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
How Republicans Could Overcome Filibusters by Senate Democrats
As Democrats strategize on how to stop conservative legislation from making its way to Donald Trump’s desk in the White House, Republicans have a little-known rule in their toolbox that would allow them to pass legislation, including a repeal of Obamacare, with a simple majority. Democrats were able to keep 48 seats in the Senate… -
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What Chuck Schumer Would Do as Top Senate Democrat
Republicans buoyant about their newfound power in Washington, D.C., still have to contend with a powerful figure in the opposing party. The Senate’s new Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, is well known in Washington political circles as perhaps the dominant player in helping fellow Democrats defeat Republican opponents. Schumer, the 65-year-old New Yorker and former chairman… -
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Top Senate Republican Meets With Lobbyists on Spending Plans
Hours after Hillary Clinton conceded the presidential election to Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sat down with Washington lobbyists to outline priorities for a lame-duck session of Congress later this month. According to Politico, McConnell, R-Ky., met Wednesday night with Republican lobbyists from corporations and consulting firms. One of the subjects was possibilities… -
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2 GOP Senators Advocate Post-Election Vote on Supreme Court Nominee
Two Republican senators are breaking ranks with GOP leadership over the confirmation of President Barack Obama’s stalled Supreme Court nominee. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., predicted that Merrick Garland would be confirmed by the Senate during the lame-duck session of Congress. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., has also advocated for action on Garland’s nomination in the post-election… -
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Democrat VP Candidate Predicts Senate Will Change Rules to Confirm Supreme Court Nominee
Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine says Democrats would “change the Senate rules” to confirm a ninth Supreme Court justice if they win control of the upper chamber in November. “I have a prediction,” Kaine said in an interview last week with The Huffington Post. “This is not a guarantee and I’m not revealing inside intel…. -
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Senators Promise to Block Potential Clinton Supreme Court Nominees
Two U.S. senators say they plan to oppose Hillary Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees should she win the presidency. In the past week, both Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, have indicated they would continue to block confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee next year. According to CNN, McCain said in a radio… -
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Lawmakers’ New Project Aims to Support Religious Institutions
A new project has been launched to show the need of religious institutions, which are in danger of losing influence in society as they face challenges to their existence today. “We need our faith-based institutions,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Bill Flores, R-Texas, said at the launch of the America Without Faith project at the Hillsdale… -
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GOP-Controlled Senate Passes Spending Bill Without Conservative Policy Riders
Three days before the federal government’s spending authority expired, the Senate advanced a 10-week continuing resolution by a 72-26 vote, putting spending on autopilot and avoiding a looming government shutdown. The makeshift spending agreement allows lawmakers in the upper chamber to skip Capitol Hill for the campaign trail with barely a month before the November… -
opinion
House Passes Structuring Reform
For years, the IRS has used a law meant to facilitate the tracking of illicit financial transactions by drug and terrorist organizations to seize and forfeit vast sums of money from people with absolutely no connection to the criminal underworld. On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to curb this practice by passing… -
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One Lawmaker’s Plan to Rein in Spending and Assert Conservative Principles
Before lawmakers in the House could read the Senate’s plan to fund the government after the end of the month, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was dismissing the measure out of hand, calling it “unconstitutional.” Congress is trying to hammer out a compromise to extend federal funding before the government’s annual spending authority expires Oct. 1…. -
opinion
GOP Senators Side With Democrats to Bail Out Union’s Pension Fund
It’s not every day you see a significant portion of Republican senators supporting a taxpayer bailout—especially for a private union pension plan. But today, six of the 14 Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee joined with Democratic counterparts in favor of a multibillion-dollar bailout of the United Mine Workers of America’s pension and health… -
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House, Senate Republicans Jockey to Advance Short-Term Spending Measure
The chairman of the largest conservative caucus in Congress is pushing House Republicans to pass a stopgap spending package before the Senate can finish work on its version. The government’s authority to spend money expires at the end of the fiscal year, Oct. 1. And Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is racing ahead on the… -
opinion
The Trick Lawmakers Use to Hide Their Wasteful Spending
Imagine, for a moment, that you’re running a restaurant (and if you are already, congratulations). Imagine, further, that every month you serve more and more of your food, but never restock the groceries, and never come up with a plan to buy more. At some point, your restaurant is going to hit a wall: You’ll… -
opinion
Conservatives Should Worry: Democrat Senator Says Progressive Supreme Court Top Goal
Sen. Chuck Schumer has reminded us just how important the upcoming presidential election will be in shaping the federal judiciary, calling getting a progressive Supreme Court his “number one goal.” “A progressive majority on the Supreme Court is an imperative, and if I become majority leader, I will make it happen,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said to… -
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This Senator Wants to Ban Doctors From Dismembering Unborn Babies in the Womb
Sen. James Lankford introduced legislation last week that would ban late-term dismemberment abortion across the country, in efforts to build consensus and find common ground among Americans. “There are a lot of arguments right now about life and about its role in American society,” Lankford told The Daily Signal in a phone interview Friday. “Obviously,… -
opinion
Save the Filibuster and Save the Senate From Partisanship
The filibuster is under attack again, this time by Senate Democrats who are hoping to win back that chamber as well as the White House in November. Carl Hulse, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, reported Wednesday that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid wants Democrats to “move to curtail the filibuster” if they win both… -
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Left-Funded Rally Aims to Pressure Lawmakers to Welcome More Refugees
Are you concerned about the plight of international refugees? Would you like to see the U.S. government take decisive, constructive action on behalf of displaced persons across the globe who have been forced to flee their homes? If so, you’re invited to “stand up against the voices of intolerance” this Sunday in Washington, D.C., where… -
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Senate Liberals, Targeting Climate Change ‘Deniers,’ Demand to Know Donors to 22 Think Tanks
Some of the Senate’s most liberal Democrats, demanding that 22 national and state-based think tanks disclose their donors, disparaged them as being part of a network of free-market policy organizations the senators accuse of “laundering” identities while denying climate change exists. The existence of the conservative and libertarian policy research and education organizations, Senate Minority… -
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This Lawmaker Wants Bureaucracy to Stop Spending Your Fees and Fines
The House of Representatives has set its sights on reasserting congressional power that Republican leaders say has been slowly usurped over the years by courts and bureaucrats. Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., last month introduced legislation that may prove to be a key piece of that effort to reclaim power from what conservatives call the administrative state…. -
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30% of Workers Need ‘the Government’s Permission to Work.’ 2 Senators Want to Change That.
With nearly one in three American workers needing to acquire an occupational license in order to work, two Republican senators are stepping in with an attempt to alleviate the overreach. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., introduced the the ALLOW Act earlier this month. This bill would specifically affect military members, District of Columbia…