James Fite

It's Groundhog Day again as lawmakers return to face problems they've failed to solve numerous times already.

After a 19-hour vote-a-rama, the bill finally passed – but it hardly felt like reconciling.

Republicans fighting Trump in Congress foreshadow a fractious future. President Donald Trump has always faced stiff opposition from some even in his own party.

The saga continues. Congress is back in session today, and it's time to pick up yet again all the legislative battles so dramatically set down last week. Will the Senate reauthorize FISA before it expires in just four days? Can the upper chamber's hard-won reconciliation bill clear the lower without further amendment? And will the two houses agree to stop President Donald Trump from taking further action in Iran? The stakes are high, and the end is nigh.

Just how far can the president push a fractious GOP ahead of midterms?

For the first time since it was added to FISA in 2008, the legislative authorization of warrantless spying granted by Section 702 will lapse. Congress came close to fully reauthorizing it weeks ago, but President Donald Trump made two announcements that sparked enough inter- and intra-party conflict that negotiations fell apart. Now, just one day before it's set to expire, both chambers shifted gears and voted on temporary extensions. All four attempts failed.

From New York to California and at many stops in between, folks hell-bent on disarming the American populace have ramped up their gun control push. But it isn't all bad news for armed Americans. Over the last couple of weeks – and, indeed, this year so far – there have been many changes. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly in the Second Amendment world right now – and we'll leave it to you to decide in which category each story belongs.

President Donald Trump announced that a short-term peace deal with Iran was reached on Sunday, June 14. This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - a formal but typically nonbinding agreement viewed as a stepping stone toward a final deal - is scheduled to be signed on Friday, June 18. But wait, didn't the president announce earlier in the week that it would be signed on Sunday? Iran's state-run media warned over the weekend that the deal was closer than ever, but not quite so close as Trump implied. Now the president's first announced signing day has come and gone, with a new one declared almost a week later – and a good deal of uncertainty regarding the terms.

Trump also tied Clayton's confirmation to that of Jamie McDonald, his pick for US Attorney. To complicate things further, he added that he wouldn't sign the FISA Section 702 reauthorization unless the SAVE America Act is passed as well.

Negotiators are hopeful, but if it doesn't work out there's still “the other option.”