After four years of crippling partisan gridlock, which intensified in 2011 when the GOP took control of the House and the Senate remained in Democratic hands, both parties have finally found areas of common ground in Congress.
The Senate immigration bill cleared the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote Tuesday night, ducking — for now — big fights on guns, gay rights and how broadly the legalization is drawn, and leaving the 867-page overhaul mostly unscathed by conservative attacks.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to allow illegal immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments, as the panel spent a fourth day working through amendments to the massive immigration bill and party-line splits began to emerge.
The Senate immigration bill survived its first tests Thursday as a core group of Republicans and Democrats held together, killing efforts to require full border security requirements before legalizing illegal immigrants.
They were last airborne on July 19, 1967: the four-man Navy crew from the USS Hornet that took off in an SH-3A Sea King helicopter to rescue a downed pilot in Ha Nam Province, North Vietnam. Hit by anti-aircraft gunfire, the helicopter crashed and the men never returned. Nearly 46 years later, the pilot and his crew will be united again for a final time.
Gun owners who cheered when the Senate failed to pass numerous anti-gun bills last week should temper their enthusiasm. The liberal wing of the Democratic party, led by President Obama and funded by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, has already started to use the votes to oust pro-Second Amendment senators in 2014.
A Mississippi man was arrested Wednesday, accused of sending letters to President Barack Obama and a senator that tested positive for the poisonous ricin and set the nation's capital on edge a day after the Boston Marathon bombings.
As senators struggle with how to vote on new gun control bills, few have the kind of pressure that Sen. Jeff Flake is facing.
The immigration reform bill that senators are writing in secret would move U.S. policy to a points-based system that would reward immigrants who are taking care of disabled parents at the same level as those who have earned master's degrees in high-tech fields, according to a draft of the legislation reviewed by The Washington Times.
Would you invest in a company with a string of failures as sweeping as the GOP establishment's? Mitt Romney, John McCain and Bob Dole: All are products of the establishment, and all are failed candidates who opened the doors to the Obama and Clinton eras.
Sen. Jeff Flake, a rising conservative star who many see as potential White House material, says the Republican Party's embrace of same-sex marriage is a sure thing.
Senators from both parties signaled Sunday that universal background checks could be the next gun measure to get shoved toward the legislative scrap heap or significantly watered down.
Sarah Palin is gearing up for 2014. Her SarahPAC came out with a video on Wednesday aimed at fueling the conservative fires for a dramatic comeback in the midterm elections.
Members of the “Gang of Eight” tasked with carving out a comprehensive immigration package said Wednesday that they hope to file a bill when they return to Washington from their Easter break, and suggested that they are on the verge of a deal between business and labor leaders on visas for low-skilled workers.
But Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who helped write the bill, said he doesn't view it that way — and he thinks Mr. Cornyn is acting in good faith.
Border War: Security at the center of Senate immigration fight →
"I can tell you, he wants to improve the bill and he said himself he'd like to vote for it. But he believes it's got to have a firmer trigger with regard to the effectiveness of 90 percent. We're trying to work with him and try to find ways that can accommodate that," Mr. Flake said.
Border War: Security at the center of Senate immigration fight →
