Tag: U.S. House

The House works from home

Lawmakers are scrambling to do their jobs remotely as the coronavirus outbreak threatens their constituents.

The shortage of supplies for front-line health workers is so severe in her district that Rep. Elissa Slotkin has started texting sewing patterns of DIY face masks to embroidery companies. In between, she’s calling nonstop the governor’s staff, hospitals and state leaders to seek help for her constituents from the coronavirus pandemic. And she’s doing it all from her family’s farm in Holly, Mich.

“The military would call this ‘discovery learning,’” said the freshman Democrat and former CIA analyst, who said she is spending as much as 13 or 14 hours a day on the phone. Slotkin has also held as many digital events as possible, including a virtual summit for 200 small-business owners, a conference call with 300 bankers and a teletown hall that drew 6,000 people.

As the outbreak threatens to overwhelm the nation, more than 400 House members are working to combat a mammoth crisis almost entirely from their living rooms — sometimes enduring the same daily indignities, like botched conference calls, that millions of other Americans are experiencing while working from home. Continue reading.

Florida Republican becomes first lawmaker to test positive for coronavirus

The Hill logoFlorida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) announced Wednesday he tested positive for COVID-19 after developing symptoms Saturday.

He is the first member of Congress to test positive for the novel coronavirus. Shortly after his announcement another House member, Rep. Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah), 45, announced he had also tested positive for the virus.

Diaz-Balart, 58, has been in self-quarantine in his Washington, D.C., apartment since Friday. Continue reading.

Revised coronavirus aid bill headed to Senate, finally

Some Republicans concerned about bill’s mandate on paid leave

White House officials and the top Senate Republican said late Monday economic aid to households affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is on track despite concerns among the GOP rank-and-file in that chamber about the impact of paid leave requirements on small businesses.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said after huddling with senators late Monday that hangups in the House over a package of “technical” fixes to the bill passed by the House early Saturday morning were on the verge of being resolved. Minutes later, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas — one of 40 Republicans to vote “no” on the bill initially — dropped his objection and the corrections were adopted by unanimous consent.

Gohmert had held out for much of the day’s pro forma House session, arguing he hadn’t seen what the actual fixes were. Finally the changes were revealed, with a 7:38 p.m. time stamp, and by 8:10 p.m. Gohmert was on the floor giving the resolution his blessing, telling the nearly empty chamber “what are being called technical corrections make the bill better than it was when it got passed in the wee hours Saturday morning.” Continue reading.

House passes corrected coronavirus bill

The Hill logoThe House on Monday evening passed for the second time legislation to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus after technical corrections were made to the measure.

The bill initially passed in a 363-40 vote in the early hours of Saturday morning, but due to a technicality that could not be fixed administratively, it had to be brought back to the floor.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) called for the changes to be read on the House floor, according to aides representing both parties, leaving some questioning when it would be sent to the Senate. Continue reading.

House lawmakers indefinitely postpone return to Washington

The Hill logoHouse Democratic leaders will indefinitely postpone their return to Washington as a precautionary measure amid rising anxieties over the fast-moving coronavirus.

The House was scheduled to return to the Capitol on March 23, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told rank-and-file Democrats on a conference call Monday that they’ll postpone that date, according to several aides familiar with the leadership message.

“Hoyer said for sure not Monday, and he will update them about the rest of the week,” one aide said, noting that potential cancellations of domestic flights may also play a role. “This is all pending domestic travel situation too.” Continue reading.

Coronavirus bill needs a do-over while small businesses chafe

Technical changes needed to bill that passed early Saturday morning

The House will have to vote once more on the COVID-19 aid package the chamber passed in the wee hours of Saturday morning due to agreed-upon “technical” changes that didn’t make it into the version that eventually hit the floor.

The do-over gives small businesses, unhappy with provisions requiring them to offer up to 12 weeks of paid leave to their workers, time to lobby for additional changes when the measure reaches the Senate. The influential National Federation of Independent Business said it may consider the matter a “key vote” on its legislative scorecard, a gauge of how worthy congressional candidates are of support in the upcoming elections.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin acknowledged the concerns small businesses had with the legislation and hedged on whether it could pass the Senate in its current form. Continue reading.

House Passes Bipartisan Pandemic Relief Bill Overnight

With an overwhelming bipartisan majority, the House of Representatives approved coronavirus relief legislation early Saturday morning. The bill provides tens of billions of dollars for free testing, paid sick leave, unemployment insurance, and other measures to assist those affected by the pandemic.

Following two days of negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — and much carping from House and Senate Republicans as well as President Trump — the 363-40 vote occurred just before 1 a.m. ET. According to the Washington Post, Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke by phone 13 times on Friday to clinch the relief agreement.

Trump then tweeted his endorsement of the bill, presumably ensuring Republican support as it goes to the Senate. Continue reading.

House passes measure limiting Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran

The Hill logoThe House has passed a resolution aimed at constraining President Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran, sending it to the president’s desk for his expected veto.

In a largely party-line 227-186 vote, the House approved the resolution that would direct the president to “terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities against” Iran unless Congress specifically authorizes it. Six Republicans voted for the measure.

The Senate passed the resolution in a 55-45 vote last month, with eight Republicans siding with Democrats to support it. Neither chamber of Congress is expected to have the votes to override Trump’s likely veto. Continue reading.

House passes key surveillance bill with deadline looming

The Hill logoThe House on Wednesday passed legislation to reauthorize a key intelligence surveillance bill after weeks of back-and-forth tussling between members in both parties.

The passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), 278-136, comes the day after the House struck a bipartisan deal on the legislation and just before the bill is set to expire on Sunday.

Negotiators had worked for weeks, as both liberal Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans pushed for additional privacy protections, putting them at odds with lawmakers who wanted a clean reauthorization of the FISA bill, which they believed would easily pass in the upper chamber. Continue reading.

Dems press ahead on coronavirus package as Senate waits for Trump

The speaker and president have different plans to boost the economy.

The White House and Speaker Nancy Pelosi began preliminary talks on Tuesday over a legislative package to juice the U.S. economy amid the worldwide coronavirus outbreak.

But House Democrats are simultaneously pressing forward with their own plan to counter the crisis that could get a vote as early as this week — showing that even the response to a massive public-health emergency is breaking down along partisan lines.

President Donald Trump presented Republican senators with several potential actions Congress could take as lawmakers look to avert disastrous economic impacts from the virus — but he did not offer a specific legislative package during their hour-long lunch meeting on Tuesday, according to several attendees. Continue reading.