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
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… -
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… -
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… -
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… -
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… -
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… -
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… -
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,… -
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… -
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… -
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… -
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… -
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… -
news
Lawmakers Grapple With Ethical Issues of Tissue Procurement From Aborted Babies
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… -
news
GOP Lawmaker: Is There an ‘Amazon.com for Human Parts’?
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… -
news
State Lawmakers Fight Teaching Students Just One Side of Climate Change Debate
West Virginia state lawmakers are digging in against new science education standards in public school curricula that reflect only one side of the climate change debate. The West Virginia House of Delegates voted 73-20 on Friday to delay implementation of the standards, based on Next Generation Science Standards and originally set to go into effect… -
opinion
Senate Energy Bill Will Only Increase Government Cronyism
Do we need a national energy plan? Many politicians think so. In fact, the Senate is considering a massive new energy bill that’s more than 400 pages long. But energy is one of the last sectors of the economy that needs help from the federal government. The bipartisan bill illustrates why bipartisanship isn’t always a… -
news
Senate Democrats Say GOP Will Back Down on Supreme Court Nominee
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… -
news
Senate Republicans Plan to Follow Joe Biden’s Advice on the Supreme Court Vacancy
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… -
news
Now That the House Has OK’d a Curb on Menu Labeling, the Senate Steps Into the Food Fight
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,”…