Congress

WASHINGTON - The House last week voted overwhelming to advance a bill designed to tamp down on robocalls by increasing the fines on those who make them and requiring phone companies to play a more active role in stopping them.... Read More

WASHINGTON — Key House and Senate committee leaders announced a bipartisan agreement Sunday on draft legislation to prohibit surprise medical bills and raise the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21. The agreement raises the odds of Congress clearing measures... Read More

WASHINGTON -Earlier this week members of Congress sought to draw attention to a bill that would allow for the retirement of dogs, cats and other animals used in federal lab experiments. The bill, called the Animal Freedom from Testing, Experimentation... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House approved a bill Friday that would restore key sections of the Voting Rights Act requiring officials in 15 states to receive federal approval before making changes to the voting process. The bill, H.R. 4, the... Read More

WASHINGTON - Inaction in Congress on USMCA, the proposed new trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada, isn't just a political matter, it's causing real concern for some of the nation's most recognizable brands and the network of... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Blue Dog Coalition of House Democrats on Thursday endorsed a proposal to create congressional committees specifically tasked to restore and strengthen endangered federal trust funds. The coalition of fiscally-responsible, centrist Democrats said in a statement that without... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Graves, the most senior Republican in Georgia's House delegation, announced Thursday that he will not stand for re-election in 2020. In a letter to constituents in Georgia's 14th Congressional District, northwest of Atlanta, Graves said, after... Read More

Washington, D.C., is home to numerous memorials and monuments honoring Americans who have sacrificed their lives for the country. But the U.S. capital lacks a permanent memorial dedicated to those who were killed while working to advance a free press.... Read More

WASHINGTON  - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she's asked the House Judiciary Committee to proceed with drafting impeachment articles against President  Donald Trump. The move by the speaker advances the timetable for impeachment, setting the stage for a... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House Ways and Means Committee could take up legislation as early as next week that would increase a limit on state and local tax deductions that has riled Democrats from high-cost regions, according to a senior panel... Read More

WASHINGTON - In the Lowcountry of South Carolina, Rep. Joe Cunningham's race for Congress quickly became the stuff of local legend. Here was a first-time candidate, a Democrat running in a staunchly Republican district, who defeated a well-financed GOP opponent,... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y., knows the stories all too well. Time and again during town halls and community events in his district, he's heard the first-hand stories of hardworking families who've had to choose between paying for a... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., joined with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Annie Kuster, D-N.H., to re-introduce the Road to Recovery Act, a bill that would improve addiction treatment options under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Specifically,... Read More

WASHINGTON - While some continue to merely talk about the need to rein in prescription drug prices, Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, has actually taken action on bipartisan legislation to help lower the cost of often life-changing medications. Along with fellow... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congress returns to Washington this week with a challenging to-do list for December that not only includes drafting articles of impeachment and finalizing a massive trade deal, but also funding the government. Appropriators and congressional leadership have just... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Blue Dog Coalition is again urging the House leadership and committee chairs to abide by the bipartisan "Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rule, which requires Congress to pay for new priorities. The letter sent Monday is the second the coalition... Read More

WASHINGTON — The investigation of misconduct by the Trump administration will continue even after a House committee submits an initial report that could lead to the impeachment of President Donald Trump, said the Democrat leading the proceedings. “What we’re not... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House Energy and Commerce Committee this week advanced Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s plan to protect 5G and next-generation wireless communications systems and mobile infrastructure in Central Virginia and across the United States.  The Committee’s passage of the Virginia... Read More

WASHINGTON - A quartet of moderate Democrats took to House floor this week to press for a vote on the USMCA trade deal, despite the stark partisan divide inflamed by the ongoing impeachment inquiry. "I think it's important that the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Two weeks of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump closed Thursday with a collective warning from witnesses: Russia is again trying to sow political discord in the U.S. and interfere in the presidential election... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House will convene for its second session on January 7, 2020, and meet for 113 days, according to a legislative calendar released Thursday by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. The Maryland Democrat said the calendar has been... Read More

WASHINGTON — The White House is engaging in a more aggressive and organized response to Democrats’ impeachment inquiry after hiring two new aides, though his congressional allies say the effort remains handicapped by President Donald Trump’s own unpredictable reactions. Trump... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee took the first step Wednesday to legalizing marijuana in the U.S., advancing a bill to remove pot from the Controlled Substances Act and create a tax to fund programs to heal damage from the... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Migrant Protection Protocols, a program that has so far forced more than 57,000 migrants to wait in Mexico while their immigration cases wind through the court, is illegal and enables human rights abuses against the vulnerable, a... Read More

WASHINGTON — White House aides who listened in on President Donald Trump’s controversial call with Ukraine’s president testified publicly for the first time Tuesday, bringing the impeachment inquiry directly into the White House and providing damaging new details about Trump’s... Read More

WASHINGTON— The House passed a short-term spending bill Tuesday that would keep federal agencies running for another month, but at least one group of House Democrats, the Blue Dog Coalition, said having Congress "lurching from one self-imposed deadline to another... Read More

WASHINGTON - It used to be that when the general public thought of big U.S. policy, it thought of things like cold and hot wars, international diplomacy and sweeping changes in civil rights legislation. Trade, if it came to mind... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Democrats will confront longtime divisions over gender politics and how much weight to give seniority when they hold a secret vote Wednesday to select a permanent leader for a committee investigating possible ethical violations in President Donald... Read More

WASHINGTON —  Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday imposed an indefinite delay in the House of Representatives’ demand for President Donald Trump’s financial records. Roberts’ order Monday provides no hint about how the Supreme Court ultimately will resolve the dispute.... Read More

WASHINGTON — If Rep. Max Rose’s voters expected the freshman lawmaker from Staten Island, N.Y., to quiet down this election cycle about a major overhaul of the nation’s political system, they were mistaken. It was a centerpiece of the Democrat’s... Read More