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Two months ago, Cynthia Sanders got a raise at her janitorial job, from $8.30 to $10 per hour, after St. Louis passed a law raising its minimum wage. The extra money has helped the 51-year-old cover groceries and utilities as she raises three grandchildren.

But in just a few weeks, Sanders pay rate could drop back down again, thanks to a new law Republicans in the Missouri legislature passed invalidating St. Louis minimum wage.

It was life-changing to get this, and its going to be life-changing to have it taken away, said Sanders, who cleans four kitchenettes and eight bathrooms per shift at a Wells Fargo building downtown. Youve got children looking at you to be a provider. How do I tell them weve got to eat noodles again this week?

Like other low-wage workers in Missouri and beyond, Sanders finds herself caught in a political and legal battle between local Democrats and state Republicans. As blue cities become incubators for progressive policy, their red state legislatures are trying to thwart them through preemption laws that forbid cities and counties from implementing their own measures related to the minimum wage, paid sick days, plastic bag taxes and other hot-button issues.

So far, Republican state legislators are winning the fight. In Missouri, for example, the GOP controls both chambers of the statehouse as well as the governors mansion.

Under the law Republicans passed in response to St. Louis new ordinance,no locality could have a minimum wage higher than the state level of $7.70 per hour.And St. Louis is not the only city immediately affected. A referendum to gradually raise the minimum wage in Kansas City to $15 wasslated to go on the ballotin August.

Gov. Eric Greitens (R) said he does not intend to veto the bill. So under the rules of the Missouri Constitution it will eventually go into effect automatically, reverting the St. Louis minimum wage to $7.70 on Aug. 28. It would also preempt the minimum wage under consideration in Kansas City.

While preemption laws have been around for years, Republicans are increasingly turning to them to nullify local liberal policies. According to a February report from the National League of Cities, 24 states now block local minimum wage hikes, 17 block local paid leave mandates, and three block local anti-discrimination measures. The group attributes the growing use of preemption laws to the fact that Republicans now have 25 so-called state government trifectas control of both legislative chambers and the governors office.

The laws have become a particularly effective tool for blunting the Fight for $15 campaign, a union-funded initiative aimed at raising the minimum wage and unionizing low-wage workers. While the federal minimum wage has remained $7.25 since 2009, voters and city halls have embraced proposals to raise the local minimum wage, in some cases hiking the wage floor to as high as $15. (The federal minimum wage prevails anywhere local law does not mandate a higher one.) The preemption laws have provided Republican state officials with a way to block proposals that poll extremely well and have strong financial backing from unions.

Jim Young / Reuters

Dennis Shaw, who works at the St. Louis grocery chain Schnucks, received a $1.70 raise due to the St. Louis ordinance. The pay bump translated into an extra $30 or so each week after taxes a welcome addition that has helped him pay rent on his one-bedroom apartment downtown and avoid bank overdraft fees. He said that legislators in the state Capitol dont understand what its like for someone trying to survive on the minimum wage in the city.

It borders on disgraceful, Shaw, 36, said of the preemption law. This isnt just not getting a raise its a pay cut. It will result in bills not being paid. Shaws union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, estimates that 500 of its members in the city could see their pay downgraded in August, according to a spokesman.

Republicans who have pursued preemption laws have often argued that they want to avoid a patchwork of minimum wages around the state, which they claim could be confusing for employers. But Rep. Jason Chipman, a Republican who represents a rural district southwest of St. Louis, said he sponsored the measure in the Missouri House of Representatives because he didnt think the government should dictate minimum wages to employers.

The government is not here to run peoples businesses, Chipman said in an interview, arguing that higher minimum wages kill jobs. If an employee doesnt like whats being offered, they can go somewhere else. Be more productive. Be worth more.

These are supposed to be entry-level jobs, he added. We understand there are people who rely on these jobs who are not entry-level-type people, but you cant legislate by the exception.

Craig Barritt via Getty Images

One of the prime grievances lobbed against preemption laws is that they undermine local governance. Its an odd look for Republican legislators who often rail against meddling in parochial affairs by Washington. Asked why St. Louis or Kansas City shouldnt be able to determine its own policies even if those policies are folly Chipman said the cities are economic drivers that impact the whole state. When you lose economic output, you lose revenue to the state, he said. It doesnt happen in a vacuum.

Many of the preemption battles are tinged with a racial component, as mostly white legislatures override the laws of heavily minority cities. (St. Louis has a black plurality, and the minimum wage raise would disproportionately affect minorities.) In Alabama, the overwhelmingly African-American city of Birmingham also raised its minimum wage to $10.10, only to have the majority-white legislature block it with a preemption law. The Alabama chapter of the NAACP filed a civil rights lawsuit, which was thrown out by a judge but is now on appeal.

The Missouri law presents an unusual case because so many workers in St. Louis have already received raises. Chipman said he had hoped to avoid such a situation, blaming the state Senate for not moving quickly enough to pass the preemption law before the St. Louis ordinance went into effect. Greitens, too, chided the state Senate for not fast-tracking a bill, providing that as the reason he would not put his signature on it. Missouri Democrats have called Greitens passive approval of the law craven.

Nick Desideri, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union Local 1, said he still holds out hope that Greitens will veto the preemption measure, given the optics in St. Louis.

The level of cruelty in this thing just boggles my mind, said Desideri, whose union has been the primary backer of the Fight for $15.

The St. Louis employers who doled out raises due to the short-lived minimum wage hike will soon have to decide whether or not to revoke them. Of course, workers dont appreciate seeing their pay go backwards. A spokesman for Shaws employer, Schnucks, which has eight stores in St. Louis, said the company plans to revert to the pay rates laid out in the union contract.

That means Shaws pay would drop back to $8.30. Shaw said that he considers Schnucks a good employer, but he wouldnt expect them to honor the higher rates once legislators give them an out.

Businesses are not in business for moral obligations, Shaw said. I would hope they keep [the raises] in place, but I could imagine them taking them away. And I wouldnt blame them should that happen. There are others I could blame.

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Republican Lawmakers Take A Raise Away From St. Louis Workers - HuffPost

Republicans are beginning to talk of the possibility that President Trump could face impeachment after reports that he pressed ousted FBI Director James Comey to end an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

While Republicans are choosing their words carefully, the fact that impeachment is even being mentioned is notable in Washington's polarized political environment.

Rep. Justin AmashJustin AmashDefense bill amendments seek to curb support for Saudis Trump, GOP lawmakersstruggle with messaging House passes 'Kate's Law' and bill targeting sanctuary cities MORE (R-Mich.) on Wednesday said if the reports about Trump's pressure on Comey are true, it would merit impeachment.

Amash spoke a day after The New York Times on Tuesday reported that Trump tried to pressure Comey to stop investigating Flynn.

According to a memo written by Comey after the February meeting, the president told Comey "I hope you can let this go."

Asked by The Hill if the details in the memo would merit impeachment if they're true, Amash replied: "Yes."

"But everybody gets a fair trial in this country," Amash added as he left a House GOP conference meeting.

Asked by another reporter whether he trusted Comey's word or Trump's, Amash said: "I think it's pretty clear I have more confidence in Director Comey."

Amash is one of only two House Republicans to cosponsor a Democratic bill to establish an independent commission to investigate Russia's role in the election. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) has also endorsed the legislation.

Jones suggested in an interview with The Hillon Wednesdaythat the allegations in the Comey memo could lead to a push for impeachment proceedings.

"I dont know at this point," Jones said if the allegations could be grounds for impeachment proceedings. But he added: "I think legal scholars will probably start giving the justification of whether the House should or should not move forward on impeachment."

"Obstruction of justice in the case of Nixon, in the case of Clinton in the late 90s, has been considered an impeachable offense," Curbelo said.

Curbelo called for Comey to testify before Congress to provide a full explanation of his conversations with Trump.

"It may be something very serious, it may be nothing," Curbelo said.

Neither of the Republicans brought up impeachment on their own, but both acknowledged it was now a possibility depending on further developments.

The White House has said the Comey memo misstates the nature of Trump's conversation with the former FBI director.

Neither Amash nor Curbelo voted for Trump, and both have frequently criticized him.

They also represent different factions in the House GOP conference.

Flynn was ousted as Trump's national security adviser in February after it was revealed he misled the public and top White House officials about about his communications with a Russian ambassador regarding sanctions.

Amash, a frequent conservative critic of the Trump administration, has broken with the White House on a variety of issues, including healthcare reform and the Justice Department'snew tougher sentencing guidelines.

Updated: 3:38 p.m.

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First Republicans talk possibility of impeachment for Trump

The Republican-sponsored American Health Care Act (AHCA) passed the House 217-213 Thursday, with one vote to spare, although it will face an uncertain path in the Senate.

No Democrats voted for the bill, and 20 Republicans voted against it. The bill largely repeals and replaces Obamacare.

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The health care bill passed by House Republicans covers pre-existing conditions, but not the way Obamacare does. Instead, the bill would allow st...

Speaking to reporters after the vote, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, said he knew they had the votes on Wednesday and he said if they hadn't passed it, it would have impeded "the rest of our agenda."

"We proved that we could accomplish something this big," he said. "I can't thank the president enough. President Trump and Vice President Pence have been directly engaged," adding that Pence called him twice on Thursday to check in about individual members.

House Republicans left the Capitol after the vote, headed to the White House on buses. Scalise said they were invited to the Oval Office or the Rose Garden.

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CBS News chief Washington correspondent John Dickerson weighs in on the political impact of the House passing an Obamacare replacement bill.

As soon as Republicans cleared the threshold to pass the bill, House Democrats began singing in unison, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, goodbye" toward the Republicans.

Rep. Chris Collins, R-New York, said he's not worried about Republicans' prospects for the 2018 midterm elections.

"If we weren't able to repeal and replace Obamacare, it would have been a bad midterm for us. I think we will hold our own, if not pick up seats," he told reporters.

House GOP leaders expressed confidence earlier that the bill would indeed pass.

"This will pass," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, told reporters as he left a closed-door meeting with the House Republican Conference. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, also seemed confident that the bill would pass.

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The House has passed a bill intended to replace Obamacare. CBS News chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes joined CBSN with the reaction ...

The upbeat mood ahead of the key vote comes after weeks of trying to revive their original version of the bill, whichfailed to win enough support in Marchand had to be pulled from the floor. Republicans, however, have since made several revisions to the measure -- with the latest one made on Tuesday after skeptical members met with President Trump at the White House. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan, proposed an amendment to the bill that would add $8 billion over five years to cover insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. The addition appeared to sway members who previously opposed the bill, as well as those who were undecided.

"I like the Upton amendment," Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pennsylvania, told reporters after huddling with his colleagues Thursday. "Actually, it puts more money in the high-risk pools for those with pre-existing conditions, and the fact of the matter is those with pre-existing conditions would have no insurance because the Affordable Care Act is going to totally fail."

Other GOP lawmakers said that their plan was a much more sustainable alternative to Obamacare.

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The House has passed the GOP bill to replace Obamacare. CBS News political director Steve Chaggaris joins CBSN to discuss what the next steps are...

"This is about delivering much more affordable healthcare in contrast to a collapsing Obamacare," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the powerful tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. He added that it "creates momentum for tax reform" and takes $1 trillion of tax hikes out of the economy that he said have been hurting patients and small businesses.

For weeks, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, insisted that the bill would only come to the floor when Republicans had the votes to pass it. They can only afford 21 defections, assuming all Democrats vote against it. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Washington, will miss the AHCA vote, his office confirmed to CBS News. He's out of town due to a family emergency. This means that Republicans can afford 21 defections.

After huddling Wednesday night, House GOP leaders decided to move forward and schedule the vote for Thursday afternoon, despite the lack of a score from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which estimates how it would affect the federal deficit and Americans with health insurance. The CBO's score of the original bill estimated that 24 million people would lose their insurance over the course of a decade.

Asked about the concern that the final bill hasn't been scored, Collins said, "We have the score on the base bill that saves billions and billions of dollars."

Collins, the first House member to endorse Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign, said that while the original CBO score showed it would reduce premiums and save money, he doubted its prediction about 24 million people losing their coverage.

"I don't think there was any accuracy in that," he said. "This isn't a tough vote. This is a vote we promised America. This is living up to our promise to repeal and replace Obamacare which is failing minute by minute and day by day."

But some, like South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, still expressed concern.

The bill would, among other things, repeal the individual and employer mandates put in place by Obamacare that has required people to carry insurance or face a tax penalty, it would provide refundable tax credits to help people afford coverage, expand health savings accounts and phase out an expansion of Medicaid.

Health and medical advocacy groups have slammed the legislation through all of its forms. The president of the American Medical Association, Andrew W. Gurman, warned Wednesday "millions of Americans will lose their health insurance as a direct result of this proposal."

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, said he's looking forward to what the Senate will produce.

"It'll come back even better, and that we'll get it passed and finally lower premiums for the American people," he said. "I've talked to over 14 different senators on this subject and I'm very optimistic that we'll find some common ground."

CBS News' Walt Cronkite, Major Garrett, Katherine Watson contributed to this report.

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House Republicans narrowly pass GOP health care bill - CBS News

The Republican Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week increasingly uncertain that a major legislative victory is achievable in the three weeks before lawmakers leave town for their month-long summer recess.

Most immediately, GOP leaders and President Trump are under enormous pressure to approve health-care legislation but that is only the beginning. Virtually every piece of their ambitious legislative agenda is stalled, according to multiple Republicans inside and outside of Congress.

They have made no serious progress on a budget despite looming fall deadlines to extend spending authorization and raise the debt ceiling. Promises to launch an ambitious infrastructure-building program have faded away. And the single issue with the most potential to unite Republicans tax reform has yet to progress beyond speeches and broad-strokes outlines.

The fallout, according to these Republicans, could be devastating in next years midterm elections. A demoralized GOP electorate could fail to turn out in support of lawmakers they perceive as having failed to fulfill their promises, allowing Democrats to sweep back into the House majority propelled by their own energized base.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said if Republicans cannot deliver on their promises in the coming weeks, voters are going to start saying, What difference does it make whos in power?

There is a real anxiety among the people that I serve on why were not putting more things on the presidents desk, he said. Theyre tired of excuses.

All told, Republicans are in danger of squandering their grasp on the White House, the Senate and the House after a decade of divided government and years of stoking a conservative base to expect major policy wins. Unable so far to secure progress on his top priorities, Trump is also bumping up against history: Every president of the modern era has been able to claim at least one signature legislative achievement before the first August recess.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate GOP leadership, said he worried that his party is not seizing the early months when a new president is historically best positioned to enact the boldest parts of his agenda.

I think thered be no reason for voters to look at this yet and think, Oh my gosh, a lot of the most valuable time of an administration is already gone. But if youve watched this for years, when an administration really makes great successes, its usually in that first year and, more importantly, in that first seven months of that first year, he said.

The immediate obstacle has been the health-care legislation, which Republicans have campaigned on relentlessly since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 but is now mired in widespread unpopularity and GOP infighting.

[Senate GOP and White House plan final, urgent blitz to pass health-care law]

Blunt said that after weeks of stalled progress, Republicans soon must decide whether the bill is viable: This does not get better over time, and were losing valuable time to get other things that we need to do as well.

A growing number of GOP leaders and K Street advocates think the party must move quickly beyond health care, win or lose, and proceed with a less internally divisive tax bill. Leaders had already abandoned, back in the spring, their earlier goal of passing tax reform over the summer. But with health care consuming the Senate, they have shown few signs of progress.

Republicans recognize theyre not out of the woods, said Thomas M. Davis, a former Virginia congressman who directs Deloittes federal lobbying practice. Davis said he thinks the Republican victory in a special congressional election in Georgia last month granted the party a reprieve but it wont last long without a legislative achievement.

Theyve got a high wave coming at them in the midterms, he said. I think they realize theyve got to buckle down and do things. Theyve got to produce, and tax reform would be the number one thing.

Key Republican leaders have started looking beyond health care. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has acknowledged the possibility of a bipartisan repair to ailing health insurance markets should GOP senators fail to come to terms on a more ambitious ACA replacement. And House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has turned his attention squarely to tax reform as the health-care legislation that barely passed his own chamber sits in the Senate.

Our job and our goal is to get tax reform done in 2017, so that when we roll into the new year in 2018 we roll into having a new tax code, Ryan said at a Thursday event in his home district, according to remarks released by his office.

Even staunch conservative advocates of repealing the health-care law are preparing for a quick pivot to tax legislation.

Tim Phillips, president of the Koch network group Americans for Prosperity, said Friday that his group has been disappointed by Congresss failure to act quickly to dismantle the ACA and now considers its repeal a long-term effort.

The priority is definitely tax reform, he said. If you think about the long-term direction of the nation, genuinely dramatic tax reform would do the most good for the largest number of Americans.

Watching on the sidelines are Democrats, emboldened after spending weeks generating public opposition to the GOP health-care plan and whose cooperation will be needed to pass a series of complex items in the coming months.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said shes amazed that Republicans are willing to burn time off the congressional calendar pursuing this terrible plan when deadlines are bearing down on us, like raising the debt ceiling.

Theyre in the majority in the House and the Senate, they own the White House and thats the direction they want to drive the country? A place where most of America doesnt want to go? I dont get it, she added.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moodys Analytics, said the dysfunction in Congress stands to roil confidence in the U.S. economy, particularly if lawmakers flirt with defaulting on the debt limit.

Companies are already growing pessimistic about prospects for aggressive tax cuts, he said, and even the suggestion that Congress might fail to increase the debt limit could have serious market consequences. The overall picture is also causing major uncertainty for businesses that are trying to plan for the months and years ahead.

Businesses are delaying investment decisions because they dont know what tax rate theyre going to have in the future, Zandi said.

Ryan has called for an ambitious restructuring of corporate taxation, eliminating loopholes and taxing imports to bring rates down from the current 35percent rate to as low as 15percent. But the plan to tax corporate imports, known as border adjustment, has encountered fierce head winds,even among some Republicans. Many GOP senators have rejected the idea, and lobbyists have lined up to preserve favorable treatment for various industries.

The Trump administration has yet to reach consensus with House and Senate Republicans on the parameters of a tax bill, though aides say talks are progressing.

No matter what happens on health care and tax reform, Republicans and Democrats also must agree on spending by the time the new fiscal year begins Oct.1 but no serious discussions about a plan have begun, according to multiple congressional aides.

Equally concerning for GOP lawmakers is that they must pass a budget ahead of tax reform to enact the special instructions that would allow them to approve a tax bill on a simple majority vote rather than the 60-vote supermajority required of most legislation in the Senate.

Also in the fall, Treasury Department officials expect to hit the nations borrowing limit. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has called for Congress to increase the debt limit by the end of July without attaching additional policy measures. But conservatives are pushing to include spending cuts, and GOP leaders have not yet taken concrete steps on the issue.

The key disputes of the moment are not between Republicans and Democrats but within the GOP. But on fiscal matters, both parties see bipartisan negotiations as inevitable.

House Republicans have floated a 2018 budget that boosts defense spending beyond the caps set in a 2011 bipartisan accord, and breaking them will require negotiations with Democrats who have long insisted on a corresponding rise in nondefense spending.

Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said Democrats are also prepared to block spending bills that fund a U.S.-Mexico border wall or contain conservative policy riders they oppose.

That is an opportunity for us to have the leverage we need to take care of the folks we care about, he said.

Other legislative deadlines also loom: The Federal Aviation Administration, the National Flood Insurance Program and the Childrens Health Insurance Program are set to expire in October, and a Department of Veterans Affairs program that gives veterans more flexibility in where they seek health care a program launched in response to years of scandal at the department is set to run out of funding next month.

This week, McConnell is devoting most of the Senate floor time to confirming Trump nominees to mid-level Cabinet positions and the federal courts. Christopher A. Wray, Trumps choice to be the new FBI director, is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

And Russia looms over the Capitol: Lawmakers are negotiating the final details of a bill to stiffen sanctions against the country while multiple committees are advancing their probes into Russias meddling in U.S. elections.

Behind closed doors, McConnell will remain focused on his attempt to persuade 50 of the 52 GOP senators to back a single health-care bill.

Leaders and their staff continued to work throughout the holiday week on ways to tweak the draft legislation they released last month, according to several senior GOP aides. A major part of the work has involved near-constant talks with scorekeepers at the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan agency that provides economic analysis to Congress.

It could take at least another week before the CBO analysis is complete, the aides said, meaning that the earliest chance for a health-care vote would be the week of July 17.

Kelsey Snell and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost

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Republicans increasingly uncertain of a legislative victory before August - Washington Post

Kansas City Star (blog)

Dave Helling: Mainstream Republicans may have had enough of GOP extremists Kansas City Star (blog) Moderate Republicans and Democrats joined together to override Gov. Sam Brownback and rescue the state from his tax cut experiment. That same coalition almost expanded Medicaid in the state, an extraordinary rebuke to the conservative governor. and more »

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Dave Helling: Mainstream Republicans may have had enough of GOP extremists - Kansas City Star (blog)