Congressional

In 2019, when Congress refused to pay for a wall on the Mexican border, then-President Donald Trump declared a national emergency and announced he would build the wall with money earmarked for other purposes. Democrats accused him of trampling on the Constitution’s separation of powers. The move “clearly…violates the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) declared. Some Republicans warned that a future Democratic…

Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)You’ve likely heard of the House Republican Congress and the Congressional Black Caucus, but what about a caucus geared specifically for self-driving vehicles? A pair of bipartisan House representatives are advocating for a new group, called the Congressional Autonomous Vehicle Caucus, which they hope could potentially drive forward long absent federal autonomous vehicle standards.According to a recent Reuters report, Republican representative Robert Latta and Democrat Debbie Dingell…

The call for climate action is coming from the inside the House. More than a dozen congressional staffers occupied the Washington D.C. office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer today, in a protest demanding that Congress pass policy to combat climate change. Less than an hour after the demonstration began, Capitol police arrived and arrested many of the staffers, according to a series of tweets and photos from New Yorker journalist, Andrew Marantz.In an emailed statement to Gizmodo, U.S. Capitol Police said the…

Political wrangling in Congress over government funding for the semiconductor industry is leaving tens of billions of dollars of potential factory projects hanging in limbo and could dent the ambitions of some political and industry leaders to recharge America’s chip-making prowess.Numerous companies are waiting for Congress to pass a $52 billion incentive package for chip production and research before committing to significant expansion efforts, according to company executives and funding proposal documents. The…

A pair of federal programs meant to help the Pentagon and others tap U.S. small-business innovation face an overhaul or outright extinction as Congress feuds over allegations their funds are being abused by their recipients and by China.The Small Business Innovation Research program and the affiliated Small Business Technology Transfer program are set to expire at the end of September if legislators don’t renew them. Federal agencies have made more than $60 billion in awards through the programs over four decades. Sen.…

Unidentified flying objects or UFOs have always been a subject of mystery and intrigue for the scientific community. Yet, studying these objects has often been dismissed as a non-serious discipline or pseudoscience. However, things changed this week. For the first time in 50 years, the US Congress held an open hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). The hearing revolved around a nine-page report released last year, which cited more than 140 incidents of strange sightings by fighter aircraft instruments and…