Pablo Manríquez

Since the first layoffs were announced, then canceled, in April, a lingering suspicion has surfaced among Senate cafeteria workers that the $3.75 million Blanton said would keep the workers in their jobs through September has been misspent.

After the Natural Resources Committee passed the Puerto Rico Status Act on Wednesday, all eyes are now on Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, whose support or defection from the bill she helped negotiate will likely decide the bill’s fate in the House.

Twenty-nine amendments were debated by members of the House Natural Resources Committee who ultimately voted 20-25 to advance the bill, with every Republican voting against the bill except Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, Jenniffer González-Colón.

House Democrats introduced a new bill on Wednesday that would provide a simple, sturdy pathway to citizenship for millions of documented immigrants languishing in backlogs and undocumented immigrants who have waited decades for relief.

The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights began accepting applications Monday for Hill offices looking to form unions just minutes after organizing protections, passed by the House of Representatives in May, went into effect.

Capitol Hill sources confirmed to Latino Rebels over the weekend that a bill to create a citizenship pathway for approximately eight million undocumented will be introduced this week in the House of Representatives.

Latino Rebels asked Latino lawmakers about a new amendment to the House appropriations bill, submitted by Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), that would prevent the executive branch of the federal government from referring to Latinos as “Latinx” in public documents.

Senate cafeteria workers tell Latino Rebels that Restaurant Associates, the vendor that runs the dining facilities in the Senate, announced Wednesday that 38 cafeteria workers will be laid off on July 28.

“I probably should have broke with them much earlier than I did,” Jason Van Tatenhove, a former Oathkeepers spokesperson, told the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on Tuesday.

At least eight immigrant relief amendments have been offered by House members for inclusion in the NDAA, including one that would protect so-called “documented DREAMers” who age out of their parents’ visa protection when they turn 21.

The part of the United States Innovation and Competition Act that GOP lawmakers like Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) fear could undermine negotiations is a morsel of relief for immigrants with PhDs or Master’s degrees in STEM fields.

The House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol convened a surprise hearing on Tuesday in which Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, testified that Trump and others were aware of the advanced planning for the insurrection.

The witnesses at Thursday’s hearing were former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen, former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel, who, according to other testimony, rejected attempts to overturn the 2020 election by the former president and his cronies.

Rep. Mayra Nohemi Flores (R-TX) was sworn in Tuesday to serve in the House seat vacated by former Rep. Filamon Vela (D-TX), who resigned to become a lobbyist. An immigrant from Tamaulipas, she is the first woman born in Mexico to become a member of the U.S. Congress.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) led the questioning Tuesday of the committee’s witnesses, which included a series of highly produced video montages of intimidation and threats by Trump supporters against Republican election officials.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) took center stage on Thursday afternoon at the third made-for-TV hearing of the House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack on the Capitol.

The Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment Act of 2022 or Eagle Act is an obscure bill, strangely bipartisan in the House with a low-key advocacy organization, Immigration Voice, that was on Capitol Hill this week for meetings with staffers for Republican Senators Josh Hawley (MO), Mike Lee (UT), and Tom Cotton (AR), plus the Senate offices of Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) and Tina Smith (MN).

On Tuesday afternoon, Latino Rebels caught up with the House Committee on Natural Resources Chair in the Speaker’s Lobby of the House of Representatives for an update on the bill that has brought the two policy factions supporting statehood and self-determination bills together for the first time.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A discussion is brewing in the House of Representatives over whether or not the new Puerto Rico Status Discussion Draft will be translated into Spanish.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Days after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) traveled to Puerto Rico with three fellow House members to hold a public forum to discuss the new Puerto Rico Status Act Discussion Draft, Latino Rebels caught up with the New York Democrat on Wednesday evening for an update on the bill.

Latino Rebels asked Senators this week if the upper chamber of Congress will implement a minimum salary, or “pay floor,” for Senate staffers.