With no deal made Sunday night, the Senate adjourned and will vote at noon Monday on a bill to reopen the government for at least three weeks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wanted to hold a vote at 10 p.m. Sunday, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) objected, saying there still wasn’t a…
President Donald Trump privately vented his frustration over Russia-related matters with at least two other Republican senators this month, according to people familiar with the conversations — in addition to the president’s public admonishments of Mitch McConnell, John McCain, and Jeff Flake. Trump expressed frustration over a bipartisan bill sanctioning Russia and tried to convince…
Relations between Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell has disintegrated to the point that they have not spoken to each other in weeks. Complicated by the position of McConnell’s wife, Elaine L. Chao, in Mr. Trump’s cabinet, angry phone calls and private badmouthing have devolved into open conflict, with the president threatening to oppose Republican senators…
Senators left Washington on Thursday night for a 10-day break without voting on the Senate Republican health-care bill, and after a day of negotiations Senate GOP leaders still did not have the pieces in place for a plan that could get 50 of their 52 votes. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the White…
A bipartisan $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep the federal government running through September was approved Wednesday by the House. The bill does not include any funding for President Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, secures funding for Planned Parenthood, and adds $15 billion to the military’s budget. The National Endowment…
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said a shutdown of the U.S. government would be necessary in order to fix the “mess” in Congress. “The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there!” Trump tweeted. “We either elect more Republican Senators…
On Wednesday, President Trump will announce his plan to overhaul the tax code, including his proposal to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, White House officials told The Washington Post on Monday. Independent analysts have estimated a cut this severe could cost the federal government $2.4 trillion over 10 years,…
The U.S. Senate confirmed Neil M. Gorsuch to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, capping more than a year of bitter partisan bickering over the ideological balance of the nation’s highest court. Senators voted to confirm Gorsuch, 49, a Denver-based judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, who will become the…
On Tuesday night, as the Senate began debate on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Politico reported that in a 2006 book and earlier academic articles, Gorsuch had “copied the structure and language used by several authors and failed to cite source material,” throwing a last-minute charge of plagiarism into the bitter partisan…
The Republican push to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch, heads into a final showdown this week, with the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled to vote on the nomination on Monday. The committee’s GOP majority is expected to send Gorsuch’s nomination to the full Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has promised that…
Two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — said Thursday that they would vote to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Manchin, who frequently crosses the aisle to side with the GOP, said he found Gorsuch to be “an honest and thoughtful man,” and that…
President Trump unveiled his 2018 budget proposal Thursday, providing the clearest view yet of the policies he wants to use to deliver on his campaign promises. The plan includes a $54 billion increase in defense spending and a substantial bump for border security, while calling for deep cuts to most federal agencies, including roughly 30…
President Donald Trump addressed both houses of Congress Tuesday night. You can read his speech as provided by the White House below: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States, and Citizens of America: Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black History Month, we…
A judged ordered Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency pick to release thousands of emails between his office and fossil fuel companies. Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons from Oklahoma County District said to Pruitt’s office that it would have to hand over the emails to the Center for Media and Democracy, or CMD,…
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced attorney Alexander Acosta as his next labor secretary pick, just one day after fast-food executive Andrew Puzder withdrew his bid over controversies seen as likely to upend his confirmation. Acosta, who is Latino, is an attorney who has served in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, and is the…
U.S. intelligence officials have withheld some sensitive intelligence from President Trump because of concerns about the information being leaked or compromised, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. This purported move underscores distrust between the intelligence community and the new administration as a result of reports that Trump’s campaign team had contacts with…
Andrew Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants and President Trump’s nominee to lead the Labor Department, withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday. “I am honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America’s workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity,” Puzder said in…
On Monday, the Senate is expected to confirm two of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees, Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary and David Shulkin to head the Department of Veteran Affairs. The vote on Mnuchin, a former top Goldman Sachs executive and Hollywood financier, will be much closer than Shulkin’s confirmation. Republicans argue that Mnuchin is well-qualified…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least six states this week in a surge of what federal officials labeled “routine enforcement actions.” The raids targeted illegal immigrants known to have criminal records beyond their immigration status, though some immigrants without a history of crime were arrested as…
On Monday the Senate voted 52 to 47 to confirm Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to lead the Health and Human Services Department. The party-line vote was the fourth contested Cabinet vote in a row. Democrats argued before the vote that Price, a seven-term congressman and former orthopedic surgeon, had failed to come clean about some…
Senator Jeff Sessions was confirmed as the next attorney general in President Trump’s administration on Wednesday night, earning a simply majority by around 7:20 p.m. with the vote total at 52 yes to 47 no. The night before Senator Elizabeth Warren made headlines for attempting to read a letter written by Coretta Scott King criticizing…
GOP Turtle-Man Mitch McConnell inadvertently created a rallying cry for supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren when he rebuked her after the Senate voted to prevent her from speaking. As Democrats held the Senate floor overnight to protest Sen. Jeff Sessions’s (R-Ala.) nomination for attorney general, Warren quoted a 1986 letter that the late Coretta Scott…
Regardless the attemps by Democrats in the final hours, the U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Betsy DeVos as the next secretary of education. DeVos’ nomination faced fierce opposition from Democrats, and two Republican senators—Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine—had previously said they would vote against DeVos. After those GOP defections,…
The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on President Trump’s education secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos. Democrats made a last-ditch effort to hold the floor for 24 hours as they tried to persuade a third Republican to join them in opposition to DeVos to break what appeared to be a 50-50 tie. Barring another defection, Vice…
Vladimir Putin wants Fox News to apologies to him for calling him “a killer”, in an interview with President Trump Bill O’Reilly said “But he’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer.” During the segment, Trump responded to say that the U.S. has “a lot of killers,” too. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday ignored Trump’s…
On Wednesday President Trump said that he would be fine with the Senate changing rules to pass his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, with just 50 votes as opposed to the necessary 60 required now. “Yes, if we end up with the same gridlock we’ve had in Washington for longer than eight years, in all…
President Donald Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday night, saying in a speech at the White House: “This may be the most transparent judicial process in history.” Gorsuch, 49, sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and is the youngest Supreme Court nominee in 25…
Early Thursday, after voting down dozens of amendments proposed by Democrats over seven hours, Senate Republicans approved a budget resolution measure officially beginning the process to repeal the Affordable Care Act, with no replacement yet proposed. The resolution, which passed on a partisan 51-48 vote — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined all Democrats present in…
The 115th Congress begins Tuesday with Republicans, set to control the House, Senate, and presidency for the first time since 2006, planning to start dismantling many Obama-era financial and environmental regulations, and undo parts of Obama’s signature healthcare reform law. President Obama is meeting with fellow Democrats on Wednesday to discuss how to prevent ObamaCare…
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has strongly condemned any foreign meddling to influence the U.S. election. McConnell spoke to reporters Monday, a day after President-elect Donald Trump said the recent CIA assertion that Russian hacking had sought to help his candidacy was “ridiculous.” McConnell says that the “Russians are not our friends” and condemned Russian…
