WASHINGTON — Congress voted last week to allow families of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack victims to sue the Saudi government, prompting as much controversy in Colorado as in Washington. The vote overrode a veto by President Barack Obama, who warned it could create a backlash of lawsuits against Americans abroad and alienate a key Middle Eastern ally. Most members of Congress said the magnitude of the attack and its victims warranted an exception to the rule that foreign governments cannot be ... Read more

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf returns to Capitol Hill Thursday to testify about the bank's sales practices. Stumpf will appear before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday morning. Scroll down for live updates. 12:47 p.m. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) highlighted that $20 billion in market value from Wells Fargo's stock has been erased amid this scandal. That is like "obliterating half of Ford Motor" in terms of market value, he said. Pressed Stumpf that it's more than just a question if the sc... Read more

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf faced down a furious panel of lawmakers Thursday as the House Financial Services Committee grilled him on his bank's shady practices. Representative Maxine Waters, the committee's ranking Democrat, told Stumpf that Wells Fargo's abuse of the public's trust was "some of the most egregious fraud we have seen since the foreclosure crisis," and compared it to mass identity theft. For his part, Stumpf offered up more apologies, and said the bank planned to halt the cross-s... Read more

In his questions for Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) focused on an issue not particular to that bank but exemplified by its practices and its in-house terminology: Banks are focused not simply on taking deposits and making loans, but on selling “products.” Most big banks have several products, from basic checking and savings accounts to debit cards, credit cards and retirement accounts. And most big banks want their customers to use several products -- an id... Read more

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D – Colo.) introduced legislation this month to subsidize data breach insurance for businesses while encouraging practices that would keep them from ever having to use it. The Data Breach Insurance Act would offer a tax deduction of 15 percent of the cost of breach insurance. Perlmutter said he has received positive feedback for the bill from both legislators and stakeholders. “Using an incentive approach rather than a mandate gives this a much better chance of succeeding, bo... Read more

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) issued the following statement regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Inspector General (IG) report on the mismanagement of the Denver VA Replacement Medical Facility in Aurora, CO: “I’m glad the VA Inspector General completed the review of the Aurora VA Medical Center. This report confirms the mismanagement of the project by former VA officials and details the numerous mistakes made by not controlling the design of the project and im... Read more

Castle Rock parents Robert and Melissa MacTaggart never got the chance to celebrate the 21st and 22nd birthdays of their son, Jordan, with him. For both, Jordan was fighting overseas with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a militia group in Syria, in the battle against ISIS. During his first trip of two tours, Jordan could reach them every two to three weeks, Robert said. The second time around, communication was sparse. “During that time it was a major undertaking,” Robert said. In J... Read more

The bodies of two young Americans who died fighting the Islamic State group in Syria were returned to their sobbing families early Sept. 16 in simple, gray caskets that were pulled from an Amtrak train in Denver as throngs of sleepy passengers watched. Relatives of Levi Shirley, 24, of Arvada, and Jordan MacTaggart, 22, of Castle Rock, huddled together against the morning chill as U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, presented them with folded flags — a sign of respect for the men who never joined... Read more

Denver (AP) -- Three young men who never joined the U.S. military but died fighting the Islamic State group in Syria will return home Friday to military-style honors as their families and a congressman gather to greet them. The caskets of Levi Shirley, 24, Jordan MacTaggart, 22, and William Savage, 27, arrived Wednesday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after a complicated journey without ceremony. Shirley and MacTaggart will arrive Friday by train in Denver, while Savage was being trans... Read more

DENVER -- The bodies of two Colorado men who were shot and killed battling the war on terror overseas this summer have returned to the state. Jordan MacTaggart of Castle Rock and Levi Shirley of Arvada were killed in action fighting ISIS in Syria alongside Kurdish forces. Their bodies were flown from Jordan to Chicago and on Friday morning they arrived at Union State on an Amtrak train. In 2015, Shirley, 24, volunteered to fight with the People's Protection Units, Kurdish forces that fight ISIS ... Read more