Paul Jenks

Jan 7, 2024 | rollcall.com | Briana Reilly |Paul Jenks

Lawmakers are demanding answers from the Pentagon after Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III did not swiftly publicly disclose that he was hospitalized due to complications from a recent medical procedure. News of Austin’s hospitalization wasn’t widely known until days into his stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., with details withheld from the media, Congress, Defense Department leadership and President Joe Biden himself.

Nov 30, 2023 | rollcall.com | John Donnelly |Paul Jenks

Two Democrats who serve on panels that oversee the Pentagon have stepped up their campaign to curb what they call widespread “price gouging” in contracts for military spare parts. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. John Garamendi of California, both of them members of their chamber’s Armed Services Committee, pressed their case Wednesday in a pair of letters obtained by CQ Roll Call.

Nov 9, 2023 | rollcall.com | Paul Jenks

Republicans yanked another fiscal 2024 spending bill before a final vote that was scheduled for Thursday morning, leaving them empty-handed for the week and stuck at seven out of 12 annual appropriations bills passed.

Oct 3, 2023 | rollcall.com | John Donnelly |Paul Jenks

Congress’ decision to keep money for Ukraine out of the newly enacted continuing resolution drew global attention as a blow to western political support for Ukraine. But the debate over the CR was, in a sense, a warmup. The main event is yet to come: a congressional bout over one or more hefty installments of new Ukraine-related funding.

Sep 30, 2023 | rollcall.com | Laura Weiss |David Lerman |Paul Jenks

House Democrats and Senate Republicans were each engaged in stalling tactics in their respective chambers Saturday afternoon after Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., scrambled the calculus by introducing a new seven-week stopgap funding measure. The House moved quickly Saturday to take up the 71-page bill — introduced shortly before floor debate — that would keep the federal government fully operational through Nov. 17.