North Dakota Senate Race

Tony Clark, the chairman of North Dakota's Public Service Commission, won U.S. Senate confirmation late Thursday for a spot on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Last year's intrachamber battles over spending for Congressional operations focused on the Capitol Police and Government Accountability Office budgets; this year's fight could be over restoring the aging Capitol Dome. Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, told Roll Call in separate interviews that they were looking for ways to fund the second phase of the Capitol Dome restoration project in their fiscal 2013 spending bill.

Today, U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.)'s Local Courthouse Safety Act – which he introduced in response to a December courthouse shooting in Grand Marais – was passed with strong bipartisan support by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., is encouraging North Dakota students in grades 6-12 to enter the 2012 Making Democracy Work Student Essay Contest.

As we've chronicled here in great detail over the past year, House Republicans are no pikers when it comes to conservative legislation.