STENY HOYER

US Brazil Forest Fund FILE - Indigenous people take part in a march during the 18th annual Free Land Indigenous Camp, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. The Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon also signed on. During his presidency, Amazon deforestation hit a 15-year high, which followed a 22% jump from the prior year, according to official data published in November. The Brazilian Amazon lost an area of rainforest roughly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut in just the 12 months preceding July 2021. Since then, the Amazon Fund has supported only projects approved before Bolsonaro was elected.

US Brazil Forest Fund FILE - Indigenous people take part in a march during the 18th annual Free Land Indigenous Camp, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. The Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon also signed on. During his presidency, Amazon deforestation hit a 15-year high, which followed a 22% jump from the prior year, according to official data published in November. The Brazilian Amazon lost an area of rainforest roughly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut in just the 12 months preceding July 2021. Since then, the Amazon Fund has supported only projects approved before Bolsonaro was elected.

Brazilian environmental and Indigenous organizations are urging the United States to fund forest protection initiatives that directly involve forest peoples.

The amount is more than double the $14 billion in support authorized so far to respond to the Russian invasion, a senior administration officials told reporters Thursday.

Biden Postal Service President Joe Biden signs the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Annette Taylor, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON — (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tested positive for COVID-19, a day after appearing unmasked at a White House event with President Joe Biden. Pelosi received a positive test result for COVID-19 and is currently asymptomatic, her spokesman Drew Hammill said Thursday in a tweet. “The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided,” Hammill said. Pelosi will “quarantine consistent with CDC guidance, and encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly,” he said.

The Senate voted to revoke Russia's "most favored nation" trade status, an economic downgrade that opens the possibility of tariffs on Moscow.

A compromise $10 billion measure buttressing the government’s COVID-19 defenses has stalled in the Senate.

Biden Postal Service President Joe Biden signs the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. Postal Service meant to shore up the popular but beleaguered agency's financial future and cement six-days-a-week mail delivery was signed into law Wednesday by President Joe Biden. Officials had repeatedly warned that without congressional action, the Postal Service would run out of cash by 2024. “The Postal Service is central to our economy and essential to rural America,” Biden said. Biden said that rule had “stretched the Postal Service's finances almost to the breaking point."

President Joe Biden has signed into law plans for a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service.

Home-district projects for members of Congress are back, sprinkled across the government-wide $1.5 trillion bill that President Joe Biden signed recently.

Congress Marijuana FILE - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., speaks to members of the media during a news conference in Washington, on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. A bill decriminalizing marijuana has passed the U.S. House. Democratic lawmakers said the nation's federal prohibition on marijuana has had particularly devastating consequences for minority communities. That would mirror what happened when a similar House-passed measure removing marijuana from the list of federally-controlled substances went nowhere in the Senate two years ago. The measure would require federal courts to expunge prior marijuana convictions and conduct resentencing hearings for those completing their sentences.

The House has approved a bill decriminalizing marijuana and letting states set their own policies on pot.

The House of Representatives could vote on the Securing a Strong Retirement Act, or Secure Act 2.0, as early as Tuesday.

Congressional leaders have reached a bipartisan deal to provide $13.6 billion to help Ukraine fend off its invasion by Russia and assist European allies coping with the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Vice President Kamala Harris is in Selma, Alabama, to mark the anniversary of a defining moment in the fight for equal voting rights.

President Joe Biden is signaling an election year shift to the center to help protect fragile Democratic majorities in Congress, even as key voices across his party’s sprawling political coalition threaten revolt.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans are showing signs of support for providing $6.4 billion or more in aid to Ukraine and its European neighbors.

A senior Republican lawmaker has apologized for using an expletive when Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio asked him to put his mask on while in the Capitol.

Steny Hoyer U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer confirmed via social media on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, that he has contracted COVID-19. Hoyer, D-Maryland, is pictured in this Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, file photo when he served as House Minority Whip. (Evan Vucci/AP)WASHINGTON — U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer confirmed via social media on Tuesday that he has contracted COVID-19. Read my full statement: pic.twitter.com/ef9mMRZ8hc — Steny Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer) February 1, 2022Hoyer’s diagnosis comes the same day that cumulative U.S. COVID-19 cases topped 75 million. >> Related: Coronavirus: Total US COVID-19 cases top 75 millionMore coronavirus pandemic coverage:>> Coronavirus: How long between exposure to the virus and the start of symptoms?

The 82-year-old representative said he is vaccinated and boosted.

President Joe Biden has visited the bridge in Pittsburgh that collapsed just hours before his previously scheduled trip to promote his infrastructure package — a new law that aims to prevent just such disasters.

President Joe Biden will appear in Pittsburgh on Friday as an opening step in a broader campaign to promote the White House’s achievements in key states before the midterm elections.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has made a surprise appearance in the House in a show of support for his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney.

Congress Budget Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters following a Democratic strategy meeting, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. Republicans are refusing to support Biden's larger bill, leaving Democrats to pass it on their own with just a few votes to spare in the House and none in the evenly-split 50-50 Senate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Biden's bill “will only exacerbate, only make worse, inflation.”But for Democrats, doing nothing appears to be a worse political option. Prospects for passing Biden's bill in the House have been close before, only to be dashed amid party infighting as progressives pushed for action but more conservative Democrats hit the brakes. The debate had tied the bill to the slimmer infrastructure measure, but now that Biden has signed that bill into law, the focus is back on his bigger bill.

Republicans are refusing to support Biden's larger bill, leaving Democrats to pass it on their own with just a few votes to spare in the House and none in the evenly-split 50-50 Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Biden's bill “will only exacerbate, only make worse, inflation.”But for Democrats, doing nothing appears to be a worse political option. Prospects for passing Biden's bill in the House have been close before, only to be dashed amid party infighting as progressives pushed for action but more conservative Democrats hit the brakes. The debate had tied the bill to the slimmer infrastructure measure, but now that Biden has signed that bill into law, the focus is back on his bigger bill. Hoyer said the House could vote as soon as Thursday, though it could shift to Friday or Saturday.

Democratic leaders are pressing ahead on President Joe Biden’s big domestic policy bill.

The House passed a key procedural vote to line up eventual passage of President Biden's signature social safety net and climate change bill.

Simply freeing up the infrastructure measure for final congressional approval was a like a burst of adrenaline for Democrats. But in an evening breakthrough brokered by Biden and House leaders, the moderates later agreed to back that bill if CBO's estimates are consistent with preliminary numbers that White House and congressional tax analysts have provided. Instead, Biden spoke to House leaders, moderates and progressives, said a White House official who described the conversations on condition of anonymity. Among those Biden reached was Jayapal, whose caucus has been at the forefront of delaying the infrastructure measure for leverage. When the infrastructure measure cleared the Senate, its GOP supporters even included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Congress Budget Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accompanied by House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., left and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer D-Md. Under the agreement, brokered by Biden and top Democrats, progressives would end their roadblock against the package of road, water and other projects. But under the circumstances, simply freeing up the infrastructure measure for final congressional approval was a like a burst of adrenaline for Democrats. Those setbacks have made party leaders impatient to produce impactful legislation and demonstrate that they know how to govern. That’s been hard, in part because of Democrats’ slender majorities, with bitter internal divisions forcing House leaders to miss several self-imposed deadlines for votes.

Top Democrats have abruptly postponed an expected House vote on their 10-year, $1.85 trillion social and environment measure.

The new version now contains a provision that had been dropped, paid leave, and also includes a tax break for wealthier Americans.

Democrats in the House appear on the verge of advancing President Joe Biden’s $1.85 trillion-and-growing domestic policy package.

The new version now contains a provision that had been dropped, paid leave, and also includes a tax break for wealthier Americans.

Democrats say they have sealed a deal to lower pharmaceutical drug costs for most older Americans as part of President Joe Biden’s sweeping $1.75 trillion domestic proposal.

Democrats say they only have a handful of issues to resolve before they can strike a deal on Biden's social safety net and climate plan.

Hoyer is hopeful about reaching a framework as Democrats try to resolve sticking points over what to include in Biden's economic plan and how to pay for it.

Scaling back his big government-overhaul plans, President Joe Biden has described a more-limited vision to Democratic lawmakers.

The House has approved a short-term hike to the nation’s debt limit.

The measure now goes to the House, which is slated to vote on it next week.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will not again help Democrats extend the government’s borrowing authority.

The held vote comes as Democrats remain divided over a separate but politically linked larger spending measure.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House is still on track to hold a vote on President Joe Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to pass the bill with a simple majority vote of 50, rather than the 60 that is usually required for Senate bills.

Pressure is mounting on President Joe Biden to trim back his $3.5 trillion federal government overhaul to win over holdout fellow Democrats.

The House has overwhelming passed legislation to provide funding for Israel’s missile defense system.

Rushing to prevent that dire outcome, the Democratic-led House passed the measure Tuesday night by a party-line vote of 220-211. Backed by the White House, the Democratic leaders pushed the package to approval at a time of great uncertainty in Congress. There has been a flurry of outreach from the White House to Democrats on Capitol Hill, and Biden himself was given a call sheet of lawmakers to cajole. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., according to a White House official familiar with the calls and granted anonymity to discuss them. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised a Sept. 27 vote on the companion $1 trillion bill of public works projects that has already passed the Senate.

President Joe Biden has met with Democrats from the House and Senate as Congress works to bridge party divisions over his big $3.5 trillion “build back better” agenda.

The House has approved legislation to fund the government, suspend its borrowing limit and provide federal disaster and refugee aid.

Pelosi House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at a press event regarding the Emergency Rental Assistance program in San Francisco, Tuesday, Aug. 10,2021. Nine centrists have threatened to vote against their own party's budget blueprint, enough to defeat it in the closely divided House. The budget's congressional approval would prevent Republicans from killing the subsequent $3.5 trillion bill, probably this fall, from bill-killing Senate filibusters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also made clear that a final vote on the public works bill would wait until the larger $3.5 trillion measure progresses. The Senate approved the infrastructure measure last week in a bipartisan vote.

Top Democrats are planning House votes next week on a budget resolution that would clear a path for future passage of the party's ambitious plans for social and environment programs.

Pelosi House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at a press event regarding the Emergency Rental Assistance program in San Francisco, Tuesday, Aug. 10,2021. The budget's congressional approval would prevent Republicans from killing the subsequent $3.5 trillion bill, probably this fall, from bill-killing Senate filibusters. The Senate approved the infrastructure measure last week in a bipartisan vote. In a letter late Monday, DeFazio said Democrats could fix that by rallying behind the budget resolution. He said the budget's approval would let them put their own infrastructure projects into the separate $3.5 trillion measure, he wrote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is facing a fresh hurdle to passing President Joe Biden’s multi-trillion dollar domestic policy aspirations.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is conceding that Democrats face a tough pathway to delivering a $3.5 trillion package for family, health and environment programs to President Joe Biden’s desk.

President Joe Biden has leapt back into the Senate’s up-and-down efforts to clinch a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure deal.

President Joe Biden on Monday announced that some Americans experiencing long-term effects of Covid may qualify for disability resources and protections from the federal government.

House votes 285-120 to remove Confederate and pro-slavery statues from the U.S. Capitol

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will confer with White House officials on next steps for President Joe Biden’s $4 trillion infrastructure plans.

The willingness of top Democrats, including Steny Hoyer, to criticize AIPAC reflects the growing schism in the party over US-Israeli relations.

The Senate passed the bill with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority last month.

When Rep. Maxine Waters urged people to be “confrontational” in the pursuit of justice for George Floyd, advocates for racial equity heard a leading Black voice in the nation's long march toward civil rights.

The legislation was first introduced in 1989. The committee's debate was long and often heated. And prospects for final passage remain poor.

The legislation was first introduced in 1989. The committee's debate was long and often heated. And prospects for final passage remain poor.

New details from the deadly riot of Jan. 6 are in a previously undisclosed document prepared by the Pentagon for internal use.

The bill is likely to stall in the Senate.

The bill is likely stall in the Senate.

House Democrats aim to pass the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Wednesday so President Joe Biden can sign it by the weekend. Biden aims to sign the legislation in time to beat a Sunday deadline to renew unemployment aid programs. Democrats will likely pass the package without Republican votes, as the GOP questions the need for nearly $2 trillion more in federal spending. On Tuesday, House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters he is "110% confident that the votes exist to pass" the plan. The legislation extends a $300 per week jobless benefit boost and programs expanding unemployment aid to millions more Americans through Sept. 6.

1, a sweeping government and elections reform bill and a key legislative priority for the Democratic majority. The House also passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, though the vote was initially scheduled for Thursday. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer released an updated schedule showing the House would vote on the George Floyd measure Wednesday night instead of Thursday, enabling the House to wrap up its workweek a day early and to not be in session Thursday. After the House vote, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump tweeted, "On behalf of George Floyd's family, we are deeply gratified and grateful for US House leadership. Some Democrats argue that it is important to eliminate the filibuster particularly so that voting rights legislation can be passed, such as the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court.

1, a sweeping government and elections reform bill and a key legislative priority for the Democratic majority. The House also passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, though the vote was initially scheduled for Thursday. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer released an updated schedule showing the House would vote on the George Floyd measure Wednesday night instead of Thursday, enabling the House to wrap up its workweek a day early and to not be in session Thursday. After the House vote, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump tweeted, "On behalf of George Floyd's family, we are deeply gratified and grateful for US House leadership. Some Democrats argue that it is important to eliminate the filibuster particularly so that voting rights legislation can be passed, such as the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court.

But lawmakers and advocates are racing to capitalize on House rules that allow any bill to bypass lengthy committee hearings if brought forward by April 1. Senate Republicans are now threatening similar delays. Ad“We’ll be fighting this in every way that we can,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said about the COVID-19 package. McConnell wants Senate Republicans to vote in lockstep against the virus aid, calling it a bloated liberal wish list, following the lead of House Republicans who gave it zero support. That leaves Democrats negotiating with themselves on the COVID-19 package, with Biden warning they won’t like every aspect as he courts centrists.

Top Democratic leaders in the House are pushing President Biden to nominate Shalanda Young to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, after Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination for the post on Tuesday, concluding there was "no path forward" to be confirmed. Young, Mr. Biden's nominee for deputy director of the agency, is a Democratic staff director for the House Appropriations Committee and well-respected on both sides of the aisle. In a joint statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said they "take great pride in recommending Shalanda Young as Director of the Office of Management and Budget." "You'll get my support, maybe for both jobs," GOP Senator Lindsey Graham told Young. It was also unclear whether Tanden would get support from Senator Bernie Sanders, a frequent critic of hers, or Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

Shalanda D. Young, nominee to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, is sworn into her Senate Budget Committee confirmation in Dirksen Building on Tuesday, March 2, 2021. House Democratic leaders endorsed Shalanda Young on Wednesday for director of the Office of Management and Budget. The move by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn came a day after President Joe Biden withdrew his nomination of Neera Tanden for OMB director at her request. Young is Biden's pick for deputy budget director and a former top Democratic aide on the House Appropriations Committee. Tanden, president of left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress, drew pushback during her confirmation process over her prior critical remarks of lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.

A $300 per week unemployment insurance enhancement and programs extending jobless benefits to millions more Americans formally expire on that day. Democrats aim to pass their $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan next week and send it to President Joe Biden 's desk for his signature. Senate Democrats still have to keep all of their members on board to get the bill through the chamber this week. Biden was set to nudge Senate Democrats toward approving the legislation when he called into a meeting with the caucus on Tuesday afternoon. Some Democrats believe Congress needs to do more to provide direct relief after passage of the $1.9 trillion plan.

House Democrats plan to pass their $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Friday as lawmakers try to prevent unemployment lifelines from expiring next month. "The American people strongly support this bill, and we are moving swiftly to see it enacted into law," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday night. It also puts $20 billion into Covid-19 vaccinations, $50 billion into testing, and $350 billion into state, local and tribal government relief. Democrats have moved to pass the legislation on their own through budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority in a Senate divided 50-50 by party. They have argued they cannot wait to ease economic pain while they try to strike a deal with the GOP.

On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer , D-Md., told lawmakers to prepare to work through Feb. 26 and into the ensuing weekend in order to pass the relief bill. The Senate on Saturday acquitted Trump of inciting an insurrection against the government after five days of proceedings. With former President Donald Trump 's second impeachment trial behind them, Democrats are moving to pass another coronavirus relief package within weeks. The bill includes a proposal to gradually hike the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. If the Senate passes a different bill than the House does, representatives would have to reconvene to approve the legislation again.

“A lot of folks are losing hope,” Biden said in a speech at the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, her first. Biden concluded in his Friday speech that aid at that level would only prolong the economic pain. Following Senate approval, the House passed the measure 219-209 on Friday afternoon, also without a Republican vote. The Senate also passed an amendment 99-1 that would prevent the $1,400 in direct checks in Biden’s proposal from going to “upper-income taxpayers.” But the measure, led by Sens.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., goes back to her office after speaking on the floor of the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)WASHINGTON – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene lashed out Friday at “morons” in both parties who voted to kick her off her committees, a day after the House meted out the unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she’d earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories. Underscoring the political vise her inflammatory commentary has clamped her party into, all but 11 Republicans voted against the Democratic move on Thursday but none rose to defend her lengthy history of outrageous social media posts. Even social media stars like Greene could find it harder to define themselves without the spotlights that committees provide. That chamber’s minority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this week called Greene’s words a “cancer” on the GOP and country.

The House will vote Thursday on a resolution to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of her committee assignments, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., met with Greene on Tuesday evening in his Capitol office. "The Rules Committee will meet this afternoon, and the House will vote on the resolution tomorrow," Hoyer said. A spokesman for the minority leader told NBC News that McCarthy would discuss the matter with lawmakers later Wednesday. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this week condemned Greene's "loony lies and conspiracy theories," calling them "cancer for the Republican Party and our country."

It comes as House Democrats moved Monday to strip Greene of her committee assignments if Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., refuses to do so himself. One suggested shooting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head. Last week, Pelosi pressed House Republicans to take action. A spokesperson for the Republican leader declined to comment Monday. AdAlthough it’s not certain he will take action against Greene, McCarthy has punished members of the House Republican caucus before.

In this Jan. 27, 2021, photo, President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Democrats in the House and Senate are operating as though they know they are borrowed time. Schumer said he drew from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's advice to “act big” to weather the COVID-19 economic crisis. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a former White House budget director under George W. Bush, wants a deeper accounting of what funds remain from the $900 billion coronavirus aid package from December. “The risks of going too small dramatically outweigh the risks of going too big,” said Gene Sperling, a former director of the White House National Economic Council, who signed the letter.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., speaks during a news conference calling for the removal of a bust from the Capitol of Chief Justice Roger Taney in Washington on Monday, March 9, 2020. Democrats have started to lay the groundwork to pass the next coronavirus relief package without Republican votes as GOP lawmakers criticize the cost of President Joe Biden's rescue plan. The thorny process would allow Democrats to pass a pandemic aid bill by a simple majority vote in the Senate with no Republican support. She added that "we hope and expect" Republicans will back an aid bill, but "Democrats will not take any tools off the table." The House majority leader told lawmakers he could change the schedule again before March 14 to allow time to renew programs to boost unemployed workers during the pandemic.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives on Saturday sent a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray and other agency chiefs seeking information on the intelligence and security failures that led up to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 that forced lawmakers into hiding. Four House committee chairs signed onto the letter, which called for documents and briefings from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Counterterrorism Center and the Director of National Intelligence on what was known ahead of the attack. "This still-emerging story is one of astounding bravery by some U.S. Capitol Police and other officers; of staggering treachery by violent criminals; and of apparent and high-level failures — in particular, with respect to intelligence and security preparedness," the committees wrote. The letter was signed by Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. and Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. The inspectors general of the Department of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security and Interior have launched reviews of their agency's actions connected to the attack.

3 House Republican had already broken with the president on everything from mask-wearing during the coronavirus pandemic to pulling back American troops in Afghanistan. Defying Trump also carried the historical weight of coming from the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, a conservative force in Washington for decades. On a conference call with home-state reporters after Trump's impeachment, Cheney defended her decision saying, “I will continue to talk to and hear from my constituents all over Wyoming. Other top members of her own party have begun clamoring for Cheney to quit — or be voted out of — her post as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. “I’m not judging anybody on this,” said Utah Republican Rep. John Curtis.

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)Members of the National Guard relax in the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)Members of the National Guard sleep on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)National Guard members have breakfast on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday morning. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)AdvertisementMore visual journalism from the Los Angeles Times

National Guard troops protected Congress on Wednesday as the House of Representatives moved to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting a violent mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol complex a week earlier. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with a National Guard troop, on the East Entrance of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 13, 2021. Oliver Contreras | APPelosi tweeted Wednesday about her speaking to the National Guard troops. "It was my privilege today to personally thank members of the National Guard who are working protect our nation's Capitol. The acting police chief of Washington said more than 20,000 National Guard troops are expected to be in the District of Columbia on Jan. 20 for Biden's inauguration that day.

The House looked all but certain to charge the president with high crimes and misdemeanors after Pence rejected the 25th Amendment route. Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday night he will not try to remove President Donald Trump from office, shortly before the House passed a measure calling on him and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. The 25th Amendment measure passed by the House does not compel Pence and Cabinet secretaries to take action. Democrats introduced competing versions of impeachment articles on Monday. "If he won't resign and Vice President Pence and the Cabinet won't invoke the 25th Amendment, he will be impeached by the House.

Already scheduled to leave office next week, Trump is on the verge of becoming the only president in history to be twice impeached. The House on Tuesday night approved a resolution urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump with a Cabinet vote, although Pence had already said he would not do so. Meanwhile, five Republican lawmakers, including third-ranking House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, announced they would vote to impeach Trump on Wednesday, cleaving the Republican leadership, and the party itself. Trump, meanwhile, warned the lawmakers off impeachment and suggested it was the drive to oust him that was dividing the country. Some Republican lawmakers complained about it.

Democrats introduced an article of impeachment Monday that charges Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors for whipping up an insurrection and disrupting the peaceful transfer of power. The chamber will take two separate steps to try to spur Trump's removal, according to the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Ted Lieu, D-Calif., led the drafting of impeachment article, though it is unclear whether the House will ultimately consider that measure or a separate one. In a statement Monday, she said the House wants Pence to respond "within 24 hours after passage" of the resolution. The House will likely vote to impeach Trump only a few days before President-elect Joe Biden will take office one week from Wednesday.

The rules changes come as Democrats hold a bare majority in the House of fewer than a half-dozen seats, significantly smaller than over the past two years. Also, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is beginning what promises to be her fourth and final term as leader of the chamber. Understanding the bundle of changes requires a dive into the arcane world of House rules and parliamentary maneuvering. The Democratic-imposed rules continue a years-long trend of eroding the powers of the House minority through revisions enacted every two years. “It is all designed to take away the voice of 48 percent of this House chamber,” said Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.

The congressional Republican leaders have been left almost speechless by Trump’s year-end scorching of their work. Instead, Washington is now hurtling toward a crisis with COVID aid about to collapse, as the president is at his Mar-a-Lago club. Many have opposed larger $2,000 checks as too costly and poorly targeted. Even if the House is able to approve Trump's $2,000 checks on Monday, that measure would likely die in the GOP-controlled Senate, which is due back in session on Tuesday. The year-end package Trump railed against as a “disgrace” is the product of months of work.

Lawmakers from both parties have urged Trump to sign the bill as is. "The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill, and I still hope that's what he decides to do," Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. "It took us a long time to get to where we are, I think reopening that bill would be a mistake." A senior Senate Republican aide told NBC News that the bill was being flown to Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump is spending Christmas. One of the president's demands included bigger stimulus checks of $2,000 instead of $600.

FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2020, file photo, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, of S.C., speaks during a news conference about COVID-19, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Pelosi will start the Biden era with a narrow majority, 222-211, with a few races still undecided. Biden's first pick from the House, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., would join the administration quickly once the president-elect is inaugurated Jan. 20, Clyburn said. Democrats are already deep into political soul-searching after a dismal November outcome for House Democrats. The danger zone was close enough that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer warned Biden last month off taking any more Democrats from his ranks.

FILE - In this July 7, 2020 file photo, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Richard Wilkie speaks at the National Press Club in Washington. Confronted with a sexual assault allegation at a veterans hospital, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie repeatedly sought to discredit the female congressional staffer who made the complaint. The groups pressed Trump to act in the last weeks of his administration since Wilkie had refused to accept responsibility and was refusing to resign. Wilkie and other senior officials had declined to fully cooperate with the investigation by VA Inspector General Michael Missal. Wilkie is Trump’s second VA secretary after David Shulkin was fired in 2018.

McConnell is playing a strong hand in the lame-duck session and is pressuring Democrats to drop a much-sought $160 billion state and local government aid package. McConnell says he'll drop a demand for provisions shielding businesses from COVID-19-related lawsuits, a key priority, if Democrats agree to drop the $160 billion state and local aid package. “We’ve got to get people a lifeline.”Manchin is an architect of a bipartisan $748 billion aid package that is aimed at serving as a template for the leadership talks. A state and local aid package was part of the almost $2 trillion CARES Act that passed the Senate unanimously in March. The $150 billion aid package to states and large cities evoked little controversy then, but many Republicans are adamantly against the idea now, though any additional aid would also go to smaller municipalities left out of the prior round.

This should not be Congress’ last COVID relief bill, but it is a strong compromise that deserves support from both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. The Kentucky Republican is pressing a lowest-common-denominator approach that would drop the lawsuit shield idea for now if Democrats agree to drop a $160 billion state and local aid package. Several Democrats appeared at the bipartisan news conference endorsing the $748 billion package. One is a $748 billion aid package containing money for struggling businesses, the unemployed, schools and vaccine distribution. Negotiations on the $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill are “essentially finished," said a congressional aide participating in the talks.

Trump has vowed to veto the bill unless lawmakers impose limits on social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a rare break with Trump, urged passage of the measure despite Trump's threat to veto it. The Democratic-controlled House overwhelmingly approved the defense bill on Tuesday, defying Trump’s veto threat and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration. It follows Trump’s bid over the summer to sabotage the package with a veto threat over Confederate base names. If he does veto the defense bill, Congress could cut short its Christmas recess to hold override votes.

(Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – In a rare break with President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is urging passage of a wide-ranging defense policy bill that Trump has threatened to veto. The Democratic-controlled House overwhelmingly approved the defense bill on Tuesday, defying Trump’s veto threat and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration. McConnell did not address Trump’s veto threat, but said the bill “will secure President Trump’s major progress at modernizing our capabilities, our technologies and our strategic nuclear deterrent.'' It follows Trump’s bid over the summer to sabotage the package with a veto threat over Confederate base names. If he does veto the defense bill, Congress could cut short its Christmas recess to hold override votes, senior House members said.

It follows Trump's bid to sabotage the package with an earlier veto threat over Confederate base names. If he does veto the defense bill, Congress could cut short its Christmas recess to hold override votes, senior House members said. And I think he will get substantial pressure, advice (from Republicans) that, you know, you don’t want to put the defense bill at risk.'' The defense bill is typically a widely bipartisan measure, one of the few areas of common ground. Some Democrats, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, agree the Section 230 provision could be revisited, even as they disagree with Trump’s tactic of attaching it to the defense bill.

WASHINGTON – The Latest on President-elect Joe Biden (all times local):4:20 p.m.President-elect Joe Biden is confirming that he will nominate retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be secretary of defense. And he wrote that Austin knows that the secretary of defense has a different set of responsibilities than a military officer. ___HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN'S TRANSITION TO THE WHITE HOUSE:President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin to be secretary of defense, according to four people familiar with the decision. Those pledges came even as Biden struck a somber tone about the toll the coronavirus has already taken. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is being prevented from publicly announcing its plans for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made the offer to Pelosi late Tuesday afternoon, he said in a statement. Mnuchin reached out to Pelosi after a call with top congressional GOP leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who remains at odds with Democratic leaders over COVID-19 relief. The $916 billion Mnuchin offer, the separate ongoing talks among key rank-and-file senators, and the shifting demands by the White House all add up to muddled, confusing prospects for a long-delayed COVID-19 aid package. McConnell said Congress will not adjourn without providing the long-overdue COVID-19 relief. Pelosi blasted McConnell's offer as an attempt to undercut the bipartisan group whose framework she supports as a foundation for the negotiations.

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are giving themselves more time to sort through their end-of-session business on government spending and COVID-19 relief, preparing a one-week stopgap spending bill that would prevent a shutdown this weekend. House floor leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on Twitter that the temporary government funding bill is slated for a vote on Wednesday, when it is sure to easily pass. Disagreements flared Monday over one key provision — a proposed liability shield from COVID-19-related lawsuits for businesses, schools and organizations that reopen. Republicans initially proposed a sweeping five-year liability shield, retroactive to December 2019, to protect companies and organizations from COVID-19-related lawsuits. Negotiators suggested a scaled-back liability shield, but a six-month proposal was panned by Republicans and there is no agreement yet from Democrats.