WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opened the door to Democrats using a special budget tool to raise the U.S. debt ceiling without the support of Senate Republicans, whose votes would otherwise be needed to end a filibuster on the increase.

Democrats this month resisted using the budget reconciliation process, which requires just 51 ...Read more

A Mexican dealmaker in China was one of the key architects behind former President Donald Trump’s deal with a special purpose acquisition company.

Shanghai-based ARC Group Ltd. was an adviser to Trump’s merger partner Digital World Acquisition Corp. and was tasked with building the SPAC’s deal pipeline, according to its listing ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The White House’s concessions are piling up on President Joe Biden’s social-spending plan — including climate, education and child care provisions — as negotiations continue into the weekend.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday after breakfast with the president that “more than 90% is agreed to and written.”

But...Read more

Donald Trump’s sagging fortune is suddenly poised to get a massive boost from meme-stock mania.

News this week that the former president’s nascent media enterprise, Trump Media & Technology Group, is planning to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) has sent retail investors into a frenzy, even with few details ...Read more

ALBANY, N.Y. — New Yorkers heading to the polls for the general election have the chance to make some big changes, with major ramifications, to the state constitution.

Early voting began on Saturday and will continue until Sunday, Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 2.

The ballots include five proposals that will let voters approve or shoot down ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials encountered more than 1.7 million migrants crossing the border with Mexico over the past year — a record number likely to escalate Republican attacks on the Biden administration’s handling of immigration.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 1.73 million southwest border encounters overall, but many were...Read more

WASHINGTON — Democrats ended the legislative week Friday without a “framework” agreement on their partisan spending and tax package, but leaders said they’d continue negotiating through the weekend on a handful of unresolved issues.

Optimism was so high that Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters the House may vote on the budget ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the Biden administration of undermining the independence of the U.S. judiciary as a presidential commission explores ways to revamp the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court.

In remarks honoring the tenure of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, McConnell referenced a recent ...Read more

Shares of Donald Trump’s new conservative media venture nearly doubled this week, mostly fueled by Reddit-online daytraders, but some well-known hedge funds turned out to be early investors as well.

Trump Media & Technology Group merged with a shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: DWAC) as a way to go public. The ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday refused again to put on hold a Texas abortion law that makes it illegal for doctors to end a pregnancy after about six weeks.

Instead, the justices said they will hear arguments next month on whether the Justice Department has standing to sue Texas over a law that denies women the right to choose ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden conferred Friday morning with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as they pressed to come up with an agreement among Democrats on the president’s economic agenda.

The high-level meeting comes as Democrats strive to wrap up negotiations on a roughly $2 trillion compromise ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Senate Appropriations Committee, in a report this week accompanying its new Defense spending bill, expressed concern over reports of thousands of military families suffering from hunger.

“Studies have found that one in eight military families were food insecure prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and this number has now grown to...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday refused again to put on hold a Texas abortion law that makes it illegal for doctors to end a pregnancy after about six weeks.

Instead, the justices said they will hear arguments next month on whether the Justice Department has standing to sue Texas over a law that denies women their right to choose ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden indicated he’d support ending the filibuster rule in the Senate to address the debt ceiling and voting-rights legislation — and possibly other items — after Republican members of the chamber used that mechanism to block bills on the two issues this month.

The debt-ceiling 60-vote requirement is absurd, ...Read more

President Joe Biden made his first official visit to Baltimore since becoming chief executive, making a plea to the American public in support of his social spending and infrastructure plan during a nationally televised town hall hosted by CNN Thursday.

Biden was greeted by raucous applause from the crowd as he walked onto the stage wearing a ...Read more

BALTIMORE — President Joe Biden made his first official visit to Baltimore since becoming chief executive Thursday, making a plea to the American public in support of his infrastructure plan during a nationally televised town hall hosted by CNN.

Biden was greeted by raucous applause from the crowd as he walked onto the stage wearing a dark ...Read more

The move by Democrats to shrink President Joe Biden’s vision for the economy into a smaller package is turning to a debate over whether key benefits should be restricted to fewer, needier families — potentially blunting both their impact and political support in suburban districts that will be battlegrounds in next year’s midterm election....Read more

The head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the state GOP chairman that there’s not enough evidence to pursue unsubstantiated claims of ballot harvesting in the 2020 elections based on cellphone signals collected by a conservative organization.

GBI Director Vic Reynolds wrote in a letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...Read more

Kansas Attorney Derek Schmidt is asking the state Supreme Court to pause his appeal of an abortion case he filed three months ago until Kansans vote on a proposed constitutional amendment next summer.

In July, Schmidt appealed a Shawnee County court decision that struck down a ban on what abortion opponents call “dismemberment abortions.” ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday voted 229-202 to hold former White House adviser Stephen Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

The vote was largely along party lines, but nine Republicans did vote in favor of the resolution, H.Res. 730. They ...Read more