ANN KUSTER

President Joe Biden is turning his focus to kitchen-table issues as he struggles to get credit for a recovering economy in the lead-up to the midterm elections.

Around three dozen Democrats were trapped in the House gallery on Jan. 6 after the rest of their colleagues had been evacuated, ducking beneath their seats as supporters of former President Donald Trump laid siege.

A year after the Jan. 6 insurrection, some of the lawmakers who were trapped in the upper House balcony that day are still recovering from lingering trauma.

Several House Democrats have called on House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to apologize to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or resign after audio surfaced of him saying at a fundraiser over the weekend that it would be “hard not to hit her” with a gavel if he’s sworn in as speaker after the 2022 midterm elections.

Lawmakers in Congress have introduced a bill that would pump tens of billions of dollars into fixing and upgrading the country's dams.

U.S. Capitol Police say that threats to members of Congress have more than doubled this year.

The VA is not the same VA as four years ago, insisted acting VA deputy secretary Pam Powers, pointing to increased outreach to women and improved trust ratings in the VA from employees and patients alike according to internal polling. His effort seeks to reinforce a call by top Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week for a faster timeline. About 1 in 3 VA employees said they witnessed an act of sexual harassment. Overall, an estimated 26% of female and 14% of male VA employees experienced harassment during the two-year period. A study released by the VA last year found 1 in 4 women veterans using VA health care reported inappropriate comments by male veterans on VA grounds, raising concerns they may delay or miss their treatments.

(AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)RIO RANCHO, N.M. New Mexico has moved closer to possibly sending a historic delegation of all women of color to the U.S. House. Former state lawmaker Yvette Herrell, a member of the Cherokee Nation, won a heated Republican primary race to challenge Torres Small November in a swing district representing southern New Mexico. Hawaii had a two-member all women of color U.S. House delegation with GOP U.S. Rep. Patricia Saiki and Democratic U.S. Rep. Delewares lone member of the House is Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a black woman. But New Mexico could wind up with the largest U.S. House delegation of women or women of color in history.