Paul Kane

Washington, D.C.

Senior congressional correspondent and columnist

Education: University of Delaware, BA

Paul Kane has covered Congress since 2000, when he started at Roll Call with a beat focused on the Senate. He started with The Washington Post in 2007, covering the 2008 financial crisis and the Obama-Republican fiscal wars. He began writing a regular column, @PKCapitol, on Congress and its interactions with the Trump administration in 2017. He's covered Washington's response to the global pandemic, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, two impeachments and now writes about the Biden administration's legislative agenda on Capitol Hill.
Latest from Paul Kane

Congress keeps punting on the hard work, then leaving town for recess

The House and Senate approved a stopgap funding bill Thursday, extending their next deadline into March. But now lawmakers will spend most of February away from the Capitol.

January 20, 2024

‘It’s time to act’: McConnell pushes Ukraine-border plan despite Johnson’s doubts

The veteran Senate Republican leader has called for a debate starting next week on a massive global security package, sidestepping concerns from the new House GOP speaker.

January 18, 2024

Santos special election to provide new clues of 2024 voter motivations

Democrats hope the Feb. 13 Long Island special election will show momentum on issues like abortion. Republicans think it will demonstrate a sour mood for Biden.

January 13, 2024

Jan. 6 ‘hostage’ comments fuel House GOP divisions in tough election year

Former president Donald Trump and now a member of House Republican leadership have used the term to describe defendants in Jan. 6 cases.

January 11, 2024

After Sandy Hook, they voted no. Now these senators want new gun laws.

After a decade of mass killings and surging AR-15 sales, four current and three former senators recant some or all of their 2013 positions on restricting assault weapons in emotional interviews with The Post.

December 27, 2023

McCarthy’s exit changes little: House Republicans are still lost

For the entire 13-year arc of Kevin McCarthy’s House GOP leadership tenure, Republicans kept employing the same hostage-taking strategy. It never really worked. Now, he’s gone.

December 16, 2023

Liz Cheney’s 2024 campaign mission: Defeat House Republicans

The former GOP congresswoman has vowed to help defeat House Republicans next year as part of her effort to block Donald Trump’s every possible path to the White House.

December 9, 2023

Lankford enters arena of bipartisan talks, with global security package on the line

A relatively low-profile Republican is leading talks on the most difficult, contentious issue Congress has faced in the last 20 years — border and migration laws — and if he fails, an entire global security package could go down with him.

December 2, 2023

Lawmakers bracing for many congressional retirements, even from younger members

In recent weeks, several relatively new members of the House have announced retirements, setting off fears that the institutional dysfunction is causing a political brain drain.

November 18, 2023

Speaker Johnson’s honeymoon period is over — or never even began

Just three full weeks into the job, Speaker Mike Johnson faces all the same problems as Kevin McCarthy.

November 15, 2023