
Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, will give classified details of terrorist plots foiled with the help of the National Security Agency's broad data gathering about Americans' phone calls and online communications when he delivers rare open testimony to the House intelligence committee Tuesday.

House Speaker John A. Boehner said Thursday that he was "surprised" by the Obama administration's lackluster defense of the National Security Agency's broad electronic data-gathering programs.

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted Thursday to give President Obama more flexibility to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay into the U.S. or to other countries, moving to grant some of the powers the administration is seeking.

The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, igniting a debate over the thorny social issue at a time when some in the GOP fear they are alienating female voters.

The Senate has reached a stalemate in its effort to keep student loan interest rates from doubling in a little more than three weeks.

House Speaker John A. Boehner on Thursday called on the Obama administration to provide answers regarding a government-sponsored surveillance program of U.S. telephone customers, even though Congress apparently has received frequent updates on the secret probe.

While it's getting the most attention, the $4.1 million IRS conference in California in 2010 that has Congress up in arms isn't even the costliest event the tax agency hosted over the last few years.

The head of the Transportation Security Administration says he's dropping a proposal that would have let airline passengers carry small knives, souvenir bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes.

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee say the Justice Department's defense of Eric Holder is inadequate and it dodges a real question behind the agency scandal: What role did the nation's leading law enforcer play in the agency's surveillance and records seizure of members of the media?