Politics Election category, Page 209

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania voters will likely soon get the final say about whether to limit the governor’s powers during a disaster emergency after a divided state House of Representatives endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday. House members voted 116 to 85 in the latest legislative approval vote. One more vote...

The numbers used for divvying up U.S. congressional seats among the states won’t be ready until the end of April, a Census Bureau official said Wednesday. The new goal for finishing data processing for the apportionment numbers is now April 30, said Kathleen Styles, a top bureau official. The deadline...

NEW YORK — The head of the Republican National Committee on Wednesday declined to encourage former President Donald Trump to run for the White House in 2024, saying the GOP would stay “neutral” in its next presidential primary. In an interview, RNC Chairman Ronna McDaniel also described the pro-Trump conspiracy...

WASHINGTON — America’s new top diplomat took the helm of the State Department on Wednesday with a vow to rebuild the ranks of the foreign service and rely on its expertise as the Biden administration tries to restore U.S. global standing. On his first full day in the job, Antony...

President Joe Biden is expected to name Baldwin native Susan Orsega as the nation’s acting surgeon general, according to a report from the Washington Post. Rear Adm. Orsega will hold down the position until Biden’s nominee, Dr. Vivek Murthy, can be confirmed by the Senate. Murthy served in the role...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Tuesday rescinded a Trump-era memo that established a “zero tolerance” enforcement policy for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, which resulted in thousands of family separations. Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson issued the new memo to federal prosecutors across the nation, saying the department...

A fellow Westmoreland County lawmaker has been elected to fill the Republican caucus leadership post left vancant by the death of state Rep. Mike Reese. Rep. George Dunbar, R-Penn Township, will serve as majority caucus chair for the 2021-22 legislative session, a caucus spokesman said Tuesday. Reese, 42, of Mt....

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell backed off his demand that Senate Democrats preserve the procedural tool known as the filibuster, easing a standoff with new Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as the two negotiated a power-sharing agreement in the closely divided chamber. McConnell said late Monday he had essentially...

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey remained uncommitted Monday on whether he would vote to convict former President Donald Trump even as the House prepared to deliver the impeachment charge to the Senate. Toomey, who has said he will not seek reelection in 2022, has been a harsh critic of Trump in...

PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican from the Harrisburg area, acknowledged Monday that he introduced former President Donald Trump to a Department of Justice attorney sympathetic the president’s false election claims, and who later joined Trump in a plot to pressure Georgia officials to overturn the results in...

The Senate on Monday approved President Joe Biden’s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation’s 78th treasury secretary, making her the first woman to hold the job in the department’s 232-year history. Yellen, a former chair of the Federal Reserve, was approved by the Senate on a 84-15 vote,...

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to announce in as soon as a month whether it will hear the election case of U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, who started his legal fight against the results of the presidential race within weeks after fellow Republican Donald Trump lost the White House to...

WASHINGTON — As the House prepares to bring the impeachment charge against Donald Trump to the Senate for trial, a growing number of Republican senators say they are opposed to the proceeding, dimming the chances that former president will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of...

CINCINNATI — Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said Monday that he won’t seek reelection due in part to how it’s gotten “harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress,” and plans to end a career in federal government spanning more than three decades. Portman’s announcement comes...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to issue an executive order to reverse a Pentagon policy that largely bars transgender individuals from joining the military, dumping a ban ordered by President Donald Trump in a tweet during his first year in office, a person briefed on the decision tells...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday will formally reinstate covid-19 travel restrictions on non-U.S. travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom and 26 other European countries that allow travel across open borders, according to two White House officials. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Sarah Sanders, Donald Trump’s former chief spokeswoman and one of his closest aides, announced Monday she’s running for Arkansas governor, vying for political office even as the former president’s legacy is clouded by an impeachment charge that he incited the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol....

They couldn’t beat him at the polls in November, but leaders of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party on Sunday called for Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, an outspoken Donald Trump supporter who represents Harrisburg, Hershey and York, to resign following news reports he urged Trump to use a lawyer from Philadelphia to...

WASHINGTON — When Joe Biden took the oath of office as the 46th president, he became not only the oldest newly inaugurated U.S. chief executive in history but also the oldest sitting president ever. Biden was born Nov. 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was 78 years, two months and...

A new day, and a new moment for America. Time to let the healing begin. Republicans, Democrats and people across the nation echoed those themes when expressing their hopes for Joe Biden’s new administration and a future less fraught with anger and division in the United States. “There are times...