Tag: Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed and sent to President Donald Trump a two-year budget deal that would increase federal spending on defense and an array of other domestic programs, significantly adding to rapidly escalating government debt. By a vote of 67-28, the Senate ignored late-hour appeals from some conservative Republicans who support bigger military expenditures and tax cuts that constrain revenues but were angered over more spending for non-defense domestic programs. Last week the Democratic-controlled...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday backed General John Hyten to be the second-highest ranking U.S. military official, a day after he denied sexual assault allegations against him. The vote was 20-7 in favor of Hyten being the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Hyten, the outgoing commander of the U.S. military’s Strategic Command, must still be confirmed by the full Senate. A date for that vote has not been announced. Hyten...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for easier monetary policy may not be what’s driving the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates on Wednesday. But Trump’s policies have set the table for it. His aggressive tactics on trade, including 25% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods that prompted retaliatory duties on U.S. exports, have made companies uncertain about the future and more hesitant to invest. The Fed’s beige book, a collection...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Kelly Craft, a Republican donor who is currently ambassador to Canada, as ambassador to the United Nations, despite opposition from Democrats who criticized President Donald Trump’s nominee as too inexperienced for the post. The Senate backed Craft by a vote of 56 to 34, largely along party lines, moving to end seven months without a permanent U.S. envoy to the world body. U.N. ambassador is one of several high-level positions...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Detroit-based General Motors Co emerged from two days of Democratic debates in its hometown largely unscathed as 2020 White House hopefuls largely passed up an opportunity to criticize it for significant job cuts in recent months. The largest U.S. automaker has come under fierce criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for months after its November announcement that it would end production at five North American assembly plants and eliminate about 14,700 jobs. It had been bracing...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of U.S. senators on Wednesday questioned the Federal Aviation Administration oversight of Boeing Co’s 737 MAX as the agency defended the longstanding practice of deferring much of the process of certifying new aircraft to manufacturers. At a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, the panel’s chair, Republican Susan Collins, and numerous Democrats criticized the FAA’s interaction with Boeing, saying the agency faced pressure from the company to get its new plane approved on schedule. Boeing’s...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Kelly Craft, a Republican donor who is currently ambassador to Canada, as ambassador to the United Nations, despite opposition from Democrats who criticized President Donald Trump’s nominee as too inexperienced for the post. The Senate backed Craft by a vote of 56 to 34, largely along party lines, moving to end seven months without a permanent U.S. envoy to the world body. U.N. ambassador is one of several high-level positions...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The congresswoman who heads the campaign arm for U.S. House of Representatives Democrats has acknowledged mistakes after lawmakers complained about a lack of racial diversity within the organization, and she named a Cuban-American as interim executive director as part of a major staff shakeup. The announcement by Representative Cheri Bustos late on Monday followed several days of turmoil at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), a controversy that has sidetracked the organization as it seeks to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony will feature in a television ad advocating for impeaching President Donald Trump, set to run before and after the Democratic presidential debates this week. Backed by the Need to Impeach group founded by billionaire Democratic candidate Tom Steyer, the “What Mueller Said” ad will run on CNN and MSNBC, days after Mueller told two congressional panels about his investigation of Trump and Russia. Excerpts from the testimony will...

JAMESTOWN, Va. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, under fire in Washington for verbal attacks on racial minority lawmakers, condemned American slavery on Tuesday at the 400th anniversary of the first legislative assembly in Virginia. Trump gave a scripted speech at the site of the first legislative assembly in Jamestown, Virginia, after touring the Jamestown church and a mock 1619 village. In his remarks, he honored the first people to form a government in what would become the United...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Kamala Harris on Monday released a Medicare-for-all proposal ahead of the second Democratic presidential debate, when candidates’ differing approaches to giving Americans greater access to affordable health insurance is expected to feature prominently. Harris’ plan would allow Americans to buy into the Medicare government health insurance program, establishing a 10-year phase-in period during which newly born children would be automatically enrolled and healthcare providers can transition. The plan would allow private health insurers to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned China against waiting out his first term in office to finalize any trade deal, saying if he wins re-election in the November 2020 U.S. presidential contest, the outcome could be no agreement or a worse one. “The problem with them waiting ... is that if & when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now...or no deal at all,” Trump...

(Reuters) - Capital One Financial Corp said on Monday that personal information including names and addresses of about 100 million individuals in the United States and 6 million people in Canada were obtained by a hacker who has been arrested. The suspect, a 33-year-old former Seattle technology company software engineer identified as Paige Thompson, made her initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday, the U.S. Attorney's office said. According to a complaint filed in the District Court for...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior lawmaker in the U.S. House of Representatives on Sunday rejected the notion that Democrats must decide whether to pursue the impeachment of Republican President Donald Trump before the 2020 election season shifts into high gear. With some Democrats warning that the window for impeachment was closing with the approach of elections, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler was asked if he thought there was a deadline. “No, I don’t,” Nadler told CNN’s “State...