Sander M Levin

With control of the House up for grabs and the number of competitive seats growing to 86, many congressional hopefuls have two more months of grueling politicking to look forward to as they barrel toward Election Day.

But not all of them.

With just a day before the Trump administration is expected to notify Congress that it plans to sign an agreement in principle with Mexico to update the NAFTA trade pact, lawmakers continue to seek more details and push for a final outcome that includes the third NAFTA partner — Canada.

“We have no exact details. Other than what’s been written in newspapers, we have no idea what’s in it,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said of the agreement in principle announced Monday by Mexico and the United States to update the North American Free Trade Agreement.  Corker said Senate Republicans were told Tuesday that they could soon receive what he called talking points on the agreement.

Democrats are targeting five House seats in Michigan, and the general election matchups started to take shape Tuesday night. 

Voters in two safe Democratic open seats also went to the polls to pick their nominees Tuesday, one of whom, former state Rep. Rashida Tlaib, is set to become the first Muslim woman to serve in Congress. 

Among the complex problems that Facebook poses to Congress, at least one has an easy solution: Most lawmakers don’t understand technology. So they need to hire more people who do.

That’s according to Travis Moore, a former staffer whose nonprofit aims to increase tech savvy on the Hill. TechCongress, a fellowship program his organization started with two recipients in 2015, is expanding and accepting applications for a class of up to ten to be placed in congressional offices in January.

House Democrats left a caucus meeting just five hours before a government funding deadline Thursday acting like they have the unity needed to block the budget deal, but are they bluffing?

That’s probably the question Speaker Paul D. Ryan is asking himself right now. Or maybe he doesn’t even care.

Supporters of Rep. John Conyers are set to hold a rally for the Michigan Democrat calling for “due process” amid accusations about sexual harassment.

The rally will be held at Adams Church in Detroit, the Detroit News reported.

With longtime House Ways and Means member Sander M. Levin announcing Saturday he won’t run for re-election next year, his fellow Michigan Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee spent the weekend lobbying leadership for a spot on the influential panel.

Kildee sent letters to each member of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which is responsible for making committee assignments after the midterms.

Michigan Rep. Sander M. Levin will not seek re-election in 2018, he announced Saturday.

“I have been incredibly honored to serve the people of Michigan in Congress and to work on so many issues important to our communities, our state, and our nation,” the 18-term Democrat said in a statement.

Two fireplaces outside the House chamber told the story Thursday a few minutes before members streamed in to vote on a sweeping tax bill. Orange embers were still just visible in both beneath scorched logs and ash. For Republicans, what had started with a white-hot visit by President Donald Trump ended with the anti-climactic passage of their tax plan.

But there was nothing anti-climactic a short time earlier in the basement of the Capitol, where House GOP members gather weekly as a group. They scurried in — mostly on time, with a few notable exceptions — for the presidential visit, and many emerged just before noon strikingly giddy about the scene during the president’s roughly 20 minutes of remarks.

Updated 9:25 p.m. | Fireworks started early at the House Ways and Means Committee markup Monday of the Republican tax plan, as Democrats repeatedly criticized the GOP’s effort to overhaul the tax code as a boon to the rich that would hurt many middle-class families.

Tensions rose about six hours into Day One of the marathon markup when Chairman Kevin Brady offered an amendment to his previous substitute that would make several changes to the bill. Democrats let loose on the Texas Republican for unveiling the substitute and taking it up immediately, without allowing any extra time to examine the provisions.