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The White House is blocking Anthony S. Fauci from testifying before a House subcommittee investigating the coronavirus outbreak and response, arguing that it would be “counterproductive” for him to appear next week while in the midst of participating in the government’s responses to the pandemic. The White House issued a statement about Fauci’s testimony shortly after The Washington Post published a story Friday afternoon quoting a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, who said the White House was refusing to allow Fauci to appear at a subcommittee hearing next week. “While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19,...

In addition to the GOP demand for corporate liability protection, Democrats have demanded more assistance for cities and states, which McConnell says he won’t agree to without liability protections included...Multiple lawsuits have already been filed against businesses including Wal-Mart, nursing homes, insurers and others...Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who is a member of the White House council...“Here’s how I got the idea: I kept getting calls from employers, small business owners and people who run factories, who were saying, ‘It’s going to be really difficult even when we reopen to hire back workers if we have to worry about these...

Congressional Republicans have begun discussing whether they may have to vote to block President Trump’s planned new tariffs on Mexico, potentially igniting a second standoff this year over Trump’s use of executive powers to circumvent Congress, people familiar with the talks said. The vote, which would be the GOP’s most dramatic act of defiance since Trump took office, could also have the effect of blocking billions of dollars in border wall funding that the president had announced in February when he declared a national emergency at the southern border, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because...

"The agreement reached tonight would include: -$1.375b for border barriers (55 new miles of bollard fencing) -Dems drop call for new cap on ICE beds for detentions in interior -Overall cap on detention beds drops from 49,057 to 40,520 Per congressional official."

The White House has begun laying the groundwork for a declaration of national emergency to build President Trump’s border wall, including searching for unused money in the Army Corps of Engineers budget, two people with knowledge of the preparations said Thursday. Such a declaration would be certain to set off a firestorm of opposition and would undoubtedly be challenged in court. But it could also be a way out of the current impasse, allowing Trump to cite action on his long-promised wall even without Congress granting his funding demands, and potentially paving the way for the government to reopen. The...

Democrats shouted "Shame! Shame!," but seven Republicans switched their votes and defeated a measure to protect gay rights. The final vote was 213-212 after the chaos on the House floor. That was enough to defeat an amendment by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., aimed at upholding an executive order that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors. Maloney and other Democrats were incensed. "They literally snatched discrimination from the jaws of equality," Maloney said. He said he had approached Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as McCarthy worked on GOP colleagues to vote against the measure. McCarthy told Maloney to...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he does not think Bernie Sanders has a path to winning the Democratic presidential nomination. Responding to questions at his weekly news conference Reid declined to suggest Sanders should drop out or cede the ground to Hillary Clinton, who’s expected to post a strong showing in primaries Tuesday in Maryland, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. …

Latinos and immigration activists are warning of political peril for President Barack Obama and Democrats in the fall election unless the president acts boldly and soon to curb deportations and allow more immigrants to remain legally in the U.S. Many activists say Obama has been slow to grasp the emotions building within the Latino community as deportations near the 2 million mark for his administration and hopes for immigration legislation fade. With House Republicans unlikely to act on an overhaul, executive action by Obama is increasingly the activists’ only hope.“There is tremendous anger among core constituencies of the president and...

Abortion Looms As Possible Block To Health Bill ERICA WERNER WASHINGTON – The way abortions are covered under health care reform is a major obstacle to finalizing the legislation, even though the House and Senate both agree that no federal money should be used. The stumbling block is whether insurance plans that get federal money are completely barred from covering abortions, or whether they can cover it as long as they require customers to write separate checks for the procedure using their own money. Why does that matter? Because the House and Senate solved the dispute in different ways, neither...