Gregory W Meeks

Rep. Louise M. Slaughterdied early Friday morning at age 88. The oldest member of Congress and first chairwoman of the powerful House Rules Committee leaves behind a legacy of three decades in Congress.

She fell at her home last week and suffered a concussion, according to her office.

At least 11 Democratic lawmakers will skip President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address Tuesday.

Instead, at least two of those absentees plan to take part in a separate event in Washington, the “State of OUR Union,” put on by leading women activists to “offer an alternative view and vision for the country” from Trump’s.

Updated Jan. 30 2:10 p.m. | Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen on Tuesday was the 12th Democratic member of Congress to announce that he would boycott President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

“I’ve spent 38 years in elected public office, helping make government work and speaking out against corruption because I believe, as President John F. Kennedy believed, that politics is an honorable profession,” Cohen said in a statement. “The current President is the antithesis of that sensibility: a man who appears determined to tear government down, harm the most vulnerable, benefit the rich and destroy foundational institutions such as the Department of Justice and the FBI.”

Happy Monday and welcome back.

This week is packed with things to do around the D.C. area.

Congressmen encouraged protesters who were attacked by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s security detail in Washington last week to keep on protesting, and said they might join them.

“Do it again, keep protesting and stay out there because no foreign tyrant has the right or the ability to drive them away,” Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said at a House Foreign Affairs markup on Thursday. “You might find Mr. Meeks out there with them and myself as well.”

Republicans are in control of Congress, but the House’s New Democrat Coalition does not plan to sit by and let the GOP generate all the policy ideas on issues like taxes, infrastructure and cybersecurity. 

In continuing with their effort to be leaders on policy issues and find potential areas of bipartisan compromise, the New Democrats are launching new task forces designed to generate policy solutions for issues on the GOP’s congressional agenda, as well as policy areas that may not get as much traction in a Republican-controlled Congress, Rep. Derek Kilmer, the coalition’s vice chairman of policy, told Roll Call.

More than 40 Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. But Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., hasn’t made a decision.

“I am not decided yet.” Meeks said Tuesday morning in an interview on CNN’s “New Day”.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday slammed Donald Trump for his debate performance Monday night, particularly his views on criminal justice and for continuing to promote untruths about President Barack Obama's place of birth.

Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, the chairman of the CBC's political action committee, criticized the Republican presidential nominee's remarks about Obama's birth certificate as "racist."

The House Democrats’ official online resume bank has been relaunched, Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., announced. Staffers can not only submit their resumes but they can also browse new job openings on the announcements board as the transition to the 115th Congress approaches.

First launched in 2012, the site has received 7,000 resume submissions in the years since, and has helped increase diversity in hiring with more than 2,600 queries performed on the demographics data field when House staff browse resumes, according to Hoyer's press release. 

Democratic minority members of Congress had an answer for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday not long after he pitched his candidacy to black and Hispanic voters, asking, "What the hell do you have to lose?"

The short answer: A lot. And the longer answer?