Majority Leader

John Yudichak described his defection as an effort to empower the political middle.

Legislation to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage for the first time since 2009 passed the state Senate on Wednesday against a deadline to stall Gov. Tom Wolf’s move to substantially expand overtime pay eligibility.

Discussions on raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage for the first time since 2009 are heating up, in part to get Gov. Tom Wolf to abandon an effort to extend overtime pay eligibility to tens of thousands of additional workers.

A top House lawmaker announced Tuesday that Congress will pass a governmentwide temporary spending bill to keep the government running through Dec. 20, forestalling a government shutdown as the House turns its focus to impeachment hearings. Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., made the announcement after meeting with Senate counterpart Richard Shelby, R-Ala., in hopes of kick-starting long-delayed efforts to...

Democrats from Virginia’s House of Delegates have nominated Eileen Filler-Corn to be the first female Speaker of the House in state history.

The House approved legislation Wednesday to better protect the country’s elections from foreign interference, the third major bill the Democratic-controlled chamber has passed this year addressing problems that arose in the 2016 presidential election. The 227-181 vote comes as lawmakers pursue an impeachment inquiry centered on allegations that President Donald Trump improperly solicited election help from Ukraine ahead of the...

The impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump has thrust Washington into a political crisis. And Trump keeps adding to the chaos. In the four weeks since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., launched the investigation, Trump has taken steps that have drawn more criticism, not less, repeatedly testing the loyalty of his stalwart Republican allies. His actions have both intensified the...

President Donald Trump punched back Friday at criticism that his Syria withdrawal is damaging U.S. credibility, betraying Kurdish allies and opening the door for a possible resurgence of the Islamic State. He touted a cease-fire agreement that seemed at risk as Turkey and Kurdish fighters differed over what it required and whether combat had halted.

Impeachment may have leapfrogged to the top of the national agenda, but members of Congress still have their day jobs as legislators, and they’re returning to Washington this coming week with mixed hopes of success. It’s a volatile, difficult-to-predict time in Washington as lawmakers end a two-week break. The notion that President Donald Trump could do much significant dealmaking with...

President Donald Trump was defiant in the face of an impeachment probe Thursday as he sought to convert the threat to his presidency into a weapon on the campaign trail, with biting and unsupported attacks on potential Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Confronting an investigation provoked by his unprecedented calls for Ukraine and then China to assist in digging up dirt...

Abortion rights as well as protections for young immigrants and LGBT people top an election-year agenda for the Supreme Court. Its conservative majority will have ample opportunity to flex its muscle, testing Chief Justice John Roberts’ attempts to keep the court clear of Washington partisan politics. Guns could be part of a term with plenty of high-profile cases and at...

Elizabeth Warren was a professor at Harvard Law School, preparing barbecue and peach cobbler for a group of students expected at her home. The phone rang. The owner of the faint voice on the other end of the line was well known, but they had never met. “Who?” Warren asked. “Harry Reid,” he replied. “Majority leader, U.S. Senate.” That was...

When post offices close Monday, the last victim compensation funds at Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses will also close, hours before lawmakers plunge back into a years-old fight over whether to let long-ago victims of child sexual abuse sue perpetrators and institutions that may have covered it up.New chapter opens in Pennsylvania in fight over suing church

Al Franken, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat in 2017 amid sexual misconduct charges, will re-emerge into the public sphere on Saturday when he starts a new weekly radio show on the SiriusXM satellite service. The Minnesota Democrat is perhaps the most prominent public figure felled by the #MeToo movement to step back into public life. He said he has...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump following reports that Trump may have sought a foreign government’s help in his reelection bid. NBC10’s Lauren Mayk gets reactions from local lawmakers.

President Donald Trump is twisting reality on gun control and the environment. Pressed over the weekend for his position on gun legislation, the president declined to answer whether he would support expanded background checks in the wake of deadly mass shootings and blamed Democrats in Congress for “doing nothing” on the issue. That’s not true.

Senate officials say a Pennsylvania state lawmaker who is facing child pornography possession charges has resigned.

Leaders of 145 companies wrote a letter to the Senate Thursday, urging the governmental body to take action on gun safety. The letter notes recent gun violence in Chicago, Newport News, Virginia and other places, calling it a “public health crisis.” But the leaders also say that gun violence is preventable, and lawmakers can step in to prevent tragedies.

Senate Democrats are moving on two fronts to block President Donald Trump from using special emergency powers to transfer money from military base construction projects like new schools to pay for new fences along the U.S.-Mexico border. First, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York announced Tuesday that he will force a vote to reject the plan, saying the vote...