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Rep. Don Beyer Profile picture
Rep. Don Beyer
@RepDonBeyer
Representing Northern Virginia’s #VA08 in the U.S. House, serving on @JECDems @WaysMeansCmte. Co-Chair of @CaucusOnClimate. He/Him/His
2 subscribers
Sep 28, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Trump Administration has again taken American leadership a step backward since it announced an historically low refugee cap for FY19. It is mandated that they consult Congress before they announced this. They did not.

My colleagues and I are pushing back. Last week, the Trump Administration made an announcement that the refugee cap for FY19 would be set at 30,000, a dramatic cut from the previous historic low of 45,000 of FY18. nytimes.com/2018/09/17/us/…
Sep 10, 2018 • 10 tweets • 6 min read
Today is #WorldSuicidePreventionDay

One of the most important things we can do to fight the growing epidemic of suicide in America is talk about it. We have a really bad problem that is getting worse quickly, but we can't help people if we ignore their problems. 1/ First a few notes on the problem, and what we've learned in recent months.

A new CDC shows that the incidence of suicide in the US has risen sharply, by about 30% over the past two decades. 2/ cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…
Sep 6, 2018 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
For weeks Senate Republicans refused to release thousands of documents written by Brett Kavanaugh to the public.

In one secret document, Kavanaugh said he thinks Roe v. Wade could be overturned, despite having said it was "settled law" yesterday.

This is what they're hiding. 1/ They made up new rules to assign a "committee confidential" label, without precedent, to documents that reveal Kavanaugh's beliefs on matters he would rule on during his lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

They are deliberately hiding important and revealing writings. 2/
Aug 29, 2018 • 16 tweets • 8 min read
The @USGSA Inspector General just put out a report on what may be one of Trump's most blatantly corrupt actions in office.

That investigation, into why the Administration scuttled plans for a new FBI headquarters, also revealed what looks like a cover-up by the White House. 1/ Background: for over a decade officials have warned that the FBI headquarters was structurally deficient.

The effort to move the FBI to a new building has taken years, thousands of staff hours, and millions of taxpayer dollars. It was nearly there. 2/ washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp…
Aug 24, 2018 • 8 tweets • 7 min read
As the walls close in around Trump and his culture of corruption is exposed, more people will try to distract you with lies.

They’ll shout desperately “look over there!” and argue that you should accept criminality because he’s “shaking things up.”

It’s utter nonsense. 1/ The truth is that Trump isn’t “sticking it to the elites,” he’s shoveling money into their pockets.

Big banks, pharmaceutical giants, CEOs, Wall Street firms, and the wealthiest 1% are making out like bandits under Trump. They couldn’t be happier. 2/
Aug 21, 2018 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
President Trump and Acting EPA head Andrew Wheeler just teamed up with their friends in the fossil fuel industry to release a Dirty Power Plan that would open the floodgates to more carbon pollution across the country.

It is dangerous for all of us. Here's why: 1/ For a decade the EPA has regulated greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act following its "endangerment finding" that carbon pollution and other emissions represent a threat to Americans.

Trump never withdrew this finding, which still stands, binding the EPA to act. 2/
Aug 9, 2018 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
There's been so much corruption, waste, and incompetence in the Trump Administration lately that it's hard to keep track of it all.

Rather than do anything about it, the Republicans who control Congress cover it up or even indulge in corruption themselves.

Consider... <thread> A Secretary of Commerce accuse of "grifting" millions of dollars from business partners.
Aug 6, 2018 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Zinke and every other cabinet member should release their schedule without having to be hit with lawsuits. It is an unpleasant feature of the Trump Administration that officials think they are above public accountability.

But this move by Zinke also deserves skepticism. 1/ Compare several days' worth of Zinke's calendars as released by the Interior Department (left) with the details in Zinke's daily schedule overview (right) as sent to him in internal emails [released via FOIA request].

The people deserve to know who Zinke is meeting with. 2/
Jul 27, 2018 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Scott Pruitt's replacement at the EPA, Andrew Wheeler, is a former coal lobbyist. When he joined the EPA, he signed a pledge to recuse himself from business involving former clients.

We have reason to believe he has violated that pledge, and are seeking an investigation. 1/ The potential violations were first reported by @CorbinHiar for @EENewsUpdates. eenews.net/stories/106009…

Andrew Wheeler worked as a lobbyist for a DC firm representing companies in EPA-regulated industries. Then he met with former clients of that firm after joining the EPA. 2/
Jul 19, 2018 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
Emerging from Pruitt's shadow: Ryan Zinke will now face an Inspector General investigation for his shady real estate dealings with the CEO of Halliburton, which may have violated ethics rules.

This is federal investigation number ELEVEN for Zinke 1/ politico.com/story/2018/07/… Last month, Politico reported that Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke was involved in a real estate deal in his home town with the CEO of energy giant Halliburton, which has numerous interests regulated by the Department of the Interior. 2/ politico.com/story/2018/06/…
Jul 7, 2018 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Trump has no accomplishments in office.

An unpopular tax bill, rules rewritten to help big corporations, agreements torn up, allies angered.

Nothing that helps people. That’s why he depends on absurd lies—he wants us afraid.

Consider his lies on immigration and the border: 1/ He acts as though his immigration policies are about safety, crime, and gangs.

Except his family separation policy means that DOJ is more focused on hurting families, and taking money and people away from... drug enforcement. 2/ usatoday.com/story/news/201…
Jul 6, 2018 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Scott Pruitt stood out for his unprecedented corruption, mismanagement, and scandal, and Donald Trump's toleration of them.

But Pruitt was not alone in Trump's Cabinet of corruption.

Many remaining members of Trump's team have shown similar contempt for the public trust. 1/ Kirstjen Nielsen is still Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security, despite her outright lying to the American public about the Administration's family separation policy. 2/
Jul 5, 2018 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Never forget: faced with one of the most corrupt Cabinet members in history, GOP leaders shrugged.

They did nothing to hold Scott Pruitt accountable.

They held no hearings, laughed off oversight, and in the Speaker’s case, claimed they didn’t even know it was happening. 1/ Republicans in Congress demonstrated that they are incapable of governing.

But the public still learned about what Pruitt did, thanks to organizations who fought Pruitt’s attacks on the environment with lawsuits which revealed his coordination with polluters and lobbyists. 2/
Jul 5, 2018 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Finally. Scott Pruitt was able to keep his position for so long -- despite astonishing megalomania and unethical behavior – only because of Donald Trump’s historic embrace of corruption.
Jul 5, 2018 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
One of Scott Pruitt's former top aides says Pruitt used secret schedules to hide meetings and calls, including with officials at companies EPA-regulated industries.

In doing so, he may have committed a federal crime. @TedLieu and I asked the Inspector General to investigate: 1/ Pruitt’s former Deputy Chief of Staff says Pruitt held routine meetings to “’scrub,’ alter or remove from Pruitt's official calendar numerous records because they might ‘look bad.’” 2/
Jul 3, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
1) Scott Pruitt trying to get his wife a GOP campaign job using official, taxpayer-funded resources = illegal.

2) Scott Pruitt demanding government lawyers provide him free legal services to benefit himself financially = illegal. 3) Scott Pruitt pressuring his aides to help his wife find a job (AGAIN) = illegal.

[all of these allegations are being made on the record by his closest, most senior aides]
Jul 2, 2018 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
More Scott Pruitt scandals happening under the radar.

One of Pruitt's first actions at EPA was ending a requirement for oil and gas companies to report emissions of methane, a major contributor to climate change.

Here's why we are pressing Pruitt on that now-- 1/ Methane is one of the worst greenhouse gases on a "molecule-for-molecule basis," writes @NASA.

The gas is most commonly associated with agricultural activities like raising livestock, but methane is also a byproduct of oil and gas development. 2/ climate.nasa.gov/causes/
Jun 29, 2018 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
We've read that children under @HHSGov care after being separated from their families are being mistreated.

HHS has not explained those reports, but continues to send children to shelters where abuse allegedly occurred.

I'm asking the Inspector General to investigate. 1/ Serious abuses and deficiencies have been reported in the care of separated children in Arizona, Texas, and Virginia, at least.

Some of those stories, if true, document sickening abuses of human rights at US government facilities. 2/
Jun 28, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Capital Gazette editorial on mass shootings, published three days after Parkland:

“Let’s Wake Ourselves Up From Our National Nightmare” #Annapolis
capitalgazette.com/opinion/ac-ce-… “...our nation has become a world leader in mass shootings. And the pattern has become agonizingly familiar: horror, grief, candlelight vigils, stories about the victims... angry debates about gun laws that go nowhere — and then a wait for the next bloodbath.”
Jun 28, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This is one of Scott Pruitt's most flagrant abuses of office uncovered to date.

He personally directed government employees to engage in a PR campaign against former EPA officials who came forward to tell Congress the truth about his corrupt actions. 1/ thedailybeast.com/scott-pruitt-p… At Scott Pruitt's direction and on your dime, his subordinates leaked damaging info about former aides to conservative media.

This was an obvious attempt to scare any other would-be whistleblowers from coming forward. It was almost certainly illegal. 2/
Jun 27, 2018 • 9 tweets • 6 min read
We are deeply concerned about reports of serious mistreatment of many of the 10,000+ children in the care of Health and Human Services under the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a number that is growing thanks to Trump's family separation policy.

And we are demanding answers. 1/ Trump's zero tolerance policy and the resulting separation of thousands of families at the border caused the number of children in the custody of @HHSGov's Office of Refugee Resettlement to swell.

The trauma they face will do lasting damage to many. 2/