Congress

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she believes Attorney General William Barr has "gone rogue" in his handling of a whistleblower complaint that implicates him in efforts by President Donald Trump to solicit Ukrainian interference in the 2020... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House passed a bill earlier this week that would grant legal marijuana businesses access to banking, resolving a longstanding challenge for the growing industry. The bill, called the SAFE Banking Act, passed 321-103 on the strength of... Read More

WASHINGTON - Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., have introduced legislation to make financial data more easily available online and less opaque. McHenry, ranking Republican of the House Financial Services Committee, said with technology playing such a large... Read More

WASHINGTON - If Congressional leaders are serious about restoring civility, reasoned debate and a spirit of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, they should seriously consider bringing back earmarks, a George Mason University professor told a House panel on Thursday. "They are... Read More

WASHINGTON  — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump Tuesday stemming from his allegedly putting political pressure on Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. Pelosi made her announcement on... Read More

WASHINGTON - In an era of political polarization here in Washington, state legislatures just might hold the key to getting past the friction and on to bipartisan agreement on meaningful legislation. At least that was the consensus of a panel... Read More

Reps. Donna Shalala, D-Fla., and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced the Expanding Cannabis Research and Information Act, bipartisan legislation that would facilitate research into the potential medical benefits and public health impacts of marijuana.  The bill would develop a national... Read More

WASHINGTON - A House panel charged with improving Congress's procedures and performance took a hard look Thursday at one of the government's most difficult exercises, the annual budget and appropriations process. Last year, the Joint Select Committee on Budget and... Read More

WASHINGTON -  The New Democrat Coalition released policy principles and endorsed legislation to combat climate change Wednesday, seeking to "address the climate challenge with the urgency the crisis demands" and further their belief the U.S. is best positioned to be... Read More

Freshman U.S. Representative Deb Haaland, D-N.M., joined U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., in introducing a climate change bill focused on voluntary farm and ranch conservation practices, massive reforestation, and wetlands restoration.  The lawmakers say the Climate Stewardship Act of 2019... Read More

WASHINGTON - Representative Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. told attendees at an election security forum Tuesday that tech platforms have become "battlefields" in a "bloodless conflict" and that winning requires arming voters with in-depth knowledge of the threat they face. "We need... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Congress considered options at a hearing last week on how to guarantee easier access to voter registration during a continuing struggle over states’ rights. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to review the consequences of the 2013... Read More

WASHINGTON — Cokie Roberts, who grew up immersed in politics and spent several decades in Washington covering it, died Tuesday of complications from breast cancer. She was 75. “Cokie’s career as a journalist at National Public Radio and ABC News... Read More

WASHINGTON - A far-reaching broadband connectivity should not be dictated by the location of a home or business, but rather should foster economic growth and sustainable communities by being equally accessible by all. That was the overarching message delivered to... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., couldn't be happier that the House Wednesday passed a pair of bills blocking offshore oil drilling in almost all waters around the United States. But in an interview with The Well News, he acknowledged... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House will vote next week on a trio of bills that would effectively block all new offshore oil and gas drilling in the waters around the United States. In a letter to House members, Democratic House Leader... Read More

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Thursday that a continuing resolution will be necessary to keep the government funded past Oct. 1 and prevent the second shutdown in less than a year. In a letter to House... Read More

WASHINGTON - The co-chairs of New Democrat Coalition task forces on work and national security sent letters to the House Appropriations Committee this week urging them to retain key House-passed amendments when conference deliberations get underway on the FY2020 appropriations... Read More

WASHINGTON - What it comes down to is this: Despite many in the media trumpeting the "fact" that all the momentum in the Democratic Party in 2018 was on the far-left, mid-term voters overwhelmingly endorsed moderates, rewarding their common-sense approach... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee will reconvene next week taking on one of the nation's most contentious issues -- finding a way forward in the wake of a series of mass shootings. The markup on a trio of bills... Read More

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan and bicameral coalition of lawmakers is pressing the Department of Homeland Security for answers after a Los Angeles Times report claims the White House has quietly scaled back programs intended to prevent terrorist attacks involving weapons... Read More

Representatives Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Peter King, R-N.Y., have introduced H.J. Res. 72 to overturn U.S. Treasury Department regulations that bar the deduction of charitable contributions from federal taxes.  The bipartisan action comes after the Treasury, in... Read More

WASHINGTON - Despite pushback from conservative Republicans, the budget and debt ceiling deal struck by the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., easily passed the Senate Thursday afternoon. Even with fears that the vote in the Senate would... Read More

Last week, a bipartisan, bicameral coalition led by freshman Representative Sean Casten D-Ill., introduced legislation aimed at encouraging innovation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources. Casten and his counterparts in the Senate, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and... Read More

WASHINGTON - A House working group formed to negotiate changes to President Donald Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week that while it's made substantial progress, it's still waiting for a counter proposal for requested... Read More

Clearly concerned about what will happen if a federal appeals court upholds a lower court ruling overturning the Affordable Care Act, Democrats at the National Governors Association summer meeting said Thursday that rolling back the health care law would be... Read More

Election security has been under the microscope since reports of Russian interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election first surfaced.  The findings by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence further indicate that the Russian... Read More

WASHINGTON - The House New Democrat Coalition has asked President Donald Trump to recommit to negotiations on an infrastructure investment plan, highlighting the many benefits of bipartisan cooperation on a vital national issue. In a letter written by the coalition’s... Read More

In the wake of a scathing, bipartisan letter from lawmakers, the Department of Veterans Affairs says it will refund $100 million in fees erroneously charged to thousands of exempted veterans who participated in the VA Home Loan Program. In June,... Read More

WASHINGTON - If anyone doubted there's serious interest in getting a handle on the nation's debt and the federal budget, the standing room-only crowd that jammed a hearing room in the Longworth House Office Building Thursday afternoon would have quickly... Read More