Stephen Dinan

A year later, Ariz. immigration fight rages

It spawned myriad court challenges, calls to boycott this year's Major League Baseball All-Star Game and more than a dozen copycat proposals in other states — but the one thing Arizona's tough immigration law has not done is put anyone behind bars.

April 21, 2011

2011 spending bill clears Congress

Crossing the finish line more than six months late, Congress on Thursday finally cleared a spending bill to fund government through the rest of the fiscal year, approving a hard-fought compromise that left neither side happy and that presaged more bruising fights ahead on deficit reduction.

April 14, 2011

CBO: Spending deal cuts only $20 billion to $25 billion

Congress' chief scorekeeper said Thursday that the deal President Obama reached with Congress actually will lead to only $20 billion to $25 billion less in spending over the next five years — far short of the $37.7 billion leaders had claimed.

April 14, 2011

Spending bill bears Democratic stamp

The final 2011 spending deal that Congress released Tuesday bears the fingerprints of Democrats far more than Republicans, whose effort to slash the federal deficit was swamped by President Obama's tenacious defense of spending programs.

April 12, 2011

Appeals court stops Ariz. immigration law

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Arizona overstepped its bounds with last year's immigration enforcement law, handing the Obama administration another victory as it tries to squelch states' efforts on immigration enforcement.

April 11, 2011

Obama administration plans budget blitz

Seeking to regain the initiative on spending cuts from House Republicans before Congress begins the 2012 budget and the debt-ceiling fights, President Obama later this week will lay out a plan to make real dents in the federal deficit, the White House said Sunday.

April 10, 2011

Norton: Democrats sold out D.C. in spending deal

Washington's representative to Congress said Saturday she feels like the city was the victim of a "sellout" by Democrats in Friday night's spending negotiations after the District of Columbia was the focus for two of the biggest policy fights.

April 9, 2011

Union says working during shutdown is unconstitutional

The country's largest federal employees union sued the government Friday, arguing it is unconstitutional to make millions of workers report for duty during a shutdown since there is no guarantee they will be paid later for the time they work.

April 8, 2011

Shutdown deadline nears

With less than a few hours to go before a government shutdown Friday night, both parties made their last pleas for a spending agreement on their own terms, even as aides said leaders were trying to ready a short-term stopgap spending to try to buy more time.

April 8, 2011

CBO: Feds run $189 billion deficit in March

The government ran a deficit of $189 billion in March alone, according to preliminary estimates — more than three times the $61 billion in spending cuts that have brought the government to the brink of a shutdown.

April 7, 2011

Obama vows to veto short-term bill

High-stakes negotiations to head off a government shutdown went down to the wire Thursday night after President Obama rejected a last-minute bid by House Republicans to give the rest of the government a one-week reprieve on a shutdown.

April 7, 2011

Late-night spending talks make progress but yield no deal

Racing a Friday deadline to avert a government shutdown, President Obama met late Wednesday with top congressional negotiators and said afterward that he is "confident" a spending deal can be finalized in time.

April 6, 2011

Costs of federal shutdown would be felt far and wide

IRS tax audits would be halted in their tracks, this weekend's National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington canceled, and national parks and the Smithsonian shuttered if Congress can't reach agreement on annual spending and the government shuts down at midnight Friday.

April 6, 2011

Senate fails to curb EPA’s climate authority

President Obama got an implicit green light Wednesday to go ahead with writing new environmental rules to limit greenhouse gases, after the Senate failed to pass any one of four separate proposals designed to tie the administration's hands.

April 6, 2011

Red tape cut in health care law

Congress on Tuesday revoked the first significant parts of President Obama's health care initiative when the Senate voted overwhelmingly to eliminate a burdensome tax paperwork requirement the law imposes on businesses.

April 5, 2011

House GOP offers last-minute shutdown reprieve

Seeking to buy more time for spending negotiations to bear fruit, House Republican leaders announced another one-week stop-gap spending bill late Monday night that would cut $12 billion more from 2010 spending levels.

April 5, 2011

Left seeks foe for Obama in primary

With President Obama officially running for re-election, the call from the left for a primary challenge was gaining steam - though no challenger so far is stepping forward.

April 4, 2011

GOP vows to stand ground on next major fiscal debates

Congress hasn't even settled the 2011 spending fight and many lawmakers already are looking ahead to the next big battles over raising the country's debt ceiling and the 2012 budget — with top Republicans beginning to draw lines in the sand.

April 3, 2011

Republicans ask for troops to remain at border

Stepping up the immigration enforcement bidding war, House Republicans last week asked President Obama to extend the deployment of 1,200 National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border past June 30, when their mission is slated to end.

April 3, 2011

Obama rejoins spending fight

Wading directly into the spending negotiations on Capitol Hill for the first time in weeks, President Obama on Saturday afternoon called the top Republican and top Democrat in Congress, telling them he supports a deal cutting another $23 billion from last year's spending levels.

April 2, 2011