A migrant walks along a road shadowed by the steel columns of the border wall separating Arizona and Mexico after crossing into the United States, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, near Lukeville, Ariz. (AP Photo / Gregory Bull, File)

As the Senate broke for the holidays, due back Jan. 8, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in a rare joint statement indicated negotiations are progressing. 

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin from Illinois at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Nov. 28, 2023. (WTTW News)

“In cities like Chicago dealing with the constant drumbeat of gun violence, it has turned these public health officials into battlefield experts,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said. “They’ve seen the aftermath of bullets tearing through bone like it’s tissue paper.”

FILE - Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, leave federal court on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, in New York. (Seth Wenig / AP Photo, File)

The new charge comes just weeks after Menendez and his wife were accused of accepting bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car from three New Jersey businessmen who wanted the senator’s help and influence over foreign affairs.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., right, and his wife Nadine Arslanian, pose for a photo on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 20, 2022. (AP Photo  /Susan Walsh, File)

A search of the couple’s home turned up $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash, said prosecutors, who announced the charges against the 69-year-old Democrat nearly six years after an earlier criminal case against him ended with a deadlocked jury.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Sept. 14, 2023. (WTTW News)

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias was in Washington, D.C., this week to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee regarding a new state law aimed at deterring book bans.

 The U.S. Capitol is seen on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo / Mariam Zuhaib, File)

A short-term funding measure to keep government offices fully functioning will dominate the September agenda, along with emergency funding for Ukraine, federal disaster funds and the Republican-driven probe into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

The wall at the Pentagon featuring the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Three of the positions are vacant due to GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on Senate-confirmed officers. (Haley Britzkey / CNN)

The promotions of more than 300 military officers are being stalled by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville in protest of Pentagon reproductive health policies.

Senate Judiciary Oversight Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., speaks during a hearing June 13, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin, File)

The Supreme Court would have to abide by stronger ethics standards under legislation approved on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The legislation has little chance to make it through the full Senate.

Rioters supporting President Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021.(AP Photo / Julio Cortez, File)
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The report details how the agencies failed to recognize and warn of the potential for violence as some of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters openly planned the siege in messages and forums online.

President Joe Biden addresses the nation on the budget deal that lifts the federal debt limit and averts a U.S. government default, from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 2, 2023. (Jim Watson / Pool via AP)

The Treasury Department had warned that the country would start running short of cash on Monday, which would have sent shockwaves through the U.S. and global economies.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters after a hectic series of amendment votes and final passage on the big debt ceiling and budget cuts package, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 1, 2023. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)

The compromise package leaves neither Republicans nor Democrats fully pleased with the outcome. But the result, after weeks of hard-fought budget negotiations, shelves the volatile debt ceiling issue that risked upending the U.S. and global economy until 2025 after the next presidential election.

Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott delivers his speech announcing his candidacy for president of the United States on the campus of Charleston Southern University in North Charleston, S.C., Monday, May 22, 2023. (AP Photo / Mic Smith)

The Senate’s only Black Republican, Scott kicked off the campaign in his hometown of North Charleston, on the campus of Charleston Southern University, his alma mater and a private school affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. 

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin has requested that Chief Justice John Roberts or “another Justice whom you designate” appear before his committee next month for a hearing on Supreme Court ethics rules. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images via CNN)

The call comes after Senate Democrats have raised questions about whether the ethical standards of the high court need to be reviewed or change in the wake of a ProPublica report that found Justice Clarence Thomas has gone on several luxury trips involving travel subsidized by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.

This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. (Department of Justice via AP, File)
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Top lawmakers, including Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had for months been asking the Justice Department to provide access to the documents — or at least an assessment of what was in them — so that Congress could gauge the potential national security harm.

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington, as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., listen. (Jacquelyn Martin, Pool, File)

The deficit reduction goal is significantly higher than the $2 trillion that Biden had promised in his State of the Union address last month. It also is a sharp contrast with House Republicans, who have called for a path to a balanced budget but have yet to offer a blueprint.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., walks to a motorcade vehicle after stepping off Air Force One behind President Joe Biden, Feb. 3, 2023, at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky, File)

On Thursday, the office of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat who was elected to the Senate after a bruising campaign during which he suffered a stroke, announced he had checked himself into the hospital for clinical depression.