Senate Bill Lets GOP Lawmakers Sue Over Data Access
By Frank Thorp V A provision tucked into the funding package the Senate passed Monday night as part of a bipartisan deal to reopen the government would allow senators to sue the federal government for potentially millions of dollars if their data is obtained without notifying them. The legislative language would uniquely benefit eight Republican senators who were recently found to have had their phone records — but not the contents of their calls or messages — accessed as a part of the investigation that led to former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. While the bill
House Votes to End Record U.S. Government Shutdown
By Nolan D. McCaskill and Andy Sullivan Members of the House of Representatives headed back to Washington on Tuesday, after a 53-day break, braving the congestion at the nation’s tangled airports for a vote that could bring the longest U.S. government shutdown in history to a close. With nearly 1,200 flights canceled on Tuesday due to the shutdown, lawmakers including Republican Representatives Rick Crawford of Arkansas and Trent Kelly of Mississippi said they were carpooling to the Capitol, while Representative Derrick Van Orden said he was making the 16-hour drive from Wisconsin on his motorcycle. “It’s going to be a little chilly, but I will do my
Supreme Court Keeps SNAP Funding Freeze Amid Shutdown
By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON — With a potential end to the government shutdown in sight, the Supreme Court on Tuesday extended a freeze on a federal judge’s ruling that would require the Trump administration to fully fund the SNAP food program in November. The decision means the government, for now, does not have to distribute about $4 billion in additional SNAP funding as required by Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell. The Supreme Court block remains in place until midnight on Thursday. The case would likely become moot if the shutdown ends, as the bipartisan bill to reopen the government would fully fund the SNAP
Happy Veterans Day
To the Tuskegee Airmen, Six Triple Eight, The Harlem Hellfighters, The Buffalo Soldiers, The Black Panthers Tank Battalion, and all who have served this country .. thank you for your service.
Trump Pushes GOP Redistricting Amid 2026 House Concerns
By Jonathan Allen, Matt Dixon and Henry J. Gomez President Donald Trump is confident that he drew the right battle lines when he launched a nationwide redistricting fight to try to preserve the Republican House majority, GOP strategists familiar with the White House’s thinking say — even after Tuesday’s election results gave Democrats openings to counterstrike in California and Virginia. “The president understands intuitively, in a way that other Republicans don’t … that Democrats are always assaulting us, always, and mostly much of the Republican Party never fights back,” said one of the strategists familiar with the White House approach. “The redistricting fight is
Senate Reaches Deal to End Lengthy U.S. Government Shutdown
By Frank Thorp V, Sahil Kapur and Brennan Leach Senators struck an agreement Sunday, projecting confidence that it will be sufficient to end the lengthy U.S. government shutdown, three sources with direct knowledge of the details told NBC News. The agreement, reached by a group of Democrats who teamed up with Republicans, cleared the first hurdle on a vote of 60-40 to advance in a late-night Senate vote. If it’s approved, it would then need to pass the House and gain President Donald Trump’s signature to become law and reopen the government. Even if it has enough support to clear those hurdles, the process
Trump Admin Seeks Emergency Block on Order to Pay Food Stamps in Full
Written By: Dan Mangan The Trump administration asked a federal appeals court to issue an emergency block on a judge’s order that it pay 42 million Americans their full SNAP benefits for November by Friday as the federal government shutdown persists. The administration requested that the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals allow it to pay 65% of the food stamp benefits this month from a contingency fund, as the administration had proposed to the judge earlier this week. The request came a day after Judge Jack McConnell issued an order in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island rejecting the
Supreme Court Backs Trump Passport Gender Policy
By Lawrence Hurley The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to enforce a policy aimed at limiting transgender rights that would restrict sex designations on passports to “male” and “female” based on sex assigned at birth. The justices granted an emergency request filed by the administration, which is seeking to reverse a policy introduced during the Biden administration that allowed people to put “X” as a gender marker or self-select male or female. “Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth—in both cases, the Government is merely attesting to
Supreme Court Questions Trump’s Authority to Impose Tariffs
By Lawrence Hurley President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs appear to be on shaky legal ground, with Supreme Court justices on Wednesday indicating he may not have the authority to impose them under a law designed for use during a national emergency. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority that has regularly backed Trump on various contentious cases since he took office in January, but based on the almost three-hour oral argument, the tariffs dispute could go the other way. Both conservative and liberal justices asked tough questions of Trump’s lawyer, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, though some of the conservatives seemed more
