Jared Kushner has signed a book deal with Broadside Books on his time as a senior adviser in the administration of his father-in-law, former President Trump, the conservative imprint of HarperCollins announced Tuesday.
The big picture: The book will be published in early 2022, Broadside Books said in an emailed statement that did not disclose the financial terms. "His book will be the definitive, thorough recounting of the administration — and the truth about what happened behind closed doors."
The House passed a bill Tuesday to award the Congressional Gold Medal to all law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, with 21 Republicans opposing the bill.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday it is seeking a $25.5 million fine from Air Canada for failing to provide timely refunds to thousands of customers.
Why it matters: The COVID-19 pandemic forced airlines to cancel or delay flights, causing refund requests to spike.
The Senate voted via unanimous consent on Tuesday to pass a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday.
The big picture: Juneteenth is already commemorated in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The day memorializes when the last enslaved African Americans in Texas learned about their freedom on June 19, 1865, more than 2.5 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and months after the Civil War ended.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to formally trigger the budget reconciliation process on Wednesday, setting Democrats up to ram the White House's American Jobs and Family Plans through the Senate via a simple majority vote in July.
Why it matters: Announcing this strategy now could be dangerous to the group of 20 bipartisan lawmakers trying to hash out a deal on the "hard" infrastructure portion of President Biden's package.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday the House will move forward with investigating the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, AP reports.
Why it matters: The Senate last month failed to advance a bill that would create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol riot. Pelosi's comments come after military officials and FBI Director Christopher Wray testified earlier Tuesday on the Jan. 6 events.
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it will "dramatically expand" eligibility for a program that enables young Central Americans to immigrate to the U.S.
Why it matters: The expansion of the Central American Minors (CAM) program is part of a wider effort by the administration to "promote safe, orderly, and humane migration," said the press release from Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
President Biden announced his first slate of political ambassadors Tuesday, naming five political allies and donors, as well as four career foreign service officers.
Why it matters: Biden’s announcement is the first step in a nomination process that will see several more waves. But it gives an indication he is more comfortable with former and current politicians and Washington insiders than big-dollar donors who typically populate a president’s ambassador list.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" creator Scott Cawthon is defending his donations to top Republicans such as former President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after backlash from fans.
Why it matters: "Five Nights at Freddy's" is a huge horror hit that's grown beyond a series of games to include novels and a planned movie adaptation.
The FBI Agents Association, which represents more than 14,000 active and former special agents, lauded the Biden administration's new national strategy for countering domestic terrorism but said the act should be made a federal crime.
Why it matters: No federal criminal offense exists for domestic terrorism, even though it is defined under federal law, and policy makers have for years deliberated whether to create a specific penalty for committing the act.
The U.S. Supreme Court threw out a lower court ruling on Monday that would have given companies and individuals broad scope in scraping information from online services.
Why it matters: In remanding the case between LinkedIn and hiQ back for further proceedings, the Supreme Court will give Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn, another chance to make the case that bulk collection of even publicly available data threatens individual privacy.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) promised on Fox News Tuesday to kick Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) off of the Foreign Affairs Committee if Republicans take back the majority in the chamber.
Why it matters: McCarthy called Omar "anti-American" and "anti-Semitic" over recent comments on Israel that drew rebuke from colleagues, including some fellow Democrats.
Between December 2020 and early January, former President Trump and his allies repeatedly pressed senior Justice Department officials to investigate baseless conspiracy theories and challenge the results of the 2020 election, according to documents released by the House Oversight Committee.
Why it matters: The documents reveal new details about the extent to which Trump and his aides — including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — were willing to go to maintain power and advance the lie that the election was stolen.
The Biden administration on Tuesday released the first-ever "National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism," following a 100-day comprehensive review ordered by President Biden on his first day in office.
Melinda French Gates is staying visible with a Washington swing this week to visit White House and Hill officials to discuss issues important to her, especially paid leave, advisers tell me.
Driving the news: French Gates met at the White House yesterday with Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice, among other senior administration officials.
Two House Republicans — including Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) — are introducing a bill Tuesday to sanction top Chinese health officials until they allow an investigation into whether the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab, according to a copy of the bill text obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The lab-leak theory has regained prominence in both the scientific and political worlds, after the Wall Street Journal reported that three scientists who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology experienced COVID-19 symptoms in November 2019.
Texas' power grid operator has asked people to "reduce electric use as much as possible" until Friday following days of searing heat and a "significant number of forced generation outages."
Why it matters: The request by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) comes months after a deadly winter storm blew out the state's power infrastructure and left millions of Texans without power for days.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has called for a full investigation into a deadly crackdown on drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office.
Why it matters: Official government data shows more than 6,100 people have died in police drug operations in the Philippines since 2016, but rights groups say the figure is likely to be much higher.
Airlines have reported some 3,000 cases of unruly behavior by passengers to the Federal Aviation Administration this year — including 2,300 for refusing to comply with face mask mandates, the FAA announced Monday.
Why it matters: Passenger numbers remain below pre-pandemic levels. But the FAA is investigating the highest number of suspected federal law violations since it began recording unruly passenger incidents in 1995, per ABC News.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building to honor American lives lost to COVID-19, as the country's pandemic death toll on Monday neared 600,000.
Of note: The milestone comes as the number of deaths from the coronavirus continue to drop, along with cases and hospitalizations — something Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) noted on the Senate floor before gathering with other lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), to hold a moment of silence.
An Atlanta area grocery store cashier was killed and three other people were injured in a shooting following a dispute over a face mask policy in the supermarket Monday, police said.
Driving the news: DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox said during a news conference that the female cashier was working at the Big Bear Supermarket in Decatur when she was shot following a "confrontation" over the wearing of masks.
The House Judiciary Committee will launch a formal probe into the Trump-era Justice Department's seizure of data from devices belonging to members of Congress, their aides, journalists and then-White House counsel, panel chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced Monday.
Why it matters: Though it's so far unclear if the cases are related, they raise "serious constitutional and separation of power concerns," Nadler said in a statement.
President Biden assembled a group of outside Russia experts — including former Trump officials — to brief him for his summit with President Vladimir Putin, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.
Why it matters: The previously unreported session demonstrates the extent to which Biden wants to be well prepared, drawing on the experience of officials with first-hand knowledge of the onetime KGB colonel’s tactics and tricks.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is making a play for China hawks in Florida as he braces for a competitive re-election fight next year, records show.
Why it matters: Hostility toward communism drove a significant number of Latino voters in Florida into the Republican column in 2020. The Rubio campaign’s focus on China can capitalize on that trend and a wider — and widening — American mistrust of Beijing.
There are now more than 1.3 million cases awaiting a decision from an immigration judge — double the caseload from 2017 — to determine whether migrants can legally stay in the U.S., according to newly released data reviewed by Axios.
Why it matters: The rapidly growing backlog is another sign of a broken immigration system. Migrants have been waiting an average of nearly 950 days for a court decision — two-and-a-half years of living in limbo.
Former President Obama, speaking to The 19th, called on the government, spouses and partners to play their role in addressing the decline in women's labor force.
Why it matters: Women's labor force participation in the U.S. was at a 33-year low in January. The pandemic has driven mothers out of the workforce, and there's reason to be concerned about "permanent scarring," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in March.
