WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on Congress (all times local):
1:15 p.m.
The father of a Muslim American soldier killed during combat in Iraq is urging senators to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general.
Khizr M. Khan (KY’-zur M. kahn) says in a letter Monday to leaders of the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee that Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, won’t protect the “sacred right” of Americans to vote.
Khan is raising an episode from nearly 30 years ago when Sessions confronted and denied allegations that he’d made racist comments as a U.S. attorney under President Ronald Reagan. The Judiciary Committee denied Sessions a federal judgeship in 1986, and civil rights advocates have since raised objections to his positions on voting rights, hate crime prosecutions and immigration.
“Sadly, Mr. Sessions has not demonstrated a greater understanding that the right to vote should transcend partisan interests,” Khan says.
Khan’s speech about his son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, at the Democratic National Convention criticized the anti-Muslim rhetoric of then-Republican nominee Trump.
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1 p.m.
Senate Democrats plan an evening talk-a-thon from the chamber’s floor to attack Republicans’ plans for eviscerating President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Monday’s speeches come with the expectation that the Senate will hold a final vote this week on a budget that would prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block a future bill dismantling Obama’s law.
Led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Democrats say the GOP repeal effort will “make America sick again.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republicans say Obama’s law is already failing.
Republicans haven’t written a plan for replacing the health care law. Some GOP senators say they don’t want to repeal the law until replacement legislation is ready, which could takes months or years.