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

    How Trump Has Already Transformed Washington

    President Donald Trump is transforming Washington, D.C., and the effects are already noticeable. In front of Washington’s Union Station, a massive, Beaux Arts-style train station that has been the main artery of the city since it opened in 1908, members of the National Guard have in recent days been stationed with massive military vehicles. Along…
    George Caldwell
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    • Opinion

    Was It Always This Easy to Clean Up Washington, DC?

    President Donald Trump cracked down on crime in the nation’s capital this week. On Monday, he declared a state of emergency in Washington through an executive order, temporarily placing the Metropolitan Police Department under federal control. He also deployed more than 800 National Guard troops, resulting in over 100 arrests so far. Trump’s move has…
    Elise McCue
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    • News

    Bush’s, Obama’s ‘Farewell’-Style Wishes for USAID Staff Underscore Washington’s ‘Uniparty’ Culture

    Former Presidents George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s farewell messages to staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development this week reinforce the perception that critics have called the “uniparty” culture in Washington. On Monday, the staff of USAID received video messages from the two former presidents, along with one from Bono, the ultraliberal Irish…
    Jacob Adams
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    • News

    ‘WADA Shame’: Senate Panel Examines Olympics Doping

    A Senate subcommittee on Tuesday heard a lack of confidence in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ability to combat cheating at the Olympics. The hearing, “WADA Shame: Swimming in Denial Over Chinese Doping,” comes after an April 2024 report detailed how top Chinese swimmers tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug just months before they were allowed to…
    Jacob Adams
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    • News

    GENIUS or Not? Senate Passes Major Cryptocurrency Law

    The Senate on Tuesday afternoon passed the GENIUS Act, which would standardize regulations for a growing cryptocurrency market, stablecoins. The bill passed on a bipartisan 68-30 vote. GENIUS Act proponents say it will save money for American businesses and boost the dollar's value, but opponents call it a “weak bill" that would risk financial stability…
    George Caldwell
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    • News

    Turley on Free Speech Amid Deportation Unrest, Condemns Senator’s Disruptive Behavior 

    As the riots in Los Angeles continue to rage and temperatures still flare from Thursday’s debacle when a U.S. senator forcibly entered a press event for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and began shouting at her, a nationally renowned free speech expert weighed in on the tense political atmosphere and the looming questions of the…
    Lucy Spence
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    • News

    Senate ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Overhaul Rattles GOP

    It will not be easy to pass the “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill by the July 4 deadline Senate leadership is eyeing. On Monday, the Senate Finance Committee—which handles matters such as health care and taxes—released its draft legislative text for the “big, beautiful bill.”  This 10-year budgetary framework is the vehicle for fulfilling a number…
    George Caldwell
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    • News

    Commander in Chief Is Reviled in DC Suburbs Even as the Army Is Revered in Washington

    THE CENTER SQUARE—In the hours leading up to and during a massive military parade that took place in the heart of Washington, D.C., on Saturday evening at the behest of President Donald Trump, protesters who argue he has repeatedly acted outside his constitutional authority gathered across the nation in symbolic defiance. The president has said…
    Morgan Sweeney
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    • News

    ‘Entirely Unacceptable’: Senate Republicans Condemn California Democrat’s Outburst

    Senate Republicans are sharply criticizing Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., for his disruption Thursday of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem‘s press conference. “Sen. Padilla should have been in Washington, D.C., voting. He has a responsibility to his constituents to show up at work—not try to make a spectacle of himself,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the…
    Jacob Adams
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    • News

    House Passes HALT Fentanyl Act, Sending Bill to Trump’s Desk

    The House passed the HALT Fentanyl Act on Thursday, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.   “Fentanyl is a bioweapon, and this bill treats it like one,” Rep. Addison McDowell, R-N.C., whose younger brother died from a fentanyl overdose, told The Daily Signal.   “The HALT Fentanyl Act slams the…
    Virginia Allen
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    • News

    House GOP Passes DOGE Cuts by a Whisker After Chaos on Floor

    The House Republicans successfully passed a rescissions package to cut $9.4 billion from foreign aid and public broadcasting Thursday, in the first major codification of President Donald Trump’s efforts to restructure the federal government. The rescissions package, which targeted funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development as well as for National Public Radio and…
    George Caldwell
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    • Opinion

    Student Loan Reform Is Underway – Now the Senate Can Strengthen It

    The House version of the reconciliation package in Congress, passed on May 22, marks a long-overdue step toward fiscal responsibility in higher education. The policies in HR 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, should encourage students and taxpayers. These include eliminating the inflationary Grad PLUS loan program, placing borrowing caps on…
    Madison Marino Doan
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    • News

    Democrat Senator Criticizes Party Over Los Angeles Riots

    Sen. John Fetterman on Monday condemned the Los Angeles riots that have broken out in reaction to the deportation of illegal aliens.  “I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that,” Fetterman, D-Pa., wrote in a post on X. “This is anarchy and true chaos,” the Pennsylvania senator continued, including…
    Jacob Adams
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    • News

    Antisemitic Violence ‘Threat Level’ Prompts Congress to Act, Lawmaker Says Ahead of Hearing

    Following two recent attacks that appear to have been motivated by antisemitism, Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, says such threats have reached a frightening level.   “When it comes to the antisemitic violence that we have seen, I don’t think the threat level has been this high in decades,” Pfluger told The Daily Signal ahead of…
    Virginia Allen
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    • Opinion

    Senate Report Confirms the Wisdom of Secretary Kennedy’s Revised COVID-19 Vaccine Schedule

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend routine COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women and healthy children. Kennedy also said that COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for those under 65 will undergo new clinical trials—an attempt…
    Robert Moffit
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    • News

    10 Things I Saw at Washington’s WorldPride Parade

    Washington, D.C., was the host of the WorldPride Parade on Saturday. Here are some of the people and things I witnessed as I covered the event for The Daily Signal. 1. Corporate Presence Many companies in the hospitality or travel industries had floats in the parade. Some of these companies included United Airlines, Hyatt Hotels,…
    Quinn Delamater
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    • Opinion

    Fractious Factions: Why Passing ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Through Senate Will Be Difficult

    As Senate Republican leadership rushes to pass the “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill, the math to get to a GOP consensus in both houses of Congress has suddenly gotten much harder.  The “big, beautiful bill,” a 10-year budget package, is the main legislative vehicle for delivering on President Donald Trump's campaign promises and can be…
    George Caldwell
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    • News

    Got Whole Milk? Senate Panel Moves to End Low-Fat Only Rule in School Lunches.

    The Make America Healthy Again movement claimed another win this week when the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee unanimously passed a bill on Tuesday that would once again allow whole and reduced-fat milk to be served in school cafeterias. “I’m encouraged to see the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act advance. This common-sense, bipartisan…
    Jacob Adams
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    • News

    Senate Changes to ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Could Threaten House Passage

    After its passage by narrowest of margins in the House of Representatives, Republicans' “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill is facing the prospect of major changes in the Senate, which could make it extremely difficult to pass when the revised bill is returned to the House. The bill passed the House by a 215-214 margin with…
    George Caldwell
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    • News

    House Anti-Opioids Bill Easily Passes Despite Unexpected Opposition

    A bill on the normally bipartisan issue of combating America’s opioid epidemic faced some opposition from Democrats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, but still passed handily. Dubbed the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025, the legislation reauthorizes funding for the fiscal years 2026 to 2030 for grants and other programs…
    Jacob Adams
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