The Justice Department says that finishing the release of all of the Jeffrey Epstein files could take a “few more weeks,” further delaying compliance with a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress.

Military service leaders are telling senators that passing a temporary budget that keeps defense spending largely flat will hurt readiness and efforts to modernize the force.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for the top policy job at the Pentagon is acknowledging that Russia invaded Ukraine and poses a significant military threat to the U.S. and Europe.

The United States has a new secretary of veterans affairs.

Emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal Doug Burgum as North Dakota governor catered to the whims of oil and gas executives while leveraging those connections to expand his political profile.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, has publicly faced senators for the first time.

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and Hawaii's incumbent congressional representatives have won their state Democratic Party primary races.

Voting concludes Saturday in Hawaii’s state primaries, where candidates for Congress and the Legislature will compete for their parties’ nominations.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is launching its formal outreach campaign to Asian American voters and putting Vice President Kamala Harris at the forefront of the effort with events in Nevada and Pennsylvania this week.

The Navy is issuing written reprimands to three now-retired military officers for their roles in the spill of jet fuel into Pearl Harbor’s drinking water in 2021.

One of President Joe Biden’s nominees to a federal appeals court has generated rare concern from some Democrats and outside groups.

A top official says the Justice Department has charged five people for making threats of violence against election workers amid a rising wave of harassment and intimidation tied to the 2020 presidential election.

The U.S. Navy is working to develop drone ships as it faces a growing threat from China.

President Joe Biden has signed a bill creating a commission to study establishing a national museum on the history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

The Biden administration foresees unnecessary deaths if lawmakers don’t approve billions of dollars more to brace for the pandemic’s next wave.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson may not get any Republican votes.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is winning praise from a key Senate Republican.

The Defense Department says it will permanently close the Navy’s massive Hawaii fuel tank facility that leaked petroleum into Pearl Harbor’s tap water.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is among a handful of Republicans declaring a willingness to back President Joe Biden's yet-to-be-announced Supreme Court nominee.

The U.S. Navy is suspending use of World War II-era fuel storage complex above a Hawaii aquifer that supplies nearly 20% of Honolulu’s drinking water.

Women — and some men — in Congress have been fighting for government child care assistance for almost 80 years.

Many progressives have started lining up behind an emerging social and environment bill that’s neither as big nor as bold as they’d wanted.

Some Native Hawaiians are objecting to President Joe Biden’s choice for U.S. attorney in the 50th state, saying Clare Connors treated dozens of elders like criminals when her office prosecuted them for blocking a road while protesting the construction of a telescope in Hawaii.

The nomination of a Pakistani-born businessman who'd be the highest-ranking Muslim in the U.S. government is in jeopardy because Senate Republicans have repeatedly blocked his confirmation.

It's been a tempestuous week in Washington, with insults and accusations flying, deadlines pressing and some major things to get done.

President Joe Biden has signed legislation intended to curtail a dramatic rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

President Joe Biden laid out a long list of policy priorities in his speech to Congress, and some are more politically plausible than others.

President Joe Biden laid out a long list of policy priorities in his speech to Congress, and some are more politically plausible than others.

The pictures always make it look so presidential.

The Senate has passed legislation to combat the rise of hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The Senate has opened debate on legislation confronting the rise of potential hate crimes against Asian Americans.

Biden's meticulous approach to the presidency is intended to serve as a stark departure from the chaos of his predecessor, Donald Trump. Two Democratic senators, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, condemned the lack of diversity in Biden's Cabinet. AdDuckworth said she raised her concerns with the White House on Tuesday and she and Hirono threatened to withhold their votes on nominations until the administration addressed the matter. Just before news of the Colorado shooting, White House aides leaked preliminary word about their next priority, a potentially $3 billion package with money for developing roads, hospitals, schools and green energy systems. But for that program, like other legislative priorities, the White House faces tough prospects for any Republican support and would be forced to proceed along a party-line vote.

The only senators of Asian American heritage, they said they would withhold their support for his nominees until the diversity issue was addressed. AdDuckworth had said earlier that she raised the issue with top Biden advisers on Tuesday and afterward called the situation “not acceptable." “I’ve been talking to them for months and they’re still not aggressive, so I’m not going to be voting for any nominee from the White House other than diversity nominees,” Duckworth told reporters. But Hirono later said in a statement of her own that she too welcomed the appointment of an AAPI White House liaison and was dropping her objections. Tai, who was confirmed last week, is the first Asian American and first woman of color to serve as U.S. trade representative.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – Tough as it was for Democrats, passing President Joe Biden’s sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package into law was the easy part. Biden’s signing of the American Rescue Plan on Thursday marks a milestone for his administration and for Democrats who have command of the House, Senate and White House for the first time in a decade. If Senate Republicans start blocking the legislation, Democrats are prepared to force them into long days and nights of dramatic floor filibusters, like the movie version in “Mr. The filibuster gives the minority enormous ability to halt action, and Senate Democrats used it plenty of times when they were out of power. Still, Biden's infrastructure package may be one bill that could win over Republican support.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – Tough as it was for Democrats, passing President Joe Biden’s sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package into law was the easy part. If Senate Republicans start blocking the legislation, Democrats are prepared to force them into long days and nights of dramatic floor filibusters, like the movie version in “Mr. The filibuster gives the minority enormous ability to halt action, and Senate Democrats used it plenty of times when they were out of power. Still, Biden's infrastructure package may be one bill that could win over Republican support. Doubting bipartisanship will emerge, there is growing support among Democratic senators to do away with the filibuster if Republicans use it to block Biden's bills.

The House Democrats charged that Trump incited the violent insurrection, which left five dead, and the former president appeared to side with the rioters on the call. A few hours later, the Senate voted to acquit Trump, 57-43, the majority falling short of the two-thirds needed for conviction. The momentary chaos, and the House Democrats’ eventual retreat on witnesses, was emblematic of the prosecutors’ challenge throughout the trial. But “we overwhelmingly proved our case.”Several senators agreed — three of the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump had voted not to call witnesses. “The House managers did a masterful job,” he said after the final vote.

Thousands had gathered that day as Congress voted to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in November. Hawley and Cruz led objections in the Senate to Biden’s victory, despite the widespread recognition that the effort would fail. And both senators used their objections for political fundraising,” the Democratic senators said in their letter. Cruz helped force a vote on Biden's victory in Arizona, while Hawley helped force one on Biden's victory in Pennsylvania. “This latest effort is a flagrant abuse of the Senate ethics process and a flagrant attempt to exact partisan revenge."

Gavin Newsom speaks at a COVID-19 testing facility in Valencia, Calif. As California Gov. Gavin Newsom's shoulders as he considers his pick to serve out the rest of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' Senate term through 2022. The South saw its highest number of Black Senate candidates ever this year, but none won races outright. Labor icon Dolores Huerta and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice want Newsom to appoint a Black woman. De Leon won the endorsement of the California Democratic Party and prominent labor unions, in part because of his support for immigrant rights and aggressive policies to curb climate change.

The military theme originated in the May 15 announcement of the creation of Operation Warp Speed. “We will defeat the enemy.”But it has been Trump, not Perna, who has miscast the military's role. Trump said in his initial announcement the military would “deploy every plane, truck and soldier required" to distribute a vaccine when ready. “There will not be this vision that some people have that there will be Army trucks driving through the streets delivering vaccine,” Perna said Oct. 27. The prominence of military officials in Operation Warp Speed has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill, where some have questioned whether an outsize military leadership role would marginalize public health agencies.

FILE - In this June 9, 2020, file photo Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Hearings before the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee will begin Monday, Oct. 12, for President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett. The process starts Monday with hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a sign of the heightened scrutiny, Vice President Mike Pence tried to get Harris to reveal whether she and Biden support expanding the Supreme Court, as many liberals advocate. In just three years on the 7th Circuit, Barrett has twice argued for approval of abortion restrictions that violated Supreme Court precedent, Hirono said.

Democrats are treading carefully on religious faith as they prepare to question President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. “I don’t intend to question her about her personal views or private religious faith or views,” Coons, a key Biden ally, said this past week. Fearful of losing the high court for a generation, the left is demanding that Democrats resist Barrett's nomination with everything they have. Republicans have preemptively declared any discussion of Barrett’s faith out of bounds. But specifics about Barrett’s faith, such as broaching People of Praise, would have “a bad odor,” Franke said.

The American Bar Association is rating the Mississippi judge as well qualified to serve on one of the most conservative federal appeals courts. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles cases for Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)WASHINGTON The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced a federal appeals court nominee from Mississippi, despite Democratic objections over derisive comments he made about former President Barack Obama and his signature health care legislation. The GOP-led panel endorsed Mississippi Appeals Court Judge Cory Wilson on a 12-10, party-line vote. Wilson, a former Republican state legislator who has been on the state appeals court for 16 months, was nominated by President Donald Trump for a seat on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S.

(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.

Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, the Senate's first Asian-American woman and only current immigrant, is working on a memoir. Viking announced Tuesday that the book, currently untitled, will come out in 2021. Hirono, 72, will write about emigrating at age 8 to the United States after her mother fled an abusive marriage in Japan. In a statement issued through Viking, Hirono said the book was a tribute to her late mother's spirit and a chance "to bear witness on her behalf by telling the story of the daughter she inspired to live boldly." Hirono, a Democrat, made news last year as a leading critic of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who faced allegations of sexual harassment and attempted assault.