More than 100 Republican lawmakers are expected to sign on to a letter pushing back on the Trump administration’s move to eliminate a popular, bipartisan community development finance fund that helps small businesses and home buyers access capital in areas of the country underserved by big banks. The congressional Republicans are pressing the Trump administration […]
Category: Politics
Speaker Mike Johnson said he won’t bring the House back to vote to pay air traffic controllers and other essential employees, saying the measure “would be spiked in the Senate” anyway — and besides, “it would take the pressure off [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer to get his job done and open the government again.” […]
The shutdown is going into next week — at least. And senators are getting restless. There’s little hope of movement anytime soon, with President Donald Trump leaving Washington Friday for a trip to Asia for at least several days. “Everybody knows Mike Johnson is not going to take a single step without Donald Trump’s permission,” […]
 
	Missed paychecks, canceled infrastructure projects and mass firings haven’t yet convinced congressional Democrats to change their government shutdown stance. But they are now facing down another pressure point threatening a program they’ve long championed benefiting millions of Americans. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps feed more than 40 million people, will start to run […]
 
	Senate Republicans spent months quietly raising the alarm with the White House about Paul Ingrassia’s nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel before he withdrew from consideration this week. Members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which was vetting President Donald Trump’s pick, were initially on edge this summer about his […]
Sen. Jeff Merkley yielded the Senate floor after more than 22 hours Wednesday, capping off an overnight protest against the Trump administration. The Oregon Democrat began speaking at 6:21 p.m. Tuesday, warning that he was doing so to “ring the alarm bells about authoritarian control” and that the county was facing its “most perilous moment” […]
Senate Majority Leader John Thune met with a group of GOP senators on Wednesday as Republicans quietly discuss possible paths forward on health care once the government reopens. The group met to talk about ideas including what to do about soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies — the centerpiece of Democrats’ demands amid the three-week shutdown […]
Republican congressional leaders are making plans for a new spending punt as the shutdown drags on, and any new version is likely to postpone the next deadline until 2026. House and Senate GOP leaders are debating a wide range of options for a new continuing resolution to fund the government, given that their current preferred […]
 
	Some of Washington’s biggest lobbying firms raked in unprecedented amounts of cash last quarter. But it’s the upstart firms with ties to President Donald Trump or his administration that have been drowning in lobbying fees, lapping their more established rivals on K Street as Trump’s second term continues to scramble the hierarchy of the influence […]
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is “strongly” considering running for Senate, she said on Wednesday, raising the prospect of adding yet another marquee name to what is already a crowded Democratic primary. Crockett cited the Republican-led remap of the state’s congressional districts earlier this year as a reason she might seek higher office in an interview […]