After two years of negotiations, the U.S. and Iran solidified an agreement in September to swap prisoners and allow Iran to access $6 billion in frozen assets. The deal was met with some support — proof that adversarial countries can reach an agreement — but also a fair amount of skepticism due to perceived enabling of an antagonistic country. For its part, the White House defended the move as a step toward reuniting families. “The president is making five families whole again,” a White House official told reporters following the official swap of the five American prisoners, plus two family…

President Joe Biden wants oil companies to share the wealth as they reap historic profits — or at least use the revenue to boost domestic energy production and help American consumers at the pump. Amid rising gas prices this fall, the president announced plans for an oil and gas windfall tax if domestic energy producers do not invest some of their profits back into the economy to bring prices down. American oil companies saw profits increase after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which made the world more reliant on U.S. energy supplies due to embargoes on Russian fuel. “It’s time for…

In February, the House passed legislation aimed at bolstering America’s competitiveness with China and strengthening the country’s supply chain. A companion bill passed the Senate in June 2021 but is now caught up in a partisan divide and larger debate over how to handle America’s technology industry and the country’s economic policy toward China. The America COMPETES Act (H.R. 4521) passed in a 222-210 vote, with one Republican voting in favor and one Democrat voting no. The bill includes $52 million to support the domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, the computer chips that are often used in cars and computers. The…

The House voted in June to repeal the 2002 Iraq War authorization. The measure repealing the authorization to use military force (AUMF) passed by a vote of 268-161 and received overwhelming support from Democrats and 49 Republicans. The 2002 AUMF allowed the George W. Bush administration to invade Iraq over suspicions that the country was developing weapons of mass destruction. The invasion toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s government but also led to what some have called a “forever war,” with American troops still in the country nearly two decades later. The 2002 AUMF came a year after Congress passed…

In December 2014, President Obama announced that the United States would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, thereby ending one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. Since then, the Administration has opened an embassy in Havana and removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The Administration also made it much easier for Americans who fit into one of 12 approved categories to travel to Cuba (including for educational, religious, cultural, journalistic, or family purposes). Longtime restrictions on tourist travel remain in place, however; Cuba is the only country U.S. citizens are barred from visiting as tourists….