Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Senate Democrats apparently could take some tips from Senate Republicans in hiring more racially diverse senior staff. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., noting that Republicans have an edge on Democrat colleagues in this department, said he wants to encourage his colleagues to find and bring on board qualified minority applicants. “We have one of the most…
Republican leaders are voicing disapproval of budget cuts proposed by President Donald Trump. “I doubt there’d be a lot of appetite for dramatic cuts this year,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Roll Call. “I just look at it as a conversation. They’ve got their views, we’ve got our views, and we need to…
A group of Republican senators is leading an effort to end government-backed “too big to fail” bailout policies. In an effort to end the practice of taxpayer bailouts of private companies, 10 Republican senators from the Senate Banking Committee penned a letter to the Trump administration requesting that he terminate these policies for nonbanks, claiming they…
The pro-life activists who created undercover videos that triggered multiple state and congressional investigations into Planned Parenthood’s abortion practices are facing more than a dozen new felony charges in California. The charges, brought by the state’s attorney general, allege Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden and his partner, Sandra Merritt, unlawfully recorded people without…
Federal officials took six years to plan a new parking lot for a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia that would cost $10 million for only 25 parking spaces, as their solution for a 600-spot shortage. Then when outside auditors pulled the plug on the fiasco, the hospital’s top official—who had previously served as…
President Donald Trump told the nation’s largest police union his administration will “always have your back,” a departure from what many police organizations say they felt about the previous administration. “Sadly, our police are often prevented from doing their jobs,” @POTUS says. The Fraternal Order of Police visited the White House Tuesday. Many police organizations…
Just four days after House Speaker Paul Ryan declared Obamacare the “law of the land,” House Republicans say they’re moving forward with their plan to repeal and replace the health care law despite the divisions in their party on how to reform the health insurance market. Ryan and members of his leadership team reaffirmed their…
Some consider it the most powerful investigative committee in Congress: the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It has nearly unlimited purview to look into most any matter that has a tie to government. In the past, that’s meant investigating everything from steroids in sports to the housing crisis. I recently spoke to the current…
Balancing the budget without raising taxes and still maintaining strong national defense are the main goals in a new budget blueprint released by The Heritage Foundation Tuesday. “We emphasize is that it’s possible to balance the budget without raising taxes and while strengthening our national defense, which we demonstrate in the product,” Romina Boccia, deputy…
The White House sees the possibility of broad support for tax reform, and an opportunity for President Donald Trump to take up an issue that hasn’t advanced in three decades—fresh off a legislative defeat Friday on replacing Obamacare. “Our tax code is outdated,” @PressSec says. “It’s been 30 years. We have an economy that has…
The Justice Department will start enforcing federal immigration laws by discontinuing the funding of sanctuary cities, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday while speaking at the White House. If carried out, this new policy will result in the loss of federal money for cities that permit residents to be illegal immigrants, as Sessions stated…
President Donald Trump will issue a sweeping “energy independence” executive order Tuesday to dismantle signature global warming policies put in place by President Barack Obama's administration. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told ABC News Trump will issue the order Tuesday to make “sure that we have a pro-growth and pro-environment approach to how we…
Democrats have successfully succeeded in delaying the committee vote for Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick. The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to have a committee vote for Gorsuch on March 27, with a full Senate vote on April 3. Now, the full Senate vote will not take place until April 5. “Like…
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., opposed the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, and his constituents love him for it, according to a Monday report from Politico. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan attempted to pass the bill that would eventually replace the Affordable Care Act’s provisions with the full support…
In the aftermath of the House GOP’s health care bill being pulled from a vote Friday, conservatives vowed to continue working with the fractured Republican conference toward health care reform. “This is not the end of the debate,” Mark Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said on ABC’s…
President Donald Trump’s next moves might be some of the most important of his presidency. “So now we are going to go for tax reform,” @POTUS says. On Friday, he suffered a legislative defeat on the House bill to replace Obamacare, delivered in part by members of his own party in Congress. Presidential historians say…
Two men spray-painted and smashed the windshield of a tour bus used by the National Organization for Marriage in “broad daylight” Thursday in New York City, the pro-marriage group says. The two men “approached the bus with a can of spray paint and a hammer and they began spray-painting on the side of the bus,”…
Following House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to withdraw a bill repealing and replacing Obamacare, President Donald Trump attempted to mend the factions of the Republican conference and reiterated his support for the House Freedom Caucus. “This is a hard time for them,” Trump said of the Freedom Caucus. “This is a hard vote.” Republicans were…
House Speaker Paul Ryan abruptly withdrew the GOP’s bill to repeal and replace Obamacare Friday afternoon after it became clear Republicans didn’t have the votes to pass the plan. The news came just minutes before the lower chamber was expected to vote on the bill, called the American Health Care Act, and after Ryan, R-Wis.,…
For 17 years of his life, Roger Ramsey worked 80 hours a week as a maintenance technician for the Bethlehem Steel Company. When the Sparrows Point, Maryland, steel mill closed, Ramsey was left wondering what the next step would be. “I had spent 17 years of my life at that steel mill, and that’s when…