U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin spoke at a joint session of the Illinois House and Senate on Wednesday, where he was warmly received by fellow Democratic lawmakers who celebrated his lengthy career and repeatedly lauded his accomplishments.

Republicans returning to Washington on Monday are facing questions about a $1 billion Senate security proposal that could help pay for President Donald Trump’s ballroom as Democrats say they will try to defeat it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced Wednesday what they are calling a path forward to fully funding the Department of Homeland Security and ending a record partial government shutdown.

The deal, which the Senate approved unanimously without a roll call, next goes to the House, which could consider it Friday, though Speaker Mike Johnson said he would need to meet with his fellow Republicans first.

ravel disruptions deepened Tuesday as senators raced to salvage an emerging proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown by funding much of the department but excluding immigration operations.

The Oklahoma Republican faced questions from members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about his vision for a department tasked with carrying out the Republican administration’s push for mass deportations.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified in the Senate on Tuesday in her first congressional appearance since the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis galvanized widespread opposition to how the Trump administration was executing its mass deportation agenda.

President Donald Trump has delivered the State of the Union. Now the challenge for him is to make that message stick.

Several Democratic members of the Illinois congressional delegation have announced they would not attend the speech, citing their disapproval of the president.

The last bill still to be worked out covers the Department of Homeland Security where Democrats are demanding more restrictions on enforcement operations.

Democrats are refusing to provide the votes House Speaker Mike Johnson needs to push the package forward as they try to rein in the Trump administration’s deportation operations after the shooting deaths of two Americans in Minneapolis.

As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands on Wednesday, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest.

“ICE has not made any city that they’ve gotten into safer,” U.S. Sen Tammy Duckworth said.  “In fact, in every city they’ve gone into, they’ve created chaos.”

The Trump administration is now seeking to control Venezuela’s oil resources and its government, but the war powers resolution would require congressional approval for any further attacks on the South American country.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune will be forced to answer from some in their own party over whether to reassert the legislative branch’s role in war-making alongside critical votes on health care and government spending.

President Donald Trump, whose loss of the House halfway through his first term led to two impeachments, is trying to keep history from repeating — and doing so in ways his opponents say are intended to manipulate next year’s election landscape.