White House news

• House leaves town with no debt ceiling deal

  25-05-2023 21:18 via thehill.com
  
  House lawmakers are leaving Washington for the long holiday weekend Thursday afternoon — just one week before the Treasury Department says the U.S. is at risk of a debt default — without a deal to raise the debt ceiling.Negotiators say they’re getting closer to striking a deal to avert a default next week, but an agreement didn't appear imminent Thursday."Still working through thorny issues, but there's goodwill on all sides,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a key all
  
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• Biden assures Americans on Social Security, VA as debt default date nears

  25-05-2023 20:50 via thehill.com
  
  President Biden on Thursday sought to reassure Americans that benefits for veterans and Social Security recipients would not be impacted by the looming threat of a default as negotiators struggle to come to a budget deal and raise the debt ceiling."I've made clear time and again defaulting on our national debt is not an option," Biden said in remarks from the Rose Garden where he was set to nominate the new Joint Chiefs of Staff.
  "The American people deserve to know that their Social Security pa
  
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• 35 House conservatives pitch IRS and COVID-19 funding repeal to push back debt X-date

  25-05-2023 20:31 via thehill.com
  
  A group of 35 House Republicans, made up of members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and their allies, are upping the pressure on Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in debt ceiling negotiations and proposing funding clawbacks they say could push a potential default date back through the end of June. In a letter to McCarthy, the lawmakers ask him to demand additions to the House GOP debt limit bill if the White House wants to raise the debt limit by a larger amount than was in the leg
  
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• Jeffries warns: House Democrats won’t rubber stamp debt ceiling deal 

  25-05-2023 20:25 via thehill.com
  
  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) warned Thursday that members of his Democratic Caucus will not automatically back a debt ceiling deal cut between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).Asked if GOP leaders have miscalculated in assuming that House Democrats will help Republicans pass a Biden-backed bill through the lower chamber, Jeffries didn’t hesitate. “Yes,” he told reporters.It’s highly unlikely that the White House and Democratic
  
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• White House releases national strategy to fight antisemitism

  25-05-2023 17:23 via thehill.com
  
  The White House on Thursday rolled out its national strategy for combating antisemitism as the country grapples with record levels of violence, vandalism and hate speech directed at Jewish communities.President Biden, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and other officials detailed the strategy during a virtual event from the White House. It is the first time the federal government has formulated a national effort to fight antisemitism, and the administration’s effort contains more than 100 provi
  
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• Dozens of Democrats join GOP in passing bill on fentanyl-related drug penalties

  25-05-2023 17:12 via thehill.com
  
  Legislation to permanently classify fentanyl-like substances into a category reserved for the most dangerous drugs passed the House Thursday.The GOP-sponsored HALT Fentanyl Act passed 289-133 with support from 74 Democrats, who wanted to be on record as supporting legislation intended to crack down on the synthetic opioid crisis. But the majority of House Democrats opposed the measure, exposing intraparty fault lines. Republicans say fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances (FRS) are p
  
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• Civil rights groups to Biden: 'Take all actions within your authority' to protect undocumented immigrants

  25-05-2023 16:11 via thehill.com
  
  A coalition of civil rights groups is calling on President Biden to pull no punches in using the powers of the presidency to protect undocumented immigrants from criminalization and deportation.In a letter to Biden Wednesday, the groups urged the president to "immediately take all actions within your authority to protect undocumented immigrants, many of whom have resided here for years, throughout the United States."The letter said that protecting undocumented immigrants, especially those who've
  
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• Biden marks anniversary of George Floyd murder with call for police reform legislation 

  25-05-2023 13:46 via thehill.com
  
  President Biden early Thursday marked the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder with a push for Congress to pass police reform legislation.  “George Floyd’s murder exposed for many what Black and Brown communities have long known and experienced — that we must make a whole of society commitment to ensure that our Nation lives up to its founding promise of fair and impartial justice for all under the law,” Biden said in a statement.  A white polic
  
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• Why complaints from the left and right on the debt ceiling talks point to progress

  25-05-2023 12:00 via thehill.com
  
  Liberals and conservatives are balking at the emerging debt ceiling agreement between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — a development that may complicate life for party leaders over the long term, but also signals progress in the immediate effort to prevent a government default.Biden’s liberal allies are fuming that the nascent deal cuts too much. Members of McCarthy’s far-right faction say it cuts too little. And if the gripes sound familiar, it&rsq
  
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• Meet McCarthy’s closers on debt ceiling talks

  25-05-2023 12:00 via thehill.com
  
  High-stakes debt limit talks are underscoring the importance to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of two key allies: Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.).The two Republicans were integral in helping McCarthy secure the Speaker’s gavel in the 15-ballot, drawn-out election at the start of the year.Now, they are key GOP negotiators in debt ceiling talks with the White House that will test whether McCarthy can extract a deal that raises the nation’s borrowing limi
  
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• Liberals and conservatives are bashing the emerging debt deal — and that's progress

  25-05-2023 12:00 via thehill.com
  
  Liberals and conservatives are balking at the emerging debt ceiling agreement between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — a development that may complicate life for party leaders over the long term, but also signals progress in the immediate effort to prevent a government default.Biden’s liberal allies are fuming that the nascent deal cuts too much. Members of McCarthy’s far-right faction say it cuts too little. And if the gripes sound familiar, it&rsqu
  
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• GOP attack on IRS funding runs counter to deficit reduction effort

  25-05-2023 12:00 via thehill.com
  
  The GOP is pushing to cut IRS enforcement funding as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, when doing so will actually add to the national debt, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates.Republicans have railed against the additional $80 billion Democrats awarded to the IRS as part of the Inflation Reduction Act last year, and now they’re prioritizing its repeal over reducing the deficit.In a memo sent to colleagues on Wednesday, House Budget Committee member Chip Roy (R
  
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• Democrats seek unlikely debt ceiling savior: Mitch McConnell 

  25-05-2023 12:00 via thehill.com
  
  With time running short and the danger of a national default growing, Democrats are hoping an unlikely savior will come to the rescue: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). Democratic lawmakers say McConnell and other Senate Republicans are fooling themselves if they think Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is in a position to reach a debt ceiling deal with President Biden. They believe McCarthy is under tremendous pressure not to agree to any deal Democrats would accept becau
  
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• Progressives turn up heat on Biden amid fears he'll cave to GOP

  25-05-2023 01:36 via thehill.com
  
  Progressives are ramping up public pressure on Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) amid growing concerns that President Biden will cave to the GOP on the debt ceiling talks. Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.); Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas); and other high-profile liberal lawmakers convened Wednesday to address growing worries about Republicans’ unwillingness to budge on a debt limit deal and questions about how far
  
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• Democrats erupt in laughter after Greene calls for decorum in House

  25-05-2023 01:17 via thehill.com
  
  Democrats erupted in laughter on the House floor Wednesday when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — who was presiding over the chamber — called for decorum.The heckling came as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) was delivering floor remarks about the debt ceiling, which has been the subject of high-stakes negotiations between GOP lawmakers and the White House.As Scalise was urging the Senate and White House to take action on raising the borrowing limit — referen
  
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• Jeffries says length of spending caps and debt ceiling hike should match

  25-05-2023 00:41 via thehill.com
  
  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that the duration of the spending caps demanded by Republicans as part of any debt ceiling deal should match the length of time the government’s borrowing authority is extended.“It seems to me that if there's a resolution that involves a spending freeze, that that spending freeze should also match the length of time that the debt ceiling is suspended," Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.The timeline question has been o
  
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• White House rips Comer, Greene for 'bizarre' probes of Biden

  25-05-2023 00:06 via thehill.com
  
  The White House on Wednesday ripped GOP Reps. James Comer (Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) for what it called “bizarre” congressional probes of President Biden and his family members, arguing that the investigations are politically motivated. White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a memo that Comer, who serves as the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and other members of the panel have “aggressively” pursued politically motivated investigations of B
  
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