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

    Pete Hegseth Survives Contentious Hearing in Key Senate Confirmation Battle
    Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host, veterans advocate, and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing on Tuesday. Some senators tested the nominee’s mettle on defense issues, while others—primarily Democrats on the panel—honed in on allegations, most of them made anonymously, of…
    Bradley Devlin | George Caldwell | Jacob Adams | Tyler O’Neil
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  • opinion

    ‘They’re Missing the Point.’ Pastor and Member of Congress Responds to ACLU Pro-Illegal Immigrant PR Campaign
    The American Civil Liberties Union has launched a publicity campaign aimed at pushing back on President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport illegal aliens. But pastor and Congressman Mark Harris, R-N.C., says the ACLU is “missing the point that not all of these folks that are coming are asylum seekers.”  “If you really were compassionate and…
    Virginia Allen
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  • opinion

    Burma’s War Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Catch Washington Off Guard
    As war rages in Europe and as Israel confronts adversaries from all sides in the Middle East, Americans would be forgiven not knowing about the yearslong conflict raging in Burma—the world’s longest-running civil war. The violence has ravaged the Southeast Asian nation for decades, and battlefield developments indicate the conflict may be reaching a new…
    Brent Sadler | Jack Erickson
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  • news

    Dem Senators From Laken Riley’s Home State Won’t Say How They’ll Vote on Namesake Bill
    DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The two Democratic senators representing Laken Riley’s home state of Georgia remain noncommittal on legislation bearing her name nearly a year after she was murdered by an illegal migrant. The Senate is slated to hold a procedural vote on the Laken Riley Act, legislation that requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local law…
    Adam Pack
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  • opinion

    Speaker Johnson’s Next Big Test: Who to Choose as Rules Committee Chairman
    After narrowly escaping ouster as speaker of the House on Friday, Rep. Mike Johnson faces a decision that could determine his relationship with the hard-line conservative faction of the GOP that nearly took his job away—namely, who to appoint as chairman of the House Rules Committee. The House Committee on Rules is among the most…
    George Caldwell
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  • news

    Thune Officially Minted Senate Majority Leader, Promises to Keep Filibuster
    Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., took office as Senate majority leader Friday, telling fellow senators in his introductory speech that he would be a moderating force in government as Republicans attempt to pursue an aggressive agenda in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. Thune promised to protect the filibuster rule—which Trump has previously criticized—in order…
    George Caldwell
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  • opinion

    How McCormick Won Pennsylvania’s Senate Race
    It is just after 9 p.m. on election night in an oversized suite on the 24th floor of downtown Pittsburgh’s Fairmont Hotel. All the couches and cushioned chairs have been placed along the wall and replaced by around a half dozen campaign staffers working at desks, or makeshift desks, watching data start to pour in…
    Salena Zito
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  • opinion

    Why Is Congress Funding the Failing Department of Education?
    Since its creation in May 1980, the Left has demanded Republicans justify opposing federal intervention in U.S. education. However, with President-elect Donald Trump‘s Department of Government Efficiency now promising to “outright delete” the Department of Education, it’s time to flip the script. The real question isn’t, “Why should we eliminate the Department of Education?” It’s, “How can Congress possibly…
    Kevin Roberts | Lindsey Burke
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  • news

    House Passes Spending Bill Without Debt Limit Raise
    After a tumultuous 48 hours and change, the House has voted in favor of a continuing resolution that funds the government until March. The continuing resolution passed under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority of the lower chamber. With the Senate’s approval and President Joe Biden’s signature, the government shutdown scheduled to…
    Bradley Devlin
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  • news

    What’s Hidden in Spending Bill Congress Must Pass to Keep the Government Open?
    President-elect Donald Trump urged congressional Republicans on Wednesday to renegotiate a spending bill designed to avert a partial government shutdown.  Entering the final month of Joe Biden’s presidency, leaders of Trump’s government efficiency panel also strongly oppose the so-called continuing resolution as drafted. The 1,547-page spending bill would increase congressional salaries from $174,000 to $243,000,…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Congress Sneaks Massive Pay Raise for Itself Into Spending Bill as Americans Struggle to Make Ends Meet
    DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Members of Congress are slated to receive a pay raise for the first time in 15 years if the massive spending bill released by House leaders Tuesday evening passes both chambers and is signed into law. The 1,574-page bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), contains language allowing for a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA),…
    Adam Pack
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  • news

    Football Coach-Turned-Senator’s Playbook for Saving Women’s Sports
    Between transgender-identifying men competing in women’s sports and women’s limited athletics funding coming from so-called Name, Image, and Likeness policies, Sen. Tommy Tuberville says, there will be no women’s sports left in five years unless something is done. Tuberville, R-Ala., a former Auburn University football coach, met with President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • news

    EXCLUSIVE: Conservative Leaders Urge Senators to Block Woke Efforts to Pack Supreme Court
    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A coalition of conservative leaders, led by a think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, is urging the Senate to maintain the integrity of the Supreme Court by passing a constitutional amendment. “With the recent election representing a resounding rejection of such proposals,” the letter to U.S. senators says,…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • news

    Hunter Biden Corruption ‘Deeper’ Than ‘Drug and Gun Crimes,’ GOP Senator Says After Pardon
    The presidential pardon of Hunter Biden underscores the corruption of the Biden-Harris Justice Department and leaves unanswered questions about the depth of the president’s son’s crimes, Republican members of Congress say. “While the FBI intentionally covered up 17 audio recordings of Joe and Hunter Biden to shield them from accountability, it showed no remorse in…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • news

    Does DOGE Need Congress for Massive Budget Cutting?
    Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, met over the weekend with President-elect Donald Trump and his choices to slash billions if not trillions of dollars in federal spending—entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The Musk- and Ramaswamy-led Department of Government Efficiency is expected to work closely with the new Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget to…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    The Most Trumpian Lawmaker Should Replace Vance in Ohio’s Senate Seat
    Sen. JD Vance just won a promotion to vice president. The Ohio Republican lawmaker and his incoming boss—once-and-future President Donald Trump—did so in mandate-producing fashion. Beyond just their trouncing of Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, Trump and Vance also outperformed just about all down-ballot Republicans. That makes the Senate Republicans’ choice as their leader—K…
    Seton Motley
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  • news

    Heritage Launches $1 Million Campaign to Expedite Senate Confirmation of Trump’s Cabinet Picks   
    The Heritage Foundation and its independent partner, Heritage Action for America, on Thursday launched what they describe as a $1 million campaign aimed at expediting Senate confirmation of President-elect Donald Trump’s second-term Cabinet appointments.   The campaign will officially start in the middle of January 2025 and will continue for the entirety of the Senate…
    Christina Lewis
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  • opinion

    Democrats’ Brazen Hypocrisy on Senate Filibuster
    Addressing the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting Sept. 10, 2022, in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, Vice President Kamala Harris boasted about how, as president of the Senate, she had broken “John Adams’s record of casting the most tiebreaking votes in a single term.” Harris was reliving how, a month earlier on Aug. 7, she had…
    Peter Parisi
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  • opinion

    Pennsylvania Officials Openly Admit to Trying to Steal Senate Seat
    So much for the Left’s trope that election fraud is a myth. Enter the chairwoman of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, who openly advocated for Pennsylvania election officials to violate the law by counting illegal ballots in the U.S. Senate contest between challenger Dave McCormick and the incumbent Bob Casey,…
    Hans von Spakovsky | Cully Stimson
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  • news

    How Many of 20 Senate Republicans Who Voted for Merrick Garland as AG Now Have Doubts About Matt Gaetz? 
    Some of the 20 Senate Republicans who voted to confirm President Joe Biden’s pick of Merrick Garland for attorney general already are shaking their heads at President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee as the nation’s top law enforcer.   Several of those GOP senators have spoken out against Trump’s choice last week of Matt Gaetz for attorney…
    Christina Lewis
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