Politics

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s only Republican congressional seat is open for the first time in 15 years, and the primary is testing Republican voters’ appetite for a veteran politician or a newcomer with President Donald Trump’s backing.

Republican Rep. Mark Amodei announced his retirement earlier this year, creating an opening in the state’s 2nd District, which covers all of northern Nevada. He and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo are backing former state Sen. James Settelmeyer against retired Lt. Col. David Flippo, who has never held elected office but won the endorsement of Trump and key allies in his MAGA movement. The primary is Tuesday.

Republicans boast a large registration advantage in the district, and experts and strategists are watching the race for clues about how much influence Trump continues to hold over the party’s voters as he enters the last half of his final term. Nevada Democrats, meanwhile, say they’ll try to flip the seat despite the uphill climb and think Flippo could be an easier opponent because his ties to Trump could turn off nonpartisan voters in the swing county of Washoe, home to Reno.

Settelmeyer became a frontrunner when he entered the race with nearly two decades of political experience in the Legislature and state government. But Flippo quickly gained attention when he switched from a congressional race in southern Nevada. He began renting a house to run for the seat and brought with him endorsements from well-known conservative groups like Turning Point Action, founded by the late political activist Charlie Kirk.

Trump endorsed Flippo last week after both candidates had been fighting to show their ties to the president. Settelmeyer had been a co-chair of Trump’s 2024 Nevada campaign.

“I love the State — The People are special! I will never let you down and, with David Flippo, I am just adding to that Statement,” Trump posted on his social media.

The candidates have focused on the economy, water and land use — a major issue in Nevada where the majority of land is owned by the federal government — and they agree on many policies. That means their personalities and resumes have also been at the center of the campaign.

Flippo, a financial adviser, entered the race after well-known Nevada conservative figures declined to run, saying the race needed a “strong conservative.”

He’s focused his attacks on Settelmeyer’s voting record, including Settelmeyer’s support for allowing immigrants living in the country illegally to drive.

“I’m strong on my values, I’m stronger on the conservative principles, and I don’t have the voting record,” Flippo said in a recent interview.

But Settelmeyer says his legislative record proves he understands the state and how to govern. He served in both the Senate and Assembly and as director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. He’s pledged to regularly commute back to Nevada from Washington, as Amodei did.

“It’s just very important that at the end of the day, that northern Nevada chooses a northern Nevadan to go to DC to represent northern Nevada,” Settelmeyer recently told a small crowd in Washoe Valley.

He’s emphasized that message by pointing to Flippo’s recent move to the district as well as his lack of political experience. Flippo ran in the Republican primary for Nevada’s 4th District in 2024 and lost.

“Twenty years ago, we would have said this race is probably a shoe-in for the more experienced candidate,” said Jeremy Gelman, a political science professor at the University of Nevada in Reno. “The way Republican primary politics have evolved, that’s not the case anymore.”

Part of Amodei’s success was his ability to both support Trump’s agenda while occasionally speaking against him, said Fred Lokken, political science professor at the Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno.

He was the first House Republican to support an impeachment inquiry into Trump in 2019, though he ultimately voted against impeachment. He spoke critically of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year and opposed efforts to defund public broadcasting in 2025.

In Senate primaries in Louisiana and Texas, Trump’s support played a big role in the outcome, Gelman said. Trump is determining who will help get his top issues over the finish line in the last two years of his term, and likely viewed Flippo as a better ally because his campaign is focused on more national issues.

Flippo has the backing of national Republicans closely affiliated with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, such as former Rep. Matt Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus Fund, the political action committee for the hard-right conservative bloc of House Republicans. Trump, in his endorsement, noted Flippo has the backing of “the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Nevada.”

Settelmeyer’s campaign, meanwhile, said northern Nevada voters “deserve a representative who knows our issues, understands our communities, and has the experience to represent them in Washington, not someone who only moved here when a political opportunity opened up.”

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By Nandita Bose and Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will travel on Friday to central Wisconsin where his Republican Party hopes to hold on to a congressional seat in this year’s midterm elections.

The stop in Chippewa Falls highlights the Wisconsin seat’s crucial role in Republicans’ strategy to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, as the party faces political headwinds with voters frustrated by higher costs of living amid the United States’ conflict with Iran. 

The president on Wednesday said that progress in negotiations with Iran could come within the next few days, but hope for a resolution has come and gone several times since the conflict began more than three months ago. 

The district’s incumbent, Representative Derrick Van Orden, is closely aligned with the president and touts the Trump administration’s focus on rural America as a benefit.

But Van Orden won reelection in 2024 by less than three points, making him a top target for national Democrats who hope to flip the slim 217-212 Republican House majority.  

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump vowed to cut inflation, but prices have risen following Trump’s sweeping tariffs enacted last year and the Iran war’s effect on energy prices. 

U.S. consumer sentiment dropped to a record low in May, as disrupted shipping in the Middle East caused a surge in gas prices. Wisconsin’s average gas price of $4.04 per gallon this week is $1.08 higher than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. 

The political implications of energy costs do not create more pressure to reach a peace deal with Iran, Trump said recently.

“They thought they were going to outwait me,” Trump said at a White House cabinet meeting last week, referring to Iran’s leadership. “You know, ‘We’ll outwait ​him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms.”

Trump’s Wisconsin trip is at least the fourth visit to this district by top administration officials in the last year, following visits by Vice President JD Vance in August and February, and a stop by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this week. 

(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Sergio Non and Cynthia Osterman)

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By Nolan D. McCaskill and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) – Seven Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Friday joined Democrats to block debate on reauthorization of an expiring foreign surveillance law.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will expire on June 12 without congressional action. But a vote to begin debate failed early Friday, 47-52. Only one Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted in favor of it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune lamented that nearly every Democrat opposed the procedural vote. But the vote nonetheless represented a significant setback for Republicans, who narrowly control both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Democrats have taken issue with President Donald Trump’s appointment of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, despite his lack of national security experience.

Thune said the Trump administration will have to consider whether Pulte’s role is an impediment to extending the warrantless domestic surveillance powers measure, which Congress voted to extend for 45 days on April 30. 

“Next week, it gets real,” Thune told reporters. “A few days from now … the program goes dark. I just think that would be a dangerous mistake for the country. Hopefully, responsible folks will come to the table and at least help us figure this out.”

While the timing of Pulte’s appointment “arguably wasn’t the best,” Thune said, “I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important.” 

The setback marked one more development that saw some Senate Republicans balking at a range of Trump initiatives, including his push for $1 billion in funding to help him build a 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom and establish a $1.776 billion fund that he could use to funnel money to his political allies who claim they have been mistreated by the government.

Polls show a lack of public support at a time when voters want Washington to do something to ease a rising rate of inflation that is partially the result of the United States’ war with Iran that has hampered the international movement of oil.

(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill. Editing by Michael Learmonth and Chizu Nomiyama )

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WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Friday he wants acting director of national intelligence Bill Pulte to begin the process of firing a large number of employees as part of a shake-up of the U.S. intelligence community. 

Trump told the Journal he privately told Pulte that he believes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees 18 federal intelligence agencies and units, is “unnecessary and or too big.”

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump was quoted as saying.

The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Trump tapped Pulte to take over as interim director of national intelligence when Tulsi Gabbard leaves the post on June 30.

On Thursday, Trump indicated he will not nominate mortgage regulator Pulte to be the nation’s intelligence chief once his temporary appointment expires early next year.

Pulte has faced a backlash from Democrats and some key senators of his Republican Party over the Trump loyalist’s lack of national security experience.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; additional Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; editing by Susan Heavey)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats competing over a coveted congressional district in Manhattan slugged it out during a heated debate Thursday night, sparring over big tech and who would be President Donald Trump’s toughest foe.

But it was Alex Bores — a state lawmaker whose plans to regulate artificial intelligence has led to a flurry of industry spending both against and in support of him — who was the prime target.

Within moments, state Assembly Member Micah Lasher suggested Bores would be beholden to the big tech players who support his campaign.

“Alex only wants to tell you half the story, about one AI company that’s spending millions to defeat him, and that’s bad,” Lasher said. “But he’s not telling you the story about Anthropic, which is spending a million dollars to elect him, or a crypto billionaire who is spending $3.5 million to send him to Congress,” Lasher continued.

Soon after, Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, made a similar claim, arguing that Bores’ proposed artificial intelligence regulation “is a dream come true” for tech companies because it would give them too much control.

Bores responded: “With friends like these, who needs Republicans?”

“The Trump disinformation is coming from inside the party,” said Bores, a former data scientist at the tech firm Palantir who says he quit after it signed a deal to help the first Trump administration with immigration enforcement.

The debate, hosted by local cable channel PIX11, came with just weeks to go before the June 23 primary for the District 12 congressional seat soon to vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler. The district includes the upscale neighborhoods bordering Central Park and Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered safely Democratic, with the Democratic primary regarded as the race’s deciding contest.

Nadler’s retirement announcement resulted in a wave of Democrats launching campaigns, though the ranks of challengers have somewhat thinned.

Nadler has endorsed Lasher, a former staffer who has held several behind-the-scenes posts in New York government before becoming a lawmaker in the state Assembly.

Schlossberg, whose zany social media antics and Kennedy lineage brought national eyes to the race, has cast himself as an fresh face to a party searching for stars during Trump’s second term.

George Conway, who was once married to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway before becoming a leading antagonist of the president, is running a campaign centered on removing Trump from office.

Bores entered the race without the fanfare of a Kennedy or a Conway but has since become a major player after an artificial intelligence-aligned group started spending to hobble his campaign. The spending has seemed to elevate his campaign, rather than damage him, helping Bores frame himself as the candidate who wants to regulate a technology that has unnerved many Americans worried about impacts such as job losses.

Throughout the debate, Bores, who sponsored state legislation to require major AI developers to report dangerous incidents to the state, fended off attacks.

After one tense exchange, he moved to respond but was cut short so the broadcast could take a commercial break. Three of the five commercials were about Bores, a signal of the glut of spending in the race.

The first ad, paid for by the AI-backed Think Big PAC, claimed Bores was “bought and sold” by corporate interests. The following two ads were supportive of Bores, with one featuring a robotic voice that identified itself as “the AI super PAC funded by Trump’s megadonors designed to destroy Alex Bores,” and the other casting Bores as a champion of the working class.

“You’ve seen tonight that I’m nothing like the incessant text and mailers and TV ads that are being sent out to demonize me. But I am terrifying to Trump’s megadonors and apparently to my opponents as well,” Bores said when the debate resumed.

Conway, meanwhile, lamented the combative nature of the night.

“What we saw here tonight was something that Democrats sometimes do a little too well, which was a circular, or really a triangular firing squad, and I think that’s a shame,” he said.

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SAN FELIPE PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) — As the sun peeked over the Sandia Mountains, Deb Haaland was at a familiar spot, the tribal community where she used to work, waving at motorists and encouraging them to stop and vote in New Mexico’s primary.

It was the final day of voting earlier this week, and Haaland was embracing friends and former colleagues at San Felipe Pueblo where she was once a tribal administrator. She talked food, family and handcrafted silver jewelry with Pueblo women who have watched her political ascent with pride and are hoping to see her become the first Native woman to become a governor in the U.S.

Before the day was over, Haaland, who is a citizen of Laguna Pueblo, secured the Democratic nomination for New Mexico governor. Through her time in Congress and as U.S. Interior secretary, she has broken historical barriers. She’s now on the cusp of achieving another milestone, if she can defeat Republican Gregg Hull in November.

The odds are in Haaland’s favor, given the state’s leftward tilt over the last decade. But Hull, a former three-time mayor, says New Mexico needs a regime shift after years of Democratic rule to tackle longstanding problems such as dismal educational outcomes, high crime and poverty.

The next governor will inherit longstanding challenges and navigate policies rolled out by the Trump administration. Haaland mentioned President Donald Trump immediately in her primary victory speech Tuesday night and has blamed him for making life more expensive for New Mexicans by cutting key federal safety net programs.

In a memoir set for release this month, she said Trump’s reelection motivated her to run for governor, a position she sees as the “first line of defense against the worst policies coming out of this administration.”

Hull made no mention of Trump in his speech. He took aim at Haaland’s past opposition to the oil and gas industry, which bankrolls everything from education to free childcare in New Mexico, the No. 2 producer of oil in the U.S. behind Texas.

Haaland has said the revenue would factor into her affordability agenda and credited the industry for providing good-paying jobs. A supporter of the Green New Deal that called for shifting the economy away from fossil fuels, Haaland was often grilled during congressional hearings about her views on drilling.

“It’s a choice between an energy policy that’s built on common sense and not one that’s built on ideologies,” Hull said Tuesday night. “New Mexico is an energy state.”

Haaland said the country is long overdue for a female Native governor. Oklahoma is the only state that has elected a tribal citizen as governor and did so twice, in the early 1950s with Democrat Johnston Murray and now with Republican Kevin Stitt.

“I feel so strongly that representation matters,” Haaland said. “I mean, that’s what got me into politics in the first place, is because I wanted more Native people to vote.”

Hull said he respects that Haaland served as one of the first two Native American women in Congress and was the first Native American to be a U.S. Cabinet secretary. But he said Democratic policies have failed New Mexico.

Before a cheering crowd at Hull’s election night party, David Bearshield, who is Cheyanne and Arapaho, wrapped Hull and his wife each with a Pendleton blanket in a symbol of support and a reminder that Native people are not politically monolithic.

Some Native voters and tribal governments prefer more conservative candidates, especially when it comes to energy development, Bearshield said. He pointed to an ongoing fight beyond the borders of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, where some Navajos oppose a moratorium on oil and gas drilling that Haaland imposed as Interior secretary.

“It doesn’t have to be like that,” Bearshield said. “Those people don’t have to be in poverty.”

Advocacy groups see Haaland’s candidacy as a fresh opportunity to raise the profile of tribes and ensure they’re part of the decision-making process. But Haaland is familiar with both the increased visibility and scrutiny that come with representing often overlooked communities, said Jordan James Harvill with the advocacy group Advance Native Political Leadership.

“The weight on her is the weight to solve 500 years of colonization,” he said. “It’s just because there’s been so few of us.”

Harvill’s group has been working to change that, building up a presence on county commissions and in statehouses with the recruitment of more than 1,000 Native Americans interested in serving their communities. The group also was part of a coalition that pressed the Biden administration to tap Haaland as Interior secretary.

On primary night, mariachi melodies and hoop dancers set the tone at Albuquerque’s historic Old Town plaza where campaign staff and supporters celebrated a decisive primary victory by “Auntie Deb,” as she’s affectionately known in some corners of Indian Country.

When Haaland took the stage in beaded earrings and red cowboy boots to accept the nomination, Ann Chavez Barudin of Santo Domingo Pueblo watched from the crowd. She saw herself, her mother and her daughters reflected in the candidate.

“It’s emotional. It’s powerful,” Chavez Barudin said. “I didn’t think I would ever see this day happen.”

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday to provide aid to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia, the latest sign that some Republicans are willing to defy party leaders and push back against President Donald Trump.

The House voted 226 to 195 for the Ukraine Support Act, which reached the floor after languishing for months. A handful of Republicans joined Democrats in signing a discharge petition to force the vote.

On Thursday, 18 Republicans and one independent who normally votes with them joined Democrats to pass the bill. It was the latest sign of a crack in what had been virtually unanimous support among members of Trump’s party for his policies.

Passage came a day after a smaller group of House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a resolution that would force the withdrawal of troops from hostilities with Iran unless Congress declares war or orders the use of military force.

Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, in a post on X called the decision ‘an important step forward and (which) reflects continued bipartisan support for Ukraine’.

FUTURE OF SUPPORT ACT UNCERTAIN

However, the future of the Ukraine Support Act is uncertain. To become law it must be passed in the Senate, whose Republican leaders have not allowed votes on Russia sanctions legislation that has broad bipartisan support, saying they would wait for Trump’s guidance.

If it did pass the Senate, the bill would likely be vetoed by Trump. 

While many members of Congress from both parties strongly supported Ukraine in the first years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, some of Trump’s closest Republican allies – including House and Senate leadership – have grown cooler towards Kyiv since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

The president has also kept decisions on sanctions at the White House, not Congress, since starting his second term.

U.S. aid to the Kyiv government has slowed sharply even as Russia and Ukraine have been pummeling each other ⁠with missiles, drones and artillery. Peace talks are stalled, with Ukraine rejecting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that it surrender territory it has successfully defended since 2022.

The Ukraine Support Act includes measures to help Ukraine rebuild after the war, authorizes more than $1 billion in assistance for Kyiv, and up to $8 billion in support via direct loans.

It also imposes stiff sanctions and export controls on Russia, including on financial institutions, oil and mining and Russian officials.      

The passage comes as the European Union, another Ukraine’s ally, agreed this week to open talks with Kyiv on the first cluster of issues in their accession talks. That followed an agreement on a 90 billion euro loan distribution to boost Ukraine’s defense and economy.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Jekaterīna GolubkovaEditing by Nia Williams, Ross Colvin and Kim Coghill)

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But Republicans still faced a gauntlet of amendments before the bill could advance, a test of party unity that could go late into the night. The biggest threat to the bill could be another amendment to ban the settlement fund — this time from Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who lost reelection last month after Trump endorsed his primary opponent.

“I feel optimistic that we’ll get there in the end,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday evening, while acknowledging he was not sure how the votes would turn out.

Thune has been pushing GOP senators for weeks to keep the bill focused on the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, which Democrats have blocked since early this year, and to avoid adding new provisions that could complicate its passage.

If an amendment limiting the settlement were to pass, Thune said, it would be “problematic” when they send the bill to the House. It could also mean a White House veto of the immigration spending bill, which has otherwise unified Trump and Republicans.

The last time the Senate abruptly changed a Homeland Security funding package, in March, the House simply refused to accept it and left town.

“I’d have to ask the lawyers,” he said.

The Democratic effort to ban the fund, the first vote of the day, was held open for around three hours as Cassidy, Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska withheld their votes. In the end, Cassidy voted against the Democratic motion and the two other GOP senators — both of whom are up for reelection this year — voted for it.

Senators defeated a second amendment from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina that would also ban the settlement fund but would move the money to a separate anti-fraud fund at the Department of Justice. Most Democrats voted against the amendment, guaranteeing its defeat, but more than 10 Republicans supported it.

“If Blanche says this is largely inoperative, why not use this moment to codify that?” Tillis said. “Otherwise, you’re exposing every one of our members who are in cycle to having to deal with this between today and Election Day, and that makes no sense for something that the DOJ says they’re not moving forward with.”

It was unclear how Republicans would vote on additional amendments.

Cassidy, who had been in discussions all day with the Senate parliamentarian, said he still planned to offer an amendment to ban payouts from the settlement. He told reporters he may also offer an amendment to block a separate part of the settlement that would grant Trump and his family immunity from IRS audits.

Several Republican senators said they supported the idea but would have to see the final language before they decide. Sen. John Cornyn, who also lost reelection last month after Trump endorsed his opponent, said he agrees with the “thrust of it” but would wait to see the amendment. Republican Sen. John Curtis said the same.

Thune said it wasn’t yet certain whether the final bill could pass without some sort of prohibition on the settlement.

“We’re going to find out soon enough,” he said Thursday evening.

Democrats planned other votes through the night, including on Trump’s tariffs, his war with Iran and his immigration enforcement campaign.

“Amendment after amendment, vote after vote, Republicans are going to have to answer to the American people,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said.

Congress eventually funded the rest of the Homeland Security Department at the end of April with Democratic support. But ICE and Border Patrol remained without regular funding, and Republicans launched a new effort to pass three years of funding for those agencies with no Democratic votes.

PHOTO- Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., walks to the chamber from his office at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a promenade will be built onto the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the latest in a series of construction projects he has launched in the U.S. capital.

“They want to call it the Trump Promenade, but I don’t know if I want to do that, but it’s going to be beautiful,” Trump told reporters at the White House, without elaborating on who was asking to name it after him.

The Lincoln Memorial, one of Washington’s most iconic landmarks, is a monument to the president who led the United States through its Civil War. It sits at the western end of the National Mall, overlooking the Reflecting Pool, which Trump has also refurbished.

Trump’s latest announcement is part of a broader push by the former property developer to reshape Washington’s monumental core. He also intends to erect a 250-foot (76-meter) arch and is building a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the site of the demolished East ​Wing of the White ​House.

Many of his projects have faced court battles, including his bid to renovate the performing arts center named for President John F. Kennedy, which a governing board of Trump appointees renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center. A judge last week ordered the name changed back to the Kennedy Center.

Trump suggested the promenade would be built over two roads that run  alongside the memorial to allow pedestrians to cross over the roads and get to the Potomac River and other tourist sites.

“It’s a beautiful project, and it’s going to take the Lincoln Memorial right down to the Potomac, which it was always scheduled to do,” he said.

The White House had no additional information about the project.

Trump’s announcement came on the same day that water began flowing into the renovated Reflecting Pool on the Washington Mall. The pool has been of particular interest to Trump, who had a new surface installed in a color he calls “American flag blue.”

In a related development, a U.S. planning commission on Thursday advanced Trump’s plan for a 250-foot Triumphal Arch that would be built across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.

“When completed, it will be, without question, the Greatest Arch of them all!” Trump said in a post welcoming the development.

(Reporting by Bo Erickson in Washington and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; Writing by Bhargav Acharya and Steve Holland; Editing by David Ljunggren, Ross Colvin and Matthew Lewis)

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By Jacob Bogage and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to use Cold War-era national defense powers to send nearly $700 million to support coal facilities, according to a White House official.

Trump could announce as soon as Thursday that he will invoke the Defense Production Act, the 1950 law granting presidents wide authority over national security-related industries, to upgrade more than a dozen coal power plants, build a massive West Coast coal export terminal and match corporate funds to build new power plants, the official said.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to not preempt the president’s announcement, and cautioned that the details could still change. 

The Trump administration has framed energy issues in existential terms as it eyes the domestic need to sustain power-hungry artificial-intelligence data centers and aims to marginalize foreign adversaries that hold large fossil fuel reserves. Coal, though, has faced steady declines in U.S. usage. It once accounted for more than half of U.S. electricity generation, but fell to less than one-fifth in recent years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Power producers have largely switched to cheaper natural gas and renewable sources, wary of fossil fuel’s effect on the planet’s warming climate and increasing reliance on brittle global supply chains.

Of the $700 million, more than half will fund 13 coal plant upgrades, $185 million will match corporate funds for coal facilities in Alaska, Maryland and West Virginia, and $75 million will support the long-proposed West Gateway export terminal in Northern California.

Bloomberg first reported the planned coal support.

(Reporting by Jacob Bogage and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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