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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 16, 2026

After Seven Working Days Since Summer Recess, the House Cancels Thursday's Votes and Goes Home Until the Midterms — Speaker Johnson Says "The House Has Done Its Work," Hakeem Jeffries Says the "American People Deserve Better Than a Do-Nothing Republican Congress," and Two Republicans Say Out Loud That the Job Is Not Finished

On September 16, 2026, House Republican leaders cancelled Thursday's votes and sent members home until after the November midterms — closing a post-recess session that ran just seven working days. Left on the floor were AI legislation, further action on the Russia sanctions package, and the privileged resolution Thomas Massie had filed to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Speaker Mike Johnson framed it as members returning to their districts to make their case to voters, and said he would bring the House back on 48 hours' notice if the Senate moved legislation. He rejected the charge that the cancellation was designed to duck the Hegseth impeachment vote as "ridiculous." Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called it a do-nothing Congress and argued the House should not leave town without acting on the pace of AI development. Notably, the sharpest objections also came from Johnson's own conference: Chip Roy and Ralph Norman both said publicly that the House should stay until the work was done. Stances below are relative to the decision to adjourn: "support" backs going home, "oppose" wanted the House to stay.

“It's ridiculous to suggest that canceling Thursday's votes was meant to avoid the vote on impeaching Hegseth.”
Mike Johnson (R-LA) · Sep 16, 2026

Sep 16, 2026· Updated

Two Days Before the Iran War Turns Six Months Old, Trump Posts "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED 2026" — and the Top Democrat on Armed Services Answers That "Not a Single Objective Has Been Achieved"

On Aug. 26, 2026, President Trump posted an image to Truth Social captioned "Mission Accomplished 2026," pairing a photograph of George W. Bush labeled "Mission Not Accomplished 2001-2021" with an image of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — a deliberate invocation of the 2003 banner that became a byword for premature victory declarations. Two days later, on Aug. 28, the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran reached its six-month mark. The conflict Trump had described at the outset as a short excursion has cost at least 18 American service members' lives, injured more than 750, and consumed roughly $100 billion in appropriated funds. Iran's nuclear program has not been dismantled, the regime has not fallen — Khamenei's son Mojtaba succeeded him — and the Strait of Hormuz remains a contested flashpoint under U.S. blockade. Trump said this week he is "not in a hurry" to resume negotiations. Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on Armed Services, issued a point-by-point accounting of the six war aims Trump named in February and said none had been met. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called the president delusional for claiming victory. DNC Chair Ken Martin tied the war directly to the November midterms. Trump, for his part, spent the anniversary insisting the blockade is total and that Iran is the party that wants to meet.

“Well, hopefully we are toward the end of the war. They want to make a deal. We'll see how that works out.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 16, 2026

After Two Record-Breaking Shutdowns in Ten Months, the Senate Votes 90-6 to Fund the Government Past the Midterms — and Pushes the Real Fight to December 11

Government funding was set to lapse at midnight on September 30, 2026, which would have opened a shutdown on October 1 — four and a half weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. On Sunday, August 2, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) released the text of a continuing resolution holding most agencies at current levels through December 11. The Senate passed it 90-6 in the early hours of Saturday, August 8, before leaving for the August recess. The bill is a stopgap, but it is not a clean one. Democrats won three things House Republicans' version did not contain: language closing a transfer loophole that would have let the administration move money appropriated for other programs into Border Patrol; a temporary block on a proposed OMB rule giving senior political appointees a larger role in reviewing and cancelling federal grants; and rejection of the White House's request for $1 billion to begin work on the new "Trump-class" battleship. It also carries adjustments for WIC, shipbuilding and the Disaster Relief Fund. The six no votes were an unusual left-right pairing — Cassidy, Paul, Kaine, Markey, Warren and Sanders — with progressives objecting to funding the administration's agenda at all and fiscal conservatives objecting to another stopgap. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said voting yes would be "signing a check for President Trump to continue his illegal, reckless agenda." The politics behind the 90-6 margin are straightforward: the country has already been through three funding lapses in a year, including a four-day shutdown from January 31 to February 3 and a record 76-day DHS lapse from February to late April. Neither party wanted a fourth one running through the campaign. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) framed it as owing the public predictability. What the vote does not do is settle anything. It moves the deadline to December 11 — after the election, into a lame-duck session, with the OMB grants rule, immigration enforcement funding, hemp-derived THC products and the unfinished full-year appropriations bills all still live. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), asked what it would take to finish a budget by then, listed "whiffs of frozen hell, donkeys flying." The House still has to pass the measure when members return in September before it reaches the President's desk.

“House Republicans are in charge here, and we’re continuing to do the grown-up thing and make sure we get the job done. And we’re happy that we just passed that continuing resolution to fund the government through early December, and then we’ll continue through the process after the election.”
Mike Johnson (R-LA) · Sep 1, 2026

A House Republican Proposes a Constitutional Amendment Barring Naturalized Citizens From Congress and the Federal Bench — Naming Three Democrats, and Disqualifying Four Republicans and a Republican Senator She Did Not Mention

On May 20, 2026, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) announced a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would require members of Congress, federal judges and Senate-confirmed appointees to be natural-born U.S. citizens — extending to the whole federal government a requirement the Constitution imposes only on the president. Naturalized citizens currently serving would be disqualified. Mace singled out three foreign-born Democrats in making her case: Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), born in Somalia; Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), born in India; and Shri Thanedar (D-MI), born in India. A May 1, 2026 Congressional Research Service report counted roughly 19 foreign-born members of the current Congress. Among them are four Republican House members the amendment would also disqualify — Reps. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), born in Ukraine; Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), born in Cuba; Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), born in Mexico; and Young Kim (R-CA), born in South Korea — along with Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), a Trump ally born in Colombia who became a citizen at 18. None of them responded to reporters' requests for comment. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus noted publicly that four sitting Republicans were not citizens at birth. Because it is a constitutional amendment, the measure would require two-thirds of both chambers and ratification by three-fourths of the states — a practical impossibility — but it has continued to shape the debate. On August 27, 2026, the Washington Post's Toluse Olorunnipa reported that the push had broadened: Republican lawmakers in several states have introduced measures to bar naturalized and dual citizens from running for state office, and at least five Republicans in Congress have called for barring them from federal judgeships, Cabinet posts, ambassadorships and congressional seats. The reporting tied the escalation to the rise of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other naturalized officials. Democratic reaction was immediate and uniform; no Republican member has publicly endorsed the amendment on the record.

“This isn’t personal. It’s about what standard we want for the people entrusted with enormous power over the American people.”
Nancy Mace (R-SC) · Aug 27, 2026

Aug 20, 2026· Updated

The National Debt Crosses $40 Trillion Months Ahead of Schedule — Driven in Part by the Tariff Revenue the Supreme Court Took Away — and the Treasury Secretary Says "There's Nothing Magic About the $40 Trillion Number"

On August 19, 2026, the Treasury Department reported that total federal debt outstanding had crossed $40 trillion for the first time, finishing the day at $40,047,425,768,420.22 — roughly $32.3 trillion held by the public and $7.8 trillion in intragovernmental holdings. The milestone arrived months earlier than the Congressional Budget Office had projected. The government borrowed $1.8 trillion in the first ten months of fiscal 2026 — more than in all of fiscal 2025 — and the gap widened after the Supreme Court struck down Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, costing an estimated $250 billion in revenue and forcing Treasury to refund more than $100 billion in import taxes it had already collected. The debt has doubled in under a decade, having stood at just under $20 trillion at the end of the Obama administration. Republicans who control both chambers reacted with alarm rather than a plan. House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Tex.) called the debt "an existential threat" and renewed his call for an Article V constitutional convention. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), whose chamber had just left town for August recess without acting on Trump's demand that it address the debt ceiling, told reporters "$40 trillion in debt — seems to me that should get our attention." Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) posted that voters had "40 trillion reasons 2 reject unaffordable socialist policies," drawing ridicule from critics who noted he had voted for the tax and spending bills that produced it. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) called it "bad" and demanded a balanced budget. Democrats pointed at the majority. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member on the Budget Committee, said Republicans "only care about 'fiscal responsibility' when it's time to cut your health care." House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said "The Republican economy is a disaster. Vote them all out in November." The administration's answer was growth. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC the next morning that "there's nothing magic about the $40 trillion number, and we can grow our way out of that," and said there was a "very good chance" the deficit under Trump had already peaked.

“There’s a very good chance the U.S. budget deficit under President Trump has peaked.”
Scott Bessent (R-SC) · Aug 20, 2026

Trump Claims California Primary Is Being "Stolen"; AG Bonta Calls Claims "Unhinged"

Following California's June 3, 2026 primary elections, President Trump repeatedly posted on Truth Social claiming Democrats were "stealing" the vote as mail ballots continued to be counted — a normal process in a high-mail-vote state. The US Attorney's office in California opened "multiple" election fraud investigations at Trump's urging with no specific evidence provided. California AG Rob Bonta called Trump's claims "truly embarrassing, unhinged, wild-eyed, dangerous, reckless, desperate," and Gov. Newsom's press office mocked the president. Analysts warned the episode previewed midterm election denial tactics.

“Truly embarrassing, unhinged, wild-eyed, dangerous, reckless, desperate. What's your evidence for the bold claim you've made? He has none. Every count, recount, hand count, audit and court case has demonstrated there is no widespread voter fraud. Trump has basically taken the position that if he wins or the person that he supports wins, the election was fair. If he lost or the person he supported lost, it was rigged. And that's just not right. The danger is the action that follows the lie.”
Rob Bonta (D-CA) · Jun 9, 2026

Federal Judge Allows Trump's Mail-In Voting Executive Order to Stand

On May 28, 2026, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump appointee in Washington, D.C. — declined to temporarily block President Trump's March 31 executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration to build citizenship lists for mail ballot eligibility. Nichols ruled it was premature to block the order because it has not yet been implemented. The executive order directs DHS to compile lists of confirmed adult U.S. citizens in each state, with the U.S. Postal Service then delivering mail ballots only to verified citizens. Democrats and voting rights groups sued immediately, arguing the order risks disenfranchising millions of lawfully registered voters because the underlying data can be outdated or contain errors. A parallel legal challenge filed by a coalition of Democratic-led states is pending before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, who was scheduled to hear arguments June 2. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer led Democratic condemnation of both the order and the ruling.

“Trump's order is not about election integrity. It is voter suppression, plain and simple. Democrats will do everything in our power to ensure that every American can exercise their right to vote.”
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) · May 28, 2026

South Carolina Senate Rejects Trump's Redistricting Push, Saving Clyburn's Seat

On May 26, 2026, the South Carolina state Senate rejected President Trump's push to redraw congressional maps before the midterm elections, preserving Rep. Jim Clyburn's majority-Black district. Twelve Republican state senators joined Democrats to defeat cloture on a special session called by Gov. Henry McMaster, citing that early voting had already begun with record turnout. The failed redistricting attempt would have dismantled Clyburn's 6th district — held by the longtime Democratic congressman for over three decades — in an attempt to give Republicans an additional House seat ahead of the midterms. Republican state senators who broke ranks cited concerns about the rushed timeline, the fact that voters were already casting ballots, and the outsized role of Washington consultants in driving the process. The outcome was a significant bipartisan rebuke of Trump's aggressive redistricting campaign, and leaves more than a dozen Congressional Black Caucus members' districts potentially vulnerable in other states where similar efforts continue.

“We have someone in the White House that wants Republicans to ignore the Constitutional principles for which this current map was drawn. A critical number of Republicans did not believe in putting a man over the law.”
Jim Clyburn (D-SC) · May 26, 2026

Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Down Voter-Approved Redistricting Amendment

On May 8, 2026, the Virginia Supreme Court voted 4-3 to strike down a voter-approved constitutional amendment that would have redrawn Virginia's congressional map to give Democrats an advantage in 10 of the state's 11 seats. The court ruled that Democratic lawmakers violated procedural requirements by holding the first vote on October 31, 2025, after early voting had already begun — with roughly 40% of ballots already cast — depriving over 1.3 million Virginians of the opportunity to weigh the issue when choosing their representatives. The ruling leaves the existing 6-5 Democratic congressional map in place for the 2026 midterm elections. Virginia Democrats immediately appealed to the US Supreme Court, asking the high court to reinstate the congressional map.

“Virginia Democrats' corrupt scheme to rig the map has been crushed in court, restoring fairness and protecting the future of the Commonwealth. The NRCC was proud to lead and fund this fight to uphold the Virginia Constitution and protect fair representation, and this win is yet another sign Republicans have the momentum heading into November. We're on offense, and we're going to win.”
Richard Hudson (R-NC) · May 8, 2026