House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks with reporters as she leaves the House chamber in the Capitol after holding her 8-hour speech focusing on DACA on Wednesday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
House Democrats left a caucus meeting just five hours before a government funding deadline Thursday acting like they have the unity needed to block the budget deal, but are they bluffing?
That’s probably the question Speaker Paul D. Ryan is asking himself right now. Or maybe he doesn’t even care.
Supporters of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., are rallying in support of the embattled congressman in Detroit. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Supporters of Rep. John Conyers are set to hold a rally for the Michigan Democrat calling for “due process” amid accusations about sexual harassment.
The rally will be held at Adams Church in Detroit, the Detroit News reported.
Rep. Dan Kildee, second from left, is angling for a spot on the Ways and Means Committee now that fellow Michigan Rep. Sander M. Levin, second from right, isn’t seeking re-election in 2018. Also pictured, from left, Virginia Rep. Robert C. Scott and Michigan Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
With longtime House Ways and Means member Sander M. Levin announcing Saturday he won’t run for re-election next year, his fellow Michigan Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee spent the weekend lobbying leadership for a spot on the influential panel.
Kildee sent letters to each member of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which is responsible for making committee assignments after the midterms.
Michigan Rep. Sander Levin was first elected in 1982. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Michigan Rep. Sander M. Levin will not seek re-election in 2018, he announced Saturday.
“I have been incredibly honored to serve the people of Michigan in Congress and to work on so many issues important to our communities, our state, and our nation,” the 18-term Democrat said in a statement.
President Donald Trump, accompanied by his chief of staff John Kelly, arrives at the Capitol to speak to House Republicans before a floor vote on a GOP-crafted tax overhaul bill. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Two fireplaces outside the House chamber told the story Thursday a few minutes before members streamed in to vote on a sweeping tax bill. Orange embers were still just visible in both beneath scorched logs and ash. For Republicans, what had started with a white-hot visit by President Donald Trump ended with the anti-climactic passage of their tax plan.
But there was nothing anti-climactic a short time earlier in the basement of the Capitol, where House GOP members gather weekly as a group. They scurried in — mostly on time, with a few notable exceptions — for the presidential visit, and many emerged just before noon strikingly giddy about the scene during the president’s roughly 20 minutes of remarks.
Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady sits in front of tax code volumes during a Monday committee markup of the House Republicans’ tax plan. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Updated 9:25 p.m. | Fireworks started early at the House Ways and Means Committee markup Monday of the Republican tax plan, as Democrats repeatedly criticized the GOP’s effort to overhaul the tax code as a boon to the rich that would hurt many middle-class families.
Tensions rose about six hours into Day One of the marathon markup when Chairman Kevin Brady offered an amendment to his previous substitute that would make several changes to the bill. Democrats let loose on the Texas Republican for unveiling the substitute and taking it up immediately, without allowing any extra time to examine the provisions.
Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady will preside over what will likely be a marathon markup of the GOP tax legislation. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
House tax writers on Monday start slogging through the Republican tax plan, but an expected melee of political messaging is likely to eclipse any major policy changes during the marathon markup.
The Ways and Means Committee will meet at noon Monday to begin marking up the tax bill and is aiming to finish on Thursday, according to Chairman Kevin Brady. The Texas Republican promised much of the debate will take place during the regular workday, but long hours and some late nights are expected.
Virginia Sens. Mark Warner, left, and Tim Kaine, right, pose with police officers at the Alexandria Police Department on Tuesday. (Courtesy Warner and Kaine’s offices)
Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner spent some time in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday night to honor the police officers who responded to the shooting at the congressional Republicans’ baseball practice in June.
They presented copies of a resolution adopted unanimously in the Senate in June to Alexandria Police Department officers. The resolution, led by Kaine and Warner and co-sponsored by the entire Senate, commended the department, Capitol Police and first responders for their heroism during the attack. It also recognized the survivors of the incident.
Democrats say the ouster of White House adviser Steve Bannon is a good first step. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
Democrats are glad President Donald Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon is gone, but they say change is needed from the top down.
Democratic members of Congress hammered the president for choosing Bannon, the former Breitbart executive, to plot strategy in the White House in the first place. And they said if the president wants to repair the damage he has done, he should look inward.
As a congressman from Michigan, Vernon Ehlers used his physics background to advance environmental and STEM legislation for nearly two decades. (CQ Roll Call file photo)
The first research physicist ever elected to Congress, Vernon J. Ehlers was known for his legislative work to bolster scientific research and education, raise fuel economy standards, and protect clean air and water.
Ehlers, who represented Western Michigan in Congress for nearly two decades, died Tuesday at the age of 83. His death was confirmed by the Zaagman Memorial Chapel in Grand Rapids, which did not immediately indicate the cause of death, The Detroit News reported.
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