PATRICK LEAHY

Washington Democrat Patty Murray has become the first female president pro tempore of the Senate.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the 2023 federal budget, hours before the current stopgap bill was set to expire. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the plan. The House got the spending plan after the Senate on Thursday — 68-29 — approved the $1.7 trillion funding package, The Washington Post reported. There also has to be a call of one-fifth of both the House and Senate to object to a state’s vote. In the past only one Senate or House member had to object, the Post reported.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, under Patrick Leahy and Richard Shelby, released its 5,000-page omnibus spending bill, to the chagrin of conservatives and many House Republicans

Leaders are racing to complete passage before a midnight Friday deadline or face the prospect of a partial government shutdown going into the Christmas holiday.

The Senate is expected to vote on the $1.7T spending bill first, where support from at least 10 GOP senators will be needed to pass it onto the House.

The U.S. has provided about $68 billion to Ukraine in previous rounds of military, economic and humanitarian assistance. “Finalizing the omnibus is critical, absolutely critical for supporting our friends in Ukraine,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Despite the warning, McConnell framed the longer-term spending bill as a victory for the GOP, even as many will undoubtedly vote against it. Lawmakers are nearing completion of the 2023 spending package nearly three months late. “We still haven’t seen a single page of the Pelosi-Schumer spending bill, and they’re expecting us to pass it by the end of this week," tweeted Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. “It’s insane."

Lawmakers leading the negotiations released the details of the bill shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday. The U.S. has provided about $68 billion in previous rounds of military, economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine. Despite the warning, McConnell framed the longer-term spending bill as a victory for the GOP, even as many will undoubtedly vote against it. Lawmakers are nearing completion of the 2023 spending package nearly three months late. “We still haven’t seen a single page of the Pelosi-Schumer spending bill, and they’re expecting us to pass it by the end of this week," tweeted Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. “It’s insane."

Lawmakers leading the negotiations released the details of the bill shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday. The U.S. has provided about $68 billion in previous rounds of military, economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine. Despite the warning, McConnell framed the longer-term spending bill as a victory for the GOP, even as many will undoubtedly vote against it. Lawmakers are nearing completion of the 2023 spending package nearly three months late. “We still haven’t seen a single page of the Pelosi-Schumer spending bill, and they’re expecting us to pass it by the end of this week," tweeted Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. “It’s insane."

Congressional leaders have unveiled a $1.7 trillion bill to fund the government.

The Biden administration has reversed a decades-old decision to revoke the security clearance of Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist called the father of the atomic bomb for his leading role in World War II’s Manhattan Project.

The creamery has formed a crisis coalition of organic dairy farms, processors and brands in the West to petition for emergency drought relief. Twelve farms had provided organic milk to the creamery until one recently went out of business, he said. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he’s heard from Vermont organic dairy farmers, companies that buy their milk and the state’s agriculture secretary about “the severe financial pressure” organic dairies are facing. While Leahy, a Democrat, said the longer term solution must be found in more stable markets and a risk management program that works for organic dairy, he's confident “that the federal government will find an approach to provide temporary support to our struggling organic dairy farm families." A spokesperson said the Agriculture Department “is exploring avenues to address the challenges faced by organic dairy farmers, while also pursuing ongoing work to support organic and transitioning farmers through USDA programs."

Organic dairy and other livestock farmers are calling for emergency federal aid as they grapple with skyrocketing organic feed costs in part from the war in Ukraine and steep fuel and utility expenses.

House Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the extension. Many complained it would allow Congress to pass a massive spending bill before a Republican majority would take charge of the House in January and impose its will on spending. McCarthy said the two senators leading the efforts to craft the spending bill won’t be in Congress next year and thus won’t be accountable to voters for their work. 2-ranking House Republican, said of the $1.7 trillion package. She said the final spending bill being negotiated “will help keep our nation and our communities safe with the certainty that we all deserve."

The Democratic-led House has passed a short-term spending bill to keep government agencies funded at current levels through Dec. 23.

TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of a federal hate crime last year was sentenced on Monday to two years in federal prison, prosecutors said. Florida Man Sentenced for Racially-Motivated Hate Crime: Jordan Patrick Leahy of Florida was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his racially-motivated attack against a Black man who was traveling down a public roadway. He pleaded to state charges of felony battery and driving under the influence on Dec. 28, 2021, according to the Times. He was sentenced to probation on the state charges but served six months in jail after he violated his probation. A federal grand jury indicted Leahy on federal hate crime charges in April, according to the newspaper.

A top ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding fresh answers from the U.S. Capitol Police about security failures that led to a brutal attack on Pelosi’s husband last week.

Vermont’s lone member of the U.S. House for the past 16 years has always embraced his role as a liberal Democrat.

Democrat Becca Balint could be on the verge of being elected the first woman and first openly gay person to represent Vermont in Congress.

Families are looking forward with dread as winter approaches with high energy costs and tight fuel supplies.

WASHINGTON — (AP) — A veteran senator's objections over Egypt's human rights record, including its holding of an estimated 60,000 political prisoners, has compelled the Biden administration to trim a symbolically significant $75 million off its planned annual military aid to that country. That's despite President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's record on human rights, including what rights groups say is the killing, imprisonment and torture of critics of the Egyptian government. Congress’s conditioning of some of Egypt’s security aid makes for an annual public test of U.S. administrations' balancing of strategic interests and human rights. It cited Egypt's release of 500 political prisoners. Egyptian news organization Mada Masr first reported the partial block of funding by a senator it did not identify.

A veteran senator's objections over Egypt's human rights record have trimmed a symbolically significant $75 million off annual U.S. military aid to that country.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — (AP) — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy was discharged from the hospital Friday and planned to return to Vermont Saturday for a full schedule of planned events, his office said. Leahy, 82, was hospitalized Thursday after he felt unwell at his McLean, Virginia, home. As a precaution he was taken to a Washington-area hospital for tests and observation. Leahy was discharged after what his office described as an uneventful night. Leahy was taken to the hospital in January 2021, hours after he felt unwell after he had begun presiding over the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

The office of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy says he is out of the hospital and he's planning to return to Vermont for a full schedule of planned events.

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was hospitalized as a precaution on Thursday after the 82-year-old was “not feeling well,” his office said in a statement. Leahy, as Senate president pro tempore, is third in line to the presidency behind the vice president and speaker of the House. When he retires in January, Leahy will have served 48 years in the Senate, the AP reported. Robert Byrd of West Virginia served for 51 years, 5 months, 26 days; and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii served 49 years, 11 months, 15 days. Leahy was hospitalized In June after he fell and broke his hip, the AP reported.

At the recommendation of his doctors, he was expected to remain in the hospital overnight for observation.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — (AP) — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was hospitalized Thursday after he felt unwell at his McLean, Virginia, home, his office said. As a precaution Leahy, 82, was taken to a Washington-area hospital for tests. By the time his term expires in January 2023, Leahy will have served for 48 years in the Senate. Leahy was taken to the hospital in January 2021, hours after he had begun presiding over the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. At that time Leahy said he was not feeling well and he was taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution.

Vermont's 82-year-old Sen. Patrick Leahy has been hospitalized after he felt unwell at his McLean, Virginia, home.

The Senate Tuesday advanced a bill to keep the government funded into December after stripping an energy permitting reform proposal from Sen. Joe Manchin.

Sen. Joe Manchin has abandoned his push to speed up the permitting process for energy projects.

If documents need to be ferried in or out of secure locations, they are typically transported in a lock bag, a briefcase-sized pouch under lock and key. “I've only seen that in movies,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the top-ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee. “Never leave a key in a classified lock bag in the presence of non-cleared people. #Classified101,” tweeted Heinrich, a member of the Intelligence Committee, days after the February 2017 incident. Ultimately a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago was obtained and more than 100 other documents with classified markings were found.

Security-sealed rooms and lock bags are some of the ways Capitol Hill keeps classified documents secured.

As the Justice Department’s probe into the Republican former president’s possession of White House materials deepens, lawmakers of both parties have more questions than answers. Congress had asked for the briefing soon after the revelation of the unprecedented Aug. 8 search, but it may be delayed by the legal fight between Trump and the government. “We need to be able to do appropriate oversight for the Intelligence Committee so that we have a better handle on how this particular incident was handled, but so that we avoid problems like this in the future," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

The driver was unaware of the father’s martial arts skills during the racially-motivated attack, according to prosecutors.

A Florida man has been convicted of a federal hate crime for a 2021 altercation with a Black motorist on a city street.

After eight terms in the U.S. Senate, the Vermonter writes about his path through the upper house of Congress, which he says once acted as "the nation's conscience" – and could one day again.

Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont and Connecticut are holding primary elections Tuesday to decide who's on the ballot for the November midterms.

The leader of the Vermont state Senate Becca Balint could become the first woman and the first openly gay person to represent the state in Congress.

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota won a closer-than-expected Democratic primary race against a centrist challenger who questioned Omar's support for the “defund the police” movement.

Businessman Tim Michels has won Wisconsin's Republican nomination to take on Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Crime has emerged as the biggest issue in Rep. Omar's Democratic primary. In the GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the party has endorsed former state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides. Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, the state's at-large congressman, quickly launched his Senate bid after Leahy revealed he was stepping down. Molly Gray and state Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, are the top Democratic candidates in the race. The winner of the Democratic primary will be the heavy favorite to win the general election in the liberal state.

The Republican matchup in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race in Tuesday's primary elections features competing candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump and his estranged vice president, Mike Pence.

That opened up his House seat for Gray or Balint, who would also be the first openly gay person to represent Vermont in Congress if elected. During a debate Thursday, Gray called Balint out for a critical comment she made while seeking the endorsement of Vermont’s Progressive Party. A number of outside groups are supporting Balint's candidacy, including the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which has spent nearly $1 million supporting her. Now that the outside spending has started, Gray says those outside groups are interfering with the conversation she is trying to have with voters. “Outside groups are unelected.

Vermont Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint are the leading candidates in a Democratic U.S. House primary that could make either of them the first female member of the state's congressional delegation.

In a surprise victory for Republicans, the Senate on Thursday voted to overturn a Biden administration rule requiring rigorous environmental review of major infrastructure projects such as highways, pipelines and oil wells — a victory enabled in part by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

In a story published July 30, 2022, The Associated Press reported that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that an insulin bill would increase the price of the drug.

At a press conference in Madrid after the NATO summit, President Biden said he supported changing filibuster rules in the Senate to codify into law the right to an abortion and the right to privacy.

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont has broken a hip in a fall at his home and requires surgery to repair it.

Senator Leahy Hospitalized FILE - Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., listens as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense, May 3, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Leahy has broken a hip in a fall at his home and was to undergo surgery to repair it, his office said Thursday, June 30, 2022. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File) (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont has broken a hip in a fall at his home and was to undergo surgery to repair it, his office said Thursday. Doctors determined the best course of action would be to have surgery to repair the hip as soon as possible. Leahy was taken to the hospital in January 2021, hours after he had begun presiding over the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont underwent surgery Thursday after he broke his hip in a fall at his home.

Vermont appears poised to lose its distinction of being the only state in the country that has never sent a woman to Congress.

Less than a day after a gunman massacred 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas, a Wednesday Senate hearing for President Joe Biden’s pick to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reflected the deep political divisions over guns.

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.

Lawmakers erupted in cheers after Vice President Kamala Harris announced the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

Democrats in Congress are sounding the alarm over what they claim is mounting evidence that Mexico’s chief prosecutor is assailing the nation’s independent judiciary and selectively targeting for prosecution opponents of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Home-district projects for members of Congress are back, sprinkled across the government-wide $1.5 trillion bill that President Joe Biden signed recently.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully defended her record as a federal judge Tuesday, pushing back on Republican assertions that she would be soft on crime and declaring she would rule as an “independent jurist” if confirmed as the first Black woman on the high court.

The new law includes $3.6 billion in assistance for Ukraine.

Clocking in at 2,741 pages, the package is the culmination of bicameral and bipartisan negotiations between top Democratic and Republican appropriators.

Scott Applewhite) (J. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON — (AP) — Dozens of the nation's top law enforcement officials have signed a letter released Monday urging the U.S. Senate to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. “As members of the law enforcement community, we write in recognition of Judge Jackson’s strong, effective and long-standing role in criminal justice issues,” wrote 63 officials from around the country. The letter cites Jackson's history with law enforcement. “Such direct familiarity with the experiences and challenges of law enforcement enriches her understanding of criminal justice issues,” the letter states. Jackson has also won the support of the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest law enforcement labor organization in the United States, with more than 356,000 members.

Dozens of the nation’s top law enforcement officials have signed a letter urging the U.S. Senate to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

Police have arrested former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a step toward fulfilling a request by the United States government for his extradition on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

Top lawmakers say Democrats and Republicans have finally agreed on a framework for overall defense and domestic spending for this year.

More than 600 sitting senators have died or resigned since the first Congress met in 1789.

Trump’s false claims of a stolen election not only incited the mob that stormed the Capitol, Democrats say. Many Democrats say the moment has come to act decisively in what they view as the civil rights fight of the era. But Democrats say they are focused on what's achievable now, amid escalating pressure from allies for action. Leaning into the fight, Biden is set to deliver a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday focused on voting rights. A compromise on that could be attractive to Manchin, who has said any election legislation ought to be enacted on a bipartisan basis.

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

President Joe Biden only rarely talks about last January's violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the conspiratorial lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

U.S. leaders and military veterans are mourning the loss of former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, a World War II veteran and former Republican presidential candidate who served in Congress for 36 years.

Election 2022 Vermont Senate FILE - Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., questions former U.S. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) (Susan Walsh)Vermont's sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat Peter Welch, announced Monday that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy. It's unclear whom the state GOP will find to run for either the Senate seat or the House seat. As of this year, Welch served as a chief deputy whip of the House Democratic Caucus and a member of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. He was elected to the Vermont Senate in 1980 and became the first Democrat elected as Senate president pro tempore in 1985.

Vermont’s sole congressman, Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, says he'll run for Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Senate seat next year.

Vermont's sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, announced Monday that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy. Welch's decision comes a week after the 81-year-old Leahy's announcement that he will not seek reelection to the seat he first won in 1974. The 74-year-old Welch said the 2022 election will determine control of the Senate and, with it, what he can accomplish for Vermont families.

Leahy announced earlier in the day he will not seek reelection for his Senate seat. Among the possible candidates for Leahy's Senate seat is Democratic Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, said Garrison Nelson, a retired University of Vermont political science professor and a congressional scholar. Other names being floated include Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint and state Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, both Democrats. Republicans are likely to struggle fielding a competitive candidate in the liberal state, Nelson said, especially since GOP Gov.

Democrat Patrick Leahy’s announcement that he will retire after eight terms in the Senate has set off a scramble in Vermont over the rare opening in the state’s tiny congressional delegation.

Election 2022 Vermont Senate Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., looks down as he speaks during a news conference at the Vermont State House to announce he will not seek re-election, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, in Montpelier, V.T. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm) (Mary Schwalm)WASHINGTON — (AP) — A day after announcing he will not seek reelection, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont told his colleagues in an emotional speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday that they have become like family to him over the last nearly 47 years. “Here’s the thing about the Senate. He thanked his staff and his family, particularly his wife, Marcelle. Noting the privilege he has felt in guiding the country toward the future, Leahy ended his speech with a catch in his voice.

A day after announcing he will not seek reelection, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont has told his colleagues in an emotional speech on the Senate floor that the chamber has become a family to him over the last nearly 47 years.

The longest-serving current member of the Senate said he won't seek reelction to the seat he has held for eight terms.

Leahy, 81, is the longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate.

Leahy of Vermont is set to make an announcement about his political future on Monday, Nov. 15. The 81-year-old senator planned a news conference at the Vermont State House before returning to Washington on Monday. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP, File) (Sarah Silbiger)MONTPELIER, Vt. — (AP) — Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the longest-serving member of the Senate, said Monday he will not seek reelection in 2022 to the seat he has held for eight terms. During his nearly half-century in the Senate, Vermont shifted from one of the most solidly Republican states in the country to one of its most progressive. I brought Vermont’s voice to the United States Senate and Vermont values across the world," he said.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says he won’t seek reelection next year to the seat he's held since 1975.

The Senate voted against debating voting legislation Wednesday, with Republicans this time filibustering an update to the landmark Voting Rights Act, the pillar of civil rights legislation from the 1960s. “Senate Democrats should stay in town and focus on the last act in this battle,” said Fred Wertheimer, who leads the good government group Democracy 21. Though the GOP has shown no indication that its opposition will waver, there are signs that some of the voting changes Democrats seek aren't as electorally advantageous for the party as some hope. Democrats took control of all parts of Virginia’s government in 2019 and steadily started liberalizing the state’s voting laws. This year they passed a voting rights act that made it easier to sue for blocking ballot access.

Senate Democrats forced another test vote on voting rights legislation.

The plan will grant the government power to regulate the prices of some of the most expensive drugs and limit out-of-pocket costs for seniors.

Congressional Democrats are weighing a raft of taxes that would target CEO pay and big U.S. companies that buy back shares.

With possible furloughs only weeks away, the Senate passed a funding bill for the Capitol Police. It also has money for Afghan refugees who face danger with U.S. military leaving the country.

The bill passed 98-0.

The $2.1 billion bill would boost support for the Capitol complex in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, direct funds to the Capitol Police and provide humanitarian support for Afghan refugees.

The bill provides funding for the National Guard and U.S. Capitol Police, which have been under strain since January 6.

Top Democrats and Republicans remain at odds over a last-minute deal to prevent Capitol Police from running out of money.

Capitol Breach Fence Workers remove the fence surrounding the U.S. Capitol building, after six months was erected, following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, on Saturday, July 10, 2021, in Washington. Not one Republican voted for a Capitol security bill passed by the House in May. Similar to the House legislation, the Senate bill would provide dollars to secure buildings and doors, boost personal protection for lawmakers, install new security cameras and create a new “U.S. “I think that’s where our conference is,” Shelby told reporters Monday, referring to the narrower GOP bill. “I appreciate them bringing something, but it is a pretty small something,” Leahy said of the GOP bill.

Senate Democrats are proposing $3.7 billion in emergency spending to secure the Capitol, repay outstanding debts from the Jan. 6 insurrection and help the federal government defray costs from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weeks before the police agency is slated to run out of money, the Democratic Senate Appropriations chair and the panel's ranking Republican introduced competing emergency funding bills.

It's high summer along the border between the United States and Canada and people on both sides are wondering when the two governments will ease border-crossing restrictions imposed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two men who have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard during a June 11 bank robbery could face the death penalty, if federal prosecutors decide to seek it.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's Cabinet chief and other allies have been included in a list of senior officials in Central America deemed corrupt by the U.S. State Department.

The roar of applause that typically greets a new president entering the House chamber softened to just a few hundred hands clapping as Joe Biden arrived to deliver his first joint address to Congress.

More than a dozen Senate Democrats have sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden complaining of a woeful environmental track record by his Brazilian counterpart and urging him to condition any support for Amazon preservation on significant progress reducing deforestation.

Three of the picks are Black women whom Biden wants for the federal courts of appeals, often a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. Circuit, in particular, is a place where presidents have searched for Supreme Court justices. Some liberal Democrats have urged Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who is 82, to retire to allow Biden to choose a possible replacement. Other Black women who would be front-runners if a spot on the U.S. Supreme Court were to open are California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger and U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs. Ad“This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession," Biden, a former Senate Judiciary Committee chair, said in a statement.

Claver-Carone was elected as the new president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the fall of 2020. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)MIAMI – The cyberattack crested just as finance officials from across Latin America were descending on Washington to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Inter-American Development Bank. On Sept. 24, 2019, requests from more than 15,000 internet addresses throughout China flooded the bank’s website, knocking part of it intermittently offline. Details of the attack, which has not been previously reported, are contained in an IDB internal document reviewed by The Associated Press. But membership has been a cheap way for China to expand its reach in Latin America.

A dirty word for many Republicans is making the rounds on Capitol Hill -- earmarks. It's a question that's vexing Republicans as they consider whether to join a Democratic push to revive earmarks, the much-maligned practice where lawmakers direct federal spending to a specific project or institution back home. Democratic appropriators in the House see a solution and are proposing a revamped process allowing lawmakers to submit public requests for “community project funding” in federal spending bills. The ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, said earmarks would not increase the amount of money spent in a bill. “That’s something I feel pretty strongly about.”Norman worries that earmarks would be used to entice Republicans to vote for bills with expensive price tags.

Democrats passed it 51-50 in the evenly split Senate, as Vice President Kamala Harris had to cast her first tiebreaking vote. The Senate passed a budget resolution early Friday, moving toward passing a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill after a marathon of votes on dozens of amendments. The chamber will have to vote again because the Senate passed a separate version. The budget resolution directs committees to write legislation reflecting Biden's Covid relief package, while staying under the $1.9 trillion target. Democrats hope to pass a relief package before March 14, when a $300 per week unemployment supplement approved in December expires.

Eye Opener: Biden vows to increase COVID-19 vaccine supply The Biden administration has promised to ramp up the U.S. supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses. Also, Senator Patrick Leahy was hospitalized just hours after presiding over the opening of former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial. All that and all that matters in today's Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.