Latest news with #lawmakers
Bloomberg
7 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump Says US to Form Venture With Japan for Alaska LNG Exports
President Donald Trump said the US and Japan are close to a deal to jointly export liquefied natural gas from Alaska, a potential boost for a long-delayed project that's struggled to gain traction. Japan is 'forming a joint venture with us in Alaska for the LNG,' Trump told lawmakers in Washington. 'They're all set to make that deal now.' The president didn't provide further details on the Alaska venture, however, and it wasn't immediately clear whether the plans represented a handshake agreement or something more formal.
CNN
15 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
House increases security funding ahead of members' return to their home districts after attack on Minnesota lawmakers
The House is increasing security funding and resources for lawmakers after a June attack on Minnesota state lawmakers reignited the long-standing question of how to best keep members and their families safe when they're away from Washington. Members will have $20,000 to increase the security of their homes, up from the current $10,000 allotment, according to a release from the Committee on House Administration obtained by CNN, as well as $5,000 a month to pay for personal security through the end of the fiscal year. The security personnel would be allowed to accompany members in their districts and protect their homes. Currently, members only had $150 a month for security monitoring purposes. The increase in funding comes as House lawmakers will soon return home for a five-week work period in their districts, where coordination between US Capitol Police and local law enforcement has consistently presented challenges. Lawmakers have called for more security measures in the face of ongoing threats against politicians. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday that this is a 'pilot program' that will be evaluated after September 30. 'The allowance is so that people can have private security if they deem that necessary and then at the end of September we are going to look at that, evaluate all of the data points, how effective it was, how it was utilized and then make decisions going forward. We live in an enhanced threat environment,' Johnson said. House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, who led the effort, told CNN he worked with his Democratic counterparts to reallocate available funds to increase options for lawmakers. 'We announced it as soon as we were able to reach agreement, outline the funds and delineate the program,' Steil said. There have been heightened concerns over public officials' security in the wake of the deadly attack in Minnesota. At the time, congressional lawmakers pressed law enforcement officials on how to keep their families safe amid an increasingly volatile political environment. In 2024 alone, US Capitol Police investigated more than 9,000 threats against lawmakers, marking an 83% increase from the year prior and part of a trend of growing threats against public officials. While the Minnesota attack has placed a renewed focus on how law enforcement addresses high-profile threats of violence against public officials, lawmakers have long called for an overhaul of security practices, with focus on resources dedicated to information sharing. A spate of recent attacks has seen House Majority Leader Steve Scalise seriously wounded by a gunman targeting a congressional baseball team practice in 2017, lawmakers across the Capitol at risk during the January 6, 2021, riot at US Capitol and Paul Pelosi attacked in his California home in 2022. And mere months before the 2024 presidential election, Trump was targeted in two apparent assassination attempts.
New York Times
16 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Video Taken by Migrant Shows Overcrowded ICE Holding Cell in Manhattan
For weeks, immigrants have complained about overcrowded and unsanitary conditions inside the holding cells of the federal immigration offices in New York City, drawing scrutiny from lawmakers and denials from the Trump administration. On Tuesday, new video footage offered the first glimpse inside one of the four cells on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has held hundreds of migrants for days at a time since ICE stepped up arrests this summer. Two videos, which were recorded by a migrant who was held there last week and sneaked in his cellphone, show more than a dozen men sprawled on the floor atop thin thermal blankets or sitting on benches built into the room's white walls. In one video, the man, who recorded it near one of the room's two metal toilets, is heard saying in Spanish that the migrants were being held 'like dogs in here.' ICE had traditionally used the cells, which don't have beds, to hold a small number of migrants for a few hours while they are processed and dispatched to detention centers outside the city. But the cells have become crowded since the agency scaled up arrests at its offices and in nearby immigration courthouses in May, forcing migrants to sleep on the floor or to sit upright, sometimes for several days. The video appeared to confirm some of those conditions, which had previously been described by migrants in interviews with The New York Times, and had been highlighted by activists and Democratic lawmakers, who have been denied access to inspect the cells. The video was obtained by the New York Immigration Coalition through a Queens assemblywoman, Catalina Cruz, and first reported by The City, a local news outlet. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said that 26 Federal Plaza was not a detention center and that detainees were held there only 'briefly.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Fox News
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
WATCH LIVE: Sky spies and drone danger: Washington warns what's coming
Lawmakers meet to examine how drones are impacting public safety and what law enforcement needs to fight back.
Bloomberg
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Ukraine Lawmakers Back Bill Weakening Anti-Corruption Agencies
Ukrainian lawmakers approved legislation that would strip the nation's anti-corruption agencies of their independence and potentially cripple efforts to tackle high-level graft. Lawmakers voted 263 in favor of the bill in the 450-seat legislature in Kyiv Tuesday, part of a raft of amendments to criminal procedure that moved through Ukraine's legislature.
