Harry Reid, Former US Senate Majority Leader, Dies at 82

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Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader and Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress, has died. He was 82.  Reid died Tuesday, “peacefully,” surrounded by family, “following a courageous, four-year battle with pancreatic cancer,” Landra Reid said of her husband in a statement. “Harry was a devout family man and deeply loyal friend,” she said. “We greatly appreciate the outpouring of support from so many over these past few years. We are especially grateful for the doctors and nurses that cared for him. Please know that meant the world to him.”  Funeral arrangements would be announced in the coming days, shemore

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Biden Signs $768.2 Billion Defense Spending Bill into Law

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President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law Monday, authorizing $768.2 billion in military spending, including a 2.7% pay raise for service members, for 2022.  The NDAA authorizes a 5% increase in military spending and is the product of intense negotiations between Democrats and Republicans over issues ranging from reforms of the military justice system to COVID-19 vaccine requirements for soldiers.  “The Act provides vital benefits and enhances access to justice for military personnel and their families and includes critical authorities to support our country’s national defense,” Biden said in a statement.  The $768.2 billion price tagmore

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The Year in US Foreign Policy 

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President Joe Biden came into office at a time when U.S. standing in the world had reached a record low point. Across 60 countries and areas surveyed by Gallup’s U.S. Leadership Poll during the last year of Donald Trump’s presidency, median approval of U.S. leadership stood at 22%. Six months into Joe Biden’s presidency, American global standing had largely rebounded. According to Gallup’s August poll across 46 countries and territories, median approval of U.S. leadership stood at 49%. Biden entered the presidency with a very low bar, said Thomas Schwartz, a historian of U.S. foreign relations at Vanderbilt University. “Outside of amore

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Trump Asks US Supreme Court to Block Release of White House Records

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Former President Donald Trump on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the release of White House records sought by the House of Representatives committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump’s request came two weeks after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the former president had no basis to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden’s decision to allow the documents to be handed over. That decision will remain on hold until the Supreme Court acts. Biden had previously determined that the records, which belong to the executive branch, shouldmore

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US Supreme Court to Take Up Biden Vaccine Mandate Cases 

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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to take up disputes over the Biden administration’s nationwide vaccine-or-testing COVID-19 mandate for large businesses and a separate vaccine requirement for health care workers. The brief court order said the court would hear oral arguments January 7 in the two cases, with rulings likely to follow in short order. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, delayed action on emergency requests in both cases that sought an immediate decision. The workplace mandate is currently in effect nationwide, while the health care worker mandate is blocked in half the 50 U.S. states. The challengesmore

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Biden Extends Pause on Student Loan Repayments 90 Days

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President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that his administration will extend the pause on student loan repayment in the United States until May 1, 2022, in response to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  According to a statement from the president released by the White House, pausing loan repayments is part of the country’s economic recovery.  “Today my administration is extending the pause on federal student loan repayments for an additional 90 days — through May 1, 2022 — as we manage the ongoing pandemic and further strengthen our economic recovery,” Biden said in a statement.  The Department of Education willmore

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Biden Announces New Effort to Fight Omicron Coronavirus Surge

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U.S. President Joe Biden laid out a new concerted effort Tuesday to combat the surging omicron variant of the coronavirus, dispatching federal health care workers to short-handed hospitals, pre-positioning the national stockpile of medical equipment around the country and offering 500 million free COVID-19 test kits to Americans. Biden detailed his attack plan in a White House address as the number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. is markedly increasing again, with 143,000 recorded on Monday, along with another 1,300 deaths. Nearly three-fourths of the new cases are linked to the highly transmissible omicron variant.  But Biden said thatmore

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White House Says Democrats ‘Need to Work Together’ on Biden Safety Net Legislation   

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U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration says it is looking to push ahead with work on a social safety net spending bill after a key Democrat in the Senate said he could not support it.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a briefing Monday that the administration is ready to “work like hell” with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and other members of the Democratic caucus in order to achieve its goal.  “What’s most on the President’s mind is the risk of inaction,” Psaki said.  “And if we do not act to get this legislation done and the components in it,more

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Pentagon Issues Rules Aimed at Stopping Rise of Extremism

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Warning that extremism in the ranks is increasing, Pentagon officials issued detailed new rules Monday prohibiting service members from actively engaging in extremist activities. The new guidelines come nearly a year after some current and former service members participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, triggering a broad department review.  According to the Pentagon, fewer than 100 military members are known to have been involved in substantiated cases of extremist activity in the past year. But it warns that the number may grow given recent spikes in domestic violent extremism, particularly among veterans. Officials said the new policy doesn’tmore

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Biden Welcomes Puppy to White House; No Word on Promised Cat

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President Joe Biden has welcomed a new addition to the family, a puppy named Commander. Biden shared a photo Monday on his official Twitter account with a caption that said, “Welcome to the White House, Commander” as well as a brief video of him tossing a ball to Commander and walking the leashed dog into the White House. No other details about the dog were provided.  The puppy appears to be a German shepherd, the breed of Biden’s other two dogs, and was a gift to him from his family, according to CNN, which first reported on the puppy’s arrivalmore

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US Climate Leadership Imperiled as Build Back Better Act Is Derailed

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When the Biden administration and congressional Democrats revealed the climate change elements of the Build Back Better Act, environmentalist groups in the United States and around the world celebrated. The proposed $555 billion investment in renewable energy and other climate-friendly efforts would have been the largest in history, and it came with a promise that America would lead the way toward a greener future.  On Sunday, though, that leadership role seemed to be suddenly snatched away, with the announcement by Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, that he would not support the bill. Manchin has long made itmore

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Trump Sues New York Attorney General, Seeking to End Civil Probe

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Former President Donald Trump sued New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, seeking to end a yearslong civil investigation into his business practices that he alleges is purely political. In the lawsuit, filed two weeks weeks after James requested that Trump sit for a Jan. 7 deposition, Trump contends the probe into matters including his company’s valuation of assets has violated his constitutional rights in a “thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.” The lawsuit describes James, a Democrat, as having “personal disdain for Trump” and points to numerous statements she’s made targeting him in recent years,more

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Schumer Announces Early 2022 Vote on Biden Safety Net Legislation

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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday the Senate will vote “very early in the new year” on President Joe Biden’s social safety net spending plan, expressing a need to push forward after a key Democrat said he could not support it. In a letter to Democratic colleagues, Schumer cited frustration and disappointment among members of his caucus as Senator Joe Manchin’s opposition to the roughly $2 trillion package scuttled hopes of Democratic leaders to get the legislation approved before the December 25 Christmas holiday.  “However, neither that delay, nor other recent pronouncements, will deter us from continuing tomore

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Johnny Isakson, Former Georgia Republican US Senator, Dies 

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Johnny Isakson, an affable Georgia Republican politician who rose from the ranks of the state legislature to become a U.S. senator known as an effective, behind-the-scenes consensus builder, died Sunday. He was 76. Isakson’s son John Isakson told The Associated Press that his father died in his sleep before dawn at his home in Atlanta. John Isakson said that although his father had Parkinson’s disease, the cause of death was not immediately apparent.  “He was a great man and I will miss him,” John Isakson said.  Johnny Isakson, whose real estate business made him a millionaire, spent more than fourmore

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Centrist US Lawmaker Announces Firm Opposition to Biden Safety Net Legislation

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A centrist U.S. Democratic lawmaker, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said Sunday he is definitively opposed to President Joe Biden’s roughly $2 trillion social safety net spending plan, likely dooming its passage without further sharp revisions in its scope and cost.  Manchin’s vote was essential in the politically divided Senate for passage of one of the key elements of the Democratic president’s legislative agenda. None of the 50 Republicans in the 100-member chamber supports the plan to expand health care for older Americans, provide universal pre-kindergarten classes, authorize new funding to combat climate change and offer more financial supportmore

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Despite Bonanza, Aid Trickles Slowly to US Homeless Students

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Frank Hardy, 18, has been homeless for the past eight years, moving in and out of shelters with his mom, or staying with his sister’s family while his mom has been in jail. As part of an economic stimulus package to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Congress voted in March to fast-track $800 million and urged educators to move quickly to aid the estimated 1.5 million students like Hardy who are homeless across America. But the cash has yet to reach the Los Angeles Unified School district, which oversees Hardy’s high school. Some states and school districts rushed theirmore

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Biden Pledges Fight for Voting Rights, Police Reform 

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President Joe Biden pledged Friday to fight for stalled voting rights and police reform legislation, addressing graduates of South Carolina State University amid the harsh reality that months of talks with lawmakers have failed to move the measures closer to becoming law. Biden spoke at the historically Black school a day after conceding that his nearly $2 trillion social and environmental bill was unlikely to become law this year, as he had hoped, due to continued disagreement among fellow Democrats. Republicans unanimously oppose the spending. Wearing a black gown as he delivered the December commencement address, the president bemoaned GOPmore

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US Senate Parliamentarian Deals Democrats Blow on Immigration

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Democrats must drop an effort to let millions of immigrants remain temporarily in the U.S. from their expansive social and environment bill, the Senate parliamentarian decided Thursday, dealing the latest blow to a longtime priority of the party, migrant advocates and progressives. The opinion by Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate’s nonpartisan arbiter of its rules, all but certainly means Democrats will ultimately have to pull the proposal from their 10-year, roughly $2 trillion package. The measure carries health care, family services and climate change initiatives, mostly paid for with higher taxes on corporations and the rich, that are top priorities formore

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Despite Control of Congress, Democrats’ Agenda Appears Stalled 

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Heading into what analysts expect to be their last year with unified control of Congress and the presidency for the foreseeable future, it remains unclear whether the Democratic Party will be able to capitalize on the opportunity to see key legislative priorities enacted into law.  This week, just as Democratic lawmakers were celebrating a pair of significant victories on Capitol Hill, two members essential to their tenuous hold on the Senate majority signaled that they will block the party’s two biggest legislative priorities. That raised questions about how the Democrats will spend the remainder of the 117th Congress.  On Wednesday,more

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US Senate Democrats Lack Unanimity on Biden’s Social, Climate Package

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Democrats in the U.S. Senate appear to have one key holdout in their push to pass a major social and environmental bill before next week’s Christmas holiday. The Associated Press, Reuters and other news organizations reported Wednesday that based on information from people familiar with ongoing negotiations, Senator Joe Manchin is objecting to a piece of the legislation that extends an expiring child tax credit program for one year. He told reporters Wednesday that he has “always been for child tax credits” and that reports about his opposition to including them in the legislation were “a lot of bad rumors.”more

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US Senate Passes $770 Billion Defense Bill, Biden’s Signature Next

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The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday for a version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, that authorizes $770 billion in defense spending — $25 billion more than requested by President Joe Biden —sending the measure to the White House for the president’s signature.  The vote was 89-10, with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans for the annual legislation setting policy for the Department of Defense. The House of Representatives passed it by 363-70 last week.  Biden is expected to sign the bill, but the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on itsmore

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US House Votes 222-208 to Refer Contempt Charges Against Top Trump Aide

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The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a resolution that calls on the Justice Department to formally charge Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, with criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to the special committee investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters.  The resolution passed the Democratic-led House late Tuesday night by a vote of  222-208, with just two Republicans joining all Democrats voting in favor. The two Republicans, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney, serve on the special committee with seven Democrats that voted unanimously Monday to recommend that Meadows face criminal charges.   Meadows handed overmore

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