National Politics

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and their respective former first ladies are part of a newly released ad campaign urging Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine when it is their turn, a push that is aimed squarely at combating vaccine skepticism. There are two ads in the campaign: a

Democrats’ slim majorities in both the House and Senate are testing President Joe Biden’s ability to get his priorities through Congress, as lawmakers turn their attention to legislative work beyond relief from the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, was voted out of the House Wednesday and onto Biden’s desk, after a difficult passage

The House is set to vote Thursday on legislation that would expand background checks on all commercial gun sales, marking the first congressional move on significant gun control since Democrats won the White House and the majority in both chambers of Congress. The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, H.R. 8, would expand background checks

The Biden administration has pledged a laser-like focus on the judiciary in the coming months, vowing to not only prioritize nominations but also cast a wide net in its search for potential appointees. It is a welcome development for progressives seeking to optimize the thin Democratic majority in the Senate and quickly regain ground lost

A Texas county judge has temporarily blocked the state’s efforts to remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, hours after the group’s affiliates alleged that the state failed to provide adequate notice in a regulatory battle affecting thousands of low-income Texans during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. A slew of Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates asserted in a lawsuit

Thousands of Texans are slated to lose their health care provider after a Texas judge on Wednesday allowed the state to remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program. Texas has long sought to ban Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions in Texas, from Medicaid. Medicaid funding does not cover abortions except in cases of rape or

Millions of dollars in funding from the Covid-19 relief bill passed Wednesday will be used to help the federal government improve its cybersecurity efforts in the wake of high-profile breaches that have caused alarm for officials and lawmakers. “[I]t reflects a recognition by this administration of the urgency of improving cybersecurity,” said cyber chief Eric

Two federal employees are calling for an investigation into the hiring of a senior Justice Department official who had been interviewed by a manager who resigned shortly after — and just days before President Joe Biden‘s inauguration. The anonymous whistleblowers accuse Jeffrey Bossert Clark of conducting a bogus interview process for the assistant director of

He’s undecided on the nominee to head Health and Human Services. He’s not sure if he’ll back the No. 3 for the Justice Department, or the undersecretary of policy at the Pentagon. He says maintaining the 60 vote-requirement to overcome a filibuster is a “red line” for him. And he’s made clear he’ll block advancing

Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry embarked this week on what he called a “constructive trip” to Europe, meeting leaders there before Secretary of State Antony Blinken had even packed a suitcase for his international debut as the United States’ most senior diplomat. Blinken blessed and supported the trip, a State Department official told

When President Joe Biden welcomed lawmakers into the Oval Office for his very first publicly scheduled meeting with members of Congress, he spoke exclusively with Republican senators — an apparent effort to reach across the aisle to get their support for his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal. Now, a month later, that legislation is being

Secretary of State Tony Blinken for the first time Wednesday used the term “ethnic cleansing” to describe human rights abuses he said have been carried out in the Western Tigray region of Ethiopia, calling the situation “unacceptable.” “The challenge in Ethiopia is very significant. And it’s one that we’re very, very focused on, particularly the

In the second half of 2020, Republican-led states had higher Covid-19 case rates and death rates than Democrat-led states, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on Tuesday. States with Democratic governors had higher case and death rates in the early months of the pandemic, but trends reversed in the

The White House plans to deploy its messaging blitz to tout the newly passed $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan to “every corner” of the country in the weeks ahead, zeroing in on key components each day as it seeks to maintain — or build on — the proposal’s current popularity, according to an internal memo

A nonprofit watchdog group has filed a complaint with the House Committee on Ethics, requesting an investigation into 13 Republican House members who used the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to skip in-person votes to attend a conservative conference last month. The Campaign for Accountability in its complaint requested guidance “explaining that members of Congress

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will restart the Central American Minors program, which allows certain at-risk Central American youths to live in the US. The program had allowed children under age 21 who have parents lawfully living in the US to seek entry into the country from their places of origin if they

A Florida Senate panel on Wednesday voted to advance a revamped election bill that would ban drop boxes used for mail-in ballots, among other changes, despite bipartisan opposition from local election supervisors. Committee Substitute Senate Bill 90, approved 4-2 along party lines, would also prohibit anyone other than an immediate family member from picking up