Category Archives: House of Representatives

Virginia voters approve new congressional maps in blow to Trump

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Governor called referendum after president urged GOP-led states to redraw maps to protect House majority

Voters in Virginia on Tuesday approved new congressional maps intended to boost Democrats’ chances of retaking the House of Representatives, in the latest blow to Donald Trump’s effort to use mid-decade redistricting to preserve his control of Congress.

The tit-for-tat redistricting battle began last year after Trump pressed Texas’s Republican-controlled legislature to redraw that state’s congressional maps in a bid to oust as many as five Democratic House lawmakers in the November midterm elections.

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Department of Justice investigating Eric Swalwell amid sexual assault allegations

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Democratic representative from California has suspended gubernatorial campaign and resigned from Congress

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has opened an investigation into Eric Swalwell following his resignation from Congress, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The news of a federal investigation comes days after the Democratic representative from California stepped down due to multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

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RFK Jr accused of ‘dangerous conspiracy theories’ at heated budget hearing

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Trump ally grilled by lawmakers over ‘terrible decisions’ on vaccines, public health and funding cuts to key programs

Vaccines and public health dominated a frequently contentious hearing with Robert F Kennedy Jr on Thursday before the US House ways and means committee.

Kennedy, the health secretary and a longtime vaccine opponent, has overseen sweeping changes to routine vaccination recommendations and has promoted misinformation even amid the biggest measles outbreak in decades.

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New accuser says Eric Swalwell sexually assaulted her in 2018

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Lonna Drewes alleges Democratic congressman drugged and raped her at Beverly Hills hotel

Another woman has come forward to accuse Eric Swalwell of sexual assault, claiming the California Democrat drugged and raped her in 2018.

At a press conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Lonna Drewes said she was working as a model in Beverly Hills, was interested in local politics, and owned a fashion software company when she met the now 45-year-old congressman.

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US edges closer to popular vote deciding winner of presidential elections

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Virginia signs national popular vote bill into law, joining interstate compact with 17 other states and District of Columbia

A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia.

Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors.

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Republican Tony Gonzales to step down from Congress amid expulsion threat

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Gonzales, who admitted affair with aide who later died by suicide, says he will file retirement from office on Tuesday

Representative Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, announced on Monday he was stepping down from Congress after acknowledging an extramarital affair with a staffer.

Gonzales, who was facing a growing threat of expulsion by his colleagues, admitted last month that he had an affair with an aide who later died by suicide.

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’He’s mentally unstable’: Iranian American in Congress condemns Trump’s war and pushes for his removal

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Democratic representative Yassamin Ansari says the war has only more deeply entrenched the Iranian regime

Donald Trump is an “evil human being” who “wants to be an emperor” and should be removed from office over the war in Iran, Yassamin Ansari, an Iranian American member of the US Congress, has told the Guardian.

Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants who decades ago fled the regime, spoke out after the president threatened to wipe out Iran’s civilisation before backing down and announcing an uncertain two-week ceasefire.

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Pam Bondi will not appear at scheduled House hearing on Epstein files, DoJ says

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Justice department says Bondi will not appear for House deposition since she was ousted as US attorney general

Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi, the former US attorney general, will not appear next week for a scheduled deposition before the House oversight and government reform committee to answer questions about the justice department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and its release of the Epstein files, the committee said.

In a statement on Wednesday morning shared with the Guardian, a spokesperson for the House oversight committee said: “The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on 14 April for a deposition since she is no longer attorney general and was subpoenaed in her capacity as attorney general.”

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Republican to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, but Democrats hail gains in vote

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Voters pick Clay Fuller for US House over Democrat who opposes Iran war, but by smaller margin than in the past

Republican Clay Fuller supports the war in Iran. Democrat Shawn Harris opposes it. Voters in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former district in north-west Georgia decided that this distinction was not enough to propel a Democrat into a conservative-leaning House seat on Tuesday night.

But Fuller won with 56% of the vote, against Harris’s 44%, according to the Associated Press, a result that comes after Greene secured the district by 28 points in 2024 and 32 points two years earlier. Democrats claim the swing to the left in the north-western corner of Georgia is a notable shift that’s worth celebrating.

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Second ex-staffer accuses Texas lawmaker of sending sexually explicit messages

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Republican Tony Gonzales ended re-election bid in March after admitting to having affair with a different aide

A second former female staffer for Tony Gonzales, a Republican congressman from Texas, has come forward claiming Gonzales sent her sexually explicit messages.

The San Antonio Express-News first reported the text messages on Monday and NBC News later confirmed the report.

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House Democrats demand end to ‘cruel’ US energy blockade after visit to Cuba

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Pramila Jayapal and Jonathan Jackson denounce ‘collective punishment’ amid vast disruption s from US oil blockade

Two Democratic US lawmakers on Monday called for an end to the “cruel collective punishment” of Cuba after they visited the island to witness the effects of an US energy blockade.

The US House members Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Jonathan Jackson of Illinois met with the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, as well as members of Cuba’s parliament during a five-day trip ending on Sunday.

“This is cruel collective punishment – effectively an economic bombing of the infrastructure of the country – that has produced permanent damage,” Jayapal and Jackson said in a statement released on Sunday. “It must stop immediately.”

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DHS funding freeze now longest partial government shutdown in US history

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If the now six-week partial shutdown continues after the weekend, it will become the longest of any shutdown

The shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the fourth-largest agency in the US government, became the longest partial shutdown in US history on Sunday.

If the now six-week partial shutdown continues after the weekend, it will also become the longest of any shutdown, surpassing the impasse late last year that dragged on for 43 days.

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Pro-Israel Democrats decry settler violence in West Bank amid attacks on Palestinians

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Aipac-backed lawmakers denounce ‘extremist’ violence in West Bank as support for Israel becomes a political liability

As Israeli settlers ramp up violent attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, often as Israeli forces stand by, denunciations are mounting in the US, even from Democratic legislators and public figures who are typically staunch defenders of Israel.

In recent days, dozens of settlers have torched homes and vehicles and attacked Palestinians in apparently coordinated attacks. Since the start of the month, Israeli settlers and police have killed at least 10 Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, including two young brothers and their parents as they returned from a Ramadan shopping trip.

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Bernie Sanders and AOC introduce bill to pause building of new datacenters

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Lawmakers say moratorium on construction would buy time to create strong, federal guardrails for AI

Amid an unprecedented energy crisis and the rapid buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure, progressive lawmakers have unveiled a new policy to place a moratorium on the construction of AI datacenters.

The policy, announced by Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democratic representative, on Wednesday morning, aims to ensure the AI boom protects the environment and communities, and benefits workers instead of harming them. A temporary ban, the lawmakers say, would give the US government time to create strong federal safeguards for AI, which is “affecting everything from our economy and wellbeing to our democracy, warfare and our kids’ education”.

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Cory Booker calls both parties ‘feckless’ for ceding war powers to Trump

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Democrat says Congress ‘doing nothing’ may embolden president to attack countries such as Cuba and North Korea

Democratic US senator Cory Booker has criticized both his own political party as well as its Republican counterpart for being “feckless” in ceding congressional war powers to Donald Trump, saying that their decision could embolden the president to unilaterally attack Cuba, North Korea and other countries.

“I’m going to be one of those Democrats [who] say I think both parties have been feckless in allowing the growth of the power of the presidency,” Booker said on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

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Trump skirts Congress over Iran war as Republicans simply step aside

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Senate blocks war powers measure and House follows suit – now president can bomb Iran free from congressional interference

Before US troops invaded Iraq, George W Bush asked Congress to pass a resolution authorizing military force against Washington’s longtime nemesis, a request that lawmakers obliged.

Twenty four years later, the United States is at war with a different Middle Eastern rival – Iran – under a different Republican president – Donald Trump. But this time, the president did not bother to seek permission from the Senate and House of Representatives before joining Israel in launching the air and naval campaign. And far from objecting, Congress’s Republican majorities have simply stepped aside.

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Colleen Hanabusa, first woman to be president of Hawaii state senate, dies aged 74

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Former US representative who broke barriers as first woman president of state senate dies after five-month cancer battle

Former US representative Colleen Hanabusa, who was the first woman to serve as president of the Hawaii state senate, has died. She was 74.

Hanabusa died early on Friday after a five-month battle with cancer, said Mike Formby, her friend and former chief of staff in the US House.

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House opens inquiry into Texas lawmaker over alleged affair with aide

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Tony Gonzales allegedly had affair with Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who later died after setting herself on fire

The House ethics committee said on Wednesday that it has opened an investigation of Tony Gonzales, a Republican representative from Texas, over allegations that include having an affair with an aide.

The top Republican and Democratic members on the committee said in a joint statement that an investigative panel would look into whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct toward an employee in his office and whether he discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.

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Democrats thrown into disarray as US offensive on Iran creates cracks

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Lawmakers from Sanders to Mark Kelly offer mixed feelings on Trump’s action and killing of Iranian supreme leader

As Republicans celebrated the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with praise for Donald Trump’s decisive action, Democrats faced their own divisions and a reckoning over how to present a united front.

Most were quick to condemn the US president for sidelining Congress to launch an illegal and unconstitutional war and demanded a swift vote on a war powers resolution that would restrain his military onslaught.

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Democrats outraged at US military’s downing of CBP drone near Mexico border

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Second time in two weeks military used laser to attack what it mistakenly thought was a threat, disrupting air traffic

Democratic members of Congress have expressed astonishment and anger at what they claim is the incompetence of the Trump administration after the US military used a laser on Thursday to shoot down what it thought was a threatening drone on the US-Mexico border in Texas but later turned out to belong to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The apparent confusion between two entities in the US government led to airspace being closed around Fort Hancock, right along the border. It was the second time in two weeks that air traffic was disrupted in the region as a result of a high-energy laser being deployed against drones.

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