JOHN THUNE

Donald Trump is betting he can win his way back to the White House by reviving the outsider appeal that fueled his success in 2016.

Republicans are engaged in a round of finger-pointing as both parties sift through the results of Democrats’ stronger-than-expected showing in the midterm elections.

Former President Donald Trump has launched another run for the presidency, promising supporters he will “make America great and glorious again.”.

Senate Republicans are mulling who will lead them into 2024, amid their disappointing midterm elections.

Former President Donald Trump is moving forward with his planned Tuesday announcement, pressing on with a third presidential run.

Neither South Dakota's “Curse of Karl” nor the invocations of former President Donald Trump weighed on Republican Sen. John Thune this week as he breezed to a historic fourth term that could see him ascend to lead the GOP's Senate caucus. It's a conservative style that has been effective for Thune in deep-red South Dakota, which he has represented in the Senate since 2005. Only one other South Dakota senator has won four terms: Sen. Karl Mundt, whose time in Congress from the 1930s to the 1970s inspired a joke in state political circles known as the “Curse of Karl.”

South Dakota GOP Sen. John Thune seeks decisive re-election on Tuesday. Thune holds a major fundraising advantage over Democratic challenger Brian Bengs.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem described the U.S. border with Mexico as a “war zone” last year when she sent dozens of state National Guard troops there.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says he believes his party now has a 50-50 shot of getting the chamber back less than six weeks away from the midterm elections.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has introduced a bill calling for a nationwide abortion ban.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill into law on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the “final piece” of his pared-down domestic age[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

The Senate's sweeping climate, health care and tax bill keeps limit on SALT tax deductions. House Democrats who oppose the cap plan to support the bill anway.

CORRECTION: Seven Democrats voted for the GOP amendment that would extend a cap on the SALT tax deduction. A previous version of this story included incorrect information. Maverick Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Sunday backed a Republican amendment to shield businesses that rely on capital investment from private equity groups from the 15 percent corporate minimum…

Republicans see inflation, taxes and immigration as Democratic weak spots worth attacking in the upcoming battle over an economic package the Democrats want to push through the Senate.

After 13 years, at least three crashes, dozens of scams and Ponzi schemes and hundreds of billions of dollars made and evaporated, cryptocurrencies finally have the full attention of Congress.

One month into his presidency, Joe Biden made clear his distaste for even naming the man he'd ousted from the Oval Office.

With “Three Johns” aspiring to succeed McConnell, Republicans keep tabs on how their caucus splits on big votes.

Many Senate Republicans are not taking a position on the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would enshrine the right to same-sex and interracial marriage in federal law.

In a story published July 20, 2022 about the Respect for Marriage Act, The Associated Press cited a June Gallup poll that implied the poll was released in June 2022.

President Joe Biden signed legislation Thursday meant to make shipping goods across oceans cheaper.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune's remarks follow arguments from other Republicans in the weeks after the mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, Tex., and Tulsa that Americans use AR-15s to kill feral pigs, hunt hogs and get rid of raccoons.

In South Dakota, former President Trump has endorsed GOP Gov. Kristi Noem. As for Republican Sen. John Thune, Trump said his political career was "over" after Thune dismissed election fraud claims.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has won the Republican primary for another term, defeating a former legislative leader who accused her of using the office to mount a 2024 White House bid.

Primary elections in seven states Tuesday will set the stage for U.S. House and Senate battles this fall that will play into control of Congress.

The gunman who killed 19 elementary school children and two teachers in Texas added to the state's grim recent history of mass shootings.

As Biden mulls forgiving a portion of student debt, conservatives say it would be a gift to irresponsible elites, while liberals say it’s a crucial lifeline for young people struggling to get ahead.

Final congressional approval of a $40 billion Ukraine aid bill seems certain within days.

Lawmakers are working toward a compromise on President Joe Biden’s $33 billion Ukraine aid request that they hope to have ready as soon as next week.

A Senate hearing on Wednesday is likely to produce fireworks as Republicans and Democrats square off over the role that foundations and nonprofits are playing in elections.

Biden's request for $33 billion in aid to Ukraine hit an snag on Capitol Hill, where a dispute over immigration threatens to hamstring assistance to Kyiv.

Manchin has responded to a new report about a meeting with Republicans by suggesting he wasn't seriously entertaining their entreaties. But how seriously should we take it?

A compromise $10 billion measure buttressing the government’s COVID-19 defenses has stalled in the Senate.

Legislation punishing Russia for the war in Ukraine is finally getting a vote in the U.S. Senate.

Republicans have blocked a Democratic attempt to begin Senate debate on a $10 billion COVID-19 compromise that is just a day old.

multiple Republicans said Tuesday that they would seek a vote on border restrictions as a condition of the covid-19 package.

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which was approved unanimously in the Senate after a version was approved in the House late last year, aims to ease shipping backlogs at U.S. ports.

Jackson’s confirmation will not be overwhelmingly bipartisan, but leaders of both parties agreed the long and often tense interrogation did not alter the fundamental dynamics around the nomination.

Congressional leaders have reached a bipartisan deal to provide $13.6 billion to help Ukraine fend off its invasion by Russia and assist European allies coping with the continent's worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says proposed U.S. aid for Ukraine and its European allies has grown beyond $12 billion.

Senate Democrats and Republicans each want to flash election-year signals that they’re helping families struggling with rising costs and the two-year-old pandemic.

Sure, the minority leader would like to diminish Trump’s influence. But he cares much more about winning elections.

In a story published Feb. 10, 2022, The Associated Press reported that U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s therapist, Jerry Mungadze, holds a doctorate in philosophy.

The National Archives has confirmed multiple reports of Trump's potentially very blatant violations of presidential records law.

Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights groups argue is vital for protecting democracy has collapsed.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota has repeatedly made it clear that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election in a fair process.

Democrats are mounting an impassioned bid to overhaul Senate rules that stand in the way of their sweeping voting legislation.

The South Dakota Republican, a likely successor to Republican leader Mitch McConnell, says he will run for reelection in 2022, putting an end to the speculation about his political future.

U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota is seeking reelection to a fourth term in 2022.

South Dakota political candidates are revving into full campaign mode this week, with one big exception — Republican Sen. John Thune.

As President Joe Biden announces two more ambassador nominees, the White House and Democrats are warning that maneuvering by some Senate Republicans to block all but a small fraction of Biden’s diplomatic and other national security appointees is doing serious harm to U.S. diplomatic efforts around the globe.

It’s one of the most far-reaching of all the federal aid programs launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senators say new social media laws could be on the way - sooner than later | Accountable

Senators say new social media laws could be on the way - sooner than later | Accountable

Republicans were livid over Schumer's rebuke after debt ceiling vote. Joe Manchin would've 'done it differently.'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will not again help Democrats extend the government’s borrowing authority.

The national debt has grown under both Republican and Democratic administrations. But the fight over it continues to be a partisan affair.

Republicans are stepping up efforts to derail Biden's domestic agenda, and ensuring political brinksmanship over the debt ceiling will heighten.

The Senate voted to advance a $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure, setting up final passage as soon as this weekend.

Many of those reasons were misleading or contradictory.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is looking to speed up consideration of a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan national infrastructure package.

The Senate has further advanced a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan with a bipartisan group of senators helping it clear one more hurdle Friday.

President Joe Biden has leapt back into the Senate’s up-and-down efforts to clinch a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure deal.

The Senate may vote to advance a vehicle for the bill next week, even if the legislative text is not finalized.

Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is known for doing the unthinkable in Washington — spending time with Republicans.

Congressional bargainers say they’ve agreed to a bipartisan framework for overhauling policing procedures.

The agreement comes after White House officials met with the bipartisan group of senators twice on Wednesday.

The meeting comes after White House officials met with a bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will confer with White House officials on next steps for President Joe Biden’s $4 trillion infrastructure plans.

Not all Senate Democrats are up for Joe Biden's planned social programs or the methods to finance them, and Republicans hope to split the difference.

A new poll showed that Biden's $4 trillion sweeping infrastructure plan drew two-thirds support among voters. Republicans are pushing to cut its size.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is providing assurances to Congress the recent jump in inflation is being watched very closely by the Biden administration, but said again that such increases appear temporary.

Some lawmakers are trying to stop 144 American cities from losing their designations as “metropolitan areas.”.

Republicans set their infrastructure trap

McConnell, who previously blocked Barack Obama from filling a court vacancy in 2016, told Hugh Hewitt he'd do the same to Biden.

John F. Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, said only months ago that those losing fossil fuel jobs in coal and hydraulic fracturing will find they have a better choice in jobs in either the solar industry or as wind turbine technicians.

Republican Sen. John Thune says they are closing in on a compromise that would not include any tax hikes.

Republican Sen. John Thune says they are closing in on a compromise that would not include any tax hikes.

The minority leader threw cold water on the bipartisan proposal from Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Lisa Murkowski.

Although some Republican leaders deplored their violence, most have come to support the rioters’ claim that Trump’s defeat meant the election was inherently illegitimate.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says congressional Democrats’ efforts to make it easier to sue police officers are causing law enforcement agencies to have problems recruiting and retaining personnel.

The GOP resistance to a bipartisan commission devoted to examining the deadly Capitol insurrection imperils a deeper investigation into the siege.

The horror of Jan. 6 has been reduced from a stunning assault on American democracy to another political fight.

Pressed to explain his decision, Rep. Greg Pence of Indiana praised his brother as a “hero" and turned his ire on Democrats, calling the commission a “coverup about the failed Biden administration.” Pence's swift pivot to attacking Democrats and defending the former president about a riot that threatened his brother's life is a stark measure of how the horror of Jan. 6 has been reduced from a violent assault on American democracy to a purely political fight. Rather than uniting behind a bipartisan investigation like the ones that followed the 9/11 terror attacks, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or Pearl Harbor, Republicans are calculating they can regain at least partial control of Congress if they put the issue behind them as quickly as possible without antagonizing Trump or his supporters.

If there's one perfect commentary on Trump's grip on the GOP, it might be Republicans increasingly toeing the former president's line despite ugly personal attacks on their family members.

GOP Whip John Thune told CNN there was concern among members that a commission "could be weaponized politically" by the Democrats.

Tim Scott of South Carolina is the only Black Republican senator.

Since 2017, Senators Thune and Peters have been calling for standards to be set for safety, cybersecurity and guidelines to determine accident liability if no one is driving.

Since 2017, Senators Thune and Peters have been calling for standards to be set for safety, cybersecurity and guidelines to determine accident liability if no one is driving.

Psaki added that Mr. Biden will turn to the second part — which includes health care, child care and education — in April. "The president has a plan to fix the infrastructure of our country," Psaki said. "If they want to sit down with Republicans, which they should, the Republicans would work with them on an infrastructure package," Thune said Tuesday. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Budget committee, has said he is prepared to use reconciliation to move an infrastructure package through the Senate. "My advice to the administration is if you want to do an infrastructure bill, let's do an infrastructure bill," McConnell said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pushed for the commission, which would be modeled after the panel that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. “The problem is the scope,” Pelosi said Wednesday. But Republicans swiftly decried the broad latitude that the commission would have to investigate the causes of the insurrection. Senate Republicans cast doubt that there was enough support for the commission. 2 Republican, said he doesn’t think the commission will happen if the legislation isn’t changed.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators and congressmen is urging the federal government not to approve recommendations to remove 144 cities from the designation of metropolitan statistical areas. Reclassifying them as “micropolitan” would put key federal funding at risk, they said. Doing so would reclassify more than a third of the current 392 metro areas as micropolitan statistical areas. In a separate letter to the Office of Management and Budget, Hoeven said the proposal also would hurt micropolitan areas that were on the cusp of becoming metro areas. “If a metropolitan statistical area is redefined as a micropolitan area, it may fall out of the conversation.

President Joe Bidens pick for health secretary is taking heat for his defense of abortion rights from a tag team of Republicans looking to define him and the new administration as out of the mainstream. Becerra now serves as California’s attorney general and previously represented the Los Angeles area for more than 20 years in the U.S. House. Republicans voiced concern about Becerra’s record in support of abortion rights. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Becerra as attorney general “aggressively crusaded in favor of abortion” and repeatedly inserted California into abortion litigation involving other states. Perceptions changed after Becerra was appointed California attorney general in 2017.

Americans are experiencing flickers of optimism at the one-year anniversary of the deadly outbreak as more people are vaccinated. But new strains of the virus and a still shaky economy could unleash another devastating cycle of infections, lockdowns and deaths. Biden and Democrats warn that now is not the time to let up on aid, and that it's better to risk doing too much than too little. McConnell expressed similar optimism last spring when he hit “pause” on new spending after approval of the initial round of aid. GOP Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said by the time they're done they hope to turn public opinion around.

AdIt’s a tested strategy but comes at an uncertain, volatile time for the nation. Americans are experiencing flickers of optimism at the one-year anniversary of the deadly outbreak as more people are vaccinated. But new strains of the virus and a still shaky economy could unleash another devastating cycle of infections, lockdowns and deaths. Biden and the Democrats backing him warn that now is not the time to let up on aid — better to risk doing too much, than too little. GOP Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said by the time they're done they hope to turn public opinion around.

President Joe Bidens pick for health secretary is taking heat for his defense of abortion rights from a tag team of Republicans looking to define him and the new administration as out of the mainstream. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s pick for health secretary is taking heat from Republicans for his actions in support of abortion rights. By a show of force, they're trying to deny a president who supports abortion rights his choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services with the coronavirus pandemic still untamed. Becerra, 63, was a reliable Democratic vote for abortion rights during more than 20 years representing a Los Angeles-area district in the U.S. House. She disagrees with his support for abortion rights but finds common ground elsewhere.

CNBC had asked which Republicans Trump intended to target during midterm primaries after the former president said he plans to back several primary contenders who support his Make America Great Again agenda. Advisors have told Trump that many Republican voters, who have been polled by the former president's strategists, do not want to see an all-out war in the GOP. Instead, they would rather see Trump focus his attacks on Biden and top Democrats. Gaetz has called for the ouster of Republican House leader Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., after she voted to impeach Trump. The South Dakota Republican voted with Trump over 90% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight data.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, himself a former Republican congressman, confirmed the gathering on Twitter. The 538 members of the Electoral College from all 50 states and the District of Columbia met December 14 to count the electoral votes, formalizing Mr. Biden's victory. If the two chambers agree to accept the objection, the contested state's electoral votes are tossed out. Additionally, because Democrats control the House, it is highly unlikely the lower chamber would vote to toss out a state's electoral votes. GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an ally of Mr. Trump, said challenging the votes would "probably do more harm than good."

Washington — President Trump has signed a continuing resolution that will extend government funding through Sunday to allow negotiations over a government spending measure and a coronavirus relief bill to continue. Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Friday there would be no vote on the spending measure or the relief bill on Saturday. Lawmakers also wish to append a coronavirus relief bill to this omnibus measure, and congressional leaders are still negotiating that deal. The need to pass a relief bill is just as urgent as an overarching government spending bill. Meanwhile, top lawmakers have insisted for days that they are nearing a deal on a relief bill, even as time is running out to come to an agreement.

Americans may be getting a second stimulus payment for Christmas after all, although lawmakers are still negotiating the details of a new multi-billion relief package. That's about half of the $1,200 maximum stimulus per person provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act. The good news is that new stimulus payments will be available for dependents, including adult dependents such as college students, according to the Washington Post. As for who's getting a check, as of now, lawmakers are basing eligibility on the same income standards established in the CARES Act. That legislative package, passed at the end of March, provided full $1,200 payments to individuals earning less than $75,000 and $2,400 for married couples making less than $150,000.

Ahead of the midnight Friday deadline to pass a spending bill, the House introduced a two-day stopgap bill to keep the government running. Leaders on Capitol Hill have said for days they are close to a deal on a $900 billion relief proposal that would accompany a $1.4 trillion spending bill. While bipartisan House officials including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., backed the temporary funding bill, the Senate will pose bigger problems. If lawmakers can approve a spending bill before Monday, the damage from a lapse in federal funding would be limited. Only hours earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. described an agreement as imminent.