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Fight for congressional majorities launches against backdrop of presidential campaigns
WASHINGTON — The 2024 battle for control of Congress is underway in the states, accompanying the accelerating race for the presidency. Republicans are preparing to funnel money and staff into a select few Senate races in an effort to flip that chamber back to their control, while Democrats are looking toward the districts President Joe […]
U.S. House speaker leads GOP lawmakers to the border to slam Biden on immigration
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson led a delegation of House Republicans on a Wednesday trip to the U.S.-Mexico border to demand hard-line immigration proposals in exchange for passage of President Joe Biden’s emergency global security supplemental request. “If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by […]
Biden to speak at South Carolina church where Black worshippers were murdered
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden as his 2024 campaign gets underway will visit a historic church in South Carolina where Black churchgoers were murdered by a white supremacist in 2015, to give a speech about the dangers of political violence and to make the case for his reelection this November. “The choice for the American […]
Biden to commute sentences of 11 nonviolent drug offenders?
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will grant clemency Friday to nearly a dozen people serving “disproportionately long sentences” for nonviolent drug offenses as part of his administration’s effort to rectify disparities in sentencing. “All of them would have been eligible to receive significantly lower sentences if they were charged with the same offense today,” Biden […]
Biden: Trump ‘certainly supported an insurrection’ on Jan. 6
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden Wednesday said that there was “no question” former president Donald Trump was responsible for supporting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol more than two years ago. Biden’s comments followed Tuesday’s ruling by Colorado’s Supreme Court that ordered Trump?barred from appearing on the state’s 2024 presidential ballot, on the grounds of […]
Hopes dim even more for immigration agreement in US Senate before holidays
WASHINGTON — U.S. senators late Monday said they are closer to an agreement on changes to immigration policy in order to clear a multi-billion-dollar global security package, but any timing on a deal or details of that framework remained elusive. “While the job is not finished, I’m confident that we’re headed in the right direction,” […]
US Senate postpones winter break as lawmakers try to craft an immigration deal
WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. House headed home Thursday for a three-week winter break without completing work on several must-pass bills, but senators are now scheduled to return to Capitol Hill on Monday as leaders in the upper chamber and the White House look for an agreement on immigration policy. The last-minute scheduling change […]
White House to meet with dozens of Democratic state legislators on gun violence prevention
WASHINGTON — The White House announced its Office of Gun Violence Prevention will meet Wednesday with nearly 100 Democratic state legislators in an effort to reduce gun violence and offer federal support. Rep. Keturah Herron of Louisville was the only Kentuckian on the list of attendees. As part of the meeting, known as the Safer […]
Zelenskyy pitches Congress on Ukraine military aid, but it’s tied to stalled border talks
WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struggled Tuesday to convince members of Congress to approve billions in additional aid to his country at a crucial moment in the nearly two-year war with Russia. But the outlook was grim as lawmakers remained deadlocked on another piece of a supplemental spending bill under debate in the Senate […]
Congress is haggling over border security: Where does it stand?
WASHINGTON — As Congress negotiates the White House’s $106 billion supplemental aid request for Israel, Ukraine and U.S. border security, fights over immigration policy have tied up the request. The White House sent its proposal that includes nearly $14 billion in supplemental border security funding to Congress in late October, but it will likely look […]
U.S. House votes to bar use of public lands for housing migrants
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Thursday passed a bill to bar the use of public lands for temporary housing for migrants applying for asylum. The bill, H.R. 5283, passed with a majority of Republicans in support, 224-203.? Six Democrats voted with Republicans: Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of […]
Gun violence as a public health crisis explored by U.S. Senate Democrats
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Tuesday discussed how to treat gun violence as a public health crisis, in hopes of building upon last year’s federal gun safety legislation. “Across the country, gun violence is a public health epidemic,” Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the chairman of the committee, said in his opening remarks. […]