GERRY CONNOLLY

Members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee say Russian President Vladimir Putin is committing genocide in Ukraine.

A man charged with attacking two congressional staffers with a metal baseball bat is being held pending an initial court appearance.

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia says a man with a baseball bat walked into his Fairfax office, asked for him, and then assaulted two members of his staff.

It’s taken 60 years and billions of dollars, but mass transit is finally coming to Dulles International Airport outside the nation’s capital.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is promoting Biden administration policies as the key to advancing the nation’s “long-term economic well being” in the lead-up to the midterm elections.

President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia — a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer.

Three dozen House Democrats say Saudi Arabia is being a bad strategic partner.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are seeking an investigation into a U.S. Postal Service plan to replace its aging mail trucks with mostly gasoline-powered vehicles.

A resounding loss in Virginia and a too-close-for-comfort victory in New Jersey have Democrats fretting about a blowout in next year's midterm elections.

The hazard lights are blinking for President Joe Biden after Democratic setbacks in this week's elections, but the president professes to see no reason for panic.

Democrats are blending finger-pointing, optimism and a renewed push to unstick their stalled legislative agenda as they scramble for Election Day lessons from a jolting loss in Virginia and a closer than expected win in New Jersey.

It’s big, messy and complicated as the Democratic leaders in Congress try to muscle President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic policy package into law.

The Americans trying to evacuate hundreds of Afghans and American citizens pleaded for action from the Biden administration to get the would-be evacuees aboard charter flights that are standing by to fly them from Afghanistan.

Across the county, the offices of members of Congress have become makeshift crisis centers.

Across the county, the offices of members of Congress have become makeshift crisis centers.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ruling out a presidential commission to study the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

She was speaking of U.S. foreign objectives overall, including the Iran deal. Biden's first priority for renewed talks is getting both Iran and the United States back in compliance with the nuclear deal, which offered Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for Iran accepting limits on its nuclear material and gear. “It would be a first step.”But Biden also faces pressure both from Democrats and Republican opponents of the Iran deal. The United States' European allies will be eager to help Biden wrack up a win on the new Iran talks if possible, Nasr said. Besides tapping Sherman for his administration, Biden has called back William Burns, who led secret early talks with Iran in Oman, as his CIA director.

Those numbers likely aren't going to be ready until early March as the Census Bureau works to fix data irregularities, Department of Justice attorneys said earlier this week. As part of the agreement, the Trump administration attorneys said the Census Bureau would not be releasing figures related to two directives from Trump before the change in administrations. The Trump administration would not be releasing the numbers used for apportioning congressional seats among the states before the change in administrations, as part of the agreement. Several Democratic lawmakers in Congress have followed suit in the past two days, saying Dillingham has allowed the Trump administration to politicize the 2020 census. The Census Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But only steps away, outside the chamber doors, there was the look of an armed encampment. The Capitol grounds were wrapped in fences, and scores of other law enforcement officers and troops kept a watchful eye. A replica of the dome that stands atop the Capitol, the Statue of Freedom, resides in the Capitol’s visitor center. The tensions were also apparent inside the House chamber. In the House chamber, there have been Capitol Police officers and civilian door monitors but no screening stations.

But only steps away, outside the chamber doors, there was the look of an armed encampment. The Capitol grounds were wrapped in fences, and scores of other law enforcement officers and troops kept a watchful eye. A replica of the dome that stands atop the Capitol, the Statue of Freedom, resides in the Capitol’s visitor center. The tensions were also apparent inside the House chamber. In the House chamber, there have been Capitol Police officers and civilian door monitors but no screening stations.

While Democrats favored bigger checks, Congress had settled on smaller $600 payments in a compromise over the big year-end relief bill Trump reluctantly signed into law. The vote was a stunning turn of events from just days ago, when House Republicans blocked Trump's demands during a Christmas Eve session. After the robust House vote, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned, “There is no good reason for Senate Republicans to stand in the way.”“There’s strong support for these $2,000 emergency checks from every corner of the country," Schumer said in a statement. The bipartisan bill negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had already passed the House and Senate by wide margins. Most House Republicans simply shrugged off Trump's push, 130 of them voting to reject the higher checks that would pile $467 billion in additional costs.

By retaining the House, Democrats will control the chamber for four consecutive years for only the second time since 1995, when Republicans ended 40 years of Democratic dominance. As the bad news sunk in, Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., who led House Democrats' campaign committee, announced Monday she wouldn't seek another term leading that organization. Republicans have been heartened by the House results, which many believe position them for a strong run for the majority in the 2022 elections. Illustrating that, the Blue Dog Coalition of the most conservative House Democrats, whose membership has dwindled in recent years, lost at least six of its roughly two dozen members. On the Republican side, the conservative House Freedom Caucus was hoping to grow from its roughly 30 members.

A congressional watchdog found that millions could miss the payments of up to $1,200 per individual because of incomplete government records. Lawmakers on the panel decried the diminished funding for the IRS, now further strained by the pandemic. Delayed income tax refunds, hampered audit and enforcement efforts, and a revenue drain for the Treasury are the results, they said. An independent IRS watchdog has warned that the funding cuts have eroded the agency’s ability to upgrade its technology and fulfill its role of collecting taxes and enforcing the law to prevent cheating. Trump’s near-zero tax payments have underscored the ability of wealthy individuals with high-priced accountants to outmatch the IRS.

Postal Service Board of Governors was presented with 53 candidates vetted by an outside firm. Postal Service Board of Governors was presented with 53 candidates screened by an outside company. Mnuchin has said he had no involvement, though his heightened interest in the Postal Service has raised questions given Trump's focus on mail-in voting. Though DeJoy was a Trump donor, it remains unclear exactly how he emerged as the top contender to lead the Postal Service. In a fact sheet issued in response to Williams's claims, the Treasury said it plays an important role overseeing federal loans to the Postal Service.

Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election. He's pairing the tough Postal Service stance in congressional negotiations with an increasingly robust mail-in-voting legal fight in states that could decide the election. That followed legal maneuvers in battleground Pennsylvania, where the campaign hopes to force changes to how the state collects and counts mail-in ballots. That figure, which would include money to help with election mail, is down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure. Judy Beard, legislative and political director for the American Postal Workers Union, said postal workers are up to the task of delivering mail-in ballots this year.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said Thursday that he opposes additional funding for the U.S. Trump also falsely stated that Democrats were pushing for universal mail-in voting and made the unfounded claim that mail-in voting would lead to massive voter fraud in the November election. Postal Service and election security ahead of the November election. They want $25 billion billion for the post office, he said, adding that, without it, the Postal Service won't be equipped to handle the influx of mail-in ballots. Democrats have pushed for $10 billion for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans on a huge COVID-19 response bill.

Democrats have long accused Trump of a conflict of interest over the FBI building, which sits across the street from a downtown hotel that Trump owns on Pennsylvania Avenue, blocks from the White House. More than 150,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, millions are unemployed ... and Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are more concerned about protecting Trump Hotel. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, initially said he was unaware that money for the FBI headquarters was included in the bill. "Some of the Virginia people want to build in Virginia and Maryland Democrats want the new FBI building built there,'' he said Tuesday, citing an earlier, failed proposal to move the FBI building from downtown Washington. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said he did not know why money for the FBI building was included in the virus relief bill.