Congress

WASHINGTON — Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., fresh off a successful bid to be elected to represent California’s newly redistricted 47th Congressional District, announced Tuesday she is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2024, seeking the seat currently held by... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Republicans pushed through an overhaul of the rules for the new Congress on Monday, overcoming the concerns of some members of their own party regarding concessions Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made last week to finally become speaker.... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Federal Election Commission last week flagged a number of issues with reported contributions made to embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who has come under scrutiny for sweeping lies he’s told about his personal life and career. In... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., won election as House Speaker early Saturday morning after a last minute maneuver at the end of the 15th round of voting forestalled a motion for adjournment and another potential round of voting next... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lost a 13th straight speakership vote on Friday afternoon, but for the first time all week, several Republican holdouts flipped their votes in his favor, apparently paving the way for his ultimate victory. Though... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the United States would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the border from Mexico illegally. The new rules expand on an existing effort to stop Venezuelans attempting to... Read More

WASHINGTON — If there can be any such thing as hanging above the abyss on a yo-yo string, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., may just be accomplishing that feat. For the third straight day, in vote after vote, the man who... Read More

WASHINGTON — Thanks to its ability to pass sweeping pieces of legislation, ranging from the bipartisan infrastructure law and CHIPS and Science Act to the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act, the 117th Congress will be remembered for its... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and his allies in Congress are pinning their hope that he’ll finally be elected House speaker on Thursday on a promise that his political action committee won’t support candidates in open primaries in safe... Read More

WASHINGTON — Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ended Wednesday afternoon just as he ended his Tuesday — on the short ends of successive votes for the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. After all the votes were cast... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., stepped up his rhetoric against House speaker candidate Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Tuesday night, demanding to know why his colleague is already inhabiting the speaker’s office. Over the course of a brutal afternoon, McCarthy lost... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House adjourned on Tuesday evening after Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., failed in three back-to-back votes to secure enough support to be elected House speaker. The votes left the House GOP in an apparent state of chaos.... Read More

As new members of the Senate take office, one of the first and most important decisions they make is the appointment of a chief of staff. The Well News is tracking all of these top hires. The Senate also adopted... Read More

As new members of the House of Representatives take office, one of the first and most important decisions they make is the appointment of a chief of staff. The Well News is tracking all of these top hires. The House... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Republicans held a last ditch, closed door meeting in the Capitol Tuesday morning, with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., trying once again to rally support for his bid to be the next speaker of the House. With reporters... Read More

WASHINGTON — The first two weeks of a Republican-controlled House of Representatives will feature a hard tilt to the right with lawmakers voting on a number of messaging bills sure to make no headway in a Senate controlled by the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax records on Friday, the final chapter in a years-long legal battle during which the former real estate developer and reality TV... Read More

WASHINGTON — The change in House leadership next year is likely to renew the long-running congressional debate over how to fix problems that have plagued the National Flood Insurance Program for decades and make it better able to deal with... Read More

WASHINGTON — It took a little longer than expected, but a much anticipated $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package finally cleared the House Friday afternoon as members sought to avoid a partial government shutdown and conclude the work of the 117th... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserts that Donald Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the incoming House Democratic leader, has taped Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., to lead the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a move unanimously endorsed by the House Democratic caucus on Thursday. Two other Democratic caucus members,... Read More

WASHINGTON — There likely haven’t been many select committees in the history of Congress who on their last day made the mind wander back to “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” the epic 1960 account of Ted Williams’ final game at... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is looking for answers after a rupture in the Keystone Pipeline released nearly 588,000 gallons of oil into a Kansas waterway. The Dec. 7 spill was... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — The Republican Party quickly and forcefully rallied behind Donald Trump in the hours after federal agents seized classified documents from his Florida estate this summer. Four months later, that sense of intensity and urgency was missing — at... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders unveiled a government-wide $1.7 trillion spending package early Tuesday that includes another large round of aid to Ukraine, a nearly 10% boost in defense spending and roughly $40 billion to assist communities across the country... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol sent Justice Department prosecutors a recommendation that former President Donald Trump be charged with four crimes. Those alleged crimes are inciting or assisting an... Read More

WASHINGTON — A bicameral group of lawmakers led by Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and Jared Huffman, D-Calif., in the House and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., are urging the U.S. Agriculture Department to provide emergency assistance to organic dairy and chicken... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 71-19 on Thursday to clear a one-week continuing resolution to keep the government funded as lawmakers finish work on the omnibus spending package. Lawmakers now have through Dec. 23 to get the massive spending plan... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House passed the Puerto Rico Status Act on Thursday, a bill that would allow Puerto Rico to hold the first-ever binding referendum on whether to become a state or gain some sort of independence. Though the bill... Read More

WASHINGTON — A decade and a day after a deranged gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Nicole Melchionno told a congressional committee about sitting in her second-grade class and hearing a sound like large... Read More