Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press

Republican leaders have refused to take action against Santos, whose election helped give them a slim hold on the House majority.

Kevin McCarthy became the first House speaker nominee in 100 years to fail to win the gavel from his fellow party members on the initial vote.

Senate Democrats met behind closed doors at the Capitol to choose their leadership team for the new Congress that begins in January. The session was quick and upbeat, with no challengers.

Law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 were honored Tuesday with Congressional Gold Medals nearly two years after confronting a brutal and bloody assault.

Emboldened House Democrats ushered in a new generation of leaders Wednesday, with Jeffries elected to be the first Black American to head a major political party in Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she will not seek a leadership position in the new Congress, a pivotal realignment making way for a new generation of leaders.

The much slimmer, but not unsubstantial, compromise package of health care, climate change and deficit reduction strategies appears headed toward quick votes in Congress.

The legislation started as an election-season effort to confront the new Supreme Court majority after the court overturned abortion access in Roe v. Wade, raising concerns that other rights are at risk.

The first full day of questions for the Supreme Court nominee delved quickly into some of the big ones, a grueling marathon of debate around President Biden’s historic pick.

What should have been a routine task — Biden recalled infrastructure as “probably the least difficult thing to do” when he was a senator — became an exercise in showing how damaged the legislative process has become in partisan Washington and how a president and core group of senators were determined to try to fix it.

Both Alaska senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, were among 19 Republicans who voted yes. A sizable number of lawmakers showed they were willing to set aside partisan pressures, at least for a moment, eager to send billions to their states for rebuilding roads, broadband internet, water pipes and the public works systems that underpin much of American life.

The new moratorium would temporarily halt evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions and would cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.

More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some in a matter of days, as a moratorium comes to an end.

The president said not everyone got what they wanted and that other White House priorities would be done separately in a congressional budget process known as reconciliation.

The rejection of the voting bill, known as the For the People Act, forces Democrats to reckon with what comes next for their top legislative priority in a narrowly divided Senate.