Live updates: RFK Jr. to testify to Congress on Trump's budget

YORK, Maine — Graham Platner says he will push Democrats to rethink their vision of power and pursue an aggressive agenda if he’s elected the next U.S. senator from Maine.

In an interview Friday, Platner called for replacing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; organizing an anti-war movement; removing two conservative Supreme Court justices; potentially expanding the court and weakening the filibuster.

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Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., struck a defiant tone today in saying he has no plans to resign over a House Ethics Committee investigation and bipartisan pressure for him to leave Congress.

“If someone can give me a good reason, I’d be more than happy to listen to it. But until we can do that, absolutely not, no — I don’t plan to resign. We’re going to seek re-election,” he told reporters at the Capitol.

Mills said he is complying with the Ethics Committee’s probe and has turned over documents, but that he has no sense of whether the panel is close to wrapping up the investigation it began in November.

“Anything they’ve asked of us, we’ve complied,” he said. “Why not let the investigating body and the Ethics Committee to be able to do their jobs? And so we comply. We’re very happy to see what the outcome is.”

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The top California gubernatorial candidates will participate in a debate tonight in San Francisco, just days after the race was shaken up when former former Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat, dropped out amid sexual assault and misconduct allegations.

Swalwell, who also resigned from Congress amid the accusations, denies the allegations against him.

The Democrats joining the debate include billionaire activist Tom Steyer, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Rep. Katie Porter and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.

Participating on the Republican side will be former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

The debate will kick off at 7 p.m. PDT.

California's primary system advances the top two candidates, regardless of party. The number of Democrats in the race have raised concerns from some liberals that the candidates could potentially get shut out of the general election because of Californians splitting their votes amid the broad field.

The Senate voted 52-46, along party lines yesterday to move forward with a budget resolution that would lay the groundwork for a bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s presidency.

The vote was on whether to proceed to the budget resolution, which only requires a simple majority for final passage, and starts up to 50 hours of debate which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans are not expected to use much of their time.

At the end of the debate, senators will be allowed to offer unlimited amendments in what’s become known as a vote-a-rama, which will culminate in passage of the budget resolution. The vote-a-rama could happen as soon as tomorrow night.

The budget resolution directs two committees — Senate Judiciary and Senate Homeland Security — to draft a bill for up to $70 billion that would fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s term in an effort to inoculate those agencies from being used as a bargaining chip by Democrats in future funding fights.

After the budget resolution is passed in the Senate, it will also need to be passed in the House, and only then can the committees start writing the bills, which Republican leaders hope to send to Trump’s desk for his signature by the Memorial Day congressional recess.

Virginia voters approved a Democratic redistricting plan yesterday that could allow the party to pick up as many as four new seats in the midterm elections, NBC News projects.

With 97% of the vote in, the “yes” vote on the ballot referendum held a narrow lead of 3 percentage points.

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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. returns to Capitol Hill today for a potential collision course with the Republican who helped put him in the job: Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy.

It will be Kennedy’s first appearance in nearly a year before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Cassidy chairs. The senator, who is up for reelection, cast the key vote to confirm Kennedy last year after securing a series of promises from Kennedy, including that he would preserve federal vaccine recommendations and regularly appear before the committee.

Kennedy has not kept those promises.

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