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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

Immigration back on the front burner for Obama

President Obama said early Thursday that he wants to make a major push to have Congress pass immigration legislation this year — but by late in the day the White House was confirming he will nominate someone with little immigration experience to head the Department of Homeland Security.

October 18, 2013
In this photo provided by CBS News, on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks on CBS' "Face the Nation" in Washington about the partial federal government shutdown. (AP Photo/CBS News, Chris Usher)

Lawmakers ‘cringe’ at Senate’s pork-laden spending deal

The debt deal reopening the federal government, hurriedly written Wednesday afternoon, began to rot in the sunlight Thursday as lawmakers distanced themselves from some of the pork projects and other goodies tossed in to sweeten the bill for lawmakers.

October 17, 2013
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Pelosi on pork project: ‘What difference does it make?’

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Thursday said she can't answer for why pork-barrel items snuck into the debt and spending bill that passed Congress late Thursday, but said the press should stop focusing on that and instead look at the broader debt fight.

October 17, 2013
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, walks to the floor from a closed-door meeting with Republican senators at the Capitol on Wednesday. Mr. McConnell and his Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, reached last-minute agreement to avert a possible default on government debt. (Associated press photographs)

Congress agrees to end shutdown

Moving with stunning speed, Congress voted Wednesday to end the 16-day government shutdown and avert the potential for the first major debt default in U.S. history in a deal that gave President Obama most of what he sought — an open government and more borrowing authority without denting Obamacare.

October 16, 2013
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, Kansas Republican, said he doubts President Obama will show flexibility on the immigration policy reform issue. "If the president says he doesn't want border security, that kills the issue." Immigration may become the next battleground.

GOP skeptical Obama will negotiate on immigration

Now that a temporary solution to the partial government shutdown and debt limit are at hand, President Obama says immigration is next, but House Republicans said that's not likely.

October 16, 2013
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is followed by reporters as he walks on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. Sen. McConnell and his Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are optimistic about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal preventing a possible federal default and ending the partial government shutdown after Republican divisions forced GOP leaders to drop efforts to ram their own version through the House.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Senate passes budget deal; bill heads to House

Congress was racing Wednesday night to approve legislation ending the 16-day-old government shutdown and avert the potential for the first major debt default in U.S. history in a deal that gave President Obama most of what he sought — an open government and more borrowing authority without denting Obamacare.

October 16, 2013
The late Sen. Frank Lautenberg and his wife Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg seen here in 2013. (credit: Associated PRess)

Stopgap bill approves $3 billion of pork spending

Buried inside the new stopgap spending bill are several pork project goodies, including nearly quadrupling the maximum price of a dam project on the Ohio River that is turning into a boondoggle — up to nearly $3 billion.

October 16, 2013
Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, pumps his fist as he walks past reporters after a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Boehner says House will accept debt deal

House Speaker John A. Boehner said Wednesday that he and his fellow Republicans in the lower chamber won't block the debt deal Senate leaders reached earlier in the day.

October 16, 2013
**FILE** Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, accompanied by Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (right), Texas Republican, and Sen. John Barrasso, Wyoming Republican, speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 18, 2013. (Associated Press)

GOP looks ahead to next fight: Sequesters

The ink on the final debt and spending agreement hadn't even dried and Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republicans' leader, was already drawing a red line around the next fight: budget sequesters.

October 16, 2013
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, gestures as he talks with reporters on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. Leaders reached a last-minute agreement to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown. Cruz said he would not try to block the agreement. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Senate leaders announce agreement to end shutdown, raise debt

Top senators struck a deal Wednesday to reopen the government and extend the federal government's borrowing authority into next year and both sides of the Capitol are hoping for quick action to reassure nervous financial markets eyeing a Thursday deadline set by the Treasury Department.

October 16, 2013
Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks during a news conference on the ongoing budget battle outside his office on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

House conservatives sabotage Boehner plan to end shutdown

Conservatives in the House sabotaged Speaker John A. Boehner's plan Tuesday to dent Obamacare while reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling, leaving senators scrambling to kick-start their own deal before Thursday's deadline for a potential default.

October 15, 2013
National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis has been subpoenaed to testify before Congress on decisions he made regarding the closing of national parks during the government shutdown. (Associated Press)

Park Service director must face House questioning on shutdowns

House lawmakers will get a chance Wednesday to grill the National Park Service about its decision to barricade the World War II Memorial and iconic national parks, including the Grand Canyon, at the beginning of the government shutdown — though they had to subpoena the Park Service director to get him to attend.

October 15, 2013
President Barack Obama, center, and Vice President Joe Biden, center left, meet with Democratic Leadership in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. Sitting with them are from left to right, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

House GOP to push Obama, Biden into Obamacare

House Republicans on Tuesday narrowed their attack on Obamacare to the issue of fairness, insisting that President Obama and his top political appointees all have to buy their insurance through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges as part of a new bill to end the government shutdown and extend the federal debt ceiling.

October 15, 2013
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks away from the microphone during a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. House GOP leaders Tuesday floated a plan to fellow Republicans to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. But the plan got mixed reviews from the rank and file, and it was not clear whether it could pass the chamber. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

House GOP unity breaks down over latest shutdown offer

House Republican leaders were searching for votes Tuesday to pass a debt increase and stopgap spending bill, facing a rebellion within their own ranks from lawmakers who felt their latest proposal to make two small dents in Obamacare wasn't enough of a victory.

October 15, 2013