U.S. Senate News

This section focuses on the upper chamber of Congress, from major policy debates to confirmation hearings. The Daily Signal provides a conservative look at Senate priorities.
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  • news

    Democratic Senator Indicted on Bribery Offenses in Case Involving Gold Bars

    A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine, Friday, charging him with bribery for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold bars. Menendez denied the charges, saying he had been "falsely accused." The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that the charges…
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  • opinion

    Senators Seek to Secure Border and End Biden’s Arson of America

    Calls for Congress to defund the Biden administration’s open-border operations and to enact real border security measures gained steam this week. With a week of funding left in the federal fiscal year, the House is considering attaching most of the Secure the Border Act to a continuing resolution package to fund the government. After the bill…
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  • news

    CALLING HIS BLUFF: Tuberville Tests Schumer by Forcing Senate Vote on Military Officer

    Sen. Tommy Tuberville is planning to force his Senate colleagues to vote on Gen. Eric Smith’s promotion to U.S. Marine Corps commandant—a new tactic in the Alabama Republican’s monthslong dispute with the Defense Department over its taxpayer-funded abortion policy. At a meeting Tuesday with his Senate Republican colleagues, Tuberville secured the backing of at least…
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  • news

    Amid Surge in Illegal Alien Encounters, GOP Senators Push ‘Secure the Border’ Bill

    Illegal alien encounters on America’s southern border approached record highs between Friday and Monday.   In just four days, Customs and Border Protection has encountered more than 35,000 illegal aliens on the U.S. border with Mexico, according to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.   When you do the math, “that’s almost 9,000 every single day,”…
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  • news

    ‘FBI Does Not Exist to Harass Law-Abiding Americans,’ 8 Senators Remind Wray

    U.S. senators on the Intelligence Committee are demanding the nation’s top law enforcement agency explain why it was targeting Catholics. Eight members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence published a letter last week to FBI Director Christopher Wray, giving him until Sept. 29 to explain how the Richmond, Virginia, field office crafted a memo detailing plans…
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  • opinion

    Dressing Down an Unserious Senate

    Axios reported Sunday that “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., quietly has directed the Senate’s Sergeant at Arms to no longer enforce the chamber’s informal dress code for its members.” “Senators are able to choose what they wear on the Senate floor. I will continue to wear a suit,” Schumer said. The reporting frames the…
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  • news

    X-RATED: At Hearing, Senator Reads Pornographic Excerpts From LGBT Books Targeted at Kids

    Editor's note: This article includes quotes from books with graphic sexual descriptions. Sen. John Neely Kennedy read from pornographic books at a Senate hearing on Tuesday amid a heated exchange about school boards removing such books from libraries. Kennedy, R-La., read from two books—“All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir”—both of which have…
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  • news

    EXCLUSIVE: Abortion Lawyer Accused of Perjuring Herself Before Congress

    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: Republican Congressmen Chip Roy of Texas and Mike Johnson of Louisiana are calling on a controversial abortion lawyer to explain whether she "violated the law by providing misleading information to Congress." Talcott Camp is the chief legal and strategy officer at the National Abortion Federation, where she oversees the organization's…
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  • opinion

    BOONDOGGLES: 7 Examples of Wasteful, Outrageous Earmarks in Senate Spending Package

    This week, the Senate will be debating—and will likely vote on—a package of spending bills that covers the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. While some of the funding is necessary, far too much is devoted to bureaucracies and programs that directly benefit, or have been captured by, the Left….
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  • opinion

    Senator Admits Democrats Don’t Want to End Tuberville’s Blockade of Military Promotions

    Sen. Jack Reed showed up for a floor speech Wednesday with a poster depicting eight framed photos of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Three of the frames were empty, a consequence of the ongoing dispute between Sen. Tommy Tuberville and the Defense Department over its decision to implement a taxpayer-funded abortion policy.  “If the senator…
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  • opinion

    Committees and Hearings: Behind the Scenes of How Congress Really Works

    Committees and hearings play a critical role in the operations of Congress. But how are members assigned to committees? And do congressional hearings actually advance legislation and investigations? Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, goes beneath the surface in today’s edition of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain how Congress really…
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  • opinion

    Violent Criminals Continue to Pose as Migrant Children to Enter US; Congress Must Act Now

    Despite all the “victory laps” Biden administration officials have taken as they brag that their unlawful policies and processing programs have reduced illegal immigration, recent border data shows the opposite. On top of that, there is an undeniable link between the increase in illegal entrants being welcomed into the country and an increase in violent…
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  • opinion

    Thousands of Bills, Back Rooms, Spending Debates: How Congress Really Works

    Many Americans have seen a “Schoolhouse Rock” video explaining how Congress operates, or they may have taken political science classes in school. But neither paints the full picture of how Congress “actually works,” Clint Brown says. Take the introduction of bills in Congress as an example, says Brown, vice president of government relations at The…
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  • news

    ‘Golfing on the Taxpayer’s Dime’: GOP Senator Calls on Federal Employees to Return to Office

    Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa questioned the Biden administration over its telework policy, citing instances where employees working from home took bubble baths and played golf while on the clock. In a letter sent to all government agencies, Ernst cited a media account of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee who attended a staff meeting while…
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  • opinion

    It May Not Be a SNAP, but Congress Should Promote Work for Food Stamps

    The farm bill is up for reauthorization this year. But despite its name, the vast majority of spending in the farm bill goes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, previously known simply as food stamps. Given the size of SNAP, the farm bill is a significant opportunity to improve the nation’s welfare system….
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  • opinion

    Why Founding Fathers ‘Deliberately Made Congress Weak,’ Professor Explains

    The Founding Fathers feared the power of the legislative branch from its inception in the late 1700s. They did not want to trade one tyrant for a group of tyrants, one professor tells “The Daily Signal Podcast,” so they “deliberately made Congress weak by dividing it up into these two bodies,” the House and the Senate. …
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  • news

    The Biden Administration Lost Contact With 85,000 Children. Here’s How Congress Is Trying to Find Them.

    Congressman Chris Smith is preparing to introduce legislation that will require the federal government to locate the 85,000 migrant children it has lost contact with within the U.S.   “This is all about accountability and effective interventions for these kids,” Smith, R-N.J., told The Daily Signal.   The draft legislation is focused on “locating, establishing contact with,…
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  • news

    4 Senate Democrats Urged to ‘Hold Hearings Into DHS’s Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking’

    Sen. Ron Johnson is leading an effort by Republican senators to urge four of their Democratic counterparts with relevant committee chairmanships to hold hearings on human trafficking.  “Given your committees’ roles in overseeing [the Department of Homeland Security], we urge you to investigate and hold hearings into DHS’s efforts to combat human trafficking,” Johnson, R-Wis.,…
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  • opinion

    Senate Passes Defense Spending Bill Without House Amendments on Abortion, Transgender ‘Health’

    The U.S. Senate passed its version of the House of Representatives’ military spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, on Thursday, but omitting two amendments that the legacy media has spun as Republicans inserting the social issues of abortion and transgender medical interventions into routine legislation. Don’t buy it. The Republicans in the House had…
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  • news

    Put You ‘IN THE GROUND’: Grad Student Threatens State Senator Over Vote to Protect Kids From Trans Drugs

    A Louisiana state senator says he is undeterred despite receiving a death threat after he voted to override a governor's veto on a bill protecting children from experimental "transgender" medical interventions. "No type of threat would ever stop me from trying to save children and keep them from being mutilated or from facing any other…
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