While Mitch McConnell’s Senate is on recess this week, the House is in session and is taking up a bill making changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to make it more flexible and a better fit for small businesses, including extending the deadline for paying back the loans, allowing a larger percentage to be…
President Donald Trump is lunching with Senate Republicans in the Capitol and prodding them to launch subpoenas against his enemies. Joe Biden is stuck in Delaware and has yet to hold even a conference call with House or Senate Democrats. At this point in a typical presidential campaign, Biden probably would have already visited with…
A bloc of progressive House lawmakers wants to slash the Pentagon’s budget in defense policy legislation, arguing extra money that would go toward military hardware would be better spent fighting the coronavirus. Twenty nine House Democrats insisted in a letter to leaders of the House Armed Services Committee that the National Defense Authorization Act should…
Even as coronavirus deaths mount and infections make inroads into the White House, President Donald Trump is maintaining his upbeat message about reopening the country and restarting the economy. Trump has branded the moment a “transition to greatness,” casting himself as a “wartime president” and Americans as warriors in an epic battle against a disease…
A top GOP lawmaker tapped to lead a House panel scrutinizing China disclosed his family’s investment in a major Chinese tech company linked to surveillance and censorship, according to a congressional form filed in his name. A periodic transaction report filed on April 20 in the name of Rep. Michael McCaul, who represents Texas’ 10th…
The Trump White House is planning to wind down its coronavirus task force in the coming weeks and instead ask agencies to take control of the response efforts. “We’re having a conversation about that and about what the proper time is for the task force to complete its work,” Vice President Mike Pence said at…
Jared Kushner raised eyebrows Wednesday when he proclaimed on Fox News that the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic was a “great success story.” “The federal government rose to the challenge," the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law said. "I think that that’s really, you know, what needs to be told." The statement quickly took…
The House Judiciary Committee demanded Thursday that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos testify on whether the company misled Congress about the data tactics it deploys against rivals, setting up a major potential fight with the company. The committee’s Democratic leaders said last week that the company might have given lawmakers false information last year about whether…
Amy Klobuchar is kicking off her next act. Two months after ending her presidential campaign and amid vice presidential speculation, the Minnesota Democrat is launching a new effort to help direct money and campaign help to down-ballot Democrats. The endeavor — called the Win Big Project, a play on one of Klobuchar’s 2020 campaign slogans…
President Donald Trump plans to travel to Phoenix next Tuesday to visit a Honeywell facility that produces face masks, marking his first trip outside of Washington in a month. Trump’s visit is expected to highlight Honeywell’s investment in the production of critical medical equipment, as well as the addition of 500 manufacturing jobs in Arizona,…
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats and the Trump administration have reached a deal on a new round of coronavirus aid, though staffers working on the bill cautioned negotiations were not complete. The New York Democrat said that he believed the Senate would pass legislation delivering nearly a half trillion dollars to small businesses,…
Mike Martin, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, is leaving the White House later this month, according to a White House official. Martin worked under President Donald Trump’s last two national security advisors, John Bolton and Robert O’Brien. During that time, he played a lead role in crafting White House messaging for some of…
The Trump administration is asking a bipartisan group of lawmakers to join a task force on reopening the economy, according to Hill sources familiar with the matter. Senators and House members received notifications Wednesday from the White House. The Democratic senators invited to the task force are Tom Carper of Delaware, Tammy Duckworth and Dick…
A single weekend retweet from Donald Trump — as he’s done thousands of times during his presidency — kicked up a storm of outrage and concern about the president’s state of mind, his reliance on public health experts and his path ahead for digging the nation out of a coronavirus shutdown. Trump on Sunday evening…