共和党众议员莉兹·切尼(Liz Cheney)以145票对61票保持了她在众议院共和党领袖中的地位，使她保持在第三位，尽管她上个月投票弹劾了前总统唐纳德·特朗普。

特朗普在众议院最热情的支持者发起了一场持续数周的运动将切尼赶下台，声称她没有代表共和党大会投票。

但即使是她最强硬的批评者也私下承认，她将在无记名投票中保留自己的席位，这让成员们有机会匿名支持她。

切尼告诉共和党人，她希望在周三的会议上就她的领导能力进行投票，因为共和党人还召集会议讨论众议员马乔里·泰勒·格林(Marjorie Taylor Greene)过去宣扬一系列阴谋论的言论。

加州众议院少数党领袖凯文·麦卡锡希望明年夺回多数党和议长的小木槌，他支持切尼，也拒绝了惩罚格林的呼吁，以保持他脆弱的联盟团结一致反对民主党和乔·拜登的议程。

周三晚上，众议院批准了一项预算决议，该决议将允许众议院通过和解进程推进冠状病毒救助计划，这将使参议院的民主党人能够以简单的多数票通过该措施。

众议院以218票对212票批准了这项措施，这实际上是一次党派投票，共和党人投票反对指示委员会开始起草救济立法的措施。

预计参议院将于周四批准其版本的决议，从而在没有共和党人跟进的情况下推进通过新冠肺炎纾困的进程拜登最近的会议共和党参议员对他们的精简救济提案。

周三，总统告诉民主党人，他愿意在下一轮纾困立法中就谁应该接受刺激检查达成妥协，但不想低于白宫提议的1400美元。

美国国防部新闻秘书约翰·科比(John Kirby)周三对记者表示，国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀(Lloyd Austin)周三上午会见了各军种部长、军种首长和参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利(Mark Milley)，讨论了军队中的“极端主义”问题。

奥斯汀导演了全服务范围的“下台”，这意味着军队中的每个单位将有60天的时间来计划一天，在这一天他们可以谈论军队中的极端主义。这是在整个军队中以交错的方式进行的，以免影响军事行动。
科比说:“他希望这次下台能实现两件事:他希望指挥官能够与他们的男女直接沟通，了解国防部对从极端主义和白人至上主义信仰中获利的行为的期望。”“第二，他希望他们也能倾听，并试图从我们的男性和女性那里了解问题的范围，他们看到了什么，他们感觉到了什么，以及这如何影响他们。”

拜登就职已经两周了，到目前为止参议院已经确认了他的六项提名内阁提名人。

拜登提名的环境保护局局长迈克尔·里根(Michael Regan)周三下午在参议院环境和公共工程委员会(Senate Environment and Public Works Committee)举行听证会。如果得到确认，他将是第一位管理环保局的非裔美国人。

周三，参议院卫生、教育、劳工和养老金委员会也审议了米格尔·卡多纳(Miguel Cardona)担任教育部长的提名。如果被提名者离开他们的委员会，他们将获得全票。

 

 

布兰登·贝尔/路透社

迈克尔·里根在参议院环境和公共工程委员会听证会上作证

 

 

苏珊·沃尔什/泳池/法新社通过盖蒂图像

米格尔·卡多纳在被确认为教育部长后，被妻子拥抱

当天早些时候，参议院能源和自然资源委员会以13票对4票批准了密歇根州前州长詹妮弗·格兰霍尔姆(Jennifer Granholm)对能源部长的提名。

当天早些时候，参议院商务委员会还就罗德岛州州长吉娜·雷蒙多(Gina Raimondo)担任下一任商务部长的提名举行了15分钟的听证会，并以21票对3票批准她退出委员会。

周三被问及拜登的内阁确认新闻发布会白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基(Jen Psaki)表示，他的提名“肯定”推迟了，他说，“他们中的一些人在早期的时候节奏比他们应该的要慢”，并呼吁共和党人到目前为止阻止候任司法部长梅里克·加兰的听证会。

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is keeping her place in House GOP leadership after Republicans voted 145-61 to keep her in the No. 3 position, despite her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump last month. 

Trump's most ardent supporters in the House waged a weeks-long campaign to oust Cheney from her post, arguing that she didn't represent the GOP conference with her vote. 

But even her toughest critics privately acknowledged that she would retain her seat in a secret ballot vote, which gave members the opportunity to throw their support behind her anonymously. 

Cheney told Republicans she wanted a vote on her leadership in Wednesday's meeting, as Republicans also convened to discuss Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's past comments promoting a range of conspiracy theories. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who is hoping to reclaim the majority and speaker's gavel next year, threw his support behind Cheney and has also resisted calls to punish Greene -- in a bid to keep his fragile coalition united against Democrats and Joe Biden's agenda.

The House on Wednesday night approved a budget resolution that would allow the chamber to advance a coronavirus relief package through the reconciliation process, which would allow Democrats in the Senate to pass the measure with a simple majority vote. 

The House voted 218-212 to approve the measure, effectively a party line vote, with Republicans voting against the measure that instructs committees to begin crafting the relief legislation. 

The Senate is expected to approve its version of the resolution on Thursday, advancing the process to pass COVID-19 relief without Republicans following Biden's recent meeting with GOP senators over their slimmed-down relief proposal. 

The president told Democrats on Wednesday that he's willing to compromise on who should receive stimulus checks in the next round of relief legislation, but doesn't want to come down from the $1400 proposed by the White House.
 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met Wednesday morning with the service secretaries, service chiefs and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley to discuss the issue of "extremism" in the military, Defense Department press secretary John Kirby told reporters Wednesday.

Austin has directed a service-wide "stand down," which means each unit in the military will have 60 days to plan a day where they can talk about extremism in the ranks. It's done in a staggered fashion across the military services so as to not affect military operations.

"He wants this stand down to accomplish two things: He wants commands to be able to communicate directly with their men and women on what the Department's expectations are with respect to behavior that buys itself from extremist and white supremacy beliefs," Kirby said. "Number two, he wants them to also listen and try to gain insight from our men and women as well about the scope of the problem from their view, what they're seeing, what they're feeling, how it's affecting them."

It's been two weeks Biden's inauguration and the Senate has so far confirmed six of his Cabinet nominees.

Michael Regan, Biden's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency -- who would be the first African American man to run the EPA, if confirmed -- sat before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for a hearing Wednesday afternoon.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions also considered the nomination of Miguel Cardona for education secretary Wednesday. If the nominees move out of their committees, they'll receive full floor votes.

Earlier in the day, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's nomination for Energy Secretary in a 13-4 vote.

The Senate Commerce Committee also had a 15-minute hearing earlier in the day on the nomination of Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as the next commerce secretary and approved her out of the committee in a 21-3 vote. 

Asked about Biden's Cabinet confirmations at Wednesday's press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said there has "certainly" been a delay in the confirmation of his nominees, saying, "Some of them were slower-paced than they should have been, early on," and calling out Republicans for so far blocking a hearing for Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland.