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The bipartisan agreement would limit the federal government to spending $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for nondefense during the fiscal year that’s set to begin Oct. 1.

The bipartisan debt limit bill is on its way to President Joe Biden after the U.S. Senate voted Thursday to clear the measure for his signature, though many senators said the legislation was far from perfect, and opted to support it despite their reservations over some of its provisions. Read more»

A default would have prevented the federal government from borrowing any more money to pay all of the country’s bills in full and on time.

The U.S. House took a broadly bipartisan vote Wednesday night on the debt limit package, sending it to the U.S. Senate where lawmakers are expected to vote quickly to clear the measure. Read more»

Congress began moving the bipartisan debt limit package forward Tuesday, though frustrations with provisions in the bill could make for narrow passage in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Read more»

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, front, with GOP Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana at left, speaks briefly to reporters about a deal on the debt ceiling he said has been reached with the White House, on May 27, 2023.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced a deal in principle with President Joe Biden Saturday night that would stave off a first-ever default on the nation’s debt as long as it can clear both chambers of Congress before June 5. Read more»

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, speaks with reporters about the debt limit and government funding negotiations outside the Capitol building on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

U.S. House members walked down the steps of the Capitol building Thursday morning to head back to their districts for a Memorial Day recess that began exactly one week before the country could default on the debt. Read more»

Kevin McCarthy at a Jan. 5, 2023, press conference in the U.S. Capitol.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress brokered dozens of debt limit agreements, including several during the past decade, but House Republicans now are pushing for the federal government to spend less next year than it will this year in order for the party to move a debt limit bill. Read more»

Republicans at a U.S. House hearing aired frustration with the Department of Justice this week for what they contended is a lack of enforcement of a Clinton-era law that protects access to reproductive health care at anti-abortion pregnancy centers and abortion clinics. Read more»

If the U.S. House can send the legislation to the Senate, it’s unlikely it could gain the 60 votes needed to move past the legislative filibuster and towards final passage in the Democratically controlled chamber.

U.S. House Republicans unveiled a debt limit proposal Wednesday that carries along with it numerous Republican initiatives that are unlikely to get the bipartisan support necessary to clear the divided Congress and have already been rebuked by President Biden. Read more»

The Republican lawmakers were among the dozens of organizations, both supporting and opposing abortion rights, that have filed briefs with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans this week.

A group of 69 congressional Republicans is backing a federal judge’s ruling that would overturn the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Read more»

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs opinion last June overturned the constitutional right to an abortion that stood for nearly half a century

Democratic attorneys general from 23 states - including Arizona - and the District of Columbia weighed in with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, supporting access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Read more»

Abortion protesters march in Tucson on May 3, 2022.

The federal government on Monday asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to place on hold a Texas judge’s ruling that would otherwise overturn U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the abortion pill. Read more»

Political leaders emphasized the risk that other drugs could be affected in future cases by the Texas decision.

U.S. Senate Democratic leaders vowed to defend reproductive rights and abortion access Saturday, less than a day after a federal judge in Texas ruled the federal government needs to pull the abortion pill off the market within a week. Read more»

If Kacsmaryk’s ruling does take effect amid the appeals process, abortion rights organizations have suggested health care providers could use just the second drug in the medication abortion process, misoprostol, without mifepristone.

A federal judge revoked the FDA’s two-decade-old approval of the abortion pill, though a judge in Washington state released a separate opinion telling the FDA it cannot alter “the status quo," and Attorney General Garland announced an intention to appeal the former decision. Read more»

Congress approved the legislation that provided the $80 billion in additional IRS funding in August amid a wave of objections from Republicans who said it would subject taxpayers to increased audits.

The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday detailed its plan to spend $80 billion in additional funding approved last year, including increasing its “focus on segments of taxpayers with complex issues and complex returns where audit rates are minimal today." Read more»

Democratic senators, while underlining their support for reproductive rights, did not seem to have a plan in mind if the judge ends access to medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of pregnancy terminations in the United States.

U.S. Senate Democrats appear lukewarm about pursuing reproductive rights legislation in a divided Congress, even as a federal judge in Texas considers overturning access to abortion pills nationwide. Read more»

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