By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
House Republicans faced blistering criticism from all sides Tuesday as they once again threatened to scuttle a bipartisan package blessed by the White House and Senate Republicans — but they remained undaunted, and many even said they relished the fight even as the deal ultimately headed toward passage.
Taming the Dodd-Frank Act: It's a daunting job, but someone equipped with a whip and a chair may manage to do it. Federal regulations emerging from the new law are occupying many pages - already twice as many as health care reform legislation - and officials are not even half finished with their task.
Mitt Romney is working to win over his former rivals.
America's $15.7 trillion national debt continues to grow at an alarming rate. Though most economists agree we're on an unsustainable path, the president and his allies in the Democratic Senate have done nothing about it. They hope to return to their old ways of borrowing trillions without making dollar-for-dollar cuts. Congressional Republicans are trying to impose a bit of discipline.
President Obama gathered Democrats and Republicans at the White House Rose Garden on Thursday to sign a bill designed to encourage investment in startup businesses and take a break from election-year partisan sniping.
President Obama this week is showcasing two bipartisan bills he helped power over the finish line in Congress, inviting Republicans to the White House to celebrate one of the few brief moments of bipartisan unity in a politically contentious election year.
The Senate on Thursday 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.
To many Washington outsiders, congressional ethics is an oxymoron or fodder for late-night comedians, but watchdogs and longtime Washington observers point to one hopeful sign — an office they believe is helping members take ethics rules more seriously.
The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee says he's cooperating with an Office of Government Ethics investigation into his stock trades and expects to be exonerated.
Aware that most Americans would like to dump them all, members of Congress hope to regain some sense of trust by subjecting themselves to tougher penalties for insider trading and requiring that they disclose stock transactions within 30 days.
Reflecting still-simmering anger on Capitol Hill about the collapse of U.S. housing markets, a congressional panel Tuesday voted to suspend lucrative executive bonuses and to cap the salaries of top officials at bailed-out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The White House is hoping to strong-arm banks into paying off the mortgages of irresponsible homeowners at the expense of the rest of us. The idea is to tap financial institutions to create an unregulated $20 billion slush fund to pay off the principal for people who are upside-down and delinquent on their housing payments. Political appointees in the Obama administration would get to choose the winners and losers in the house pay-off lottery.
As the effective date for the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection approaches this summer, observers are expressing mounting concerns about its unprecedented power and lack of oversight. Newly empowered House Republicans have introduced several legislative proposals to trim the sails of the new agency, most notably House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus' proposal to change the bureau's single-director management structure to that of a five-member commission.
A Jewish Minnesota lawmaker is asking state Senate leaders to allow only nondenominational prayers to open sessions.
The Obama administration's plan to gradually dissolve ailing housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to shrink the government's role in the mortgage market drew praise from House Republicans on Tuesday. The GOP chairman of the House Financial Services Committee called the proposal a good starting point for bipartisan negotiations over a housing overhaul.
"I know the president won his election, but I also won my election," said Rep. Spencer Bachus, Alabama Republican.
