U.S. Senate votes to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. CREDIT: HENRIQUE SIMPLICIO / FLICKR/FLIC.KR/P/F1JXBL Listen Tom Banse reports on efforts to make Daylight Saving Time permanent / Runtime: 1 minute […]Read More
Senate Democrats are trying a fresh attempt to stave off a potential debt default with a Wednesday afternoon vote meant to pressure Republicans into dropping their blockage of legislation to address the nation's borrowing limit.Read More
BY ASMA KHALID & ARNIE SEIPEL With voting rights legislation stalled in the Senate because of Republican opposition, Vice President Harris suggested that she has talked to senators about exceptions […]Read More
Democrats' massive election overhaul bill aimed at protecting and expanding voting rights and reforming campaign finance laws has stalled in the Senate.Read More
The Senate unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that would make Juneteenth, the date commemorating the end of chattel slavery in the United States, a legal public holiday.Read More
The House voted 220-211 with no Republicans voting in favor of the bill, despite calls for bipartisan support from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democratic leaders. One Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, voted against the bill.Read More
A majority of senators voted to convict Trump — 57 to 43, including seven Republicans. But two-thirds, or 67 votes, is needed to convict. It was the second time Trump was acquitted in an impeachment trial. The seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump Saturday were: Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Read More
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump presented a speedy defense argument Friday in the Senate impeachment trial, using less than three hours to make the case the proceedings were a partisan smear campaign by Democrats, and that Trump should be acquitted because his call to “fight” the election was a figure of speech protected by the First Amendment.Read More
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a top Senate Democrat, revealed Friday that she came “inches away” from an encounter with violent rioters during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, speaking publicly about the experience for the first time as the Senate continued the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.Read More
We have a special place in history. Never have Americans been so experienced in presidential impeachment as we. Two impeachments in just more than a single year. Nonetheless, experience does not yield understanding. Impeachment is a rare and confusing process. This is just the fourth presidential impeachment in history. And each impeachment process and set of arguments is Read More
The House impeachment managers concluded their arguments in the Senate trial Thursday with a forceful condemnation of former President Donald Trump, arguing that he should be convicted to send a message that extremism and violence have no place in American politics.Read More
House impeachment managers showed chilling new footage to senators during Day 2 of Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial, highlighting just how close the violent mob got to then-Vice President Mike Pence and congressional lawmakers on Jan. 6.Read More
President Trump made history when he became the first president to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives. Roughly a year ago, the Senate acquitted Trump on two articles — abuse of power and obstruction. This time he faces one article approved by the House arguing he incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the day that Congress was required by Read More
The House quickly approved a budget resolution intended to speed the drafting of President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. The Senate approved the same budget resolution early Friday morning. With the Senate evenly divided, Vice President Harris cast the tiebreaking vote.Read More
At about 7 p.m. ET Monday, House impeachment managers delivered to the Senate an article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump, a move that prompts preparations for a historic trial.Read More
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the sole article of impeachment for incitement to insurrection against former President Donald Trump will be delivered to the Senate on Monday and a trial against the Republican will begin the week of Feb. 8.Read More
The U.S. House voted 232 to 197 Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time. Democrats were joined by 10 congressional Republicans – including two from Washington state. Read More
With less than two weeks before he assumes office, President-elect Joe Biden is on track to have few, if any, Cabinet members confirmed on Inauguration Day, the first president to face such a personnel issue in recent history.Read More
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) later released a statement: "What we have seen today is unlawful and unacceptable. I have decided I will vote to uphold the Electoral College results and I encourage Donald Trump to condemn and put an end to this madness.”Read More
Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, a pastor from Atlanta, defeated GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler after a bitter campaign. Warnock becomes the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from a Southern state.Read More
The Senate voted Friday to overturn President Trump's veto of the mammoth annual defense bill in an unprecedented act that assures the decades-long continuity for that legislation. It follows a House vote earlier this week.Read More
With lawmakers facing a mounting year-end to-do list, a deal on a new coronavirus relief package continues to be elusive for Congress.Read More
The legislation removes cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances and expunges low-level convictions and arrests. But the GOP Senate is not expected to take up the bill.Read More
A loosely assembled group of House and Senate lawmakers released a legislative framework they hope can break the months-long impasse between party leaders and the White House on pandemic relief.Read More
President-elect Biden is expected to quickly reverse some of the Trump administration's most controversial policies. But his ability to reshape immigration would be limited in a divided government. Read More
These are the 13 races that will determine control of the Senate in the next Congress. To win control, Democrats would need to net-gain four seats, or three seats plus control of the White House.Read More
The legislation passed hours before current funding levels are set to expire. With government funding resolved it's unclear whether both chambers can come together on a coronavirus relief package.Read More
Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington, a three-term Republican and 9/11 commissioner, has died at the age of 92. Thomas Slade Gorton III was born in Chicago in 1928. He was a descendant of the Gorton Seafood family of Massachusetts. But it was politics that attracted him from a young age.Read More
The Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions convened Tuesday to address plans to reopen schools and workplaces amid the coronavirus pandemic.Read More
The Great American Outdoors Act would permanently allocate $900 million to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which finally lapsed almost two years ago.Read More
Lawmakers squabbled over how quickly the economy can rebound from the coronavirus shutdown and whether the government is doing enough to support struggling families and businesses.Read More
Joe Biden asked the secretary of the Senate to find "any and all" documentation of a sexual harassment complaint by former staffer Tara Reade, but the office says such records would be confidential.Read More
The recent stock sales by the North Carolina Republican were a market-beating anomaly that didn't match his typically middling trading history, according to a new Dartmouth College analysis.Read More
A historic $2 trillion economic recovery package will be sent to the president's desk for signature after House lawmakers passed the bipartisan bill Friday afternoon.Read More
Senators voted on Wednesday afternoon to acquit President Trump on two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — after a historically unusual but typically contentious trial.Read More
House Democrats and President Trump's defense team made their final arguments Monday in the Senate impeachment trial before lawmakers vote Wednesday on whether to remove Trump from office. Both sides presented opposing versions of the president's handling of aid for Ukraine last summer and the impeachment proceedings so far, before ultimately arriving at divergent conclusions.Read More
The key question of President Trump's impeachment trial was answered Friday evening: There will be no new witness testimony, including from former national security adviser John Bolton. Final arguments will begin 11 a.m. on Monday and will not exceed four hours total. The House's impeachment managers and the president's defense team will receive equal time.Read More
The vote was not a surprise, following announcements from key Republican senators that they would not be supporting witnesses. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said they do not need to hear testimony, which would prolong the trial.Read More
Senators weighing impeachment charges against President Trump spent Thursday firing questions at lawyers as they did the day before, just as the prospect of former national security adviser John Bolton's appearance as a witness continues to stoke speculation. The Senate will enter its next phase Friday — considering whether to allow witnesses and evidence.Read More
President Trump's defense team completed its arguments Tuesday against his removal from office in the Senate impeachment trial. "I think we've made our case," White House counsel Pat Cipollone said. "All you need in this case is the Constitution and your common sense." The trial resumes Wednesday, Jan. 29, 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET.Read More
President Trump's legal team opened its response to the Democrats' allegations with a rare Saturday session that said the accusers' facts were wrong and Trump must preserve his office.Read More
Congress has the power to impeach and remove a president over conduct that may not violate black-letter law — and President Trump's actions qualify, House Democratic impeachment managers argued Thursday.Read More
With the ground rules having been settled in the early hours after sometimes bitter litigation between the House delegation and Trump's legal team, senators returned Wednesday to hear the formal opening of the case.Read More
After a long day and night of dueling between the House managers calling for impeachment and attorneys for President Trump declaring the articles of impeachment "ridiculous," the Senate adopted a set of rules that will govern its impeachment trial, in which opening arguments will get underway Wednesday.Read More
President Donald Trump’s legal team rejected the House of Representatives’ impeachment charges as “flimsy” and called on senators to “swiftly reject” them in the trial set to begin Tuesday.Read More
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Reps. Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Zoe Lofgren, Val Demings, Hakeem Jeffries, Sylvia Garcia and Jason Crow as impeachment managers. Pelosi said Schiff will take the lead.Read More
A year ago, Sessions resigned as attorney general after months of tension with President Trump, who complained that the former Alabama senator was not sufficiently loyal.Read More
The U.S. House on Wednesday passed a landmark bill aimed at helping the fast-growing legal cannabis industry. Backers of fully legalizing marijuana said the 321-103 vote in favor of the so-called “SAFE Banking Act” is a key victory in their drive to bring the drug out of the legal shadows.Read More
A whopping 23 Democrats are running to defeat President Donald Trump, but only one can win, leaving many to ask whether low-polling candidates should bow out and instead help flip the U.S. Senate to their party.Read More
In a year already marked by a wide variety of congressional health care legislation, Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., on Thursday released the details of a plan they hope will help bring down health costs and eliminate surprise medical bills for patients.Read More
