Congressional & Capitol Hill News

The Daily Signal delivers comprehensive congressional news with reporting and conservative commentary on House and Senate activities, legislative priorities, committee investigations, leadership battles, and the fight for conservative policy in both chambers of Congress.
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    • News

    7 Takeaways From Senate Hearing on Supreme Court and Dark Money

    Senators and a witness at a Senate hearing Wednesday afternoon called out three left-leaning dark money groups for decrying the existence of conservative dark money groups.  The term “dark money” generally applies to a political organization that doesn’t disclose its donors.  Leaders of the liberal groups People for the American Way, the Center for Media…
    Fred Lucas
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    • News

    8 Senators Propose Extending Daylight Saving Time to Year-Round

    A bipartisan group of senators has reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act, which would extend daylight saving time to year-round, rather than keep it at eight months. One of those lawmakers, Sen. Marco Rubio, says the change would “give our nation’s families more stability throughout the year.” The Florida Republican and seven colleagues from both sides…
    Steven Hall
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    • News

    ‘People’s Alternative to Impeachment’: 4 Things to Know About Recalling Governors

    Angry Californians, fed up with some of the governor’s policies, started a petition to recall him, knowing that the incumbent had two more years in office until going before voters again.  The 1968 push to recall Gov. Ronald Reagan fell on the ash heap of history, however. The effort failed to collect enough valid signatures…
    Fred Lucas
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    • Opinion

    Will Presidential Impeachment Become New Normal?

    When the House impeached Donald Trump in late 2019 on ambiguous charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, many legal experts expressed concern about normalizing impeachment—previously a very rare procedure.  “Abuse of Power: Inside the Three-Year Campaign to Impeach Donald Trump,” my 2020 book, outlines how Trump was the first president impeached on…
    Fred Lucas
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    • News

    6 Highlights From Congress’ First Hearing on Capitol Riot

    Former and current officials responsible for securing the U.S. Capitol fielded questions Tuesday from senators about how the Jan. 6 rioters could have breached the building.  Two Senate committees held the first such oversight hearing about a mob’s ability to storm the Capitol, apparently to prevent a joint session of Congress from counting and certifying…
    Fred Lucas
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    • Opinion

    Protecting Newborns Is Common Sense. Time for Congress to Take Action.

    Last Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi directed House Democrats to block one specific piece of legislation over and over. Democrats designated one person to stand up and object, every single day, when Republicans tried to bring this bill to the House floor. What legislation could possibly make Pelosi and House Democrats so afraid that they’d…
    Ann Wagner
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    • News

    7 Highlights From Trump Team’s Defense in Impeachment Trial

    Lawyers for former President Donald Trump gave a significantly shorter presentation Friday in his defense than the Democrats’ House impeachment managers did the previous two days in acting as prosecutors.  Day Four of Trump’s second Senate impeachment trial began around noon and Trump’s legal team yielded the balance of its 16 hours of allotted time…
    Fred Lucas
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    • Opinion

    Congress Must Confront Overspending, CBO Report Confirms

    The Congressional Budget Office released the newest version of its “Budget and Economic Outlook” on Thursday, and the fiscal outlook over the next decade is grim. Spending, taxes, deficits, and the debt are all projected to increase to record levels. Even assuming no new spending is adopted, the government is projected to spend $61 trillion,…
    Matthew Dickerson
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    • Opinion

    Trump Impeachment Trial Just a Stage for Political Posturing

    If the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump were a play it would close after one performance. The plot is known, the outcome is certain, and the drama is contrived. If it were a film, it might be called “Fifty Angry Senate Democrats” (apologies to “12 Angry Men”), or the 2003 film with a title…
    Cal Thomas
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    • News

    6 Takeaways From Opening Arguments in Trump’s Senate Trial

    The historic opening day of the first Senate impeachment trial of a former president was fiery and emotional in some moments.  Democrat House managers and lawyers for former President Donald Trump primarily clashed over the constitutionality of trying a private citizen who was impeached seven days before his term as president expired.  The House impeached…
    Fred Lucas
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    • News

    4 Major Arguments in Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial

    Lawyers for former President Donald Trump filed dueling legal briefs Monday in a clash with prosecuting Democrats over the First Amendment, due process, and something the nation’s sixth president said as Trump’s second Senate impeachment trial formally began. The Senate will try Trump on the House’s single charge of “incitement to insurrection,” blaming Trump’s Jan….
    Fred Lucas
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    • News

    2 Senators Flip-Flop on Keystone XL Pipeline, Thwarting GOP Bid to Save It

    Two Democratic senators—Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana—who initially voted in favor of a Republican amendment reversing President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline later reversed themselves and voted with other Democrats to kill the amendment.  Both Tester and Manchin voted late Thursday night for the amendment from…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • Opinion

    If Biden Really Wants ‘Unity,’ He Will Call Off Kangaroo Court Impeachment Trial

    In his inauguration speech Jan. 20, President Joe Biden invoked Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address—and a nation, now as then, deeply divided.   “To overcome these challenges—to restore the soul and to secure the future of America—requires more than words,” Biden solemnly intoned. “It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: unity. Unity.”  The repetition presumably was for emphasis. “Today, on this…
    Peter Parisi
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    • Opinion

    ‘Talk Is Cheap,’ New Congresswoman Says About Left’s Calls for Unity

    Freshman Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, says she is committed to focusing on the “meat and potato issues that affect people’s daily lives.” Van Duyne was the first female mayor of Irving, Texas, from 2011-2017. Now, she says, she’ll draw on her experience in local government to listen to the needs and concerns of Americans…
    Virginia Allen
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    • News

    Sen. Mike Lee Explains Why the Senate Has the Filibuster and Why It Would Be a Mistake to Abolish It

    Now that Democrats have President Joe Biden in the White House and narrow majorities in both houses of Congress, some on the left argue that it’s time to get rid of the Senate filibuster. The Senate filibuster rule often slows down legislation and makes it so that 60 votes are required to pass bills, rather…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • News

    Trump Lawyers Counter Democrats With These 4 Impeachment Arguments

    Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have fired back against House Democrats’ charge that he incited an insurrection.  Two Trump lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce Castor, filed a 14-page counterbrief Tuesday, the same day Democrats’ impeachment managers made an 80-page filing.  The Trump brief denies that calling for supporters to “fight” is inciting a riot. It…
    Fred Lucas
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    • News

    Democrats’ 4 Top Arguments for Trump Impeachment Trial

    House Democrats prosecuting former President Donald Trump released a memorandum Tuesday laying out key points against Trump, the first president to face an impeachment trial in the Senate after leaving office.  The House impeached Trump for the second time seven days before the end of his four-year term, accusing him of “incitement to insurrection” before…
    Fred Lucas
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    • Opinion

    Schumer Is Wrong About Debt. Congress Must Take Debt Danger Seriously, Not Spend Recklessly.

    The combination of unified control of the federal government along with the COVID-19 pandemic has seemingly caused some elected officials to think there are no consequences to new spending proposals. However, they must wake up to the dangers posed by recklessly adding to the national debt. On Thursday, Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., exemplified this…
    David Ditch
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    • Opinion

    Impeachment Follies: Why the Senate Cannot Try Trump

    A majority of the Senate last week decided that it can lawfully begin a trial on the House-approved article of impeachment, even though former President Donald Trump no longer holds federal office. The majority is wrong. Princeton political science professor Keith Whittington argued in a Jan. 22 Wall Street Journal opinion essay that the Senate…
    Paul J. Larkin
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    • News

    Conservative Leaders Urge Senate to Preserve Filibuster

    Heritage Action for America and a coalition of other national and state grassroots groups have sent a letter to members of the Senate urging them not to abolish the legislative filibuster. They said the filibuster “protects the rights of the minority party” in the Senate and “is an essential part of ensuring a strong system…
    Steven Hall
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