Stephen Dinan

Appeals court upholds Obama’s health care law

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled the individual mandate in the Democrats' health care law is constitutional, becoming the highest court to back the key part of President Obama's signature achievement.

June 29, 2011

GOP wants Senate to cancel vacation

Frustrated with his former colleagues in Congress, President Obama on Wednesday demanded they stay in town next week to work on debt negotiations — and found unlikely allies in Senate Republicans, who said there were trying to force their chamber to cancel a vacation and remain in session.

June 29, 2011

Senate panel OKs use of force in Libya

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Tuesday to back President Obama's deployment of U.S. forces to Libya in a strong bipartisan vote that delivered a critical boost to a White House that has found itself under assault from Capitol Hill.

June 28, 2011

House rebukes Obama on Libya but lets funding continue

The House defeated two competing measures Friday that would have given President Obama differing levels of authority to continue the war in Libya, signaling a majority want to limit the president but that there is no consensus yet on how to do it.

June 24, 2011

Slaughter ban sending horses across borders

Congress imposed a back-door ban on horse slaughter in 2006 to try to improve humane conditions, but a new government report says it has backfired and the same horses are now being exported for slaughter in Canada and Mexico, and they likely are suffering more along the journey.

June 23, 2011

Obama administration to let the oil flow

Seeking to cap summertime gas prices, the Obama administration said Thursday it will tap the country's strategic oil stockpiles for a temporary boost.

June 23, 2011

A do-nothing Congress could solve deficit woes, CBO says

Inside the latest long-term budget analysis from Congress' chief scorekeeper is a stunning bit of news: If Congress did nothing, the government's deficit problems would be mostly solved.

June 22, 2011

Senate-House showdown draws near on Libya

Congress moved toward a showdown on President Obama's troop deployment in Libya, with two veteran senators on Tuesday introducing legislation to validate his moves and the House setting up competing votes, including one that would force him to end combat missions.

June 21, 2011

Senators move to authorize Libya mission

Congress moved toward a showdown on President Obama's troop deployment in Libya, with two veteran senators on Tuesday introducing legislation to validate his moves and the House setting up competing votes, including one that would force him to end combat missions.

June 21, 2011

Huntsman vows to be different GOP candidate

Painting himself as the sunny, optimistic Republican choice, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. on Tuesday officially joined the 2012 GOP presidential field, laying out a broad call to push through tough economic times, but with few specifics on how he would do so.

June 21, 2011

Libya testing limits of War Powers Resolution

American unmanned aerial vehicles are making surgical strikes on Libyan targets, and U.S. forces have expended $400 million worth of munitions in defending the rebellion against Col. Moammar Gadhafi's forces, but the administration says that doesn't mean the country is at war — at least not for the purposes of the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

June 20, 2011

President’s fidelity to oath on autopilot?

One day after Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. helped President Obama bungle the oath of office on Inauguration Day 2009, the president held a do-over at the White House out of "an abundance of caution" over constitutional hiccups.

June 19, 2011

Obama extends National Guard deployment on southern border

President Obama notified Congress Friday he will keep 1,200 National Guard troops on the border for at least another three months, following demands from southwest lawmakers who said there is still work to be done on security.

June 17, 2011

Obama administration changes deportation focus

Under fire for its stepped-up deportation program, the Obama administration said Friday it will take a number of steps intended to focus on criminal aliens and make it less likely illegal immigrants without convictions are deported.

June 17, 2011

Senate strikes at ethanol handout

In a signal that austerity is now the prevailing attitude on Capitol Hill, the Senate voted Thursday to end billions of dollars in annual tax credits for blended ethanol — a once-sacrosanct program that has fallen victim to troubled government finances.

June 16, 2011

Objecting ATF agents ‘told to fall in line’

Federal agents testified to Congress on Wednesday that their superiors told them to stand down and watch as weapons flowed from gun dealers in Arizona to criminals and violent drug cartels in Mexico part of a now-discredited operation designed to catch gunrunners.

June 15, 2011

Lawmakers sue to end U.S. role in Libya fight

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers went to court Wednesday to try to stop President Obama's troop deployment to Libya, saying it violates the law, but the White House submitted a report to Congress arguing that it is adhering to the War Powers Resolution because it is not actually engaged in "hostilities."

June 15, 2011

Kucinich demands international court probe of Libya mission

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, who on Wednesday went to a U.S. court in an effort to stop President Obama's troop deployment in Libya, also has told the United Nations and the International Criminal Court to look into whether NATO's bombing campaign has broken international law.

June 15, 2011

Senate preserves ethanol subsidy, for now

The Senate voted Tuesday to preserve billions of dollars in government subsidies for ethanol in a vote that showed senators are not yet ready to undo the corporate handouts that have proliferated throughout the tax code in recent decades.

June 14, 2011

Boehner gives Obama Friday deadline on Libya

Stepping up a simmering constitutional conflict, House Speaker John A. Boehner warned President Obama on Tuesday that unless he gets authorization from Congress for his military deployment in Libya, he will be in violation of the War Powers Resolution.

June 14, 2011