The House of Representatives voted last week to pass H.R. 1735, also known as the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) -- 269 in favor to 161 opposed. The vote came over the concerns of several dozen members of Congress who urged the lower chamber to debate and vote on authorizing the use of military force against ISIS before the vote on the NDAA.

On May 12, voters in the first congressional district of Mississippi went to the polls to vote for a new member of Congress in the wake of the unfortunate death of U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee. Grounded in the U.S. Constitution, no person has ever served in the U.S. House without being elected, so Mississippi needed to fill the seat with a vacancy election.

Mississippi has an admirable law governing special elections in its inclusiveness, but it would be all the better if combined with ranked-choice voting.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who garnered the nation's attention with his 13-hour filibuster of CIA Director John Brennan's nomination in 2013, may hold another epic filibuster if the Senate tries to extend authorities under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act.

Roll Call reports:

On May 7, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the NSA's bulk collection of phone records was illegal, putting Congress in a difficult position. However, legislation in Congress may dilute attempts to reform surveillance practices.

Six weeks ago, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) was stuck in a political quagmire of trying to be the champion of too many different causes -- all topics important to her, but left her with a message that lacked focus.

Last week, there was considerable partisan fighting in Congress. Driven on by partisan ideologues within its numbers, one party vowed to hold up a key bill until other legislative items were addressed. A senator, who spent months crafting the bipartisan language of this bill, denounced it to the applause of his colleagues. While the party in support of the bill called for their opponents to act in the best interest of the nation, the vote failed on the Senate floor.

Several news sources, including Russia Today and Business Insider pounced on a Danish scientist's report in the British Journal of Medicine this week lambasting the drug industry:

Jeb Bush is expected to announce he is running for president in 2016 -- at some point. Right now, he is reportedly skirting campaign finance laws in order to build a super PAC that is "unprecedented in size and scope," according to Politico.

Art Pope and the Republican Revolution

In 2010, Art Pope, the CEO of Variety Wholesalers – a discount store chain – began pouring money into statewide races in North Carolina. One of his groups, Real Jobs NC, helped pay for attack ads targeting Democrats. According to a lengthy profile of Art Pope by The New Yorker, Pope and allied groups spent $2.2 million on the 2010 legislative election.

Rand Paul was supposed to be a different kind of Republican -- a Republican who championed individual liberty, but who also did not wade into the culture wars or any war for that matter. He was supposed to be the Republican who could pull in younger and perhaps even more liberal voters frustrated by the lack of progress on civil issues.