Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is throwing a curveball into the shutdown fight as he plans to bring a full-year spending bill for the Pentagon to the floor on Thursday, effectively daring Democrats to oppose it as part of their push to keep health care at the forefront of the impasse.

Senate GOP leaders are looking to pressure Democrats to make progress on full-year spending bills that would fund the Pentagon and a handful of other federal agencies amid the government shutdown.

Top Republicans in Congress will take a massive gamble on shutdown politics in the coming days: GOP leaders will not step in to prevent missed paychecks to the military.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has set up one vote Tuesday afternoon to reopen the government, giving Democrats only the opportunity to vote for or against a House-passed continuing resolution that has failed repeatedly on the Senate floor.

Jim Boyd, a veteran lawmaker who heads an insurance and investment firm in Bradenton, was formally selected Tuesday by Senate Republicans to become the next Senate president.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's mass layoffs as the government shutdown drags on, pausing the cuts for thousands of workers.

Republican congressman Wesley Hunt is running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, defying Senate GOP leadership and adding a new element to an already contentious primary campaign

Democrats have accused Johnson of stalling in order to prevent a vote on releasing files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

In a FEC filing, the DSCC signed on to support Governor Janet Mill’s senatorial campaign, leading to some online backlash.