On Thursday, the Senate cast what is expected to be its last vote for the next five weeks, leaving the Republican-controlled Congress without any major legislative victories in the first six-plus months of the new administration. In fact, "the Senate has approved less than 10 bills this year that required a roll call," The Washington Post reports.
Most of the Senate's output consisted of approving Trump's nominations and the regulatory repeals, both of which required a simple majority on roll calls and little to no input from Democrats. [...] Last week's 98-to-2 vote imposing sanctions against Russia is the legislative highlight of the year, a bill the president did not even support but was forced into signing.Another bill gave the Government Accountability Office a bit more investigative authority. Another granted a waiver allowing Jim Mattis to become secretary of defense despite retiring from active military service in 2013.Another piece of legislation passed by the Senate, on a roll-call vote of 82 to 15, allowed for a historic steamboat, the Delta Queen, to be relocated to St. Louis. [The Washington Post]
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