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Trump was unseen player in election, experts say

California Governor Beats Back Recall Challenge

Situation described as ‘code red’ in ambitious federal proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Biden Pushes $3.5 Trillion Climate Change Solution

Voters decide fate of Democratic governor

California Recall Has High Stakes for Both Parties

Both sides mobilize as Gavin Newsom fights to keep his job

California Governor Hopes to Beat Back Recall Effort

US lawmakers: Decades-old military authorizations have led to ‘forever wars’

Afghanistan Exit Pushes Congress to Repeal Presidential War Powers

58th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic March on Washington with a message of ‘Voting Rights for All’

Thousands March for Fair, Easy Access to Vote for All

Senate Republicans blocked a vote on a major package of Democratic voting rights reforms earlier this summer, part of a broader state by state battle between the two parties over revamping election laws following the 2020 presidential election

Voting Rights Legislation Stalled in US Senate

Special US House panel launches investigation into January 6 riot

'This Was a Coup': Police Officers Describe Capitol Riot to US Lawmakers

Republican leadership withdraws participation in probe on U.S. Capitol attack

Political Divide Widens as January 6 Hearings Begin

At a recent Conservative Political Action Conference, the former president won 70% of votes in a 2024 Republican presidential nomination poll

Amid Lawsuits, Trump Continues to Wield Outsized Influence

Former president has been banned from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

Trump’s Lawsuits Against Social Media Highlight Platforms’ Power

Republicans in state legislatures seek to pass measures restricting access to vote

Biden Urges Passing of Voting Rights Law but Offers No Strategy

Congress Member Describes Continuing Mental Trauma From January 6 Riots

Voters head to polls Tuesday for a primary election as part of a process to select a new mayor of America’s biggest city

New Yorkers to Cast Votes in Mayoral Primary

Administration’s domestic extremism strategy warns of continued threat five months after Capitol attack

Biden Administration, US Lawmakers Grapple With Domestic Extremism Threat

Locks and dams built nearly a century ago were designed to last only half that long

Infrastructure Bill Would Upgrade Aging US Waterways System

Vice president, charged with addressing 'root causes of migration,' will focus on economic development, humanitarian relief, strengthening good governance and civil society issues

Kamala Harris Set to Head to Mexico, Guatemala

Result of Senate vote had been widely expected

Senate Blocks Push for Bipartisan Commission to Investigate Capitol Breach

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the Middle East to discuss cease-fire terms and rebuild the Gaza Strip

Blinken Works to Build More Lasting Bridges as Israeli Palestinian Cease-fire Takes Hold

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s confrontation with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the latest flash point of American political incivility

Confrontation in Congress Raises Civility Concerns

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U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, paid their respects late Tuesday to Brian Sicknick, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died defending the Capitol from a pro-Trump mob that stormed the building last month.
Sicknick’s remains arrived at the Capitol a short time earlier and dozens of Capitol Police officers stood at attention as his urn was carried up the steps to the Rotunda where he is lying in honor.
Capitol Police were given an opportunity to participate in a viewing period overnight.
Congressional leaders took part in the solemn arrival ceremony, and lawmakers will pay tribute to Sicknick at a Wednesday morning ceremony before his remains are taken to Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. Capitol Police officers pay their respects to U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick as an urn with his cremated remains lies in honor on a black-draped table at the center of the Capitol Rotunda, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, in Washington. …House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority ..


Bidens Pay Respects to Late Capitol Police Officer

House Democratic impeachment managers and lawyers for Donald Trump on Tuesday laid out their arguments in separate briefs ahead of the former president&#039;s Senate trial next week on charges of inciting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
The House Democratic prosecutors charged that Trump&#039;s incendiary words and actions in the run-up to the attack led his followers to descend on the Capitol &#8220;like a loaded cannon&#8221; to try to prevent the certification of Democrat Joe Biden&#039;s election victory over Trump. The riots left five people, including a Capitol Police officer, dead and dozens of others injured.
&#8220;President Trump&#039;s conduct must be declared unacceptable in the clearest and most unequivocal terms,&#8221; they wrote.
Trump&#039;s defense lawyers rejected the charges and questioned the constitutionality of the trial, saying there is no precedent for trying a president after he has left office. They also said the former president stands by his claim that ..


House Democrats, Trump Lawyers Lay Out Clashing Views Ahead of Impeachment Trial

The U.S. Senate confirmed Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday as transportation secretary in President Joe Biden’s administration.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, tweeted he was “honored and humbled” by the Senate’s 86-13 confirmation vote and that he was “ready to get to work.”
Buttigieg, an opponent of Biden during the Democratic presidential primaries, is the first openly gay person to fill a U.S. Cabinet position.
The 39-year-old will play a leading role in advancing Biden’s infrastructure rebuilding and climate change agendas.
He assumes control of an agency with 55,000 employees and a multibillion-dollar budget.
He has vowed to begin quickly promoting safety and restoring trust in the country’s transportation systems as airlines, city subway and bus systems, and Amtrak struggle to regain customers lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
Buttigieg is also expected to play a leading role in implementing Biden’s $2 trillion climate and infrastructure plan that will focus on rebuilding ..


US Senate Confirms Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary

U.S. President Joe Biden signed executive orders Tuesday to start to dismantle former President Donald Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, including an attempt to reunite families that had been separated at the U.S.-Mexican border.
“I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden said while signing the orders.
In the first hours of his presidency two weeks ago, Biden acted to halt construction of Trump’s $16 billion wall along the border and sent a far-reaching immigration bill to Congress, where lawmakers have long been stalemated between liberals looking to ease the path to U.S. citizenship and conservatives seeking to stem unauthorized immigration.
Biden’s immediate focus is on the 3,100-kilometer southern border with Mexico, where Trump tried to keep thousands of migrants from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala from entering the U.S.
Trump led repair and expansion of a border wall and imposed tough detention and deportation policies for those who made it..


Biden Signs Executive Orders Reversing Trump Immigration Policies

The influential anti-Donald Trump group Lincoln Project is denouncing one of its co-founders after multiple reports that over several years he sexually harassed young men looking to break into politics.
The Lincoln Project in a statement on Sunday called co-founder John Weaver, 61, &#8220;a predator, a liar, and an abuser&#8221; following reports that he repeatedly sent unsolicited and sexually charged messages online to young men, often while suggesting he could help them get work in politics.
&#8220;The totality of his deceptions are beyond anything any of us could have imagined and we are absolutely shocked and sickened by it,&#8221; the Lincoln Project, the most prominent &#8220;Never Trump&#8221; Republican super PAC to emerge during the 45th president&#039;s time in the White House, said in its statement.
The online magazine The American Conservative first reported the sexual harassment allegations earlier this month.
Days later, Weaver, a strategist who advised the late Republican Sen. John McCain and former Ohio ..


Young Men Accuse Lincoln Project Co-Founder of Harassment

Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced Sunday a new team of lawyers to lead his defense at his second impeachment trial.
Defense lawyer David Schoen, a frequent television legal commentator, and Bruce Castor, a former district attorney in Pennsylvania who has faced criticism for his decision to not charge actor Bill Cosby in a sex crimes case, will represent Trump at the Senate trial that begins next week.
In a statement issued through Trump’s office, both attorneys said Sunday they were honored to take the job.
“The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always,” Castor said.
U.S. Capitol Police officers stand watch outside the Senate as lawmakers vote on procedures to proceed with the impeachment of former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6, 2021.Two prominent South Carolina lawyers, Butch Bowers and De..


Days Before Impeachment Trial, Trump Names New Lawyers

U.S. President Joe Biden signed two orders expanding health care on Thursday, saying they would &#8220;undo the damage&#8221; of policies favored by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
Biden restored U.S. funding for foreign nongovernmental groups that give information to women about abortions, and also opened a special three-month enrollment period for uninsured Americans who now want to buy health insurance, as well as for those who lost their coverage because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, like past Republican presidents, had supported what critics have called the &#8220;global gag rule&#8221; on abortion information and had refused to reopen the government&#039;s market for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Biden&#039;s order also increased access to health care funding for impoverished Americans under a program called Medicaid.
&#8220;There&#039;s nothing new that we&#039;re doing here,&#8221; Biden said, other than to restore programs as they were before Trump changed them. Biden ..


Biden Orders Expanded Health Care on Two Fronts

Coffee shops in downtown Tripoli, Libya, are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, so Mohammed Abdulwaheb, 37, got his &#8221;to-go&#8221; and drank it in the parking lot. 
Libya and other countries had been subject to the Trump-era &#8220;travel ban&#8221; for four years before it was lifted last week. Back then, Abdulwaheb had wanted to attend graduate school in the United States. But that was a long time ago, he said.
&#8220;The ban wasn&#039;t fair,&#8221; Abdulwaheb added. &#8220;And of course it impacted our lives. The end of the ban will especially improve the lives of Libyans in America.&#8221;
But experts say it will take time to unravel the regulations that grounded so many travelers. And locals in Libya, Nigeria and Sudan — three impacted countries — say resolving the personal setbacks experienced by individuals may take even longer. 
FILE &#8211; Demonstrators opposed to President Donald Trump&#039;s travel ban listen to speakers during a rally outside the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond, Virginia, Jan..


Effects of Trump-Era Travel Ban Expected to Linger

Facebook Inc&#039;s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday the company would no longer recommend civic and political groups to users of the platform.
The social media company said in October that it was temporarily halting recommendations of political groups for U.S. users in the run-up to the presidential election. On Wednesday, Facebook said it would be making this permanent and would expand the policy globally.
On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Ed Markey wrote to Zuckerberg asking for an explanation of reports, including by news site The Markup, that Facebook had failed to stop recommending political groups on its platform after this move.
He called Facebook&#039;s groups &#8220;breeding groups for hate&#8221; and noted they had been venues of planning for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Speaking on a conference call Wednesday with analysts about Facebook&#039;s earnings, Zuckerberg said that the company was &#8220;continuing to fine-tune how this works.&#8221;
Facebook groups are communities that form aroun..


Facebook Says it Will Permanently Stop Recommending Political Groups to Users

Three times in American history, the House of Representatives has impeached a president, and each time the Senate has voted to acquit him — most recently a year ago when then-President Donald Trump was charged with seeking to pressure Ukraine&#039;s president into gathering political dirt against Trump’s political rival, Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump made history again this month, when he became the first president to be impeached a second time — this time accused of instigating his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol January 6 to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory over Trump.
The new impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection was approved by the House on January 13, a week before Trump left office. But with the Senate set to formally try the former president beginning on February 9, a constitutional controversy is swirling over whether the Senate can try and convict a former president.
The question is not an academic one. On Wednesday, 45 of 50 Senate Republica..


Controversy Rages Over Whether Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Constitutional 

The new top U.S. diplomat, Antony Blinken, is pledging to work with core allies and partners to confront complex global challenges, while investing in a diverse and inclusive American Foreign Service.
Blinken was officially welcomed to the State Department on Wednesday as secretary of state by approximately 30 of the women and men representing a small cross-section of the larger workforce. 
&#8220;I&#039;m incredibly excited about the work ahead,&#8221; Blinken said later at an afternoon press briefing, where he declared his respect for the press and promised to be transparent with reporters.
&#8220;Here&#039;s what you can count on – we&#039;re resuming daily press briefings starting next week – on Tuesday. That&#039;s an essential part of the day and we&#039;re bringing it back,&#8221; he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is sworn in as the 71st U.S. Secretary of State by Acting Under Secretary of State for Management Carol Z. Perez, at the Department of State in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021. (State D..


Newly-Confirmed US Secretary of State Pledges Cooperation on Global Challenges

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden&#039;s nominee Antony Blinken to lead the U.S. State Department on Tuesday. As VOA&#039;s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, Blinken faces numerous challenges worldwide as the nation&#039;s top diplomat.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum Produced by: Katherine Gypson


US Senate Confirms Biden Nominee as Secretary of State

President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice on Tuesday to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies.
In remarks before signing the order, Biden said the U.S. government needs to change &#8220;its whole approach&#8221; on the issue of racial equity. He added that the nation is less prosperous and secure because of the scourge of systemic racism.
&#8220;We must change now,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;I know it&#039;s going to take time, but I know we can do it. And I firmly believe the nation is ready to change. But government has to change as well.&#8221;
Biden rose to the presidency during a year of intense reckoning on institutional racism in the U.S. The moves announced on Tuesday reflect his efforts to follow through with campaign pledges to combat racial injustice.
Housing policies
Beyond calling on the Justice Department to curb the use of private prisons and address housing discrimination, the new order..


Biden Orders End of Federally Run Private Prisons

Most Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday against holding an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump on whether he incited insurrection in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, signaling that he likely has enough votes to secure an acquittal.
The vote was 55-45 in favor of proceeding with a trial, but only five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats. A two-thirds vote is required for conviction, which would require 17 Republicans to turn against Trump, assuming the Democrats vote as a bloc after hearing the case against him when the trial starts in earnest February 9.
In this image from video, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., makes a motion that the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump is unconstitutional in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 26, 2021.A Trump supporter, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, forced the vote on whether to proceed with the trial, calling it an “unconstitutional sham.”
Paul contended that the Senate cannot hold a tr..


5 Republicans Join Democrats in Vote to Push Trump Impeachment Trial Forward

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the nomination of Antony Blinken to be the country’s next secretary of state.
At a confirmation hearing last week, Blinken said he is ready to confront the challenges posed by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.
He said China “poses the most significant challenge” to U.S. national interests, while noting there is room for cooperation.
&#8220;There are rising adversarial aspects of the relationship; certainly, competitive ones, and still some cooperative ones, when it is in our mutual interests,” he added.
Nominated Secretary of State Antony Blinken participates as US President Joe Biden speaks during a cabinet announcement event in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 24, 2020.He also pledged to rebuild State Department morale and the diplomatic corps. Blinken said he sees U.S. standing abroad as leadership based on “humility and confidence.”
Blinken was deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration and has close ties with President J..


US Senate to Vote on Blinken Nomination as Secretary of State

U.S. senators will be sworn in Tuesday as jurors in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
The trial itself will not begin until the week of February 8, after Democratic and Republican leaders agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump’s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm more of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees.
House lawmakers who will serve as trial prosecutors made a ceremonial walk to the Senate chamber Monday evening to deliver the article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month. The assault sent lawmakers scrambling for safety and resulted in the deaths of five people.
Lead House manager Jamie Raskin from Maryland read the charges, saying Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of the govern..


US House Lawmakers Deliver Article of Impeachment to Senate

The Senate on Monday approved President Joe Biden&#039;s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation&#039;s 78th treasury secretary, making her the first woman to hold the job in the department&#039;s 232-year history.
Yellen, a former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, was approved by the Senate on a 84-15 vote, becoming the third member of Biden&#039;s Cabinet to win confirmation.
She is expected to play a key role in gaining congressional approval of Biden&#039;s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which is running into stiff opposition from Republicans who believe the price tag is too high.
FILE &#8211; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 30, 2020.Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted the former Federal Reserve chairwoman had bipartisan support.
Schumer said Yellen has a &#8220;breathtaking range of experience&#8221; and support for her nomination reflected &#8220;just how ..


Janet Yellen is First Woman to Lead US Treasury Department

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to officially send its articles of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, charging former President Donald Trump with inciting insurrection in connection with the storming of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters earlier this month.
The trial in the Senate is set to begin the week of February 8 after Democrats and Republicans agreed to a short delay in order to give both the lawmakers who will serve as prosecutors and Trump&#039;s defense team time to prepare. The extra time will also allow the Senate a chance to confirm some of President Joe Biden&#039;s Cabinet nominees.
Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline.
Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 37 MB1080p | 72 MBOriginal | 83 MB Embed&#8221; />Copy Download AudioWATCH: Trump’s Impeachment Article Heads to SenateA two-thirds majority in the Senate would be required to convict Trump. With the Senate politica..


US House to Deliver Impeachment Articles to Senate

Jill Biden, the wife of recently inaugurated President Joe Biden, has made it clear that education policy will be a priority for her in the White House. Jill Biden is familiar with life in Washington as her husband spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president under Barack Obama. VOA&#039;s Esha Sarai and Carolyn Presutti bring us more about the new U.S. first lady in this profile.
Video editors: Marcus Harton, Esha Sarai


Dr. Jill Biden Steps Into First Lady Role

As Joe Biden begins his first full week as U.S. president, he faces many challenges. Chief among them: ramping up the nationwide coronavirus vaccination effort and next month’s Senate impeachment trial of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak


Challenges Abound as Biden Begins First Full Week as President

Politics

The United States returns to a unified government this week as Joe Biden becomes the 46th president and Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate. With the U.S. House continuing under the Democratic party leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Biden has an opportunity to enact big legislative changes. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.


With Control of the White House and Congress, Democrats Have 2 Years to Enact Change

With U.S. President-elect Joe Biden set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, one question being debated is whether Congress will pursue a second impeachment of outgoing President Donald Trump over his alleged role in last Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol building. Michelle Quinn reports.


US Lawmakers Discuss Next Moves as Nation Grapples to Understand Violence at Capitol Building

What started as a day of celebration for Black organizers, voters and other Georgians who helped deliver two historic Senate runoff victories was overshadowed Wednesday when a violent, mostly white mob of President Donald Trump&#039;s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
But Black leaders and organizers say the rioters&#039; insurrection won&#039;t deter the momentum achieved after the hard-fought victories of Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Instead, it serves as a harsh reminder of the work that lies ahead for the nation to truly grapple with white supremacy and racism, which Trump&#039;s presidency emboldened.
&#8220;It&#039;s a little bit bittersweet because on one hand it feels like vindication that if we invest in our communities and our organizations, then amazing things can happen,&#8221; said Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which estimates that it reached 2.8 million individuals in Georgia through text and phone banking campaigns, digital and social med..


Black Leaders Cheer Georgia Success, Push for More Progress

Lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to meet Wednesday in a joint session of Congress to count and certify electoral votes based on the result of the November presidential election.
This usually routine and ceremonial function — a final step after the Electoral College officially elected Joe Biden on December 14 — has turned into a litmus test of Republican lawmakers&#039; loyalty to President Donald Trump. More than 100 Trump loyalists are set to challenge certification.
Here&#039;s what we can expect from the meeting.
What usually happens?
Under the 12th Amendment, both chambers must meet to officially count and certify the Electoral College results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties in the Senate and House are appointed as &#8220;tellers&#8221; from each chamber. Vice President Mike Pence, in his capacity as president of the Senate, presides over the joint session. If he cannot presi..


Will Congress Block Certification of Biden’s Victory?

More than 100 Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and a dozen senators say they will join an almost assuredly futile effort Wednesday to try to block certification of the Electoral College vote showing that Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the November election.
The certification of the 306-232 Electoral College vote favoring Biden is the last step before he is set to be inaugurated as the country’s 46th president on January 20.
Both chambers of Congress would need to uphold the challenges to Biden’s victory for the election outcome to be upended. Democrats narrowly control the House and are certain to certify Biden’s win, while the Democratic minority in the Senate, along with some Republicans who have acknowledged Biden’s win, are likely to do the same in the Senate.
Trump, who for weeks has made baseless claims that he was defrauded of election to a second four-year term, continues to cheer on protests of his loss, an outcome that will m..


Dozens of House, Senate Republicans Joining Likely Futile Effort to Reject Biden Victory

Congress has overridden President Donald Trump&#039;s veto of a defense policy bill, a first by lawmakers since Trump took office nearly four years ago.
In an extraordinary New Year&#039;s Day session, the Republican-controlled Senate easily turned aside the veto, dismissing Trump&#039;s objections to the $740 billion bill and handing him a rebuke weeks before his term ends.
Trump had lashed out at lawmakers from his own party on Twitter, charging earlier this week that &#8220;Weak and tired Republican &#039;leadership&#039; will allow the bad Defense Bill to pass.&#8221;
Trump called the looming override vote a &#8220;disgraceful act of cowardice and total submission by weak people to Big Tech. Negotiate a better Bill, or get better leaders, NOW!&#8221;
The 81-13 vote in the Senate followed an earlier 322-87 override vote in the House of the widely popular defense measure. The bill provides a 3% pay raise for U.S. troops and guides defense policy, cementing decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems a..


In a First, Congress Overrides Trump Veto of Defense Bill 

The congressional joint session to count electoral votes is generally a routine, ceremonial affair. But President Donald Trump&#039;s repeated efforts to challenge Democrat Joe Biden&#039;s victory will bring more attention than usual to next Wednesday&#039;s joint session of the Senate and the House.
The congressional count is the final step in reaffirming Biden&#039;s win, after the Electoral College officially elected him on Dec 14. The meeting is required by the Constitution and includes several distinct steps.
Some Republicans who are echoing Trump&#039;s baseless claims of fraud have said they will officially object to the results, forcing votes in the Republican-run Senate and the Democratic-controlled House that will almost certainly fail. A group of House Republicans had been looking for a senator to sign on because there must be support from at least one member of each chamber to force the votes. That support came Wednesday from Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a possible contende..


How Congress Will Count Electoral College Votes

U.S. President Donald Trump is spending the holiday weekend at his Florida resort as both Democrats and Republicans wait to see whether he will sign a critical pandemic relief and government funding package that he sharply criticized earlier this week.
The $2.3 trillion spending legislation, which includes $892 billion for coronavirus relief, has been flown from Washington to his Mar-a-Lago club to be available for him to sign into law. Trump has not specifically threatened to veto the bill, but he surprised lawmakers in both parties by labeling the legislation as a “disgrace” after it had been passed in the House and Senate, capping months of negotiations.
President Donald Trump&#039;s motorcade drives to Trump International Golf Club, Dec. 25, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla.Trump said the package gave too much money to special interests and foreign aid, and said direct payments of $600 for most Americans should be increased to $2,000. That was seen as a rebuke to members of his own Re..


US Spending Bill Awaits Trump’s Decision

U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a $740 billion bill setting policy for the Department of Defense on Wednesday, despite its strong support in Congress, raising the possibility that the measure will fail to become law for the first time in 60 years.
Trump said he vetoed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, because it &#8220;fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military&#039;s history, and contradicts efforts by my administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions.&#8221;
&#8220;It is a &#039;gift&#039; to China and Russia,&#8221; he said in a message to the House of Representatives.
Although his previous eight vetoes were all upheld thanks to support from Trump&#039;s fellow Republicans in Congress, advisers said this one looked likely to be overridden, just weeks before he leaves office on January 20.
Both the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-majority House of Re..


Major Defense Bill, Strongly Backed in Congress, Draws Trump’s Veto

Top congressional lawmakers struck a late-night agreement on the last major obstacle to a COVID-19 economic relief package costing nearly $1 trillion, clearing the way for votes as early as Sunday.
A Democratic aide said in an email that an agreement had been reached late Saturday and that compromise language was being finalized to seal a deal to be unveiled on Sunday.
The breakthrough involved a fight over Federal Reserve emergency powers that was defused by an odd couple: the Senate’s top Democrat and a senior conservative Republican.
“We’re getting very close, very close,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said earlier Saturday as he spent much of the day going back and forth with GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Toomey had been pressing a provision to close down Fed lending facilities that Democrats and the White House said was too broadly worded and would have tied the hands of the incoming Biden administration.
The COVID-19 legislation has been held up after months of di..


Deal on Fed Removes Obstacle to US COVID Relief

Congress passed a two-day stopgap spending bill Friday night, averting a partial government shutdown and buying yet more time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package.
The virus aid talks remained on track, both sides said, but closing out final disagreements was proving difficult. Weekend sessions were on tap, and House leaders hoped for a vote on Sunday on the massive package, which wraps much of Capitol Hill&#039;s unfinished 2020 business into a take-it-or-leave-it behemoth.
The House passed the temporary funding bill by a 320-60 vote. The Senate approved it by voice vote almost immediately afterward, and President Donald Trump signed it late Friday.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, walks to his office from the Senate Floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2020.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said both sides remain intent on closing the deal, even as Democr..


Congress Averts Shutdown; Fight Continues Over Pandemic Aid

Republican and Democratic congressional leaders expressed hope late Tuesday about reaching an agreement on a new round of coronavirus aid that has eluded U.S. lawmakers for months.
&#8220;I think we&#039;re moving in the right direction,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said after two rounds of talks. “I think there&#039;s a possibility of getting it done.”
The meetings included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
&#8220;We&#039;re making progress and hopefully we can come to an agreement soon,” Schumer said. “I think there is a genuine desire to come to an agreement.&#8221;  
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, speaks virtually with retired U.S. General Lloyd Austin, nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to be his Secretary of Defense, at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 15, 2020.Without a deal, several key programs are set to expire at the end of month, including unemployment aid that reaches 12 million out-of-work A..


Lawmakers Race to Make COVID-19 Aid Deal Ahead of Holiday Break

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday that could prevent Chinese companies from listing their shares on U.S. exchanges unless they adhere to U.S. auditing standards.
The measure passed by unanimous voice vote, after passing the Senate earlier this year, sending it to the White House, which said President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law.
&#8220;The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act&#8221; bars securities of foreign companies from being listed on any U.S. exchange if they have failed to comply with the U.S. Public Accounting Oversight Board&#039;s audits for three years in a row.
While it applies to companies from any country, the legislation targets Chinese companies such as Alibaba, tech firm Pinduoduo Inc. and oil giant PetroChina Co Ltd.
Measures taking a harder line on Chinese business and trade practices generally pass Congress with large margins, as both Democrats and Trump&#039;s fellow Republicans echo the president&#039;s hard line against B..


Bill Forcing Chinese Firms to Meet US Accounting Standards Passes Congress

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says time is running out for U.S. lawmakers to reach an agreement on a second massive round of aid addressing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
With just a handful of days left in session this year, members of Congress are racing to reach an agreement after months of fruitless negotiations.
McConnell told reporters Tuesday he had been in discussion with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows earlier in the day to determine what legislation U.S. President Donald Trump would be willing to sign.
“The way you get a result, you have to have a presidential signature. So, I felt the first thing we needed to do was to find out what the president would in fact sign. We believe we&#039;ve got the answer to that,” McConnell said. He added that given the dwindling days in session, any agreement on coronavirus relief would more than likely be tied to the omnibus bill funding the U.S. government past a D..


US Lawmakers Running Out of Time to Pass Coronavirus Aid

At least there won&#039;t be a government shutdown.
But as lawmakers return to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else.
Talks between top Democrats and the Trump administration broke off last month and remain off track, with the bipartisan unity that drove almost $3 trillion in COVID-19 rescue legislation into law this spring replaced by partisanship and a return to Washington dysfunction.
Expectations in July and August that a fifth bipartisan pandemic response bill would be agreed on despite increased obstacles has been replaced by genuine pessimism. Recent conversations about COVID-19 aid among key players have led to nothing.
Democrats seem secure in their political position, with President Donald Trump and several Senate GOP incumbents lagging in the polls. Trump is seeking to sideline the pandemic as a campaign issue, and Republicans aren&#039;t interested in a deal on Democratic terms — even as n..


Hopes Fade for Coronavirus Deal as Congress Returns to Work

U.S. counterintelligence officials will no longer brief lawmakers on threats to the upcoming presidential election in November, telling them such in-person briefings have led to leaks of “sensitive intelligence” and the politicization of information.
Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence verbally informed key lawmakers and congressional committees of the change Saturday, saying the intelligence on threats to the November 3 presidential election would still be provided, just in a different form.
“We are committed to meeting our statutory responsibilities and keeping Congress fully and currently informed,” an ODNI official told VOA on the condition of anonymity.
FILE &#8211; U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 5, 2020.“For clarity and to protect sensitive intelligence from unauthorized disclosures, we will primarily do that through written finished intelligence products,” the official said, adding, “We are concerned about un..


Top US Intelligence Official Ends In-Person Election Security Briefings for Congress

The U.S. House of Representatives is preparing for the possibility congressional staff members may have to telework because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The preparations are being launched &#8220;in light of the unique and unusual circumstances presented by the coronavirus.&#8221;
U.S. financial regulators are also preparing contingency plans, as there are COVID-19 cases in suburban Washington, New York, San Francisco and New Jersey, all places where regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and banking regulators have offices.
The Reuters news agency reports the financial watchdogs are allowing more telework, limiting travel and canceling conferences.


House of Representatives, Federal Agencies Prepare to Telework

U.S. President Donald Trump says the highest-ranking member of the country&#039;s legislative branch, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, &#8220;broke the law&#8221; when she shredded a copy of the State of the Union speech he delivered to Congress.
The president told reporters Friday that Pelosi&#039;s act, which was caught on camera just after Trump completed his address late Tuesday, was &#8220;disrespectful to our country, and actually very illegal.&#8221;
A Florida congressman of Trump&#039;s Republican party, Matt Gaetz, has filed an ethics complaint against Pelosi, accusing her of potentially violating federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2071).
The regulation prohibits the destruction of government records, but it only applies to documents that have been &#8220;filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States.&#8221;
&#039;Brilliant&#039; or &#039;tasteless&#039;
&#8220;That&#039;s really a law about preserving official documents, such as the official copy that would make it to the National Archives,&#8221; said..


Trump Accuses House Leader of ‘Very Illegal’ Act

Democrats on Tuesday accused the top Senate Republican of rigging U.S. President Donald Trump&#039;s impeachment trial with proposed rules that would prevent witnesses from testifying and bar evidence gathered by investigators.
Trump&#039;s trial on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges begins in earnest in the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday in a rare use of the constitutional mechanism for ousting a president. The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the charges last month on a party-line vote.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to coordinate the televised trial with the White House, proposed on Monday rules that would execute a potentially quick trial without new testimony or evidence.
He unveiled a resolution that would give House Democratic prosecutors and Trump lawyers 48 hours, evenly split, to present their arguments over four days. Opening arguments are expected to begin this week and could well run into each night..


Democrats Accuse McConnell of Rigging Trump’s Impeachment Trial

In the U.S. Senate, except for important votes, the seats are often empty and only a handful of lawmakers might be listening in person as one of their loquacious colleagues opines on the issue of the day. When present on the floor, senators often carry on private conversations or text or tweet on their cellphones.
But all that will change at the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump, only the third such event in American history. Strict rules have been set that will be new and constraining to many lawmakers — and to Americans watching on television across the country.
For one thing, all 100 lawmakers, acting as jurors to decide whether to convict Trump of two articles of impeachment and remove him from office, have been told to show up for the entire trial. None may skip the long hours of proceedings to meet with constituents or lobbyists or to attend a political fundraiser. They&#039;ve been told to stay in their assigned seats and not to bring along reading material either..


At Trump’s Impeachment Trial, 100 Senators Face Strict Rules

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One of the key lawmakers investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year says that if the Justice Department concludes that former President Donald Trump fomented the mayhem to block Congress from certifying his 2020 reelection loss — it should not hesitate to prosecute him.


Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the vice chairperson on the panel investigating the insurrection and a vocal anti-Trump Republican, acknowledged to ABC News that the prosecution of a former U.S. president would be unprecedented and “difficult” for an already politically divided country.


But the Wyoming Republican said that not prosecuting Trump, if it were warranted, would be a "much graver constitutional threat" for the United States. Trump, a Republican, lost to Democrat Joe Biden, but to this day claims that vote-counting irregularities cost him a second four-year term in the White House.  


In an interview last Wednesday that was broadcast Sunday on the “This Week” show, Cheney said that “if a president can engage in these kinds of activities, and the majority of the president's party looks away; or we as a country decide we're not actually going to take our constitutional obligations seriously, I think that's a much, a much more serious threat" than prosecuting him.


"I really believe we have to make these decisions, as difficult as it is, apart from politics. We really have to think about these from the perspective of: What does it mean for the country?" she said.


"There's no question that he engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors. I think there's no question that it's the most serious betrayal of his oath of office of any president in the history of the nation. It's the most dangerous behavior of any president in the history of the nation," she said.




Asked whether the committee could make a referral to the Justice Department for prosecution of Trump and others, Cheney said, "Yes," while adding that the Justice Department "doesn't have to wait" for the panel to act. She said the committee could issue "more than one criminal referral,” including for possible witness tampering by former Trump aides trying to influence witnesses to stay loyal to Trump as he weighs a campaign to try to reclaim the presidency in the 2024 election.


The Justice Department is in the midst of an ongoing wide-ranging investigation of the riot but has not said it is specifically targeting Trump.


Cheney offered her thoughts a day after she led two hours of questioning Tuesday of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump’s last White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.


Hutchinson, 25, gave an explosive behind-the-scenes account of Meadows’s and Trump’s actions before and during the January 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by about 2,000 Trump supporters.


She told lawmakers how Trump became angrier and more volatile as the reality of his election loss set in and he realized that despite his private and public entreaties, former Vice President Mike Pence would not agree to upend the election outcome and send the results in several key states Trump narrowly lost back to their state legislatures so they would name electors supporting Trump to replace those legitimately chosen to vote for Biden in the Electoral College.


She testified that Trump was told ahead of a rally near the White House before the riot at the Capitol unfolded that some of his supporters were armed and equipped with body armor and yet urged them to “fight like hell” to upend the election outcome.




She said that a Meadows aide told her that Trump was angered that his Secret Service security detail would not drive him to the Capitol where his supporters were massing before storming into the Capitol. In one moment disputed by the Secret Service, Hutchinson said Trump tried to grab the steering wheel from a security agent and demanded he be driven to the Capitol.


As some of the rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” — she said Meadows told her that Trump approved of the sentiment, saying his No.2 in command deserved to be hanged. Some unknown Trump supporters had erected a gallows on the National Mall within eyesight of the Capitol.  


Trump has worked to disparage Hutchinson’s testimony, posting on social media that "I hardly know who this person ... is, other than I heard very negative things about her.”


"She is bad news!" he added.


In the ABC interview, Cheney said she was "absolutely confident" about Hutchinson’s testimony, saying, “She's an incredibly brave young woman."In the United States, presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state’s number of electoral votes is dependent on its population, with the biggest states holding the most sway. The rioters who stormed the Capitol tried to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College.     

   

At the heart of Trump’s effort to stay in power was an audacious plan espoused by a key Trump lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and conservative lawyer John Eastman, to get legislatures in states Trump narrowly lost to appoint new electors supporting him to replace the official ones favoring Biden. 




While the House committee cannot bring criminal charges, the Department of Justice is closely monitoring the hearings to determine whether anyone, Trump included, should be charged with illegally trying to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.  


No U.S. president has ever been charged with a criminal offense after leaving office.


Trump has often derided the nine-member House of Representatives panel investigating the riot at the Capitol and attacked its witnesses who have painted a highly unfavorable account of his postelection pressure campaign to stay in office against repeated findings of his own key aides, including former Attorney General William Barr, that there was no evidence of fraud sufficient to overturn the election outcome.


The investigative panel is comprised of seven Democrats, Cheney and another vocal Republican critic of Trump, Congressman Adam Kinzinger.  


Cheney said, "I think you will continue to see in the coming days and weeks additional detail about the president's activities and behavior” on January 6 last year.  


In one of the hearings set for later this month, the committee is exploring how Trump watched the riot unfold on television for more than three hours while rejecting pleas from aides and his elder daughter, Ivanka, a White House adviser to him, to publicly urge to rioters to leave the Capitol.


More than 800 of them have been arrested and more than 300 have pleaded guilty to an array of criminal charges or been convicted at trials and handed prison terms of a few weeks to more than four years.

Liz Cheney: If Warranted, Justice Department Should Not Hesitate to Prosecute Trump Over US Capitol Riot

Ukrainian-born Karina Lipsman is running for a seat in the US House. VOA's Yurii Mamon has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
Camera: Kostiantyn Golubchyk

Congressional Candidate: US Hasn’t Done Enough to Prevent War in Ukraine

The marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court has asked Maryland and Virginia officials to enforce laws she says prohibit picketing outside the homes of the justices who live in the two states.


"For weeks on end, large groups of protesters chanting slogans, using bullhorns, and banging drums have picketed Justices' homes," Marshal Gail Curley wrote in the Friday letters to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and two local elected officials.


Curley wrote that Virginia and Maryland laws and a Montgomery County, Maryland, ordinance prohibit picketing at justices' homes, and she asked the officials to direct police to enforce those provisions.


Justices' homes have been the target of abortion rights protests since May, when a leaked draft opinion suggested the court was poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.


The protests and threatening activities have "increased since May," Curley wrote in a letter, and have continued since the court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was issued last week.


"Earlier this week, for example, 75 protesters loudly picketed at one Justice's home in Montgomery County for 20-30 minutes in the evening, then proceeded to picket at another Justice's home for 30 minutes, where the crowd grew to 100, and finally returned to the first Justice's home to picket for another 20 minutes," Curley wrote in her letter to Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. "This is exactly the kind of conduct that the Maryland and Montgomery County laws prohibit."


In her letter to Jeffrey McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County board of supervisors, she said one recent protest outside an unspecified justice's home involved dozens of people chanting, "no privacy for us, no peace for you!"




The letters from Curley were dated Friday and shared with reporters by a spokesperson for the Supreme Court on Saturday.


Curley's request came about a month after a California man was found with a gun, knife and pepper spray near the Maryland home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after telling police he was planning to kill the justice. The man, Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, Calif., has been charged with attempting to murder a justice of the United States and has pleaded not guilty.


Youngkin and Hogan, both Republicans, have both previously expressed concerns about the protests. In May, they sent a joint letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for federal law enforcement resources to keep the justices safe and enforce a federal law they said prohibits picketing with the intent to influence a judge.


Hogan spokesperson Michael Ricci said in a statement Saturday that the governor had directed state police to "further review enforcement options that respect the First Amendment and the Constitution." He also said that "had the marshal taken time to explore the matter," she would have learned that the constitutionality of the Maryland statute she cited has been questioned by the state Attorney General's Office.


Elrich said he had no recording of having received the letter addressed to him and questioned why it was released to the press. He said he would review it and was willing to discuss it with Curley but defended the job Montgomery County Police have done so far.


"In Montgomery County we are following the law that provides security and respects the First Amendment rights of protestors. That is what we do, regardless of the subject of the protests," he said.


Youngkin spokesperson Christian Martinez said the Virginia governor welcomed the marshal's request and said Youngkin had made the same request of McKay in recent weeks.


"The Governor remains in regular contact with the justices themselves and holds their safety as an utmost priority. He is in contact with state and local officials on the Marshal's request for assistance and will continue to engage on the issue of the Justice's safety," Martinez said.


Youngkin in May pushed for a security perimeter around the homes of justices living in Fairfax County, but McKay rebuffed that request, saying it would infringe on First Amendment protest rights. Youngkin also attempted to create a new felony penalty for certain actions during demonstrations aimed at judges or other officers of a court, which state lawmakers rejected.


A spokesperson for McKay said he was working on a response to the letter.

High Court Marshal Seeks Enforcement of Anti-Picketing Laws

Lawmakers investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year are signaling they could send referrals to the Justice Department for prosecution of illegal tampering with witnesses who have testified to the panel.


Representative Liz Cheney, vice chairperson of the House of Representatives investigative panel, displayed Tuesday two messages from notes sent to hearing witnesses saying that former President Donald Trump was keeping a close eye on the hearings and was counting on continued loyalty. The senders of the notes weren't identified.


The panel is probing how the insurrection unfolded and Trump’s role in trying to upend his 2020 reelection defeat.




Cheney’s disclosure of the notes came after two hours of explosive testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, the former top assistant to Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s last White House chief of staff.


Hutchinson described in detail how Trump became angry and volatile in the last weeks of his presidency as the reality of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden sank in and his own associates dismissed his repeated claims that he had been cheated out of reelection.


CNN quoted unidentified sources Thursday saying Hutchinson was one of the witnesses who had been contacted by someone attempting to influence her testimony.


In an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show Thursday, Cheney said the attempted influencing of witnesses is “very serious. It really goes to the heart of our legal system. And it's something the committee will certainly be reviewing."


She added, "It gives us a real insight into how people around the former president are operating, into the extent to which they believe that they can affect the testimony of witnesses before the committee. And it's something we take very seriously, and it's something that people should be aware of. It's a very serious issue, and I would imagine the Department of Justice would be very interested in, and would take that very seriously, as well."


At Tuesday’s hearing, Cheney did not say which of the committee’s witnesses had been contacted but displayed two text messages on a large television screen.


One said, “What they said to me is as long as I continue to be a team player, they know I’m on the team, I’m doing the right thing, I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World.”


“And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just to keep that in mind as I proceed through my depositions and interviews with the committee,” that witness continued.


In another example, a second witness said, “[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”




Representative Zoe Lofgren, another member of the investigative panel, told CNN, “It's a concern, and anyone who is trying to dissuade or tamper with witnesses should be on notice that that's a crime, and we are perfectly prepared to provide any evidence we have to the proper authorities."


A third committee member, Representative Jamie Raskin, said after the hearing, “It's a crime to tamper with witnesses. It’s a form of obstructing justice. The committee won't tolerate it. And we haven’t had a chance to fully investigate or fully discuss it, but it's something we want to look into.”

US Capitol Riot Panel Hints at Criminal Referrals for Witness Tampering

Shortly after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion to end women’s constitutional right to abortion, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt appeared on Fox News suggesting Native American tribes in his state, looking to get around Oklahoma’s tough new abortion ban, might “set up abortion on demand” on any of the 39 Indian reservations in that state.


“You know, the tribes in Oklahoma are super liberal,” Stitt said, “They go to Washington, D.C. They talk to President (Joe) Biden at the White House. They kind of adopt those strategies.”




The U.S. government recognizes tribes as sovereign nations, and as such, have the right to pass their own laws regulating abortion on tribal land, subject to certain limitations.


Stitt's comments set off wide speculation in the press and in social media about whether abortion seekers could turn to Indian tribes for abortion services in states where the procedure is or soon will be banned now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned.




 


Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called on the White House to open up federal land and resources to provide reproductive health services. Neither lawmaker referenced Indian reservations, nor have tribes suggested any interest in opening abortion havens.


“It’s been journalists. It's been activists looking for some sort of a solution,” said Stacy Leeds, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and a law professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in Arizona. “And now in the last couple of days, it has started to escalate, with politicians almost warning tribes that they better not do this.”


Tuesday, the White House ruled out the possibility of using federal lands for abortion services.


But that hasn’t stopped the conversation in social media.




 




 


It is a conversation, however, that most Native Americans find problematic, if not downright offensive.


“Any time there's a call for tribes to do something that is not originating in their own thought processes, it very much just reeks of further colonization,” said Leeds. “You know, the outsider trying to tell a local tribal government what their law and policy ought to be.”


Native Americans find the conversation particularly upsetting given a well-documented history of sexual violence against Indigenous women that ranged from rape and trafficking to forced sterilizations in the 1970s.




“And you also have this history of the wholesale removal of Native children away from their families and communities to boarding schools or being adopted out to other communities. It’s just traumatic for a lot of people,” Leeds said.




 


In its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court decriminalized abortion, but that didn’t guarantee all women had access. The 1976 Hyde Amendment, which was amended several times in later years, prohibits federal money being used to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or endangerment to the woman’s life. The Indian Health Service relies on federal funds and is the only health care provider available for many Native communities.


To look to tribes for abortion services is to assume Native Americans are a left-leaning monolith, Leeds said.


“Politically, (Native) people are all over the place. You know, it's a large leap to just automatically presume that everybody would want this,” she said. “And a lot of tribal spiritual traditions hold life as sacred from beginning to the end.”




In 2010, for example, the Navajo Nation Supreme Court ruled on a case involving the death of an unborn fetus in a highway collision, saying, “We take judicial notice that the child, even the unborn child, occupies a space in Navajo culture that can best be described as holy or sacred, although neither of these words convey the child’s status accurately. The child is awę́ę́ t’áá’íídą́ą́’hiną́, alive at conception, and develops perfectly in the care of the mother.”


Native Americans have been given few opportunities to voice their opinions on abortion. One exception is a 2020 study by the Southwest Women’s Law Center and the nonprofit Forward Together that surveyed Native American women on and off reservations in New Mexico — a state where abortions remain legal and available, even after the recent Supreme Court ruling.


When asked whether they would support or oppose a law that would criminalize doctors performing abortions, 45% of respondents said they would oppose it; 25% said they would support it, and 27% said they did not have a strong opinion one way or the other.


“Most of the Native women who are speaking out nationally are upset about the Supreme Court’s latest decision,” Leeds said. “But I don't see any of them advocating that their communities then become the saviors of everyone else's communities.”




 


Tribes are sovereign nations and have the right to pass their own laws regulating abortion on tribal land territories. But criminal jurisdiction in Indian Country is complex; whether tribal governments, state governments or the federal government has jurisdiction depends on the nature of the crime, the identity of the perpetrator and victim, and where the crime takes place.


In theory, tribes could perform abortions, said Leeds, but only in tribally funded facilities on Native patients by Native practitioners. Anyone else could be subject to state or federal law.


“And that's the galling piece of this whole conversation,” Leeds said. “You want tribes to take this risk for you that might negatively impact their whole world indefinitely? People just don’t understand what they are truly asking.”


The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Oklahoma will be allowed to prosecute non-Native Americans for crimes committed on reservations when the victim is Native, a decision that cuts back on the court’s 2020 ruling that a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma — about 43% of the state — remains an Indian reservation.




 


Stitt celebrated the decision.


“Today, our efforts proved worthwhile, and the court upheld that Indian country is part of a state, not separate from it," Stitt said.


Oklahoma in May passed the Nation’s toughest abortion ban. Wednesday’s ruling reduces the likelihood of any tribal abortion haven in that state.

Native Americans Bristle at Suggestions They Offer Abortions on Tribal Land

Nearly three months after she won confirmation to the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson is officially becoming a justice.


Jackson, 51, will be sworn as the court's 116th justice Thursday, just as the man she is replacing, Justice Stephen Breyer, retires.


The judicial pas de deux is set to take place at noon, the moment Breyer said in a letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday that his retirement will take effect after nearly 28 years on the nation's highest court.


The court is expected to issue its final opinions earlier Thursday in a momentous and rancorous term that included overturning Roe v. Wade's guarantee of the right to an abortion. The remaining cases are a challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate climate-warming emissions from power plants, and Biden's bid to end the Trump-era "remain in Mexico" asylum program.


In a ceremony the court said it will stream live on its website, Jackson will recite two oaths required of Supreme Court justices, one administered by Breyer and the other by Chief Justice John Roberts.


Jackson, a federal judge since 2013, will be the first Black woman to serve as a justice. She will be joining three women, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett — the first time four women will serve together on the nine-member court.


Biden nominated Jackson in February, a month after Breyer, 83, announced he would retire at the end of the court's term, assuming his successor had been confirmed. Breyer's earlier-than-usual announcement and the condition he attached was a recognition of the Democrats' tenuous hold on the Senate in an era of hyper-partisanship, especially surrounding federal judgeships.


The Senate confirmed Jackson's nomination in early April, by a 53-47 mostly party-line vote that included support from three Republicans.


She has been in a sort of judicial limbo ever since, remaining a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., but not hearing any cases. Biden elevated her to that court from the district judgeship to which she was appointed by President Barack Obama.


Jackson will be able to begin work immediately, but the court will have just finished the bulk of its work until the fall, apart from emergency appeals that occasionally arise. That will give her time to settle in and familiarize herself with the roughly two dozen cases the court already has agreed to hear starting in October as well as hundreds of appeals that will pile up over the summer.

Jackson to be Sworn in as Breyer Retires From Supreme Court

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection issued a subpoena Wednesday to former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who is said to have stridently warned against former President Donald Trump's efforts to try to overturn his election loss.


It's the first public step the committee has taken since receiving the public testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, the onetime junior aide who accused Trump of knowing his supporters were armed on Jan. 6 and demanding that he be taken to the U.S. Capitol that day.


Cipollone, who was Trump's top White House lawyer, is said to have raised concerns about the former president's efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and at one point threatened to resign. The committee said he could have information about several efforts by Trump allies to subvert the Electoral College, from organizing so-called alternate electors in states Biden won to trying to appoint as attorney general a loyalist who pushed false theories of voter fraud.


Cipollone has been placed in key moments after the election by Hutchinson as well as by former Justice Department lawyers who appeared for a hearing the week before.


Hutchinson said Cipollone warned before Jan. 6 that there would be "serious legal concerns" if Trump went to the Capitol with the protesters expected to rally outside.


The morning of Jan. 6, she testified, Cipollone restated his concerns that if Trump did go to the Capitol to try to intervene in the certification of the election, "we're going to get charged with every crime imaginable."


And as the insurrection went on, she says she heard Meadows tell Cipollone that Trump was sympathetic to rioters wanting to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence.


"You heard it," Meadows told Cipollone, in her recollection. "He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."


Reps. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, and Liz Cheney, a Republican, the chairman and vice chairman of the committee, said in their letter to Cipollone that while he had given the committee an "informal interview" on April 13, his refusal to provide on-the-record testimony made their subpoena necessary.


Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who sits on the committee, said last week that Cipollone told the committee he tried to intervene when he heard Trump was being advised by Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who wanted to push false claims of voter fraud. Federal agents recently seized Clark's cell phone and conducted a search of his Virginia home.


Clark had drafted a letter for key swing states that was never sent but would have falsely claimed the department had discovered troubling irregularities in the election. Cipollone was quoted by one witness as having told Trump the letter was a "murder-suicide pact."

January 6 Panel Subpoenas Former White House Counsel

New details on Trump’s encouragement of January 6 rioters

Trump Fought Secret Service to Join Capitol Rioters, White House Aide Testifies

The midterm primary season entered a new, more volatile phase on Tuesday as voters participate in the first elections since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision revoking a woman's constitutional right to an abortion jolted the nation's politics.


In Colorado's Republican U.S. Senate primary, voters are choosing between businessman Joe O'Dea and state Rep. Ron Hanks. O'Dea backs a ban on late-term abortions but is otherwise the rare Republican who supports most abortion rights. Hanks backs a ban on the procedure in all cases.


Meanwhile, in the Republican race for governor in Illinois, Darren Bailey, a farmer and state senator endorsed by former President Donald Trump over the weekend, wants to end the state's right to abortion except for instances in which the mother's life is in danger. He doesn't support exceptions for rape or incest. His opponent, Richard Irvin, the first Black mayor of Aurora, has said he would allow abortions in instances of rape, incest or when the mother's life is at risk.


Both races are unfolding in states where abortion remains legal. Democrats have sought to elevate both Hanks and Bailey, betting that they have a better chance of winning the fall campaign if they're competing against Republicans they could portray as extreme. In Colorado, Democrats have spent more than $2 million boosting Hanks' candidacy. In Illinois, the sums have been vastly higher, with Democrats spending at least $16 million against Irvin and to boost Bailey as the nominee against Gov. J.B. Pritzker.


The strategy carries risks, especially if the magnitude of the GOP's expected gains this fall becomes so significant that Democrats lose in states such as Illinois and Colorado, which have become strongholds for the party. But at a moment when Democrats are confronting voter frustration over inflation and rising gas prices, the focus on abortion may be their best hope.


"It's a very inviting target, to go after a Republican candidate whose position is no exceptions," said Dick Wadhams, a former chairman of the Colorado GOP who has worked for anti-abortion candidates in the past. "I do think the repeal of Roe v Wade may embolden more candidates to go in that direction."


"A lot of opportunity, but a lot of peril"


Beyond Colorado and Illinois, elections are being held in Oklahoma, Utah, New York, Nebraska, Mississippi and South Carolina. Tuesday marks the final round of multi-state primary nights until August, when closely watched races for governor and U.S. Senate will unfold in Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Missouri and other states




And while Tuesday's primaries are the first to happen in a post-Roe landscape, they will offer further insight into the resonance of Trump's election lies among GOP voters.


In Oklahoma, one of the nation's most conservative senators, James Lankford, won his primary challenge from evangelical pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, amid conservative anger that Lankford hasn't supported Trump's election claims.


In Utah, two Republican critics of Trump are targeting Sen. Mike Lee, accusing the two-term senator of being too preoccupied with winning the former president's favor and helping him try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In Mississippi, Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican who bucked Trump to vote for an independent Jan. 6 commission, faces a challenge from Michael Cassidy, a former Navy pilot.


Also in Colorado, indicted county clerk Tina Peters, who has been barred by a judge from overseeing elections in her home county in the western part of the state, is running for the GOP nomination for the state's top elections post by contending she's being prosecuted for uncovering a grand conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from Trump. She faces Pam Anderson, a former county clerk and critic of Trump's election lies, for the nomination to challenge Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold in November.


Republicans worry that Peters, who is being prosecuted by a Republican district attorney for her role in a security breach in her county's election system, would drag down the entire ticket if she becomes the nominee. The GOP has lost almost every statewide race since 2014 but hopes public disenchantment with President Joe Biden gives them an opening.


"There's a lot of peril on June 28 for Republicans," Wadhams said. "A lot of opportunity, but a lot of peril as well."


Other GOP opportunities in the state come in the newly created congressional swing seat north of Denver, where four Republican candidates are competing to face state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, the only Democrat running in the primary. Heidi Ganahl, the lone statewide elected Republican as a member of the University of Colorado's board of regents, faces Greg Lopez, a former mayor in suburban Denver, in the contest for the GOP nomination to face Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.


Also in Colorado, firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert faces moderate state Sen. Don Coram in the Republican primary in the western part of the state. In Colorado Springs, Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, who faces regular primary challenges, this time is fighting back state Rep. Dave Williams, who failed to get the phrase "Let's Go Brandon," code for an obscenity against President Joe Biden, added to his official name on the ballot.


Voter seeks candidate who shares "our values"


Other than the governor's race primary, Illinois also features two, rare incumbent vs. incumbent congressional primaries as a result of House districts being redrawn during last year's redistricting. Democratic Reps. Sean Casten and Marie Newman will compete in a Chicago-area seat. And GOP Rep. Rodney Davis, one of the last moderates in the Republican caucus, faces Trump-backed Rep. Mary Miller, who at a rally with the former president this weekend described the Supreme Court decision as "a victory for white life." A spokesman said she meant to say "right to life."




In the smaller towns of Illinois, conservative voters were hankering for a change. Toni Block, 80, of McHenry, about 45 miles northwest of Chicago, voted for Bailey in the gubernatorial primary.


"He's got all the good things that we need to get back to," Block said. "Not only is he a Trump supporter, he has our values."


In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who became the state's chief executive last fall when Andrew Cuomo resigned during a sexual harassment scandal, is fighting off primary challenges from the left and center. New York City's elected public advocate, Jumaane Williams, contends Hochul hasn't been active enough on progressive issues while Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi blasts her for being too liberal on crime.


On the Republican side, Rep. Lee Zeldin is the frontrunner in a crowded gubernatorial primary field that includes Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York mayor and Trump confidant Rudolph Giuliani. Trump has not made an endorsement in the race.

First Post-Roe Primaries Put Abortion at Center of Key Races

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that then-President Donald Trump became increasingly angry and volatile about his 2020 reelection loss, testifying that he agreed with rioters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 last year when they called for then-Vice President Mike Pence be hanged for refusing to block the election outcome. 

 

Hutchinson said that as some of the thousands of Trump supporters at the Capitol chanted "Hang Mike Pence!" Trump told her boss, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, "Mike deserves it."  

 

She quoted Meadows as saying that Trump "doesn't think (the anti-Pence protesters were) doing anything wrong." 

 

Trump supporters had erected a gallows on the National Mall within eyesight of the Capitol, although Pence's security detail rushed him to safety as the mayhem raged. Some rioters came within about 12 meters of reaching him. 

 

Later, Trump tweeted that "Mike Pence didn't have the courage" to block Congress from certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump in the 2020 election. But it was not until more than an hour later that Trump finally told his supporters in a video message to leave the Capitol, after earlier ignoring pleas from family members, including his daughter Ivanka, a White House aide, and other advisers to publicly call off the riot.    


WATCH THE HEARING:




Hutchinson, who worked in an office just steps from Trump's Oval Office, said she learned from Anthony Ornato, a Meadows aide responsible for coordinating Trump's security detail, that the then-president, after a rally near the White House before the mayhem at the Capitol, attempted to grab the wheel of his limousine from a Secret Service agent and demanded to go to the Capitol to join his supporters. 


Trump had told thousands of supporters at the rally that he would join them in walking to the Capitol, but his security detail had determined it was too dangerous and instead drove him back to the White House. 

 

Hutchinson said she was told by Ornato that, once in the limousine, Trump was "under the impression … he thought they were going to the Capitol" and was "very, very angry" when he realized they were not. 

 

"I'm the 'effing' president, take me to the Capitol," Trump demanded, according to Ornato's recounting of the incident to Hutchinson. 

 

She testified that Ornato told her Trump grabbed the steering wheel but was pushed away by his chief security agent, Bobby Engel. 

 

"Sir, you need to take your hand off of the steering wheel, we're going back to the West Wing, we're not going to the Capitol," Hutchinson said, quoting Ornato's retelling of what Engel told Trump. 

 

"Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Engel and when Mr. Ornato recounted the story to me, he motioned to his clavicles," Hutchinson testified. 




Earlier that day, according to Hutchinson, Trump had been informed that many of the supporters whom he was urging to march to the Capitol were armed and equipped with body armor. Hutchinson said the president was angered that the Secret Service was using magnetometers to check for weapons at the entrance to the rally and confiscating those it found. Trump reportedly said he wasn't in any danger and complained that keeping people out of the rally made the crowd look smaller. 

 

More than a month before, on Dec. 1, 2020, then Attorney General William Barr, the country's top law enforcement official, had told the Associated Press that Justice Department investigators had not found evidence of election fraud sufficient to overturn Biden's victory. Trump lost more than five dozen election lawsuits claiming fraud. 

 

Hutchinson said Trump was furious when told of Barr's remark to the AP reporter. She learned of his anger when she encountered a White House valet cleaning Trump's private dining room next to the Oval Office. 

 

Trump, she said, had thrown his lunch against a wall, shattering a plate and splattering ketchup on the wall. 

 

Hutchinson said that both Meadows and a Trump attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, sought pardons for their roles in trying to keep Trump in power.  

 

But Trump, while pardoning other aides for their possible crimes before leaving office, did not act on the requests from Meadows or Giuliani, nor on similar demands from a half-dozen Republican congressmen Hutchinson said had requested pardons.   

 

Hutchinson's testimony came in the House of Representatives committee's sixth hearing this month, with two more set for mid-July. 

 

One of those hearings is set to detail the involvement of right-wing extremists in the insurrection at the Capitol and the other to explore what Trump was doing at the White House as he watched the riot unfold on television for more than three hours, ignoring all entreaties to tell the rioters to leave the Capitol.   




Previously, an array of witnesses, in taped testimony and in person before the panel, have described how Trump and his allies sought to pressure Pence, the Justice Department and state officials to upend the congressional certification of the election results on January 6, 2021.  

 

At the rally before the insurrection at the Capitol, Trump urged his supporters to "fight like hell" to block congressional approval of Biden's victory.   

 

About 2,000 of Trump's supporters stormed past law enforcement officials into the Capitol, ransacking congressional offices, vandalizing the building and scuffling with police. More than 800 have subsequently been charged with offenses and more than 300 have pleaded guilty or been convicted in trials. Sentences have ranged from a few weeks in prison to more than four years.  

 

In the United States, presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state's number of electoral votes is dependent on its population, with the biggest states holding the most sway. The rioters who stormed the Capitol tried to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden's eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College.   

 

At the heart of Trump's effort to stay in power was an audacious plan espoused by Giuliani and conservative lawyer John Eastman to get legislatures in states Trump narrowly lost to appoint new electors supporting him to replace the official ones favoring Biden. 

 

While the House committee cannot bring criminal charges, the Department of Justice is closely monitoring the hearings to determine whether anyone, Trump included, should be charged with illegally trying to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. 




Last week, FBI agents raided the Washington-area home of a former assistant attorney general, Jeffrey Clark, who wanted Trump to name him attorney general in the last month of his presidency so he could advance Trump's erroneous claims of vote fraud, which were at odds with Barr's conclusion.  

 

Trump appeared willing to make the Clark appointment but backed off when top Justice Department officials said Clark, an environmental lawyer, was not qualified to be the country's top law enforcement official and threatened to quit en masse if he were named.  

 

In addition, FBI agents, in a separate encounter in the southwestern state of New Mexico, seized the cell phone of Eastman.  

 

A prosecutor in Atlanta, the capital of the state of Georgia, has convened a grand jury to probe Trump's effort to overturn the vote in that state. Trump asked the state's top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to find him 11,780 votes — one more than Biden defeated him by — out of 5 million ballots.     

 

The investigative panel has heard testimony that key Trump aides told him he had lost the election and that there were minimal voting irregularities, not enough to overturn Biden's Electoral College victory.     

 

In addition, Trump was told it would be illegal for Pence to unilaterally block Biden's victory as Pence presided over the congressional Electoral College vote count. Trump privately and publicly demanded the vice president block certification of Biden's victory and to this day contends he was cheated out of another White House term.

Former White House Aide: Trump Angry, Volatile as 2020 Defeat Became Obvious

The congressional panel investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year is set to hear testimony Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was privy to key White House conversations as Trump sought to upend his 2020 election loss.


Watch the hearing live: 




Hutchinson's testimony is shrouded in secrecy and was hastily scheduled Monday, with the House of Representatives panel declining to identify her publicly and saying only that a surprise hearing would be held "to present recently obtained evidence."


Multiple U.S. news outlets identified her as the new public witness, although the panel has previously shown snippets of her videotaped testimony from three private depositions she gave to the committee's investigators.


In one brief segment, she testified that a half dozen Republican congressmen sought pardons against possible criminal prosecution from Trump before he left office. All had played roles in promoting his debunked claims that vote-counting fraud had cheated him out of a second term in the White House. Trump pardoned a handful of political aides as left office but not the House Republicans.


The investigative panel, after five hearings earlier this month, had previously said its next public hearings would not be held until mid-July. One of those hearings is set to detail the involvement of right-wing extremists in the insurrection at the Capitol and the other to explore what Trump was doing at the White House as he watched the riot unfold on television for more than three hours, ignoring entreaties from family members and associates to tell the rioters to leave the Capitol.




Previously, an array of witnesses, in taped testimony and in person before the panel, have described how Trump and his allies sought to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence, the Justice Department and state officials to upend the congressional certification of the election results on January 6, 2021.


Trump staged a rally near the White House shortly before the mayhem at the Capitol, urging his supporters to "fight like hell" to block congressional approval of Democrat Joe Biden's victory.


About 2,000 of Trump's supporters stormed past law enforcement officials into the Capitol, ransacking congressional offices, vandalizing the building and scuffling with police. More than 800 have subsequently been charged with offenses and more than 300 have pleaded guilty or been convicted in trials. Sentences have ranged from a few weeks in prison to more than four years.


Some of the rioters shouted, "Hang Mike Pence!" in protest of the former vice president's refusal to block certification of the election results in several states Trump narrowly lost. Trump wanted the official results sent back to those states so state legislators could then name electors supporting Trump rather than Biden.


During one of the hearings last week, the committee played a video clip of Hutchinson testifying that Meadows and a Trump attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, held conversations about putting together fake slates of electors supporting Trump, part of the former president's broad effort to change the election outcome.


News outlets have also reported that during one of her interviews with the committee, Hutchinson said Trump had approved of the "hang Mike Pence" chants from the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol and was dismayed that Pence's security detail had rushed him to safety as the rioters came within 40 feet (12 meters) of reaching him. Trump supporters erected a gallows on the National Mall within view of the Capitol.


In the United States, presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state's number of electoral votes is dependent on its population, with the biggest states holding the most sway. The rioters who stormed the Capitol tried to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden's eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College.


While the House committee cannot bring criminal charges, the Department of Justice is closely monitoring the hearings to determine whether anyone, Trump included, should be charged with illegally trying to reverse the outcome.




Last week, FBI agents raided the suburban Virginia home of a former assistant attorney general, Jeffrey Clark, who wanted Trump to name him attorney general in the last month of his presidency so he could advance Trump's erroneous claims of vote fraud.


Trump appeared willing to make the appointment but backed off when top Justice Department officials said Clark, an environmental lawyer, was not qualified to be the country's top law enforcement official and threatened to quit en masse if he were named.


In addition, FBI agents, in a separate encounter in the southwestern state of New Mexico, seized the cell phone of conservative lawyer John Eastman, a Trump supporter who pushed for the plan to name bogus electors supporting Trump in the states where Trump narrowly lost the vote counts.


A prosecutor in Atlanta, the capital of the state of Georgia, has convened a grand jury to probe Trump's effort to overturn the vote in that state. Trump asked the state's top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to find him 11,780 votes — one more than Biden defeated him by — out of 5 million ballots.


The investigative panel has heard testimony that key Trump aides told him he had lost the election and that there were minimal voting irregularities, not enough to overturn Biden's Electoral College victory.


In addition, Trump was told it would be illegal for Pence to unilaterally block Biden's victory as Pence presided over the congressional Electoral College vote count, as Trump privately and publicly implored the vice president to do.

Former White House Aide to Testify About 2021 US Capitol Riot

Here is a summary of Native American-related news around the U.S. this week:




Mohegan chief announced as new US treasurer




For the first time in U.S. history, a Native American’s signature will appear on all U.S. currency: U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the new U.S. treasurer: Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba, the lifetime chief of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut.


As treasurer, Malerba will oversee the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and the storage of about $270 billion worth of gold at Fort Knox.




"With this announcement, we are making an even deeper commitment to Indian Country," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during a visit to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Sicangu Lakota.




In her first official visit to Indian Country, Yellen also announced the establishment of a new Office of Tribal and Native Affairs that will coordinate the Treasury Department’s relations with tribes across the nation.


Treasury Applauds Appointment of Chief Lynn Malerba as Treasurer of the United States






Utah tribes to co-manage Bears Ears National Monument




Federal officials and leaders of five tribal nations — Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni — on June 21 signed a joint government agreement, formally reestablishing the Bears Ears Commission, which will oversee land management of the 5,500-square-kilometer (2,125-square-mile) Bears Ears National Monument.




“Today, instead of being removed from a landscape to make way for a public park, we are being invited back to our ancestral homelands to help repair them and plan for a resilient future,” said Carleton Bowekaty, Bears Ears Commission co-chair and lieutenant governor of Zuni Pueblo. “What can be a better avenue of restorative justice than giving Tribes the opportunity to participate in the management of lands their ancestors were removed from?”




In 2021, President Joe Biden restored two sprawling national monuments in southern Utah — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — reversing a decision by President Donald Trump that opened up Bears Ears for mining and other development.


BLM, Forest Service and Five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission Commit to Historic Co-Management of Bears Ears National Monument




New California law honors tribal naming traditions




California Governor Gavin Newsom Wednesday signed a bill giving Native American families more time to register the births of their babies. Previously, families had 10 days to register with the state health department. But many Native families in California, as elsewhere, wait until the 10th day to name babies as part of a traditional ceremony.


Gavin Newsom Signs Jim Wood Bill Extending Birth Registration Deadline




Native pro cyclist sets alpine record




Neilson Powless, a member of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin, on June 19 became the highest-ranked American in the pro-cycling world rankings after finishing fourth in the Tour de Suisse, a grueling nine-day, 1,300-kilometer staged race through the Swiss Alps.




See his remarks at the finish line, below.




 




The Tour de Suisse is considered the warm-up to the Tour de France, just a few weeks away. In 2020, Powless made headlines by becoming the first Native North American to ride in the Tour de France; he has not yet confirmed whether he’ll be on the starting list for this year’s event, which begins July 1.


Neilson Powless, Oneida, Becomes Highest Ranked American in the World of Pro-Cycling

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