Congress Ends ‘Horrible Year’ With Divisions as Bitter as Ever
The New York Times
Democrats’ achievements were overshadowed by legislative setbacks, fallout from the Jan. 6 attack and a sense that Congress was not rising to meet a perilous moment in history.
WASHINGTON — A congressional year that began with an assault on the seat of democracy ended at 4 a.m. Saturday with the failure of a narrow Democratic majority to deliver on its most cherished promises, leaving lawmakers in both parties wondering if the legislative branch can be rehabilitated without major changes to its rules of operations.
“It has been a horrible year, hasn’t it?” asked Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, as she looked back on failed efforts to convict a former president and to create a bipartisan commission to examine the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as well as numerous legislative endeavors that could not find bipartisan majorities.
The Senate limped out of town in pre-dawn darkness after slogging through nominations one by one, but leaving dozens of Mr. Biden’s nominees still awaiting confirmation to fill key positions at home and abroad — because a handful of Republican senators erected a blockade.
