Alison Greene, DC Report @ Raw Story

House Republicans oppose measures that would save $46 billion in postal employee benefits and up to $17 billion in mail truck operating costs by requiring the new trucks to run on electricity rather than gas.

The actions of Republicans during a mark-up of U.S. Postal Service legislation cast doubt on a basic theme of the party. They say that their positions are driven by fiscal responsibility and low costs for government services. Of course, you wouldn't know that because news coverage of the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing was virtually nonexistent.

The anti-saving money theme emerged when committee Democrats acted to support President Joe Biden's January Executive Order directing "federal agencies to procure carbon pollution-free electricity and clean, zero-emission vehicles."...

In the wake of the recent Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds hacks, President Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order to improve our nation's cybersecurity and protect federal government networks. A senior Biden administration official said that the order "reflects a fundamental shift in our mindset from incident response to prevention, from talking about security to doing security."

This is a necessary response in the face of increasingly sophisticated malicious cyber activity from both nation-state actors and cybercriminals, but it's only a first step.

In discussing recent cyber activity, the focus has been on Russian actors. While there is no evidence linking the Russian government to the pipeline attack, little happens among Russian criminal networks without Putin being aware of it. Biden has suggested that Russia bears some responsibility for the attack because he said it was linked to cybercriminals with ties to Russia....

Moderate Republicans announced yesterday, Earth Day, a counter-offer to the Biden administration's $2 trillion-plus infrastructure proposal.

Led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the moderates put out a two-page glossy marketing blurb that significantly scales down Biden's package. It cuts critical infrastructure investment and has a price tag of $568 billion.

Some of the ways Republicans suggest going from $2 trillion to $568 billion are by cutting the investments in safe drinking water and essential repairs on public schools....

Baseless Republican attacks on Dominion Voting Systems may come back to bite major Donald Trump supporters in the wallet. That's because the company appears to be losing significant business in jurisdictions where Republicans control decisions about which vendors will supply voting equipment.

To collect damages the company must show that it suffered financial harm. In that regard, various elected Republicans around the country are helping Dominion make its case as the defendants' lies about Dominion machines are causing it to lose millions of dollars of business.

In separate lawsuits, Dominion is seeking actual damages of $1.6 billion from Fox News, and $1.3 billion each from Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and the My Pillow Guy, Mike Lindell. It is also seeking punitive damages....

In January 2017, upon her confirmation as secretary of the Department of Transportation, Elaine Chao committed to separating herself from her family's shipping interests. Looking back on the last four years, it's clear she didn't.

In an administration awash with emoluments and ethics concerns, it has mostly flown under the radar just how much Chao, who is married to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, stood to gain financially from her position as secretary of transportation and how government watchdogs failed to challenge her repeated wrongdoings.

The Chao family business is deeply entangled with Beijing. The Chao family dry bulk ship company has borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from Chinese banks, all of which are partly or fully owned by the communist regime....