The top two major party leaders in the U.S. Senate have finally come to an agreement on the rules by which the 50-50 split body will function. Leading Democrat Chuck Schumer now takes formal power and Democrats will take control of committees — a welcome move for the Democratic agenda. President Joe Biden’s cabinet picks were being confirmed too slowly while Republicans remained in control of committees. This week the Senate confirmed former Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary and Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security secretary. Democrats will now also be able to speed up their plan to pass a new COVID-economic relief bill along party lines. Senator Schumer said, “We are not going to dilute, dither or delay,” the package. Rejecting a much smaller aid package presented by moderate Republicans, President Joe Biden indicated that while he is not willing to budge on $1,400 stimulus checks to Americans, he may be open to negotiations over tailoring the checks by income. Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren, with an eye to the future, said upon being named to the powerful Senate Finance Committee, that she planned to introduce a new wealth tax on millionaires. 

The House of Republicans in the meantime, is grappling with newly seated extremist Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene who has in the recent past championed the use of violence against Democratic lawmakers. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy met with Greene late on Tuesday but did not reveal the substance of the meeting. Now Democrats are planning a vote to strip her of her committee assignments on Thursday. The GOP meanwhile is at a fork in the road for their party, as several lawmakers are demanding punishment for the third highest ranking Republican Representative Liz Cheney, the ideological opposite of Greene, who took a strong position against former President Donald Trump’s incitement of violence against Congress. Whether the GOP chooses to censure Marjorie Taylor Greene or Liz Cheney will reflect the direction of the party toward either extremist conspiracy-minded fascism, or traditional conservatism. The House this week also passed a resolution imposing fines of up to $10,000 against those lawmakers who refuse to walk through a metal detector, in a response to the violent armed Capitol riot that some Republicans still openly support. 

As the Senate gears up for the second Trump impeachment trial, more than 370 Democratic Congressional aides, in an unusual move, signed on to a letter demanding that the former President be convicted. The aides,