Poli Alert Politics & Civics

Mel Leonor Barclay Originally published by The 19th In the intensely divided 118th Congress, the job of leading bipartisan efforts to keep the government funded will belong to four women lawmakers for the first time ever. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington will become the second woman ever to lead …

Jennifer Shutt, South Dakota Searchlight The White House revealed Thursday morning that more classified documents from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president were discovered outside of secure government facilities, this time in the garage at his Wilmington, Delaware home. The files have since been turned over to the U.S. …

Lindsey Toomer, Colorado Newsline U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver and a group of fellow Democrats introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday condemning all forms of political violence regardless of intent or target. The resolution came in response to a Republican measure condemning attacks only against …

Democratic Rep. Katie Porter on Tuesday announced that she’s running for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein in California, potentially setting up a showdown in 2024 between the Senate’s oldest current member and a rising star in the Democratic Party. “California needs a warrior in the Senate — …

Jennifer Shutt, Source New Mexico U.S. House Republican leaders during a closed-door meeting Tuesday shared more details of the secret agreements Speaker Kevin McCarthy made with conservative lawmakers last week to secure the votes he needed to hold the gavel. The so-called handshake deal, displayed on slides during the GOP …

Jennifer Shutt, Georgia Recorder The U.S. House on Wednesday approved its first abortion-related measures under a new Republican majority, eliciting strong support from GOP members and opposition from Democrats, who rejected the legislation as misleading and incomplete. Republicans, who secured a four-seat majority during the November midterm elections, said the bill …

Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams Progressive U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar said Wednesday that the only reason why Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is moving to ban her from her House committees is because she is Muslim. McCarthy (R-Calif.) confirmed Tuesday that Omar (D-Minn.), as well as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and …

Samantha Aguilar, The Texas Tribune U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon, a Republican from Texas, has filed articles of impeachment against U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The resolution accuses Mayorkas of not “maintaining operational control” over the U.S. border. Fallon cites the secretary’s attempt to eliminate Title 42, ending …

Ariana Figueroa, Pennsylvania Capital-Star The U.S. Department of Education unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would overhaul a federal student loan income-driven repayment plan, and, if implemented, could help millions of low-income borrowers. However, it’s unclear how the agency would be able to finance the program. Many student debt relief advocates …

Republicans who have pledged to use their narrow majority in the House to pursue steep federal spending cuts have sent a clear message in recent days: The bloated Pentagon budget is safe, but Social Security, Medicare, and other key government programs are not. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) expressed that sentiment …

Ashley Murray, Colorado Newsline U.S. House Republicans filled their top committee seats this week, choosing the leaders who will set the course for bills and issues for the new majority in the 118th Congress. Veteran GOP lawmakers from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri were among those …

Global health officials are warning of an expected surge in cases of COVID-19 in the United States and other countries as the latest, most transmissible omicron subvariant continues to circulate. That new subvariant is called XBB.1.5 and it’s been rapidly growing in the United States. Both the World Health Organization …

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams Rep. Kevin McCarthy finally seized the House speaker’s gavel in the early hours of Saturday morning, capping off a chaotic week of voting and heated floor confrontations that were nationally televised and closely documented by reporters stationed at the U.S. Capitol. What remains less clear, though, …

Jennifer Shutt, Arkansas Advocate The U.S. House adopted rules for the 118th Congress on Monday, though several of the concessions Speaker Kevin McCarthy made with more conservative members of the Republican Party to secure the gavel weren’t included in the document, or publicly circulated ahead of the vote. The 55-page …

Dick Polman, Pennsylvania Capital-Star Decades ago, Holocaust scholar Hannah Arendt warned: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, i.e. the reality of experience and the distinction between true and false, i.e., the …