Washington Wire

A veteran House Republican warned that if the Senate fumbles tax reform after the failure on health care, the GOP could lose its House majority. I think that we would all be a lot better off if the Senate would stop taking vacations, and start staying here until we actually get some real things accomplished, ” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said…

HUNTINGTON- Melania Trump arrived in Huntington about as quietly as a first lady can- the flipside to the spirited splash her husband made in town two months earlier. Unlike the last time a presidential motorcade rolled through Huntington, carrying President Donald Trump to a rally downtown in August, there were no speeches to be made. The visit was sparked by…

—First lady Melania Trump has toured a West Virginia drug addiction recovery center for infants in the heart of the nation’s opioid epidemic. Lily’s Place Executive Director Rebecca Crowder was part of a group of experts and people affected by drug addiction who were to the White House last month. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,…

—It was a moment eight months in the making: Melania Trump bounding down the White House lawn to the vegetable garden made famous by her predecessor. It included two words Mrs. Trump has been using more often lately: first lady. In a flurry of solo public appearances from the United Nations to an international sports event in Canada to the White House in the past few…

Oct. 09– President Donald Trump is scheduled to be in Harrisburg Wednesday for a private, ticketed, town-hall-style event, according to the chairman of the York County Republican Committee. Trump previously visited Harrisburg in April to celebrate his 100th day in office and a couple of other times while campaigning. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee…

—Vice President Mike Pence left the 49 ers-Colts game after about a dozen San Francisco players took a knee during the national anthem Sunday, the latest move by President Donald Trump’s administration to clash with NFL players over patriotism and public demonstrations. The White House also issued a statement from Pence, in which he said Americans should…

The lack of specificity on the overall goal harks back to their failed health care effort, when Republicans had difficulty crafting a unified objective outside of simply repealing the Affordable Care Act. And some took the blanket statement of urging tax cuts for all, a goal that could be difficult given the constraints Republicans are under with their slim…

—President Donald Trump is heading to Hamburg, Pennsylvania, next week to make his case for an overhaul of the nation’s tax code. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday the plan “is really a jobs bill.” Trump’s trip Wednesday to the town northwest of Philadelphia is aimed at building his case that tax cuts would help drive the economy.

The Trump administration is expected to remove a federal health provision that requires employers provide coverage for birth control — making good on the president’s campaign promise.

The NRA, which for decades has opposed any new restrictions on firearms even after mass shootings, made a sharp pivot minutes before the White House gave the green light to debating a ban on bump stocks. “Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the…

—The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Randal Quarles to serve on the Federal Reserve, the first step in the Republican’s efforts to remake the nation’s powerful central bank. The Fed is the primary regulator for the largest U.S. banks. But critics charged that Quarles, who for many years worked as a lawyer for big banks, was too close to…

—President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump met privately with victims of the Las Vegas shooting at a hospital Wednesday, praising them and the doctors who treated them as he visited a city still reeling from the worst gun massacre in modern U.S. history. Speaking to reporters from the lobby of the University Medical Center lobby, Trump said he’d met “some…

Trump’s administration already had seen an unprecedented wave of departures, including a chief of staff, a national security adviser and a Cabinet secretary. However, his core national security team— Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his second national security adviser, H.R. McMaster— has been viewed by Republicans and even many Democrats as a…

Leaders of the U.S. Senate’s intelligence committee on Wednesday said its investigation has found that the Russian intelligence did meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and plans to interfere in future national elections. Republican Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R- N.C., and ranking Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia…

—Legislation that could help usher in a new era of self-driving cars advanced in Congress on Wednesday after the bill’s sponsors agreed to compromises to address some concerns of safety advocates. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the bill by a voice vote, a sign of broad, bipartisan support. Action by the full Senate is still…

Oct. 04– President Trump tossed rolls of paper towels like jump shots to a supportive crowd in storm-ravaged Puerto Rico, praised the response efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and awkwardly marveled at the low death count compared to “a real catastrophe like Katrina.” “Governor, I just want to tell you that, right from the beginning, this governor did not…

The House on Tuesday approved a bill banning most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, advancing a key GOP priority for the third time in the past four years— this time, with a supportive Republican in the White House. The bill, known as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, is not expected to emerge from the Senate, where most Democrats and a handful of…

—President Donald Trump will reckon with the aftermath of a deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas as he meets Wednesday with survivors and law enforcement officials in a time of grief. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said he’d be in Las Vegas to “pay our personal respects and condolences to everybody. Who can believe what happened to Las Vegas? “

—Republican leaders are making clear that Congress will take no action on gun legislation in the wake of the massacre in Las Vegas. Chris Collins, R- N.Y., said action on guns after Las Vegas was unnecessary, “We are not going to knee-jerk react to every situation.” Four years ago, after the deadly school shooting in Newtown, a bipartisan bill on background checks failed…

—Most late-term abortions would be outlawed under legislation Republicans pushed toward House passage Tuesday, a bill that won’t reach an eager President Donald Trump because it faces certain defeat in the Senate. The Democratic-controlled Senate didn’t even consider the bill after the House approved it in 2013, and a House-passed measure in 2015 was…