Author: Alan Fram

WASHINGTON • Senate Democrats have reached an accord on eleventh-hour changes to their top-priority economic legislation, they announced late Thursday, clearing their major hurdle to moving the measure through the chamber in coming days. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., a centrist who was seen as the pivotal vote, said in a statement that she had agreed…

WASHINGTON • Democrats will push ahead on restraining pharmaceutical prices and extending health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer affirmed Tuesday, backing President Joe Biden’s call for his party to settle for a pared-down economic package and effectively concede to a pivotal senator. Aiming to craft the bill and approve…

WASHINGTON • Sen. Joe Manchin roiled his budget talks with Democratic leaders anew Wednesday, saying the latest inflation surge makes him “more cautious than I’ve ever been” about agreeing to federal spending increases that could drive consumers’ costs even higher. The West Virginia Democrat, who single-handedly killed Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion, 10-year social and environment…

WASHINGTON • Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his support Tuesday for his chamber’s emerging bipartisan gun agreement, boosting momentum for modest but notable election-year action by Congress on an issue that’s deadlocked lawmakers for three decades. The Kentucky Republican said he hoped an outline of the accord, released Sunday by 10 Democrats and 10…

WASHINGTON • The U.S. is headed for “a lot of unnecessary loss of life,” the Biden administration says, if Congress fails to provide billions more dollars to brace for the pandemic’s next wave. Yet the quest for that money is in limbo, the latest victim of election-year gridlock that’s stalled or killed a host of…

WASHINGTON • President Joe Biden asked Congress on Thursday for $33 billion to bolster Ukraine’s fight against Russia, signaling a burgeoning and long-haul American commitment as Moscow’s invasion and the international tensions it has inflamed show no signs of receding. The package has about $20 billion in defense spending for Ukraine and U.S. allies in…

WASHINGTON • A compromise $10 billion measure buttressing the government’s COVID-19 defenses stalled in the Senate on Wednesday and seemed all but certainly sidetracked for weeks, victim of a campaign-season fight over the incendiary issue of immigration. There was abundant finger-pointing but no signs the two parties were near resolving their stalemate over a bipartisan…