Business Insider | It's been a rough week for President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. Questions surrounding the circumstances of his security clearance (and whether Trump influenced the process), still loom as lawmakers demand the US Justice Department launch an investigation into the matter. According to people who were briefed on a contemporaneous memo, Trump had "ordered" former White House chief of staff John Kelly to upgrade Kushner's interim top-secret securi... Read more

E&E News | Seismic blasting in the Atlantic Ocean would be prohibited under a bill introduced in the Senate yesterday. "This bill prevents fossil fuel related seismic testing and makes clear that the Atlantic is off-limits to any type of offshore oil exploration," said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), chief sponsor of S. 828, the "Atlantic Seismic Airgun Protection Act." ... The legislation is a companion bill to H.R. 1606, introduced in the House last week by Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Chris Smith (... Read more

WAMU 88.5 | For years, Fairfax County Public Schools reported to the federal government that not a single student was physically restrained or trapped in an isolating space. But documents obtained by WAMU reveal hundreds of cases where children, some as young as 6 years old, were restrained or put in seclusion multiple times. In some cases, a single child was confined to a room almost 100 times in a school year. Fairfax County guidelines say this technique is used as a last resort — if a student... Read more

POLITICO | Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) is sending a letter to all of his male House colleagues asking them to sign the GenderAvenger pledge, which commits men not to participate in panel discussions (outside Congress) that omit women. Reps. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Bill Keating (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) have already signed. Read more

Federal News Network | Maybe the third, fourth or fifth time is the charm. House lawmakers on Tuesday again revived their attempts to pass a paid family leave bill for federal employees. This time, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), along with House Majority Speaker Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Reps. Jennifer Wexton and Don Beyer (D-Va.), have introduced the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act. The legislation would guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid leave for federal employees to witness the birth, adoption o... Read more

Local DVM | Friday morning the House passed a bill known as HR 1, which aims to expand voters' rights and reduce money in politics.The bill increases donor transparency and cracks down on lobbying. It also requires presidential and vice presidential candidates release their tax returns. The Democrat's bill likely won't be made into law. Ahead of the vote on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called HR 1 "a hostile takeover of the body that regulates political speech." The bill pass... Read more

Falls Church News Press | U.S. Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr., who represents the 8th District of Virginia that includes the City of Falls Church, described his enthusiasm meeting the new, young president-elect of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, in an exclusive interview to the News-Press this week. Beyer joined a small group of other U.S. congressmen in a brief tour of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and said that although there are “terribly difficult conditions,” he nonetheless retained a sense of ... Read more

Yahoo News | Facing more than a dozen investigations into his conduct last spring, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that he was starting a legal defense fund, raising concerns about the propriety of a government official raising money to fend off official investigations into potential misuse of government funds, among other improprieties. Those suspicions have been confirmed, with the EPA’s acting inspector general, Charles Sheehan, writing in a letter to Rep.... Read more

TIME | It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing Jared Kushner would forget. On Dec. 13, 2016, Donald Trump’s son-in-law met with Sergey Gorkov, the head of a multibillion-dollar state-run Russian development bank, who was in the U.S., the bank later said, as part of a new investment strategy. To memorialize the event, Gorkov even gave Kushner a piece of art and a bag of dirt from the village where Kushner’s grandparents had grown up. But just one month later, Kushner failed to report the meeting w... Read more

The Hill | A group of Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday introduced legislation that would guarantee federal employees 12 weeks of paid family leave. The Federal Employee Paid Leave Act — spearheaded by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Reps. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) — allow men and women to take paid leave following the birth, adoption or fostering of a child or to take care of a spouse or parent suffering from a serious health condit... Read more