The Senate will hold votes over the weekend to accelerate the confirmation of one of President Donald Trump’s key Cabinet nominees. Lawmakers will meet for a rare Saturday session to hold a vote on whether to confirm South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, to the top Cabinet position.  Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., indicated earlier in the week that...

President Donald Trump is back in the White House and moving at warp speed to push through his long-awaited agenda with dozens of executive orders, surveying damaged areas in North Carolina and California, and rallying behind his Cabinet nominees to get confirmed. In his inauguration address on Monday, the new president vowed that things across the country would “change starting today, and it will change very quickly.” And...

Republican lawmakers celebrated after the Senate narrowly confirmed Pete Hegseth as defense secretary on Friday. The Senate was split 50-50, with three Republicans — Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. — joining the Democrats in opposing Hegseth’s confirmation, forcing Vice President JD Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote. After Hegseth was confirmed, GOP lawmakers praised him as a “change agent” who has a “passion...