Category Archives: House of Representatives

Senators kill first article of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For the latest on Mayorkas impeachment, read our story here.

Chuck Schumer has released a lengthy statement about the commencement (and presumably very swift termination) of the impeachment trial of homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this afternoon.

It is the “least legitimate, least substantive, and most politicized impeachment trial in the history of the United States,” the Democratic Senate majority leader said, encapsulating remarks he made in the chamber just now and posted to Facebook:

The charges brought against Secretary Mayorkas fail to meet the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors. To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future.

For the sake of the Senate’s integrity, and to protect impeachment for those rare cases we truly need it, Senators should dismiss today’s charges.

It is beneath the dignity of the Senate to entertain this nakedly partisan exercise.

Impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements. That would set a disastrous precedent for the Congress and could throw our system of checks and balances into endless cycles of chaos.

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Iran attack puts pressure on US House speaker to pass aid bill for Israel and Ukraine

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Mike Johnson has said he will aim to advance legislation to support Israel but has not clarified whether Ukraine funding will form part of package

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said he will aim to advance a bill for wartime aid to Israel this week following Iran’s weekend attack, but did not clarify whether Ukraine funding would be part of the package.

US assistance for both nations has languished amid political bickering in Congress, with Johnson – an ally of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump – blocking an earlier $95bn in aid sought by President Joe Biden for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan which had passed the Senate.

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Trump boasts ‘We broke Roe v Wade’ as abortion dogs GOP election hopes

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Republican presumptive nominee struggles to articulate position on divisive issue after meeting with House speaker

Facing the press alongside the House speaker, fellow Republican Mike Johnson, Donald Trump bragged: “We broke Roe v Wade.”

The former president made the stark admission about his dominant role in attacks on abortion rights at the end of a week in which the rightwing Arizona state supreme court ruled that an 1864 law imposing a near-total ban could go back into effect.

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Japanese leader asks US to overcome ‘self-doubt’ about global leadership

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Fumio Kishida warns of risks from China in address to Congress and says Japan determined to do more to share responsibility

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, on Thursday called on Americans to overcome their “self-doubt” as he offered a paean to US global leadership before a bitterly divided Congress.

Warning of risks from the rise of China, Kishida said that Japan – stripped of its right to a military after the second world war – was determined to do more to share responsibility with its ally the United States.

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Republican choice for vacated US House seat is surprise boon for Lauren Boebert

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Colorado Republicans chose former mayor Greg Lopez, who plans to step down, leaving no incumbent or favored primary candidate

A Colorado Republican panel made the surprising decision on Thursday night to choose a former mayor, Greg Lopez, to be congressman Ken Buck’s likely replacement until the November general election, a saving grace for Lauren Boebert’s bid for another term in Congress.

Lopez will now run as the Republican candidate in the 25 June special election after Buck’s resignation at the same time GOP primary candidates are vying to be the congressman’s successor.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls Israeli Gaza campaign an ‘unfolding genocide’

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The progressive congresswoman also called on the White House to suspend aid to the Israeli military in House speech

Progressive US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the Israeli military campaign in Gaza an “unfolding genocide” in a scathing speech that demanded the Joe Biden White House suspend aid to Israel’s armed forces.

“As we speak, in this moment, 1.1 million innocents in Gaza are at famine’s door,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a speech on the House floor on Friday.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene files motion to remove House speaker Mike Johnson

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Far-right Republican says motion intended as ‘more of a warning than a pink slip’ and stops short of forcing vote to eject him

The far-right Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene filed a motion to remove Mike Johnson as House speaker on Friday but did not pull the trigger on a move that would probably pitch Congress into a repeat of chaos seen last October, when the right ejected Kevin McCarthy.

Speaking after Johnson relied on Democratic votes to pass a $1.2tn spending bill and avoid a government shutdown, Greene said her motion was meant as “more of a warning than a pink slip” because she did not want to “throw the House into chaos”.

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Republican House majority to shrink as Mike Gallagher steps down

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Congressman once considered a rising Republican star to leave in April, further weakening party’s slim majority

The Republican majority in the US House of Representatives is set to dwindle further with the early exit of Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, once a rising star of the party.

A former US marine who twice deployed to Iraq, Gallagher, 40, is a relatively moderate voice in party at the mercy of the far right.

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Trump unable to make $454m bond in civil fraud case, say his lawyers – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. For more on Trump’s bond efforts, you can read our full report:

Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked the appeals court to delay posting the bond to cover the $454m fraud judgment against him until his appeal of the case is over.

The former president’s lawyers filed notices of appeal late last month challenging Judge Arthur Engoron’s 16 February verdict that he lied about his wealth as he grew the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency.

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Vermont senator Bernie Sanders introduces four-day workweek bill

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Independent lawmaker says it’s time for workers to have a better quality of life with a 32-hour workweek without loss of pay

Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, introduced a bill to establish a four-day US working week.

Studies and pilot programmes have shown that four-day workweeks can increase productivity and happiness. Given Republican control of the House and a Senate split 51-49 in favour of Democrats, however, the legislation stands little chance of success.

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White House lawyer tells House speaker to end Biden impeachment ‘charade’

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Scathing letter from White House counsel tells Republican Mike Johnson ‘it is clear the House Republican impeachment is over’

The White House’s top lawyer told House Republicans to give up on their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, calling the investigation a “charade”.

The White House counsel, Ed Siskel, told the House speaker, Mike Johnson that “it is clear the House Republican impeachment is over” in a scathing letter sent on Friday morning.

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House votes to force TikTok owner ByteDance to divest or face US ban

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CEO of China-based company says vote is ‘disappointing’ and that it will do all it can to protect the platform

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would require the TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a total ban in the United States.

The vote was a landslide, with 352 Congress members voting in favor and only 65 against. The bill, which was fast-tracked to a vote after being unanimously approved by a committee last week, gives China-based ByteDance 165 days to divest from TikTok. If it did not, app stores including the Apple App store and Google Play would be legally barred from hosting TikTok or providing web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

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Five key takeaways from the House hearing on Robert Hur’s Biden report

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Neither Republicans nor Democrats were pleased with the special counsel’s report, resulting in a contentious hearing

The former special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, testified before a House committee on Tuesday in an often contentious hearing that found the witness on the receiving end of criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.

Here were the key takeaways from the House judiciary committee hearing:

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Special counsel says he was doing his job when he criticized Biden’s memory

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Robert Hur, who investigated president over classified files, says at hearing before Congress ‘I had to consider the president’s memory’

Robert Hur, the justice department special counsel assigned to report on Joe Biden’s possession of classified documents, told Congress he was just doing his job when he shook up the US election campaign by criticizing the president’s apparent inability to recall certain events.

In his report released in February, Hur, a former US attorney under Donald Trump, recommended Biden not be charged for possessing classified documents. But he infuriated the president’s Democratic allies by making repeated references to Biden’s age and memory as one reason for not indicting him, saying jurors would see him “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

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US government avoids shutdown after Senate approves $460bn in spending

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Vote gets lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget year

The US government has narrowly avoided a partial shutdown after senators approved a $460bn package of spending bills before a midnight deadline that would have shuttered many key federal agencies.

The Senate approved the six funding bills, which passed the House on Wednesday in a bipartisan vote of 339-85, on Friday evening, a vote that gets lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget year.

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State of the Union address as it happened: Biden spars with Republicans and announces aid pier for Gaza

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US president makes last State of the Union address of this presidential term, with much at stake as he heads into re-election fight against Trump

For some reason, expelled former Republican congressman George Santos has returned to watch the State of the Union from the House floor:

Axios reports he wanted to hang out with the lawmakers who voted to remove him from office last year for being a big-time liar:

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George Santos attends State of the Union and announces another run for Congress

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Disgraced ex-congressman chummed about with Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, and then tweeted his candidacy for New York seat

Disgraced ex-congressman and noted fabulist George Santos announced yet another run for Congress during a surprise appearance at Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday.

Despite currently facing federal criminal charges, Santos wrote on X during the speech that he’s looking to face off against his former colleague Representative Nick LaLota: “Tonight, I want to announce that I will be returning to the arena of politics and challenging Nick for the battle over #NY1. I look forward to debating him on the issues and on his weak record as a Republican. The fight for our majority is imperative for the survival of the country.”

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US lawmakers present bill to fund government and avert shutdown

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The bill sets a discretionary spending level of $1.66tn for fiscal 2024 and still faces opposition from hardline House Republicans

US congressional negotiators on Sunday revealed a bill to fund key parts of the government through the rest of the fiscal year that began in October, as lawmakers faced yet another threat of a partial shutdown if they fail to act by Friday.

The legislation sets a discretionary spending level of $1.66tn for fiscal 2024, a spokesperson for Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said. It fills in the details of an agreement that Schumer and Republican House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson set in early January.

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Cameron warns failure to supply arms to Ukraine will harm US security

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British foreign secretary argues blockage of $61bn aid package in Congress strengthens China and undermines confidence in US

David Cameron has said that the continued US failure to supply arms to Ukraine would undermine its own security, strengthen China and cast doubt on America’s reliability as an ally around the world.

The UK foreign secretary, who attended the G20 meeting in Brazil earlier in the week, admitted that the effort to rally global support for the Ukrainian cause had been “damaged” by the fact that neither the US nor the UK had voted for a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. But he argued the damage had been mitigated by the UK’s clarification of its position.

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White House could use federal law to control US-Mexico border crossings

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Biden administration considering using immigration law used by Trump after Republicans rejected a negotiated immigration bill

The White House is considering using provisions of federal immigration law repeatedly tapped by Donald Trump to unilaterally enact a sweeping crackdown at the southern border, according to three people familiar with the deliberations.

The administration, stymied by Republican lawmakers who rejected a negotiated border bill earlier this month, has been exploring options that Joe Biden could deploy on his own without congressional approval, multiple officials and others familiar with the talks said. But the plans are nowhere near finalized and it’s unclear how the administration would draft any such executive actions in a way that would survive the inevitable legal challenges. The officials and those familiar with the talks spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to comment on private White House discussions.

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