defense

House Republicans are readying for a possible floor vote on a fiscal 2018 budget resolution as soon as next week, but with support for the plan currently shy of the 218 votes needed, action could be delayed weeks or even months.

After more than a month of negotiations, the House Budget Committee will mark up the fiscal blueprint on Wednesday. Floor action before the August recess appears to be the goal, and with several conservatives and moderates withholding support, that’s a target leaders will likely miss.

Sixteen years on, Congress seems to be getting genuinely close to forcing itself into a fresh debate on how to prescribe the use of military force against terrorism.

Writing a new war authorization will not happen before the end of the year, meaning those deliberations would be influenced by the dynamics of the midterm election campaign. But proposals to force the issue onto the agenda have the potential to blossom into sleeper hits on this summer’s remarkably blockbuster-deprived roster of consequential legislation.

The White House and Senate Democratic leaders clashed on Monday about what Trump administration officials are calling “unprecedented” blocking tactics of nominees from Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer — a charge the Senate Democratic leader scoffed at. 

Marc Short, White House legislative affairs director, accused Senate Democrats of “conducting the slowest confirmation process in American history” and Schumer of running “an unprecedented campaign of obstruction.”

North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones continued his quest to rename the Department of the Navy to include the Marine Corps by getting an amendment in the annual defense spending bill.

Jones’ amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2018 would change the name to the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps. He has been pushing for the change since 2001.

Updated 9:27 p.m. | President Donald Trump pressed Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election on Friday, but the Russian president denied involvement each time, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.

“They had a very robust and lengthy exchange on the subject,” Tillerson said from Hamburg, Germany, where Trump and 19 other world leaders are attending the G-20 summit. “The president pressed President Putin on more than one occasion regarding Russian involvement. President Putin denied such involvement.”

For the second consecutive day, Donald Trump shunned longstanding protocol by criticizing fellow Americans on foreign soil when he lambasted the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief.

On Thursday while in Warsaw, the president criticized America’s intelligence agencies, a former U.S. president (Barack Obama) and his country’s news media. A day later, before departing the house where he is staying in Hamburg, Germany, for the G-20 summit, Trump went after the DNC and John Podesta.

President Donald Trump on Thursday set the tone for his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, using his most direct rhetoric yet toward Moscow when he urged the Kremlin to “cease its destabilizing activities.”

When Trump and Putin hold a formal meeting Friday during the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, it will be one of the most anticipated meetings between an American and a Russian leader in some time. The U.S. president used a Thursday speech to the Polish people in Warsaw to set the tone, making clear he wants Putin to alter course while stating clearly his commitment to NATO’s mutual defense pact, established in large part to deter Soviet, and later Russian, aggression.

President Donald Trump on Thursday pointed a finger of blame at Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and warned North Korea he is considering “severe” actions in response to its nuclear arms and long-range missile programs.

In a wide-ranging joint news conference with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw, Trump also lambasted CNN and other American media outlets he again dubbed “fake news” and announced — though in a slightly veiled manner — the United States will seek to undermine Moscow’s leverage in Europe by challenging its natural gas “monopoly” there.

President Donald Trump landed in Warsaw, Poland, under the cover of darkness Wednesday but there will be no hiding from the spotlight during his two-day European visit that will include a much-anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump is slated to deliver what national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster described last week as a “major speech” to the Polish people on Thursday. A day later, the president will be in Hamburg, Germany, for a meeting of the leaders of 20 rich and developing countries.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to abandon working with China to address North Korea’s nuclear arms and long-range missile programs.

In a tweet posted just a few days before he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Germany, Trump criticized China for increasing its trade with Pyongyang.