David Sherfinski

Donald Trump signs first major spending bill for 2019, despite border wall funding frustrations

President Trump ended the threat of a total government shutdown last week with his signature on a bill to fund several key departments and Congress for all of 2019 -- leaving all sides to wonder what comes next.

September 23, 2018

Donald Trump signs first three-bill 2019 spending package

President Trump on Friday signed the first package of 2019 spending bills into law, as Congress looks to continue its best performance in years on passing annual appropriations bills on time.

September 21, 2018

Tim Kaine: No need to rush Brett Kavanaugh nomination

Sen. Tim Kaine on Thursday said the Senate shouldn't "rush" the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and that lawmakers should take sufficient time to look into the recent allegations of sexual assault against the judge.

September 20, 2018

Corey Stewart on Kavanaugh nomination: ‘It’s time to vote’

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart on Thursday said that "it's time to vote" on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and that Americans want to move forward.

September 20, 2018

Cody Wilson, man behind Defense Distributed, charged with having sex with minor

Cody Wilson, the man at the center of the battle over 3D-printable gun blueprints, was charged Wednesday with having sex with a minor who police say he met last month through a dating website.

September 19, 2018

Cody Wilson, man at center of 3D-printed gun issue, accused of sexual assault of minor

Cody Wilson, the Texas man at the center of the ongoing controversy over 3D-printable gun blueprints, has been charged with sexual assault for allegedly having sex with an underage girl last month.

September 19, 2018

Larry Hogan leads Ben Jealous by 22 points in Maryland

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan holds a 22 percentage point lead over Democratic nominee Ben Jealous in the state's gubernatorial race, according to Goucher College polling released Wednesday.

September 19, 2018

Senate passes spending package that would avert shutdown on Oct. 1

Senators passed legislation Tuesday to fund the Pentagon and key domestic departments for all of 2019, along with stopgap money to keep many other agencies running into December, giving Congress a chance to finish its work without facing a government shutdown.

September 18, 2018

Dianne Feinstein criticized for keeping Brett Kavanaugh assault claims under wraps

Sen. Dianne Feinstein's decision to bottle up incendiary claims about Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh until the 11th hour has drawn fierce criticism from Republicans saying it appears Democrats didn't even believe the accuser they now want to testify to Congress.

September 17, 2018

Christine Blasey Ford, Brett Kavanaugh set for high-stakes Senate showdown

Senate Republicans retreated from plans to have Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh sitting on the Supreme Court by Oct. 1, and instead said they'll call him back to Congress to testify next week about allegations of a decades-old attempted sexual assault.

September 17, 2018

Orrin Hatch: Kavanaugh denies being at party

A top Republican spoke with Judge Brett Kavanaugh Monday and said he denies any knowledge of sexual assault allegations -- and doesn't even remember being at a party where the attempted assault purportedly happened.

September 17, 2018

House Freedom Caucus threatens to withhold votes on spending bills

House conservatives, increasingly frustrated they're getting shut out of the spending debate on Capitol Hill, now are reaching for relevance by saying they could withhold their votes unless they begin to see wins for their priorities.

September 16, 2018

‘minibus’ deal reached to fund Defense department, others

House and Senate lawmakers on Thursday said they've finalized an approximately $850 billion spending package to fund the Departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education through September 2019.

September 13, 2018

House passes three-bill funding package

The House approved the first batch of 2019 spending bills Thursday and shipped the legislation to President Trump to sign, keeping Congress on track for its best annual funding process in decades.

September 13, 2018

Congress eyes stopgap funding through Dec. 7 to avoid partial shutdown

Congress is hoping to pass nine of the 12 annual appropriations bills for 2019 before Oct. 1 -- and plans to fund the remaining departments at current-year levels through Dec. 7 to avoid a partial shutdown when funding expires at the end of the month.

September 13, 2018

Dave Brat, Abigail Spanberger kick off ‘toss-up’ congressional race with attack ads

Democrats and Republicans have aired or booked nearly half a million dollars' worth of ads this month in Virginia's 7th Congressional District race, as GOP Rep. Dave Brat works to fend off a stiff challenge from Democrat Abigail Spanberger in the Republican-leaning district.

September 12, 2018

Senate passes three-bill ‘minibus’ spending package

The Senate on Wednesday approved the final version of a three-bill spending package lawmakers hope to get to President Trump's desk by the end of the week, as they race against an end-of-month funding deadline to avert a government shutdown.

September 12, 2018

House Republicans from N.Y., N.J. oppose permanent cap on state and local deduction

As House Republicans move forward on a second round of tax cuts this week, a handful of GOP members from northeastern states are urging their leadership to abandon any effort to lock in a new cap on the federal deduction for state and local tax paid, saying the new limit disproportionately harms their states.

September 12, 2018

White House officials won’t say if Trump will sign spending bills

President Trump is ready to sign the first of the annual spending bills poised to emerge from Congress this week, but officials won't say whether he'd sign the rest of the bills needed to keep the government up and running into the new fiscal year — preserving his threat of a quasi-government shutdown.

September 11, 2018

Mitch McConnell forecasts ‘very challenging election on the Senate side’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday called the 2018 Senate map "very challenging," pointing out that the party of the White House almost always loses seats in the president's first midterm elections and ticking off nine races he described as too close to call.

September 11, 2018