MIKE ROUNDS

Fighting for decades over abortion policy, Congress is about to run into the political limits of its ability to act in either direction on the issue.

Top GOP lawmakers emphasized the unprecedented nature of the unauthorized disclosure of the high court's draft ruling on an abortion case instead of the possible impact on women or on the midterms.

Home-district projects for members of Congress are back, sprinkled across the government-wide $1.5 trillion bill that President Joe Biden signed recently.

Former President Donald Trump stepped up his election-year effort to dominate the Republican Party with a Saturday rally in Arizona.

Former President Donald Trump stepped up his election-year effort to dominate the Republican Party, holding a rally in Arizona on Saturday in which he castigated anyone who dares to question his lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, including the state’s GOP governor, Doug Ducey. Mike Rounds, the generally unassuming senator from South Dakota, was perhaps the boldest in acknowledging the reality that the election was in fact fair. Instead of being shunned, he was supported by his GOP colleagues, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota has repeatedly made it clear that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election in a fair process.

The ex-president continued to falsely claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen before cutting the interview short.

"Is he crazy or just stupid?" Trump said of GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, who publicly acknowledged that the 2020 election was fair.

The Republican senator said there was "no evidence of widespread fraud that would have altered the results of the election."

Former President Trump on Monday said he will never endorse Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), calling him a "jerk" and "a weak and ineffective leader."Driving the news: Trump, who endorsed Rounds in 2020, was responding to the South Dakota senator after he refuted the former president's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen and said that "the election was fair" during a Sunday appearance on ABC's "This Week."Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.When as

“The election was fair, as fair as we have seen,” Mike Rounds said.

Jean Rounds, the wife of Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, has died in hospice care.

Jean Rounds, the wife of Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, died Tuesday following a battle with cancer. Jean Rounds had a sarcoma cancer and had been undergoing treatment since May of 2019. Mike Rounds, who previously served as South Dakota’s governor, won a second Senate term last year while his wife was undergoing treatment.

The South Dakota Supreme Court is weighing whether to unseal a search warrant and affidavits in an investigation into billionaire banker-turned-philanthropist T.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is conceding that Democrats face a tough pathway to delivering a $3.5 trillion package for family, health and environment programs to President Joe Biden’s desk.

Democrats have started pushing their $3.5 trillion framework for bolstering family services, health, and environment programs through the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pressured lawmakers Thursday to reach agreement by next week on a pair of massive domestic spending measures, signaling Democrats’ desire to push ahead aggressively on President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar agenda. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was scheduling a procedural vote for next Wednesday to begin debate on a still-evolving bipartisan infrastructure bill. Schumer said he also wanted Democratic senators to reach agreement among themselves by then on specific details of a separate 10-year budget blueprint that envisions $3.5 trillion in spending for climate change, education, an expansion of Medicare and more.

Senate Democrats say they’ve reached a budget agreement envisioning spending an enormous $3.5 trillion over the coming decade.

Sen. Bernie Sanders says he and President Joe Biden are on the same page over a “transformative” infrastructure package.

Congressional Democrats are eyeing a $6 trillion infrastructure package that goes far beyond roads and bridges.

A bipartisan senators’ group working on a $1 trillion infrastructure compromise has now doubled in size, expanding to 21 members.

The Southern Baptist Convention is electing a new president on Tuesday amid a push to wrest control of the denomination by ultraconservatives who say some current leaders are too liberal on issues that include race and the role of women in ministry.

Eleven senators missed the high-stakes Senate procedural vote Friday on legislation to form a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission to investigate the Capitol attack. The vote was initially anticipated for Thursday, but when it got bumped to the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend, several senators opted to maintain their travel plans and left Washington before casting their vote. Patty Murray of Washington and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – missed the Friday vote that started around 11:30 a.m. And nine Republicans were also absent from the chamber:  Sens.

The bill, which faces opposition from Republican leader Mitch McConnell, could be the first of the Biden era to die under the 60-vote threshold.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators and congressmen is urging the federal government not to approve recommendations to remove 144 cities from the designation of metropolitan statistical areas. Reclassifying them as “micropolitan” would put key federal funding at risk, they said. Doing so would reclassify more than a third of the current 392 metro areas as micropolitan statistical areas. In a separate letter to the Office of Management and Budget, Hoeven said the proposal also would hurt micropolitan areas that were on the cusp of becoming metro areas. “If a metropolitan statistical area is redefined as a micropolitan area, it may fall out of the conversation.

From left, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joined the Democratic senators for a private virtual meeting, both declaring the Republicans' $618 billion offer was too small. “President Biden spoke about the need for Congress to respond boldly and quickly,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the lunch meeting. The president made it clear that he won’t delay aid in hopes of winning GOP support. Biden proposes $170 billion for schools, compared to $20 billion in the Republican plan.

President Joe Biden meets Republican lawmakers to discuss a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, in Washington. From left, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. AdRepublicans are tapping into bipartisan urgency to improve the nation's vaccine distribution and vastly expand virus testing with $160 billion in aid. Psaki said earlier Monday there is “obviously a big gap” between the $1.9 trillion package Biden has proposed and the $618 billion counteroffer. Biden himself has been on the phone to some of the Republicans, the official said.

Leahy will preside over former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial. Republican senators are balancing the demands of deep-pocketed donors who are distancing themselves from Trump and voters who demand loyalty to him. Instead, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D- Vt., who serves in the largely ceremonial role of Senate president pro tempore, is set to preside. A few GOP senators have agreed with Democrats, though not close to the number that will be needed to convict Trump. If not, what is?” Romney was the only Republican senator to vote for conviction when the Senate acquitted Trump in his first impeachment trial.

(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)WASHINGTON – A growing number of Republican senators say they oppose holding an impeachment trial, a sign of the dimming chances that former President Donald Trump will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of the U.S. Capitol. “I think the trial is stupid, I think it’s counterproductive,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.. Arguments in the Senate trial will begin the week of Feb. 8. A few GOP senators have agreed with Democrats, though not close to the number that will be needed to convict Trump. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said he believes there is a “preponderance of opinion” that an impeachment trial is appropriate after someone leaves office.

“Their intent is to delegitimize this election and thereby delegitimize President-elect Biden’s presidency,” said Valerie Jarrett, who was a White House senior adviser to President Barack Obama. He has cleared the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. Still, Republicans have allowed Trump's misinformation to flourish, pushed along by conservative media and on the internet. The turmoil surrounding the transition, he added, said more about the person leaving the White House than the one who will soon enter. Those lies helped fuel some of the hard-line opposition to Obama within the party, making it difficult for more mainstream GOP leaders to work with the White House.

Trump's exchange with Democrat Joe Biden left the extremist group Proud Boys celebrating what some of its members saw as tacit approval. “I don’t know who Proud Boys are. When pushed by Wallace, Trump asked for the name of a group to condemn — and Biden suggested Proud Boys. “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said. Proud Boys members are ardent Trump supporters known for their violent confrontations with antifascists and other ideological opponents at protests, often drawing the largest crowds in the Pacific Northwest.