…Read Full Story

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