Author: PolitCens

The U.S. House of Representatives late on Tuesday approved a measure allowing Congress to fast-track legislation raising the federal government’s debt limit and stave off a potential unprecedented default. 

The Senate is expected to take up the measure, which prevents the use of stalling tactics, on Thursday. 

That would speed the way for Congress to consider separate legislation to actually increase the current $28.9 trillion limit on federal borrowing authority to a still-to-be-determined level. 

The House voted 222-212 in favor of the measure designed to speed approval of a debt limit increase in the often-plodding Senate. Only one Republican backed it. 

“Increasing the debt ceiling will prevent us from defaulting on debt we already owe. It’s about investments that the Congress previously approved,” Democratic Representative Steven Horsford said during House debate. 

Earlier in the day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned of dire consequences without fast action by Congress. 

“We must address the debt limit to stave off an unnecessary and catastrophic drop of trillions of dollars of GDP and a devastating downgrade to our credit rating,” Pelosi, a Democrat, said in a statement. 

But House Republicans argued against any action, knowing Democrats intended to shoulder the burden on their own under a deal privately negotiated by both parties. 

“Make no mistake. This debt ceiling is being lifted to pay for trillions of wasteful socialist spending,” said Republican Representative Kevin Brady. 

He was referring in part to President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion “Build Back Better” domestic investment bill that Democrats hope to pass in the Senate this month. 

Democrats say the increased borrowing authority is needed largely to cover the cost of tax cuts and spending programs during former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, which congressional Republicans supported. 

‘Best interest of the country’

Normally, many bills need the support of at least 60 senators to clear procedural hurdles. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell sent a clear message that his party will help facilitate a debt limit increase even though its members aim to vote against the actual bill implementing it. 

“This is in the best interest of the country by avoiding default,” McConnell told reporters, adding: “We’ll be voting on it Thursday,” as he expressed confidence in its passage. 

Congress is expected to complete action on the long-running tussle between Democrats and Republicans by Dec. 15, the date Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen requested to soothe financial markets and ensure there would be no default – an event that would have catastrophic economic consequences. 

The debt limit increase, if passed, is expected to provide Treasury with enough borrowing authority through next November’s congressional elections. 

Tuesday’s breakthrough strategy, brokered by Democratic and Republican congressional leaders following months of political infighting, would establish a two-step approach for raising Treasury’s borrowing authority. 

If the Senate passes the House-approved bill, a second measure raising the debt limit under the expedited procedure would then be debated for a maximum of 10 hours in the Senate, instead of the open-ended debate that can delay or kill many bills in the chamber. 

Senate passage by a simple majority would clear the way for a final vote by the House. Both chambers are narrowly controlled by Democrats. 

The expedited procedure for the debt limit was included in a bill to postpone cuts to the Medicare healthcare program for seniors that would otherwise take place starting Jan. 1. 

By facilitating passage of a debt limit increase but not actually voting to implement one, Republicans would give themselves ammunition to attack Democrats in the 2022 congressional election campaigns for raising the $28.9 trillion debt limit.  
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Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation Tuesday night that would provide $768 billion for the nation’s military for the 2022 fiscal year. 

The bill’s passage by a vote of 363-70 came after weeks of unusually contentious debate over the annual defense spending budget due to a number of issues. The final version, which was crafted in closed-door sessions between leaders from both the House and the U.S. Senate, includes the creation of an independent commission to investigate the United States’ 20-year war in Afghanistan, $300 million in aid to the Ukrainian armed forces, and a statement of support for the defense of self-ruled Taiwan, which China has vowed to annex, even by force. It also prohibits the Defense Department from buying any items produced by Muslim Uyghurs who are detained in China’s Xinjiang region. 

The bill also creates a new, independent special victims prosecutor to handle allegations of rape, sexual assault and other serious crimes, removing it from the authority of regular military commanders.  

But several other items were stripped from the bill before the final vote, including a repeal of the measure passed in 2002 that authorized military force against Iraq, and a measure requiring women to register for the system that drafts Americans into the military during times of war, which was strongly opposed by conservatives who are opposed to forcing women to fight in the nation’s wars. 

The final cost of the bill was $24 billion more than what President Joe Biden had requested in his initial budget proposal. The measure now goes on to the Senate, which is expected to give its final approval sometime this week after lawmakers there failed to pass its own version.   

Some information for this report came from Reuters. 
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New York City, long a beacon for immigrants, is on the cusp of becoming the largest place in the country to give noncitizens the right to vote in local elections. 

Legally documented, voting-age noncitizens comprise nearly one in nine of the city’s 7 million voting-age inhabitants. Under a bill nearing approval, some 800,000 noncitizens would be allowed to cast ballots in elections to pick the mayor, City Council members and other municipal officeholders. 

Noncitizens still wouldn’t be able to vote for president or members of Congress in federal races, or in the state elections that pick the governor, judges and legislators. 

Little stands in the way of the effort becoming law. The measure has broad support within the City Council, which is expected to ratify the proposal Thursday. Mayor Bill de Blasio has raised concerns about the wisdom and legality of the legislation but said he won’t veto it. 

The law would give an electoral voice to the many New Yorkers who love the city and have made it their permanent home but can’t easily become U.S. citizens or would rather remain citizens of their home nations for various reasons. 

It would also cover “Dreamers” like Eva Santos, 32, who was brought to the U.S. by her parents at age 11 as an unauthorized immigrant but wasn’t able to vote like her friends or go to college when she turned 18. 

“It was really hard for me to see how my other friends were able to make decisions for their future, and I couldn’t,” said Santos, now a community organizer. 

More than a dozen communities across the United States currently allow noncitizens to vote, including 11 towns in Maryland and two in Vermont. 

San Francisco, through a ballot initiative ratified by voters in 2016, began allowing noncitizens to vote in school board elections — which was also true in New York City until it abolished its boards in 2002 and gave control of schools to the mayor. 

The move in Democrat-controlled New York City is a counterpoint to restrictions being enacted in some states, where Republicans have espoused unsupported claims of rampant fraud by noncitizens in federal elections. 

Last year, voters in Alabama, Colorado and Florida ratified measures specifying that only U.S. citizens can vote, joining Arizona and North Dakota in adopting rules that would preempt any attempts to pass laws like the one being considered in New York City. 

“I think that there’s people in our society that go to sleep with so much fear of immigrants that they try to make an argument to disqualify their right to elect their local leaders,” said New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who is originally from the Dominican Republic and was unable to vote until he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. 

“This is about whether we are living in New York City, we are contributing to New York City and paying taxes in New York City,” said Rodriguez, a Democrat. 

De Blasio, though, has questioned whether the measure would survive a legal challenge. Federal law allows states and local governments to decide who can vote in their elections, but some, including the mayor, have raised concerns about whether state lawmakers must first act to grant the city the authority to extend voting rights to noncitizens. 

“Look, there’s obviously an argument: We want people involved, we want to hear people’s voices,” de Blasio recently said on the television news program “Inside City Hall.” 

“I still have a concern about it. Citizenship has an extraordinary value. People work so hard for it,” he said. “We need people in every good way to want to be citizens.” 

The minority leader of the City Council, Joseph Borelli, a Republican from Staten Island, said the measure will undoubtedly end up in court. 

“It devalues citizenship, and citizenship is the standard by which the state constitution issues or allows for suffrage in New York state elections at all levels,” Borelli said. 

The proposal would allow noncitizens who have been lawful permanent residents of the city for at least 30 days, as well as those authorized to work in the U.S., including so-called “Dreamers,” to help select the city’s mayor, city council members, borough presidents, comptroller and public advocate. 

The law would direct the Board of Elections to draw up an implementation plan by July, including voter registration rules and provisions that would create separate ballots for municipal races to prevent noncitizens from casting ballots in federal and state contests. Noncitizens wouldn’t be allowed to vote until elections in 2023. 

Giving nonresidents the right to vote could empower them to become a political force that can’t be easily ignored, said Anu Joshi, the vice president of policy of the New York Immigration Coalition. 

New York City, with more than 3 million foreign-born residents, would be a fitting place to anchor a national movement to expand immigrant voting rights, said Ron Hayduk, now a professor of political science at San Francisco State University who spent years in New York steeped in the movement for noncitizen voting rights. 

“New York, the home of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, prides itself on being the place of immigration,” he noted. “So there’s this question of what’s the place of immigrants in our city — are they really New Yorkers, are they full New Yorkers in the sense of qualifying and deserving the power of the vote and to shape its political future?” 

The answer should be a “resounding yes,” he said. 

 
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U.S. lawmakers included efforts to push back against Russia and China in a massive annual defense bill released on Tuesday, proposing $300 million for Ukraine’s military and a statement of support for the defense of Taiwan. 

But they omitted some measures that had strong support in Congress, including a proposal to impose mandatory sanctions over the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and a plan to subject women to the military draft for the first time. 

The compromise version of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, authorizes $770 billion in military spending, $25 billion more than requested by President Joe Biden and about 5% more than last year’s budget. 

The plan includes a 2.7% pay increase for the troops, and more aircraft and Navy ship purchases to send a signal to Russia and China, in addition to strategies for dealing with geopolitical threats. 

Money for Ukraine 

The NDAA normally passes with strong bipartisan support. It is closely watched by a broad swath of industry and other interests because of its wide scope and because it is one of the only major pieces of legislation that becomes law every year. 

This year’s bill was released shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held two hours of virtual talks on Ukraine and other disputes. 

The 2022 NDAA includes $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides support to Ukraine’s armed forces, includes $4 billion for the European Defense Initiative and proposes $150 million for Baltic security cooperation. 

It does not include a provision that would force Biden to impose sanctions over the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring Russian gas directly to Germany. The measure’s supporters argue that the pipeline would be harmful to European allies. 

Lawmakers also omitted an amendment that would have banned Americans from purchasing Russian sovereign debt. 

Biden’s fellow Democrats control both the House of Representatives and Senate. The White House has said administration officials support sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine, but not provisions that could threaten trans-Atlantic ties. 

Eyes on China 

On China, the bill includes $7.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and a statement of congressional support for the defense of Taiwan, as well as a ban on the Department of Defense procuring products produced with forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region. 

The United States has labeled China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang as genocide, and lawmakers have been pushing a ban on imports of products made with forced labor from Uyghurs. China dismisses the genocide charge as a slanderous assertion about conditions in Xinjiang. 

Compromises 

The compromise text omits a proposal to require women to register for the military draft that was included in earlier versions. The proposal faced stiff opposition from socially conservative lawmakers who thought it would erode traditional gender roles, threatening to stymie the entire NDAA. 

The compromise bill includes an overhaul of the military justice system to take decisions on whether to prosecute cases of rape, sexual assault and some other major crimes out of the hands of military commanders. 

The change was a partial victory for activists because it did not strip military commanders of the authority to prosecute all felonies. It came after advocates led by Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand waged a yearslong effort to change the system in response to the thousands of cases of sexual assault among service members, many of which are never prosecuted. 

Gillibrand said she still wanted a separate vote on her full proposal. 

To become law for the 61st straight year, the NDAA must pass the House and Senate and be signed into law by Biden. 

 
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U.S. senators struck a deal Tuesday to create a one-time law allowing Democrats to lift the nation’s borrowing authority and avert a credit default without requiring votes from the opposition Republicans. 

The House of Representatives will vote on the fix as early as Tuesday evening and it is expected to be approved by Congress in the coming days, allowing lawmakers to avert the crisis with a simple 51-vote majority in the upper chamber. 

The Bipartisan Policy Center said last week it expected the United States would no longer be able to meet its debt repayment obligations between December 21 and January 28. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has put deadline even earlier: next Wednesday. 

“Nobody wants to see the U.S. default on its debts. As Secretary Yellen has warned, a default could eviscerate everything we’ve done to recover from the COVID crisis,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor of the chamber. 

“We don’t want to see that, I don’t believe we will see that, and I continue to thank all my colleagues for cooperating in good faith to preserve the full faith and credit of the United States,” he said. 

America spends more money than it collects through taxation so it borrows money via the issuing of government bonds, seen as among the world’s most reliable investments. 

Around 80 years ago, lawmakers introduced a limit on how much federal debt could be accrued. 

The ceiling has been lifted dozens of times to allow the government to meet its spending commitments, usually without drama and with the support of both parties, and it stands at about $29 trillion. 

Democratic leaders have spent weeks underlining the havoc that a default would have wrought, including the loss of an estimated 6 million jobs and $15 trillion in household wealth, as well as increased costs for mortgages and other borrowing. 

But Republicans in both chambers of Congress initially objected to helping raise the limit this time, saying they refused to support President Joe Biden’s taxing and spending plans. 

In reality, both parties see raising the borrowing cap as politically toxic, and Republicans hope to make it an issue in the 2022 midterm election campaign. 

Under the complex, multistep compromise proposed Tuesday, the Republicans can essentially stand on the sidelines, offering help to create the new law but offering no votes to increase the limit.

Congress would have to specify the exact dollar amount of a new borrowing cap, likely upward of $30 trillion.

Both chambers would have to approve the new process first, and then the Senate, followed by the House, would pass the extension by simple majority votes. 

Crucially, Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, is backing the process. 

“I think this is in the best interest of the country, by avoiding default,” he told reporters when questioned about the convoluted approach. 

 
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In an abrupt reversal, an attorney for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said his client will not cooperate with a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, citing a breakdown in negotiations with the panel.  

Attorney George Terwilliger said in a letter Tuesday that a deposition would be “untenable” because the Jan. 6 panel “has no intention of respecting boundaries” concerning questions that former President Donald Trump has claimed are off-limits because of executive privilege. Terwilliger also said that he learned over the weekend that the committee had issued a subpoena to a third-party communications provider that he said would include “intensely personal” information.  

Terwilliger said in a statement last week that he was continuing to work with the committee and its staff on a potential accommodation that would not require Meadows to waive the executive privileges claimed by Trump or “forfeit the long-standing position that senior White House aides cannot be compelled to testify” before Congress.  

“We appreciate the Select Committee’s openness to receiving voluntary responses on non-privileged topics,” he said then.  

A spokesperson for the panel did not have immediate comment on Terwilliger’s letter. The committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, said last week that Meadows had been engaging with the panel through his attorney, producing records and agreeing to appear for an initial deposition.  

Thompson said the committee would “continue to assess his degree of compliance with our subpoena after the deposition.” He has said that any witnesses who don’t comply will be held in contempt of Congress.

In halting cooperation, Terwilliger also cited comments from Thompson that he said unfairly cast aspersions on witnesses who invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. A separate witness, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, has said he will invoke those Fifth Amendment rights.  

“As a result of careful and deliberate consideration of these factors, we now must decline the opportunity to appear voluntarily for a deposition,” Terwilliger wrote in the letter.

The reversal comes as Meadows has been receiving attention for a new book, released Tuesday, which revealed that Trump received a positive COVID-19 test before a presidential debate and was far sicker than the White House revealed at the time.

Trump — who told his supporters to “fight like hell” before hundreds of his supporters broke into the Capitol and stopped the presidential electoral count — has attempted to hinder much of the committee’s work, including in an ongoing court case, by arguing that Congress cannot obtain information about his private White House conversations.
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Senator Bob Dole’s body will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday as congressional leaders honor the former Republican presidential candidate and World War II veteran who served in Congress for 36 years. 

Dole died Sunday at the age of 98. He was a leader known for his caustic wit, which he often turned on himself but didn’t hesitate to turn on others, too. He shaped tax and foreign policy and worked vigorously to help the disabled, enshrining protections against discrimination in employment, education and public services in the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

The U.S. Capitol has been considered the most suitable place for the nation to pay final tribute to its most eminent citizens by having their remains lie in state. 

Dole, from Kansas, won the Republican nomination in 1996 but was defeated when President Bill Clinton won a second term. He was also 1976 GOP vice presidential candidate on the losing ticket with President Gerald Ford. 

Throughout his political career, he carried the mark of war. Charging a German position in northern Italy in 1945, Dole was hit by a shell fragment that crushed two vertebrae and paralyzed his arms and legs. The young Army platoon leader spent three years recovering in a hospital and never regained use of his right hand. 

 
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The U.S. Justice Department sued the southwestern state of Texas on Monday, alleging that Republican state lawmakers discriminated against Latinos and other minorities by redrawing new congressional and state legislative districts to increase the voting power of white Texans. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the lawsuit, the Justice Department’s first major legal action since states throughout the country started reshaping their voting districts after the conclusion of the 2020 census. 

Texas, the second-biggest U.S. state, with nearly 30 million people, grew dramatically since the last census in 2010, adding nearly 4 million residents. As a result, the state gained two more seats in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives. 

Most of that population growth was among minorities; white Texans accounted for about 5% of the growth. 

But the Justice Department alleged in the lawsuit that the Republican lawmakers had redrawn the congressional boundaries in a way that would disadvantage minority voters, who generally have voted for Democrats.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not blocked politically partisan drawing of legislative districts, but shaping them in a way that unfairly puts racial and ethnic minorities at a disadvantage is illegal. 

“This is not the first time Texas has acted to minimize the voting rights of its minority citizens,” the lawsuit contended. “Decade after decade, Texas has enacted redistricting plans that violate the Voting Rights Act.” 

On Twitter, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the lawsuit “absurd.” 

“I am confident that our legislature’s redistricting decisions will be proven lawful, and this preposterous attempt to sway democracy will fail,” he wrote. 

The lawsuit is the second time in a little over a month that the Justice Department has sued Texas in a voting-related case. The federal government earlier claimed that a new state law would disenfranchise eligible voters, including older Americans and people with disabilities, by banning 24-hour and drive-thru voting. 

 
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer laid out a tight timetable Monday for his Democratic colleagues to vote on and approve a roughly $2 trillion package to revamp U.S. health care, education, climate, immigration and tax laws before Christmas.

The House of Representatives has already narrowly approved a version of the measure, but Senate Democrats are planning to make some changes. If they reach agreement, Democrats then will need all 50 of their votes in the 100-member chamber, plus the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, to pass the legislation because the 50-member Republican caucus uniformly opposes it.

If the package, proposed by President Joe Biden as his Build Back Better plan, clears the Senate with changes, the House would need to vote again on it before sending it to Biden for his signature.

Schumer warned his Democratic colleagues that for the measure to be approved by the Senate before the Christmas holiday on December 25, along with other must-pass legislation, they will have to work “more long days and nights and potentially weekends.”

If approved, the $2 trillion proposal would greatly expand the role of the national government in the lives of Americans by perhaps the most in five decades.

The measure would expand health care insurance benefits for older Americans, add new money to fight climate change, establish universal prekindergarten instruction and offer new assistance for low-income families, all financed through higher taxes for wealthy Americans and corporations.

But two centrist Democratic lawmakers, Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, have balked at some of the House-passed provisions, forcing Democratic leaders to engage in protracted negotiations with them to win an agreement.

Manchin has said the additional government spending could add to higher costs for consumers, fueling the biggest surge in U.S. inflation in three decades. Biden has contended that with the additional tax revenue and tighter tax collection measures to catch tax cheaters, the measure will be fully paid for.
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Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue will challenge Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for governor, he announced Monday, setting up a bitter 2022 Republican primary fight while Democrat Stacey Abrams is likely to await the winner.

Perdue had been flirting with the bid for months, encouraged publicly by former President Donald Trump. The 71-year-old former senator said he was running to stop Abrams from becoming governor and claimed Kemp would lose to her in November because some hard-core Trump Republicans oppose Kemp.

“To fight back, we simply have to be united,” Perdue said. “Look, I like Brian. This isn’t personal. It’s simple: He has failed all of us and cannot win in November.” 

Kemp is promising an all-out brawl as he tries to win a second term, with Kemp spokesperson Cody Hall saying Perdue is running only to “soothe his own bruised ego” over losing his Senate seat.

“The man who lost Republicans the United States Senate and brought the last year of skyrocketing inflation, open borders, runaway government spending, and woke cancel culture upon the American people now wants to lose the Georgia governor’s office to the national face of the radical left movement,” Hall said.

Perdue, though, said Kemp was to blame for January Senate losses by Perdue and to Democrat Jon Ossoff and by Republican Kelly Loeffler to Democrat Raphael Warnock.

“Kemp caved before the election and the country is paying the price today,” Perdue said.

Perdue was supporting Kemp as recently as June, introducing him at the state Republican Party convention. Kemp said Thursday that he couldn’t control whether Perdue would be “a man of his word.”

Perdue’s entry could drag Kemp to the right as he vies for primary support. Kemp had hoped to use Abrams’ Wednesday entry to the governor’s race to rally Republicans to his side, but Trump issued a statement after Abrams announced claiming that his strongest supporters would never vote for Kemp. Trump has repeatedly targeted Kemp, saying Kemp didn’t do enough to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral victory in Georgia.

“The MAGA base will just not vote for him after what he did with respect to election integrity and two horribly run elections, for President and then two Senate seats,” Trump said. “But some good Republican will run, and some good Republican will get my endorsement, and some good Republican will WIN!”

Trump’s political action committee commissioned a poll claiming that with Trump’s endorsement, Perdue could beat Kemp in a Republican primary. The former president added fuel to that fire at a Sept. 25 rally in Perry, Georgia, when he pointed out Perdue among a clutch of party leaders.

“Are you running for governor, David?” Trump asked. “Did I hear he’s running?”

Born in Macon, Perdue was a business consultant and then an executive at companies shifting clothing production to Asia. He became CEO of Reebok, textile firm PillowTex and discount retailer Dollar General. The cousin of former governor and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, David Perdue was elected to the Senate in 2014, beating Democrat Michelle Nunn.

Aside from Trump’s displeasure with Kemp, it’s unclear what Perdue’s platform will be. In an interview last month with Gainesville radio station WDUN-AM, he talked about education as a possible issue, and contrasted Trump economy to Biden’s “maniacal spending.” But he seemed to circle back to hard feelings over Trump’s electoral loss, saying Biden won in a “questioned election.”

“We have a divided party in Georgia right now. Forget about me, it’s divided,” Perdue said. “And a lot of people feel like that the people in power haven’t fought for them, and caved in to a lot of things back in 2020 that didn’t have to be done.”

Perdue joins a slate of Trump-backed candidates in Georgia Republican primaries, including Herschel Walker running against Warnock, state Sen. Burt Jones running for lieutenant governor and Rep. Jody Hice running for secretary of state.

Other Republicans have already been trying to challenge Kemp, including former Democrat Vernon Jones and GOP activist Kandiss Taylor. Jones, who had courted Trump’s endorsement, called Kemp and Perdue “two peas in a pod” on Sunday.

Abrams, whose narrow loss to Kemp in 2018 vaulted her to national fame as a voting rights activist and party leader, has no declared opponents on the Democratic side.

“While David Perdue and Brian Kemp fight each other, Stacey Abrams will be fighting for the people of Georgia,” Abrams top aid Lauren Groh-Wargo wrote on Twitter.

Some Republicans fear a bitter Perdue-Kemp primary will enable Abrams to win. State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler of Rome tweeted Perdue’s entry is “Good news for Stacey Abrams. Bad news for Republicans.”

Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie said that it’s unclear if a Kemp-Perdue primary would be “demobilizing or demoralizing in a general election” for Republican voters, with some staying home. The national environment in 2022 appears likely to be strong for the GOP, and Gillespie said “Republican voters are going to go vote for a Republican candidate, and they’ll put whatever differences they have aside to support that Republican candidate.”
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Bob Dole, a severely wounded U.S. soldier left for dead on a World War II battlefield and who later became a fixture for decades on the American political scene, died Sunday at the age of 98.

Dole was the plain-spoken son of the Midwestern prairie state of Kansas, which he represented in the U.S. Senate for 27 years, rising to be the chamber’s Republican majority leader.

Dole was the party’s nominee for vice president in 1976 and two decades later its presidential candidate in a losing effort as Democrat Bill Clinton won re-election.

Dole’s death was announced by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, his wife’s organization honoring the country’s military caregivers. It said he died in his sleep. Dole had announced almost a year ago that he had advanced lung cancer and was beginning treatment.

Tributes came from across the political spectrum.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued a statement Sunday saying, “Bob was an American statesman like few in our history. A war hero and among the greatest of the Greatest Generation. And to me, he was also a friend whom I could look to for trusted guidance, or a humorous line at just the right moment to settle frayed nerves.”

Biden also said Dole “had an unerring sense of integrity and honor.”

Separately, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered that flags at the U.S. Capitol be flown at half-staff as a tribute to Dole, according to her deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill.  

Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney said on Twitter, “When I think of the greatest generation, I think of Senator Bob Dole — a man who dedicated his life to serving our country.”  

Former Republican President George W. Bush said, “This good man represented the finest of American values. He defended them in uniform during World War II. He advanced them in the United States Senate. And he lived them out as a father, husband, and friend.”

Bush’s successor, Democratic President Barack Obama, tweeted, “Senator Bob Dole was a war hero, a political leader, and a statesman—with a career and demeanor harkening back to a day when members of the Greatest Generation abided by a certain code, putting country over party. Our thoughts are with Elizabeth and the Dole family.”

In his last years, Dole came to personify the bravery of the World War II generation of military veterans. He raised money for the World War II memorial on the National Mall in Washington and often visited the site on weekends to greet the last of the American World War II veterans visiting the site.

Dole’s right hand was rendered useless by a battlefield injury under Nazi gunfire in Italy. He spent years greeting voters and Washington officialdom with his left while he clutched a pen tucked in his right hand to discourage people from a normal handshake.

In his autobiography, “One Soldier’s Story,” Dole wrote that in 1945, “As the mortar round, exploding shell, or machine gun blast — whatever it was, I’ll never know —ripped into my body, I recoiled, lifted off the ground a bit, twisted in the air, and fell face down in the dirt.”

“For a long moment I didn’t know if I was dead or alive. I sensed the dirt in my mouth more than I tasted it. I wanted to get up, to lift my face off the ground, to spit the dirt and blood out of my mouth, but I couldn’t move,” he wrote.

“I lay face down in the dirt, unable to feel my arms. Then the horror hit me — I can’t feel anything below my neck! I didn’t know it at the time, but whatever it was that hit me had ripped apart my shoulder, breaking my collarbone and my right arm, smashing down into my vertebrae, and damaging my spinal cord,” Dole recounted.

In political life, Dole was often at odds with more conservative Republicans, but for more than three decades was among the party’s top officials. He was viewed in Washington as a political pragmatist.  

Dole opposed many of the Great Society programs of President Lyndon Johnson, but supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In the early 1970s, Dole was the party’s national chairman, was the vice presidential running mate to President Gerald Ford in 1976 in his losing bid for a full elected term and held leadership roles in the Senate.  

In the 1996 election, President Clinton handily won re-election, capturing 31 states to 19 for Dole.
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U.S. dignitaries and military veterans are mourning former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, a World War II veteran and former Republican presidential candidate who served in Congress for 36 years. Dole, who had stage 4 lung cancer, died Sunday at age 98, according to his wife, Elizabeth Dole.

“Bob was an American statesman like few in our history. A war hero and among the greatest of the Greatest Generation. And to me, he was also a friend whom I could look to for trusted guidance, or a humorous line at just the right moment to settle frayed nerves. I will miss my friend. But I am grateful for the times we shared, and for the friendship Jill and I and our family have built with Liddy and the entire Dole family. … He had an unerring sense of integrity and honor. May God bless him, and may our nation draw upon his legacy of decency, dignity, good humor, and patriotism for all time.” — President Joe Biden, who served with Dole in the Senate.

“Laura and I are saddened by the passing of a great patriot, Senator Bob Dole. This good man represented the finest of American values. He defended them in uniform during World War II. He advanced them in the United States Senate. And he lived them out as a father, husband, and friend. Our entire family benefitted from that friendship, including my father. I will always remember Bob’s salute to my late dad at the Capitol, and now we Bushes salute Bob and give thanks for his life of principled service.” — Former President George W. Bush, speaking of Dole’s tribute to former President George H.W. Bush.

“Bob Dole was an American war hero and true patriot for our Nation. He served the Great State of Kansas with honor and the Republican Party was made stronger by his service. Our Nation mourns his passing, and our prayers are with Elizabeth and his wonderful family.” — Former President Donald Trump.

“Senator Bob Dole was a war hero, a political leader, and a statesman — with a career and demeanor harkening back to a day when members of the Greatest Generation abided by a certain code, putting country over party. Our thoughts are with Elizabeth and the Dole family.” — Former President Barack Obama.

“Bob Dole dedicated his entire life to serving the American people, from his heroism in World War II to the 35 years he spent in Congress. After all he gave in the war, he didn’t have to give more. But he did. His example should inspire people today and for generations to come.” — Former President Bill Clinton.

“Whatever their politics, anyone who saw Bob Dole in action had to admire his character and his profound patriotism. Those of us who were lucky to know Bob well ourselves admired him even more. A bright light of patriotic good cheer burned all the way from Bob’s teenage combat heroics through his whole career in Washington through the years since. It still shone brightly, undimmed, to his last days. Bob Dole lived the kind of full, rich, and deeply honorable American life that will be impossible for any tribute today to fully capture.” — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican-Kentucky.

“America has lost an iconic statesman and tireless veterans advocate. Bob Dole distinguished himself in combat long before becoming one of the most respected voices in Congress. His leadership and determination led to the construction and dedication of the National World War II Memorial. America is a better country as a result of this great patriot’s service. The American Legion was proud to present Sen. Dole with our organization’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal in 1997. Our condolences to his wife, Elizabeth, his family and many friends.” — American Legion National Commander Paul E. Dillard.

“Bob Dole was a giant of the Senate. I remember the large number of Republican and Democratic Senators gathering on the Floor to praise him when he stepped down from the Senate. Traveling with him, working with him and writing legislation with him are among my fondest memories of the Senate.” — Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democrat-Vermont, the longest-serving sitting senator.

“Senator Bob Dole will be remembered as a true American hero and an exemplary statesman — a man who chose what was right over what was convenient. Whether it was on the battlefield, in the halls of Congress, or in his everyday life, Senator Dole’s passion and dedication to his fellow Kansan and to his country was a steady reminder that a single person can make a difference and change the world. … On the floor of the United States Senate, I use Senator Dole’s desk, and I am regularly reminded of his tireless commitment to Kansas values while being, first and foremost, a statesman who treated others with respect and kindness.” — Sen. Jerry Moran, Republican-Kansas.

“Over the last several years, I was fortunate to get to spend several Saturdays a year with Senator Dole. He made it his mission to greet fellow World War II veterans in Washington, D.C., when they came to visit the World War II Memorial, a memorial that Senator Dole helped make a reality. When Rhode Island veterans would come to Washington on Honor Flights, one of their true highlights was seeing Senator Dole. He was there to confer respect and honor upon others, and it was truly a privilege to be there at his side and see veterans and caregivers alike light up and connect with him. Senator Dole was both a great listener and storyteller and he always made sure our veterans knew: This is their memorial. It belongs to them.” — Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat, Rhode Island., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“When I was at recovering at Walter Reed, Bob Dole was a patient too. He was 81 years old then, and he had his own private room, but he always did his rehab with the rest of us — cracking jokes and sharing stories about his Army days. I’ll always remember how that proud Veteran from an earlier generation took the time — during some of the most difficult moments of my life — to interact with us younger Soldiers, helping us recover from both our physical and psychological wounds. … He was a true statesman and model of the Greatest Generation who never failed to answer the call to serve.” — Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat-Illinois., who lost both her legs while serving in Iraq.

“Senator Dole was many things — a war hero, a father, a husband, a public servant; and to Kansans, a man who embodied everything good and decent about Kansas and about America. … He was a larger-than-life presence in our nation’s politics and demonstrated a decency, a humility, and a civility that should serve as a model for those of us in public life.” — Gov. Laura Kelly, Democrat-Kansas.

“As a public servant, private citizen, and true patriot, Senator Bob Dole showed total dedication to the American experiment and its deepest ideals, answering liberty’s call at every turn. A combat hero, champion for those with disabilities, congressional leader from Kansas, and presidential candidate, Dole served this nation for 79 years. He lived a life of heroism and humor, courage and consequence, leadership and legacy that every American should strive for.” — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican-California.

“His record as the second-longest serving Republican Leader in the history of the Senate demonstrates the respect he earned from his side of the aisle. But it was his willingness – indeed, his commitment – to reach across the aisle that produced such landmark achievements as saving Social Security, strengthening America’s hunger and nutrition programs, and reforming the tax code to better reward hard work and investment. Senator Dole’s bipartisan spirit is a vital part of his enduring legacy of leadership.” — Sen. Susan Collins, Republican, Maine.

“Bob Dole was a soldier, a legislator, & a statesman. He always stood for what was just & right. I was honored to award him the Congressional Gold Medal & I’ll always be grateful for his service to our country.” — Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, Republican-Wisconsin.
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When John Carlin started his job at the head of the U.S. National Archives back in June of 1995, he was shocked to learn that government emails were not being preserved. 

“They, at that time, did not consider email as a record, and I said, ‘Folks, I may not be an archivist, but those are records,’” says Carlin, who served as archivist for a decade. “By September I was able to go through the process of getting that changed. More and more records now are coming in the archives in the electronic form.” 

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the official records keeper of the United States government. Among the records in its possession are presidential papers and materials, which former president Donald Trump is trying to keep out of the hands of the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Presidential libraries are part of the National Archives and White House records are kept forever. 

“Authentic history is not possible without records that have been kept and preserved so their authenticity is backed up 100 percent,” Carlin says. “Accountability goes forward for a long time and people who work for the White House including the president, him or herself, can and should be held accountable. And, without those records, that cannot be done.

Overall, only 1%-3% of all of the materials created by the U.S. government during the course of conducting its business are considered important enough, for legal or historical reasons, to preserve for all time.

“The National Archives holds over 15 billion pages of textual records, over 18 million maps, charts and architectural drawings, more than 43 million images, more than 365,000 reels of film and over 110,000 videotapes, to say nothing of the billions of electronic records,” says Meghan Ryan Guthorn, acting deputy chief operating officer of the agency. “We’re focused on openness, cultivating public participation, and strengthening our nation’s democracy through public access to high-value government records. I kind of like to think of the agency like the nation’s filing cabinet.”

NARA keeps its holdings in 44 locations across the country, including the iconic National Archives building in Washington. For Carlin, the former archivist, some of the most memorable materials include those related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

 “I mean, literally, they tore apart the room that JFK died in from the assassination on that day in Dallas. Everything was kept,” Carlin says. “Everything in the room was kept.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Archives in 1934, but the agency has items that date back to before the nation’s founding. Well-known documents like the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are in the National Archives, but so are naturalization records that can verify the U.S. citizenship of immigrants, and military records of everyday citizens. 

“We do not throw military personnel records away. And we don’t set a date for very practical reasons,” Carlin says. “Anybody that leaves the military, in order to be eligible for veteran benefits, has to prove they left honorably and that requires a record. And that record is kept in our archives in St. Louis. And it has to be kept preserved and made accessible.” 

The public has access to many of these records. However, some archival materials are withheld from the public for a variety of reasons, including national security concerns, donor wishes, court orders and other statutory or regulatory provisions. The National Archives encourages public participation. 

“Maintaining the records and, just as importantly, if not more importantly, providing public access to them, can help illuminate the history of a nation,” says Ryan Guthorn. “The preservation of records documents the activities of a country’s government and citizens over time. It’s a really important way to track how a country has evolved and how the rights of citizens have been protected and managed by the government.”

Presidential historian Shannon Bow O’Brien says access to original documents is critical because while people’s memories may differ, the actual records tell the true story. 

“These tell us what they were doing, when they were doing it, how they were doing it, what they said,” says O’Brien, a professor in the government department at The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts. “If you look at the documents, or you look at the paper trails that are in the archives, you can see the decision-making processes, you can see why things develop the way they developed.” 

The public can explore National Archive holdings via an online catalog and expert archivists are on hand to answer questions online.

Today, Carlin worries the agency continues to lack sufficient funding to properly do its job. 

“If you don’t have enough staff upfront to work with the agency, particularly electronic records, there’s going to be mistakes and records lost along the way that should have gone to the National Archives,” Carlin says. 

During his decade-long tenure as archivist, Carlin pursued federal and private funds to renovate the National Archives building in Washington, and added public exhibits as part of an effort to enrich the overall visitor experience. 

“The very fundamentals of our whole system are right there,” Carlin says, referring to the Charters of Freedom — the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. “It’s incredibly important and valuable that citizens take advantage of that opportunity to go there and spend a couple hours and really learn a lot about what has made this country great and what has to be supported going forward for it to stay great.”
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“Gifts from the heart” is the theme of Jill Biden’s first Christmas as first lady, and she has filled the historic home with tributes to those who have inspired her over the past year: front-line workers who soldiered through the pandemic, service members who gave their lives, and members of her family and those of previous presidents.

This year’s official Christmas tree is a 5.5-meter-tall Fraser fir covered with white doves and ribbons bearing the names of U.S. states and territories.

“For all of our differences, we are united by what really matters, like points on a star,” she said after the decorations were unveiled this week. “We come together at the heart. That is what I wanted to reflect in our White House this year. In each room, we tell a story of gifts from the heart in the East Wing. We see the gift of service with shooting stars representing the front-line workers who brought light to our lives in the darkest days of this pandemic.” 

This year’s decorations echo the theme of the last Christmas of previous first lady Melania Trump. Her final Christmas decorations as first lady paid tribute to first responders, such as police and health care workers, who were also featured in this year’s decorations.

But can you eat it?

As usual, the White House pastry team this year spent several weeks putting together a hefty gingerbread display.

This year, the 226-kilogram construction features the White House but also includes a school, police, fire and gas stations, a hospital, a post office, a grocery store and a warehouse.

Executive pastry chef Susan Morrison told VOA the display took 55 sheets of gingerbread; 55 kilograms of pastillage, a type of sugar-paste icing; another 15 kilograms of royal icing; and 13 kilograms of chocolate. Plus a large quantity of something called “gum paste,” which is a sugar dough used for decor. 

So VOA posed the obvious question, “I promise I’m not going to do this, but could you eat all of this?” 

“You could, technically, except it’s meant for display,” Morrison said with a laugh. “So the icing on the outside, when it is exposed to air, becomes very firm like concrete.” 

She laughed. VOA did not touch or attempt to eat the gingerbread display.

Love it or hate it, ‘we love you’ 

Christmas trees have been a White House fixture for more than a century, but it was first lady Jacqueline Kennedy who started decorating by theme, choosing “The Nutcracker Suite” for the first project.

The first ladies’ efforts haven’t always been warmly received, and this year’s theme was no exception, with some Americans taking to Twitter to pick apart the first lady’s style choices. Critics howled over former first lady Melania Trump’s 2018 decorations, which included red Christmas trees, with some calling them “more frightening than festive.”

But first lady Biden said that while the world may still be scary, the holidays shouldn’t be.

“There are still challenges ahead for our nation,” she said, speaking to the 100-plus volunteers festooned with the White House’s 41 Christmas trees with 80,000 lights, 1,800 meters of ribbon and more than 10,000 ornaments.

“There will be moments when the answers seem unclear. But we have a guiding light as well. Not a star in the sky, but a divine truth within us, the values that make us who we are, the threads that unite us all, the gifts from the heart. No matter how dark the night when we turn toward that light, we will never be lost. So thank you for helping us share those gifts from the heart. And happy holidays and Merry Christmas. From our family to all of yours:We love you.” 

 
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First lady’s theme is ‘gifts from the heart’ 

 
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The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill Thursday that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through February 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. 

Earlier in the day, congressional leaders announced they had reached an agreement to keep the government running for 11 more weeks, generally at current spending levels, while adding $7 billion to aid Afghanistan evacuees. 

Once the House voted to approve the measure, senators soon announced an agreement that would allow them to vote on it quickly. 

“I am glad that in the end, cooler heads prevailed. The government will stay open and I thank the members of this chamber for walking us back from the brink of an avoidable, needless and costly shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. 

The Senate approved the measure by a vote of 69-28. 

The Democratic-led House passed the measure by a 221-212 vote. The Republican leadership urged members to vote no; the lone GOP vote for the bill came from Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger. 

Lawmakers bemoaned the short-term fix and blamed the opposing party for the lack of progress on this year’s spending bills. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the measure would, however, allow for negotiations on a package covering the full budget year through September. 

Before the votes, Biden said he had spoken with Senate leaders and he played down fears of a shutdown. 

“There is a plan in place unless somebody decides to be totally erratic, and I don’t think that will happen,” Biden said. 

Some Republicans opposed to Biden’s vaccine rules wanted Congress to take a hard stand against the mandated shots for workers at larger businesses, even if that meant shutting down federal offices over the weekend by blocking a request that would expedite a final vote on the spending bill.

It was just the latest instance of the brinkmanship around government funding that has triggered several costly shutdowns and partial closures over the past two decades. 

The longest shutdown in history happened under President Donald Trump — 35 days stretching into January 2019, when Democrats refused to approve money for his U.S-Mexico border wall. Both parties agree the stoppages are irresponsible, yet few deadlines pass without a late scramble to avoid them. 

 
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Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat and leading voting rights activist, said Wednesday that she would launch another campaign to become the nation’s first Black female governor.

If she receives her party’s nomination, Abrams could again face off against Republican Brian Kemp, the current governor. Their 2018 contest was one of the most narrowly decided races for governor that year and was dominated by allegations of voter suppression, which Kemp denied. 

Yet Abrams’ strong showing convinced national Democrats that Georgia should no longer be written off as a GOP stronghold. Her performance and subsequent organization persuaded Joe Biden to invest heavily in the state in 2020, and he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to capture it since 1992. The party later won a narrow Senate majority after victories in two special elections in the state. 

The 2022 governor’s race will test whether those gains were a one-time phenomenon driven by discomfort with then-President Donald Trump or marked the beginning of a more consequential political shift in a rapidly growing and diversifying South.

‘Fight for one Georgia’

In a video announcing her candidacy, Abrams said “opportunity and success in Georgia shouldn’t be determined by background or access to power.” 

Abrams said she would provide “leadership that knows how to do the job, leadership that doesn’t take credit without also taking responsibility, leadership that understands the true pain that folks are feeling and has real plans. That’s the job of governor, to fight for one Georgia, our Georgia.” 

‘Campaign for power’

Kemp said in a statement that Abrams was on a “never-ending campaign for power” in an attempt to become president, linking her to what he said was the “failed Biden agenda.” 

“Her far-left agenda of open borders, gun confiscation, high taxes and anti-law enforcement policies don’t reflect who we are as Georgians,” Kemp said. 

In a state where Democrats often sought — and failed — to win power by relying on Black voters and appealing to older white moderates, Abrams ran in 2018 as an unapologetic progressive. The 47-year-old Abrams embraced expanding Medicaid access, something a series of Republican governors have refused to do, and she supported abortion rights. 

Georgia remains narrowly divided, but in abandoning nods at centrism, Abrams insists Democrats can attract new voters, including recent transplants to the booming Atlanta area, Black voters who hadn’t participated in previous elections and younger, more liberal white voters.

Although Kemp defeated her by 1.4 percentage points, Abrams won 778,000 more votes than the previous Democrat to run for governor. 

Registering voters

After the election, Abrams started Fair Fight, an organizing group that has raised more than $100 million and built a statewide political operation that registered hundreds of thousands of new voters in Georgia. The state saw record-breaking turnout in the 2020 presidential race and January Senate runoff elections. 

Now, Abrams and Kemp look like they may face a rematch in a new political climate. For one, Kemp faces opposition from Trump and his most loyal GOP supporters for not supporting the former president’s baseless argument that he was cheated out of reelection through massive voter fraud, including in Georgia. Election officials conducted three recounts in the state, each of which affirmed Biden’s victory. 

Trump, who campaigned for Kemp in 2018, is now one of the governor’s most vocal critics, pointedly inviting former U.S. Senator David Perdue to run against Kemp. 

Kemp’s disavowal of problems in Georgia’s election results did not stop him from pushing through restrictive changes to voting laws in response to Trump’s 2020 national defeat. Many Democrats are worried that Georgia’s new law, which gives the GOP-controlled legislature more control over elections officials, will reverse Abrams’ years of fighting voter suppression. Still other Democrats hope the new voting law will invigorate supporters and make them even more determined to go to the polls. 

Abrams has used voting concerns to mobilize Democrats, telling The Associated Press in April that “Republicans are gaming the system because they’re afraid of losing an election.” 

Republicans, meanwhile, have tried to gain an upper hand by using the prospect of an Abrams candidacy to galvanize its voters. Earlier this year, Kemp allies preemptively formed a group called Stop Stacey, aimed specifically at stopping her from winning the governorship in 2022. 
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