RICK SCOTT

The Senate has approved a measure that would reinstate tariffs on solar panel imports from several Southeast Asian countries after President Joe Biden paused them in a bid to boost solar installations in the U.S. Lawmakers also approved a separate plan late Wednesday to undo federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken, a rare grouse that’s found in parts of the Midwest and Southwest, including one of the country’s most prolific oil and gas fields.

Texas schools could offer up to $25,000 stipends to teachers and staff who accept the dual role of being armed campus “sentinels” with specialized mental health training under a proposal that state lawmakers advanced Tuesday in response to the Uvalde classroom shooting.

Floridians will be able to carry concealed guns without a permit under a bill signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is proposing changes to entitlement programs for younger generations, opening the door to potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare if elected.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the upcoming BNP Paribas Open after losing his bid to enter the United States unvaccinated to play in the Southern California event.

Senate Republicans' campaign operation is taking steps to avoid a repeat of their party's disastrous showing in last year's midterms.

It seems no one wants to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has amended a plan to overhaul how the federal government works after Democrats repeatedly seized on it to accuse Republicans of looking to cut Medicare and Social Security.

President Joe Biden is taking direct aim at Republicans who have floated cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

When President Joe Biden suggested that Republicans want to slash Medicare and Social Security it brought howls of protests from the GOP side of the aisle during the State of the Union address.

Sen. Chuck Schumer has been elected for another term as Democratic leader in the Senate.

Donald Trump arrived in Washington with a hodgepodge of ideas developed over decades in business and television that were far outside the Republican mainstream.

When President Joe Biden speaks about the “scourge” of gun violence, his go-to answer is to zero in on so-called assault weapons.

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.

Republican presidential prospects are courting anxious donors and activists in Las Vegas , as the GOP's early 2024 class warns that former President Donald Trump is “a loser” and the party needs to turn elsewhere.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz voted for Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, to replace the long-standing leader of Senate Republicans after a poor midterm performance.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been reelected as Republican leader, quashing a challenge from Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott is mounting a long-shot bid to unseat Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Republicans are increasingly confident in Senate candidates who party leaders had once believed were essentially unelectable or at least seriously flawed.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued an executive order expanding voting access for the midterm elections in three counties where Hurricane Ian destroyed polling places and displaced thousands of people.

Two U.S. senators, Rick Scott of Florida and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, are boosting the campaign of Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker.

President Joe Biden has surveyed the devastation of hurricane-ravaged Florida, promising to marshal the power of the federal government to help rebuild.

As authorities in Florida try to reach people who have been trapped by floodwaters or isolated on barrier islands since Hurricane Ian came ashore last week, concerned members of the public have been springing into action to aid the official rescue efforts.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in his first debate against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke that Texas would send busloads of migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to more cities.

At the 2022 Texas Tribune Festival, the Texas House speaker also signaled willingness to consider exceptions to the state’s abortion ban.

Prosecutors have dropped manslaughter charges against three nurses who were present when 12 Florida nursing home patients suffered fatal overheating five years ago after Hurricane Irma.

The great red wave is looming.

The gunman in Uvalde bought two AR-15-style rifles days after he turned 18, the legal purchasing age in Texas, and used the weapons to kill 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary.

South Carolina Democratic gubernatorial nominee Joe Cunningham is proposing an age limit — 72 — for state politicians.

Republican Sen_ Rick Scott of Florida is criticizing the Texas GOP's new party platform for not being “inclusive” when it described homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice.”.

Angered by the unrelenting toll from gun violence, tens of thousands of people are expected at rallies this weekend in the nation’s capital and around the United States demanding that Congress pass meaningful changes to gun laws.

The mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, are again putting the focus on gun control measures such as waiting periods to buy firearms.

The gunmen in two of the nation’s most recent mass shootings legally bought the semi-automatic rifles they used in their massacres after they turned 18.

President Joe Biden is warning voters unhappy with soaring inflation and his stalled domestic agenda against turning power over to “ultra-MAGA” Republicans in the midterm elections.

Mike Gibbons, a leading Republican Senate candidate from Ohio, said at a media event last fall that middle-class Americans don’t pay “any kind of a fair share” of income taxes.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott is barely halfway through his first term, but he's already leaning into a fight against his own party’s leadership.

The Senate has unanimously approved a measure that would make daylight saving time permanent next year.

Ten years ago when Trayvon Martin was fatally shot, Florida was one of the few states with “stand your ground” laws that eased use of deadly force in the face of danger.

Trayvon Martin was visiting his father in Sanford, Florida, when the 17-year-old Black teen was fatally shot Feb. 26, 2012, during a confrontation with George Zimmerman.

Two widely supported bills are encountering delays in the Senate.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other leading Republicans are intensifying a personal late-stage push to persuade Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to run for the Senate.

President Joe Biden’s pick to run the nation’s highway safety agency is pledging to attack a crisis of fatal car crashes by implementing safety rules to deter impaired driving.

Critical race theory has become a lightning rod for Republicans and an issue in the Virginia governor's race.

Former President Donald Trump struggled during his first year in office to get his nominees confirmed in a timely fashion in the Senate.

A Florida judge has ruled the state cannot enforce its ban on mask mandates in public schools to guard against the coronavirus while an appeals court sorts out whether the ban is ultimately legal.

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

The head of the Senate Republican political arm says he expects former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt to challenge Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada next year.

Republicans are fighting to seize control of Congress.

Before Matt Gaetz rose to national prominence as an ardent backer of Donald Trump, the now-Florida congressman carved out an unusual reputation as a Republican state lawmaker who wanted to liberalize marijuana laws.

The Senate has confirmed Bill Nelson, a former Florida senator who once flew on the space shuttle, to be the next NASA administrator.

The No. 2 House Republican says party leaders would “take action” against Rep. Matt Gaetz if the Justice Department formally moves ahead with legal action against him.

Florida’s two Republican senators are steering clear of voicing support for Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Former President Donald Trump is staking his claim to the Republican Party in a closed-door speech to donors Saturday night, casting his populist policies and attack-dog politics as the key to future Republican success.

The Republican Party is bringing hundreds of donors and several presidential prospects to the former president’s doorstep in south Florida this weekend.

– Not waiting for more federal help, states have been approving their own coronavirus aid packages, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help residents and business owners devastated by the the pandemic's economic fallout. Directing federal money to state governments has been so contentious that the idea was stripped from the previous congressional aid package passed in December. “The cascading effect, it’s actually a problem that most states are grappling with ... waiting for the relief money out of the feds,” she said. They also are still figuring out how to spend another $1.8 billion in federal money that Congress approved in December. And for some of those who do receive it, the extra state money represents just a fraction of the financial hit they have taken during the pandemic.

The GOP already faces a difficult Senate map in 2022, when 14 Democratic-held seats and 20 Republican ones will be on the ballot. That includes at least two open seats that Republicans will be defending because of the retirements of GOP Sens. One of those lawmakers, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, is the new chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a post that makes him the public face of the Senate Republican fundraising efforts. But two senior Republican strategists involved in Senate races say the cumulative effect of the companies' decisions could have a bigger impact. That puts more pressure on the NRSC and the leading Senate Republican outside group, Senate Leadership Fund, to cover the difference.

Florida accounts for about a fifth of the country’s wetlands and includes the Everglades, among the state’s most important environmental jewels. “The fact is that Florida’s proposed program to take over wetlands permitting doesn’t comply with federal environmental laws,” she said. Florida becomes the third state to gain broader permitting authority of wetlands under the federal Clean Water Act. Florida's request to gain sole permitting authority was launched under the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, took on that mantle and earlier this year formally petitioned the federal government to transfer that authority.

Scott, 67, has been quarantining at home all week after coming into contact in Florida on Nov. 13 with someone who subsequently tested positive. Scott, a Republican, said he was “feeling good” despite the mild symptoms and would be working at his home in Naples. “I want to remind everyone to be careful and do the right things to protect yourselves and others,” Scott said in a statement. House members could be regularly tested in the Capitol starting this week, but there is still no testing protocol for senators. The absence Scott and Grassley on Tuesday helped Democrats block the nomination of Judy Shelton, Trump’s controversial pick for the Federal Reserve.

Georgia would like a few moments of presidential campaign time. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas senator widely viewed as having presidential ambitions, will campaign in central Georgia on Friday. Meanwhile, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has sent a flurry of fundraising emails coaxing rank-and-file Republicans to bankroll the Georgia runoff campaigns. That popularity makes it politically risky for Republicans with White House ambitions to call out Trump’s falsehoods. On Cotton’s future plans, Colas said, “The senator remains focused on 2020.”For Democrats, there’s less future presidential intrigue to blend into the Georgia campaign.

Instead, the sprint to the Jan. 5 runoffs for two seats in Georgia will determine whether the Senate becomes a Republican-held check on Biden's agenda or a Democratic partnership with the new White House. With a Democratic Senate, Biden would have allies to easily confirm his nominees, including for cabinet positions, and shape passage of legislation. If Republicans keep control, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell can block Biden's agenda. Senate Republicans need Trump — and his voters — on board for the Georgia race. Loeffler and Perdue stunned many this week when they jointly called their own state election system an “embarrassment" as Biden was leading over Trump.

State leaders eliminated computer punchcard ballots, implemented statewide recount laws and made it easy to cast and process ballots before Election Day. Though there are other scenarios that make elections officials nervous, the computer punch-card ballots that fueled 2000's chaos are buried in history's landfill. Casting valid ballots and processing them is now easier, even before Election Day, and the Legislature has enacted clearer laws governing recounts. If the statewide margin then is within a half-percentage point — likely about 55,000 votes — a machine recount would occur. These voters are notified and have until two days after the election to prove their identity, but many won’t respond.

COLUMBIA, S.C. With one stroke, President Donald Trumps abrupt reversal on offshore drilling this week has loosened a political vise that was tightening around three Republicans senators running for reelection in coastal states where drilling is widely opposed. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue of Georgia, all Democratic targets. Brian Kemp, another Trump ally, and his Republican predecessor, Nathan Deal, have opposed drilling off the state's 100-mile (160 km) coast. The decision by President Trump to include South Carolina meets the desires of our coastal communities and states leadership, Graham said. I very much appreciate President Trump for listening to our state and delivering for our people.___Ben Nadler in Atlanta contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON Republicans this week are focused squarely on their convention's star, President Donald Trump, and securing his reelection in November. Theres a lot happening behind the scenes already," said Republican strategist Alex Conant, who worked for the 2016 campaign of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Also allotted time slots: Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and Donald Trump Jr. "Theres others out there, but nobody else is even close in that stratosphere.Much will depend on whether Trump secures a second term. In her convention speech Monday night, Haley gave an unabashed endorsement of the president while spending time introducing herself to viewers.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A far-right social media provocateur whose hate speech got her banned from social media won her Republican primary on Tuesday and will challenge Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel for Congress in November. Laura Loomer also won praise from President Donald Trump early Wednesday, who tweeted that she has a great chance." Loomer received 43% in a six-candidate Republican field, garnering 14,500 votes. Frankel, running against a political newcomer, received 75,000 votes, or 86% in the Democratic primary, which had 87,000 votes cast. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Medium, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Uber and Lyft have banned her, but her messages get out through tweets by supporters and other workarounds, the Palm Beach Post reported.

She burned through her savings while awaiting financial relief from Floridas unemployment office. DeSantis has acknowledged that the unemployment system known as CONNECT was like a jalopy in the Daytona 500 being left in the dust." And that relates to management of the system.Florida's unemployment woes add to the troubles for Trump five months from Election Day. In April, Floridas unemployment rate hit 12.9%, up from 2.8% in February. Its one of those things where once the issue is solved, its going to disappear, said Florida Republican Party chairperson Joe Gruters.