'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
On a party-line vote, a key Senate committee on Thursday approved the nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a significant step forward for the controversial nominee and one that ends, at least temporarily, a bitter fight between Republicans and Democrats.
Senate hearings, even confirmation hearings, don't always live up to their billing (except in the movies). Not every committee can deliver Watergate-era theatrics, either from the panel of senators or in a retort from the witness table, as in Joseph Welch's famous question to Joe McCarthy: "Have you no sense of decency?"
It could end up being taxpayer money going down the drain.
If you saw a man standing outside the grocery store swinging a baton and glowering at passers-by, would you go inside?
Nearly three years after Congress passed the most far-reaching new regulations on Wall Street since the Great Depression, worries have resurfaced that the biggest U.S. banks have only grown in size and remain bailout candidates because they are "too big to fail."
Republicans are raising questions about the timing and costs of President Obama's decision to bypass Congress and designate five additional national monuments, coming as it does amid dire warnings of the most recent round of budget cuts, including the National Park Service.
President Obama on Monday nominated civil rights attorney Thomas E. Perez to be the next labor secretary, immediately drawing Republican opposition and another contentious confirmation fight on Capitol Hill.
Internal EPA emails released Tuesday show an agency hostile to new energy production in the U.S. and an effort at "shaming" states into complying with Obama administration environmental priorities, according to the top Republican on the Senate environment committee.
There will be no breath of fresh air at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On March 4, President Obama introduced Gina McCarthy, a veteran of the EPA bureaucracy, as his choice to run the 17,000-employee agency during his second term.
Environmental Protection Agency officials lied when they said a top official used his private email only once for public business, a Republican senator said Friday as he released copies of several emails in which that official conducted business with the EPA's director and with outside groups.
A group of 72 lawmakers have revived an effort to ask the government's watchdog agency to scrutinize taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood and five other organizations who provide family-planning services.
A group of 72 lawmakers have revived an effort to ask the government's watchdog agency to scrutinize taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood and five other organizations who provide family-planning services.
When President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law, he was recognizing an ethical imperative to conserve species, an imperative shared by the vast majority of the American public. It was and remains a popular law. Polls from 1999 and 2011 found that 84 percent of the American public, in both major political parties, support the act and the safety net it provides for species at risk of extinction. Given the popularity of the Endangered Species Act, opponents who wish to weaken or repeal it are left with propagating myths about its failure, cost and intrusive nature.
Democrats pressed ahead Wednesday with Chuck Hagel's nomination to be secretary of defense, scheduling a showdown vote for Friday even as top Republicans signaled that they need more information before confirming him for the Pentagon's top civilian post.
The Senate Armed Services Committee voted Tuesday along party lines to recommend the nomination of Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of defense, setting up a showdown in the full chamber as outspoken Republicans threatened to thwart the former Nebraska senator's nomination.
Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, the ranking Republican on the panel, said there had been "meaningful progress" in getting information from the EPA about the agency and the nominee, including the agency's policy on the use of personal email accounts, after it was revealed former Administrator Lisa P. Jackson conducted some official business via email under the alias "Richard Windsor."
Mr. Vitter said the EPA on Wednesday committed to addressing to the transparency concerns, and that agreement allowed him to lift the Republican boycott and allow the nomination process to move forward.
Gina McCarthy, Obama's EPA pick, advances on party-line vote →
