Us Congress

Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign from Congress after fallout with Trump

Greene was among the Republicans who led the legislative effort to compel the Justice Department to release the files of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein

Hunger, flight chaos and health-care woes fail to end US govt shutdown

Shutdown is costing the US economy about $15 billion a week and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cut annualised quarterly growth rate of real GDP by 1.5 per cent by mid-November

US Congressmen introduce resolution to recognise Diwali's significance

According to a press release, the resolution honours Diwali's cultural, spiritual, and historical significance to over three million Indian-Americans

US govt shutdown grinds into second week, but quiet talks emerging

Tours at the Capitol have come to a standstill. The House is keeping its doors closed, while the Senate is stuck in a loop of failed votes on a rejected plan to reopen the government. President Donald Trump is threatening to mass fire federal workers and refuse back pay for the rest. As the government shutdown enters a second week, there's no discernible endgame in sight. You have to negotiate, Sen Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, argued late into the evening on the Senate floor. That's the way it works. But no negotiations, at least publicly, are underway. Shutdown grinds on, but signs of quiet talks The Republicans who have majority control in Congress believe they have the upper hand politically, as they fend off Democratic demands to quickly fund health insurance subsidies as part of any plan to end the shutdown. But so have Democrats dug in, convinced that Americans are on their side in the fight to prevent the looming health care price spikes and blaming Trump

Trump-backed Van Epps, Democrat Behn win Tennessee special poll primaries

Matt Van Epps, a former commissioner in Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's administration, won a crowded Republican primary Tuesday in the special election to replace a GOP congressman who left office this summer. In the Democratic primary, state Rep Aftyn Behn won a four-way contest and will face Van Epps in the general election. Van Epps clinched the victory with an endorsement from President Donald Trump that came after in-person early voting ended. Eleven Republicans were on the ballot for the seat vacated by former US Rep Mark Green. Among them, two candidates, including state Rep Lee Reeves, suspended their campaigns after Trump weighed in, and they likewise endorsed Van Epps. Thank you to the people of Middle and West Tennessee! Our Donald J. Trump-endorsed campaign won in a landslide tonight, Van Epps said on social media. Now, on to December 2nd! We're going to win the general and keep this seat RED! The December 2 general election could gauge the popularity of Trump's aggressive .

US govt shutdown draws closer as congressional leaders head to White House

Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are heading to the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday in a late effort to avoid a government shutdown, but both sides have shown hardly any willingness to budge from their entrenched positions. If government funding legislation is not passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Tuesday night, many government offices across the nation will be temporarily shuttered and non-exempt federal employees will be furloughed, adding to the strain on workers and the nation's economy. Republicans are daring Democrats to vote against legislation that would keep government funding mostly at current levels, but Democrats so far have held firm. They are using one of their few points of leverage to demand that Congress take up legislation to extend health care benefits. The meeting is a first step, but only a first step. We need a serious negotiation, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview Sunday on NBC's

Trump was FBI informant against Epstein: US House Speaker Mike Johnson

While Johnson sought to clarify Trump's stance, the president himself has dismissed calls for greater transparency in the Epstein case, describing the demand for more disclosures as a 'Democrat hoax'

Trump executive order renames Department of Defense as Department of War

US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War a long-telegraphed move aimed at projecting American military toughness around the globe. It's a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now, Trump said. He said the previous name was woke". The order comes as some of Trump's closest supporters on Capitol Hill proposed legislation that would codify the new name into law, with Congress having the sole power to establish, shutter and rename federal departments. Absent a change in law, Trump will authorise the Pentagon to use secondary titles. From 1789 until the end of World War II, the United States military fought under the banner of the Department of War, Florida Republican Greg Steube, an Army veteran, said in a statement. It is only fitting that we pay tribute to their eternal example and renowned commitment to lethality by restoring the name of the Department of War to o

House committee releases some Epstein files as survivors meet lawmakers

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, responding to mounting pressure in Congress to force more disclosure in the case. Still, the files mostly contain information that was already publicly known or available. The folders contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein and Maxwell. They also included video files appearing to be body cam footage from police searches as well as recordings and summaries of law enforcement interviews with victims detailing the abuse they said they suffered. The committee's release of the files showed how lawmakers are eager to act as they return to Washington after a monthlong break. They quickly revived a political clash that has flummoxed House Republican leadership and roiled President Donald Trump's administration. House Republican Speaker Mike

PBS, NPR stations struggle with Trump's funding cut; scramble for support

Coping with a sudden loss in federal funding, PBS affiliate KSPS in Spokane, Washington, faced a surprise extra hurdle. Many of its contributing members at one point almost half lived in Canada, and they were withdrawing support out of anger at President Donald Trump's desire to make the country the 51st member of the United States. When Congress decided this summer to eliminate USD1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, it left some 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations, each with unique issues related to their communities and history, to figure out what that means. Many launched emergency fund drives and are heartened by the response. The national NPR and PBS networks are reducing expected dues payments, and a philanthropic effort focused on the hardest-hit stations is taking shape. No stations have shut down, but job and programming cuts are already beginning. In Spokane, KSPS has always tried to keep its requests for member donations separate from appeals for public funding. Not

White House moves forward on plans for a Department of War: Reports

Trump raised the idea of rebranding the Defense Department as the 'Department of War' while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, saying it 'just sounded to me better'

Trump moves to cancel $4.9 bn in foreign aid, clashing with US Congress

US President Donald Trump seeks to cancel $4.9 bn in foreign aid using a 'pocket rescission', bypassing Congress. Lawmakers say the move is illegal under US budget law

Trump blocks $4.9 bn foreign aid with rarely-used rule after 50 years

President Donald Trump has told House Speaker Mike Johnson that he won't be spending USD 4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch. Trump, who sent a letter to Johnson, R-La., on Thursday, is using what's known as a pocket rescission for the first time in nearly 50 years. That's when a president submits a request to Congress not to spend approved funds toward the end of the fiscal year, so that Congress cannot act on the request in the 45-day timeframe, and the money goes unspent as a result. The fiscal year draws to a close at the end of September. The last pocket recession was in 1977 under then-President Jimmy Carter, and the Trump administration argues that it's a legally permissible tool. But such a move, if standardised by the White House, could effectively bypass Congress on key spending choices and potentially wrest some control over spending from the House and the Senate. The letter ...

Texas House approves redrawn maps sought by Trump ahead of 2026 elections

The Texas House has approved redrawn congressional maps that would give Republicans a bigger edge in 2026, muscling through a partisan gerrymander that launched weeks of protests by Democrats and a widening national battle over redistricting. The approval on Wednesday came at the urging of President Donald Trump, who pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade revision of congressional maps to give his party a better chance at holding onto the US House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable seats, need to be approved by the GOP-controlled state Senate and signed by Republican Gov Greg Abbott before they become official. But the Texas House vote had presented the best chance for Democrats to derail the redraw. Democratic legislators delayed the vote by two weeks by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest, and they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday's

Trump Wins Fight to Withhold Billions of Dollars in Foreign Aid

In a 2-1 decision on Wednesday, the appellate panel reversed a Washington federal judge who found that US officials were violating the Constitution's separation of powers principles

US national debt hits record $37 trillion years ahead of projections

US national debt reached record USD 37 trillion. The national debt eclipsed this new milestone years sooner than pre-pandemic projections. The Congressional Budget Office's January 2020 projections predicted the US reaching the milestone after fiscal year 2030. But the debt grew faster than expected as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the US economy and the Trump and Biden administrations borrowed heavily to stabilise the national economy.

Bitcoin hits record high as US lawmakers push for pro-crypto legislation

Bitcoin continued its rapid climb and hit another all-time high Monday as US lawmakers begin a week focused on passing pro-crypto legislation. Data from CoinMarketCap showed bitcoin climbed above USD 123,000 early Monday, up from about USD 108,000 only a week ago. The world's oldest and most popular cryptocurrency is currently the fifth most valuable asset class in the world at USD 2.4 trillion, giving it a higher market cap than Amazon. The enthusiasm for bitcoin comes as the US House is set to take up several pieces of cryptocurrency-related legislation in what's been dubbed crypto week in Congress. Lawmakers have been under pressure from President Donald Trump and the big-spending crypto lobby to pass legislation quickly. That includes a bill passed last month by the Senate that would regulate a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins. The House is also set to take up a cryptocurrency market structure legislation that is far more sweeping. Trump, once a sceptic of the indus

Trump says Powell should 'resign immediately if Congress misled'

Trump reiterated his criticism of the Fed chair in a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, calling Powell "terrible," and telling reporters that deceiving Congress would be grounds for a swift exit

Debate underway in Senate on Trump's big bill, but overnight voting delayed

Debate is underway in the Senate for an all-night session Sunday, with Republicans wrestling President Donald Trump's big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts over mounting Democratic opposition and even some brake-pumping over the budget slashing by the president himself. The outcome from the weekend of work in the Senate remains uncertain and highly volatile, and overnight voting has been pushed off until Monday. GOP leaders are rushing to meet Trump's Fourth of July deadline to pass the package, but they barely secured enough support to muscle it past a procedural Saturday night hurdle in a tense scene. A handful of Republican holdouts revolted, and it took phone calls from Trump and a visit from Vice President JD Vance to keep it on track. GOP Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced Sunday he would not seek reelection after Trump badgered him for saying he could not vote for the bill with its steep Medicaid cuts. A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budge

Donald Trump asks Congress to slash funds for NPR, PBS and foreign aid

White House first floated the package in April, but placed it on the back burner as Republicans tried to secure the votes necessary to pass Trump's tax cut proposal