Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) predicted on Thursday the White House would support his effort to establish a strong federal debt-reduction commission.
While the Ohio Republican admitted the Obama administration would remain focused on healthcare until a reform bill passed, he suggested some White House officials remain open to his [...]
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday announced he is introducing an amendment to the Senate's healthcare bill that would strike the excise tax on high-cost healthcare plans.
Sanders, a self-described "democratic socialist," strongly opposes the so-called “Cadillac" tax, which he says will hit too hard middle-class workers. The amendment" [...]
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is backing another conservative underdog.
DeMint on Thursday announced he will support Texas Railiroad Commissioner Michael Williams (R) in the yet-to-be-determined special election for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R-Texas) seat.
Because Hutchison has been evasive with her resignation date, the field isn't even set for the race. If' [...]
Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.) announced Thursday that he will support Dr. Manan Trivedi over establishment favorite Doug Pike in the Democratic primary for Rep. Jim Gerlach's (R-Pa.) seat.
Trivedi has gradually been gaining momentum in the race, after Pike's initial self-funding caught the eyes of national Democrats in a big way.
Carney [...]
Democrats are right to accuse the GOP of slowing down or halting healthcare reform, Republican National Committee Chairman (RNC) Michael Steele said Thursday.
In a memo to Republican leaders released this morning, Steele said that the GOP is in fact trying to stall or stop Democrats' health reform plans,' [...]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Wednesday that he is working with the Republican leadership to allow the Senate to recess for the weekend.
Reid made his remarks after Senate Democrats emerged from an early evening caucus meeting on healthcare reform legislation. Reid must reach an agreement with the [...]
Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) announced his retirement early this evening.
“The time has now come to pursue other options, other ways of serving. Hence, I am announcing today that I do not intend to seek reelection to Congress in 2010,” the six-term congressman said in a statement. “This is not [...]
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) has done it again.
Appearing on MSNBC's "Hardball" Wednesday night, the Florida Democrats used a colorful acronym to respond to Dick Cheney's criticisms of President Obama.
"You know, on the internet there's an acronym that's used to apply to situations like this. It's called 'STFU.' I don't think'" [...]
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Wednesday that Senate Democrats have discussed keeping the "principle" of the House abortion language in their bill.
Nelson said that the Democrats have talked about the idea in closed-door meetings but did not delve into the specifics of the proposal.
{mosads}"[There is] lot of discussion" [...]
Climate change skeptics have won the battle against cap and trade legislation, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) declared today.
Debating
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), House co-sponsor of climate legislation,
on CNN's Situation Room, Inhofe argued the Climate Gate emails show that global warming science
is false.
"Your bill is dead," Inhofe told [...]
Defense Secretary Robert Gates landed in Afghanistan Tuesday morning local time on an unannounced visit to the war-torn country, according to multiple media outlets.
Gates is the first top U.S. official to travel to Afghanistan since President Barack Obama announced the country's new Afghan strategy last Tuesday. Obama said that he [...]
Failing to pass health reform legislation could mean "disaster" for Democrats' future legislative efforts, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) warned Monday.
The first-term senator issued a dire prediction that falling short on healthcare could lead to a "divided and fractured Democratic Party," and imperil efforts on climate change, financial regulation,' [...]
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) announced Monday that he is suffering from Hepatitis C.
Johnson, a second-term congressman representing metropolitan Atlanta, said he's been suffering from the incurable disease affecting the liver for over a decade.
Johnson disclosed his disease in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on [...]
President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday on job creation is likely to represent a "giant step backwards," House GOP Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) predicted.
In a "pre-buttal" to the president's speech tomorrow at the Brookings Institution, which is expected to lay out Obama's plans for bolstering job creation in the [...]
At one point during their three-hour negotiating session Sunday evening
on the healthcare bill, Senate Democrats burst out into cheers.
The reason? They were watching the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys football game.
The
group of 10 Democrats were trying to hammer out a deal on a public
insurance option after [...]
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Sunday fired back at Republicans who claim the recent drop in unemployment is not enough to prove Democrats are handling the economy effectively.
In a pair of tweets to followers this afternoon, McCaskill remarked:
December of last year we lost more than 600,000 jobs. November this [...]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Sunday said he exited a meeting with the president and the chamber's Democratic caucus ready to tackle the more critical parts of the healthcare debate.
"President Obama has been a senator, and he understands the process that we're going through now. In short, he pledged'" [...]
The president could begin pushing for a new round of sanctions against Iran as early as January unless its leaders commit in earnest to dismantling their nuclear energy program, one White House official acknowledged on Sunday.
That informal deadline and threat -- one of the White House's strongest to [...]
It was only a matter of time until "Saturday Night Live" offered its take on the Virginia couple who allegedly crashed the White House's state dinner with India last month...
Top health insurance executives would see their own pocketbooks targeted under a new proposal from Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.).
Lincoln, a centrist Democrat up for reelection in 2010 whose vote has been assiduously courted by both sides of the healthcare debate, announced on Friday an amendment she'll offer with' [...]
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said last night that the U.S. was moving too slowly to confront climate change.
The Massachusetts Democrat also said he expected the climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, to result in a political agreement with binding emissions reductions.
"We're making decisions too slowly," Kerry told PBS's Charlie Rose. "We are not grappling'" [...]
The AFL-CIO will launch a new ad campaign Sunday aiming to pressure senators into removing the so-called "Cadillac tax" from their healthcare bill.
The labor group will begin a two-week ad campaign this weekend featuring workers encouraging the Senate to pass health reform, but without excise taxes on high-value [...]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has announced the chamber's weekend schedule to debate healthcare reform, confirming that senators will be in session both Saturday and Sunday as expected.
Reid said the Senate will convene at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with votes tentatively planned on two amendments around 2:30 [...]
Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) hopes that pink will become the new red as Republicans stand up on the Senate floor to express their opposition to healthcare reform.
Burton wrote each GOP senator this past week to encourage them to where pink shorts or ties as they debate healthcare reform, [...]
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday threw cold water on efforts to push a major new fiscal stimulus package.
At his confirmation hearing for a second term as chairman, Bernanke emphasized that the government has spent less than half of the money in the $787-billion package passed [...]
The Democratic Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee indicated today that he sees no need for Desiree Rogers, the White House Social Secretary, to testify before his committee, as Republicans are demanding.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said Desiree Rogers was not a big factor in the security mix-up that led [...]
Lawmakers should suspend the healthcare debate until other pressing issues have been resolved, a top Republican said Thursday.
Rep. Dave Camp (Mich.), the top Republican member of the influential House Ways & Means Committee, said the healthcare debate should be set on the back burners until the U.S. has [...]
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Obama administration is in the "final stages" of closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In a hearing to asses the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, Gates said President Barack Obama remains "very much" [...]
Guests at the White House state dinner last Tuesday questioned if crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi should have been there, according to a Democratic lawmaker.
In an MSNBC interview on Thursday, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said that Michaele Salahi's boisterous behavior at the event brought the attention of attendees [...]
Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) will become the second targeted Democrat in a little more than a week to announce his retirement, according to reports.
Tanner joins Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) in becoming the first two House incumbents this cycle to not seek reelection in 2010 and also not seek another office. [...]
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) issued a statement tonight supporting President Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.
"President Obama made a convincing case that sending additional troops to Afghanistan to fight al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is critical to our national security," Reid said.
"After years of the previous" [...]
Majority Leader Harry Reid praised President Obama today for taking his time on an Afghanistan decision.
Reid issued the following statement after a meeting with the president:
“We had a productive meeting with the President today. It is clear that the President’s deliberative approach to his decision, which allowed him [...]
Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee said today that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has not submitted answers to written questions they presented him over a month ago.
The questions concern new financial regulations that the committee is set to vote on tomorrow. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the ranking member of [...]
Republicans today accused ACORN of intentionally targeting Republican candidates in the 2008 election and called on Democrats to use their subpoena power to hold hearings on the controversial organization.
GOP lawmakers made the claims at an unofficial "forum" on ACORN.
"According to documents obtained by [House] Oversight staff, it appears that ACORN" [...]
Funding for a surge of troops in Afghanistan should come from spending cuts, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) urged Tuesday.
Amidst discussion by some Democratic leaders of a "war surtax" to finance President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, Grassley said the money should come out [...]
A Democratic senator on Monday night warned that the Senate's healthcare debate beginning this week will "eventually degenerate into tomfoolery."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), however, said he believes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should allow debate to continue should he marshal the 60 votes necessary to break a GOP filibuster [...]
The Virginia couple alleged to have crashed last week's state dinner at the White House stressed in an interview Tuesday they had been "mischaracterized by the media."
While the White House maintains the two were not invited to the event, Michaele and Tareq Salahi told the Today show this morning that [...]
The stimulus bill enacted earlier this year has resulted in as many as 1.6 million jobs saved or created this fall, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Monday evening.
The nonpartisan CBO said in a legally mandated report that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) had resulted [...]
Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) became the first likely GOP presidential candidate to criticize Mike Huckabee's pardon of a suspected killer during his time as Arkansas's governor.
Maurice Clemmons, suspected police killer, was granted clemency by Huckabee when he was governor of Arkansas.
Pawlenty said that he would not have granted clemency to [...]
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's warning that efforts to regulate the board would "impair" the economy are a "hoax," Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Monday night.
Responding to Bernanke's op-ed in the Washington Post this past weekend, in which the Federal Reserve chairman said that Paul's bill to audit the [...]
Financial industry lobbyists are urging House lawmakers to hold
additional hearings to understand the full impact of a financial
overhaul bill that has gone through a series of major amendments in
recent weeks.
The House Financial Services Committee is slated
on Wednesday to finish marking up a bill on regulating risks across the
financial [...]
Democrats have lost their top candidate in the race for Rep. Zach Wamp's (R-Tenn.) seat.
Wamp's district is a tough one for Democrats, but former Tennessee Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Paula Flowers gave them some hope in the open-seat race. Now, however, she is announcing that she will no longer [...]
House Democrats are clashing over a bill still being drafted that would tax financial transactions in an effort to raise $150 billion per year.
Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.), Mike McMahon (N.Y.) and Debbie Halvorson (Ill.) are circulating a letter opposed to the stock transaction tax idea. They're squaring' [...]
The Capitol Mall's Christmas tree arrived today. Here's a photo, courtesy of The Hill's Greg Nash.
Senate Republicans are asking the Health and Human Services Department to perform an actuarial analysis of the Senate health bill.
In a letter to the department today, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the ranking members of the Finance and HELP Committees, respectively, said more information is needed on [...]
President George W. Bush intentionally let Osama bin Laden escape capture as a pretext for war in Iraq, one Democratic lawmaker alleged Monday.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) said that Bush let the al-Qaeda leader go free on purpose in order to provide justification for the subsequent U.S. invasion of [...]
The couple that crashed the White House state dinner had emailed with a Pentagon official about securing tickets for the event, the Washington Post reports.
Michele Jones, Pentagon liaison to the White House, apparently attempted to get the Salahis an invitation. Though she was unsuccessful, the couple seems to [...]
A federal gas tax might be the only way lawmakers can raise enough cash to pay for the country's transportation programs, the department's secretary suggested on Monday.
During a summit this morning in Fort Worth, Texas, Transportation chief Ray LaHood predicted the federal government's current gas tax of 18.4 cents per [...]
The International AIDS Society will hold its annual conference in Washington, D.C. in 2012.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Monday that the U.S. would play host to the conference, on the heels of President Barack Obama's decision to lift a travel ban for individuals afflicted by HIV [...]
Jeremy P. Jacobs, Michael O'Brien, Chris Good, Bridget Johnson, Hill Staff, Walter Alarkon, Bob Cusack, Emily Goodin, Reid Wilson, Ian Swanson, Michael Sandler, Eric Zimmermann, aperks, Aaron Blake, Jordan Fabian, Hugo Gurdon, Tony Romm
