Congress

The U.S. Congress is the country’s legislative body and is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Read stories here about elections to these bodies, the laws they introduce and the ways lawmakers shape peoples’ lives.

Don’t Let Donald Trump and Elon Musk Talk Us Out of Democracy

Trump and Musk are testing the limits, trying to sell America on being an authoritarian state—but they can’t do it unless we allow them to do so.

When Justice Department lawyers go to court, trying to defend many of Trump and Musk’s actions, DOJ has regularly lost—and often face tense moments in court before being dealt those losses.

On Monday, for example, Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, heard arguments over a group of doctors’ lawsuit challenging the removal of webpages and datasets by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the government-wide censorship purge put into effect following Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order defining “sex” to exclude transgender people.

‘They’re Coming After Birth Control’: Rep. Lizzie Fletcher on the Fight for Contraceptive Rights

Despite overwhelming public support for contraception access, Republicans continue to block legislation protecting it. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher explains why the fight for birth control rights is more urgent than ever.

“The same people who have been crusading against abortion rights for decades aren’t stopping there. They have their eyes set on contraception and birth control.”

‘Silence Is an Enemy’: Rep. Frankel Leads the Fight for Global Reproductive Rights

The Global HER Act, led by Rep. Lois Frankel, aims to permanently repeal the global gag rule, which restricts funding for international healthcare providers that offer or even discuss abortion services—jeopardizing reproductive care for millions worldwide.

“They’re gagging you, they’re putting something over your mouth to prevent you from giving information. … Silence is an enemy,” Frankel told Ms. “And so, we cannot be silent. … One of the ways that we talk is with a bill.”

The SAVE Act Is Voter Suppression Disguised as Election Integrity

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), would impose strict in-person documentation requirements for voter registration, effectively dismantling vote-by-mail, online registration and voter registration drives. These changes would disproportionately disenfranchise historically marginalized communities, including people of color, low-income individuals and women, while being based on debunked claims of non-citizen voting.

Critics argue that the bill is a voter suppression tactic designed to maintain political power rather than protect election integrity, threatening the fundamental right to vote in a democracy.

Trump’s Administration Seems Chaotic, But He’s Drawing Directly from Project 2025 Playbook

In his first few days back in office, President Donald Trump engaged in a whirlwind of executive actions, from exiting the World Health Organization to deploying military personnel and National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Many of these actions are unprecedented. Some appear to be illegal and unconstitutional, according to legal experts and judges. But none of them should come as a surprise—nearly all of them were outlined in 2022 in a plan called Project 2025.

Women’s Paychecks Are Shrinking—And Policy Isn’t Keeping Up

Last September, the National Partnership for Women and Families reported the wage gap for all women workers had widened to 75 cents for every dollar men earned, representing a 3-cent decrease in real pay per hour for women.

While on the surface this may seem negligible in a paycheck, even a seemingly small increase in wage disparity dramatically impacts the significant gains in pay since the 1980s. American Progress reports that with this current backslide, it will now take until 2068 to close the wage gap.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Women Candidates and the 2028 Presidential Election; Sen. Lisa Murkowski Reaches Across the Aisle

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: a look at the women being considered for the Democratic nomination in the 2028 presidential race; Portland’s new electoral system from the perspective of a first-time candidate; Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s determination to be a voice of reason within her party; Florida adds a woman to the Senate; Rep. Sarah McBride navigates her first month in office with grace; and Australia’s leadership on policies and practices that advance women.

This Is the Power-Grab Moment

Trump is not a small-government conservative because he read Ayn Rand in college. He’s a government-of-one conservative: an authoritarian.

What Trump has done here is not just a funding pause. It is a test: Will members of Congress comply with increasingly extreme acts—acts that strip their power, publicly humiliate them and anger their constituents? Will Congress and the public agree that in order to receive federal funding that Congress has already allocated, every single agency and organization that receives such funding has to demonstrate their loyalty to far-right Trumpian ideology? Will the people who make up the federal government decide that the foundation of American democracy—the separation of powers, put into place in part to ensure that the nation would be governed by representatives of people and not a singular king—is worth preserving?

Meet the New Feminists in Congress Who Are Fighting Back

The progressive women newly elected and sworn into office—including three non-incumbent senators and 16 representatives—offer a glimmer of “bright hope” as the country enters a second Trump administration.

All of these women know that they’re entering a complicated political landscape, one that’s heavily partisan and disheartening to many of their constituents. They’re also experienced and driven, ready to work across the aisle as necessary while remaining dedicated to important causes, from protecting abortion rights and supporting the LGBTQ+ community to advocating for gun control, judicial reform, affordable healthcare and public education. These women come from all walks of life, sectors of the workforce and backgrounds. Some worked retail or food service jobs to pay their way through school. Others have been lifelong public servants or dedicated themselves to volunteering. They’ve been working physicians, engineers, attorneys, climate change activists, CIA analysts, mayors, state representatives and senators, education advocates, executive directors of nonprofits and small-business owners. They are Black, white, Latina and Middle Eastern. Some are proud members of the LGBTQ+ community. Many are from working-class backgrounds. Some are mothers and even grandmothers. Several are first-generation college graduates or the children of immigrants.