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The Senate Budget Committee on Friday unveiled a 2020 resolution that ignores President Trump's request for turbo-charging defense spending in the Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO) fund, leading to a proposed net decrease in both defense and nondefense spending.

In his budget proposal, Trump called for increasing overall defense spending to $750 billion, but did so by adding nearly $100 billion to OCO. The gimmick allowed Trump to technically stick to major decreases in both defense and nondefense spending that are due to go into effect in 2020 by law.

The Senate's proposal, which will be marked up in committee next week, stuck to the drastic cuts mandated by law, putting defense spending at $576 billion and nondefense spending at $542 billion, which together amount to a $126 billion drop from current spending caps.

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Top Democratic lawmakers are preparing to request President Donald Trump’s personal tax returns, but some liberal lawmakers say they should also demand his business tax filings.

The business returns are much more likely to indicate conflicts of interest and other possible malfeasance Democrats hope to uncover, such as suspicious ties to Russian interests and whether he took aggressive steps to avoid paying taxes.

Trump’s financial disclosures show he has more than 500 partnerships and other types of businesses, and each of those would generally have its own tax return.

There are other types of returns Democrats could seek as well. They could demand returns from his trusts -- a check from Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen released earlier this month, that he said reimbursed him for hush payments to Stormy Daniels, was written out of the account of a revocable trust. Democrats might want First Lady Melania Trump’s returns, because if she and her husband file separately yet own a business together they could allocate income from it to her and not him.

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The White House is rejecting a sweeping request from House Democrats for documents and interviews related to President Trump’s communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a letter obtained by The Hill, White House counsel Pat Cipollone asserts that the president’s diplomatic communications are confidential and protected by executive privilege and describes the requests as beyond Congress’s legitimate realm of inquiry.

Cipollone also argues that such a disclosure could have a detrimental impact on the ability of Trump or future presidents to conduct foreign relations.

The House voted unanimously Thursday for a resolution calling for any final report in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation to be made public, a symbolic action designed to pressure Attorney General William Barr into releasing as much information as possible when the probe is concluded.

The Democratic-backed resolution, which passed 420-0, comes as Mueller is nearing an end to his investigation. Lawmakers in both parties have maintained there will have to be some sort of public resolution when the report is done — and privately hope that a report shows conclusions that are favorable to their own side.

Four Republicans voted present: Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.

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The Republican-run Senate rejected President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the southwest border on Thursday, setting up a veto fight and dealing him a conspicuous rebuke as he tested how boldly he could ignore Congress in pursuit of his highest-profile goal.

The Senate voted 59-41 to cancel Trump's February proclamation of a border emergency, which he invoked to spend $3.6 billion more for border barriers than Congress had approved. Twelve Republicans joined Democrats in defying Trump in a showdown many GOP senators had hoped to avoid because he commands die-hard loyalty from millions of conservative voters who could punish defecting lawmakers in next year's elections.

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Despite a veto threat from the president, the Senate approved legislation Wednesday that would force the Trump administration to end its military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Wednesday's 54-to-46 vote served as a bipartisan rebuke to President Donald Trump and to Saudi leaders. It also highlighted lawmakers' growing unease with America's role in that grisly conflict, which has left more than 50,000 civilians dead and millions of Yemenis on the brink of starvation.

"The United States, with little media attention, has been Saudi Arabia's partner in this horrific war," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said during a Senate floor speech Wednesday. He is a lead author of the measure, which relies on a Vietnam-era law designed to limit the president's power to start or escalate military engagement abroad.

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