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House lawmakers are prepping a bipartisan resolution to condemn China after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the weekend, which ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Though Republicans have sharply criticized the Biden administration for waiting for days as the balloon traveled across the continental U.S. to South Carolina before shooting it down, the resolution is not expected to focus blame on President Biden.

“We want it to be a bipartisan resolution about China, not about us fighting each other,” Rep. Mike McCaul, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters Monday night. “Because it’s too important of an issue, you know. We want to stand strong together against China instead of having our internal fights.”

McCaul said he sent a draft resolution to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the panel, who has “made his comments.” The two were set to meet Monday evening to “hash it out,” according to McCaul.

He said the resolution could be released as soon as this week.

“Clearly, we’re focused on condemning China for sending a spy balloon into United States territory. Obviously, we have a lot more questions about what happened, and when the administration knew it,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Monday.

“Those are separate questions going on, and we need to have a briefing on it. But in the meantime, we’re trying to get an agreement with” the committees working on the proposal, he added.

Talk of a resolution comes the same week Biden is set to deliver the State of the Union address. McCaul said that event factored into his thinking about whether to write the resolution with a partisan edge.

“My strong recommendation was to make it bipartisan because with the State of the Union, I just think it’s important that we focus on our adversary China, rather than our internal politics or divisions,” he said.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he will get a “gang of eight” intelligence briefing — alongside bipartisan congressional leaders as well as the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees — on the Chinese balloon sometime this week. He is pushing for a briefing open to all House members.

McCarthy said his questions will include why the U.S. did not shoot down the balloon earlier, when it was detected, and inquiries about other balloons detected in the past that were only assessed to be balloons later.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, the head of U.S. Northern Command, said Monday that the Defense Department

For nearly two years, Sarah Huckabee Sanders served as the voice of the Trump administration. On Tuesday night, the now-Arkansas governor will serve as the voice of the entire Republican Party, giving its official response to President Biden's State of the Union address.

Sanders, who left her position as White House press secretary in July 2019 and last month was sworn into the same governor’s seat that her father held for more than a decade, finds herself at her highest position yet in a GOP that is at an intersection between Trumpism and potential new leaders.

Several of the potential Republican alternatives to the firebrand former president are, like Sanders, building their resumes in governors' mansions. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott just two of the national-name Republicans said to be considering challenging Trump for the 2024 White House nomination.

As the party grapples with its trajectory, Sanders will take a stage that has the potential to catapult politicians to prominence — or see them flop at the opportunity.

The youngest governor in the country, she is still seen as a reliable ally to Trump. She was rewarded for her fierce loyalty to his administration, fending off the media as the Trump team dealt with countless controversies and scandals. Trump offered a resounding endorsement of Sanders in her bid for Arkansas governor.

In her brief tenure as Arkansas governor so far, Sanders has attacked red meat issues

As the U.S. government gathers the debris from a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down off the South Carolina Coast, questions remain as to what intel the aerial object gathered and how often Beijing has sent similar balloons over U.S. airspace.

We’ll share details of the clean-up efforts and what we know so far about previous instances of spy balloons over North America, plus lawmakers look to probe the Biden administration about the balloon and a warning from the United Nations secretary-general about the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

This is Defense & National Security, your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I’m Ellen Mitchell.

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (

Americans remain pessimistic about the economy despite huge job growth and cooling inflation.

A slew of recent polls reveal that Americans are still struggling with high costs and aren’t convinced that the U.S. can stave off a recession as the Federal Reserve takes steps to slow the economy down.

That presents a challenge for President Biden, who took a victory lap last week after federal data showed that the U.S. added a shocking 517,000 jobs in January, blowing away analysts’ predictions of slowing job growth. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent, the lowest since 1969.

“Add that all up, it means we created 12 million jobs since I took office,” Biden said Friday. “That's the strongest two years of job growth in history by a long shot.”

Even so, just 37 percent of respondents in a recent

Democratic Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine are calling on lawmakers in the commonwealth to repeal a state constitutional amendment that forbids same-sex marriage.

We take a look at the ways a debt ceiling default could hit your own finances. We’ll also look at how one big bank is preparing for a default and why the 1980s are haunting the Federal Reserve.

🎬 But first, your

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) defended using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip to secure spending cuts in remarks Monday night, just ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday.

“Debt limit debates have been used for nearly every successful attempt to reform federal spending in living history. Why? Because the problem only gets solved when both parties come to the table,” McCarthy said in the roughly 10-minute address on Monday evening.

He pointed out that Biden had opposed debt limit increases when he was a senator during debt ceiling fights two decades ago.

Biden and McCarthy met in the White House last week, after which the Speaker said it was possible to find “common ground” on the debt limit issue. But there has been no movement toward a deal yet, as the White House has called for a “clean” debt limit increase not tied to any other spending stipulations.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement ahead of McCarthy’s speech that Biden will use his State of the Union address to highlight deficit reduction measures included in legislation he has signed into law, including increasing taxes on big corporations, and dinged Republicans for passing Trump-era tax cuts that added to the debt.

“House Republicans are threatening to actively throw our economy into a tailspin with a default – which they have a non-negotiable, Constitutional duty to prevent – unless they can further cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It’s utterly backwards,” Bates said.

McCarthy refuted that line of messaging from the White House, saying that Republicans want a “responsible debt limit increase” and batting down worries about slashes to entitlement spending.

“We will preserve our ability to defend this nation [from] threats abroad,” McCarthy said. “Cuts to Medicare and Social Security — they are off the table.”

“Defaulting on our debt is not an option. But neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates and an economy that doesn't work for working Americans,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said he will commit to continuing negotiating with Biden and to working toward finding “common ground” with a different approach.

“No drawing lines in the sand or saying it's my way or the highway. No policy gimmicks or political games,” McCarthy. “But, most of all, no blank checks for runaway spending."

After his address, however, McCarthy did draw one line in the sand: no tax increases.

“We're not raising any taxes. I want to be very clear with that,” McCarthy told reporters.

Brett Samuels and Mychael Schnell contributed.

Clean energy jobs are booming since the Inflation Reduction Act became law. Meanwhile, a new report warns a third of U.S. species are at risk, and an Arizona water official predicts the federal government will step in on the Colorado River.

This is Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk.

Chinese surveillance balloons were flown over the U.S. on at least three occasions during the Trump administration, a senior Biden administration official said Sunday night — but this information was not discovered until after Trump left office.

Biden administration officials on Monday would not say how or when they found out about those balloons. It was also unclear how long those balloons remained over the U.S. and what trajectory they took.

"I will tell you that we did not detect those threats," said Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of North...

One day after a fighter jet shot a Chinese spy balloon into the Atlantic Ocean, cellphone video showed U.S. Navy personnel on Sunday with what appeared to be a white, deflated balloon laying across two different boats.

The Pentagon assesses that the balloon was up to 200 feet tall, and its destruction created a debris field roughly 1,500 meters by 1,500 meters.

After the balloon first entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28, it flew over or near four military sites in Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Missouri.

Republicans are furious that the balloon...

The Biden administration is defending its decision to wait to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon after facing criticism from Republicans and China. The balloon flew over or near four military sites before it was shot down. The U.S. military is now recovering debris from the incident. Weijia Jiang reports.

Authorities have arrested and charged two suspects in connection with an alleged plot to attack the power grid in Baltimore, Maryland, federal investigators and local officials announced on Monday.

The suspects, who were identified as Sarah Beth Clendaniel, of Maryland, and Brandon Russell, of Florida, are accused of conspiring to shoot at energy substations in Norrisville, Reisterstown and Perry Hall, court documents show.

"If we can pull off what I'm hoping … this would be legendary," Clendaniel said on Jan. 29, according to court records...

For the third year in a row, an eight-foot, black metal fence will surround the U.S. Capitol complex during an address to Congress by President Joe Biden. The fencing was erected this weekend and will remain in place through at least Wednesday, surrounding the 175,000 square-foot Capitol grounds complex.

The fencing, which is plastered with signs reading "Area closed by order of the United States Capitol Police Board," has become an increasingly common and controversial security measure in the two years since the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack...

CBS News will air the State of the Union as a special report at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, anchored by "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell.