U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and his fellow House Baltic Caucus co-chair on Wednesday commended the first-ever authorization of the Baltic Security Initiative being included in a federal defense bill currently under consideration in Congress. “The partnership and friendship between the U.S. and Baltic states must be maintained for years, and our provision achieves that,” said Rep. Bacon,… Read more »

WASHINGTON DC (The Hill): The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is over, but congressional oversight has just barely begun. Lawmakers continue to have lingering questions about a withdrawal that saw the deaths of 13 U.S. troops, as well as scores of Afghans, and are promising hearings and probes in the coming weeks. Already one House committee has moved to try to compel answers,… Read more »

The Afghan family almost made it. They could see the Marines on the other side of the Taliban checkpoint, some 300 yards away. The Taliban were even handing out water. It seemed virtually certain that the family would be on their way to join relatives in Nebraska. But as they waited their turn at the checkpoint, two trucks pulled up, and newly arrived Taliban militants… Read more »

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Don Bacon (NE-02), member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), voted Thursday morning in favor of advancing H.R. 4350, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. The bill was reported out of committee by a vote of 57 to 2. This annual legislation, which… Read more »

Some Republican members of Congress are pushing back on Biden administration figures of Americans left behind in Afghanistan after the last U.S. troops left the country on Monday, arguing they do not give the full picture of who is stranded under Taliban rule.  President Joe Biden said in an address Tuesday that “about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan,” and that… Read more »

Members of Congress and their staffers who scrambled to help Americans and their Afghan allies evacuate Afghanistan before this week’s withdrawal deadline have revealed some of the frantic messages they received from people desperate to leave in recent days.  Multiple outlets, including The New York Post, reported on the difficulties facing would-be evacuees who attempted… Read more »

WASHINGTON, DC–Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Co-Chairmen of the House Baltic Caucus, announced the first-ever authorization of the Baltic Security Initiative in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The $175 million authorization will go toward ensuring the security of the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, which are critical… Read more »

Thirteen service members who died in the Kabul terrorist attack may be awarded Congressional Gold Medals, including Omaha Marine Corporal Daegan Page.  Congressman Jeff Fortenberry said in a statement Tuesday he's cosponsored a bill to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 13 U.S. military service members who died last week in a terrorist attack near the Kabul… Read more »

The family of a 23-year-old Marine from Omaha said last Friday he was among 13 U.S. service members killed in the suicide bombing attack at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.  Corporal Daegan William-Tyeler Page served in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton, California. Read the full story here. Read more »

As hard as Kevin McCarthy has hammered the White House over the chaotic and deadly U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, he’s under rising pressure from his right to go further. The House minority leader has repeatedly pushed back on rank-and-file Republicans who want to make a high-stakes call for impeaching Biden over his handling of Afghanistan — a vow that would come due should the GOP… Read more »