Physical ailments and deteriorated health may be the one area in which politicians can escape scrutiny.
Guthrie questioned whether politicians really cared about the public interest – such as the welfare of these veterans demonstrating in front of Congress in 1932.
Senate Historical Office
If the US fails to increase its debt ceiling by June 1, it could be forced into an embarrassing – and hugely costly – default on its obligations.
Reinstituted rules in the U.S. House of Representatives allow members to fire federal staffers and cut programs.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
House Republicans have adopted a rule used periodically over the past 150 years that allows lawmakers to speed up and streamline votes to dismantle federal programs and fire federal employees.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, right, with his wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman.
Mark Makela/Getty Images
Health struggles are part of the human condition, but politicians often resist revealing full medical records. The media often help lawmakers hide their conditions. That shortchanges the voters.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has announced that she will not seek reelection in 2024.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Most Americans know Dianne Feinstein as a US senator. But for voters in San Francisco, she will forever be remembered as the woman who stepped in at a tragic and traumatic moment to lead the city.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy walks to the speaker’s ceremonial office at the Capitol on Jan. 9, 2023.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The House GOP has announced a slew of investigations, including a review of the conduct of the Department of Justice and its investigations of Donald Trump.
More jaw-jaw needed to end the GOP speaker war, Mr. McCarthy?
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The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report is the latest in a long series of congressional studies that have tried to answer hard questions about government failures and suggest ways to avoid them.
Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., center, and Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, right, take cover as protesters disrupt the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021.
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Weaknesses in the law governing how elections are run and votes counted in Congress led to the Jan. 6 insurrection. An election law scholar analyzes legislation just passed to fix those problems.
Will gridlock mean the new Congress won’t get anything done?
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With Democrats running the Senate and the GOP in control of the House, there’s concern that Congress won’t get anything done. Turns out, unified government isn’t very productive in the first place.
Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia waves to a crowd on election night.
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Sen. Raphael Warnock’s win over GOP challenger Herschel Walker had implications beyond Georgia – and offers a lesson in how far the state has come from its racist past.
When it came down to it, some Republicans couldn’t vote for Herschel Walker.
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
Analysis of voting data suggests that in counties across Georgia, a slice of Republicans just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Herschel Walker.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, the incumbent Democrat, is up against Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a runoff election to choose who will represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate.
AP Photo
Georgians appreciate the national attention from the runoff election, but the cost and tendency for a drop in turnout may lead to reform of the state’s ballot contests.
Georgia voters will have another ballot this December, when the Senate race is rerun.
Sipa/Alamy
Lots has been said about the 2022 US midterm elections. But a scholar of democracy says there’s really only one conclusion that can be made about how voters behaved.
The state of the Union is … divided.
EPA-EFE/Sarahbeth Maney/pool
The U.S. Senate voted to advance a bill that protect same-sex marriage by a wide margin– thanks to support from 12 Republicans. Same-sex marriage isn’t the partisan issue it once was.