David Schweikert

To try to “restore a little faith” in Congress, the Congressional Management Foundation on Friday announced the finalists for its first Democracy Awards.

The organization chose its finalists for their focus on constituent services, their workplace environment, innovation, and transparency.

Congress has already left town ahead of next week’s Presidents Day recess.

This week saw the arrival of President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget (if you missed it, we boiled down the agencies that would win and lose under the budget in one chart), House passage (though not without protests) of a bill aimed at curbing American with Disabilities Act lawsuits, and the Senate consideration (and likely the end of consideration) of immigration proposals. 

Arizona Rep. Dave Schweikert’s chief of staff is facing an ethics complaint for essentially taking two salaries while working for Congress.

The complaint filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics claims Oliver Schwab, who has worked for the Arizona Republican’s office since 2011, was running a consulting firm to help his boss’ campaign, the Phoenix New Times reported.

The expanding popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has brought the emerging blockchain technology to the forefront, and with its rise comes a range of national security concerns for the United States, experts on the new technology say.

In fact, these experts say that it is time for regulators and lawmakers to increase their understanding of the technology, its uses, its potential misuses and to decide how various congressional committees and Cabinet departments will take jurisdiction regarding blockchain.

Updated 7:24 pm | Arizona Republican Trent Franks said Thursday he is resigning from Congress effective Jan. 31 amid an Ethics Committee investigation into discussions he had with two female staffers about surrogacy. 

In a lengthy statement Thursday evening, Franks said he and his wife struggled with fertility.

The House Ways and Means Committee finished its marathon markup of the GOP tax overhaul plan Thursday, as attention shifted to the Senate, which will be marking up its own version of the bill next week. 

Here’s the entire week in photos:

Rep. Martha McSally told her fellow Arizona Republican House colleagues Monday that she plans to run for the state’s newly open Senate seat.

The Arizona political outlet Yellow Sheet Report first reported the news Monday night, followed by The Arizona Republic the following day.  Three sources with knowledge of the discussion confirmed the reports.

Sen. Rand Paul is backing state Sen. Kelli Ward in the GOP primary in the newly open Arizona Senate race. The Kentucky Republican is the first sitting senator to back Ward’s campaign.

Ward was originally challenging GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, who has been sharply critical of President Donald Trump. But with Flake recently announcing his retirement, the field is now open for other GOP hopefuls to run for Senate. Ward has also received support from former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who has said he wants to take on every GOP Senate incumbent except Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

House Republicans will unveil details of their long-awaited tax bill Wednesday, opening the floodgates for lawmakers and outside groups to begin scrutinizing every last provision.

While some broad strokes have been revealed, most of the finer points have been kept quiet by GOP tax writers and leaders. Here are six items to watch when the curtain is raised Wednesday:

Rep. Dave Schweikert is not considering running for Senate in the newly open race, a source close to the Arizona Republican confirmed Wednesday. 

Schweikert had hinted he was leaning against it, telling reporters earlier on Wednesday, “I’m not sure I have the burning passion that that type of race would take.”