Category Archives: House of Representatives

Sanders’ minimum-wage effort looks doomed as Covid relief votes go through night

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Biden’s $1.9tn relief package struggles through Senate but majority leaders vows passage ‘however long it takes’

A fiery speech and last-ditch effort by Bernie Sanders to secure a place for a federal minimum wage hike in the $1.9tn coronavirus relief package appeared as good as doomed on Friday, following a day that saw the flagship legislation hit grinding delays in the Senate.

Senate leaders and moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin struck a deal late on Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a nine-hour logjam.

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Scramble on to replace Neera Tanden after nomination met perfect storm

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Joe Biden’s nominee for budget director faced Republican opposition over old tweets but had also clashed with progressives

Neera Tanden’s decision to withdraw from consideration to serve as Joe Biden’s budget director marks the first major loss for the still young Biden administration, and sets off a scramble between various political factions to push through a new nominee.

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House approves $1.9tn Covid aid bill despite minimum wage setback

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Relief bill represents Biden first big legislative win but wage hike proposal to be removed from Senate version

The US House of Representatives has passed Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus aid bill in his first major legislative victory.

Related: Criticism builds over Biden's failure to lift Trump sanctions on ICC prosecutors

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Democrats defend decision not to call witnesses as tactic under scrutiny

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‘We needed more senators with spines,’ said Stacey Plaskett after vote to convict fell short of two-thirds majority needed

Democrats defended their prosecution of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Sunday and hinted at the possibility of criminal charges, after failing to convince enough senators the former president was guilty of inciting the deadly Capitol attack.

Related: Boris Johnson calls Trump impeachment over Capitol attack 'kerfuffle'

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Five Republicans join vote for witnesses in Trump Senate trial – video

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Five Senate Republicans voted with the Democrats on Saturday, that the Senate should call witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Before the 55-45 vote, Trump’s impeachment lawyer Michael van der Veen warned senators that if Democrats wished to call a witness, he would ask for at least 100 witnesses and insist they give depositions in person in his office in Philadelphia – a threat that prompted laughter from the chamber.

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Trump trial shown disturbing footage of lawmakers ‘hunted’ by Capitol mob

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Democrats revealed disturbing new recordings of the mob attack on the US Capitol last month as they presented their case on Wednesday in the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

House impeachment managers constructed a timeline which they said showed that the former president was “singularly responsible” for the deadly assault, which brought a violent mob within footsteps of the nation’s political leaders.

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‘Trump’s guilt is obvious’, impeachment managers say in new legal brief – live

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The election arm of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has brought out its final report on the US presidential election, concluding that it was well organised under the circumstances and there was no significant fraud.

The report also found that Donald Trump’s rhetoric and refusal to accept defeat undermined public faith in democratic institutions, and warned the US has long-term problems with providing equal voting rights for all.

Related: 'Jim Crow relic': Senate filibuster stands in way of Democratic voting rights push

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Democrats to open Trump impeachment trial by recounting Capitol attack

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Impeachment managers will present scene in harrowing detail using video and audio recordings

House impeachment managers will open their prosecution of Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection” by recounting the deadly assault on the US Capitol in harrowing and cinematic detail, rekindling for senators the chaos and trauma they experienced on 6 January.

Related: Donald Trump impeachment trial: what you need to know

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House passes budget resolution, paving way for Covid relief – US politics live

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The House has just passed the Senate-approved budget resolution, paving the way for the chamber to take up Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief proposal in the coming weeks.

The House voted 219-209 along mostly partly lines to approve the resolution as amended by the Senate. Jared Golden was the only Democrat to vote against the measure.

The rule for S.Con.Res. 5 – Setting forth the congressional budget for the US Gov't for FY 2021 & setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for FY 2022-2030 was adopted by a vote of 219-209.

S.Con.Res. 5 is hereby passed.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, fresh from being stripped of her committee assignments, seemed unrepentant on Friday morning, as she used a press conference to sum up the intertwining of the Republican party and Donald Trump.

“The party is his – it doesn’t belong to anyone else,” Greene told reporters in Washington this morning.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Trump and the GOP Party:

"The party is his. It doesn’t belong to anybody else." pic.twitter.com/XOL8VzRicW

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Extremist congresswoman’s threatening ad with rifle condemned on House floor – video

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A fiercely divided House removed the congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from both her committees Thursday, an unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she’d earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories.

During the debate, the House majority, leader Steny Hoyer, exhibited a Facebook post in which Greene is holding a gun next the faces of progressive congresswomen of color

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House votes to remove Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from committee roles

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Vote largely along party lines serves as rebuke of congresswoman’s incendiary and racist statements

The US House of Representatives has voted to strip the extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from the committees she was assigned to, in a stark rebuke of her incendiary and racist statements.

Related: Republicans take no action against Cheney or extremist Greene after vote

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Donald Trump will refuse to testify at Senate impeachment trial, lawyers say

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Democrats had challenged Trump to explain in next week’s proceedings why he disputed factual allegations

Donald Trump’s legal team has said the former president will not voluntarily testify under oath at his impeachment trial in the Senate next week, where he faces the charge from House Democrats that he incited the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

The lead House impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, wrote to Trump asking him to testify under oath before or during the trial, challenging the former president to explain why he and his lawyers have disputed key factual allegations at the center of their charge that he incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol.

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Biden pledges to ‘undo moral shame’ of Trump era with new orders on immigration – live

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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been denounced as a “rogue agency” after new allegations of assaults on asylum seekers emerged, and deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the Biden administration’s orders.

Joe Biden unveiled his immigration agenda on Tuesday, and his homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate, but the continued deportations suggested the Biden White House still does not have full control of Ice, which faces multiple allegations of human rights abuses and allegations that it has disproportionately targeted black migrants.

Related: New claims of migrant abuse as Ice defies Biden to continue deportations

A hastily executed transfer of nearly 200 people in California’s prison system set off a public health disaster that endangered the lives of thousands of prisoners and staff and led to dozens of deaths, according to a new report from the state’s office of the inspector general (OIG).

The report published on Monday, the third in a series examining the Covid-19 catastrophe in California state prisons, details the circumstances of a May 2020 transfer of 189 people from the California Institute for Men (CIM) in Chino, California, to San Quentin state prison in the Bay Area and Corcoran state prison in the Central Valley.

Related: California prison transfer led to dozens of deaths and endangered thousands – state watchdog

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Mitch McConnell says congresswoman’s ‘loony lies’ are ‘a cancer’ for Republicans

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Senate minority leader didn’t name Marjorie Taylor Greene, but the remarks were clearly directed at the QAnon supporter

Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the US Senate, has intensified pressure on the extremist Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling the “loony lies and conspiracy theories” that she endorses a “cancer for the Republican party”.

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Cori Bush says she’s moving office away from GOP extremist over safety concerns

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Democratic congresswoman said Marjorie Taylor Greene and her staff refused to wear masks and berated her

The Democratic representative Cori Bush said she is moving her office away from that of Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene due to safety concerns after Greene and her staff berated her and refused to wear masks.

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‘What were they thinking?’: Pelosi slams GOP over Marjorie Taylor Greene committee seat – video

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A visibly angry Nancy Pelosi accused Republican leaders of showing disregard to the victims of school shootings after the QAnon-supporting congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was assigned a seat on the House education committee. Greene has previously suggested the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida was a 'false flag' and was filmed harassing a teenage survivor on Capitol Hill in 2019. 'She has mocked the killing of little children,'  Pelosi said. 'What could they be thinking? Or is thinking too strong a word for what they might be doing?'

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US House delivers article of impeachment against Donald Trump to Senate

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Senate trial will be the first-ever of a former US president, however the chances that Republicans will convict him are slim

The US House delivered its article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday evening, setting the stage for the first ever Senate trial of a former US president.

For the second time in just over a year, nine House impeachment managers carried an impeachment charge against Trump in a ceremonial procession across the US Capitol, where just a few weeks ago a violent mob laid siege to the building in a deadly assault on the seat of American government.

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Trump impeachment trial set to begin the week of 8 February, Schumer says

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The House will transmit the article against the former president on Monday, giving his legal team time to prepare their case

Opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump are set to begin the week of 8 February, with the former president facing charges of inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol.

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, announced the schedule late Friday after reaching an agreement with Republicans.

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Tense calm in Washington as small pro-Trump groups gather at state capitols across US – live

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The FBI announced that authorities had arrested the guitarist of heavy metal band Iced Earth in connection to the Capitol riot.

Jon Schaffer was allegedly among those who sprayed Capitol police with bear spray.

Jon Schaffer, Columbus, IN, has been arrested in connection to Jan 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol. Schaffer faces 6 charges including engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. Schaffer was allegedly among rioters who sprayed Capitol police with "bear spray."

Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, Canada, has responded to the report that President-elect Joe Biden will cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office.

“The Keystone XL pipeline represents tens of thousands of good paying jobs that the American economy needs right now,” he writes.

I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week.

My full statement: pic.twitter.com/vZjun1IdMH

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Biden will appeal for unity as US braces for violence by Trump supporters

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Joe Biden will deliver a message of national unity when he assumes the presidency on Wednesday, seeking to begin healing a country fractured by the acrimony of Donald Trump’s administration and ongoing threats of violence by his supporters.

Related: America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?

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