Pelosi: GOP Plan on Student Loan Rate ‘Assault on Women’s Health’
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi railed against Republican efforts to offset the one-year extension of the 3.4 percent student loan rate by taking money out of a fund she believes is imperative to the &ldqu…
House to Vote Friday on 1-year Extension of Student Loan Rate
TOBY JORRIN/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker John Boehner announced Wednesday that the House of Representatives will vote Friday to extend the current student loan interest rate of 3.4 percent for one year, just months before current law i…
Congress Unsure Whether to Toss Last Lifeline to Postal Service
Joe Raedle/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Capitol Hill lawmakers only have a few weeks to decide whether to save the nearly bankrupt U.S. Postal Service.Judging by some comments made Tuesday, the prospects don’t look good for the post office as we know it…
Race for Gabrielle Giffords’ Arizona Congressional Seat Begins
Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The primary for the special election in Arizona’s eighth congressional district — the district formerly represented by Gabrielle Giffords — takes place on Tuesday, with the special election to follow on Jun…
Bill Clinton Endorses Mark Critz in Pa. Democratic House Primary
ABC News (JOHNSTOWN, Pa.) — As redistricting pits Democrat against Democrat, Bill Clinton has given his seal of approval in a hotly contested House primary.The former president gave his nod to Pennsylvania Rep. Mark Critz, who is locked in a primary c…
Trayvon Martin Case: Lawmakers React to Zimmerman Charges
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — For more than a month, a vocal contingent of members of Congress have repeatedly called for justice in the killing of Trayvon Martin. They’ve spoken out on the House floor, held news conferences and o…
Rep. Allen West Says Up To 81 House Members Are Communists
Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — It’s not the 1940s or the 1950s, Joe McCarthy is no longer rooting out alleged Soviet supporters in the legislature and the country is not entangled in the Cold War, but don’t tell Rep. Allen West.The F…
Obama Signs STOCK Act To Ban Insider Trading By Congress
iStockphoto/Thinsktock(WASHINGTON) — Surrounded by a group of bipartisan lawmakers, President Obama on Wednesday signed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, banning insider trading on Capitol Hill.“The idea that everybody plays by th…
Tax Hikes if Congress Does Not Act
Hemera/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Congress crossed one item off its tax to-do list last week after passing an extension to the highway excise taxes, which funds transportation projects and without which all federal highway projects would have come to a …
Gas Efficiency Threatens Highway Trust Fund
Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The federal Highway Trust Fund is being hobbled by politics, but it is also threatened by success. President Obama signed the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012 last week, which will ensure 90 more days…
Lawmaker Cut Off for Wearing Hoodie on House Floor
ABC News(WASHINGTON) — Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush took to the House floor Wednesday to make a statement about the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, wearing a hoodie in defiance of the dress code on the House floor.Rush, a 10-term lawmaker from…
Activists Sending Knitted Vaginas to Congressmen
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Amid the stacks of constituent letters, national newspapers and co-sponsor requests, some members of Congress are about find a plush, pink, hand-knitted uterus tucked into their daily mail deliveries. For a growing…
Boehner Says Trayvon Martin’s Death a ‘Tragedy’; Teen’s Parents Head for Capitol Hill
Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday said Florida teenager Trayvon Martin’s death is a “tragedy,” and investigations by Florida state law enforcement and federal authorities are “appropriate” as t…
Hoodies on the Hill: Congressional Staffers Rally for Trayvon Martin
Photodisc/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — A large group of Capitol Hill staffers gathered Friday on the U.S. Capitol steps to rally in support of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old unarmed boy gunned down in Sanford, Fla. last month.About 250-300 aides rallied …
Hoodies on the Hill: Congressional Staffers Rally for Trayvon Martin
Photodisc/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — A large group of Capitol Hill staffers gathered Friday on the U.S. Capitol steps to rally in support of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old unarmed boy gunned down in Sanford, Fla. last month.About 250-300 aides rallied …
Senate Passes Congress Insider Trading Ban
Architect of the Capitol(WASHINGTON) — The STOCK Act, a House-passed legislation to ban members of Congress from benefiting from insider stock trading, was approved by the Senate Thursday 96-3 and will go to President Obama for his signature.The bill …
Senate Passes JOBS Act With One Change
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate passed the JOBS act by a vote of 73-26 on Thursday.The Senate made one change to the House-passed bill, adding to it the crowdfunding amendment passed with bipartisan support. The amendment addresses the difficulties small bu…
With Filing Deadline Passed, Maine Senate Race Looks Unclear
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(AUGUSTA, Maine) — When Olympia Snowe, the Republican senior senator from Maine, announced her plans to retire from Congress last month, the consensus among politicos was that her move would behoove the opposing party — the Demo…
Judicial Nominations vs. Jobs: Deal Reached in the Senate
iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The Senate has averted a judicial standoff for now.On Monday Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced that he’s invoking cloture to confirm numerous noncontroversial court nominees, a move designed to br…
White House Urges Senate GOP to Stop Blocking Judicial Nominees
iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The White House came out Tuesday in strong support of a move by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to try to force Senate Republicans to vote on the president’s halted judicial nominees.“What th…