In the first seriously contested Senate Republican leadership election in decades, three senators are vying to replace longtime GOP leader Mitch McConnell when he steps down from the post at the beginning of next year.

Sen. John Thune has won an internal election among Republican senators to become the chamber’s next majority leader.

Days before Senate Republicans pick their new leader, President-elect Donald Trump is pressuring the candidates to change Senate rules and give him more power to appoint unconfirmed nominees.

Senate Republicans vying to replace longtime leader Mitch McConnell have been crossing the country to campaign and fundraise for colleagues, making their final arguments before an important upcoming Senate vote.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota is competing intensely to become the next Republican leader in the Senate.

Senators are heading home for the month after failing to advance a bill to expand the child tax credit and restore some business tax breaks.

After the 2020 election, many Republican senators distanced themselves from Donald Trump.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott says he will run for Senate Republican leader when Mitch McConnell steps down from the post, becoming the third Republican in the race.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso says he'll run for the No. 2 spot in the Senate Republican conference after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell leaves at the end of the year.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune is entering the race to be the next Republican leader of the U.S. Senate after Sen. Mitch McConnell steps away from the post in November.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn has informed his colleagues that he intends to run for Senate Republican leader.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats plan to “constantly over the next year” remind voters that it was Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, who torpedoed a bipartisan bill on border enforcement.

President Joe Biden is trying to sweeten his pitch for more money for Ukraine by mixing in billions of dollars for securing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is attacking his Republican rivals while speaking out for the first time since his acquittal on corruption charges in his impeachment trial.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell declared again that he plans to finish his term as leader despite freezing up twice at news conferences over the summer, brushing off questions about his health as he sought to reassure colleagues he’s still up to the job.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says it's time for Supreme Court justices to bring their conduct in line with the standards of other branches of government.

The American public is broadly skeptical of common intelligence practices and of the need to sacrifice civil liberties for security.

A new gun law has already prevented some potentially dangerous people from owning guns.

The release of footage showing Memphis, Tennessee, police officers violently beating Tyre Nichols has renewed calls for Congress to pass police reform legislation.

President Joe Biden has wrapped up a four-hour visit to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The House has passed bipartisan legislation that would empower law enforcement agencies to adopt de-escalation training when encountering individuals with mental health issues.

Sen. Joe Manchin on Tuesday railed against what he called “revenge politics″ being used against him, as liberals in the House and Senate team up with Republicans to oppose his plan to speed permits for natural gas pipelines and other energy projects.

Security-sealed rooms and lock bags are some of the ways Capitol Hill keeps classified documents secured.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says the Senate will vote on legislation to protect same-sex marriage “in the coming weeks” as a bipartisan group backing the bill is tweaking it to gain Republican support.

President Joe Biden’s request for $47 billion in emergency funding is getting a thumbs down from Republicans in Congress.

Over five decades in Washington, Joe Biden knew that the way to influence was to be in the room where it happens.

In a surprise victory for Republicans, the Senate on Thursday voted to overturn a Biden administration rule requiring rigorous environmental review of major infrastructure projects such as highways, pipelines and oil wells — a victory enabled in part by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

President Joe Biden will soon be signing into law a major bill to revive the U.S. computer chip sector.

President Joe Biden is hailing a nascent Democratic package of climate, health care and tax initiatives as a giant step forward for the country.

Democrats have pushed legislation through the House that would inscribe the right to use contraceptives into law.

Key Republicans are warming up to passing a bill that provides roughly $52 billion in incentives for the semiconductor industry.

The House has sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades.

Two days after losing a bitter primary to a rival she once deemed a “sellout” for occasionally working with Democrats, Katie Arrington appeared at a “unity rally” to urge South Carolina Republicans to come together and back Rep. Nancy Mace in the fall general election.

The Senate has approved a bipartisan gun violence bill.

Last month's mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, have produced a groundswell for change in Congress.

Senate bargainers have reached agreement on a bipartisan gun violence bill.

Democratic and Republican senators are at odds over how to keep firearms from dangerous people.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced his support for his chamber’s emerging bipartisan gun agreement.

The House has given final approval to legislation to allow around-the-clock security protection for families of Supreme Court justices.

The House has passed a wide-ranging gun control bill in response to recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

Eleven years after her own life was massively altered by gun violence, former congresswoman Gabby Giffords stood in front of the Washington monument and once again lobbied for stricter gun laws after yet another string of mass shootings in America.

The son of an 86-year-old woman killed in the racist Buffalo mass shooting is calling on Congress to act against domestic terrorism.

Less than 48 hours after a gunman stormed an elementary school and killed 19 children and two teachers in his home state of Texas, Sen. John Cornyn was tapped to lead gun policy negotiations in the Senate.

Democratic Texas governor’s race candidate Beto O’Rourke is hoping the Uvalde school shooting can reset the contest in America’s largest red state.

Marco Rubio and Rick Scott are not part of the bipartisan team trying to work on gun-reform legislation.

One by one, speakers took the stage at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Houston and denounced the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school across the state.

A bipartisan group of senators is trying to find a compromise on gun legislation.

The National Rifle Association begins its annual convention in Houston on Friday, and leaders of the powerful gun-rights lobbying group are gearing up to “reflect on” -- and deflect any blame for -- the deadly shooting earlier this week of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has quickly set in motion a pair of firearms background check bills in response to the school massacre in Texas.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and a delegation of GOP senators are due to visit Helsinki on Monday for talks with Finland’s president as the previously neutral Nordic nation bordering Russia seeks NATO membership.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says senators who visited Ukraine on Saturday have reaffirmed that the U.S. will back Ukraine until it wins its war with Russia.

The Senate has passed legislation to beef up security for Supreme Court justices.

The U.S. House has given final passage to legislation that would streamline a World War II-era military lend-lease program to help Ukraine fight the Russian invasion.

A global computer chip shortage has made it harder for consumers to get their hands on cars, computers and other modern-day necessities.

The Biden administration’s decision to end sweeping asylum limits at the border this May satisfied demands by prominent Democrats.

Four men once held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center were central to some of the questions Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson fielded during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee will face sharp questions from Republican lawmakers this coming week about the work she did as a public defender representing four Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson may not get any Republican votes.

Federal judges would have to publicly disclose more information about their own finances under a bill approved by the Senate this week.

A rift over the Republican National Committee's symbolic vote to censure former President Donald Trump’s House GOP critics has exposed the competing forces fighting to control the party.

Former President Donald Trump says Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell “does not speak for the Republican Party.”.

Donald Trump’s relentless, false claims about the 2020 presidential election have sparked fresh urgency in Congress for changing the Electoral Count Act.

In a Senate where bitter Supreme Court battles have left a lasting imprint, the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s pick for Supreme Court has the potential to be much less combative and toxic.

A year after the Jan. 6 attack, Congress is more deeply divided than ever, and it shows in how lawmakers are choosing to mark the day.

South Dakota political candidates are revving into full campaign mode this week, with one big exception — Republican Sen. John Thune.

Congressional leaders have reached a deal to lift the nation's debt limit.

During his confirmation to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh assured Sen_ Susan Collins a woman's right to an abortion was “settled law.”.

The Senate has passed a stopgap spending bill that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates.

The federal government could be heading for a temporary shutdown.

President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are looking to give U.S. automakers with union employees the inside track when it comes to winning the burgeoning electric vehicle market.

Former President Donald Trump struggled during his first year in office to get his nominees confirmed in a timely fashion in the Senate.

It's been a tempestuous week in Washington, with insults and accusations flying, deadlines pressing and some major things to get done.

Senators are struggling to wrap up work on the bipartisan infrastructure plan.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is looking to speed up consideration of a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan national infrastructure package.

After much delay, senators have unveiled their $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

The Senate wrapped up a rare Saturday session without producing the text of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

The Senate has advanced a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan with a bipartisan group of senators helping it clear one more hurdle on Friday.

The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery.

President Joe Biden has signed legislation Thursday establishing a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery, saying he believes it will go down as one of the greatest honors he has as president.

The Senate has confirmed the first appellate court judge of President Joe Biden’s tenure.

Republican George P.

Senate Republicans have blocked the creation of a bipartisan panel to study the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

President Joe Biden has met with six young immigrants who benefited from an Obama-era policy that protected those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

The roar of applause that typically greets a new president entering the House chamber softened to just a few hundred hands clapping as Joe Biden arrived to deliver his first joint address to Congress.

Tim Scott of South Carolina is the only Black Republican senator.

President Joe Biden is putting the finishing touches on his first address to a joint session of Congress.

Trust between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill has cratered as Joe Biden prepares to address House and Senate lawmakers for the first time in his presidency.

WASHINGTON – Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin struck a deal late Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a logjam that had stalled the party's showpiece $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. AdMore significantly, the jobless benefits agreement suggested it was just a matter of time until the Senate passes the bill. The House approved a relief bill last weekend that included $400 weekly jobless benefits — on top of regular state payments — through August. Republicans criticized the overall relief bill as a liberal spend-fest that ignores that growing numbers of vaccinations and signs of a stirring economy suggest that the twin crises are easing. AdIn another late bargain that satisfied moderates, Biden and Senate Democrats agreed Wednesday to make some higher earners ineligible for the direct checks to individuals.

“When a crisis hits our states, like the one that hit Texas, it’s not a Republican or Democrat that’s hurting," Biden said. With tens of thousands of Houston area residents without safe water, local officials told Biden that many are still struggling. AdThe president's first stop was the Harris County Emergency Operations Center for a briefing from acting FEMA Administrator Bob Fenton and state and local emergency management officials. Some state officials initially blamed the blackouts on renewable energy even though Texas relies heavily on oil and gas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent emergency generators, bottled water, ready-to-eat meals and blankets.

President Joe Biden is expected to speak to Saudi King Salman for the first time in Bidens just over a month-old administration. The language came in contrast to Biden's pledge as a candidate to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah” over the killing. The Saudi Arabia Embassy spokesman in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. U.S. intelligence findings are coming out more than two years after Khashoggi walked hand-in-hand with his fiancee to the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Once in office, Biden said he would maintain whatever scale of relations with Saudi Arabia that U.S. interests required.

Judge Merrick Garland, nominee to be Attorney General, is sworn in at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. That is what I intend to do as the attorney general," Garland said. Garland said his first briefing as attorney general would be focused on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Other backers include two sons of former Attorney General Edward Levi. “There have been few moments in history where the role of attorney general — and the occupant of that post — have mattered more,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate Judiciary chairman.

The once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden's choice for attorney general. Now, the once-snubbed Supreme Court pick will finally come before the Senate, this time as President Joe Biden's choice for attorney general. Garland's high court nomination by President Barack Obama in 2016 died because the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a hearing. The Justice Department on late Saturday released a copy of Garland’s opening statement. Graham said in a tweet that Garland would be a “sound choice” to lead the Justice Department.

City agencies in Arlington, Texas, have been cut by up to 8%, with officials bracing for more later this year. AdA bipartisan group of mayors notes that aid should be the easy part. A Republican, Williams has joined Democratic Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio, to lead the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ lobbying effort for local aid. State and local lobbies tried again in a second round of COVID-19 aid but were left out altogether. AdMayors attributed the rebuff to McConnell blocking state and local aid as leverage against Democrats who opposed Republicans’ provision to shield businesses' immunity from lawsuits related to COVID-19.

He argued that Trump could not have — and would not have — encouraged the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. “We’re really here because majority in the House of Representatives does not want to face Donald Trump as a political rival in the future. AdHis reemergence as an impeachment lawyer for Trump was a head-scratching moment for Pennsylvania's political and legal world. He had not campaigned for Trump, and a longtime friend, Brian Miles, told the Inquirer that the two men had never discussed Trump before Castor mentioned recently that he was up for the job. For all the criticism directed at him, Castor suggested that Trump did not criticize his performance.

In this image from video, Bruce Castor, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, speaks during the second impeachment trial of Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021. Senators, too, criticized what they described as an unfocused and rambling performance as Trump's team and Democratic House managers began to lay out their cases in front of the Senate jury. The anger was echoed by Trump allies, who blasted the lawyers both publicly and privately and with repeated profanities. GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Castor “just rambled on and on and on and didn’t really address the constitutional argument. Trump's team did not respond to requests for comment on the day's events or questions about whether they are planning any shakeups to the legal team.

Neera Tanden also admitted to spending “many months” removing past Twitter posts, saying, “I deleted tweets because I regretted them." He said that included Tanden calling Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton "a fraud” and tweeting that “vampires have more heart” than Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford said Tanden had tweeted more over the past four years than even Trump did. Still, Senate discussion of Tanden's nomination is likely to center more on her past tweets than her budget priorities. Cotton has said they were “filled with hate.” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn suggested previously that she'd face “certainly a problematic path” to nomination.

The Senate's longest-serving member, 80-year-old Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, was taken to a hospital Tuesday evening for observation after not feeling well, a spokesman said. Now, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is stepping into one of his most visible and physically grueling roles: presiding over former President Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trial. “I had some muscle spasms," Leahy, 80, told reporters the morning after feeling ill in his Capitol office. Carle, Leahy's spokesperson, said Senate leaders have been discussing the trial process, and it is “likely to be limited in duration.” Trump's first impeachment trial lasted almost three weeks. Leahy will preside as Senate president pro tempore, a largely ceremonial post that usually goes to the majority party's longest-serving member.

The Senate's longest-serving member, 80-year-old Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, was taken to a hospital Tuesday evening for observation after not feeling well, a spokesman said. Now, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is stepping into one of his most visible and physically grueling roles: presiding over former President Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trial. “I had some muscle spasms," Leahy, 80, told reporters the morning after feeling ill in his Capitol office. Carle, Leahy's spokesperson, said Senate leaders have been discussing the trial process, and it is “likely to be limited in duration.” Trump's first impeachment trial lasted almost three weeks. Leahy will preside as Senate president pro tempore, a largely ceremonial post that usually goes to the majority party's longest-serving member.

House Democrats are busy preparing their formal case against the former president for inciting an insurrection, with arguments starting the week of Feb. 8. A week later, on Jan. 13, the Democratic-led House impeached Trump with the backing of 10 Republicans. She said that five is probably “a high mark on what you’re going to see for Republican support” for convicting Trump at trial. Some said the censure resolution was too late because Democrats had rejected GOP suggestions of censure before the House voted to impeach. “I guess if we can censure former presidents, then when Republicans get in charge, we can censure Barack Obama or Democrats can censure George Bush."

In this image from video, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Senate, who is presiding over the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, swears in members of the Senate for the impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021. Late Tuesday, the presiding officer at the trial, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was taken to the hospital for observation after not feeling well at his office, spokesman David Carle said in a statement. The vote means the trial on Trump's impeachment will begin as scheduled the week of Feb. 8. “You’re asking me to vote in a trial that by itself on its own is not constitutionally allowed?” he asked. Instead, Leahy, who serves in the largely ceremonial role of Senate president pro tempore, was sworn in on Tuesday.