GOP's Santos, Omar battles collide

Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) decision to step away from committee assignments is colliding with another controversy over committees: House Republicans’ quest to block Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs panel.  There is no public indication that GOP leadership pushed Santos to step down to make it easier to block Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Santos said that he made the decision to step aside on his own.  But Santos has connected the two situations, and both demonstrate the stumbling blocks the new GOP majority faces as it work

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Why the Fed faces new risks in its inflation fight amid recession fears 

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter-percentage point at its meeting on Wednesday, entering a high-stakes chapter in its battle against high inflation. The central bank is on track to issue its smallest rate hike since March 2021, when the Fed began aggressively boosting borrowing costs and slowing the economy into lower price growth. But the Fed faces serious risks on both sides of a potential pause to rate hikes. If the Fed stops too soon, bank officials fear that high inflation could become entrenched. If it stops too late, th

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House Republicans pass bill to end COVID-19 public health emergency

House Republicans passed a bill on Tuesday to end the COVID-19 public health emergency, moving ahead with the legislation despite the Biden administration announcing one day earlier that the declaration would end in May. The legislation — titled the Pandemic is Over Act — passed in a 220-210 party-line vote. The measure, which stretches two pages, would terminate the COVID-19 public health emergency on the day it is enacted. The Trump administration

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Meet the Republican at the center of the House GOP’s investigations into Biden

Rep. James Comer, one of the most powerful House Republicans in the new majority, faces a delicate challenge as he takes the reins of the Oversight and Accountability Committee: showing substance with the spectacle. Comer (R-Ky.) leads a panel at the heart of House Republicans' investigatory responsibilities. It’s also a panel stacked with firebrand GOP personalities consumed with digging into hot-button issues surrounding President Biden’s administration and family. “We will be the committee with all the newsmakers,” Comer said. The panel’s Republicans include

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US accuses Russia of violating major nuke treaty

The United States on Tuesday accused Russia of violating a major nuclear arms control agreement by not allowing on-site inspections and refusing to meet to discuss such concerns.  “Russia is not complying with its obligation under the New START Treaty to facilitate inspection activities on its territory,” a State Department spokesperson confirmed to The Hill. “Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control.” 

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