United States Senate

Upper chamber where the bill needs 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster. - Bill faces filibuster with uncertain path forward

Since 1993, Americans have registered to vote by attesting to their citizenship under penalty of perjury. No proof required. The House just voted 218-213 to change that, passing the SAVE America Act to mandate in-person documentary proof of citizenship—a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers—before anyone can register for federal elections.

Updated Feb 12

The upper chamber of Congress, which holds constitutional authority to declare war and authorize military force. - Defeated war powers resolution 50-51

Congress last declared war in 1942. Since then, presidents have ordered military strikes 212 times without formal declarations—but never quite like this. On January 3, 2026, U.S. special forces raided the Venezuelan capital, captured President Nicolás Maduro in his residence, and flew him to New York to face narcoterrorism charges. Eleven days later, Vice President JD Vance cast the deciding vote to kill a Senate resolution that would have required congressional authorization for further military action. Now, over a month after the raid, the operation faces mounting legal challenges: Maduro's defense team filed motions on February 4 questioning the federal court's jurisdiction over the extraordinary rendition case, while the International Court of Justice and UN human rights bodies have issued statements characterizing the operation as a violation of international law.

Updated Feb 6

The Senate is where the ACA subsidy fight came to a head and then deadlocked. - Bipartisan working group negotiations collapsed; FY2026 funding bill passed without ACA subsidy provisions

The ACA subsidy cliff has delivered the predicted damage. Enhanced premium tax credits expired on January 1, 2026, and by late January, enrollment data confirmed the worst fears: 1.2 to 1.4 million fewer Americans signed up for marketplace coverage compared to the prior year, with total 2026 enrollment falling to 22.8–22.9 million. Average premium payments for subsidized enrollees jumped 114% as projected—from $888 to $1,904 annually—while Trump administration changes to tax credit calculations amplified the shock. State exchanges reported steep declines: California saw new sign-ups fall 32%, Massachusetts lost 13,000 enrollees, and Mississippi expects 200,000 to abandon coverage. The predicted rate shock is no longer a forecast; it is reshaping the individual insurance market in real time.

Updated Feb 6

The Senate is the backstop that must bless the House’s hard‑fought NDAA deal or reopen the fight. - Passed final NDAA 77–20 on December 17, preserving 65-year streak and sending bill to Trump.

President Trump signed a nearly $901 billion defense bill into law on December 18, 2025, cementing the 65th consecutive year Congress has passed a National Defense Authorization Act. The measure delivers troops a 3.8% pay raise, locks in $800 million in weapons support for Ukraine over two years, sets troop floors in Europe and South Korea that defy Trump's withdrawal instincts, and rewires how the Pentagon buys weapons through sweeping acquisition reforms branded as the SPEED Act. It also repeals the 2002 Iraq War authorization while embedding Trump-era cuts to climate and diversity programs across the military.

Updated Jan 9

The upper chamber of the U.S. Congress, responsible for oversight of military operations and foreign policy. - Investigating legality of boat strikes and Venezuela operation

On December 5, 2025, the Trump administration released a 33‑page National Security Strategy (NSS) that formally revives a 19th‑century idea of the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence, declaring a Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine and promising to reassert American preeminence across the Americas. The document codifies a shift already visible in 2025 military operations: air and missile strikes on alleged drug‑trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that had killed at least 115 people in 35 strikes by year‑end, the designation of major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and naval deployments around Venezuela. This campaign, formally named Operation Southern Spear on November 13, 2025, culminated on January 3, 2026, when U.S. forces launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a large‑scale military strike on Caracas that captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, placing them in U.S. custody on narco‑terrorism charges—the first forcible regime change under the Trump Corollary.

Updated Jan 4

The Senate decides whether SPEED becomes law or becomes leverage for a different deal. - Next battleground; can pass, rewrite, or bury SPEED

Washington keeps saying it wants to “build faster.” On December 18, 2025, the House put that promise into a blunt instrument: it passed the SPEED Act, a bill designed to squeeze environmental reviews into tighter boxes and make lawsuits harder to use as a brake.

Updated Dec 19, 2025