A failed Republican candidate paid $500 to four men to shoot at the homes of Democratic lawmakers, but was so unsatisfied with their work that he went along for the final drive-by, his gun jamming as bullets ripped into the bedroom of a sleeping 10-year-old girl, police said. The criminal complaint against Solomon Peña, a 39-year-old felon and self-proclaimed "MAGA king," describes how his anger over his landslide defeat in November led to attacks at the homes of four Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico's largest city. A SWAT team arrested him Monday evening after serving search warrants at his home, police said. Peña, whose criminal past came up during last year's campaign, repeatedly made baseless claims that the election was "rigged" against him.

Republican Kevin McCarthy wrapped his first full week as House speaker in the most outwardly orderly way. There was hardly a hint of the chaotic, rebellious fight it took for the Republicans to arrive here, having barely installed him as the leader with the gavel. The House Republicans marched through the early days of the session passing bills, choosing committee chairman, even requesting its first documents for investigations of President Joe Biden and his family. But the semblance of House GOP unity is all but certain to be temporary as Congress faces more difficult questions ahead around spending cuts and the federal debt limit.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has notified Congress that the U.S. is projected to reach its debt limit on Thursday and will then resort to "extraordinary measures" to avoid default. Those measures include delaying some payments in order to provide some headroom to make other payments that are deemed essential, like those for Social Security and debt instruments. Yellen said Friday that while her department can't estimate how long extraordinary measures will allow the U.S. to continue to pay the government's obligations, "it is unlikely that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted before early June."

The federal government is on track to max out on its $31.4 trillion borrowing authority as soon as this month. That starts the clock on an expected standoff between President Joe Biden and the new House Republican majority. Both political parties' ability to navigate a divided Washington will be tested, with the fragile global economy at stake. Once the cap is hit the Treasury Department will be unable to issue new debt without congressional action. The government could be at risk of defaulting, possibly in midsummer, unless lawmakers and the Democratic president agree to lift the limit on the U.S. government's ability to borrow.

The House Ethics Committee has been asked to investigate Rep. George Santos. The newly-elected Republican from New York has admitted to lying about his job experience, college education and even family heritage. Two Democrats on Tuesday requested the probe saying Santos has "failed to uphold the integrity expected" of lawmakers. In a letter to the Ethics Committee, Democratic Representatives Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman said Santos also failed to file accurate financial disclosure reports as required by law. Some Democratic leaders said Santos should be expelled from the House. Republican leaders have said they will handle the situation internally. Santos' election helped give Republicans the House majority.

Electing the House speaker may have been the easy part. Now House Republicans will try to govern. Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces his first test late Monday as the Republicans try to approve their rules package governing House operations. It's typically a routine step on Day One that is now stretching into the second week of the new majority. After that, the Republicans will try to pass their first bill — legislation to cut funding that was intended to bolster the Internal Revenue Service. But it has ran into a snag because the budget office says it would add $114 billion to the federal deficit.

Republican Kevin McCarthy has been elected House speaker on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks and floor tensions boiling over after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority's ability to govern. After four days of grueling ballots, McCarthy flipped more than a dozen conservative holdouts to supporters, leaving him just a few shy of seizing the gavel for the new Congress. The last few Republican holdouts voted present, dropping the tally McCarthy needed to win.

Washington has one specialty that has long endured — memorializing and coming together over a national trauma. On Sept. 11, 2001, Democrats and Republicans stood together on the Capitol steps after the terrorist attacks and sang "God Bless America." But that unifying impulse has faded. On Friday's second anniversary of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, a moment of silence drew mostly Democrats. The same is expected at a ceremony where President Joe Biden will honor election officials and police officers who upheld democracy that day. The Jan. 6 anniversary comes as the House is at a standstill because of a Republican fight over who'll be the speaker.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was dealt a historic defeat in first-round voting Tuesday to become House speaker, sending …