A day after news broke that legislation granting D.C. a voting seat in the House of Representatives would be re-introduced next week, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.) has threatened to filibuster the bill unless changes are made. more ›

Bless DC Agenda's Lou Chibbaro, Jr., who managed to stay up late enough to watch the Senate vote to block an amendment that would have forced a ballot measure on D.C.'s same-sex marriage law. The amendment, offered by Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), was killed after the Senate voted 59-36 to deny a motion to waive the parliamentarian ruling that it was out of order. The vote came sometime after 1 a.m. this morning. more ›

The New York Times has started posting all the Senate Republican amendments to the health care reform bill, and, surprise, surprise, one of them concerns the District of Columbia's same-sex marriage law:

Bennett amendment: To protect the Democratic process and the right of the people of the District of Columbia to define marriage. (#3568)

With the federal government still closed today and fresh flakes set to start falling any time now, it's looking increasingly like many area residents will end up with an entire week off. Politico is reporting that the House of Representatives has just canceled all votes for the remainder of the week. The Senate is still soldiering on for now, but we wouldn't be surprised if that changed later today. more ›

Nine of the U.S. Senate's most conservative members have introduced a bill that seeks to prevent D.C. from enacting its same-sex marriage law unless the issue is taken up on the ballot. D.C. Agenda reports that those senators, who are being championed by the National Organization for Marriage, are Robert Bennett (R-Utah), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), David Vitter (R-La.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). more ›

Two weeks ago, we reported that an amendment granting the District a voting seat in the House might be tacked on to a defense spending bill. Now, it doesn't look like that will happen. more ›

No big surprise here, but the U.S. Senate just voted 68-31 to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic and only the third female justice ever. more ›

If you so choose, here's some video of Al Franken being sworn in to the U.S. Senate by Vice President Joe Biden this afternoon, courtesy The Hill. Franken reportedly took the oath on a Bible that belonged to the family of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.). The AP noted that 'the former Saturday Night Live performer and satirist offered no jokes, just a promise that he is "ready get to work."' After months and months of waiting, the new junior senator from the state of Minnesota officially gives the Democratic Party a crucial 60-seat Senate majority. more ›

Comedian, radio talk show host, and now it seems after all this time, United States Senator. The Minnesota Supreme Court today declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of his U.S. Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman. more ›

An extra-marital affair involving a Washington politico isn't anything surprising these days. But when it involves the possible blackmail of a Promise Keeper senator who is no friend of the District, it's hard for us not to feel just the tiniest bit smug. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) admitted yesterday in a hastily arranged press conference that he had cheated on his wife with a campaign staffer, jumping to admit to the infidelity over fears that the staffer's husband -- who worked as an aide to Ensign -- was seeking to blackmail him. In the wake of the news Ensign today resigned his position as Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. more ›

Roll Call's Emily Yehle reports that some drunk guy managed to wander in and out and back in to the Hart Senate Office Building through a parking garage on Monday before finally being stopped by Capitol Police. The incident "appears to be a function of somebody not doing their job." You think? The man, described as having "no malicious intent," was eventually arrested for unlawful entry. Lots of hemming and hawing about human error from officials, and frankly we're surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. One interesting tidbit about the effect of the new Capitol Visitor Center, which was built with the intention of streamlining security procedures: Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer says the new CVC has resulted in "more open doors" and a need for more officers. Earlier today, Terrie S. Rouse, CEO for Visitor Services at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, announced that the center has received one million visitors since it opened in December. more ›

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) may be a reliable Republican, but he's never made much noise when it comes to the District. That changed last week when he successfully added an amendment to legislation granting the District a voting seat in the House that would effectively gut the city's gun laws. While many a Republican before him have done the same -- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) first among them -- it is his move that could end up sinking the measure. more ›

Yesterday was surely a day of celebration for those of us who have been fighting for D.C. voting rights. The mere fact that the Senate voted to approve the D.C. House Voting Rights Act is a huge step in what has long been a consistently frustrating battle for equal rights for the District of Columbia. more ›

The Senate has voted to approve the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, 61-37. The only vote that changed from Tuesday's cloture vote was that of Alaska's Lisa Murkowski (R). more ›

Catch up on Wednesday's senate debate here. more ›

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) came to the floor of the Senate at 10:31 a.m. to argue that S.160, the D.C. Voting Rights Act, is unconstitutional. Thus begins formal debate on the bill itself after yesterday's successful cloture vote. We'll be keeping an eye on the debate all day, noting that Mary Beth Sheridan reported this morning that Majority Leader Harry Reid has now said that a vote could come today. more ›

While we wait for who knows how long for debate on the D.C. Voting Rights act to begin, D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray has released a statement directed to the Senate while they consider S.160. Press release below: more ›

The Senate version of the D.C. Voting Rights Act, known as S.160, hit the floor of the U.S. Senate at just after 2:50 p.m. this afternoon. We'll admit that our knowledge of detailed Senate procedure is no doubt more limited than some of our readers who work on the Hill, so please, feel free to correct us as we write and listen at the same time. more ›

The U.S. Senate is set to debate legislation granting the District of Columbia a voting seat in the House of Representatives on Monday, with a vote predicted for Tuesday. That would pave the way for an expected vote to endorse the legislation in the House and, at long last, something approaching voting rights for District residents. Of course, opponents of the legislation have threatened a quick legal challenge, but interestingly, The Hill reported yesterday that it doesn't seem like anyone is stepping up to the plate. Lawsuits don't file themselves, and though there are many an opponent to the measure, neither think tanks nor advocacy groups seem to be too excited to pony up the expected $750,000 to $1 million for the legal bills. Even some of the legislation's most ardent foes on the Hill seem to want to find someone else to do the heavy lifting on this one. Supporters of the legislation, on the other hand, have already started crafting a defense. Recession -- the best thing to happen to D.C. voting rights in a generation? Maybe. more ›

DCist just obtained this email from an alert tipster: more ›

Today's Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the D.C. Voting Rights Act is couched within the committee's regular business meeting, but Chairman Joe Lieberman is speaking about the bill right now. You can stream the hearing live here. Lieberman was one of the bill's main sponsors in the Senate last time around, so he's making some predictably pro-voting rights remarks about the historic injustice of the status of the District. Earlier, Lieberman acknowledged Mayor Adrian Fenty as being present, along with someone who is apparently dressed up in some sort of colonial era costume— they were off camera, but we're going to speculate wildly that it might be DC Vote's Eli Zigas, who is better known for dressing as Abe Lincoln. more ›

In case it wasn't clear in Martin's earlier post, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton did in fact introduce the D.C. Voting Rights Bill in the House earlier today, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah introduced the same legislation in the Senate. The AP has a brief report about the action, and over at City Desk, editor Erik Wemple is doing the hero's work of live-blogging the Senate proceedings via C-SPAN 2. No senator has bothered to come forward to say anything about the voting rights bill so far (since it was introduced by Sen. Lieberman -- you can download his full remarks here), but Robert Byrd did read a lengthy, rambling statement about the history of the U.S. Senate. Opening day Senate proceedings are something of hoot, aren't they? more ›

Al Franken declared victory late Monday in his race against Norm Coleman for a U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota. The Minnesota Canvassing Board certified the recount today, with Franken winning by 225 votes. more ›

Last week the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center finally opened after six years of delays and bloated budgets, and most folks who work on the Hill were glad to have the thing done with at last. At the time, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) remarked that he was especially excited not to have to smell stinky, sweaty tourists waiting to get inside the Capitol anymore.

"My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway," said Reid in his remarks. "In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true."

We're not ones to get involved in the internal political battles of the other states, but when it comes to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), we've got her back. more ›

When a measure that would grant the District a voting seat in the House of Representatives fell three votes short of making it through the Senate, voting rights advocates were both frustrated and hopeful. Frustrated because the Senate's arcane rules of procedure allowed three senators to hold up legislation that had overwhelmingly passed the House; hopeful because whether through intense cajoling or electoral victories, three new votes aren't impossible to come by. more ›

We thought that it would be close to impossible to dethrone Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) as the District's King of Hearts, for having said the scummiest thing related to D.C.'s non-voting status in Congress that we had ever heard. But ladies and gentlemen, we were wrong. Meet the new King: Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). more ›

So Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has been found guilty on felony charges of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms. A jury today issued a guilty verdict in the corruption case, deciding that they did not believe that Stevens didn't know about the $250,000 worth of gifts he received from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., among others. The AP says that Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each of the seven counts, but will likely receive much less. Stevens is currently locked in a tight race with Anchorage mayor Mark Begich for his U.S. Senate seat. The question now is will he drop out, or continue running with a felony conviction which would most likely lead him to be expelled by the Senate anyway? Maybe he's counting on a pardon from President Bush? more ›

First: Good news from Duke, where Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) underwent what his doctors are calling "successful" surgery today on a malignant brain tumor. While the initial announcement of Kennedy's condition and potential treatment a couple of weeks ago did not include surgery as a likely option for the 76-year-old senator, Kennedy went forward with the aggressive procedure this morning. It has yet to be revealed exactly how much of the tumor surgeons were able to remove from Kennedy's brain, but surgery of this kind is meant to improve a patient's chances to have successful radiation treatment. A Kennedy family spokesperson told reporters that the senator was doing well, even telling his wife shortly after that he felt "like a million bucks." more ›

The Associated Press is reporting that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. more ›