Congress

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House OKs Student Loan Bill, Ignores Veto Threat

Measure to help students gets bogged down in DC politics

(Newser) - Republicans defied a veto threat as the House voted today to prevent federal loan costs from doubling for millions of college students. The vote gave the GOP a momentary election-year triumph on a bill that has become enmeshed in partisan battles over the economy, women's issues, and President Obama'...

GOP Senators Derail &#39;Buffett Rule&#39;
GOP Senators Derail
'Buffett Rule'
Apr 16, 2012 6:29 PM CDT

GOP Senators Derail 'Buffett Rule'

Democrats timed symbolic vote for day before taxes are due

(Newser) - Senate Republicans derailed a "Buffett rule" bill today, using the day before Americans' taxes are due to defy President Barack Obama on one of his signature election-year issues. By a near party-line 51-45 tally, senators voted to keep the bill alive but fell nine votes short of the 60...

2011 Senate 'Laziest' in Decades

2011 saw least-productive session since 1992

(Newser) - The 2011 Senate produced less legislation than any other since 1992, according to a report by the chamber's own secretary. Throughout its 170 days, the Senate was in session an average of just 6.5 hours per day; only 2008's Senate had a lower figure, with three members...

White Males Will Be Minority Among House Democrats

January will be a milestone for American politics

(Newser) - For the first time in history, a political party will soon be represented in Congress by a majority of female and minority lawmakers. The Cook Political Report predicts that white males will make up 46% to 48% of House Democrats when the new Congress is sworn in next January, reports...

Commies in Congress?! No Such Luck, Says Party

Allen West's statement is 'sad ploy,' says national Communist group

(Newser) - Allen West may have made some headlines with his McCarthy-esque charge that 80 members of Congress are Communists, but the Communist Party itself thinks his "sad ploy" shows that he needs a lesson in democracy. “I didn’t know that being a Communist in Congress was off-limits or...

Campaigning Paul Misses 92% of House Votes

Lame duck congressman posts highest absentee rate ever

(Newser) - Ron Paul hasn't exactly been making an effort to keep up with his day job while he's on the campaign trail. The Texas congressman has missed a whopping 91.8% of roll call votes so far in 2012, the Hill reports, based on GovTrack.us figures. While it'...

Paul Ryan's Budget Is Worse Than Pink Slime

Paul Krugman: It's history's 'most fraudulent' budget

(Newser) - Never mind that it's "inconceivably cruel" to cut taxes for the rich and aid for the poor: Perhaps the biggest problem with Paul Ryan's latest budget is that it's "surely the most fraudulent budget in United States history," writes Paul Krugman in the New ...

Arlen Specter's New Book Full of DC Nudity

Likens naked Ted Kennedy to 'walrus'

(Newser) - Admit it—you've always wondered what Ted Kennedy looked like naked. Wonder no longer: In his new book, Life Among Cannibals, former senator Arlen Specter includes more than you ever needed to know about nudity on Capitol Hill. Among the highlights, from the Washington Post :
  • "For years when
...

Senate Sends Insider Trading Bill to Obama

Congress approves weaker version of bill designed to police itself

(Newser) - The Senate today sent President Obama a scaled-down bill to explicitly ban members of Congress, the president, and thousands of other federal workers from profiting from nonpublic information learned on the job. In an unusual move, the legislation passed unanimously without a vote on the measure itself. Instead it passed...

GOP Bill Clears Path for Obama's Impeachment

Republican Rep. Walter Jones says president violated war powers

(Newser) - Calls for President Obama's impeachment have come down the pike before, most recently from Grover Norquist . This time a Republican representative—North Carolina's Walter Jones—has introduced a House resolution that would authorize Obama's impeachment for using the military without official permission from Congress, RawStory reports. Jones,...

Even Congress Hates Congress
 Even Congress 
 Hates Congress 
THIS JOB SUCKS
Mar 8, 2012 11:39 AM CST

Even Congress Hates Congress

And that has many of them jumping ship, finds Politico

(Newser) - Also on the list of people who aren't too keen on Congress these days: members of Congress. Consider the woes they now face: fewer freebies (darn ethics rules), pay frozen at a meager $174,000, increasingly expensive campaigns, no earmarks for those back home, and a seeming lack of...

Expect Senate Gridlock to Remain in 2013

Neither party likely to take effective majority

(Newser) - The 2012 election may generate plenty of headlines, but it's not going to get a gridlocked Washington moving again—in large part thanks to the outlook for the Senate. Neither party is poised to win the kind of majority that could exert any real authority, the Washington Post notes....

Congress Strikes Payroll Tax Deal

Pension, health care issues final sticking points

(Newser) - Congressional negotiators have reached a deal on a $150 billion economic bill that will extend the payroll tax holiday through the end of the year, while also extending unemployment benefits and preventing an automatic cut in doctors' Medicare reimbursements. Congress could vote on the bill as soon as today, the...

Payroll Tax Deal: $20 a Week in Paychecks

Tentative deal emerges in House-Senate talks

(Newser) - House-Senate talks on renewing a payroll tax cut that delivers about $20 a week to the average worker yielded a tentative agreement today, with lawmakers hopeful of unveiling the pact tomorrow and sending the measure to President Obama as early as this week. Under the outlines of the emerging agreement,...

Waterboarding, Paris Hilton Liked More Than Congress

Just 10% approve of work on Hill, according to latest Gallup poll

(Newser) - A Gallup poll released Wednesday finds that Americans' approval of Congress has hit yet another record low: 10%. There aren't many institutions Americans have liked less over the last 50-or-so years, according to Gallup: Only Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and OJ Simpson detective Mark Fuhrman have...

Insider-Trading Probe Targets House Committee Chair

Rep. Spencer Bachus faces first-of-its-kind ethics investigation

(Newser) - Foxes have been found guarding hen houses on Capitol Hill in the past, but ethics investigators now believe they have identified a particularly greedy one. Rep. Spencer Bachus, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, is being probed for possible violations of insider-trading laws, reports the Washington Post . The investigation...

Things Congress Talks About: Caribou Sex

Texas' Louie Gohmert says Alaskan pipeline is hot date meet-up

(Newser) - A Texas Republican congressman is adamant in his backing of the trans-Alaska pipeline, but not because of silly energy independence. No, we must keep the oil flowing for the sake of ... caribou romance. So argued Rep. Louie Gohmert, tongue perhaps in cheek, during a meeting of the House Natural Resources...

Lawmakers Shuffled Millions to Relatives&#39; Causes
Lawmakers Shuffled Millions to Relatives' Causes
investigation
Feb 8, 2012 7:36 AM CST

Lawmakers Shuffled Millions to Relatives' Causes

'Washington Post' finds 16 members of Congress engaging in practice

(Newser) - A Washington Post investigation finds that 16 members of Congress have sent tax dollars, sometimes in the millions, to companies or other organizations with links to their family trees. Through direct funding or earmarking, these lawmakers have boosted the budgets of Pentagon programs, environmental groups, schools, and other places where...

Lawmakers Use Earmarks to Aid Own Properties
Lawmakers Use Earmarks to Aid Own Properties
INVESTIGATION
Feb 7, 2012 5:55 AM CST

Lawmakers Use Earmarks to Aid Own Properties

Just a coincidence that pork benefits own real estate, they say

(Newser) - Members of Congress are not only steering earmarks to their own districts, but also their own backyards, funding projects that boost the value of properties they own, a Washington Post investigation finds. Comparing disclosure forms against public records revealed that over the last few years, some 33 members of Congress...

Congress OKs $63B to Update Air Control System

GPS technology will replace radar to control traffic

(Newser) - A bill to speed the update of the US air traffic control system from radar to one based on GPS technology and to open US skies to unmanned drone flights within four years received final congressional approval today. The bill passed the Senate 75-20, despite labor opposition to a deal...

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