Politics Election category, Page 249
Minimum wage hike all but dead in big covid relief bill
WASHINGTON — Democrats’ hopes of including a minimum wage increase in their $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill seemed all but dead Monday as the Senate prepared to debate its own version of the House-passed aid package. Four days after the chamber’s parliamentarian said Senate rules forbid inclusion of a straight-out...
Trump calls for GOP unity, repeats lies about election lossVideo
ORLANDO, Fla. — Taking the stage for the first time since leaving office, former President Donald Trump on Sunday called for GOP unity, even as he exacerbated intraparty divisions by attacking fellow Republicans and promoting lies about the election in a speech that made clear he intends to remain a...
Toomey censure remains on hold with Pennsylvania Republicans
As former President Trump prepared for his first public appearance before the national Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee remained stalled on demands by county leaders that the state GOP censure Sen. Pat Toomey for his vote to convict Trump for incitement of insurrection. What...
Republicans test history in vote against pandemic relief
NEW YORK — With the nation’s financial system on the brink of collapse, all but three Republicans voted against the massive stimulus package designed to protect millions of Americans from financial ruin. It was early 2009, just weeks after Joe Biden was sworn in as vice president, and the vote...
House passes Biden’s $1.9-trillion covid-19 relief bill
WASHINGTON — The House approved a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill in a win for President Joe Biden, even as top Democrats tried assuring agitated progressives that they’d revive their derailed drive to boost the minimum wage. The new president’s vision for flushing cash to individuals, businesses, states and cities...
Biden to exercise empathy skills in Texas visit after storms
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will exercise his empathy skills Friday during a Texas visit with a dual mission: surveying damage caused by severe winter weather and encouraging people to get their coronavirus shots. Biden and his wife, Jill, were traveling to Houston for the president’s first trip to a...
At conservative gathering, just one litmus test: Loyalty to TrumpVideo
WASHINGTON — Among GOP elected officials and operatives, intense disagreements rage over the future of their party. But no sign of dissent will be visible this weekend when conservatives gather for an annual conference that has long showcased Republicans’ internal debates. Instead, one theme will rule them all — fealty...
Sen. Rand Paul criticized for comments during hearing for Rachel Levine’s confirmationVideo
Dr. Rachel Levine, the former Pennsylvania secretary of health and President Joe Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of health, faced a line of questioning from senators on Thursday during her confirmation hearing in Washington. But it was Sen. Rand Paul’s questioning of Levine, who would be the first openly transgender...
Parliamentarian: Covid-19 bill must omit minimum wage hike
WASHINGTON — The Senate parliamentarian dealt a potentially lethal blow Thursday to Democrats’ drive to hike the minimum wage, deciding that the cherished progressive goal must fall from a massive covid-19 relief bill the party is trying to speed through Congress. The finding by Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan arbiter...
House votes to expand legal safeguards for LGBTQ people
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-led House passed a bill Thursday that would enshrine LGBTQ protections in the nation’s labor and civil rights laws, a top priority of President Joe Biden, though the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The bill passed by a vote of 224-206 with three Republicans...
Biden marks 50 million vaccine doses in first 5 weeks in officeVideo
WASHINGTON — Days after marking a solemn milestone in the pandemic, President Joe Biden is celebrating the pace of his efforts to end it. On Thursday, Biden marked the administration of the 50 millionth dose of covid-19 vaccine since his swearing-in. The moment came days after the nation reached the...
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm confirmed as energy secretary
WASHINGTON — Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm won Senate confirmation Thursday to be energy secretary and will be a key Cabinet member trying to fulfill President Joe Biden’s commitment for a green economy as the United States fights to slow climate change. The vote was 64-35, with all Democrats and...
Manhattan prosecutor gets Trump tax records after long fight
NEW YORK — A New York prosecutor has obtained copies of Donald Trump’s tax records after the Supreme Court this week rejected the former president’s last-ditch effort to prevent them from being handed over. The Manhattan district attorney’s office enforced a subpoena on Trump’s accounting firm within hours of the...
U.S. Reps. Marie Newman, Marjorie Taylor Greene feud over LGBTQ rights
Illinois U.S. Rep. Marie Newman’s push to pass a law that would ban discrimination against LGBTQ Americans has put her at the center of a feud with controversial Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, a pro-Trump freshman congresswoman from Georgia who has espoused baseless conspiracy theories. On Tuesday, Newman, a Democrat from...
Republicans rally solidly against Democrats’ coronavirus relief package
WASHINGTON — Republicans rallied solidly against Democrats’ proposed $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill as lawmakers awaited a decision by the Senate’s parliamentarian that could bolster or potentially kill a pivotal provision hiking the federal minimum wage. Despite their paper-thin congressional majorities, Democratic leaders were poised to push the sweeping package...
Biden nominations suggest course shift for Postal Service boardVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced three nominations to the board of the U.S. Postal Service, signaling confidence in voting by mail and a possible change of course after months of turmoil over slowed delivery under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Biden named Ron Stroman, a former deputy postmaster general; Anton...
In Trump farm bailout, top 1% reaped nearly one-fourth of aid
The Trump administration’s farm bailouts steered an expanding share of subsidy payments to the nation’s biggest farms, according to an analysis by an environmental advocacy group that highlights issues of equity as the Biden administration designs potential new climate-related financial incentives for farmers. Just 1% of farm aid recipients collected...
Kevin McCarthy, Liz Cheney spar over Trump CPAC speech and his future in the GOPVideo
The Republican civil war over former President Donald Trump is far from over. House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., briefly sparred at a news conference Wednesday over Trump and his future role in the GOP. Asked about Trump’s upcoming speech at the Conservative Political...
Pa. Republicans say Gov. Wolf is trying to sabotage ballot question
HARRISBURG — Republican leaders of Pennsylvania’s Legislature said Wednesday that Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is trying to sabotage ballot questions to amend the constitution to shift authority over the length of emergency declarations from governors to lawmakers. The measures arose from Republican lawmakers’ strident disagreement with how Wolf, a Democrat,...
House Democrats prepare changes to coronavirus relief packageVideo
WASHINGTON — A $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief bill continued to take shape Tuesday, with suspense building over whether a minimum wage increase would survive. House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth has assembled an initial 138-page draft manager’s amendment full of changes to the 592-page version his committee approved on Monday, including...
Audits find no problems with Arizona election equipment
PHOENIX — Two independent audits of election equipment in Arizona’s most populous county found no modified software, malicious software or incorrect counting equipment, and none of the computers or equipment were connected to the internet. However, the state Senate wants its own audit and a judge will decide if it...
No CPAC invitation for Mitch McConnell this year
WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican leader, has not been invited to this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, two sources familiar with the event’s organizing tell McClatchy. The annual conference, set to kick off this Thursday in Orlando, Fla., and run through Sunday, will feature speeches by former President...
Senate confirms Tom Vilsack for 2nd stint as USDA secretary
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 92-7 on Tuesday to confirm Tom Vilsack as Agriculture secretary, sending the former Iowa governor back to a department he ran for eight years under President Barack Obama. “His deep knowledge of agriculture and rural America is needed now more than ever,” Senate Agriculture Chairwoman...
Capitol defenders blame bad intelligence for deadly breachVideo
WASHINGTON — Faulty intelligence was to blame for the outmanned Capitol defenders’ failure to anticipate the violent mob that invaded the iconic building and halted certification of the presidential election on Jan. 6, the officials who were in charge of security declared Tuesday in their first public testimony on the...
Biden to visit storm-ravaged Texas on Friday
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will visit Texas on Friday as the state begins its recovery from a devastating winter storm that caused serious damage to homes and businesses across the state and left many without power or clean water for days. The White House announced Tuesday that Biden and...
