The Constitution dictates that the 119th Congress begins at noon et on Friday. And the first order of business in the House is to elect the Constitutional officer for the legislative branch of government: Speaker of the House.Only the House votes for Speaker. And the House can’t do anything – I’ll repeat that, anything – until it chooses a Speaker. It can’t swear-in Members until the House taps a Speaker and he or she is sworn-in.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a warning on Tuesday that the United States must maintain “judicial independence” just weeks away from President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Roberts explained his concerns in his annual report on the federal judiciary. “It is not in the nature of judicial work to make everyone happy. Most cases have a winner and a loser.

Most Americans look at the beginning of a new year as a fresh start, and an opportunity to set goals to better themselves over the next 12 months – and members of Congress are no exception.Like millions of people across the U.S., lawmakers are setting their own New Year’s resolutions, ranging from the professional to the very personal.

Several “winners” and “losers” emerged in 2024 as the year comes to a close after Republicans took control of Congress in the November election and several prominent Democrats ended up on the losing side.WINNER – President-elect Donald TrumpPundits in the media largely wrote Trump off after he left office and argued his political career was over in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and House impeachments.

Politics in 2024 was nothing short of unprecedented. Now that the U.S. has put a bow on the year, Fox News Digital looks back on the biggest political news stories that turned Washington, D.C., on its head. The year kicked off with President Biden in the driver’s seat of the Democratic Party as he keyed up a re-election effort in what was shaping up to be a second matchup against now-President-elect Donald Trump.

Before the International Space Station was launched into orbit in 1998, the U.S. signed a document with several other countries to agree to the peaceful use of the orbital laboratory. The agreement included Russia, Japan, Canada and 11 European countries. China was left out of the plan. Nearly a decade later, China expressed interest in joining those on board the space station. The European Space Agency signaled support for the addition, along with South Korea.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.**NOTE: The Fox News Politics Newsletter will take a break tomorrow for the New Year’s Day holiday. We will return Thursday, Jan. 2.

China was behind a “major” hack of the Treasury Department, the Biden administration said Monday, gaining access to unclassified documents and the workstations of government employees. After a year fraught with hacking across all government agencies, China experts say it’s time to get serious about thwarting adversarial espionage. “The latest intrusion should not come as a surprise.

A controversial immigration program that has been in place for decades has recently become a hot-button issue as it looks likely to be axed or severely limited by the incoming Trump administration, and Democrats are calling on President Biden to take moves to preserve it.Temporary Protected Status is a program established in the 1990s that allows the government to designate countries unsafe for nationals to return to, granting nationals already in the U.S.

A military appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cannot rescind the plea deals of detainees at Guantanamo Bay including alleged 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Fox News has learned.The court opinion, which has not been formally published yet, said the plea deals reached by military prosecutors and defense attorneys were valid and enforceable, and that Austin exceeded his authority when he later tried to nullify them.