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The Anti-Weaponization Fund: Trump’s $1.776 billion plan may be down — but is it out?

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Articles by Stephen Dinan

The U.S. Capitol building is seen Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, in Washington. The six Democrats and six Republicans on the supercommittee, as it's familiarly called, have until next Wednesday, Nov. 23, to come together on a deficit reduction plan. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Federal deficit plunges as Congress tightens budget belt

The federal budget is looking much better in fiscal 2014, according to new estimates the Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday that show the government ran a $44 billion surplus in December and is well ahead of last year's pace.

January 8, 2014

Christie signs, praises New Jersey’s Dream Act law

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie held a ceremonial signing Tuesday to highlight his approval of the state's new Dream Act law granting illegal immigrants in-state tuition, in a move that signals immigration will once again be a major issue in the 2016 presidential primaries.

January 7, 2014
FILE - In this June 15, 2011, file photo, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testifies regarding the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2012 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington. Gates asserts in a new memoir that President Barack Obama grew frustrated with U.S. policy in Afghanistan and that Vice President Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue. He also accuses members of Congress of inquisition-like treatment of administration officials. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

Gates says Obama, Clinton played politics with Iraq war

President Obama’s former defense secretary says in a new book that both the president and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged in front of him that they opposed the Iraq surge because of presidential politics.

January 7, 2014
"It's a complete failure for me. It won't let you progress. It freezes up," Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, says of his attempts to sign up for Obamacare using the HealthCare.gov website. (associated press)

GAO watchgdog: CBP, ICE security database upgrade seen veering off course

The government's chief watchdog said Monday that the Homeland Security Department is in danger of another billion-dollar technology boondoggle, adding that the immigration agency's effort to upgrade the database for security checks at the U.S. border already has missed deadlines and appears to be veering off course again.

January 6, 2014
Alonzo Hersford Cushing was an artillery officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He died at the Battle of Gettysburg while defending the Union position on Cemetery Ridge against Pickett's Charge, for which he earned the Medal of Honor 147 years after his death.

TIMELESS: Medal of Honor approved for Civil War and Vietnam veterans

More than 150 years after he gave his life at Gettysburg leading the effort to repel Pickett's Charge, 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing is finally on track to get the Medal of Honor after Congress last month approved waiving the time-limit for the nation's top military honor.

January 6, 2014
FILE - In this Oct. 29,2013 file photo, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Obama administration will continue the National Security Agency's surveillance programs and cyber command operations under the direction of a single military commander, the first move in advance of what published reports described Friday as limited changes proposed by a task force that deliberated for months in secrecy. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

Secret court approves three more months of NSA phone snooping

The secret court that oversees the nation's intelligence activities renewed its approval of the National Security Agency's telephone-records program on Friday, granting the government a new three-month window to collect data on all Americans' phone calls.

January 3, 2014
File - In this Aug. 27, 2013 file photo, Sergio Garcia speaks at The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles news conference in Los Angeles. The California Supreme Court granted a law license on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014, to Garcia, who is living in the United States illegally. Garcia, who graduated from law school and passed the state bar exam, can begin practicing law despite his immigration status. He arrived in the U.S. illegally 20 years ago to pick almonds with his father. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)

Illegal immigrant granted law license in California

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that an illegal immigrant can join the bar and begin to practice law in that state, granting a major symbolic victory to immigrant rights advocates who say it's a step on the path to equal treatment in employment law.

January 2, 2014

2014 begins with $54 billion in tax hikes

A final congressional stalemate in late December means the New Year's expiration of a host of tax breaks, amounting to a $54.2 billion increase for green-energy businesses, teachers, homeowners, college students and others.

December 31, 2013
** FILE ** Illegal immigrants prepare to enter a bus after being processed at Tucson Sector U.S. Border Patrol Headquarters Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012, in Tucson, Ariz. New strategies being implemented by the U.S. government, including the halting of one-way flights back to the interior cities in Mexico, are in place to streamline processing and expedite a return to Mexico. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

U.S. population level drops due to low birth rates, immigration trends

The U.S. population this year grew at its lowest rate since the Great Depression, according to the latest Census Bureau estimates Monday that suggest the sluggish economy continues to tamp down on immigration, and birth rates are still low for those already here.

December 30, 2013
** FILE ** (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

FAA safety data kept hidden from inspectors

The Federal Aviation Administration is finally collecting a trove of confidential safety data from commercial airline operators, but the agency is still "years away" from analyzing the information to predict problems and doesn't even allow its own inspectors to look at the data.

December 26, 2013
Jewell

Alaska residents upset feds side with environmentalists on road plan

The Obama administration handed environmentalists a significant victory Monday when the Interior Department decided against allowing a road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, dashing the hopes of locals who said the route was critical for safety.

December 23, 2013
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, gestures as she speaks to reporters during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Pelosi: Obamacare will be ‘glorious’

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Monday defended Obamacare amid fellow Democrats' concerns, saying that while the politics may be tricky right now, eventually having voted for the health care law will be a boon.

December 23, 2013
"Our view of the law is that it — if somebody is here without sufficient documentation, that is not reason for deportation," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said in an interview with Telemundo, a Spanish-language network. "If somebody has broken the law, committed a felony or something, that's a different story." (associated press)

Pelosi: Tack cost of more unemployment benefits onto deficit

Democrats have already signaled their first fight for the new year — trying to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless for the 12th time since the economic downturn began and saying it's a test of the income inequality campaign message they'll use in this year's elections.

December 23, 2013
** FILE ** Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, speaks with reporters following a closed-door briefing by intelligence agencies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (Associated Press)

Top lawmakers fight to save NSA snooping program

The top four lawmakers who oversee the U.S. intelligence community said Friday that President Obama should reject his own review panel's recommendations that bulk collection of government of Americans' phone records should be curbed.

December 20, 2013