Senator Mitch McConnell had a message for Americans growing increasingly worried that the economy is going to crash if the federal debt ceiling is not raised: Just chill. “Look, I think everybody needs to relax,” Mr. McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader with deep experience in debt limit showdowns, told reporters back home earlier […]
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WASHINGTON — President Biden, just moments before he departed on Wednesday for a diplomatic trip to Asia, said he was confident “America will not default” as congressional leaders in both parties offered some signs of optimism about eventually reaching a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing limit. “Every leader in the room understands the consequences […]
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What A.I. regulation might look like The fireworks that usually pop when technology executives testify before Congress were noticeably absent from yesterday’s Senate hearing on artificial intelligence. Instead, lawmakers questioned Sam Altman, the C.E.O. of OpenAI, for three hours in what appeared to be a genuine effort to understand the growing importance, and the dangers, […]
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With time running out to strike a debt limit deal, President Biden and congressional leaders are set to meet Tuesday for pivotal face-to-face negotiations at the White House to avoid a default that economists say could eliminate jobs and cause a recession. The 3 p.m. meeting comes a day after Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen […]
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WASHINGTON — President Biden will meet with Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the White House on Tuesday in a critical face-to-face confrontation that will frame their showdown over the federal debt and spending in the weeks before the nation is set to default on its obligations for the first time in history. With the American and […]
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Without Senator Dianne Feinstein, there might never have been an assault weapons ban in 1994. Or the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994. Or the revelatory report on the C.I.A.’s torture program in 2014. She has had a distinguished career in the U.S. Senate, but her infirmities and illness now force her — and Senate leaders […]
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WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, on Tuesday said that he and other Republicans would not allow Democrats to temporarily replace the ailing Senator Dianne Feinstein of California on the Judiciary Committee, raising new questions about how her party will be able to move forward with Senate work without her. Pressure […]
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WASHINGTON — Senator Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday pushed back on calls for her resignation but asked to step away from the Judiciary Committee indefinitely while recovering from shingles, responding to mounting pressure from Democrats who have publicly vented concerns that she is unable to perform her job. Ms. Feinstein, an 89-year-old California Democrat, has been […]
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WASHINGTON — In 2008, an imminent collapse of the banking system consumed Congress before lawmakers delivered a bailout. Three years later, a debt limit crisis enveloped Washington and led to a series of spending cuts after a dangerous brush with default and a first-ever downgrade in the nation’s credit rating. Now unease about the banking […]
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President Biden’s budget plan, released on Thursday, routes about $1.2 billion to two of the biggest transit projects in New York City: the Second Avenue Subway extension and new train tunnels under the Hudson River. Because the funding was already allocated in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that was signed into law in 2021, it […]
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“The Biden administration must make right the protection system that failed unaccompanied children, and all children exploited for labor,” said Mario Bruzzone, senior policy adviser at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “We need accountability from the brands that profit from child labor, and every unaccompanied child must have a lawyer to safeguard the child’s rights.” The […]
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