Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, seven House Democratic national security leaders sent a letter to Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Defense Secretary James Mattis to oppose President Trump's recent decision to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Washington, DC - Today, House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA), Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee Ranking Member Jackie Speier (D-CA), and Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis requ

"President Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard on the U.S. border is an ill-conceived, unnecessary stunt that inappropriately militarizes the issue of immigration enforcement. He appears to have based his decision largely on reports disseminated by conservative talk shows. The fact remains that according to the U.S. Border Patrol, for Fiscal Year 2017, illegal border crossings are at their lowest levels since 1971.

"With the passing of Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney, our community has lost an instrumental leader of the civil rights movement. After moving to Seattle in 1957 to become a pastor in the historic Mount Zion Baptist Church, Reverend McKinney was a pastor in the church for over 40 years. A former classmate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, he played a fundamental role in Dr. King's trip to Seattle.

"President Trump's decision to ban transgender military service is vicious, inhumane, and utterly wrong. There are scores of transgender men and women serving in the military right now, under a policy that had already been established & vetted by DOD and validated by the courts.

"There is zero credible evidence that this policy has negatively affected readiness. By issuing this decision, President Trump has engaged in an act of pure discrimination against people who sacrifice every day to serve their country'and who have been doing so for years.

"Today the House of Representatives passed an omnibus spending bill that funds the federal government through the end of September. This bill will give more certainty to our federal agencies, but unfortunately it underfunds key areas of the budget and takes us further down our current path of fiscal irresponsibility by ballooning our federal debt and increasing our already unmanageable deficit.

WASHINGTON'Today, a bipartisan group of House members introduced legislation to promote more effective development in fragile and unstable countries, addressing the conditions that create safe havens for terrorists, criminal networks, and war lords. The Global Fragility and Violence Reduction Act (H.R.

WASHINGTON - Representatives Adam Smith (Wash.) and Chris Smith (N.J.), along with U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Mazie K. Hirono (Hawaii), today introduced the bipartisan Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018. The legislation would close a loophole in the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA), which has prevented internationally-adopted children, who are now adults, from receiving U.S. citizenship despite being raised by American parents.