Awaiting Janet Yellen At Treasury: Yet Another Daunting Crisis

—President-elect Joe Biden is set to formally introduce his national security team to the nation, building out a team of Obama administration alumni that signals his shift away from the Trump administration’ s“ America First” policies and a return to U.S. engagement on the global stage. Biden's emerging Cabinet marks a return to a more traditional approach to…

—The federal government recognized President-elect Joe Biden as the“ apparent winner” of the Nov. 3 election, formally starting the transition of power after President Donald Trump spent weeks testing the boundaries of American democracy. She acted after Michigan on Monday certified Biden’ s victory in the battleground state, and a federal judge in…

The six picks, including former Secretary of State John Kerry, mark a reinstatement of a more traditional approach to America’ s relations with the rest of the world and reflect Biden’ s campaign promises to have his Cabinet reflect the diversity of America. In choosing foreign policy veterans, Biden appears to be seeking to upend President Donald Trump’ s war on…

But as time wore on, the plans always fell victim to political gridlock and President Donald Trump's propensity for Twitter controversies, and soon “Infrastructure Week” became a Washington punchline for the White House's lack of message discipline. Now, with Joe Biden poised to take office in January, infrastructure's bipartisan appeal makes federal…

WILMINGTON, Del.- Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, leaders of the Democratic Party's left wing, are at risk of being excluded from the senior ranks of President-elect Joe Biden's administration as the incoming president balances the demands of his party's progressive base against the political realities of a narrowly divided Senate.

Also, like it or not, Dec. 31 looms as the witching hour when a number of benefits provided in the CARES Act, the coronavirus relief measure passed in March, expire. Which is why Congress needs to pass an additional relief package now, in the lame-duck session that began Monday, and not wait for the arrival of the Biden administration and a new Congress.

Kevin McCarthy easily won reelection as House Republican leader, a stunning turnaround as the entire GOP leadership team was rewarded by their colleagues for reducing the Democrats’ House advantage in the November election. Republicans saw little reason to shake up their leadership after not a single GOP lawmaker in the House lost reelection.

None of the experts is currently affiliated with the U.S. government, raising questions about whether Biden is being provided the most up-to-date information about dangers facing the nation. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received a more formal briefing on Tuesday as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, though still has relatively limited…

Pelosi, D- Calif., faced no announced rivals for the post Wednesday as the chamber's Democrats planned their first-ever virtual leadership elections in response to the pandemic. “Let us all be advocates for unity in the Democratic party, where our values are opportunity and community,” Pelosi wrote to Democrats this week. The first female speaker, Pelosi has won…

A version of this editorial first appeared in USA Today. Which is why Congress needs to pass an additional relief package now and not wait for the arrival of the Biden administration and a new Congress. Just last month, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell- an appointee of President Donald Trump- urged more stimulus, even at the expense of greater deficits.

BRUSSELS- NATO could pay a heavy price for leaving Afghanistan too early, its chief warned Tuesday, after a U.S. official said President Donald Trump is expected to withdraw a significant number of American troops from the conflict-ravaged country in the coming weeks. It is unlikely that NATO could even wind down its operation without U.S. help.

The Biden-Harris transition team last week named a 13- member coronavirus advisory board, a White House chief of staff and agency review teams. The Associated Press currently projects Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election with 290 Electoral College votes and 50.9% of the popular vote to Trump's 232 Electoral College votes and 47.3% of the…

Nov. 14– Republicans and Democrats are more divided than ever, including when it comes to decisions about health care, a Harvard expert said, which could halt or delay issues such as a second stimulus and insurance reform. “Republicans do not feel the size of federal assistance should be of the scale the Democrats will,” Blendon said. On key health policy issues such as…

—President-elect Joe Biden feels at home on Capitol Hill, but the place sure has changed since he left. Republicans are favored to retain control of the Senate heading into two runoff elections in Georgia in January. Democrats have already won the House.

President-elect Joe Biden will inherit a vulnerable economic recovery under threat from a resurgent virus, likely with a divided Congress that will hinder his ability to address the challenges. And to help pay for it all, the president-elect would turn to large tax increases for corporations and wealthy individuals by reversing much of the current tax policy.

Monday's very favorable news from Pfizer Inc. that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective at preventing disease in early clinical trial results- raises hopes for a day, and soon, the pandemic will be behind us. With such good news, it may be tempting for Congress to conclude that a major fiscal relief effort is no longer needed.

—The Trump administration threw the presidential transition into tumult, with President Donald Trump blocking government officials from cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden’ s team and Attorney General William Barr authorizing the Justice Department to probe unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. Some Republicans, including Senate…

The president made the abrupt announcement in a midday tweet and officials said Mr. Esper was given just a few minutes' notice that his firing was imminent. Democrats slammed the firing, with some even suggesting Mr. Trump wants to install a yes-man at the Defense Department in his final days who would willingly carry out military strikes abroad, purge critics at…

Nov. 9– President Donald Trump's legal team repeated its vow Sunday to bring a wave of new lawsuits contesting Joe Biden's win of the presidency, starting with a federal suit to be filed Monday alleging that Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were awash in vote fraud. Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, elaborated on the pending suits in an interview on Fox News in…

Congress faces a government shutdown deadline and crucial economic relief negotiations at a moment of extraordinary national uncertainty, with Trump refusing to concede the presidential election and with coronavirus cases spiking nationwide. Even before Biden takes office on Jan. 20, Congress must contend with a Dec. 11 government funding deadline.

WILMINGTON, Del.- President-elect Joe Biden signaled on Sunday he plans to move quickly to build out his government, focusing first on the raging pandemic that will likely dominate the early days of his administration. White House officials would not comment on whether they would cooperate with Biden's team on the review. “People want the country to move forward,”…

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule to provide regulatory guideposts for plan fiduciaries seeking to invest using non-pecuniary principles, particularly those involving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.

—Justice Amy Coney Barrett is expected to join her Supreme Court colleagues on Monday to hear arguments for the first time. Participating in oral arguments will be among the first things Barrett will do after being confirmed last week in a 52-48 virtual party-line vote, with Republicans overpowering Democrats to install President Donald Trump's third…

Expect to see a lot more of the same if there's a second Trump administration. President Donald Trump has consistently pointed to tax cuts and regulatory relief as key successes of his first four years in office. And by Friday, Wall Street had closed out another punishing week with the S&P 500 posting its first back-to-back monthly loss since the pandemic first…

Mr. Biden had a 10- point lead, 52% to 42%, over Mr. Trump among registered voters, according to the poll. Republican pollster Bill McInturff said Mr. Trump has the potential to overperform on Tuesday. Mr. Biden had a 6- point lead, 51% to 45%, over Mr. Trump across 12 battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire,…

WASHINGTON— Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court late Monday by a deeply divided Senate, Republicans overpowering Democrats to install President Donald Trump’ s nominee days before the election and secure a likely conservative court majority for years to come. Democrats were unable to stop the outcome, Trump’ s third justice on the court, as…

This year is drenched with politics, yet the nation seems oblivious that coming decades of American governance irrevocably have been shaped by what Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute calls “the largest single' state surge' in American history,” a “tidal wave of public resources”: debt. In eight years, the Reagan administration almost tripled…

—After a raucous first debate led organizers to introduce a mute button, the second and final meeting between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden was a downright civil affair. “So far, I respect very much the way you’ re handling this, “Trump said to NBC's Kristen Welker when she gave him time to respond to Biden at one point.

Democrats and Republicans are as uninterested in balancing the budget as they are committed to growing the deficit. In an October 6 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Steve Moore, a member of President Trump's economic recovery task force, proposes a 100 percent suspension of all federal personal and corporate income taxes for 2021.. This plan would leave more…

There are two American economies right now: a buoyant recovery resting atop a possible depression. There's the economy of higher-income, mostly college-educated, white-collar workers: people who still can work from home, who can order delivery for nearly every need or desire, and whose finances barely have been dented by the recession, if at all.

Lower premiums and more participation by insurers. That’s what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced as it released…

Pamela Rush was a good mother and a caring neighbor. As part of the Poor People's Campaign, Pamela gave heartbreaking testimony before Congress in 2018 on behalf of roughly 140 million poor and low-income Americans. Just weeks before the presidential election, President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress continue to deny additional relief to these…

A Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found nine in 10 Democrats (89%) and two-thirds of independents (66%) also said they do not want to see the Supreme Court overturn the Affordable Care Act while three-fourths of Republicans (76%) said they would like to see the entire law overturned.

—The U.S. Postal Service agreed Wednesday to reverse changes that slowed mail service nationwide, settling a lawsuit filed by Montana Gov. The lawsuit filed against Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the U.S. Postal Service on Sept. 9 argued changes implemented in June harmed access to mail services in Montana, resulting in delayed delivery of medical…

—Two Americans and the remains of a third held captive by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen were released on Wednesday in exchange for the return of about 250 of the Houthi rebels from Oman, according to the White House and sources in the region. “The United States welcomes the release today of U.S. citizens Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada from Houthi custody in…

Like other Democrats on the GOP- led panel, Klobuchar framed her opposition to Barrett in terms of her belief that the conservative judge would be a threat to women’ s rights and the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. While calling the hearing a“ sham,” Klobuchar acknowledged that Democrats can do…

WASHINGTON— The White House’ s ever-shifting economic relief agenda lurched in a new direction Wednesday as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to make a deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to rescue the airline industry, just a day after President Donald Trump abruptly cut off talks on a broader stimulus bill. Pelosi, D- Calif., responded to Mnuchin’ s…

President Donald Trump signed a stopgap spending bill on Thursday to keep the government running until the middle of December, sidestepping at the last minute what had been a looming federal shutdown. The Senate approved the continuing resolution by a vote of 84-10 earlier Wednesday, after the House overwhelmingly passed it last week. The Democratic House…

The“ very stable genius” in the White House wants you to believe he pays lots of taxes and is very wealthy. Reeling from a bombshell report on his taxes, President Trump claimed Monday that he pays“ many millions” every year to Uncle Sam and that his debts are insignificant compared to the value of his sprawling real estate empire. Trump derided the report as# FAKENEWS…

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in August suspending collection of the 6.2% Social Security tax from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31 for employees who earn less than $4,000 in a biweekly pay period. “From the point of view of workers… they have to understand, whatever they save now, they will have to make it up,” said Iordanis Petsas, Ph.D., a professor and…

A majority of likely voters believe the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’ s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court should be filled by a nominee coming after the election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a new poll. Fifty-six percent say the winner on Nov. 3 should fill the vacancy.

—President Donald Trump has chosen Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, sending the nomination to the Senate with hopes of a quick confirmation fewer than 40 days before the presidential election. Republicans are eyeing a vote in late October, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’ t yet said for certain whether a final…

With the prospects for any new federal aid package appearing dim, members of the Senate Banking Committee pressed both officials to list improvements that could be quickly made in the nearly $3 trillion in support that Congress has passed to fight the pandemic-induced recession that has nearly 11 million people still jobless. Democrats on the panel urged…

—The Justice Department is expected to bring an antitrust action against Google in coming weeks, focusing on its dominance in online search and whether it was used to stifle competition and hurt consumers, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press Thursday. Antitrust officials at the department briefed state attorneys general Thursday on…