Around some Democratic circles, Mitch McConnell's GOP-controlled Senate has become known as a "Graveyard," where bills go to die. Despite Republican stonewalling on some of the Democratic-controlled Houses's legislative priorities in the 116th Congress - like the For The People Act or the Equality Act - House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn stays focused on his district and uplifting communities disadvantaged by the technological changes of the 21st Century.
"We have to make America's greatness accessible and affordable," Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told Cheddar.
<i>Democratic Speaker of the House from California Nancy Pelosi speaks about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. / Photo Credit: JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock</i>
For Clyburn, improving American communities starts with the basics. He wants to make healthcare and housing more affordable and has a specific plan to build up broadband infrastructure in rural areas.
"Healthcare is number one," Clyburn said. "I represent a state that refused to expand Medicaid, which is a significant block of delivering healthcare to low-income people in my state."
As 2020 presidential candidates debate how to reinvent affordable, and perhaps even universal, healthcare coverage in America, Clyburn wants to start smaller, focusing on communities.
Clyburn spoke about his plan to expand "telemedicine" - broadband healthcare access to rural areas.
"We are not going to be able to save these rural hospitals to effectively deliver healthcare to rural communities unless we have, what I call, telemedicine," he said.
Although every school in the country is required to have high-speed internet access, poor internet access at the home can impact a child's ability to get homework done.
"Broadband in these communities is just a top priority," Clyburn said, stressing its importance to healthcare and education. "So many young people [are] going to parking lots of fast food places and other places to do their homework because they do not have internet available to them in their communities."
Yet before Clyburn can get to his policy agenda, he will host his "World Famous Fish Fry" in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday. The event, which occurs every four years and had become a necessary campaign stop for any presidential hopeful, will be attended by 22 of the 23 Democratic candidates.
"This is to give them a beyond-ordinary opportunity to rub shoulders, to maybe dance to the 'Electric Slide,' for someone who could very [well] end being President of the United States," Clyburn said. "That is what happened when Bill Clinton came to the Fish Fry, when Barack Obama came to the Fish Fry, and hopefully one of these 22 people who are gonna be here tomorrow will end up President of the United States."
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawyer says she'll sue President Donald Trump's administration to try to prevent him from firing her. Longtime Washington attorney Abbe Lowell said Tuesday that Trump “has no authority to remove” Cook. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook from the Fed's board of governors, it could erode the Fed’s political independence, which is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables the Fed to take unpopular steps like raising interest rates. The Republican president said Monday he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Cook was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 and says she won't step down.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook late Wednesday said she wouldn’t leave her post after Trump on social media called on her to resign over an accusation from one his officials that she committed mortgage fraud.
Politico's Marcia Brown breaks down the MAHA draft roadmap: industry-friendly, light on regulation, heavy on research and voluntary food policy changes.
