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Articles by Stephen Dinan

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate GOP sets stage for energy debate

Eager for a debate they believe will highlight rising gas prices on President Obama's watch, Senate Republicans on Monday gave the green light to debating Democrats' plan to end tax subsidies for oil and gas companies.

March 26, 2012
Protesters in support of undocumented youth march March 14, 2012, in Philadelphia from Love Park to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. (Associated Press) **FILE**

DHS: Illegal immigrant population is 11.5 million

About 11.5 million illegal immigrants were in the U.S. last year, a figure that was essentially unchanged from 2010, according to the latest estimate the Homeland Security Department released Friday.

March 23, 2012
Syrian Army soldiers shout slogans and hold up portraits of Syrian President Bashar Assad during a pro-regime rally in Damascus, Syria, on March 23, 2012. (Associated Press)

Obama administration grants protected status to Syrians

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday said she will grant special status to Syrians currently in the U.S., allowing them to stay here past their current visas while their home country remains in turmoil.

March 23, 2012
** FILE ** This Dec. 26, 2011 file photo shows New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton during an NFL game against the Atlanta Falcons. The NFL has suspended Payton for the 2012 season, and former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is banned from the league indefinitely because of the team's bounty program that targeted opposing players. (AP Photo/Rusty Costanza, File)

Senate to hold hearings on NFL ‘bounties’

The Senate will hold hearings looking into "bounties" one NFL team paid its players to injure opponents, a top lawmaker announced Thursday, bringing the football scandal to the halls of Congress.

March 22, 2012
Rep. John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky Democrat (Associated Press)

‘Buffett rule’ fails its first test in Congress

House Republicans on the Budget Committee on Wednesday rejected an effort to impose the "Buffett rule" tax on Americans, arguing it would stifle investment without doing any work to lower the deficit.

March 21, 2012
Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, speaks about his budget plan during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, March 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Ryan budget shoots for lower deficit, flatter tax

Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, presented his colleagues Tuesday a sweeping rewrite of the federal budget that would move toward a flatter income tax and dramatically cut spending, balancing the budget in the long run by holding down the growth of Medicare and shrinking Medicaid.

March 20, 2012
President Obama delivers remarks on energy on March, 15, 2012, in Largo, Md. (Associated Press)

CBO: Obama budget deepens debt by $3.5 trillion

President Obama's budget would pile up an additional $3.5 trillion in debt over the next 10 years and shows the government's trust funds running out of money in 2020, Congress's official non-partisan scorekeeper said Friday.

March 16, 2012
U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. (AP photo)

Stay keeps lawyers out of the pool for 60 days

The Justice Department on Thursday issued a 60-day stay for hundreds of thousands of public pools that had been required to install ramps and wheelchair lifts by today or else face lawsuits over violating disability laws.

March 15, 2012
Alejandro Mayorkas, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. (Associated Press)

E-Verify job-check system has room to grow, agency says

U.S. immigration services have the capacity to handle additional requests if more states mandate that businesses use E-Verify but would need time to accommodate a nationwide program, the agency's director said Thursday.

March 15, 2012
Presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican, making his second run for the Republican nomination, has improved his vote total over 2008 in every state so far except for Idaho, which switched from a primary to a caucus. (Associated Press)

Paul nets first win, but not in delegates

Rep. Ron Paul won his first victory of the Republican primary season over the weekend, but fell short in several tests of his delegate-hoarding strategy, and the candidate himself hinted to reporters that he is "suspicious" of fraud in some of the vote-counting.

March 12, 2012
Newly printed $20 notes are seen at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) ** FILE **

U.S. on pace for $1 trillion deficit

The federal government set a new monthly record deficit of $232 billion in February and has notched a total of $581 billion in the first five months of the fiscal year, according to the Treasury Department's official count released Monday.

March 12, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, addressing in a crowd in North Dakota on Tuesday, is banking on winning over delegates in states where straw-poll and caucus results are not binding. His supporters will be contacting those delegates. (Associated Press)

Now is the time for Paul to pick up delegates

Rep. Ron Paul's presidential campaign always has banked on playing the caucus game to try to maximize his support where it counts — the delegates who will attend the national convention this summer in Tampa, Fla.

March 8, 2012
Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, accompanied by his wife, Callista, speaks March 8, 2012, at a rally in Jackson, Miss. (Associated Press)

RNC’s delegate count shows Gingrich ahead of Santorum

Rick Santorum may have won more primaries but the Republican National Committee's current delegate count shows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has more bound delegates than Mr. Santorum in the race for the party's presidential nomination.

March 8, 2012
**FILE** Demonstrators outside the White House march in November with a replica of a pipeline during a protest of the planned Keystone XL pipeline that would bring tar sands oil from Canada to Texas. (Associated Press)

Senate backs Obama in pipeline rejection

Democratic senators voted Thursday to ratify President Obama's decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, leaving the project in limbo but ensuring it remains a political issue through this year's elections.

March 8, 2012
Copies of the fiscal 2013 budget are delivered and ready to be picked up on Feb. 13, 2012, at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

Govt. sets record deficit in February

The federal government recorded its worst monthly deficit in history in February, according to a preliminary report Wednesday from the Congressional Budget Office that said the deficit in fiscal year 2012 is already more than half a trillion dollars.

March 8, 2012