Stephen Dinan

Dreamers fate unsettled as Republicans offer new spending bill to avoid shutdown

Moving to avert a government shutdown, House Republicans announced a new stopgap spending bill Wednesday that would fully fund the Defense Department for the rest of fiscal year 2018, while keeping other government operations running through Jan. 19.

December 13, 2017

Brett Talley and Jeff Mateer pulled by Trump after Grassley warning

The White House will cancel two of President Trump's own judicial picks after senators raised questions about heir fitness to serve on the federal courts, lawmakers said Wednesday.

December 13, 2017

Donald Trump: Tax cuts could show up in paychecks by February

President Trump and congressional Republicans reached a deal Wednesday on a $1.4 trillion tax cut and said that if they can get it signed into law by Christmas, Americans will begin to see more money in their paychecks by February.

December 13, 2017

Donald Trump blesses 21 percent corporate tax rate, clears way for final tax deal

President Trump said Wednesday he would be willing to accept a 21 percent corporate income tax rate, giving his blessing to what appears to be the crux of an emerging deal on the GOP's tax-cut package.

December 13, 2017

Chuck Schumer says Donald Trump lacks policy smarts: ‘He doesn’t know the details’

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Wednesday that President Trump is out of his depth in policy discussions.

December 13, 2017

Dems tell GOP to shelve tax bill after Alabama election loss

Senate Democrats demanded Wednesday that Republicans shelve their plans to vote on a tax-cut bill next week, saying the chamber must wait until after the new year when Sen.-elect Doug Jones will be seated.

December 13, 2017

Republicans blast Steve Bannon after Roy Moore’s Alabama Senate loss

The GOP establishment in Washington struck back Tuesday against rebel Republicans who pushed Roy Moore as their nominee in Alabama's special Senate election, saying the insurgents cost their party a critical seat at a crucial time.

December 12, 2017

Immigration chief: Visa lottery used by NYC suspect open to ‘pretty much anybody on the planet’

The diversity visa lottery is "wracked with fraud" and created the conditions for the last two terrorist suspects in both the October and December attacks in New York City to enter the U.S., the government's top legal immigration official said Tuesday.

December 12, 2017

Schumer declines to back calls for Trump-harassment investigation

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer declined Tuesday to back calls for an investigation into harassment allegations against President Trump, saying he didn't want to weigh in right now.

December 12, 2017

Alabama election winner won’t affect tax-cut fight

Whoever wins the Alabama special Senate election, he won't affect the outcome of the tax debate this year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.

December 12, 2017

Dreamers stage Capitol Hill sit-in to demand legalization

Illegal immigrant "Dreamers" staged a sit-in at congressional offices Tuesday demanding lawmakers give them full permanent legal status before the end of the year, complicating leaders' efforts to avoid a government shutdown.

December 12, 2017

Democrat introduces resolution for official investigation into Trump harassment

A House Democrat introduced a measure Tuesday calling on Congress to establish an official congressional probe into allegations that President Trump harassed women in the decades before he won office.

December 12, 2017

Paul Ryan says DACA won’t be part of House spending bill

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Tuesday rejected efforts to shoehorn a major immigration fight into year-end talks over avoiding a government shutdown, saying illegal immigrant "Dreamers" should be tackled in separate legislation.

December 12, 2017

Lois Lerner: ‘Exceedingly low’ public interest in her IRS testimony

Former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner told a federal court last week that there's "no legitimate" reason why the public should see her testimony about her role in tea party targeting, pleading with a judge to keep her deposition permanently sealed.

December 11, 2017

Trump: Chain migration to blame for attempted terrorist attack in NYC

Police blamed an immigrant from Bangladesh for the botched attempt to bomb the New York City subway Monday morning, in a blast that did little damage but renewed the Trump administration's call for stricter controls on legal immigration.

December 11, 2017

Gwen S. Moore demands teen pages be warned about Roy Moore

A Democratic congresswoman asked the Senate's administrative operations to have a plan in place to prevent GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore from targeting any of the teenagers in the chamber's page program, should he win election.

December 11, 2017

FBI nabs Eric Conn, Social Security scam leader, in Honduras

The man who ran the largest Social Security fraud in American history has been captured in Honduras after six months on the run, a Honduran newspaper reported Monday.

December 4, 2017

Homeland Security officials say they botched 900 DACA applications

The Trump administration erroneously rejected about 900 applications sent in by Dreamers to renew their status under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals deportation amnesty, Homeland Security officials told The Washington Times.

December 3, 2017

Puerto Rico gives Christmas bonuses after asking for hurricane recovery funds

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello Nevares last month asked federal taxpayers to shell out $94 billion to pay for the territory's recovery from Hurricane Maria -- then turned around and paid out about $100 million in Christmas bonuses to government employees on the island.

December 3, 2017

GOP sets up DACA shutdown showdown with short-term spending bill

Congressional Republicans announced a short-term spending bill Saturday to keep the government open through Dec. 22, hoping to head off a looming shutdown next week with a two-week reprieve.

December 2, 2017