Mark Meadows

It was once Paul D. Ryan’s party, built on the union of upright Middle American values and America’s competitive advantage in the world.

Now it’s Donald Trump’s — the nationalist, me-first team, willing to compromise on character, foreign policy and free-market economics if it brings a win.

California Democratic Rep. John Garamendi, 73, talks about campaigning in a deep purple district, watching Dodd-Frank unravel and how he hit the ground voting.

Q: What was your first-ever vote in Congress in 2009?

House Republicans don’t know if they will be holding a speaker’s race or a contest for minority leader come November, but that isn’t stopping them from preparing for the former. 

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the leading candidate to replace retiring Speaker Paul D. Ryan, needs more time to build sufficient support to win a still-hypothetical speaker’s race. The same goes for other members eyeing the position.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s decision to “run through the tape” and wait until the end of his term to exit Congress makes an already complicated race for his leadership position even more so.

With rumors about Ryan’s potential exit from Congress circulating for the past few months, potential successors like House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana had begun quietly positioning themselves for a leadership battle.

Reps. Devin Nunes and Mark Meadows both said they are prepared to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray if they do not produce the document that started the investigation into President Donald Trump’s potential ties with Russia in the 2016 election.

Congress put out a subpoena on the initial report that launched the Russia investigation in August, but the FBI has not yet released an unredacted version of the document. Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, set Wednesday as the deadline for officials to turn over the documents before he makes a decision on contempt and impeachment.

President Donald Trump said Friday he is considering vetoing the omnibus spending bill passed overnight because it does not solve the DACA issue or fully fund his southern border wall.

Government funding expires at midnight.

The House on Thursday narrowly passed a rule to begin debate on the $1.3 trillion fiscal 2018 omnibus appropriations bill, a more-than-2200 page measure GOP leaders had released just the previous night.

Several members of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus joined Democrats in voting against the rule, which set up a single hour of debate and blocked amendments to the bill. The final tally was 211-207. 

For Americans who qualify for aid through federal programs, navigating the process to unlock those benefits is often stressful and confusing.

A constituent of Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton received a piece of mail from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently. The letter contained instructions on how to access his benefits — but they were buried at the bottom of a six-page letter mostly filled with bureaucratic balderdash. The man nearly glossed over the instructions telling him to upload his records on the VA’s website. Had he not read the letter carefully all the way through, he would have missed the most important part of the letter and possibly seen a delay receiving his VA benefits.

A top Senate appropriator said Tuesday the final omnibus spending bill would likely not include a provision to defund “sanctuary” cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., suggested in two posts on Twitter that Congress should withhold federal grants for sanctuary cities in the omnibus. His remarks follow the Trump administration’s decision to sue California over three state immigration laws, escalating a battle over sanctuary jurisdictions that began shortly after President Donald Trump took office.

The week of March 5 has nearly come to a close as Washington waits for a fiscal 2018 omnibus spending bill ahead of the March 23 government funding deadline.

Leaders say a bill could appear as early as next week, which could make for another busy week in D.C.