California Budget Deficit Talks Delayed

When activist and organizer Raquel Willis spoke at the inaugural Women’s March on the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017, the organization was very different. At that time, Willis was a burgeoning leader in social justice and activism, and she says the conversation around trans experiences was limited.

This article is part of The D. C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. If you want to understand both political parties’ unmooring at this moment, you might look at perhaps the most unlikely of proxies: none other than Matt Gaetz, the bomb-throwing former House member and failed nominee to become Donald Trump’s newest Attorney General. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Multiple media outlets reported Wednesday that the House Ethics Committee had secretly voted to release its report into Gaetz in the coming days.

Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a three-term Democratic lawmaker from northern Virginia, delivered her final speech on the House floor Tuesday after a severe neurological disease forced her to step away from Congress, the AP reports.

Just three states — Maine, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — have split Senate delegations, the Washington Post reports. That is the lowest number since Americans began directly electing senators more than a century ago.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is defending what he says is “embarrassing, though not criminal” past behavior and taking a shot at the House Ethics Committee, following reports that the panel voted to release its findings about him, The Hill reports. Said Gaetz: “In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated – even some I never dated but who asked.

“The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear TikTok’s challenge to a law that could ban its U. S. operations, putting the case on an exceptionally fast track, culminating in oral arguments at a special session on Jan. 10,” the New York Times reports.