GOP Blocks Senate COVID Bill, Demands Votes on Immigration

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Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt Tuesday to begin Senate debate on a $10 billion COVID-19 compromise, pressing to entangle the bipartisan package with an election-year showdown over immigration restrictions that poses a politically uncomfortable fight for Democrats.  A day after Democratic and GOP bargainers reached agreement on providing the money for treatments, vaccines and testing, a Democratic move to push the measure past a procedural hurdle failed 52-47. All 50 Republicans opposed the move, leaving Democrats 13 votes short of the 60 they needed to prevail.  Hours earlier, Republicans said they’d withhold crucial support for the measure unless Democrats agreedmore

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Biden Proposal Would Fix Glitch, Expand Health Care Access

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U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced plans to expand access to health care by proposing changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to allow millions of additional American families to purchase health insurance plans and obtain tax credits to offset the cost. “When today’s proposed rule is finalized, starting next year, working families will get the help they need to afford full family coverage — everyone in the family,” Biden said in remarks at the White House ahead of signing an executive order to improve access to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. Biden was accompanied by Vice Presidentmore

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Ivanka Trump Testifies About 2021 US Capitol Riot

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Ivanka Trump, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter and one of his senior advisers, testified Tuesday before the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.   Her testimony, given remotely, came days after her husband, Jared Kushner, another former senior White House adviser, testified virtually before the committee.  The nine lawmakers investigating the attack — seven Democrats and two Republicans — have been intrigued by the role Ivanka Trump played at the White House as her father made last-minute pleas to then-Vice President Mike Pence to try to block lawmakers from certifyingmore

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US Senate Bargainers Reach Agreement on $10 Billion COVID Package

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Senate bargainers have reached agreement on a slimmed-down $10 billion package for countering COVID-19, the top Democratic and Republican negotiators said Monday, but the measure dropped all funding to help nations abroad combat the pandemic.  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the deal would give the government “the tools we need” to continue battling the disease. Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, trumpeted budget savings in the measure that he said meant it “will not cost the American people a single additional dollar.”  At least half the measure would have to be used tomore

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Biden Supreme Court Nominee Advances to Full Senate Vote Later This Week

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Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson advanced one step closer to serving on the U.S. Supreme Court with a key U.S. Senate committee Monday advancing her nomination for a full floor vote later this week.  U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve on the highest court in the country is expected to pass the narrowly-Democratic-controlled Senate, making her the first African American female Supreme Court justice in U.S. history.  Senate Democrats praised Jackson’s breadth of experience ahead of the vote on her nomination, calling her one of the most qualified nominees in the history of the Supreme Court.  “Justice Jackson will bringmore

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Palin Files Paperwork to Run in Alaska US House Race

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Sarah Palin on Friday shook up an already unpredictable race for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, filing paperwork to join a field of at least 40 candidates seeking to fill the seat that had been held for 49 years by the late-U.S. Rep. Don Young, who died last month. Palin filed paperwork Friday with a Division of Elections office in Wasilla, said Tiffany Montemayor, a division spokesperson. The paperwork was being processed by the division, she said. The field includes current and former state legislators and a North Pole city council member named Santa Claus. The deadline to file wasmore

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Trump Son-in-Law Kushner Testifies in Capitol Riot Probe

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Former White House aide Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former U.S. President Donald Trump, answered questions Thursday from the House panel investigating last year’s assault on the Capitol.  Kushner, the highest-ranking Trump adviser and the first family member to testify so far, appeared in private by video link voluntarily and was not subpoenaed.  The House of Representatives committee is piecing together a detailed account of the events of the January 6 insurrection itself, but also of efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the misinformation campaign falsely claiming widespread fraud that led to the violence.   Kushner was returningmore

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Trump Asks Putin for Dirt on Biden Family, in Echo of 2016

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In an interview Tuesday, former U.S. President Donald Trump specifically asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to release information that Trump believes would implicate the family of U.S. President Joe Biden in financial wrongdoing. In the interview with the “Just the News” television program on the network Real America’s Voice, Trump suggested that Putin might want to provide the information because he thinks it would harm the United States. “As long as Putin now is not exactly a fan of our country,” Trump said, the Russian leader might be willing to explain why in 2014 Russian businesswoman Elena Baturina, the wifemore

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US Congress Moves Closer to Passing Major China Legislation

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The U.S. Congress is one step closer this week to passing major legislation addressing competitiveness with China. The America Competes Act passed the U.S. Senate on Monday on a vote of 68-28, setting the stage for the legislation to be reconciled in the U.S. House of Representatives for final passage. A significantly different version of that legislation passed the U.S. House in February on a vote of 222-210.    The White House welcomed progress on the legislation in a statement Monday night, saying “there is clear bipartisan support for the sorts of investments the president has long championed — likemore

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Biden Defiant, Cites ‘Moral Outrage’ as Reason for Putin Comments

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U.S. President Joe Biden’s whirlwind diplomatic tour of Europe might be most remembered by his words about Russian President Vladimir Putin: “This man cannot remain in power.” Two days after his utterance, Biden clarified that although he won’t back down from the sentiment, the U.S. did not plan to take Putin out of office. VOA’s Anita Powell reports, from the White House, on what this means as this Ukraine conflict enters a second month. …

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Democrats Push Toward Vote on Jackson for Supreme Court

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The Senate Judiciary Committee is pushing Ketanji Brown Jackson closer to confirmation, setting up a vote next week to recommend her nomination to the full Senate and seat her as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.  Jackson appears to be on a glidepath to confirmation by mid-April, even if she doesn’t receive the bipartisan votes that President Joe Biden has sought. Democrats can confirm her without one Republican vote in the 50-50 Senate, as long as every Democrat supports her. Vice President Kamala Harris can break a tie.  At a brief meeting Monday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dickmore

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‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Signed by Florida Governor DeSantis

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law on Monday that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, a policy that has drawn intense national scrutiny from critics who argue it marginalizes LGBTQ people.  The legislation has pushed Florida and DeSantis, an ascending Republican and potential 2024 presidential candidate, to the forefront of the country’s culture wars. LGBTQ advocates, students, Democrats, the entertainment industry and the White House have dubbed the measure the “Don’t Say Gay” law.  DeSantis and other Republicans have repeatedly said the measure was reasonable and that parents, not teachers,more

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Black Representation at Heart of Louisiana Redistricting Battle

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“In a democracy, the number of voters you have should determine the number of representatives you can elect,” James Gilmore, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told VOA. “But that’s not the case in Louisiana and many other U.S. states. The latest redistricting maps are proof of that.” Redistricting is the decennial process in which congressional districts are redrawn to reflect changes in the population as determined by the U.S. census. “The strength of the system is that it balances the size of districts so that they all have roughly equal populations,” explained Robert Collins, professor of urban studies and public policymore

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Biden Budget to Trim $1 Trillion from Deficits Over Next Decade 

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President Joe Biden intends to propose a spending plan for the 2023 budget year that would cut projected deficits by more than $1 trillion over the next decade, according to a fact sheet released Saturday by the White House budget office.  In his proposal, expected Monday, the lower deficits reflect the economy’s resurgence as the United States emerges from the pandemic, as well as likely tax law changes that would raise more than enough revenue to offset additional investments planned by the Biden administration. It’s a sign that the government’s balance sheet will improve after a historic burst of spendingmore

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Reports: Justice Thomas’ Wife Urged Overturning 2020 Election

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Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent weeks of text messages imploring White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to act to overturn the 2020 presidential election — furthering then-President Donald Trump’s lies that the free and fair vote was marred by nonexistent fraud, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.  The 29 messages the pair exchanged came in the weeks after the vote in November 2020, when Trump and his top allies were still saying they planned to go to the Supreme Court to have its results voided.  Themore

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Idaho Governor Signs Abortion Ban Modeled on Texas Law

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Idaho on Wednesday became the first state to enact a law modeled after a Texas statute that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and that can be enforced through lawsuits to avoid constitutional court challenges. Republican Governor Brad Little signed into law the measure that allows people who would have been family members to sue a doctor who performed an abortion after cardiac activity had been detected in an embryo. Still, he said he had concerns about whether the law was constitutional. “I stand in solidarity with all Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of preborn babies,”more

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New Mexico Elected Official Guilty of Illegally Entering Capitol on Jan. 6

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An elected official from New Mexico has been found guilty of two misdemeanor charges for his role in the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol that allegedly attempted to disrupt certification of the 2020 election results. Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was found guilty of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol but was acquitted of engaging in disorderly conduct. The trial, presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, lasted one day without a jury. McFadden, who was appointed by former president Donald Trump, said Griffin, who crossed over three barricades, knew he was in a restricted partmore

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Jackson Weathers First Day of Senate Confirmation Hearings for Supreme Court

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In the first of four days of scheduled hearings to discuss the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that their treatment of Jackson would break along partisan lines, with Democrats highlighting her qualifications and Republicans raising questions about her record. Currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Jackson is the first Black woman, and only the third Black person overall, to be tapped for a seat on the nation’s highest court.   The first day of hearings consisted of the roughlymore

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Jackson, 1st Black female High Court Pick, Faces Senators

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WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee is beginning historic confirmation hearings Monday for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who would be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Barring a significant misstep by the 51-year-old Jackson, a federal judge for the past nine years, Democrats who control the Senate by the slimmest of margins intend to wrap up her confirmation before Easter. Jackson is expected to present an opening statement Monday afternoon, then answer questions from the committee’s 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans over the next two days. She will be introduced by Thomas B. Griffith, a retired judge for themore

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Rep. Don Young, Longtime Alaska Congressman, Dies at 88

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Alaska Rep. Don Young, who was the longest-serving Republican in the history of the U.S. House, has died. He was 88. His office announced Young’s death in a statement Friday night. “It’s with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce Congressman Don Young (R-AK), the Dean of the House and revered champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to be with the state and people that he loved. His beloved wife Anne was by his side,” said the statement from Young’s congressional office. The Anchorage Daily News reported that Young lost consciousness on a flightmore

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