Political News

WILMINGTON, Del. — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris named three individuals who'll be part of her senior staff in the White House, including veteran Democratic strategist Tina Flournoy, as her chief of staff. Flournoy's appointment as Harris' top staffer adds to... Read More

WASHINGTON - Thousands of federal employees can proceed with a class act in which they claim they were forced to work without pay during the 35-day partial government shutdown that extended from late 2018 to early 2019. “The claims brought... Read More

WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden is preparing to announce several of his administration's health leaders as soon as next week as he considers two governors and a former surgeon general to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, according to people familiar with... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee will subpoena Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross unless the Commerce Department hands over internal documents detailing delays and issues with data related to the 2020 census, the committee chairwoman warned in a letter Wednesday. In the letter, chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D- N.Y., accused... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lamar Alexander's farewell speech to the chamber in which he's served for 18 years — and was a staffer decades earlier — was a reminder to colleagues of why the retiring Tennessee Republican was such a popular and effective public figure. Alexander's... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mark Kelly took the oath of office Wednesday, following the path of Ohio's John Glenn and others who once orbited the Earth and later landed on Capitol Hill. The Arizona Democrat, a former NASA astronaut and Navy pilot who flew combat missions in the Persian Gulf, was sworn... Read More

WASHINGTON — The next few months of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely be the most difficult yet, warned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, who said the agency would cooperate with the incoming Biden administration. Redfield's remarks at a U.S. Chamber of... Read More

WASHINGTON — COVID-19 aid talks got a jolt of momentum Wednesday when the top Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill all but endorsed a $908 billion interim package a bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled the previous day. In a joint statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate... Read More

ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday called on President Donald Trump to drop unproven allegations of voting fraud in the state. At a news conference at the Georgia Capitol, Raffensperger decried Trump's continued insistence that voter fraud cost him the election in Georgia and elsewhere.... Read More

WASHINGTON — For the White House holiday parties that began this week, the decor was a mix of holiday fantasy and pandemic reality. A toy train scooted around a table festooned with garlands while a masked military band played. Servers stood behind plexiglass... Read More

WASHINGTON — Should a federal law that protects National Guard members and reservists from being fired from their private sector jobs while they are deployed also apply to state government jobs? Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court hinted it might weigh in on the issue.... Read More

WASHINGTON — While it may seem that the White House’s relationship with the media is in an appalling state, Historian Harold Holzer claims that the president vs. press feud is actually nothing new. In fact, President Trump’s antagonism barely measures... Read More

WHEATLAND, Iowa - Democrat Rita Hart is challenging the vote totals in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, two days after a state board certified Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks the winner in a contest that came down to just six votes. The race... Read More

WASHINGTON - The first session of the 117th Congress will convene at noon on a Sunday in January and have an extra-long August recess, according to the House calendar released by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Wednesday. And of course,... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Reps. Stephanie Murphy, of Florida, and Jimmy Panetta, of California, have been named chief deputy whips for the 117th Congress, House Majority Whip James Clyburn announced Wednesday. In addition, Clyburn announced that Reps. G.K. Butterfield, of North Carolina,... Read More

WASHINGTON -- As part of the official launch of its Academic Leaders Task Force on Campus Free Expression Initiative, the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank dedicated to bipartisanship, hosted a roundtable discussion on campus free expression faced... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congress will emerge from the Trump administration with weakened power to check a president or oversee the operation of the federal government, the most consequential fallout experts see for lawmakers after four years of nearly constant high-profile courtroom showdowns with a... Read More

Historians and watchdog groups sued the Trump administration again over its alleged failure to preserve White House records. "With President Trump's term in office soon coming to an end," the White House's flouting of record-keeping requirements could deprive historians and the public "of records documenting a... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congress is focused this week on negotiating a government funding deal and determining whether bipartisan consensus can be reached to enact any additional COVID-19 relief before year's end. Those fiscal negotiations will continue among top appropriators, congressional leaders and their staffs... Read More

WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans split on Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's decision to end most of the emergency lending facilities established at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic at a Senate hearing Tuesday. "Even the Chamber of Commerce said that shutting down the emergency lending programs 'closes the door on important... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Zoe Lofgren spent her summer doing "a very nerdlike" line-by-line reading of the 55-year-old law that governs U.S. immigration policy in anticipation of widespread Democratic election wins that would give her party the ability to enact a massive immigration overhaul next year.... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration will not automatically authorize emergency use of coronavirus vaccines before completing a rigorous independent review, despite heightened expectations that two vaccine candidates will be available to Americans this month, Dr. Stephen Hahn, FDA commissioner, told McClatchy in... Read More

President Donald Trump's path to reversing the election result has nearly closed after all the key battleground states certified their vote totals and took steps to appoint electors ready to formalize Joe Biden's victory. Trump continues to hurl unsubstantiated accusations of voter fraud on... Read More

WASHINGTON — A House Democratic panel in charge of committee selections gave Rosa DeLauro the nod to become the next Appropriations chairwoman following a closed-door vote Tuesday. The Connecticut Democrat received 36 votes from Democratic Steering and Policy Committee members, according to a source familiar with the... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a secret scheme to lobby White House officials for a pardon as well as a related plot to offer a hefty political contribution in exchange for clemency, according to... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has given extra protection to the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, granting him authority to complete the work without being easily fired. Barr told The Associated Press... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A former Trump administration head of cybersecurity is considering legal action against a lawyer for the president who said Monday he should be executed. The dispute arose from President Donald Trump’s allegations of voter fraud during the presidential... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Suzan DelBene, of Washington State, was unanimously elected Tuesday to serve as the next chair of the New Democrat Coalition. In addition, the coalition of moderate Democrats elected five individuals -- Reps. Ami Bera, of California, Sharice... Read More

WASHINGTON - The committee raising money for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration is limiting individual contributions to no more than $500,000, and corporate contributions to no more that $1 million, according to an official involved in the planning of the event.... Read More

WASHINGTON - Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that the Justice Department has not uncovered voting fraud at a scale that could have affected the results of the presidential election. Barr's comments, made during an interview with the Associated Press,... Read More