Today is Nov. 2, 2023, and here’s what you need to know:

Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck said Wednesday that he won’t seek a sixth term representing Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.

Saying he believes the Republican Party has discarded conservative principles for “self-serving lies,” Buck announced in a statement that he had decided to leave Congress because “tough votes are being replaced by social media status.”

The former federal and state prosecutor’s announcement follows months of speculation that Buck was readying a departure from Washington, leading to multiple GOP candidates floating possible candidacies for the heavily Republican seat.

Buck has repeatedly stood contrary to the national GOP’s party line this year, from criticizing a House GOP move to impeach President Joe Biden and voting to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to assailing former President Donald Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen.

Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday sent his proposal for next year’s state spending to the Joint Budget Committee, seeking funds that, after 14 years, will finally pay off the debt to K-12 schools.

The overall budget proposal from Polis seeks $43.5 billion, including $18.4 billion in general fund dollars. That does not include $2.5 billion in placeholders for Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds and capital construction, as well as a $200 million “hold” for Proposition HH. 

That’s an increase of 4.86%, according to the Office of State Planning and Budgeting. Last year, the request from Polis stood at $42.7 billion in total funds, counting money from federal dollars, general funds from tax collections and cash. Of that, $16.7 billion came from general fund dollars.  

Recent revenue forecasts show Colorado lawmakers may have more breathing room than expected for the fiscal year 2024-25 budget year, despite a projected decline in tax collections. 

The Denver judge responsible for deciding whether Donald Trump is constitutionally ineligible to appear on Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot denied the former president’s mid-hearing motion on Wednesday to end the case in his favor.

Since Monday, lawyers for the four Republican and two unaffiliated voters who filed the case against Trump have presented evidence and testimony of Trump’s alleged role in bringing his supporters to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, and urging them to “fight” against the 2020 election results. The protests culminated in a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol that same day.

Scott Gessler, a Republican former secretary of state who now represents Trump, argued the case should be resolved in his client’s favor at the close of the petitioners’ testimony because the evidence did not show Trump engaged in an “insurrection.”

“None of President Trump’s words were a call to violence,” said Gessler. “‘Fight’ is a common, common, political metaphor meaning a political fight.”

Senate Republicans are split over how Congress should approach passing an Israel aid package.

A bipartisan group backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is organizing a larger national security package that includes aid for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and a border security measure.

McConnell said Tuesday that he’s “conceptually” on the same page as Schumer and President Joe Biden, who sent Congress a $106 billion supplemental funding request that includes all four tranches. He cautioned, however, that such a package will require a substantial border security measure, with policy changes as opposed to more funding, to get enough Senate Republicans on board.

“Conceptually, I think Schumer and I are in the same place. In terms of details, what is really needed to protect the border, not a bunch of money going to Chicago and New York, but something seriously drafted,” McConnell said. “We’re working on that and I think the Democrats will have to accept a really serious U.S.-Mexico border protection bill in order to get our people on board.”

U.S. Rep. George Santos easily survived a vote Wednesday to expel him from the House as most Republicans opted to withhold punishment as both his criminal trial and a House Ethics Committee investigation proceed.

The effort to kick Santos out of the House was led by his fellow New York Republicans, who are anxious to distance themselves from a colleague infamous for fabricating his life story and accused of stealing from donors, lying to Congress and receiving unemployment benefits he did not deserve.

But the resolution failed to gain the required two-thirds vote. Supporters could not even gain a simple majority, with the vast majority of Republicans and more than 30 Democrats voting against expelling Santos. The final vote was 179 for expulsion and 213 against.