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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and congressional leaders have struck a spending framework deal that may avert a government shutdown; however, it may frustrate conservatives who want more drastic cuts. The bipartisan framework would set defense funding at $866 billion and non-defense spending at $704 billion for the current fiscal year, which is in line with the spending levels set with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), the debt limit deal struck by President Joe Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the lead Republican negotiator of a bipartisan gun safety framework, said Wednesday that some issues still need to be ironed out and warned the package may have to be slimmed down in order to get a bill passed. Cornyn said he’s “starting to get a little concerned” about the impasse over “a couple of issues that need to be settled before we can reach an agreement.”

President Biden climate and social services bill is expected to include $150 billion for affordable housing creation and financial assistance, elating supporters who feared it would be cut from the package. The White House on Thursday released a framework for Biden’s “Build Back Better Act,” the roughly $1.75 trillion budget reconciliation package, that included billions of dollars meant to put 1 million affordable homes on the market and help thousands of Americans find stable housing. The housing component was cut down significantly from the $327 billion Democrats initially sought. Even so, the bill would still spend more than three times...

Former President Obama on Thursday embraced the scaled-down framework for Democrats' social spending package released by the Biden administration, calling it a "giant leap forward" even as some progressives express concern about what was left out. "In a country as large and diverse as ours, progress can often feel frustrating and slow, with small victories accompanied by frequent setbacks. But once in a while, it’s still possible to take a giant leap forward," Obama said in a statement on President Biden's $1.75 trillion proposal. Obama pointed to investments in child care included in the play that would ensure access to...

VIDEOFRAMEWORK. We have probably heard more of that word in the past few days than we have previously in our lives. The big reason is that the mainstream media have latched upon that word that was tossed out by Sleepy Joe and his handlers as a life preserver to save his failing Build Back Broke Bill. And like good loyal parrots, the media keeps repeating that word with such fervor as if it were some sort of magic incantation that can save Joe Biden.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Monday that he believed Democrats "should" be able to get a deal on a framework agreement for President Biden's social spending bill this week. "Having it finished with all the t's and the i's and everything you know crossed and dotted that will be difficult from the Senate side because we have an awful lot of text to go through, but as far as conceptually we should, I really believe," Manchin told reporters on Monday. Manchin added that Democrats "should be" able to reach a deal on a framework this week, adding that "it really...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barak Obama had a difficult phone conversation on Thursday night, hours after the announcement that a framework nuclear agreement was reached between the six world powers and Iran. According to the Prime Minister's Office, Netanyahu reiterated during the conversation that "a deal based on this framework will threaten Israel's existence." In the conversation, Netanyahu expressed staunch opposition on Israel's part to the framework deal, describing it as posing a "grave danger to Israel, the region and the world." The prime minister told Obama that only this week an Iranian general said that "Israel's destruction...

As US Secretary John Kerry prepares to resume his efforts to achieve an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a PLO official announced Wednesday that the Palestinians would reject any framework accord that is presented by the Americans. The top US diplomat was due to arrive to the region Thursday. “Kerry will try to market a mysterious and nonconstructive framework agreement to the Palestinian Authority during his new tour,” said PLO Executive Committee member Tayseer Khaled. Khaled accused the US of turning a blind eye to Israel’s practices on the ground in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. He...

Bayit Yehudi will not remain in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government if it officially adopts peace proposals presented by US Secretary of State John Kerry, even if reservations are presented, party leader Naftali Bennett said in closed conversations Wednesday. Ahead of Kerry's visit, Bennett spoke multiple times this week with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Israel's negotiators in diplomatic talks with the Palestinians. He insisted on receiving as much information as possible about America's proposal immediately after Kerry meets with Netanyahu. "Bennett is up to speed and has done his homework," a source close to him said. "He will not...

Amid reports that the United States is planning to present a framework agreement for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) within a month, the PA’s chief negotiator said on Sunday that the sides have not even had any direct talks for weeks. NRG/Maariv quoted Saeb Erekat as having said that the only talks in recent weeks have been taking place between the PA and the Americans and the Americans and the Israelis. Israeli and PA representatives have not been meeting recently, he stressed. "There have not been talks for some time," said Erekat. “The meetings currently taking place...

President Barack Obama will present a “general framework” for Israeli-Palestinian peace during his visit to Israel and the West Bank in two weeks’ time, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported Thursday night, quoting what it said were remarks made by the president in a pre-visit White House briefing for US Jewish leaders. He will not unveil a “comprehensive Middle East peace plan” during the trip, the report said, but told the leaders Thursday they should not rule out him doing so “sometime in the next six, nine or 12 months.” Obama reportedly told the Jewish leaders he would speak extensively about...

Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have settled on the framework of a bipartisan spending plan that would scale back the state's investment in schools, higher education, public transportation and other programs in addition to imposing some temporary tax increases. The plan, aimed at closing a $42-billion budget gap projected by the middle of next year, was cobbled together in private talks by legislative leaders and is being presented to rank-and-file lawmakers this afternoon, according to participants in the negotiations. Floor votes in the Assembly and state Senate are planned for Friday. "There is no deal,...

Just barely into its latest diet, the state is already backsliding. A month after a task force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recommended that 118 state boards and commissions be abolished, the state Legislature has approved the creation of a half-dozen panels and extended the life of 10 others by up to five years. Assemblymen John Campbell (R-Irvine) and Ray Haynes (R-Murrieta) are keeping a tally. "We are headed in exactly the opposite direction that the California Performance Review wants us to go," said Haynes, referring to the governor's reform group. "It is just creating new bureaucracy." There are already...

<p>QUINCY -- Citing a lack of public support, the U.S. Forest Service is scaling back an aggressive plan to test the effects of different levels of logging on California spotted owls in the Plumas and Lassen national forests.</p> <p>The study, originally designed as a measurable science-based assessment on 180,000 acres of federal land, will be revamped to emphasize on-the-ground activities instead of scientific rigor, said Matt Mathes, an agency spokesman.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO -- Several environmental organizations have sued the U.S. Forest Service to halt logging until the agency completes court-ordered plans for maintaining fuel breaks on the Plumas, Lassen and Tahoe national forests.</p> <p>Despite a June 2001 order by U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton, the agency has not completed an analysis of the effects of flammable grasses, shrubs and other undergrowth resulting from logging in strips across nearly one-fourth of the three national forests, said Patty Clary, executive director of Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CATs).</p>