Politics Election category, Page 81
Senate passes Social Security benefits boost for many public service retirees
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed legislation early Saturday to boost Social Security payments for millions of people, pushing a longtime priority for former public employees through Congress in one of its last acts for the year. The bipartisan bill, which next heads to President Joe Biden, will eliminate longtime reductions...
Senate approves 235th judge of Biden’s term, beating Trump’s tally
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden secured the 235th judicial confirmation of his presidency Friday, an accomplishment that exceeds his predecessor’s total by one after Democrats put extra emphasis on the federal courts following Donald Trump’s far-reaching first term, when he filled three seats on the Supreme Court. Senate Majority Leader...
Trump was poised to inherit a strong economy. Then things got rocky and he added to the uncertainty
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The smooth economy that Donald Trump was poised to inherit suddenly looks a bit rockier — with critics saying the president-elect is contributing to the uncertainty. The Dow Jones stock index essentially ended Thursday flat after having posted 10 days of losses. The Federal Reserve...
White House starts scrapping pending regulations on transgender athletes and student debt
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is abandoning his efforts to provide some protections for transgender student athletes and cancel student loans for more than 38 million Americans, the first steps in an administration-wide plan to jettison pending regulations to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from retooling them to achieve his own...
Government funding bill clears Congress and heads to President Biden, averting a shutdown
WASHINGTON — Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through final passage early Saturday of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, dropping President-elect Donald Trump’s demands for a debt limit increase into the new year. House Speaker Mike Johnson had insisted Congress would...
International students urged to return to U.S. campuses before Trump inauguration
CONCORD, N.H. — A growing number of U.S. colleges and universities are advising international students to return to campus before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, over concerns that he might impose travel bans like he did during his first administration. More than a dozen schools have issued advisories, even though...
Closures, Social Security checks, furloughs: What a government shutdown might mean
Congress has until midnight Friday to come up with a way to fund the government or federal agencies will shut down, meaning hundreds of thousands of federal employees could be sent home — or stay on the job without pay — just ahead of the holidays. Republicans abandoned a bipartisan...
Power grab by Republicans in N.C. becomes a referendum on democracy in the states
RALEIGH, N.C. — Democrats in North Carolina were celebrating big wins in the swing state after the November election, including victories in races for governor and other top statewide offices. But the political high didn’t last long. Republican lawmakers are stripping away some core powers of the newly elected officials...
House rejects Trump-backed plan on government shutdown, leaving next steps uncertainVideo
WASHINGTON — The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan Thursday to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, as Democrats refused to accommodate his sudden demands and the quick fix cobbled together by Republican leaders. In a hastily convened evening vote punctuated...
Government funding plan collapses as Trump makes new demands days before shutdownVideo
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan Wednesday to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate — days before a deadline when federal funding runs out. Trump’s sudden entrance into the debate and new demands sent Congress spiraling...
Pa. Electoral College meets, casts votes for Trump
HARRISBURG — The 2024 presidential election formally closed Tuesday in Pennsylvania with the Republican Party’s 19 certified electors casting their respective ballots in the Electoral College for President-elect Donald J. Trump. The official action, mirrored in statehouses across the U.S., precedes the scheduled joint session of Congress on Jan. 6...
Senate passes defense bill that will raise troop pay and aims to counter China’s power
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a defense bill Wednesday that authorizes significant pay raises for junior enlisted service members, aims to counter China’s growing power and boosts overall military spending to $895 billion while also stripping coverage of transgender medical treatments for children of military members. The annual defense authorization...
House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release Matt Gaetz ethics report, source says
WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee voted in secret to release the long-awaited ethics report into ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz, raising the possibility that the allegations against the Florida Republican who was President-elect Donald Trump’s first choice for attorney general could be made public in the coming days. The decision by...
What Americans think of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his health stances
WASHINGTON — The kids seen by Dolores Mejia around suburban Phoenix have been growing heavier in recent years. Their parents too, she says. Mejia, a 75-year-old retiree, says she’s also had her own weight struggles on the scale. That’s why Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s pledge to “Make America Healthy Again”...
Trump chooses Herschel Walker as U.S. ambassador to Bahamas
WASHINGTON — Herschel Walker, the football legend who unsuccessfully ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, has been chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to be ambassador to the Bahamas. Trump made the announcement Tuesday in a post on Truth Social, his social media website. He described Walker as “a...
Congress unveils funding deal with more than $100 billion in disaster aid
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders have unveiled a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters. The measure would prevent a...
After investigating Jan. 6, House GOP sides with Trump and goes after Liz Cheney
WASHINGTON — Wrapping up their investigation on the Jan. 6 2021 Capitol attack, House Republicans have concluded it’s former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney who should be prosecuted for probing what happened when then-President Donald Trump sent his mob of supporters as Congress was certifying the 2020 election. The findings issued...
Rep. Victoria Spartz won’t caucus with GOP, narrowing Republican margin in House
A maverick Republican congresswoman says she won’t caucus with the party, narrowing the already slim GOP margin in the House of Representatives to as little as just one vote and potentially making it more difficult to enact President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Indiana, tweeted that she will focus...
Trump sues Des Moines Register, pollster for ‘election interference’ after inaccurate poll
President-elect Donald Trump sued the Des Moines Register and its pollster for “brazen election interference” in publishing a survey the weekend before the election that showed Democrat Kamala Harris with a surprising lead of three percentage points in the state. The Register’s parent Gannett Co. on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit...
Democrats pick Gerry Connolly for Oversight post, rejecting Ocasio-Cortez bid
WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Tuesday picked 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly to lead the party next year atop an influential congressional committee, pushing aside growing calls for generational change in leadership ahead of a second term for Donald Trump. In a closed-door meeting, the majority of the caucus voted for...
What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Trump?
NEW YORK — In a string of visits, dinners, calls, monetary pledges and social media overtures, big tech chiefs — including Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — have joined a parade of business and world leaders in trying to improve their standing...
Archivist says Equal Rights Amendment can’t be certified as Democrats push Biden to recognize it
WASHINGTON — In a rare joint statement, the archivist and deputy archivist of the United States said Tuesday that the 1970s-era Equal Rights Amendment cannot be certified without further action by Congress or the courts, as Democrats press President Joe Biden to act unilaterally on its ratification before he leaves...
Biden calls for ban on congressional stock trading
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden endorsed a ban on congressional stock trading in an interview that’s being released this week, belatedly weighing in on an issue that has been debated on Capitol Hill for years. “Nobody in the Congress should be able to make money in the stock market while...
Trump weighs in on NY mayor, vaccines and drones in freewheeling press conference at Mar-a-Lago
PALM BEACH, Fla. — In a freewheeling press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club, President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he would consider pardoning embattled New York Mayor Eric Adams, declared the country was “not going to lose” the polio vaccine and weighed in on the flurry of drone sightings over New...
RFK Jr. meets GOP senators to launch confirmation bid for health secretaryVideo
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was set to start meeting Republican senators Monday as the vaccine skeptic launches his contentious confirmation bid for health secretary. President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial Cabinet nominee headed to Capitol Hill for the first of more than a dozen planned meetings with GOP senators as he addresses...
