Politics

By Katie Lobosco, CNN Long-needed improvements are coming to train travel along the nation’s busy Northeast Corridor, thanks in part to the federal infrastructure funding package that President Joe Biden signed into law in the fall of 2021. The president is making two big funding announcements this week to address bottlenecks at century-old train tunnels

By Mary Kay Mallonee and Katie Lobosco, CNN The federal government gave $5.4 billion in Covid-19 aid to small businesses with “questionable” Social Security numbers, according to a report released by a watchdog overseeing pandemic aid. The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) issued a fraud alert Monday identifying nearly 70,000 questionable Social Security numbers used

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN US and European law enforcement’s disruption last week of a $100-million ransomware gang is the clearest public example yet of a new high-stakes strategy from the Biden administration to prioritize protecting victims of cybercrime — even if it means tipping off suspects and potentially make it harder to arrest them. The

By Kevin Liptak and MJ Lee, CNN President Joe Biden is fine-tuning his argument for reelection in an intensive stretch of travel and fundraising, homing in on the newly powerful House GOP as a threat to the rebounding economy as the pieces of his expected campaign come together. With several weeks to go before Biden

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter When the Supreme Court reconvenes at the end of February, it will hear a headline-grabbing case concerning President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program that will affect the finances of millions of Americans. Critics, including the Republican-led states that have sued, say the initiative amounts to an

By Donald Judd and Jack Forrest, CNN Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to two former NASA astronauts at the White House. Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken were awarded the medals for their “bravery in NASA’s SpaceX Demonstration Mission-2 (Demo-2) to the International Space Station in 2020,” NASA

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN The Justice Department has closed an investigation into whether retired Marine Gen. John Allen lobbied the US government on behalf of Qatar during the Trump administration without bringing any charges against him, according to his attorney. “We have been informed by the Department of Justice National Security Division and the

By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN Lynda Bennett, who was backed by then-President Donald Trump and Mark Meadows in her run for the latter’s former House seat in North Carolina, has agreed to plead guilty to accepting an illegal campaign contribution during the 2020 primary election cycle, court filings show. Bennett accepted an illegal

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who stored files with classified information at his Florida home is set to plead guilty in February to one count of unlawful retention of national defense information, according to court documents. The defendant, Robert Birchum, served in the Air Force for more than 30 years

By Fredreka Schouten Freshman Rep. George Santos, whose finances and fabrications are under investigation, is facing new questions about the accuracy of the campaign reports filed during his unsuccessful 2020 bid for Congress. Someone named Stephen Berger, for instance, is described in the New York Republican’s campaign filings as having contributed $2,500 on July 31,

By Kate Sullivan, CNN A group of Southern Democrats is urging President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee to host its presidential nominating convention in Atlanta, arguing in a letter sent Monday that Biden owes his 2020 victory and a Democratic majority in the Senate to Georgia. Atlanta is one of the top three

By Kaitlan Collins and Katelyn Polantz, CNN Two people who found two classified documents in a Florida storage facility for Donald Trump have testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that’s looking at the former president’s handling of national security records at his Mar-a-Lago residence, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The two

By Phil Mattingly, Chief White House correspondent House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s position that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are not on the table in exchange for a debt ceiling increase has drawn skepticism from his primary negotiating partner: The White House. McCarthy is set to meet with President Joe Biden on Wednesday in a

By Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona and Lauren Fox, CNN Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his House GOP allies are hashing out their initial demands to raise the national debt limit, discussing steep cuts to domestic programs and a trim to defense spending — all the while steering clear of two programs to avoid voter blowback: Medicare

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN President Joe Biden and senior administration officials are embarking on a travel swing this week, showcasing what they see as successful measures to rebuild America’s ailing infrastructure. In what’s been described as a preview of some of the messaging for next week’s State of the Union address, Biden, Vice President Kamala

By Jessica Dean and Ted Barrett, CNN The prospect for new bipartisan negotiations on Capitol Hill for legislation overhauling policing laws remains very low, despite calls from the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus and others for congressional action in the wake of the brutal police beating and death of Tyre Nichols. Previous talks broke down