Scott Garrett

Blue Dog Democrats tend to move to the right in election years, which is understandable given that they typically represent swing districts.

And lately no district has swung more than Illinois’ 10th, in the affluent suburbs north of Chicago. Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider is currently serving his second, nonconsecutive term, having defeated Republican Robert J. Dold in 2016.

At the very end of an acrimonious first year working with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, the Senate reverted to form, looking very much like the Senate.

In another example of the increased scrutiny President Donald Trump’s nominees are facing, the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday rejected the nomination of former Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., to lead the Export-Import Bank, with Republicans Tim Scott of South Carolina and Mike Rounds of South Dakota joining Democrats to vote him down.

Garrett was a vocal opponent of the bank when he was in Congress, and his nomination was in trouble from the start. But it follows a pattern of other nominees running into headwinds in the Republican-controlled Senate.

President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank is preparing to make a full reversal of his past opposition to the agency’s continued operation.

Former Rep. Scott Garrett plans to tell senators that he not only opposes winding down the Ex-Im Bank, but that he wants it fully operational going forward under his potential stewardship.

There is apparently no love lost between House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and his former House colleague, Republican Scott Garrett of New Jersey.

On Wednesday, Hoyer told the Senate Banking Committee he wants to testify against Garrett’s nomination to head the Export-Import Bank, saying Garrett is “precisely the wrong pick to lead the” bank, writing in a letter to the panel that Garrett “led efforts to block its reauthorization and played a key role in causing a lapse in its charter.”

Freshman Rep. Scott Taylor, 37, a Virginia Republican, talks about being a Navy SEAL, getting a strange text in Yemen, and spending time with his son.

Q: What has surprised you about Congress so far?

LIVINGSTON, N.J. — Mitchell Bross, a lifelong Republican, has some concerns about how GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen voted this year.

But he hasn’t been able to share his concerns with the 12-term New Jersey congressman at a town hall meeting because Frelinghuysen refuses to have one.

Not all freshmen are created equal.

While there is always a learning curve for new members of the House, some of the newly elected come to the institution with an enhanced profile. This could be because they are former statewide officeholders, or perhaps scored a big one for the team by knocking off a longtime incumbent. Maybe they are natural leaders or their ambitions are such that they are already looking at other federal offices. 

The House Freedom Caucus is currently down seven members from the 114th Congress — and possibly two more.

South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney is awaiting confirmation as President-elect Donald Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The three Blue Dog Democrats who voted for the Republican-backed Midnight Rules Relief Act last November had some new company Wednesday night, when the House again passed California Rep. Darrell Issa’s reintroduced legislation.

The House voted 238-184 to allow Congress to repeal en bloc multiple regulations approved in the last 60 legislative days of President Barack Obama’s administration.