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Senate passes major health, tax and climate bill in boost for Democrats
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate, along party lines, passed a significant energy, health care, climate and tax package Sunday afternoon, following an overnight marathon of votes that resulted in just a handful of notable changes to the legislation. The 755-page bill was passed after Vice President Kamala Harris broke a 50-50 tie in the evenly divided Senate. […]
Sinema makes Dems drop plan to fix carried interest tax loophole
Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced late Thursday night a tax provision that she objected to had been removed from Democrats’ plans to pass a party-line climate, health and taxes bill, and the bill would advance. “We have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision,” Sinema said in a statement. “Subject to the parliamentarian’s […]
House passes wildfire and drought package
The U.S. House approved, 218-199, on Friday a package of bills to address the growing threat of wildfire and drought in the West. The measure includes 49 standalone bills from both Democrats and Republicans. It includes provisions to make permanent an increase in wildland firefighter pay, lift a cap on the federal cost share for post-fire […]
Manchin and Senate Democrats strike a deal on health, climate, tax package
WASHINGTON — West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer struck an agreement Wednesday for a Democrats-only reconciliation package that would allow negotiations on some Medicare prescription drugs, end corporate tax loopholes and address climate change as well as invest in energy projects. President Joe Biden in a statement on […]
Trump ‘chose not to act’ as U.S. Capitol underwent attack, Jan. 6 panel says
Donald Trump ignored White House staff, family members and outside advisers who urged the president to call off the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to testimony before the U.S. House panel investigating the insurrection at its eighth and final hearing of the summer Thursday night. Instead, Trump sat in the […]
Biden lays out new funds for localities on climate, but no national emergency yet
With U.S. Senate negotiations over climate funding stalled, President Joe Biden on Wednesday directed additional spending to help states and cities manage climate disasters — resisting calls from many congressional Democrats to take more aggressive executive action like a declaration of a national climate emergency. Biden also announced steps executive agencies are taking to expand […]
Trump tweet invited ‘wild’ mob to block transfer of power on Jan. 6, House panel says
The U.S. House panel investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results described Tuesday how the president explicitly called on his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 for a “wild” protest — resulting in an insurrection. Trump exerted extraordinary influence over the mob, who marched to the Capitol on […]
Supreme Court curbs federal power to regulate greenhouse gases
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday the Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to broadly regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants, siding with a group of Republican attorneys general and coal companies in a major blow to the executive branch’s power to curb climate change. The opinion was a victory for 19 Republican-led states that undertook the […]
History made: Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as U.S. Supreme Court justice
Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court after she was sworn in Thursday by Chief Justice John Roberts and her mentor, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer — whose retirement was official moments earlier. The swearing-in ceremony at the Supreme Court making Jackson’s place in history official took barely three minutes […]
Trump didn’t care if crowd was armed since ‘they’re not here to hurt me,’ House panel told
Donald Trump had to be held back from joining his enraged, rioting supporters — even after the president was told they were armed — in their assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to testimony to the Jan. 6 committee Tuesday from a former top White House aide. Trump, spewing expletives, was so angry at being […]
HHS secretary vows to protect abortion access, but says much depends on states
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra pledged Tuesday to work to preserve abortion access in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s “despicable” decision overturning Roe v. Wade — though the department’s specific actions will depend on how states seeking to limit abortion access proceed. Becerra said HHS would enforce federal laws to […]
Senate Democrats urge Biden to take ‘immediate action’ to protect abortion rights
Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, along with most of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, have signed on to a letter to President Joe Biden pressing him to “take immediate action” to protect abortion rights, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. The one-page letter, led by Health, Education, Labor and […]