In the News
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg will testify Thursday to a U.S. congressional hearing on fossil fuel subsidies, which the committee's progressive chairman is pressuring President Joe Biden to end.
Thunberg will appear virtually before the House Oversight Committee's subcommittee on the environment the same day Biden kicks off a virtual two-day Earth Day summit with world leaders, seeking to assert U.S. leadership internationally on climate change.
A group of Republicans and Democrats are putting forward a new plan aimed at bolstering the nation's economic competitiveness against China. It represents a big test of whether Republicans and Democrats can still collaborate on key issues in Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along with Republican Sen. Todd Young introduced legislation on Wednesday to pour federal money into industries like semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Other co-sponsors included Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin.
Congress is moving with increasing urgency on bipartisan legislation to confront China and bolster U.S. competitiveness in technology and critical manufacturing with the Senate poised to act within weeks on a package of bills.
Congressman Ro Khanna of California was the first House Democrat to speak out Friday against President Joe Biden's request for a $715 billion Pentagon budget for Fiscal Year 2022, an increase from the current $704 billion level approved under former President Donald Trump.
Congressional Democrats are introducing legislation to transfer $1bn in funding from a controversial new intercontinental ballistic missile to the development of a universal Covid vaccine.
The Investing in Cures Before Missiles (ICBM) Act, introduced in the House and Senate on Friday, would stop funding on the proposed new missile, known as the ground-based strategic deterrent (GBSD) which is projected to cost a total of $264bn over its projected lifespan, and discontinue spending on a linked warhead modification program.
US Representative Ro Khanna is consistent. The California Democrat was an outspoken critic of former president Donald Trump's unauthorized use of military force in the Middle East, and he immediately objected when President Joe Biden ordered air strikes targeting Iranian-backed militias in Syria on February 25. I spoke with Khanna, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Peace and Security Task Force of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on how Democratic members of Congress should respond to military actions by a Democratic president. —John Nichols
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is set to unveil a trio of bills designed to lower the cost of prescription drugs and give American consumers access to the competitive global drug market.
hroughout his time in Congress, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), the 44-year-old Obama administration alumnus and former tech lawyer, has drawn scrutiny from progressives as well as pro-Israel advocates for his somewhat heterodox approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An outspoken progressive Democrat is wary of President Biden's approach to the Middle East, arguing it's like "conceding defeat of the aspiration" to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Why it matters: A number of members of Biden's own party dislike his Middle East strategy, as his administration signals the region is no longer the priority it was for President Obama and his predecessors.
Liberal House Democrats are pleading with Vice President Kamala Harris to ignore the ruling of the Senate's parliamentarian and decide that the $15 federal minimum wage can stay in the Covid relief package during Senate floor debate this week.