Progressive lawmakers are increasingly anxious about debt ceiling talks after President Biden agreed to have his office negotiate directly with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's.
Why it matters: Left-wing opposition to an eventual deal could further complicate the already tenuous vote math on both sides of the aisle.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are resorting to Fox News to keep tabs on their GOP chair's web of alleged evidence in his sprawling investigations, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: House Oversight Republicans are plowing ahead with hearings in which they tout explosive claims about FBI bias and Biden family influence peddling — sometimes without sharing evidence or whistleblower transcripts with Democrats.
Disney canceled a new, nearly $1 billion employee campus in Orlando on Thursday, the New York Times first reported.
Why it matters: The cancellation comes amid a yearslong feud between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), which ignited after the company publicly opposed a law championed by the governor.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed into law Wednesday a bill banning TikTok statewide, effective Jan. 1, 2024.
Why it matters: A growing number of Republican-led states have issued TikTok bans on government-issued devices after the FBI warned of possible threats to national security posed by the Chinese-owned social media platform, but Montana is the first state to impose a total ban on the app.
A bill that would prohibit doctors from providing some gender-affirming care to children under 18 is headed to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's desk after the legislation passed in the state's Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday.
Caitlin Legacki, senior adviser to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, is set to leave the department at the end of May, sources familiar with the matter tell Axios.
Why it matters: Legacki, the secretary's senior adviser for strategic communications, will depart after helping Raimondo become the Biden administration's top surrogate in promoting the bipartisan CHIPS Act, the $280 billion program aimed at boosting the U.S. semiconductor industry.
The Senate this week confirmed Bradley N. Garcia to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, making him the first Latino nominee confirmed to that influential circuit.
The big picture: Garcia's appointment is part of a broad push by the Biden administration to appoint more Latinos to the courts. The D.C. court hears major national cases and is often a pipeline to the Supreme Court.
Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75 million as part of a "groundbreaking" settlement to a proposed class-action lawsuit against it, which alleged that the bank enabled Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation, lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: The lawsuit alleged that Deutsche Bank continued to do business with Epstein while knowing he was using his bank accounts with the financial institution to facilitate his sex trafficking activities, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
President Biden will enter 2024 determined to reverse Democrats' sliding support among Latino voters, in part by building on the playbook the party used with surprising success in key states during last year's midterms, Democratic officials say.
Why it matters: To Democrats, it's never been more crucial. For a decade they've been losing ground to Republicans among Latinos, the nation's youngest and fastest-growing demographic, with millions more expected to be new voters in 2024.
The vast majority of U.S. churchgoers, a new survey found, report that they belong to congregations where most people are of their race or ethnicity, but Hispanic Protestants are an exception.
The big picture: Hispanic Protestants, a majority of whom practice evangelical faiths, report their churches are more diverse than others, who remain largely segregated despite the nation's rapidly changing demographics. The report comes amid a broad shift in how Americans perceive and practice religion.
Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman charged in connection with the leaking of sensitive Pentagon documents, received multiple warnings over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, prosecutors revealed in a court filing Wednesday.
Driving the news: Teixeira had shown a "willful disregard" to his obligations to protect classified information by accessing and taking notes on classified information not related to his job, prosecutors said.
Nearly a year after President Biden signed an executive order to improve policing nationwide, Black members of Congress will meet with Attorney General Merrick Garland amid questions over whether Biden's team is doing enough to carry out the plan.
Thursday's meeting between Garland and members of the Congressional Black Caucus — led by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) — comes as the caucus presses for more action on initiatives such as a national "accountability" database to track incidents involving police.
Why it matters: Biden's order was supposed to help bring meaningful change to police procedures in the wake of several violent incidents involving conflicts between law enforcement and African Americans.
But the Justice Department has run into roadblocks on key initiatives in the order.
Efforts to set up a national database of police incidents have been challenging, for example, because only federal law enforcement agencies — not state and local ones — are required to submit information.
Other key sections of Biden's order were aimed at improving responses to people in mental health crises, increasing safety in jails, and providing grants to that promote safer policing.
Zoom in: Biden issued the order two years after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, an incident that ignited a national debate over civil liberties and how police treat minorities, particularly Black men.
Floyd's death inspired legislation aimed at reforming police practices across the U.S., but that bill — named for Floyd — failed in Congress. Biden responded with the executive order.
Horsford requested a meeting with Garland in March, two months after Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was beaten to death during a conflict with five Memphis police officers
"While the CBC commends the Biden administration's Executive Order ..., we are concerned about the status of the order's implementation," he wrote.
Horsford and other Black lawmakers had met with Biden in February, after Nichols was killed.
Zoom out: Black lawmakers initially praised the executive order but say Justice Department officials have largely kept themdespite being the strongest supporters of it in Congress.
What they're saying: Weeks after the Justice Department asked for an update on the executive order, the department said implementing many of the sections remains a work in progress.
For example, collaborating with police departments across the country has been a challenge in developing a national database to keep police accountable, Justice officials said.
"The Executive Order requires federal law enforcement agencies to report this information to the database, but submission is voluntary for state and local agencies," said Carlos Felipe Uriarte, Assistant Attorney General.
The Justice Department, along with the Health and Human Services Department, plans to finalize guidance on how to respond to those in mental health crises next month.
Horsford told Axios he hopes to discuss a several other issues with Garland, including voting rights and an expected Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) told Axios he doesn't view Democrats' discharge petition to force a clean debt ceiling increase as a "real strategy," given GOP opposition.
Why it matters: The Blue Dog Coalition chair's comments mark a rare note of public doubt within the party towards a measure that some of his more left-leaning colleagues have cast as their last hope of heading off budget cuts Republicans are demanding.
Gun violence has surged ahead of the opioid crisis as Americans' top public health concern, according to the latest edition of the Axios-Ipsos American Health Index.
Why it matters: A spate of recent mass shootings may have focused attention on the issue in ways that weren't apparent in our last poll in February.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans — including half of Democrats — back work requirements for Medicaid and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, as House Republicans want in a debt limit deal, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index.
Why it matters: Work requirements are a major sticking point in debt ceiling talks.
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