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

    Mike Lee Forces Senate Republicans to Clarify Leadership Rules
    After a week of campaigning, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has called it quits on a short-lived effort to win a post inside Senate leadership. A conservative upstart, Lee tried to break into the GOP’s upper ranks and win the fourth-ranking position as chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. If successful, the effort would have…
    Philip Wegmann
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  • opinion

    Establishment Senators Push GOP Unity Ahead of Conservative Values
    The Senate is often referred to as a “club” — a term that certainly fits. The nickname was reinforced last week by a behind the scenes account of GOP senators who view their “club” as a pretty exclusive place. Basically, conservative ideas, opinions, and research need not apply. The main focus of The Hill’s article was about…
    Genevieve Wood
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  • news

    Senators Lobby Consumer Bureau in Letter That Appears to Be Written by Agency’s Own Adviser
    The Daily Signal has obtained a draft letter from two Democrat senators urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to continue addressing what they call “discriminatory and unfair lending practices” in the auto industry. But, according to metadata found in the document’s properties, it appears the letter may not have been written by the two senators…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • news

    Breaking: Freedom Caucus to Call for Impeachment of IRS Commissioner From House Floor
    From the floor of the House of Representatives, members of the Freedom Caucus will renew today the push to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, The Daily Signal has learned. Lawmakers plan to argue around 5 p.m. EST, according to a member of Congress. Last year, House Freedom Caucus chairman Jim Jordan and Rep. Ron DeSantis…
    Philip Wegmann
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  • opinion

    Iran-Boeing Talks Raise Importance of Senate Delay on Ex-Im Nominee
    Officials of the Obama administration teamed up with Boeing executives last week to lobby for Senate confirmation of the president’s nominee to the board of the Export-Import Bank, which lacks a quorum and thus is barred from approving deals in excess of $10 million (that is, the deals that most benefit the multinational conglomerates that…
    Diane Katz
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  • opinion

    Conservative Lawmaker on the House Budget: ‘We’re Not There Yet’
    Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., sat down with The Daily Signal to talk about the next round in the budget battle now that Congress is back from recess. Meadows told me, “We’re not there yet” in terms of finding offsets to bring down the spending levels currently being pushed by House GOP leadership. In talking with…
    Genevieve Wood
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  • news

    Reinforced by Grassroots, Senate Republicans Hold Line on Supreme Court Nomination
    Conservatives who are normally at odds with Senate leadership are turning out to be important allies in their ongoing campaign to block President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. When the Senate recessed in March, conservative groups quickly mobilized activists across the country to reinforce the Republican blockade against Merrick Garland. Organizations like FreedomWorks, Heritage Action,…
    Philip Wegmann
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  • news

    Lawmakers Debate What Kind of Lifeline to Throw Drowning Puerto Rico
    Republicans, Democrats, and Wall Street investors agree that lawmakers must do more work on a plan to save Puerto Rico from looming fiscal disaster. They just disagree on the direction Congress should take to tackle the problems plaguing the U.S. territory. A rough draft released Tuesday by House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, wasn’t…
    Philip Wegmann
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  • opinion

    Key GOP Senators Say There’s ‘No Crack’ in Vow of No Hearings, No Votes
    The battle over whether to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has escalated since President Barack Obama submitted U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee. Though Senate Democrats continue to push for hearings and one GOP Senator, Mark Kirk of Illinois, met with…
    Genevieve Wood
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  • opinion

    Lawmakers in Both Parties Are Addicted to Spending
    Congress is at it again…the budget train is about to leave the station, and guess what’s on board! Almost $60 billion above what House Republicans proposed in last year’s budget. And this from the party that claims to be for limited government and fiscal discipline. The reality is that the majority of lawmakers in both parties…
    Genevieve Wood
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  • news

    Lawmakers Want Big Brother to Get a Warrant Before Looking in Your Inbox
    If the Email Privacy Act becomes law, the inboxes of millions of Americans will get a security update overnight. The bill would prohibit the government from accessing private email accounts without a warrant. But civil rights and law enforcement advocates remain at odds over the legislation. Proponents say the bill secures privacy rights online while…
    Philip Wegmann
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  • news

    Why Did Senate Leadership Close This Policy Avenue to House Conservatives?
    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…
    Philip Wegmann
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  • opinion

    Liberals Told Senators ‘Do Your Job’ on Court Nominee. What the Constitution Says.
    Following President Barack Obama’s nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit to fill the vacancy left by sudden passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, there has been an intense clamor from the left for the Senate to “do your job!” By this, they mean that the Senate has a constitutional obligation to give Garland a…
    John G. Malcolm
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  • news

    Conservative Leaders Back Senate Republicans’ Stand on Supreme Court Seat
    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…
    Kristiana Mork
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  • opinion

    Senate Bill Would Effectively Support Mandatory Labeling of GMOs
    Last year, the House passed a bill to pre-empt states from imposing mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food, also known as GMOs. While it looked like the Senate was going to follow suit, in the last minute, the new Senate bill would actually effectively mandate the labeling of genetically engineered food. In the Senate bill,…
    Daren Bakst
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  • news

    49 Senators OK Common Core Advocate as Education Secretary
    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…
    Leah Jessen
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  • opinion

    GOP Senator’s Energy Bill Is Not So ‘Clean’
    Some Senate appropriators are already settling for business as usual going into the federal budget process. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has stated that only a “clean” energy and water development appropriations bill will be considered by the subcommittee, according to a Washington Examiner article. As with many words in Washington, “clean” does not mean what…
    Katie Tubb
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  • news

    How This Conservative Freshman Lawmaker Aims to Force Congress to Balance the Budget
    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…
    Josh Siegel
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  • opinion

    This Senator Sees ‘No Wavering’ on Waiting to Fill Supreme Court Vacancy
    Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., says he has “no doubt” Senate Republicans will hold firm and not consider a successor to Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court until a new president takes office. “You’ve got to go all the way back to 1888 before you actually nominated and confirmed a Supreme Court justice in the last year…
    Genevieve Wood
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  • opinion

    How Reagan Disappointed This Conservative Lawmaker
    President Barack Obama has “essentially ordered the Border Patrol to stand down,” Rep. Steve King says. The Iowa Republican, speaking with me at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC,  said Americans shouldn’t be surprised that more illegal immigrants seek to enter the country. “That’s what law is about, a deterrent. So when you reward people…
    Genevieve Wood
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