Congressional & Capitol Hill News

The Senate keeps making it harder for House Speaker Paul Ryan to sell an unpopular budget to the Republican conference. Appropriators in the upper chamber have complicated Ryan’s task by calling for “clean” spending bills free of controversial policy riders. A major selling point for conservatives, these amendments–known as policy riders–are attached to larger bills…

Over 100 conservatives from 29 states and Washington, D.C., voiced their support for Senate Republicans in a memo commending them for their resistance to any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Barack Obama. “We applaud Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, for promising not to hold a…

The Senate voted 49-40 Monday evening to confirm John B. King Jr., President Barack Obama’s nominee, as secretary of education. A total of 11 senators did not vote on King’s confirmation, while those who voted against him cited his loyalty to the system and support for Common Core education standards.  >>> Here's the roll call vote for…

As a method to control spending, conservative lawmakers often propose imposing a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution that would require the federal government not to spend more than it earns. This effort has always failed. Such an amendment has never been enacted at the federal level. But that isn’t stopping one freshman…

After a series of undercover videos produced last year by pro-life activists raised questions about Planned Parenthood’s harvesting of fetal tissue from aborted babies, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., attempted to address the issue of whether or not the practice is legally and ethically permissible when used for medical research. The topic was debated on Wednesday…

Speaking at a hearing investigating the procurement of fetal tissue from aborted babies, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., asked a panel of experts Wednesday: “Have we reached a point in our society where there effectively is an Amazon.com for human parts, including human babies?” While asking the question, Black showed those testifying an email from a…

Senate Democrats are predicting with certainty that Republicans will fold on their pledge not to hold hearings on President Obama’s eventual Supreme Court pick. “We’ve been here with Republican leadership before,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a press conference Wednesday. Schumer and other Democrats say they see the GOP’s current strategy as a bad…

Months before the 1992 presidential election, Joe Biden urged fellow U.S. senators to shut down the nomination process and block President George H.W. Bush’s judicial picks from a confirmation vote. Today, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called on the Senate to follow what he dubbed “the Biden Rules.” The lawmakers should leave Antonin Scalia’s…

The battle over the Obama administration’s effort to require convenience stores, pizzerias, and other eateries to list calorie counts for food offerings goes next to the Senate, with the House’s passage of legislation to rein in the Obamacare-related regulations. “Accidentally putting too many pickles on a sandwich and increasing its calorie count shouldn’t be a criminal offense,”…

Lawmakers speaking at the recent Conservative Policy Summit in Washington shared hopeful visions of what could be accomplished if Americans embrace conservative reforms. The public will be won over by real solutions, “not talking points,” Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., said during the afternoon session. The Conservative Policy Summit, an annual event organized by Heritage Action for America,…