Author: SUSAN FERRECHIO Washington Examiner

The House will take up a $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending bill on Wednesday, and Democratic leaders say they have the votes to pass it. “I’m 110% confident that the votes exist to pass the American Rescue Plan,” House Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, told reporters on Tuesday. Senate Democrats approved the measure…

Senate Democrats reached a deal with key centrists, including Joe Manchin, on a $1.9 trillion spending package to extend enhanced federal unemployment benefits until Sept. 6 but lower them from $400 to $300 per week while making the first $10,600 nontaxable. The deal will help Democrats pass the spending package without the help of GOP…

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he’s open to a minimum wage increase, which could pave the way for Congress to strike a deal to raise pay nationally. “It’s true it hasn’t been raised in quite a while, and I think it’s worth discussing,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told reporters. Republicans have…

Senate and House Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday to expand firearm background checks in what could become the first new gun control law in decades. The House will vote on the bill next week, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, announced Tuesday. Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Mike Thompson reintroduced the bill in the Senate…

Realizing they lack a path to 51 votes, Senate Democrats appear ready to abandon a plan to add a minimum wage hike to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending package. Senate Democrats said it’s now much more likely they will take up a wage hike in separate legislation and not on the broad COVID-19 spending package…

The House passed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid spending bill early Saturday, leaving intact a $15 minimum wage mandate that sets up a clash with Senate rules that say it must be excluded. Democrats debated past midnight on the massive measure, which would provide a broad array of benefits to individuals, businesses, and governments struggling…

Senate Democrats and Republicans cut a last-minute deal to avoid calling witnesses, agreeing to enter into the record a statement about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s phone call with Donald Trump while the Capitol was under attack on Jan. 6. The deal averts what might have been an indefinite extension of the impeachment trial and…

The Senate voted 55-45 to summon witnesses in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, extending it indefinitely. House lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin on Saturday called on senators to vote to subpoena a GOP witness and gather evidence in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said he wants the authority to subpoena Rep.…

The Senate Tuesday convened for the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump and will begin with a debate and vote on whether it is constitutional to try to convict an ex-president. The nine House impeachment managers entered the chamber after all 100 senators filed into the room and were seated for what is…