Late-night votes are an age-old pressure tactic for congressional leaders in both major political parties. Yet overnight sessions have become increasingly common in Congress as the House and the Senate struggle to govern. Lawmakers say it's a symptom of a broken Congress that often has to resort to extreme measures to pass major legislation and is often careening from one crisis to the next. In just the last few weeks, Congress has done much of its work in the middle of the night, leading to confusion and chaos in both chambers. Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota says, "The dysfunction is getting worse."
Republicans have launched an unprecedented effort to hold the Senate floor and talk for days about a bill that they know won't pass — an attempt to capture public attention on legislation requiring stricter voter registration rules as President Donald Trump pressures Congress to act before November's midterm elections. The talkathon began Tuesday and could last a week or longer as Senate Majority Leader John Thune tries to navigate Trump's insistence on the issue and Democrats' united opposition. The legislation would require Americans to prove they are U.S. citizens before they register to vote and to show identification at the polls, among other new voting requirements.
The Senate has narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as as President Donald Trump's FBI director. The 51-49 vote Thursday puts the Trump loyalist atop the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency despite Democrats' doubts about his qualifications and concerns he'll do Trump's bidding and go after the Republican president's adversaries. Patel has fiercely criticized an agency that's now gripped by turmoil. Trump's Justice Department has forced out a group of senior FBI officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
No longer in charge, Sen. Mitch McConnell has been speaking his mind. The long-serving former Republican leader rejected President Donald Trump's more high-profile Cabinet nominees. The Kentucky senator voted against Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead Health and Human Services. McConnell says those Trump picks failed to show they were qualified to lead. This is McConnell testing the strength but also the limits of his influence in the Senate. Few other Republicans joined McConnell, leaving him often on his own, with Democrats, unable to stop the Republican president's choices. Trump calls McConnell "bitter" and "not equipped mentally."
Donald Trump has made a triumphant return to Capitol Hill to meet with House and Senate Republicans for the first time since the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. GOP lawmakers find themselves newly energized and reinvigorated by Trump's bid to retake the White House. This is despite the federal charges against Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and his recent guilty verdict in an unrelated hush money trial. He held an hour-long closed-door morning meeting with House Republicans and then was meeting with Senate Republicans at campaign headquarters near the Capitol to discuss party priorities. It's his first visit as the party's presumptive nominee.
By STEPHEN GROVES, MARY CLARE JALONICK and REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press
Senate Republicans are blocking for a second time a bill to clamp down the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill failed 43-50. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer brought up the bill again to underscore Republican resistance to it. The bipartisan proposal was already rejected by most Republicans in February, but with immigration and border security becoming one of the top issues of this year's election, Democrats are seeking to highlight Republican resistance to pursuing immigration legislation, along with other popular measures. Schumer is also planning to push forward a bill in June that would protect access to contraception.
