过去的一年在国会山提供了几个历史性的和前所未有的时刻。
只是可能不是以立法者期望的方式。
从凯文·麦卡锡在议长职位上的起起落落，到几次指责和一次戏剧性的驱逐，以下是2023年国会的一些亮点。
凯文·麦卡锡跑了15圈
第118届国会一开始，凯文·麦卡锡成为众议院议长的道路就充满了麻烦。
事情变得如此激烈，以至于议员、共和党众议员迈克·罗杰斯(Mike Rogers)在试图攻击麦卡锡的主要批评者、共和党众议员马特·盖兹(Matt Gaetz)时，不得不被同事们限制住身体。
经过从周一到周五的14轮投票，麦卡锡终于在午夜后的投票中赢得了胜利。
“我希望这个星期后有一件事是清楚的:我永远不会放弃”麦卡锡说，他终于拿起了木槌-这句话将在短短的九个月后再次受到考验。
债务限额、政府资助的最后一分钟协议
有两次，政府看起来似乎正走向金融灾难。
首先，两党之间的瘫痪威胁到2023年上半年美国有史以来第一次国家债务违约。经过几个月的反复谈判，麦卡锡和拜登政府在离预计的6月“X”日仅剩几天的时候达成了协议。
然后，在9月下旬，美国似乎正朝着历史上最大的政府关门之一快速前进，但又在最后一刻达成协议，保持政府开放。
立法者将在即将到来的1月和2月再次面临这个问题，有两个关键的资金期限来保持政府机构的运作。
年龄问题主导着政治话语
参议院共和党长期领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)在不同的新闻发布会上经历了两次令人震惊的事件，其中一次他似乎冻结了30多秒。麦康奈尔的办公室将暂停归因于头晕，并发布了一封来自国会主治医生的信，称81岁的麦康奈尔已经通过医疗检查，可以继续他的计划。
关于多大年龄的人太老而不能担任公职的问题也成为了黛安娜·范斯坦的头条新闻九月去世在90岁时，由于带状疱疹导致严重的并发症，他退出了几个月。
随着拜登(81岁)和唐纳德·特朗普(77岁)似乎在党内提名中遥遥领先，这仍然是总统选举中的一个辩论话题。
鲍勃·梅嫩德斯被起诉
新泽西州民主党参议员鲍勃·梅嫩德斯，当时是强大的参议院外交关系委员会主席，他和他的妻子在9月份被指控与一起谋杀案有关涉嫌贿赂阴谋检方称他作为外国特工行为不当。
调查的重点是一辆豪华车、金条和一套公寓，据称是梅嫩德斯和他的妻子收受的。根据起诉书，特工发现数十万美元“藏在衣服里”。
梅嫩德斯辞去了委员会的职务，但拒绝了同事们要求他一起辞职的呼吁，他说:“我哪儿也不去。”
麦卡锡的下台和关于谁将接替他的争论
秋天，一小群保守的强硬派反叛了，并强行投票决定解除麦卡锡的议长职务-历史性的第一次。
10月3日的最终投票结果是216票对210票，八名共和党人和民主党人一起剥夺了麦卡锡的头衔。麦卡锡当时坚称，他不会放弃或离开国会，称仍有工作要做。
接替他的竞争从投票的木槌落下的那一刻就开始了，事实证明这比第一次更加困难。
众议院共和党第二号人物史蒂夫·斯卡利斯(Steve Scalise)是第一个获得提名的人，但由于众议院共和党会议未能围绕他达成一致，他退出了提名。接着是汤姆·艾默的提名，尽管几小时后多数党党鞭就退出了。俄亥俄州的吉姆·乔丹(Jim Jordan)发起了第三次竞选，他的提名获得通过，但在他也退出竞选之前，三次投票失败。
经过三周的党内斗争，路易斯安那州众议员迈克·约翰逊获胜，成为下一任众议院议长。
12月初，麦卡锡宣布他将在年底辞职。在离开的路上，麦卡锡回顾了他的职业生涯抨击他的批评者-称盖兹为“疯子”,并列出成员名单，他说他凭借自己的筹款能力帮助自己当选。他说他不后悔。
“最终，历史会写下真相，”他说。
乔治·桑托斯被解雇了
12月1日的房子投票决定开除这是纽约共和党人20多年来从未有过的举动，历史上只有五次。
桑托斯承认在上学地点、工作地点和其他背景方面撒了谎。
两周前，众议院道德委员会(House Ethics Committee)发布了一份措辞严厉的报告，详细说明了调查人员所说的桑托斯将竞选资金用于自己的个人利益，如豪华服装、旅行和肉毒杆菌注射。他称这份报告是政治“诽谤”，并声称他被剥夺了正当程序，尽管他还没有反驳具体的指控。
桑托斯还面临23项刑事指控，检察官指控他窃取他人的身份，在未经其批准的情况下对其竞选捐款人的信用卡进行指控，并非法领取失业救济金。他对这些指控不认罪，审判定于2024年进行。
一名议员对军事提名的10个月搁置
阿拉巴马州共和党参议员汤米·特伯维尔(Tommy Tuberville)在近一年的时间里单枪匹马地支持了数百项军事晋升。他这样做是因为反对五角大楼补偿堕胎旅行费用的政策。
起初，他得到了党内一些人的支持。但是到了11月，任何这样的善意似乎正在迅速消退.
2023年11月29日，参议员汤米·特伯维尔在德克森大楼参加众议院和参议院委员会对2024财年国防授权法案的加价。
汤姆·威廉姆斯/CQ-通过盖蒂图片社点名
12月5日，尽管五角大楼的政策没有任何变化，特布维尔告诉记者“一切都结束了”，最后为行动扫清了道路。最终，封锁结束后，只花了几分钟就通过了425个提名。
三次谴责
指责国会议员在历史上是罕见的。但近年来，它已成为一种政治工具，仅在2023年，就有三名民主党议员遭到共和党人的指责。
第一次是在6月，当时加州民主党众议员。亚当·希夫受到了谴责因为他几年前发表了关于调查时任总统唐纳德·特朗普与俄罗斯关系的评论。
然后，在11月，明尼苏达州民主党众议员。Rashida Tlaib受到了谴责她对以色列和哈马斯的评论。该决议由共和党人和她自己党内的一些成员投票支持，声称她一直在“宣传关于2023年10月7日哈马斯袭击以色列的虚假叙述，并呼吁摧毁以色列国。”
今年最后的责难是纽约民主党人贾马尔·鲍曼因为在一栋办公大楼里误拉了火警。此前，他已承认对该事件的轻罪指控。
Congress in 2023 was a wild ride. McCarthy's ouster, Santos' expulsion and other key moments
The past year on Capitol Hill provided several historic and unprecedented moments.
Just perhaps not in the ways lawmakers expected.
Between Kevin McCarthy's rise and fall from the speakership, to several censures and a dramatic expulsion, here are some of the highlights from Congress in 2023.
Kevin McCarthy goes 15 rounds
Trouble started at the very start of the 118th Congress with Kevin McCarthy's fraught path to becoming speaker of the House.
Things got so heated that at one point a lawmaker, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, had to be physically restrained by colleagues as he attempted to lunge at GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, the chief critic of McCarthy.
After 14 rounds of voting that spanned Monday through Friday, McCarthy finally clawed his way to victory in a post-midnight ballot.
"I hope one thing is clear after this week: I never give up" McCarthy said as he finally held the gavel -- a phrase that would be put to the test again in just nine short months.
Last-minute deals on debt limit, government funding
Twice, the government looked as if it were heading for financial calamity.
First, paralysis between the two parties threatened the first-ever U.S. default on the nation's debt in the first half of 2023. After months of back-and-forth negotiations, McCarthy and the Biden administration struck a deal with just days to spare until the estimated June "X" date.
Then, in late September, the U.S. seemed to be barreling toward what would have been one of the largest government shutdowns in history but again struck an eleventh hour agreement to keep the government open.
Lawmakers will face this problem again this upcoming January and February, with two key funding deadlines to keep government agencies in operation.
Age questions dominate political discourse
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the chamber's longtime Republican leader, experienced alarming episodes twice in separate news conferences, one in which he appeared to freeze for more than 30 seconds. McConnell's office attributed the pauses to lightheadedness and put out a letter from the Capitol attending physician saying the 81-year-old McConnell was medically cleared to continue with his schedule.
Questions about how old is too old to hold office also made headlines with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whodied in Septemberat the age of 90, was sidelined for months due to a case of shingles that resulted in serious complications.
It continues to be a topic of debate with the presidential election, as Biden (81) and Donald Trump (77) appear the front-runners for their party's nominations.
Bob Menendez indicted
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, at the time chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife were indicted in September in connection with analleged bribery conspiracy schemein which prosecutors said he acted improperly as a foreign agent.
The investigation focused on a luxury car, gold bars and an apartment allegedly received by Menendez and his wife. According to the indictment, agents found hundreds of thousands of dollars "hidden in clothing."
Menendez stepped down from the committee but rejected calls from his colleagues to resign altogether, saying: "I am not going anywhere."
McCarthy's ouster and the fight over who'll succeed him
In the fall, a small group of conservative hard-liners rebelled and forced a vote toremove McCarthy as speaker-- a historic first.
The final vote on Oct. 3 was 216-210, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in stripping McCarthy of his title. McCarthy insisted at the time he wasn't giving up or leaving Congress, saying there was still work to be done.
The race to succeed him started from the moment the gavel came down on the vote, and it proved even more difficult than the first time around.
Rep. Steve Scalise, the second-ranking House Republican, was the first to be nominated but dropped out after the House Republican Conference failed to coalesce around him. Then came Tom Emmer's nomination, though the majority whip dropped out just hours later. The third bid was mounted by Ohio's Jim Jordan, whose nomination went to the floor but failed in three votes before he, too, left the race.
After three weeks of intraparty fighting, Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson emerged victorious and became the next House speaker.
By early December, McCarthy announced he was resigning at the end of the year. On his way out, McCarthy reflected on his career andswiped at his critics-- calling Gaetz "crazy" and listing off members he said he helped get elected with his fundraising prowess. He said he had no regrets.
"In the end, history will write what's true," he said.
George Santos gets the boot
The House on Dec. 1voted to expelthe New York Republican, a move that hadn't happened in more than 20 years and only five other times in history.
Santos admitted to lying about where he went to school, as well as where he worked and other aspects of his background.
His removal came two weeks after a scathing House Ethics Committee report detailed what investigators said was Santos' use of campaign funds for his own personal benefit on things such as luxury clothing, travel and Botox injections. He called the report a political "smear" and claimed he was denied due process, though has yet to refute specific allegations.
Santos also faces 23 criminal charges as prosecutors allege he stole other people's identities, made charges on his campaign donors' credit cards without their approval and illegally received unemployment benefits. He has pleaded not guilty to the counts, and a trial is set for 2024.
One lawmaker's 10-month hold on military nominations
Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville single-handedly held up hundreds of military promotions for nearly a year. He did so over objections to the Pentagon policy on compensating travel expenses to get abortions.
At first, he had support from some in his party. But by November, any such goodwillappeared to be fading fast.
On Dec. 5, Tuberville -- despite zero changes in Pentagon policy -- told reporters "it's over" and finallycleared the way for action. In the end, it took just a matter of minutes to push through 425 nominees after the blockade ended.
Three censures
Censures to admonish members of Congress have been historically rare. But in recent years it's become a political tool, and in 2023 alone three Democratic lawmakers were censured by Republicans.
The first time was in June, when California Democratic Rep.Adam Schiff was censuredfor comments he made several years ago about investigations into then-President Donald Trump's ties to Russia.
Then, in November, Minnesota Democratic Rep.Rashida Tlaib was censuredover her comments on Israel and Hamas. The resolution, voted for by Republicans and some members of her own party, claimed she had been "promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."
The last censure of the year wastoward New York Democrat Jamaal Bowmanfor falsely pulling a fire alarm in a House office building. He had previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge over the incident.
