Monday, Dec 23rd
Last update09:22:09 AM GMT
Congressional Glance
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is facing an uncertain future after a pivotal setback this week, when she lost her race to lead Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
The 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly’s (D-Va.) victory sparked new anger in liberals pushing for a generational change in leadership, and some are wondering how Ocasio-Cortez will play her cards next.
Lawmakers have rejected a deal backed by President-elect Donald Trump to fund large parts of the U.S. government, making a partial shutdown appear all but inevitable heading into the end-of-year holidays and with a transition of power in the White House just a month away.
The House voted 235-174 to reject the spending bill where two-thirds of the chamber was needed for passage. Thirty-eight Republicans joined 197 Democrats in opposing the bill.
House Republicans had hurried to craft a new continuing resolution, or temporary means to keep things up and running, on Thursday, after their original bipartisan agreement was torpedoed by Trump and allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The House GOP is expected to go back to the drawing board Thursday night to figure out their next steps.
Current government funding expires at the end of the day Friday.
The Senate passed a defense bill on Wednesday that authorizes significant pay raises for junior enlisted service members, aims to counter China’s growing power and boosts overall military spending to $895bn while also stripping coverage of transgender medical treatments for children of military members.
The annual defense authorization bill usually gains strong bipartisan support and has not failed to pass Congress in nearly six decades, but the Pentagon policy measure in recent years has become a battleground for cultural issues. Republicans this year sought to tack on to the legislation priorities for social conservatives, contributing to a months-long negotiation over the bill and a falloff in support from Democrats.
Still, the bill passed comfortably 85-14, sending it to Joe Biden. Eleven senators who caucus with Democrats, as well as three Republicans, voted against the legislation.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was injured during a Congressional trip to Luxembourg and has been admitted to the hospital, her spokesperson announced Friday morning.
While in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Pelosi, 84, "sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation," spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement. "Speaker Emerita Pelosi is currently receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals."
The statement did not provide any additional details about how the injury occurred or Pelosi's current condition.
North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said she’s “absolutely” concerned that the state Supreme Court could overturn the results of a race for a seat on the court that has now gone to two recounts.
The results of the initial count and the first recount both showed incumbent Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs leading Republican Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge, by 734 votes. But Griffin requested a second recount partially done by hand that was completed Tuesday.
Clayton at a press conference Tuesday pointed to efforts from the GOP-led state Legislature attempting to strip power from Democratic officials as evidence that the state Supreme Court, with a current 5-2 conservative majority, could throw out the results.
In addition to the recounts, Griffin has challenged the validity of 60,000 ballots cast in the race.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is extending an olive branch to President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration.
In an interview with Business Insider on Tuesday, the Vermont senator listed areas of common ground with Elon Musk, a cochair of a new extragovernmental body aiming to cut costs, as well as with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on health and Trump on credit debt.
The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set.
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