Three-term Sen. Jon Kyl will announce his retirement at a noon ET news conference Thursday in Phoenix, two Republican sources confirmed to Fox News.

The Arizona lawmaker, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, will be the fifth senator scheduled for re-election next year to announce a departure from Congress in 2012.

Kyl, 68, served four terms in the House before winning a Senate seat. In 2006, he was named one of the 10 best senators by Time Magazine...

WASHINGTON -- To hear Senate Republicans tell it, the defeat of their attempt to repeal the Democrats' health care overhaul was really a victory of sorts on the long the march to the 2012 congressional and presidential elections.

The repeal effort sank Wednesday along party lines, 51-47 as expected. But in the process, Republicans forced Democrats on the record in favor of President Barack Obama's signature overhaul and launched what they described as a two-year effort to discredit it in the lead-up to a bid for a second term.

"These are the first steps in a long road that will culminate in 2012, whereby we will expose the flaws and the weaknesses in this legislation," said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the party's campaign chief...

Senate Republicans have forced a vote on repealing the health care reform law, an action Democrats say is a waste of time that will end in defeat.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, on Tuesday offered the repeal measure as an amendment to an aviation safety bill under debate. He said he has the support of all 47 Senate Republicans.

“It’s no secret the American people don’t like the health bill that passed last year,” Mr. McConnell said. “It’s not every day that you can get a second chance on a big decision after you know all the facts.”

The Senate debated the measure late Tuesday and was expected to vote Wednesday...

The Senate may vote as early as this week on legislation that would repeal the Obamacare law that contains abortion and rationing concerns of pro-life groups. The vote would come on the heels of a ruling by a federal judge declaring the law unconstitutional.

Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said today the Senate may vote on the House-passed legislation this week, putting on Twitter: “Vote on health care repeal could come as early as this week in the Senate.”

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, both of whom are pro-life, have led the way in the effort to repeal the Obamacare legislation. last week, McConnell started the process of attempting to get the Senate to repeal the law by employing a Senate rule typically reserved for party leaders that allows them to bypass committee action on legislation and place the bill directly before the Senate...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is holding a conference call today in what is a new bid by the Obama administration to lobby religious leaders to support the Obamacare law in the face of a congressional repeal effort.

With the House having already voted for the repeal bill and Republicans in the Senate moving on two fronts to promote it there, the Obama administration is feeling the heat over the health care reform law, which fails to stop abortion funding with taxpayer dollars or rationing.

The administration bills the call as one helping “faith and community leaders to discuss how the Affordable Care Act is helping Americans across the country gain more freedom and control in their health care choices”...

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) says he is not yet sure how House Republicans will go about defunding Obamacare if the effort to enact legislation fully repealing the legislation ultimately fails, as it is expected to given that it would require passing the Democrat-controlled Senate and then the signature of President Obama to become law.

“There have been some discussions (with House leadership), but I haven’t gone into it deeply enough that I’d be willing to represent it publicly,” King said about the effort to defund Obamacare. “Those are conversations that need to take place.”

King said that the entire focus for the last few days has been on the repeal legislation, but that attempts to defund Obamacare would follow that...

With the House having approved a bill to repeal the abortion-funding ObamaCare bill, pressure is now on the Senate to do so — although Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid doesn’t plan to allow a vote.

On a 245-189 vote, the House voted for the bill to repeal the law that had the federal government essentially taking over the health care industry and putting a program in place that prompted significant concerns about abortion funding and rationing. The vote received support from all Republicans and three Democrats.

Senator Mitch McConnell said he hoped the Senate would somehow be forced to “follow suit”...

WASHINGTON -- The newly muscular House Republicans voted Wednesday to overturn President Obama's health care overhaul -- a move that is largely symbolic because the Democratic-controlled Senate is poised to ignore it while Obama is certain to veto it should it somehow pass through Congress.

The House passed the bill 245-189 with three Democrats -- Reps. Mike Ross, Dan Boren and Mike McIntyre --joining the Republican effort.

Even though Democrats are certain to block the bill in the Senate, Republicans are determined to chisel away at the law through attempts to deny funding for parts of the legislation as they go into effect in the coming years...

As the House prepares for Wednesday's vote to repeal the Democrats' health care law, Republicans say it marks more than a shot at a controversial Obama policy — they argue it is the first step toward making Congress relevant in debates over the Constitution.

Following the House GOP's new rules, Majority Leader Eric Cantor submitted along with the repeal bill a little-noticed but far-reaching statement of constitutional authority that casts the effort in terms of reclaiming congressional prerogatives and the duty of each branch of government to police itself and "ensure that all their actions are constitutional."

While occasionally cloaked in legalese and arcane historical debates, their underlying message is this: The Supreme Court is not the only referee on the field when it comes to determining what's constitutional and what's not.

With the House of Representatives expected to clear its repeal bill later today, pro-life House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the number two GOP lawmakers, challenged pro-abortion Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid’s spokesman says that the Senate won’t bring up the repeal bill for a debate or vote because he claims polling data shows Americans don’t support it — even though that’s not the case.

“Not only would repeal not pass, but according to a poll by AP over the weekend, three out of four people don’t want it to,” Reid spokesman Jon Summers said. “Why? Because full repeal means raising taxes on small businesses, reopening the Medicare donut hole, and putting insurance companies back in charge of your health care”...