Garret Graves

Congressional staffers who may not agree ideologically are finding ways to come together in service. The bipartisan Capitol Hill Community Service Association gives them a chance to volunteer in D.C.

“I was trying to find a way to help bridge the divide. We all know it can be very toxic here sometimes, not to the fault of staffers, obviously. We’re all here because we want to serve and I think community service is one of those places where we can find that common ground,” said the association’s co-leader Brad Korten, a legislative aide to New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman.

The Senate voted 89-1 Thursday to confirm Rickey Dale “R.D.” James to lead the Army Corps of Engineers, which will serve as the chamber’s get-out-of-town vote after a long haul of days that involved the government shutdown over the weekend. 

Earlier in the week, the chamber had expected to approve James by voice vote on Wednesday before a roll call vote on the nomination was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Afterward, senators headed for the exits. 

Rep. Stephanie Murphy typically takes a run down the National Mall as the sun is rising over the Capitol. A few hours later, she is there in high heels walking to votes.

In her first term in Congress, the 39-year-old Florida Democrat calls herself a “mom boss.” The term comes from the 2016 book “Mom Boss: Balancing Entrepreneurship, Kids & Success” by Nicole Feliciano and is something of a movement, with women adding the hashtag #MomBoss to online discussions of how they balance children and work.

Unlike President Donald Trump, many lawmakers listened to the warnings and wore solar eclipse glasses to look at the sun on Monday.

The president briefly looked skyward before putting on his protective glasses when he and first lady Melania Trump joined millions of Americans to view the solar eclipse.

Facebook users now have the option to pin “constituent badges” to their profiles, letting friends — and members of Congress — know which district they live in. And users can now search for articles, links, and posts that other residents in their districts engage with most frequently.

“When we think about civic engagement, we think about building communities of people,” said Erin Egan, Facebook’s vice president of U.S. public policy. “And this is about making sure that people engage with government.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Reps. David Cicilline, D-R.I., Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Katherine M. Clark, D-Mass., on Wednesday will host a screening of the documentary “Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA.”

The film tells the story of families who have lost loved ones to gun violence and draws a line from their stories to the National Rifle Administration.

Flood waters were rising, so Rep. Garret Graves threw his kayak and paddle board on his truck, just in case.

As floods tore into the Louisiana Republican's Baton Rouge-area district on Aug. 13, he joined what he called the "Cajun Navy," hopping in his kayak to pull people from their homes. Residents in their own boats helped rescue neighbors as their houses flooded. Graves said that without these residents taking the initiative, the death toll would probably have been higher.

President Barack Obama makes a highly anticipated visit to flood-ravaged Louisiana on Tuesday with the federal government already busy repairing damage to a large swath of the state and drawing down disaster relief funds.

It appears unlikely that the flood recovery will require additional emergency spending by Congress to address the needs of victims, federal officials said.