In today’s issue: A House divided cannot stand — or at least push forward with a massive budget reconciliation package. House Republicans must overcome their differences to enact President Trump’s expansive legislative agenda, which they aim to pass in “one big, beautiful bill,” as per the president’s wishes. Creating a budget blueprint that encompasses the...
Democrats are grappling with how to take on Elon Musk and his unprecedented efforts to remake the federal government, with some favoring direct attacks on the tech mogul and others wondering if they should aim more at President Trump. Democrats have struggled to find their footing in the second Trump presidency, even as Trump has...
Republican senators say they want to convince President Trump to support their plan to take the lead on a budget reconciliation package when they meet with him at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. Republican senators say getting Trump to pick a side in the standoff between Senate and House Republicans over which chamber should move first on...
Never let them tell you that nothing ever changes in politics. In 1996, just 27 percent of American adults believed that the law should recognize same-sex marriages. A decade later, at about the time the U.S. Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage legal in all the land, support was at 46 percent, with the opposition still...
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has a clear lead in the Democratic primary for the New York City mayoral race this year before he’s entered the contest, according to a new poll. Cuomo, who has not confirmed that he is running but appears likely to join the race as soon as this month,...
Arab American and Muslim American leaders are blasting President Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza, warning that it’s antithetical to their beliefs and amounts to ethnic cleansing. The backlash comes after Trump made significant inroads among these groups’ voters in the November election, peeling them away from the Democratic Party, which has been their home...
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said discussions over how to pass President Trump’s legislative agenda will continue through the weekend — including Super Bowl Sunday — as lawmakers race to complete the final details of the sprawling package as the Senate threatens to move on its contrasting strategy. Leaving the Capitol just before midnight on Thursday after a...
Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Michael Whatley said during an interview there may be ramifications for Republican lawmakers if they do not support President Trump’s legislative agenda. “Well, I certainly think that the American people certainly expect that Congress is going to work with the president to hammer out this agenda,” Whatley said during his...
A group of Congressional Democrats said they were denied entry to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after attempting to meet with Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) officials and the agency’s administrator, former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.). Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), along with Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), tried to enter EPA’s headquarters...
President Trump dismissed Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub from service on Friday following in his series of firings from various government agencies. “Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of @FEC. There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it,” Weintraub wrote in a Thursday post...
Lawmakers rallied around the HALT Fentanyl Act on Thursday, successfully passing legislation in the House to classify the opioid as a Schedule I controlled substance in an effort to solidify harsher punishments for using or selling the drug. Republicans asserted their majority to usher in the new bill with a 312-108 vote, earning significant support...
Public colleges in North Carolina must remove all course credit requirements linked to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) following President Trump’s executive order signed last month. The UNC System Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel Andrew Tripp wrote in a Wednesday memo to all 17 chancellors across the state that “all general...
