Congress Ends ‘Horrible Year’ With Divisions as Bitter as Ever
The New York Times
Democrats’ achievements were overshadowed by legislative setbacks, fallout from the Jan. 6 attack and a sense that Congress was not rising to meet a perilous moment in history.
WASHINGTON — A congressional year that began with an assault on the seat of democracy ended at 4 a.m. Saturday with the failure of a narrow Democratic majority to deliver on its most cherished promises, leaving lawmakers in both parties wondering if the legislative branch can be rehabilitated without major changes to its rules of operations.
“It has been a horrible year, hasn’t it?” asked Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, as she looked back on failed efforts to convict a former president and to create a bipartisan commission to examine the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as well as numerous legislative endeavors that could not find bipartisan majorities.
The Senate limped out of town in pre-dawn darkness after slogging through nominations one by one, but leaving dozens of Mr. Biden’s nominees still awaiting confirmation to fill key positions at home and abroad — because a handful of Republican senators erected a blockade.
Democratic donors and Jewish leaders are so unhappy with Jon Ossoff over his position on Israel that some have quietly urged Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, to run against him.
An increasingly influential group of conservative scholars has some drastic ideas about the president’s power.
In the New Jersey parking lot where high school students invented Ultimate Frisbee nearly 60 years ago, some of the original players are still throwing the disc every week.
As Democrats ponder how best to position themselves for a looming spending confrontation, they are finding novel ways to put Republicans on the spot.
The move was preceded by wave of resignations of prosecutors, each refusing to sign the motion and some criticizing the Justice Department order to do so in scathing terms.
Andrew D. Lester, a Kansas City resident in his 80s, was charged with felonies in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, a teen who went to the wrong address.
After a lawsuit filed last week by 19 attorneys general, a judicial ruling temporarily blocked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the information.
Before Senator Thom Tillis voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, he worked with accusers to make the case against him in a bid to get G.O.P. leaders to scrap the vote altogether.
An intense storm caused flooding and forced evacuations in areas burned by wildfires.
Bored troops are standing watch, shelters have emptied from McAllen, Texas, to Tucson, Ariz., and border patrols speed through miles of frontier, finding no one in sight.
Spending that the White House does not like is being labeled fraudulent. At the same time, President Trump is rolling back anticorruption efforts and ethical standards for himself and allies like Elon Musk.
The remains of Edwin Echevarria, 65, were found floating in the East River on Feb. 5. His roommate, Christian Millet, 23, has been charged with second degree murder.
Even as they praise the president’s unilateral actions to slash federal spending, G.O.P. lawmakers have quietly moved to seek carve outs or exemptions for their own constituents.