It Is Happening Every Day, Every Where
Senators expressed concern with a military budget they said was far too scant, and one objected to the plan’s gutting of vital programs, including one that offers home heating assistance for the poor.
Leaders in the upper chamber of Congress occasionally have to take a political beating to protect their members in tough spots, like the showdown over government funding.
Shortly after Senator Mitch McConnell said he would not run for an eighth term, Daniel Cameron, a former Kentucky attorney general, said he would run for the seat in 2026. Two lawmakers and a businessman also hinted at running.
The longest-serving Senate leader had been widely expected to retire at the end of his current term. He made it official on his 83rd birthday, after a recent run of opposing President Trump’s nominees.
Congressional Republicans have mostly tempered their criticism or deferred to the president as he topples what were once their party’s core foreign policy principles.
Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell voted against confirming Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary. To Capitol insiders, their decisions weren’t surprising.
There are an estimated 300,000 polio survivors in the United States. For some, the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary is reviving their painful memories.
The president-elect and his allies have spent four years reinventing the Capitol attack — spreading conspiracy theories and weaving a tale of martyrdom to their ultimate political gain.
The affable traditional conservative from South Dakota is the first new chief of the Senate G.O.P. in nearly two decades. He will confront a challenge managing President-elect Donald J. Trump’s expectations.