Congressional Issues

With just days until a deadline to avoid a shutdown, Congress passed a short-term measure to keep government funded until early December.

First, the Senate passed the spending measure by a 72-26 count. Next, the U.S. House passed it by a 342-85 count. It keeps government funded until Dec. 9 and includes money to fight the Zika virus, help victims of recent flooding in Louisiana and various appropriations for military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is trying again to persuade Congress to give its people millions of dollars in federal benefits that other American Indian tribes receive.

Similar efforts have failed for decades, in part because of opposition from other tribes that fear their benefits would be reduced in order to provide for the Lumbees. But U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina introduced a new Lumbee recognition bill and, with Lumbee Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin, presented it Wednesday to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

One of Rowan County’s members of Congress cheered a 4-4 tie by U.S. Supreme Court justices this week.

Down one Supreme Court justice, the U.S. Supreme Court tied in a chase that challenged President Barrack Obama’s immigration plan. Because of the tie, a lower appeals court ruling remains in place. The ruling applies to Obama’s 2014 executive action, which could have prevented as many as five million unauthorized immigrants from being deported.

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson this week received the Conservative Achievement Award by the American Conservative Union.

The American Conservative Union was founded in 1964 — making it the oldest conservative lobbying organizations in the U.S. It hosts the popular Conservative Political Action Conference and uses voting records to rank how conservative a politician is. Hudson, for example, received a rank of 95 of 100 for his voting record in 2015. His rating in 2014 was 88 of 100.