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Senate
Annie Clark: Communications director, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine); Republican communications director, Senate Appropriations Committee
Annie Clark is a key adviser to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), one of the Senate’s most effective bipartisan dealmakers, who is expected to take over as chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee if Republicans win back control of the chamber in November.
As the top Republican spokesperson for the Appropriations Committee, Clark will be in the center of the storm when the debate over the annual spending bills takes center stage this fall.
Reporters know that Clark...
Key takeaways from the Senate’s second IVF clash
Senate Republicans on Tuesday for the second time blocked a Democratic bill that would have created a federal right to in-vitro fertilization and guaranteed insurance coverage of IVF and other fertility treatments.
Republicans blocked the same bill in June, and the outcome this time around was never in doubt. Just like in June, the GOP decried it as a show vote. Only Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted with Democrats.
House, Senate Democrats press leadership to quickly extend ObamaCare subsidies
House and Senate Democrats are pressing leadership to quickly pass legislation extending ObamaCare’s enhanced subsidies before they expire at the end of 2025.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) led a letter sent Wednesday to bipartisan leaders in both chambers urging them to act “at the next possible legislative opportunity.” It was signed by 41 Senate Democrats and 154 House Democrats.
The enhanced subsidies were first put in...
Republicans block Senate Democrats’ IVF bill
Republicans on Tuesday blocked a bill that would have created a right to access in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments and mandated that insurance plans cover the practice, deriding the vote as a political ploy.
Senators voted against advancing the bill, 51-44, marking the second time Democrats have sought to put Republicans on the record on the contentious issue. Sixty votes were needed to open debate on the measure.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa...
Democrats bet Harris will move left as president
Democratic lawmakers are giving Vice President Harris a pass on her policy flip-flops and efforts to tack toward the political center, confident that she’s still a progressive at heart and will fight hard to achieve their goals on tax policy, climate change and other priorities.
Even the Senate's most liberal Democrats say they aren't worried about Harris backing away from her previous support for Medicare for All or a fracking ban because they believe she will push hard to re...
Republicans worry Trump blowing their chances for Senate majority
Senate Republicans are worried that former President Trump could be blowing their chances of winning back the majority as he flails in his response to Vice President Harris’s surge of momentum, according to GOP aides and strategists.
Harris has narrowed Trump’s lead in Republican-leaning Senate battlegrounds such as Ohio and Florida and pulled ahead in other states where Republicans have a chance of picking up seats, such as Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
...
Harris blindsided Democrats with ‘no tax on tips’ plan
Vice President Harris blindsided Democratic lawmakers and progressive activists by endorsing a proposal first floated by former President Trump to exempt tips for service and hospitality workers from taxes, an idea that Democrats had previously criticized as “bogus” and a “ploy” for votes.
Harris’s support for the idea is being seen as an aggressive play for votes in Nevada, a critical swing state where service workers will be key, and as an effort to neutralize whatever advan...
GOP ready to pounce on Harris policy pivots
Vice President Harris’s quick pivot to her White House bid has prompted an about-face on multiple key issues that could affect outcomes in battleground states, handing former President Trump and Republicans a prime attack line.
In the roughly one week since Harris replaced President Biden as the probable Democratic nominee, her campaign has moved to distance her from a series of positions she took when she was a candidate in the 2020 presidential primary.
She no long...
Behind hoopla, Democrats anxious about Harris
Behind the public jubilation over Vice President Harris’s swift rise to become their party’s likely nominee for president, Democratic lawmakers are privately anxious about her prospects of defeating former President Trump, acknowledging that she is largely untested as a candidate and faces serious challenges.
The anxiety, for the most part, has been set aside out of a deep sense of relief that President Biden decided to drop his reelection bid. After months of unease over the ...