Inside the making of the Congressional Record: How history gets recorded as D.C. sleeps

May 22, 2026 / 6:00 AM EDT / CBS News

Washington — Every night that Congress is in session, dozens of workers inside a hulking red-brick building blocks away from the Capitol pull off an unheralded feat, laying down the first draft of the history of Congress.

At the heart of the building is a wide-open expanse, with tall ceilings and exposed ducts and rafters. Bright, industrial-strength lights illuminate printers the size of minivans, with enormous rolls of paper flying through them. The constant din of the machines is punctuated by electronic chirps and whirs.

The building houses the Government Publishing Office, the agency responsible for producing the Congressional Record. Since 1873, the Record has served as the most complete daily account of what the people’s representatives on Capitol Hill accomplished, or didn’t, chronicling the monologues and the mundanities of the legislative process with precise formatting and meticulous editing.

Its production is one of the unseen cogs in the congressional machine — known by few, but depended upon by many. The process begins with the words spoken on the floor of the House and Senate. The work to compile it largely happens as the rest of Washington sleeps. It arrives, with little fanfare, like a newspaper on the Capitol’s doorstep every day.

This is how it comes together.

A “substantially verbatim” account of Congress

Recent copies of the Congressional Record. Kaia Hubbard / CBS News

Between the first Congress in 1789 and the lead-up to the Congressional Record’s first publication in 1873, information on the internal workings of the legislative branch was sparse. A smattering of coverage by newspaper reporters made up a piecemeal account of the floor proceedings.

“There was definitely a demand for what was going on on the floor of Congress,” said Daniel Holt, an associate Senate historian. “The problem was that there wasn’t a mechanism in place.”

A number of publications sought to fill that void, operating with a notably different dynamic than is shared between reporters and lawmakers today. One prominent newsman shared a snuff box with the vice president on the Senate floor.

Ultimately, frustration with incomplete and partisan accounts of what happened in the Capitol fueled a push for a more formal operation. On March 5, 1873, the Government Publishing Office produced the first copy of the Congressional Record, dedicated to chronicling what happened in the House and Senate.

There are “few documents more important than the Congressional Record,” Lyndon B. Johnson, then the Senate majority leader, said in 1956.

“Locked in its pages are the debate, the resolutions, the bills, the memorials, the petitions, and the legislative actions that are the reason for the existence of the Senate [and the House],” Johnson said. “It is a document which affects our laws, our precedents, and our judicial decisions.”

A printer watches over a printing press at what was then the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C., in the early 20th century. FPG / Getty Images

It does not beg to be read. It’s printed on 11 x 8.5 inch paper, with a formal cover affixed with the U.S. seal. Its thickness depends on how active Congress was the day before. On April 29, when both chambers were in session, the Record ran for 233 pages. On May 4, when both chambers were on recess and met in pro forma sessions, the Record was 22 pages.

Across its four sections, it offers a “substantially verbatim” account of the happenings on Capitol Hill, with everything said and done on the floor of each chamber, divided into three columns per page. It has a “Daily Digest” of chamber action and committee meetings, and a section for extensions of remarks, which allows House members to submit words they never spoke aloud on the floor — tributes to high school sports teams, their favorite recipes, the marking of anniversaries and so on.

The inclusion of words that were not spoken on the floor has served as the source of controversy for decades, underscoring the importance of what gets in the Record and what does not. In 1972, Rep. Hale Boggs of Louisiana died in a plane crash. Two days later, a speech attributed to him appeared in the Record.

“He obviously didn’t do that two days after he had passed. He did the arrangements before he was leaving town,” Holt said. “But this led to that question of, ‘OK, what is in the Record, and how is it related to what is actually said on the floor of Congress?’”

The chambers implemented formatting changes to indicate when a speech had been added to the Record. But lawmakers could work around those by simply delivering the beginning of their remarks on the floor and submitting the rest for inclusion later. Further reforms followed in the 1980s.

“The rules were essentially put in place that said speeches can still be edited for clarity and things of that sort, but they ought to not be edited for substance,” Holt said.

When cameras were introduced in the House in 1979 and in the Senate in 1986, the Congressional Record was no longer the sole account of the chambers’ inner workings. But it continued to give readers a fuller picture of the proceedings.

“Ultimately, the point of it is still what it’s always been, which is to provide readers with as comprehensive as possible record of the issues and debates about them and the different viewpoints that go into the lawmaking process,” Holt said.

The making of the Congressional Record

These days, the process of creating the Record begins in the Capitol, where every floor speech and action in each chamber is logged from gavel to gavel.

When a lawmaker speaks, a rotating team of floor reporters take down every word in shorthand. On the Senate floor, they can be seen maneuvering skillfully around lawmakers with stenotype machines hanging from their necks. Working in 15-minute shifts, they can tap 225 words per minute.

Off the floor, the reporters work with editors, called scopists, to convert their stenographic notes into polished documents. For every 15 minutes of floor time, the process takes about an hour and a half in the House, and between two and three hours in the Senate. Additional rounds of editing follow, and the transcripts are ultimately compiled with vote tallies, committee reports and other materials.

The process then moves up North Capitol Street, to the headquarters of the Government Publishing Office, where some 70 employees are involved in getting the final product out the door. Once the world’s largest printing plant, the GPO is housed in a seven-story red-brick Romanesque Revival building constructed in 1903. The building sits on the same spot that housed the GPO when it was established on the day of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration in 1861.

The headquarters of the Government Publishing Office in Washington, D.C.Ajay Suresh / Flickr

Once editing is finished on the Hill, the team of specialists sends the material to the GPO, both digitally and in paper form. Messengers carry stacks of paper from the Capitol to the GPO over the course of the afternoon and evening.

It’s not unusual for the copies to arrive with additions scrawled in the margins or on sticky notes directing a change. If there’s a discrepancy, it’s the paper copy that wins out.

“The document of record is paper,” GPO Director Hugh Halpern told CBS News on a recent tour of the facilities. “They invest over there in a lot of computers and software and all of that kind of stuff. But ultimately, if you were looking for the source of truth, it is paper.”

The GPO’s congressional customer service office serves as the intake point for material from the Hill. It’s an unassuming office space. A board hanging below a clock on the wall notes when the chambers gaveled out of session, when copy has been received and how many pages came in. Most importantly, it specifies when the House and Senate convene next. The GPO aims to complete the Record before lawmakers come in the following morning.

A bulletin board at the Government Publishing Office tracks progress on producing the Congressional Record. Kaia Hubbard / CBS News

“We want to make sure that the Congressional Record is on time — that’s our number one priority,” said Natalya Panyan, who works in the customer service office.

The staffers communicate with official reporters and legislative clerks and check that all the documents are accounted for. The documents are then taken into the proof room, where workers are tasked with making sense of the stacks of pages sent up from the Hill. They compare the pages to digital files and mark them up with formatting instructions before a new round of corrections.

Stepping into the proof room is like entering a newsroom from a bygone era, with mountains of papers riddled with red markings and eyes poring meticulously over every page. It runs 24 hours a day, five or six days out of the week.

Work on the Congressional Record in the proof room starts late. Most of it is done between 3:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. The workers receive a number of “drops” of copy from each chamber throughout the evening. They get to work, grabbing copy from the “takeout counter” and beginning their mark-up process. The proofreaders use a series of red stamps to denote all the stylistic elements of the page, following intricate formatting rules for each section of the Congressional Record.

On a bulletin board labeled “improvement opportunities,” printouts remind the proofreaders to avoid common pitfalls: “Rep. Brittany Pettersen NOT Petterson,” one page says. Another reminds proofreaders to watch out for the capitalization in Rep. Chip Roy’s first name when it stands alone. Buckets labeled for the Record’s sections — “Senate,” “House” and “Digest” — hang from the sides of desks to collect pages.

A GPO proofreader compares a page with formatting notations to the final version. Kaia Hubbard / CBS News

“It takes a particular type of person who’s got both the skill, attention to detail and, frankly, disposition to do this kind of really detail-oriented work,” Halpern said.

By the time the third shift comes in for the night, “it’s like an orchestra,” one proofreader, Darlene Rios-Bay, said. “Everybody is doing their part.”

Workers elsewhere in the proof room enter the formatting information into the electronic files to ensure they match, before they’re posted online and sent to the printers.

Another floor of the GPO building houses the printing operation. It’s a massive space where voices must ascend to new levels to overcome the whir of the machines. The scents of warm paper and ink swirl together. And despite the modern machines, the history of the space — lined in faded brick and tile — is palpable. The room was built to accommodate rows of heavy, metal rotary printing presses of another era. Soaring windows were needed to let in light and illuminate the space.

The space where the Congressional Record is printed in the Government Publishing Office. Kaia Hubbard / CBS News

Three different kinds of machines are responsible for printing the Congressional Record. While one printer spits out the thick, off-white covers, another feeds a massive roll of lightweight paper through a printer to create the Record’s double-sided pages. It’s capable of producing thousands of pages per minute. A third machine cuts, folds and staples each copy together to create the magazine-like Record, spitting out each copy in a satisfying line, ready to be delivered.

Finished copies of the Congressional Record, ready for delivery to Capitol Hill. Kaia Hubbard / CBS News

The printing process changed within the last decade from traditional presses that took eight or nine people to run, complete with metal plates and tons of waste. Now, the digital inkjet technology requires just two workers. Halpern said the process has “grown up over time.”

“It started from the beginnings of GPO in the 1860s — when we started on this very spot, where we were setting type by hand — and then to today, where the process is largely digital,” he said.

“Not going away”

In 1970, the GPO was printing nearly 50,000 copies per day, using 36 rolls of paper weighing more than 20 tons. Halpern said the number of copies fell in the 1980s and 90s to closer to 25,000 copies per day. Now, it’s about 1,500.

Most of those copies go to libraries and other institutions. But Halpern said “our primary customer is Capitol Hill — Congress.”

“There’s some folks who are still working in paper up there, but most of it is, they’re working off of our digital files,” he said.

The GPO has a major digital presence with govinfo.gov, which serves as a digital repository for all three branches of the federal government. Halpern said while many people tend to think that the agency is focused on producing paper products, most of their work is firmly situated in the 21st century.

“We do document conversion. So Congress gives us documents, whether it’s a bill or a piece of the Congressional Record or whatever, and we transform that into a digital file,” he said. “And then ultimately we output that digital file one of two ways. We either put it on the web or we create a print.”

Along with the Congressional Record, the GPO also produces a number of other products, including U.S. passports, the Federal Register, the president’s budget and the official pocket Constitution.

Looking forward, Halpern acknowledged that the Congressional Record may need to change to meet the times.

“It is an intricate process. It’s something that’s been evolving over time, and frankly, it’s something that’s not going away, and we need to sort of envision what that next generation, what that new Congressional Record looks like,” Halpern said. “We’re not there yet, that’s sort of the kind of thing that’s whispered about as we go along, but we’ve been making the investments.”

GPO Director Hugh Halpern on Capitol Hill on April 29, 2025. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The GPO takes its cues from Congress. Halpern said they’ve made the investments to ensure they’re ready to execute when Capitol Hill comes calling. The agency is working on modernizing its publishing system to streamline the document conversion process and move away from a software that Halpern said came out when he was 12.

“I am a long way from 12,” he said. “So we are in the process of replacing that piece of software.”

Halpern said he gets a lot of questions about AI, but “we have not yet found a technology that can replace one of our trained proofreaders.”

“Eventually, I would love to see a tool that’s sort of like Grammarly on steroids, that can cut out some of the more routine work for our proofreaders,” he said. “But we still haven’t found a good substitute for having these highly trained human beings in the loop.”

Standing in the massive expanse of the printing space, his voice competing with the din of the machines, Halpern said the operation’s evolution “has been a journey.”

“We’re still on that journey,” he said. “But it’s going in the right direction.”

Warsh takes over Fed with a policy problem already in view

2026-05-22T10:01:30.353Z / Reuters

Kevin Warsh, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to be next chair of the Federal Reserve, testifies before a Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 21, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary
• Companies

• Warsh set for Friday morning swearing in at White House
• AI boom and external shocks complicate inflation outlook for Fed
• Warsh facing pressure from markets, colleagues, over rate decisions
• Fed’s Waller, a key voice, updates views today

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) – Kevin Warsh, whose broad criticism of current U.S. Federal Reserve officials, playbook for rate cuts and ties to President Donald Trump elevated him past other contenders to lead the central bank, ​will be sworn in as Fed leader Friday at a pivotal moment for monetary policy and the American economy.

An unfolding boom in artificial intelligence technology is reshaping the economy ‌in ways Fed officials say could be profound for workers, companies and consumers, but will be hard for Warsh and his colleagues to assess in real time.

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At the same moment inflation is already high and potentially heading higher as the economy copes with shocks including oil driven over $100 a barrel by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, high import tariffs and utility and some other costs rising due to the AI rollout.

Warsh, 56, won Trump’s backing for the job over the course of what became ​a year-long public audition among the top candidates – including one who will be seated alongside him on the Fed’s Board of Governors. Trump plans to swear Warsh in at 11 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) ​at the White House.

Warsh has laid out ambitious reform goals for a central bank he argues had begun to lose its way by the time he ⁠quit his former seat as a governor in 2011 in opposition to Fed bondbuying. Now, though, his first months may be consumed with a more pressing dilemma: Whether to raise interest rates to keep inflation ​from moving further beyond the Fed’s 2% target, or put his credibility as an inflation fighter, the quality he will ultimately be judged by, at risk from the outset.

“Inflation is the Fed’s choice,” Warsh said at ​a Senate confirmation hearing, with its control over short-term interest rates a lever it can use to boost or discourage spending, and in doing so try to keep inflation at a target the Fed has set at 2%. The Fed has missed its target for more than five years and is currently more than a percentage point above it.

But how to get inflation back down can involve hard choices that sometimes conflict with the policies and goals of the Trump administration, ​and sometimes with the Fed’s other aim of maximum employment. Warsh will be looking over his shoulder from the moment he takes the oath of office as the Fed’s 11th chair – at a global bond ​market that has begun bidding up interest rates in a sign of growing inflation concern, at colleagues who have already been setting expectations that higher rates may be needed, and at Trump, who has viewed rate hikes as a ‌political assault ⁠on his economic program and been mercilessly critical of outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering borrowing costs.

Warsh’s comments and approach to ongoing disputes surrounding the Fed, including a coming Supreme Court decision on Trump’s so far unsuccessful effort to fire Governor Lisa Cook, also will be watched and compared closely to Powell’s staunch defense of Fed independence.

The debate over policy is already at a high pitch, with Fed Governor Christopher Waller, a Trump appointee who was interviewed for the chair’s job, speaking on his policy views Friday ahead of Warsh’s swearing-in ceremony.

Waller, a longtime Fed staff veteran who has emerged as a key policy voice since being appointed ​to the board, has grown steadily more cautious about ​the need for rate cuts as inflation ⁠concerns have intensified. A further hawkish drift on his part could further reset market views that the Fed may need to raise interest rates in coming months, or at best keep the current rate in place for an extended time.

Trump soured on Powell within months of making him chair – over Warsh – in 2018. ​He calls him “too late” for not cutting interest rates even as tariffs and energy costs kept inflation above the Fed’s target this year. In recent ​comments, though, he seems to ⁠have given Warsh a grace period – and so far no nickname.

The Fed’s next meeting is on June 16-17 when policymakers vote on interest rates and also submit new economic projections.

One of Warsh’s first substantive decisions will be whether to submit a “dot” of where he thinks interest rates will be at the end of this year, and in doing so reveal whether his views are not so different from the colleagues he has slammed for “groupthink,” or become an ⁠outlier with views ​that could further confuse markets that are already driving up U.S. long-term interest rates.

The Fed’s monetary policy decisions influence an array ​of consumer-facing and politically sensitive interest rates like those on home mortgages, while its “choice” on inflation is now being made in the context of sticker shock over things like $4.50-per-gallon gasoline that are beyond its immediate reach.

Those have become visible reminders of Trump’s lack of ​progress on a key presidential promise that “starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again,” which is now in Warsh’s hands to deliver.

Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Chizu Nomiyama

5月21日，警察在洪都拉斯特鲁希略发生枪杀案的现场执行任务。 （法新社）

洪都拉斯北部沿海地区发生两起武装袭击事件，造成至少25人死亡，其中包括六名警察。

其中最致命的袭击发生在科隆省（Colon）特鲁希略市（Trujillo），星期四（5月21日）凌晨，19人在该地区被长枪射杀。该地区因争夺棕榈种植园和毒品走私路线而长期处于帮派火拼之中。

另一起袭击事件发生在靠近危地马拉边境的科尔特斯省（Guatemalan）奥莫阿（Omoa），国家警察报告称，缉毒小组与涉嫌贩毒分子发生冲突，造成五名警察和一个平民死亡。警察是在执行反黑帮任务的途中遇袭。

法新社报道，洪都拉斯这个中美洲国家正在严厉打击猖獗的帮派暴力活动。在洪都拉斯国民议会批准一系列旨在打击犯罪暴力的改革措施后，发生了这些袭击事件。洪都拉斯的凶杀率高达每10万居民24人。

新措施授权军方参与公共安全任务，并成立新的反有组织犯罪部门。此外，新措施还允许政府将帮派和贩毒集团列为恐怖组织。

洪都拉斯新任保守派总统纳斯里·阿斯富拉誓言将与美国总统特朗普合作，打击拉丁美洲的有组织犯罪。

5月21日，警察在洪都拉斯特鲁希略发生枪杀案的现场执行任务。 （法新社）

洪都拉斯北部沿海地区发生两起武装袭击事件，造成至少25人死亡，其中包括六名警察。

其中最致命的袭击发生在科隆省（Colon）特鲁希略市（Trujillo），星期四（5月21日）凌晨，19人在该地区被长枪射杀。该地区因争夺棕榈种植园和毒品走私路线而长期处于帮派火拼之中。

另一起袭击事件发生在靠近危地马拉边境的科尔特斯省（Guatemalan）奥莫阿（Omoa），国家警察报告称，缉毒小组与涉嫌贩毒分子发生冲突，造成五名警察和一个平民死亡。警察是在执行反黑帮任务的途中遇袭。

法新社报道，洪都拉斯这个中美洲国家正在严厉打击猖獗的帮派暴力活动。在洪都拉斯国民议会批准一系列旨在打击犯罪暴力的改革措施后，发生了这些袭击事件。洪都拉斯的凶杀率高达每10万居民24人。

新措施授权军方参与公共安全任务，并成立新的反有组织犯罪部门。此外，新措施还允许政府将帮派和贩毒集团列为恐怖组织。

洪都拉斯新任保守派总统纳斯里·阿斯富拉誓言将与美国总统特朗普合作，打击拉丁美洲的有组织犯罪。

‘Defund then abolish’: A leading Democrat in Wisconsin governor’s race urged abolishing police

2026-05-22T08:00:08.136Z / CNN

Years after mayors from Democratic cities reversed course on calls to defund police departments, one of the leading Democratic candidates for governor of Wisconsin is running with a starkly different record: she didn’t just back defunding police — she called to abolish them. And unlike many in her party, she has neither deleted those posts nor renounced them.

Francesca Hong has repeatedly called for abolishing police departments, according to a CNN KFile review of her social media posts, interviews and statements.

Hong, a 37-year-old state representative and democratic socialist, wrote on X in 2020 she supported “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.” She later argued in 2021 that “police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.”

She is competing in a crowded Democratic primary field that includes Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and state Sen. Kelda Roys for the right to face Republican US Rep. Tom Tiffany in the closely watched battleground state.

Hong and Barnes are the only candidates in double digits, 14% and 11% respectively, according to a Marquette Law School poll released in March. A significant share of potential Democratic primary voters – 65% – were still undecided.

Barnes himself saw his 2022 race for Senate bogged down for past comments, first reported by CNN, in which he signaled support for removing police funding. Barnes’ campaign told CNN then that he “does not support abolishing ICE or defunding the police.”

In a statement to CNN, Hong did not disavow her past support for abolishing police departments, calling it part of a “wider conversation around police abolition” rooted in her belief that “the current system is not working.” While she said she does not support “arbitrary cuts” to public safety budgets and would not pursue them as governor, she also questioned whether current police spending levels are an “optimal or efficient” use of resources.

Asked directly if she still supported police abolition, Hong said in a statement, “While I envision a world where public safety is not synonymous with law enforcement, I recognize that this paradigm shift is a very long term vision and my focus is building systems of care for now and for our future.”

Democrats’ reckoning with the defund the police movement came to a head after the 2020 election, when the party underperformed in House races and lost seats. In 2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared, quoting a fellow member of Congress, that “defund the police is dead.” Democratic candidates across the country have walked back their support for defunding the police, including Abdul El-Sayed, a leading candidate for Senate in Michigan who purged posts advocating the defund police movement.

Even past supporters and fellow democratic socialists in deep-blue cities have headed for the exits on the “abolish” and “defund” rhetoric. In Los Angeles, mayoral challenger Nithya Raman recently declared the city shouldn’t lose more cops, while in New York, Zohran Mamdani has explicitly told voters “I am not defunding the police.”

In a sign Republicans still see political potency in tying Democrats to the defund police message, this week Senate Republicans wrapped their push for the Secure America Act, a bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol, in warnings about “defund the police” Democrats.

Wisconsin Republicans have already begun highlighting Hong’s past rhetoric as they seek to paint her as too far left for the battleground state.

A former chef and restaurant owner, Hong entered politics in 2020 by launching a campaign in a crowded primary for a Wisconsin State Assembly seat representing parts of Madison. She successfully ran during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in part by leaning into her background as a small restaurant owner just as the culinary industry was hit hardest by the pandemic.

She is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

While Hong appears to have maintained previous posts calling to defund or abolish the police, she has deleted other posts.

Her Twitter bio, which for years placed her location as “Occupied Ho-Chunk Land” – a Native American people whose historic territory included parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois – was changed sometime after March 2023 to simply read “Wisconsin, USA.”

Hong told CNN that she occasionally updates her bio on social media, and she “wanted to acknowledge the full state rather than just my hometown” of Madison. “Any responsible elected official should recognize our relationship with our tribal neighbors,” she said.

In a since-deleted tweet from March 2020, Hong lamented that the White House invited the nation’s top fast-food chains. “This is who gets to talk policy about food …the folks who keep trump orange and fat. F**k,” she wrote.

Hong stood by the tweet, telling CNN, it is “uniquely frustrating” to watch fast food executives “whose sole purpose is increasing profit influencing health and food policy.”

She also deleted reposts with race-based jabs. “Peak white male privilege is declaring victory with 0% of precincts reporting 🥴,” she retweeted in February 2020.

She also deleted a repost that read, “You all can say ‘Chinese coronavirus’ as long as I can say ‘white racism.’”

Hong told CNN, “During a time when anti-Asian rhetoric from Trump specifically was causing violent attacks on people across the country, it was completely reasonable for people to call out racism.”

Even after assuming office in 2021, Hong maintained support for abolishing police.

In posts in 2021, Hong called to “abolish the police state” and argued that “reform has never been the answer.” In one radio interview, she claimed that police operate under a “false umbrella of providing law and order.”

While 47% of Americans embraced calls to shift funding away from police departments toward social services at the height of racial justice protests, according to a July 2020 Gallup poll, abolishing police departments remained a fringe position, with just 15% supporting the idea of abolishing police. By April 2021 an Axios/Ipsos poll found that just 27% of respondents supported the “defund the police” movement, with 70% opposed to it.

“To put that in perspective, 16% of all Americans have been in favor of their state seceding from the union to join another country. Additionally, 21% believe that polygamy is moral,” said Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst.

Some of the comments from Hong came after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020. Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot seven times by a White officer during an attempted arrest, sparking days of protests and unrest.

“When an institution can only respond in violence because it is so deeply rooted in maintaining a carcerel system upheld by white supremacy, the priority can and only be to work to abolish the institution,” she wrote on April 12, 2021.

Days later, Hong reposted calls to abolish police following the 2021 fatal shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by a Chicago police officer, amplifying a message that said: “Disarm. Defund. Dismantle. Abolish.”

Hong has continued to defend the broader rationale behind the movement.

Though she declined to say whether she still supported abolishing police, Hong did not directly reject the idea of defunding police when pressed on the issue during an April campaign interview.

“I think we have to make investments in what would help prevent crime —investments in communities, our public schools, community centers, public libraries. When there are limited resources, we have to look at where we can make cuts as well as where we can make investments,” she told a local TV news station in April.

But her past rhetoric was more explicit.

“@CityofMadison 1. Defund police 2. Defund police 3. Defund police 4. Defund police 5. Craft 2021 budget,” she wrote in one June 2020 tweet.

沙特媒体：美伊协议草案内容包括在所有战线实现停火

2026年5月22日 18:53 / 联合早报

沙特阿拉伯媒体报道，伊朗和美国“接近达成”协议草案，图为4月22日，人们在德黑兰的帕尔迪桑公园俯瞰城市美景。 （法新社）

据沙特阿拉伯阿拉比亚电视台报道，它独家获悉的伊朗和美国“接近达成”的协议草案内容包括，在所有战线立即、全面和无条件地实现停火。

电视台星期五（5月22日）的报道称，草案内容还包括承诺不以军事、民用或经济基础设施为攻击目标；停止军事行动并停止媒体战；尊重主权和领土完整以及不干涉内政；保障波斯湾、霍尔木兹海峡和阿曼湾航行自由；建立联合监督和冲突解决机制等。

新华社引述报道说，草案还提到“在七天内就悬而未决的问题展开谈判”，以及“逐步解除美国对伊朗的制裁，以换取伊朗遵守协议”。

阿拉比亚电视台引述消息人士的话说，协议将在伊美双方正式宣布后立即生效。

沙特媒体：美伊协议草案内容包括在所有战线实现停火

2026年5月22日 18:53 / 联合早报

沙特阿拉伯媒体报道，伊朗和美国“接近达成”协议草案，图为4月22日，人们在德黑兰的帕尔迪桑公园俯瞰城市美景。 （法新社）

据沙特阿拉伯阿拉比亚电视台报道，它独家获悉的伊朗和美国“接近达成”的协议草案内容包括，在所有战线立即、全面和无条件地实现停火。

电视台星期五（5月22日）的报道称，草案内容还包括承诺不以军事、民用或经济基础设施为攻击目标；停止军事行动并停止媒体战；尊重主权和领土完整以及不干涉内政；保障波斯湾、霍尔木兹海峡和阿曼湾航行自由；建立联合监督和冲突解决机制等。

新华社引述报道说，草案还提到“在七天内就悬而未决的问题展开谈判”，以及“逐步解除美国对伊朗的制裁，以换取伊朗遵守协议”。

阿拉比亚电视台引述消息人士的话说，协议将在伊美双方正式宣布后立即生效。

Primary fight in key California Latino district highlights questions over Democratic Party’s future

2026-05-22T06:00:05-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/primary-fight-california-latino-district-democratic-party-bains-villegas-valadeo/

Washington — The latest fight over the direction of the Democratic Party is playing out in a competitive California congressional primary, as progressives accuse party leaders of trying to muscle a moderate past a Latino challenger in one of the state’s most heavily Hispanic districts.

The late intervention by the House Democrats’ campaign arm has touched off an unusually public and persistent intraparty feud that began when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee earlier this month added moderate California State Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains to its “Red to Blue” program. The program unlocks fundraising and organizational support for candidates the DCCC believes are best positioned to flip Republican-held U.S. House seats in November.

“This is just another perfect example of D.C. elites and industry being out of touch with what people are actually feeling on the ground,” Randy Villegas, the progressive challenging Bains in the race, told CBS News.

The two Democrats are competing to take on Republican Rep. David Valadao in a Central Valley district that the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rates a toss-up. The seat is seen as “the heaviest Democratic lift” of the five Republican-held California seats that were redrawn in the redistricting plan California voters approved last year.

The DCCC’s decision to intervene in the race highlights disagreements within the party over whether to back moderates or progressives. It also sends a mixed message about Democrats’ efforts to regain ground among Latino voters after Republicans made inroads in 2024. The dispute is playing out in a district that Democrats view as essential to winning control of the House.

A question of electability

The DCCC has defended its decision as the surest way to win a seat that could prove crucial to retaking the House.

DCCC chair Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington praised Bains’ record as a Bakersfield physician and her overperformance in her 2024 state House race, where she ran more than seven points ahead of the top of the ticket. Bains has won twice in her state legislative district, which overlaps heavily with the 22nd Congressional District.

DelBene said Bains would fight to “lower costs, expand access to health care, and strengthen public safety.”

The DCCC’s Red to Blue program is also backing candidates with broader support, like retired firefighter and union leader Bob Brooks, who just won the primary in Pennsylvania’s 7th District. Brooks had the backing of progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the Working Families Party and the moderate Blue Dog PAC.

Villegas, meanwhile, has picked up support from leading progressives, including Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Progressive leader David Hogg has campaigned for Villegas, and contends that Bains’ fundraising and grassroots footprint don’t support the committee’s electability argument.

“There’s really no case to be made that she’s stronger,” Hogg said to CBS News.

“Randy is the stronger Democratic candidate in fundraising, endorsements and campaign momentum,” Hogg added. “And yet, the DCCC is backing a candidate who was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans against Prop 50, shares nearly 60 corporate donors with the Republican incumbent, and couldn’t even show up to a vote forcing ICE agents to remove their masks. I mean, what are we even doing here?”

Bains’ supporters see her standing in her current legislative district as a boon. Delano city council member Mario Nunez, who said he’s known Bains since before she ran for the state assembly, told CBS News that Bains has shown in the race that she “cared about what really mattered to Delano and people in the Valley.”

Bains declined to be interviewed, but said in a statement she’s proud to have the DCCC’s support.

Villegas seems unfazed by any concern that he’s too progressive to win the seat. He said his campaign has seen “a surge of support, both locally and all across the country.” He pointed to recent polling from Data for Progress, a group supporting his candidacy, showing him leading the Democratic field heading into California’s June 2 primary.

The Data for Progress poll shows the leading primary candidate is Valadeo. California uses a “jungle” primary system in which the top two finishers advance to November regardless of party.

Democrats Jasmeet Bains and Randy Villegas are running against Republican Rep. David Valadeo for California’s 22nd Congressional District. Jasmeet Bains / Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Connor Treacy / Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

A Latino flashpoint

Villegas, the son of immigrants, called the DCCC’s intervention a slight to Latino voters in a district that is approximately 70% Latino. That figure was amplified after Proposition 50, California’s voter-approved mid-decade redistricting plan, changed the district’s boundaries and now juts from Bakersfield to the Fresno region.

“We’re the most Latino district here in California after Prop 50, and it’s one of the most important districts to make sure we take back control of the House,” Villegas told CBS News. “Fortunately for us, D.C. insiders don’t get to choose who represents the Valley in Congress. Voters do.”

He argued the episode reinforces a broader complaint among Hispanic Democrats — that the party has repeatedly underinvested in Latino communities even as it tries to win back voters who shifted toward Mr. Trump in 2024.

“The Democratic Party has taken Latino communities for granted,” Villegas said. “Far too late, far too little for Latino communities. And this is just another example of that.”

The Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, in a joint statement from co-chairs including Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Greg Casar of Texas and Maxwell Frost of Florida, said it “disagrees with the DCCC’s decision to attempt to tip the scales in this race.”

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ campaign arm called Latino voters “central” to the fight for the House majority and pledged to stand with Villegas “every step of the way.”

Republicans pounce

The National Republican Congressional Committee, House Republicans’ campaign arm, pointed to the 22nd District — along with the Pennsylvania race where Brooks took on Hispanic Democrat Carol Obando-Derstine — as evidence that national Democrats are “sidelining Latino voices in favor of handpicked establishment picks.”

NRCC Chair Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina told the committee’s members in a recent briefing that “Hispanic voters are the most important voting bloc” heading into the midterms.

The NRCC is highlighting a slate of Hispanic Republican candidates in battleground districts, including former federal prosecutor Eric Flores, longtime Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina in Texas and Marine veteran Greg Cunningham in New Mexico. If elected, they would join Hispanic GOP incumbents including Reps. María Elvira Salazar of Florida, Monica De La Cruz of Texas, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, Gabe Evans of Colorado and Nicole Malliotakis of New York.

The DCCC has also touted its recruitment of Latino contenders in other frontline districts, including in Texas’ newly redrawn 15th District, where the Democratic nominee is moderate candidate and Tejano music star Bobby Pulido. He will face off against De La Cruz in the general election.

Recent polling suggests Democrats’ historical advantage with Hispanic voters has narrowed. A recent Economist/YouGov survey put Democrats just two points ahead of Republicans among Hispanic voters on the generic congressional ballot, down from a 40-point edge in 2018 and a nine-point edge as recently as 2024.

Mr. Trump carried roughly half of the Hispanic vote in 2024, a 12-point improvement over 2020, and flipped longtime Democratic strongholds along the South Texas border. The president also carried more than half of Latino men in 2024, exit polls showed.

But more recent data show slipping support for President Trump. The latest CBS News poll, conducted May 13–15, found Mr. Trump’s job approval among Hispanic voters at just 34%, with 66% disapproving. That marks a sharp drop from the roughly half who approved of the job he was doing at the start of his second term, with affordability and inflation the dominant concerns.

Approval of the administration’s hardline deportation program among Hispanics has fallen by a similar magnitude over the same stretch, the CBS News analysis found. Latinos now say they prefer the Democrats’ approach to both the economy and immigration.

Still, Villegas warns that Democratic leaders may be out of step with the district.

“Democratic insiders need to understand that we can’t just offer people ‘not Trump,’” Villegas said. “We have to be willing to offer people a vision for something better.”

‘It will also be a very nice WIN for the Republican Party. Take it!’ Trump asserted

By Alex Nitzberg Fox News

Published May 22, 2026 6:07am EDT

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President Donald Trump is championing the prospect of putting the kibosh on twice-annual clock changes by making daylight saving time permanent.

A bill to make daylight saving time permanent has been folded into a larger measure that the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced in a 48-1 vote on Thursday.

“Big Vote today (48-1!) in the Energy and Commerce Committee on a Bill including The Sunshine Protection Act, which will be making Daylight Saving Time Permanent! This is so important in that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are spent every year by people, Cities, and States, being forced to change their Clocks. Many of these Clocks are located in Towers, and the cost of renting, or using, Heavy Equipment to do this twice a year is prohibitive!” Trump wrote in a Thursday Truth Social post.

TRUMP SAYS CONGRESS SHOULD PUSH ‘FOR MORE DAYLIGHT AT THE END OF A DAY’

President Donald Trump arrives to the commencement ceremony on Cadet Memorial Field at the United States Coast Guard Academy on May 20, 2026, in New London, Connecticut.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production. It will also be a very nice WIN for the Republican Party. Take it! We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!” the president declared.

Rep. Vern Buchanan’s, R-Fla., office noted in a Thursday press release that “The Sunshine Protection Act was included as a provision within an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute (AINS) to the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act, which was marked up and sent to the House floor by the House Energy and Commerce Committee today.”

FLORIDA GOP REP VERN BUCHANAN TO RETIRE, ADDING TO WAVE OF HOUSE EXITS

Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Republican from Florida, during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The push is actually bipartisan.

“The legislation has 32 bipartisan cosponsors in the House, and Senate companion legislation (S. 29) introduced by Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has 18 bipartisan cosponsors,” Buchanan’s release noted.

The proposal would not compel a state that is not observing daylight saving time to start observing it.

In a Truth Social post last year, Trump called for Congress to address the issue.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS: IT’S ABOUT THE SUNLIGHT

A Trump-branded clock tower at Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles, in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California, Feb. 22, 2026.(Jay L Clendenin/Getty Images)

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“The House and Senate should push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day. Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!” he declared in an April 2025 post.

Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6360664094112

谷立言称郑丽文访美或被问政党取向 蓝：反台独符合美利益

2026年5月22日 17:02 / 联合早报

美国在台协会（AIT）处长谷立言指出，国民党主席郑丽文预计6月访美，届时美国可能会关注国民党是否正在调整政治路线。国民党文传会主委尹乃菁回应说，郑丽文访美时将重申国民党一贯立场，即遵循“中华民国”宪法、反对台独，并强调这一立场符合美国国家利益及台海稳定。

综合台湾《自由时报》和Newtalk新闻网报道，谷立言受访时说，目前暂无郑丽文访美行程细节可公布，但相信美国相关机构会关切，国民党领导层是否正从根本上改变政党政治取向，而此次访美正是一次“释疑”的机会。

对此，尹乃菁星期五（5月22日）在国民党中央党部受访时回应称，美国总统特朗普已公开表明不支持台独，美国不会为台独而战，而国民党长期坚持“维护中华民国宪政体制、遵循中华民国宪法、反对台独”的立场，这符合美国国家利益并有助于维持两岸关系稳定。

她指出，无论是对美政策还是对陆政策，国民党的核心目标都是稳定台海局势、维护区域和平与世界和平；在此前提下，郑丽文访美时将清楚说明国民党一贯主张与立场。

对于谷立言提到，多数美国人仍将国民党与蒋介石时代的“反共”立场联系在一起，尹乃菁反问，谷立言作为AIT处长，是否应先问问特朗普“反的是什么样的共”，并称中美元首会谈中一个重要共识，就是尊重彼此不同制度选择与发展道路。