Lawmakers are laying the groundwork for making sure the other party gets the blame in the event of a government shutdown at the end of the month.
As both sides work out a game plan for funding the government before a Sept. 30 deadline, lawmakers have increasingly been trading insults and pointing fingers over who would be at fault if the lights go out.
In remarks from the Senate floor Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sounded the alarm over t...
Senate
Distrust clouds Democratic strategy amid shutdown battle with GOP
House Democrats are hanging their hopes on party leaders in the Senate to block any government spending bill crafted solely by the GOP, but there’s plenty of distrust between the chambers hovering over the debate.
Behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), House Democrats were virtually united against a Republican spending bill in March, only to watch angrily as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a small group of upper chamber Democrats backed t...
Schumer warns of growing chance of government shutdown
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned his Democratic colleagues in a letter Tuesday of the growing chance of a government shutdown, declaring that “Republicans are once again threatening to go-at-it-alone” by not negotiating with Democrats on a stopgap spending measure.
Schumer said the Trump administration is provoking a standoff over government funding by moving forward with a “pocket rescission” to claw back nearly $5 billion in federal funding for the S...
Trump, GOP face tough choices for second tax bill
President Trump and Republican lawmakers passed their major tax-and-spending cut bill earlier this summer, faster than almost anyone else in Washington, D.C., was expecting.
Now, they're planning their second act.
The new law extended Republicans’ 2017 tax-rate reductions while making big cuts to healthcare and other social programs, adding $3.4 trillion to the national deficit through the next decade.
But there's still plenty of tax policy left for Con...
Schumer, Jeffries call on GOP leaders to meet to avoid government shutdown
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) have sent a letter to Republican leaders calling on them to schedule a meeting “immediately” to discuss the path to a funding deal to avoid a government shutdown after Sept. 30.
Schumer and Jeffries want a “four corners” negotiation of the top party leadership in each chamber to put together a deal on a stopgap funding measure that would give lawmakers more time to finish work o...
Scholten drops out of Iowa Senate race, endorses fellow state rep
Iowa State Rep. J.D. Scholten (D) announced Monday he is suspending his campaign for U.S. Senate and endorsing fellow State Rep. Josh Turek (D) in his bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Joni Ernst (R).
“Today I am suspending my campaign. I know this may come as a surprise but I made this decision because I think it's in the best interest of Iowans and myself,” Scholten said in a statement.
“From the very beginning, I thought a prairie populist athlete from Western Iowa ...
US Chamber takes lead in selling Trump, GOP ‘big, beautiful bill’ after Medicaid fight
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is taking the lead in helping congressional Republican sell President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act to a skeptical public after this year’s bruising battle over deep Medicaid cuts tarnished the public image of President Trump’s signature legislative accomplishment.
The U.S. Chamber, one of the nation’s pre-eminent business groups, plans to hold 100 round-table discussions about the trillions of dollars in assorted tax cuts and tax incentiv...
Democrats divided over looming government shutdown fight
Democrats are deeply divided over how hard to press their leverage with President Trump and his Republican allies on getting concessions in a bill to fund the government that needs to pass by Sept. 30 to avoid a shutdown.
Senate Democrats held a tense lunch meeting Tuesday to discuss their plan for how to vote on the first spending bill to reach the floor — the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations bill — as well as their strategy for how to handle the end-o...
Republicans gear up to sell their ‘big, beautiful bill’ back home
Senate Republicans are quickly shifting into sales mode as they attempt to pitch voters on their mammoth tax and spending bill in the face of an onslaught of Democratic attacks.
Republicans accomplished a herculean lift in getting the “big, beautiful bill” to President Trump’s desk by July 4. But that might be nothing compared to the task of selling a bill that even some within their party expressed deep reservations about — and that some are fretting could have an Affordab...
GOP faces ‘big, beautiful’ blowback risk on ObamaCare subsidy cuts
Medicaid cuts have received the lion’s share of attention from critics of Republicans’ sweeping tax cuts legislation, but the GOP’s decision not to extend enhanced ObamaCare subsidies could have a much more immediate impact ahead of next year’s midterms.
Extra subsidies put in place during the coronavirus pandemic are set to expire at the end of the year, and there are few signs Republicans are interested in tackling the issue at all.
To date, only Se...