Congressional Republicans have set conflicting goals that will make negotiating a budget reconciliation package for enacting President Trump’s agenda a difficult task. The House and Senate finally adopted a unified budget blueprint after two months of back and forth over how much spending and tax cuts to instruct their committees to find for the package. Now, Republicans are under pressure to negotiate more quickly through their differences as they decide what to include in the legislation committees plan to release in the coming weeks. Sweeping tax and spending cuts will...

Universal Health Services UHS 0.66 %increase; green up pointing triangle has a billionaire controlling shareholder and a lucrative Medicaid cash stream. That plays into the hands of congressional Republicans eyeing large budget cuts while looking to show they aren’t just targeting the poor.

The stakes, and downside risks, are enormous for UHS investors.

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Tennessee lawmakers are in a race against the clock to pass legislation that would allow public schools to deny enrollment to undocumented children, thrusting the state into the center of a national legal and political fight over immigration and education. The Republican-backed bill, which challenges the U.S. Supreme Court's 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision, has already cleared the state Senate and could reach the House floor within days.

This week, Silicon Valley heavyweights mingled with top Trump administration officials at a conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami. The event was hosted by the Rockbridge Network, a secretive yet increasingly powerful organization at the center of business, technology, and Republican politics. Those in attendance included venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya and Keith Rabois, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

Several years ago, Louis Blessing’s wife asked for his help replacing the battery in her laptop. An electrical engineer by training, Blessing figured it would be a quick fix. But after swapping out the old battery for a new one and plugging the laptop in, he discovered it wouldn’t charge. It quickly dawned on Blessing that the laptop recognized he had installed a battery made by a third party, and rejected it. It’s a classic example of a practice known as parts pairing, where manufacturers use software to control how...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the fight for the U.S. House, Democrats are hoping pop rock star power will help oust a long-serving Republican east of Los Angeles as the party looks to regain control of the chamber and slow President Donald Trump’s agenda. Tim Myers, a Grammy-nominated former bassist for international hitmakers OneRepublic, announced Thursday he will challenge Rep. Ken Calvert in the battleground 41st District in Riverside County that stretches from the L.A. suburbs to the resort haven of Palm Springs. “Ken Calvert has been in Washington for...

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Up to 5 million Americans stand to lose their public health care coverage should federal work requirements proposed by Republicans be enacted nationwide. A joint analysis from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute published Monday found that a federal work-requirement policy could result in between 4.6 and 5.2 million of the projected 13.3 million Medicaid expansion enrollees in 2026 losing out on coverage.

When Sen. Jim Justice wants to make a statement, he turns to his trusted companion, Babydog. The 5-year-old English bulldog — Justice's go-to attention grabber at work events — has accompanied the Republican senator, 73, at various engagements since she was a young dog and her owner was the governor of West Virginia. Since Justice was elected as a senator earlier this year, Babydog (who has over 10,000 followers on her official X account ) has transitioned to making appearances at Senate hearings in Washington, D.C., with her "testimonies" making...

Public broadcasters were created with the help and support of the federal government, and that means they have many points of vulnerability to adversaries in Congress and the White House. That makes the funding threats a hinge for a broader offensive against these organizations, which the president and some lawmakers view as political opponents. This week the threat escalated, as White House officials said they will ask lawmakers to rescind more than $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasters. Losing that money could be a major hit for hundreds of...

Around 70% of voters support a right to abortion, and even in an ostensibly deep-red state like Missouri, a majority of voters voted in November to repeal the state’s abortion ban and enshrine bodily autonomy in the state’s constitution through a ballot measure known as Amendment 3. But proving yet again that the anti-abortion movement is inherently at odds with democracy, Republican lawmakers in the state have taken a chilling first step to repeal the measure. Last week, State Rep. Brian Seitz (R) introduced a bill—House Joint Resolution 73—that would...