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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday introduced a sweeping election reform bill, a top priority for the party that cleared the House of Representatives earlier this month but faces steep odds in the upper chamber.
FILE PHOTO: Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Senate Rules and Administration committees joint hearing on Capitol Hill, Washington, U.S. February 23, 2021, Erin Scott/Pool via REUTERS
Like the House version, the Senate’s For the People Act would update voting procedures and require states to turn over the task of redrawing congressional districts to independent commissions.
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ATLANTA (Reuters) - Georgia authorities charged a man with the fatal shootings of eight people, including six Asian women, at Atlanta-area spas, and the violence heightened fears among Asian Americans already rattled by a rise in hate crimes directed at them since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The 21-year-old suspect, Robert Aaron Long, told investigators that a sex addiction drove him to commit Tuesday’s killings and indicated he frequented spas in the area, law enforcement officials said.
However, authorities did not discount the possibility that the attacks were inspired at least in part by an anti-immigrant or anti-Asian sentiment, or some personal grievance.
Further cuts in aid to Afghanistan by the United States and other donors could cause the government to collapse and return the country to chaos similar to the 1990s, a U.S. government watchdog said on Monday.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives is due to vote Thursday on two immigration bills that would provide a path to citizenship for millions living illegally in the United States, just as the country faces the biggest surge of migrants at its southwestern border in 20 years.
FILE PHOTO: The dome of the U.S. Capitol Building is seen as the sun sets on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erin Scott/File Photo
The bills to help farmworkers and younger immigrants known as “Dreamers” are an effort to take targeted steps forward while congressional Democrats deliberate President Joe Biden’s comprehensive immigration plan.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday proposed an increase of $12 billion in the country’s foreign affairs budget, hoping to prod President Joe Biden to boost funding for diplomacy after years of flat spending.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nomination of Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 27, 2021. Greg Nash/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Senators Chris Murphy and Chris Van Hollen and Representatives David Cicilline and Ami Bera said the 20% spending increase would enhance the country’s ability to compete with China, prevent another pandemic and fight climate change.