The Senate's latest health and human services spending package has ignited a fierce clash over a proposed $5.7 billion expansion of refugee benefits, turning a routine appropriations fight into a broader referendum on how the United States should treat people fleeing war and persecution.

A growing number of Senate Democrats say they should use every tool at their disposal to rein in President Trump’s efforts to seize control of Venezuela and perhaps expand his administration’s

President Donald Trump ’s critics are taking a victory lap after the Senate voted today to advance a resolution purporting to limit his power to use military force in Venezuela. Five Republicans joined Democrats in a procedural move that amounts to sending Trump a strongly worded letter of disapproval.

This fall, the country is holding legislative elections marked by the military presence in the streets of major cities, partisan redistricting of district maps, and the possibility that Trump's low popularity may return control of Congress to the Democrats.