Latest news with #Washington State
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Insurance & Energy Leaders on Redefining Resilience
Patty Kuderer, Insurance Commissioner, Washington State; Fraser McLachlan, Chairman, Tokio Marine GX; and Michelle Vargo, Senior Vice President, Energy Operations, Puget Sound Energy discuss climate resilience and adaptation through the lens of disaster response and lessons learned from previous extreme weather events with Bloomberg's Leslie Kaufman at Bloomberg Green Seattle 2025. (Source: Bloomberg)
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Democrat proposes cognitive tests to root out geriatrics in Congress
A Democrat has called for members of Congress to undergo mandatory cognitive tests to determine if ageing politicians are fit for the job. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, 37, said Joe Biden's disastrous presidential debate performance last year raised 'serious concerns' among her constituents 'that it was not their elected representatives calling the shots'. She proposed that the Office of Congressional Conduct create a standardised test to determine politicians' 'ability to perform the duties of office unimpeded by significant irreversible cognitive impairment'. 'What I've heard from my neighbours, my community is this idea that this place is being run by a bunch of staffers,' Ms Gluesenkamp Perez told Axios, adding: 'And we're seeing a very real decline in confidence in Congress.' Ms Gleusenkamp Perez, who was elected to Congress in Washington State in 2022, attempted to get her proposal attached as an amendment to the House appropriations committee's Bill funding Congress for the next year, but it was voted down. David Valadao, the committee's chairman, said the House's elections, which are held every two years, were a sufficient referendum on elected officials' fitness to serve. Concerns over what has been called a ' gerontocracy ' in the US reached a boiling point with Mr Biden's public decline, which saw the octogenarian drop out of the presidential race following his devastating debate performance. In May, it was revealed that he was suffering from prostate cancer, weeks after journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson alleged a cover-up at the White House of the ailing president's cognitive decline in their book Original Sin. Three Democrats have died in office so far this year, meaning if the party had won a slim House majority in 2024, they would have lost it due to politicians passing away. There have been multiple reports of Eleanor Holmes Norton, 88, the oldest House member, telling journalists she will be running for another term in 2026, only for her office to attempt to walk back her claims. Last year it was revealed Kay Granger, 82, a Republican congresswoman from Texas, had been struggling with memory issues and living in a senior-living facility towards the end of her time in office. It comes as a string of younger Democrats have launched campaigns to unseat older politicians, in what some experts told The Telegraph could see the Democrats have their equivalent of the Tea Party movement that rocked the Republican Party in 2010. Last week Barack Obama called on Democrats frustrated by Donald Trump's second administration to stop 'whining' and 'toughen up', CNN reported. Speaking at a private fundraiser in New Jersey, he said being an effective opposition party is 'going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in foetal positions. It's going to require Democrats to just toughen up '. Mr Obama added: 'You know, don't tell me you're a Democrat, but you're kind of disappointed right now, so you're not doing anything. 'No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something... Don't say that you care deeply about free speech and then you're quiet. No, you stand up for free speech when it's hard. When somebody says something that you don't like, but you still say, 'You know what, that person has the right to speak.' … What's needed now is courage.'
