Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 46
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan said the Republican drubbing in Tuesday night's elections "just puts more pressure on making sure we follow through" on the party's drive to overhaul the tax code. Ryan's comments Wednesday came as the House Ways and Means Committee entered its third day of debate on the nearly $6 trillion legislation, with the Republican-led panel wading through dozens of amendments and rejecting Democrats' efforts to revise the bill. Republicans are determined to produce tax cuts and send a measure to President Donald...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Leading lawmakers are calling for mandatory training and other steps to prevent sexual harassment in Congress as the national spotlight on gender hostility in the workplace falls on Capitol Hill. The calls from House Speaker Paul Ryan and others follow a series of news reports about women staffers and lawmakers experiencing harassment and sexual advances on the job. The Associated Press reported Friday on the experiences of one current and three former female lawmakers, who said they had fended off unwanted advances, sexual c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, Republican Rep. Mary Bono endured increasingly suggestive comments from a fellow lawmaker in the House of Representatives. But when the congressman approached her on the House floor and told her he'd been thinking about her in the shower, she'd had enough. She confronted the man, who she said still serves in Congress, telling him his comments were demeaning and wrong. And he backed off. Bono, who served 15 years before being defeated in 2012, is not alone. As reports pile up of harassment or worse by men in e...
WASHINGTON (AP) — There was no dam break of Republican rancor against Donald Trump on Wednesday, a day after a pair of the party's prominent senators denounced their president and invited colleagues to join them. Instead, most GOP lawmakers rallied around Trump and his agenda, with one all but saying "good riddance" to Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee. "Maybe we do better by having some of the people who just don't like him leave, and replace them with somebody else," Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma told The Associated Press. "...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A pair of senators from President Donald Trump's own Republican Party blistered him with criticism Tuesday in a dramatic day of denunciation that laid bare a GOP at war with itself. Jeff Flake of Arizona declared he would not be "complicit" with Trump and announced his surprise retirement, while Bob Corker of Tennessee declared the president "debases our nation" with constant untruths and name-calling. Corker, too, is retiring at the end of his term, and the White House shed no tears at the prospect of the two GOP senators' de...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan proposal to calm churning health insurance markets gained momentum Thursday when enough lawmakers rallied behind it to give it potentially unstoppable Senate support. But its fate remained unclear as some Republicans sought changes that could threaten Democratic backing. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said their plan had 24 sponsors, divided evenly between both parties, for resuming federal subsidies to insurers. Trump has blocked the money and w...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at Sen. Bob Corker as "Liddle' Bob Corker" on Tuesday, escalating a feud with the Tennessee Republican who's dubbed the White House an "adult day care center" and charged that Trump could be setting the nation on the path toward World War III. Fellow GOP senators, treading carefully, avoided siding with Trump or with Corker. But leading lawmakers called on both men to end a quarrel that could imperil the Republican agenda on Capitol Hill. Trump will need Corker if he is to get big tax c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association joined the Trump administration and top congressional Republicans Thursday in a swift and surprising embrace of a restriction on Americans' guns, though a narrow one: to regulate the "bump stock" devices the Las Vegas shooter apparently used to horrifically lethal effect. The devices, originally intended to help people with disabilities, fit over the stock and grip of a semi-automatic rifle and allow the weapon to fire continuously, some 400 to 800 rounds in a single minute. Bump stocks were f...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association has joined the Trump administration and top congressional Republicans in a swift and surprising embrace of a restriction on Americans' guns, though a narrow one: to regulate the "bump stock" devices the Las Vegas shooter apparently used to horrifically lethal effect. The devices, originally intended to help people with disabilities, fit over the stock and grip of a semi-automatic rifle and allow the weapon to fire continuously, some 400 to 800 rounds in a single minute. Bump stocks were found a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior congressional Republicans said Wednesday they are open to considering legislation banning "bump stocks" like the shooter in Las Vegas apparently used to effectively convert semi-automatic rifles into fully automated weapons. The comments from lawmakers including the No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, marked a surprising departure from GOP lawmakers' general antipathy to gun regulations of any kind. But they were far from a guarantee of a path forward for the new legislation by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D...
WASHINGTON (AP) — "Obamacare" lives on. Senate Republicans, short of votes, abandoned their latest and possibly final attempt to kill the health care law Tuesday, just ahead of a critical end-of-the-week deadline. The repeal-and-replace bill's authors promised to try again at a later date, while President Donald Trump railed against "certain so-called Republicans" who opposed the GOP effort. But for now, Trump and fellow Republicans who vowed for seven years to abolish President Barack Obama's law will leave it standing and turn their a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain declared his opposition Friday to the GOP's last-ditch effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare," dealing a likely death blow to the legislation and, perhaps, to the Republican Party's years of vows to kill the program. "I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal," McCain said in a statement, referring to the bill by Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. His opposition likely leaves the bill at least one vote short of the support needed for passage. "I belie...
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan backed off months of promises that the Republicans' tax plan won't add to the nation's ballooning deficit, declaring Wednesday in an AP Newsmaker interview that the most important goal of an overhaul is economic growth. Asked twice whether he would insist the emerging tax plan won't pile more billions onto the $20 trillion national debt, Ryan passed up the chance to affirm that commitment. GOP leaders made that "revenue neutral" promise in a campaign manifesto last year and many times since. "We want p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Frustrated with his own party's leaders in Congress, President Donald Trump talked up his suddenly cozier relationship with Democrats on Thursday, raising the prospect of new deals on government spending and even posting one of his tweets at their behest. "I think that's a great thing for our country," Trump said, describing his new and "different relationship" with Democrats. In public, Republican leaders glossed over the striking turn of events, but lawmakers in both parties were privately puzzling over how Trump's a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump briskly overruled congressional Republicans and his own treasury secretary Wednesday to cut a deal with Democrats to keep the government operating and raise America's debt limit. The immediate goal was ensuring money for hurricane relief, but in the process the president brazenly rolled his own party's leaders. In deal-making mode, Trump sided with the Democratic leaders — "Chuck and Nancy," as he amiably referred later to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday he sees the possibility for compromise after President Donald Trump gave Congress six months to resolve the status of young immigrants living in the country illegally. And he called on Trump to work with the House to get there. "If we have legislation coming through here that is worked with and supported by the president I'm very confident that our members will support that," Ryan said. Trump said Wednesday he has "no second thoughts" a day after announcing an end to the Deferred A...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers returned to Washington Tuesday facing a daunting to-do list and three months left in the year to show that Republicans can actually get things done. President Donald Trump immediately added a huge complication by rescinding immigration protections for younger immigrants and ordering Congress to come up with a fix. The immigration issue has defeated Congress' best efforts in the past and proven enormously divisive for the GOP. But for now there's not even room for it on the front burner as lawmakers, just back from a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has sent lawmakers an initial request for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts. The request, expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, would add $7.4 billion to rapidly dwindling Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid coffers and $450 million to finance disaster loans for small businesses. Republican leaders are already making plans to use the aid package, certain to be overwhelmingly popular, to win speedy approval of a contentious increase in the federal bo...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House plans to ask Congress Friday for a $5.9 billion down payment for initial Harvey recovery efforts. Republican leaders are already making plans to use the aid package, certain to be overwhelmingly popular, to win speedy approval of a contentious increase in the federal borrowing limit. A senior House Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were private, disclosed the approach. It ignores objections from House conservatives who are insisting that disaster money for Harvey s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three Republican senators on Thursday threatened to hold up health legislation in the Senate unless they got assurances from Speaker Paul Ryan that the House would negotiate a more comprehensive replacement to "Obamacare" and not vote to make the Senate bill law. Ryan responded that "the House is willing" to convene a conference committee with the Senate to that end. But it was unclear whether the speaker's response would satisfy the senators' demands, leaving health legislation in limbo once again at a crucial moment. The c...
WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain seemed poised to be the savior of the GOP health bill when he returned to the Capitol despite a brain cancer diagnosis. He turned out to be the executioner. The longtime Arizona senator stunned pretty much everyone Friday by turning on his party and his president and joining two other GOP senators in voting "no" on the Republicans' final effort to repeal "Obamacare." That killed the bill. And it also dealt what looks like a death blow to the Republican Party's years of promises to get rid of Barack Obama's h...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The resounding Senate crash of the seven-year Republican drive to scrap the Obama health care law incited GOP finger-pointing Friday but left the party with wounded leaders and no evident pathway forward on an issue that won't go away. In an astonishing cliff-hanger, the GOP-run Senate voted 51-49 to reject Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's last ditch attempt to sustain their drive to dismantle President Barack Obama's health care overhaul with a starkly trimmed-down bill. The vote, which concluded shortly before 2 a.m. E...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lecturing fellow Republicans, President Donald Trump summoned GOP senators to the White House Wednesday and told them face-to-face they must not leave town for their August recess without sending him an "Obamacare" repeal bill to sign. Senators responded by vowing to revive legislative efforts left for dead twice already this week. Success was far from assured, but Trump declared "I'm ready to act," putting the responsibility on Republican lawmakers, not himself. During last year's presidential campaign he had declared r...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared Tuesday it's time to "let Obamacare fail" after the latest GOP health care plan crashed and burned in the Senate, a stunning failure for the president, Republican leader Mitch McConnell and a party that has vowed for years to abolish the law. In a head-spinning series of developments, rank-and-file Republican senators turned on McConnell and Trump for the third time in a row, denying the votes to move forward with a plan for a straight-up repeal of "Obamacare." This time, it was three GOP w...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate delayed a highly anticipated vote this coming week to repeal and replace the nation's health care law after Sen. John McCain's announced absence due to surgery, an enormous setback as time dwindles for Republicans to pass the signature legislation after years of promises. The decision by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell late Saturday came not long after McCain's office disclosed that he had undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye. He's expected to be out for the week, recovering in A...
