Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
President meets Democrats for talks and insists ‘it doesn’t matter whether it’s six minutes or six weeks – we’re going to get it done’
Democrats returned to the Capitol on Friday deeply divided but determined to make progress on Joe Biden’s ambitious economic vision, after an embarrassing setback delayed a planned vote on a related $1tn measure to improve the nation’s infrastructure.
Biden on Friday made a rare visit to Capitol Hill to meet privately with House Democrats amid a stalemate that has put his sprawling domestic agenda in jeopardy. The visit comes after after the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, delayed a vote on part of his economic agenda, a bipartisan $1tn public works measure, on Thursday night after a frantic day of negotiations failed to produce a deal.
Democratic lawmakers including Missouri representative Cori Bush shared personal stories behind their decisions to have abortions during a House oversight committee meeting about reproductive rights on Thursday.
Representatives Barbara Lee of California and Pramila Jayapal of Washington also shared their stories during the committee hearing
House speaker Nancy Pelosi left her press conference by urging reporters to “think positively” about the negotiations over the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.
And yet, as Pelosi was making her comments, House majority leader Steny Hoyer said he was not confident that the infrastructure bill would pass today, as Democratic leadership had previously hoped.
Congress passed a bill to fund the government into December. But questions remain over the debt ceiling and Biden’s agenda
The US government went into Thursday embroiled in a game of three-dimensional chess with time running out and trillions of dollars at stake.
The first dimension was a must-do: fund the government by midnight to avoid it shutting down. In a typical shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees stop getting paid and many stop working; some services are suspended and numerous national attractions and national parks temporarily close.
The southern US state of Alabama, which has the highest death rate from Covid-19 in America, is planning to use Covid relief funds to help construct three large prisons and renovate several others.
As Democrats remain at an impasse over the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package, some have expressed concern that the American public could have been better informed about what the latter bill actually aims to achieve.
The White House has packaged the wide range of initiatives under the loose slogan of “Build Back Better,” but the bill has more commonly been labelled in the media by its headline price tag - $3.5 trillion - with Democrats also unable to say definitively what would be in it.
The package, now the subject of furious negotiations on Capitol Hill, would fundamentally transform the government’s relationship with its citizens and dramatically expand the social safety net.
It sets out to broaden well-known programs for example, adding dental vision and hearing aid benefits to Medicare and continuing the Obama-era health law’s temporary subsidies that helped people buy insurance during the pandemic [...]
Speaker sends letter to party at mercy of warring factions
One reporter observes: ‘Well, this is raising the stakes’
In a letter to Democrats on Saturday the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, set her sights high, saying Joe Biden’s $3.5tn spending package, a bipartisan infrastructure deal worth $1tn and a measure to expand government funding “must pass” next week.
Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon and Dan Scavino among advisers called to testify over president’s connection to 6 January events
The House select committee scrutinizing the Capitol attack on Thursday sent subpoenas to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a cadre of top Trump aides, demanding their testimony to shed light on the former president’s connection to the 6 January riot.
The subpoenas and demands for depositions marked the most aggressive investigative actions the select committee has taken since it made records demands and records preservation requests that formed the groundwork of the inquiry into potential White House involvement.
The president is about to embark on a legislative push with almost no room for error
In what could be the most consequential stretch of his presidency, Joe Biden faces an autumn sprint to advance a once-in-a-generation expansion of the social safety net.
One of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial warned on Sunday that the former president’s “bullying” of the party would lead to electoral defeat in next year’s midterms and beyond.
The Pentagon has responded to the unexpected arrival of two US Congress members in Kabul airport, in what the congressmen claimed was a fact-finding mission but critics have dismissed as grandstanding. “They certainly took time away from what we had planned to do that day,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.
Seth Moulton, a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, and Peter Meijer, a Republican representative from Michigan, astonished state department and military officials in the Afghan capital when they flew in on Tuesday.
Joe Biden held a virtual meeting today with business, university and healthcare leaders to discuss strategies to get more Americans vaccinated against coronavirus.
The meeting included the CEOs of Kaiser Permanente, United Airlines and DESA, Inc., as well as the president of Howard University. All four have already announced vaccine requirements for their employees or students.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention said on Wednesday that pregnant women should get vaccinated after an analysis of data that showed no increased risk of miscarriage among women who received it.
The advice comes as hospitals in hot spots around the US are see disturbing numbers of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus, the Associated Press reports.
The $1tn infrastructure bill that passed the Senate takes some steps toward addressing the climate crisis and building resiliency – through environmental activists and progressive Democrats say it falls short. In California, where global heating has helped fuel extreme wildfires, Dani Anguiano reports on the devastation of the Dixie fire:
After weeks of fire, smoke and warnings, Kimberly Price’s beloved hometown had run out of time.
With wind driving the Dixie fire directly into Greenville, Price’s longtime partner, John Hunter, told her she needed to leave. Price, 58, had spent most of her life in the close-knit Sierra Nevada community. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving, but the flames were everywhere.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki clarified the president’s earlier comments praising Andrew Cuomo’s legacy as governor.
Earlier, a reporter had asked Joe Biden to assess Cuomo’s decade-long career as governor. “I thought he’s done a hell of a job – and both on everything from access to voting to infrastructure to a whole range of things. That’s why it’s so sad,” Biden responded.
@potus responded to a specific question today about @NYGovCuomo work on infrastructure. He also made clear it was right for @NYGovCuomo to step down, reiterated his support for women who come forward, and made clear you can’t separate personal behavior from other work.
The Senate convened for a rare weekend session on Saturday with the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, encouraging the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish writing their bill.
Kevin McCarthy: mask policy a political decision by Democrats
Capitol physician reimposes mask requirement for the House
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, on Wednesday heaped disdain on the Republican minority leader’s criticism of Congress’s new mask requirement – a reversal of policy that reflected growing number of cases and fears about the highly-transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant at the Capitol.
The speaker of the US House, Nancy Pelosi, intends to appoint a second anti-Trump Republican to the select committee which will investigate the deadly 6 January assault on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.
Covid cases likely to accelerate through summer, new forecasts say
CDC director warns Americans in ‘another pivotal moment’ in pandemic
As the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony comes to an end, First Lady Jill Biden cheers from the stands. On Saturday, she is expected to attend the USA v France women’s 3x3 basketball game and the USA v Nw Zealand women’s soccer game.
First Lady @DrBiden will attend the following Olympic events in Tokyo on Saturday, per the White House:
- USA v France women's 3x3 basketball game - Various swimming races - USA v New Zealand women's soccer game
The bust of a man who was a Confederate general, Ku Klux Klan leader and slave trader was removed from the Tennessee state capitol this morning, a year after the governor said it was high time it was gone.
Nathan Bedford Forrest had been immortalized at the Tennessee capitol in Nashville since the late 1970s.
HAPPENING NOW: Crews are starting the process of removing the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from the capitol. @WKRN#GMNpic.twitter.com/8HwOG3zsoY
The State Building Commission on Thursday gave approval for the relocation of the Forrest bust to the Tennessee State Museum, a final step in a process that has taken more than a year since Gov. Bill Lee first said it was time for the statue to be moved.
“It’s been a year long journey, and this is an appropriate step in that process,” Lee said prior to the Building Commission meeting Thursday morning. “It’s most important to me that we followed the process. We talked about that from the very beginning.”
The bust of Confederate Gen. and KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest is off its pedestal and being wheeled out of the Tennessee Capitol. pic.twitter.com/dgAg4isvxw
Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was one of nine people arrested during a voting rights protest at the US Capitol on Thursday. Beatty was participating in a protest
calling for the Senate to pass a
sweeping election reform bill. The bill passed the House in March
but is being held up in the Senate
because of a Republican filibuster. Beatty and others were arrested
by Capitol police for 'demonstrating
in a prohibited area on Capitol grounds', said police
Beatty, who serves as the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, shared a photo on Twitter of US Capitol police (USCP)officers putting a zip-tie on her and escorting her out of the building.