Politics

(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Wednesday denounced as “anonymous innuendo” a subpoena issued by the powerful House Oversight Committee demanding the FBI produce a record related to an alleged “criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.”

The subpoena, was which was obtained by ABC News, was sent by Oversight Chairman James Comer and his committee to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Comer is seeking an unclassified FD-1023 document, which is generally defined as a report from an informant.

The subpoena sets a May 10 deadline for all FD-1023 forms that were “created or modified in June 2020” containing the word “Biden,” along with related attachments and other documents.

A Department of Justice spokesperson told ABC News they have received the letter and subpoena but declined to comment further.

The subpoena represents a considerable escalation of the Oversight Committee’s ongoing investigation of Biden and his family. Comer has made it clear since taking over the panel that probing the president would be a main priority.

“The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself,” Comer said in a statement, adding that he and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, “will seek the truth to ensure accountability for the American people.”

Wednesday’s subpoena comes alongside a letter sent that same day to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland from Comer and Grassley, who wrote that based on “highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures” they believe the Department of Justice and FBI “possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”

Both the letter and subpoena, however, provide little information on the nature of this explosive allegation, including further information on the background of the purported whistleblower.

The committee is also not revealing the identity of the foreign national.

Comer and Grassley wrote in their letter that they believe the document they seek includes some of these details. The subpoena cites a need for information to inform possible legislation around ethics and financial disclosure for presidents, vice presidents and their families.

An FD-1023 form could be generated in a variety of situations involving someone presenting themselves as a “source” with claims of wrongdoing.

The June 2020 timeframe detailed in the subpoena was at the height of the last presidential campaign, between Biden and Donald Trump

A White House spokesperson dismissed the subpoena as a partisan smokescreen.

“For going on five years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically-motivated attacks against the President and his family without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests,” Ian Sams said. “That’s because they prefer floating anonymous innuendo, amplified by the megaphone of their allies in rightwing media, to get attention and try to distract and deflect from their own unpopular ideas and lack of solutions to the issues the American people actually care about.”

“When it comes to President Biden’s personal finances, anybody can take a look: he has offered an unprecedented level of transparency, releasing a total of 25 years of tax returns to the American public,” Sams said.

In his own statement, Grassley said, “We believe the FBI possesses an unclassified internal document that includes very serious and detailed allegations implicating the current President of the United States. What we don’t know is what, if anything, the FBI has done to verify these claims or investigate further.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Keep pushing.

That was the message on Wednesday from Paula Reed, mom of Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who was freed in a 2022 prisoner swap after some three years behind bars in Russia on trumped up charges.

“That’s your loved one and they’re just wasting their life away. And, to me, that was the hardest thing to deal with,” Paula Reed said at an event at Lafayette Square in Washington, which was organized by the Bring Our Families Home. “Even though Trevor’s home, we’re going to continue in every way we can to help others.”

For 985 days, Trevor Reed was held in a series of Russian prisons, thrown in isolation cells as small as a closet for 23 hours a day, placed in a psychiatric ward and sent to a forced labor camp he described as looking and feeling like something “out of medieval times.”

The U.S. classified Trevor Reed as “wrongfully detained,” a designation which applies to an “individual whose detention the Department of State determines to be wrongful based on certain discretionary criteria,” according to a State Department resource guide.

In those cases, the government is much more likely to act on behalf of citizens.

Bring Our Families Home says it works to “bring attention to the individuals being wrongfully detained overseas” while urging the White House to take “immediate decisive action.”

On Wednesday, the group gathered to address reporters in Lafayette Square along with relatives of Americans who are detained in China, Iran and Venezuela. They called on President Joe Biden to do more — and more quickly — for citizens held abroad, even those not classified as “wrongfully detained.”

“Let us stand together with hope and faith,” said hostage advocate Diane Foley.

The event followed a candlelight vigil on Tuesday to remember and advocate for people held or wrongfully detained overseas. The vigil was in front of a Bring Our Families Home mural that was unveiled last July, depicting 18 such Americans.

Since then, nine of those have been released.

At the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, Biden used some of his remarks to call out the Americans held overseas, including Evan Gershkovich, Austin Tice and Paul Whelan. He promised that his administration has been seeking their freedom.

“Evan and Austin should be released immediately, along with every other American held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” Biden said then. “I want them and their families to know Jill and I understand. We see them. They are not forgotten. And I promise you I am working like hell to get them home.”

Among those who rallied outside the White House on Wednesday were relatives of Zack Shahin, who has been detained in the United Arab Emirates since 2008.

Shahin’s sister-in-law, Aida Dagher, claims to have contacted the State Department on multiple occasions but has not received any correspondence on Shahin’s medical status. She said, however, that the State Department has told her they are working on his case.

“We contact the State Department over and over. Are they deaf? I don’t know,” Dagher said. (A State Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

While Shahin’s family is thankful for the media attention and the support of advocacy groups like Bring Our Families Home, they believe more can be done for him and say he is in waning health.

“They are leaving him to die. We don’t want letters of sympathy when he dies. We don’t want him in a box,” Dagher said.

Jose Pereira said at Wednesday’s event that he was held in a Venezuelan “dungeon” for more than five years and was freed in October. Pereira was speaking on behalf of family members who he said felt immense guilt while he was being held; he said their lives became a “total nightmare.”

“My point here is: All the government, all the senators and all the congressmen need to [put] aside the politics. You have to use all the tools available to bring these people back home,” Pereira said. “All these people deserve it.”

ABC News’ James Hill, Bill Hutchinson and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

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(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — In the United States, Black Americans go missing at a disproportionate rate compared to other races, according to the National Crime Information Center. Last year alone, out of approximately 546,000 people reported missing, 36% of those were Black.

Lawmakers in California are hoping to address the disparity with recent legislation that would allow law enforcement to request an “Ebony Alert” to get the word out about missing Black women and children ages 12 to 25.

Derrica Wilson and Natalie Wilson, cofounders of the Black and Missing Foundation, say the legislation is a “step in the right direction” to getting more attention to cases that often go under the radar. They spoke to “GMA3” about the alarming rate of missing persons in the Black community and what they say needs to change in order to address the problem.

EVA PILGRIM: And joining us now are the cofounders of the Black and Missing Foundation, Derrica and Natalie Wilson. Thank you both so much for being with us. So, Derrica, I want to start with you. Why do such a disproportionate number of people of color go missing in this country? And your foundation says they are less likely to be featured on Amber Alerts. Why is that?

DERRICA WILSON: Absolutely. So we have our community going missing at an alarming rate. Typically, when families are going to law enforcement, their cases are often dismissed. Our children are classified as runaways and runaways does not meet the criteria to initiate an Amber Alert. And when it’s adults, oftentimes their disappearance is associated with some sort of criminal activity. And it really dehumanizes and desensitizes the fact that these are valuable members of our community.

DEMARCO MORGAN: And Natalie, a new bill was introduced in California that would allow law enforcement to request an Ebony Alert to get the word out about missing Black women and children ages 12 to 25. What do you make of this legislation?

NATALIE WILSON: Well, I believe that this legislation is a step in the right direction. When 40% of the missing population are people of color and they are under the radar, they’re not getting the same level of media coverage which can aid in their recovery. That is an issue. So we see this alert, it is in conjunction with the Amber Alert and the Silver Alert, so that the individuals that are most vulnerable can get the help that they need, because awareness is key and getting the media to cover these stories, it will be a great impact on these cases.

PILGRIM: Derrica, do you think that solves the problem? If law enforcement isn’t recognizing these people as missing, does changing the name of the alert fix the issue?

DERRICA: That is a great question. It really is a step in the right direction. But there needs to be enhanced training with law enforcement, and we have to start with the classification. Runaways does not meet the criteria for Amber Alert. So if law enforcement is immediately dismissing the case, would it also qualify for an Ebony Alert? So I think we have to look at it holistically. I think we have to really enhance the training, and I think we need to just terminate the classification “runaway” altogether. These children are missing. They are not in positions to make decisions on their own and they are endangered when they are missing in our community.

MORGAN: Natalie, what systemic changes need to be made to find people who are missing people of color?

NATALIE: Well, as Derrica mentioned, we need to change the classification from runaways, because if you are classified as a runaway, you do not get the Amber Alert, and you definitely don’t get any media coverage at all. But again, awareness is key, and we need to peel back the layers on the issues as to why people are disappearing. Sex trafficking, domestic violence and the list goes on and on. And we need to look at unhoused individuals that are homeless, you know, economic status. So there are so many issues as a community we need to take a look at. But we also need our community to get involved. Don’t turn a blind eye to the issue because it’s not your family member that’s missing.

MORGAN: It is so important to have you guys on the front lines. This is an important subject here, a very important topic, and we appreciate it. All right. Natalie and Derrica Wilson, thank you for being with us.

DERRICA: Thank you for having us.

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(RALEIGH, N.C.)– North Carolina legislators have introduced a new abortion bill that would ban the procedure after 12 weeks.

Republican leaders announced in a news conference Tuesday there was agreement in the GOP-controlled House and Senate to reduce the state’s abortion ban, which currently sits at 20 weeks, to the end of the first trimester.

The bill, known as “The Care for Women, Children and Families Act,” offers exceptions in cases of rape and incest up to 20 weeks’ gestation and for fetal anomalies up to 24 weeks’ gestation.

The current exception that allows an abortion if the life of the mother is in danger will remain in place.

Final votes are expected to take place Wednesday in the state House and Thursday in the state Senate, lawmakers told reporters.

“It’s time for North Carolina to take the nest step forward in honoring the sanctity of human life,” state Sen. Joyce Krawiec, a Republican, said during the press conference, according to local ABC affiliate WTVD. “We are beginning the process of creating a culture that values life, and that’s something we can all be incredibly proud of.”

Before an abortion is performed, pregnant people must receive a consultation in person at least 72 hours prior about the potential risks of receiving an abortion and other options, including adoption or that the father is liable to pay child support.

Research has shown that abortions performed in a clean area with properly trained staff are very safe. Between 2013 and 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the national case-fatality rate was 0.41 abortion-related deaths per 100,000 legal abortions.

The pregnant person must also receive an ultrasound prior to the abortion as well as notice that they can look at “the remains” after the procedure is completed.

Providers who perform an abortion past 12 weeks will be required to provide information to the state Department of Health and Human Services, including “the probable gestational age” of the fetus, its measurements and an ultrasound image as well as how the provider determined the pregnancy fell into one of the exceptions.

Any physician who violates the bill will be subject to discipline from the North Carolina Medical Board, which includes potentially being placed on probation, public reprimanding, paying a fine, educational training or having their license revoked.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s tweeted a statement Wednesday that he did not support the bill and planned to veto it.

“It will effectively ban access to reproductive freedom earlier and sometimes altogether for many women because of new restrictions and requirements,” he wrote. “This is why Republicans are ramming it through with no chance to amend. I will veto this extreme ban and need everyone’s help to avoid it.”

Cooper’s veto power, if the bill is passed, would only delay its enactment. Republicans hold a supermajority in the Senate and are close to a supermajority in the House, which would override the veto.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade over the summer, 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services.

Florida will be the 16th state once a new six-week abortion ban is implemented — but only if the state’s current 15-week ban is upheld as legal challenges play out in court.

Additionally, Utah passed a bill earlier this year banning abortion clinics in the state. Starting May 3, the state’s health department would not be allowed to grant new licenses, but it was blocked by a state judge Tuesday.

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(NEW YORK)– Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell welcomed the first police officers to work a new flexible schedule as the department attempts to increase morale and slow an exodus of veteran officers.

Sewell addressed the officers at Wednesday morning’s roll call at the 47th Precinct in the Bronx, selected as one of the first to allow officers to work the extended tours — a quality of life initiative that emerged from recent contract negotiations with the Police Benevolent Association.

Sewell told the officers — the first to be on a 12 hour tour — that the schedule brings “more time with your family and friends with no compromise to public safety.”

The flexible schedule comes amid a mass exodus of veteran officers retiring or taking jobs at other departments for better pay and benefits. The department is experiencing high overtime costs as the rest of the force picks up the slack with extra hours.

“We recognize that you coming to work and then being told you have to stay extra hours is a hardship. You have families. You have things in your lives that matter that you want to get back to,” Sewell said.

“We look forward to making sure this works best for you, and we look forward to broadening it to the rest of the NYPD.”

The pilot is also a way to address most NYPD officers’ inability to work from home, a discrepancy with other employees that emerged during the pandemic.

PBA President Pat Lynch called the flexible schedules “a historic moment.”

“Many folks said no. Most administrations wouldn’t even talk about it. This administration would. This commissioner said yes. For the next generation of the NYPD, this will become the norm,” Lynch said. “You can live your life better. Its important we talk about your home life. Its important we talk about the mental health of each and every one of you and your family. Well, today is the start of that real discussion. but more importantly, the real solution.”

Under a six-month pilot program, about 400 officers will work longer 10- and 12-hour tours, with more days off.

Under the 12-hour shift option, officers work three days on and three days off within the NYPD’s scheduling framework.

In the 10-hour option, officers would work 10-hour shifts for four days, followed by two days off.

Officers based in the Bronx — in the 45th and 47th precincts and in Transit District 11 and Public Service Area 8, which serves city housing projects in the 43rd, 45th and 47th precincts — are participating in the pilot program. If the program works, the city hopes to expand it.

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(NEW YORK) — A judge has denied Montana state legislator Zooey Zephyr’s motion to have her legislative privileges and duties reinstated after being censured by House Republicans.

Zephyr said her attorneys are unlikely to appeal the ruling since the legislative session is coming to a close.

“Throughout the last two weeks, my constituents, Montanans, and the world have witnessed a gross miscarriage of justice here in Montana, as the Speaker of the House refused to recognize me and ultimately barred me from partaking in any debate on the house floor, effectively removing my constituents right to representation,” Zephyr said in a statement to ABC News.

Zephyr had urged House Republicans to vote against a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth.

Zephyr is the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker.

Some legislators, including Speaker of the House Matt Regier, argued Zephyr had broken House rules of decorum when she said legislators would have “blood on your hands” if they passed the transgender youth care ban.

Demonstrators in support of Zephyr interrupted House business several days later to protest her silencing. Zephyr showed her support by holding up her mic and failing to leave the House floor.

House Republicans voted to censure her in response.

“What this ruling implies is that the legislature isn’t beholden to the constitution–that there is no right to free speech in the face of a supermajority,” Zephyr said.

Regier applauded the ruling from the court.

“The Montana courts have recognized that the Judicial Branch has no power to revise or overrule the power expressly held by the Montana State Legislature to conduct its business,” Regier said in a statement to ABC News. “The House is continuing its work for the people of Montana.”

State Attorney General Austin Knudsen called Zephyr’s lawsuit “nothing more than an attempt by outside groups to interfere with Montana’s lawmaking process.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Censures and expulsions in some state legislatures have become a growing consequence of the intensifying culture wars across the country.

In Montana, Tennessee, and Oklahoma — states with Republican supermajorities in the House — conservative legislators have led the charge in disciplining lawmakers on the other side of the aisle.

Democratic legislators have been expelled from their legislative seat, barred from the House floor, or removed from their committees for a variety of reasons, including allegedly violating parliamentary procedures in the course of their dissent.

“Every time we read about one of these, we hear that it is historic in that state’s context,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at University of California, San Diego in an interview with ABC News.

The country is facing an increasingly polarized political climate, with debates around transgender rights, gun violence, race, and more continuing to lead the national conversation.

Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University, says this pattern of disciplining minority legislators prompts the question: “What role do minority or dissenting voices have in legislators?”

“That’s a fundamental part of democracy,” Gillespie said. “It’s a zero sum game if the party that’s in power can’t tolerate dissent from the other side and won’t even allow them to be able to say their perspective. That’s a really sobering commentary on kind of where we are in terms of the democratic deliberation and civility.”

Not only are both sides seemingly drifting further apart in policy, but blue states are getting bluer and red states are getting redder, Kousser says.

“If you’re driving from state to state to state, you drive from a different political world, to one political world to a completely different one,” said Kousser.

He continued, “There’s no issue in which the states are not diverging further now than they did a generation ago.”

Although polarization doesn’t inherently spell trouble for the country’s democracy, Seth Masket, the director of the Center on American Politics, says the disciplinary actions taken to silence some lawmakers on the other side of the political aisle should raise some red flags.

“This is about saying that people in the minority party don’t have a right to a democratic voice. They don’t have a right to representation. They don’t have a right to be in the room,” Masket said.

He later continued, “That’s more than just polarization, that’s … anti-democratic.”

Republicans discipline minority lawmakers

In recent years, both Republicans and Democrats on the federal level have censured legislators of the same party to ensure “party purity,” Masket said. He believes it became a way of protecting a party’s image and group message.

In 2022, the Arizona Democratic Party’s executive committee formally censured Sen. Kyrsten Sinema as a result of her inaction on changing the filibuster rules to pass voting rights reform. Shortly after, the Republican National Committee voted to censure GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, in part for their roles on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

However, he said, the strategy appears to have shifted to target the opposing party.

In April, two Tennessee Democratic legislators were expelled by House Republicans for allegedly violating the chamber’s rules of decorum by participating in a gun control protest at the state capitol building.

Their expulsion led to nationwide outrage.

“This is going to set the tone for the years ahead if it’s not addressed,” said formally expelled Justin Jones in an April interview with ABC News. “And we went to that well [on the floor], calling for them to ban assault weapons. They responded by assaulting democracy.”

The legislators who voted for their expulsion defended the move.

“It’s not possible for us to move forward with the way they were behaving in committee and on the House floor,” state Rep. Jeremy Faison, the chair of the state House Republican Caucus, previously told CNN. “There’s got to be some peace.”

In Montana, the state’s first openly transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr was censured and barred from the House floor after criticizing a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth and protesting her subsequent silencing by House Republican leaders.

“All representatives are free to participate in House debate while following the House rules. The choice to not follow House rules is one that Representative Zephyr has made,” House Speaker Matt Regier said in an April statement to reporters following the censure. “The only person silencing Representative Zephyr is Representative Zephyr.”

Zephyr filed a motion to have her seat in the house restored but her emergency order was denied.

“The Republicans have used an undemocratic move to remove the ability for me to represent my constituents on the floor,” Zephyr told ABC News last week. “But as I work to resolve that, I need to be as close as possible, so I can have the conversations with legislators and make sure that I can, at least in some way, make sure the voice of my constituents can be discussed.”

A spokesperson for Montana’s Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen called the lawsuit frivolous.

“This is performance litigation – political activism masquerading as a lawsuit,” said Emily Flower, Knudsen’s press secretary.

In March, Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Mauree Turner was censured after allowing a protester into their office. Turner, the first nonbinary legislator in the U.S., told ABC News in an interview that the protester’s partner had been arrested while demonstrating against an anti-transgender bill and the protester had come to speak to them as a queer lawmaker.

“Someone came to my office to decompress after watching their partner be tackled by highway patrol and taken away and not really sure what was going to happen next,” Turner told ABC News. “In the midst of doing that, I got a knock on my door from a constituent that said, ‘Do you know highway patrol — state troopers have both stairwells to your office blocked, like are in both stairwells to your office?'”

They said they were not approached by law enforcement about the protester in their office and that as a black Oklahoman, “hearing that my office is barricaded by law enforcement officers that haven’t come to talk to me first about anything right, that’s not an easy position for me to be in.”

House Speaker Charles McCall claimed in a statement that Turner “knowingly, and willfully, impeded a law enforcement investigation, harboring a fugitive and repeatedly lying to officers, and used their official office and position to thwart attempts by law enforcement to make contact with a suspect of the investigation.”

In response, House Republicans voted to censure Turner and remove them of their committee responsibilities.

Kousser argues these moves to discipline legislators may have been a “political misstep” by the supermajorities, asserting that it “gave these legislators and minority parties … a platform that they would never have had.”

“Montana already had the votes on this ban on gender-affirming care. Tennessee was not on the verge of passing a major gun control law,” said Kousser.

He continued, “Even though [the discipline] was intended to stop a protest or stop someone from speaking, it had the absolute opposite impact of elevating the profile of these essentially powerless members of the minority party.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer believes California Sen. Dianne Feinstein may return to Capitol Hill as soon as next week after a monthslong absence while recovering from shingles.

Schumer spoke with Feinstein on Monday, according to prepared notes captured in a photograph taken by Politico during a Tuesday news conference.

“We’re both hopeful she can return next week,” the notes sheet reads.

Schumer didn’t comment on Feinstein during the news conference. A spokesperson confirmed the contents of what was pictured in the notes but didn’t comment further to ABC News.

The 89-year-old Feinstein — the oldest sitting senator — was hospitalized after being diagnosed in February with a case of shingles. She was released in early March and has been continuing her recovery at home.

“We don’t have a timeline yet for her return to Washington which is dependent on her medical team saying it is safe to travel,” a Feinstein spokesperson said in a statement.

Her absence has impacted Democrats’ ability to approve President Joe Biden’s judicial nominations because of the seat she holds on the Senate Judiciary Committee, prompting party leadership to seek to temporarily replace her.

Republicans blocked that in mid-April, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calling Feinstein a “titanic figure” and stating he wouldn’t be part of sidelining her indefinitely.

Calls for Feinstein to step down have grown among some on the left as the party’s critical judicial nominees face continued limbo. Many Democrats, however, have rallied to her defense — suggesting she is being unfairly singled out.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a fellow California Democrat, was the first to publicly call on Feinstein to retire.

“It has become painfully obvious to many of us in California that she is no longer able to fulfill her duties as she doesn’t have a clear return date,” Khanna said on CNN. “We haven’t been able to confirm judges at a time where women’s rights and voting rights are under assault.”

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading progressive in the House, has now also said it is time for Feinstein to leave the Senate. “Her refusal to either retire or show up is causing great harm to the judiciary,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media.

But former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, another member of the California congressional delegation, said Feinstein deserves the respect to get well and be back on duty.

“I don’t know what political agendas are at work that are going after Sen. Feinstein in that way,” Pelosi said in April. “I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way.”

And Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow told The New Yorker: “My antenna goes up when it appears that a woman is being treated differently, when it’s unfair. I’m not saying that Sen. Feinstein doesn’t have health challenges, as do male colleagues.”

Feinstein is the longest-serving female senator in U.S. history and has represented California in the chamber since 1992.

Questions about her age and cognitive faculties have mounted in recent years amid reports that claimed she could be forgetful and confused. She repeatedly pushed back against such assertions, telling The Los Angeles Times in 2020, “I don’t feel my cognitive abilities have diminished.”

She announced in February she would not be seeking reelection after her term is up in early 2025, stating she intends to “accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year.”

Elaborating more on her decision, she told reporters: “The time has come.”

“There are times for all things under the sun, and I think that will be the right time,” Feinstein said at the time.

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(WASHINGTON) — Rapper Fat Joe wasn’t in Washington D.C., last week for a concert, he came to lobby Congress to call for transparency in hospital billing due to the staggering amount of medical debt many Americans face.

“I look at myself as an evangelist, spreading the word gospel of how important it is to show us the prices,” Fat Joe told ABC News. “Because this is an issue that affects all Americans. This is colorblind. This is religion blind, and I believe in the power of the people.”

For two days, the 52-year-old, born Joseph Cartagena, walked the halls of Capitol Hill, visited the White House and held numerous meetings with lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.

“I’m out here fighting for the American people,” Fat Joe said. “This is a bipartisan issue.”

There are 100 million American in medical debt, according to Kaiser Health News.

Fat Joe teamed up with the nonprofit Power to the Patients to be a spokesperson a year ago. This is his second visit to Capitol Hill on the issue.

“I grew up in the South Bronx. I grew up in a very deprived poor area.” Fat Joe said. “When I was there, my people fought for me and championed me to get to the level where I’m at. So I have an obligation to speak for the voiceless.”

One in 10 American adults owe medical debt, according to the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Medical bills accounted for about 40% of personal bankruptcies in 2019, according to the National Institute of Health.

Even as health care costs continue to rise, advocates said hospitals have been reluctant to comply with a federal rule requiring hospitals to list the cost of standard procedures.

“Families deserve to have peace of mind knowing how much their health procedure will cost them ahead of time,” Chair of the Hispanic caucus Nanette Diaz Barragan said during a news conference with Fat Joe at the Capitol last week.

The federal agency tasked with enforcing the rule has imposed fines on four hospitals since former President Donald Trump signed the health care pricing transparency executive order in June 2019. As of April, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has also issued 730 warnings to hospitals who were not in compliance.

However, Power to the Patients research arm said its analysis found that more than 70% of U.S. Hospitals reviewed are still not in full compliance.

“Despite its complexity and lack of clarity hospitals are eager to continue their compliance efforts,” Ashley Thompson, senior vice president of public affairs of the American Hospital Association, said at a congressional hearing.

Fat Joe’s lobbying efforts in Congress coincided with a hearing in the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.

“We’re considering bipartisan legislation to codify existing price transparency rules for hospitals and insurers,” Anna G. Eshoo, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Health, said.

Fat Joe believes this bipartisan push to strengthen and enforce the bill is one of many positive signs that this two-day trip to the Hill may actually help bring some change.

“Last year I came it was just one gentleman who came to meet us,” Fat Joe said. “Today was about 25-30 different congressmen and senators and so I feel the momentum.”

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(WASHINGTON) — House Democratic leadership has been working behind the scenes on a long shot plan that could allow their party to go around Speaker Kevin McCarthy and force a vote to raise the debt limit, even if an agreement isn’t reached with the Republican majority.

The strategy centers on what’s called a discharge petition — a rare and complicated procedural tool that allows members of the House to move a bill out of a committee and bring it to the floor without the support of the majority party leadership.

The petition requires 218 signatures to force a vote. That would mean Democrats would need to get the support of at least five Republicans.

Even after those signatures are secured, the process to get to a final vote is cumbersome. It involves waiting out the clock and a variety of tricky procedural moves. For example: Once lawmakers have enough signatures, they still must wait seven legislative days.

They also have to wait for a “discharge day,” which only comes around on the second and fourth Monday of each month.

Even so, Democrats are laying the groundwork for such a petition.

In a letter to House Democrats on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote that California Rep. Mark DeSaulnier introduced legislation back in January that “could be used as a vehicle to avert the Republican-manufactured default crisis.”

And though the House is in recess this week, Democrats just filed a special rule to take the next step in the process for using a discharge petition.

“The filing of a debt ceiling measure to be brought up on the discharge calendar preserves an important option,” Jeffries wrote. “It is now time for MAGA Republicans to act in a bipartisan manner to pay America’s bills without extreme conditions. We will be in direct contact next week upon our return to Washington in connection with the discharge effort.”

The party, Jeffries wrote, is “working to make sure we have all options at our disposal to avoid a default.”

That plan will unfold in the background of closely watched maneuvering between the White House and House Republicans, who each contend the other side bears responsibility for addressing the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.

Speaker McCarthy is set to meet with Biden at the White House next week along with other congressional leaders, as Biden insists the debt ceiling be raised without conditions separate from negotiations over spending and the government budget.

The U.S. hit its current debt limit in January, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to Congress on Monday that the government could begin defaulting on some of its bills as early as June 1 unless the limit is raised.

Over the years, lawmakers of both parties have regularly had to raise or temporarily suspend the debt ceiling, which allows the government to borrow money as needed to pay for existing programs and appropriations — not new spending.

Yellen has said that in the event of a default, Social Security and military family payments could be affected. Financial experts have also warned of broader economic damage.

In Israel on Monday, where he is leading a congressional delegation, McCarthy said he was ready to negotiate but that “we will not pass a debt ceiling that just raises it without doing something on our debt.”

“Defaulting on our debt is not an option, but neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates, more dependency on China and an economy that doesn’t work for working Americans,” McCarthy said in a speech last month.

At a briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration views the debt and the budget separately and that Congress had a “constitutional duty” to address the debt ceiling.

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