Stephen Dinan

Millions go to signs flagging stimulus projects

Senate Democrats on Wednesday voted to continue spending stimulus money on road signs that advertise that they're spending stimulus money.

September 17, 2009

Republicans seek czar accountability

With White House "czars" under scrutiny, two senior House Republicans are demanding that the White House account for the dozens of advisers whom the press has designated as czars and either make them available to testify to Congress or explain why they should be exempt.

September 16, 2009

Specter fundraiser stalls Senate voting

Senate Democrats halted voting Tuesday afternoon to help their newest convert, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, attend fundraisers back home with President Obama, as party bigwigs made clear who they back in what's expected to be a brutal Democratic primary.

September 16, 2009

Specter flip-flops again, backs labor bill

Flipping yet again, Sen. Arlen Specter on Tuesday told labor leaders he will back the labor-friendly bill Democratic leaders want to bring up for a vote later this year.

September 15, 2009

Obama aide clashes with immigrant groups

President Obama's new director of Citizenship and Immigration Services on Monday defended the accuracy of E-Verify, the government's electronic verification system for workers.

September 15, 2009

Obama’s late spending spree reaches goal

President Obama met his goal of obligating $225 billion in stimulus money within 200 days, but only by going on a late spending spree that included a last-minute $11 billion grant to states to spend on education.

September 14, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Forest fire funds aid D.C. festivals

The U.S. Forest Service this week announced it will spend nearly $2.8 million in forest-fire-fighting money in Washington — a city with no national forests and where the last major fire was probably lit by British troops in 1814.

September 11, 2009

Obama asks Congress to pass health bill

Seizing control of the health care debate, President Obama implored feuding lawmakers Wednesday night to pass a plan that would require Americans to buy insurance and all companies to help cover the costs.

September 10, 2009

Public option not only hurdle

The fight over a public insurance option has grabbed all the attention, but President Obama's health care plan faces plenty of other obstacles, from the price tag to ideological battles over immigration and abortion to questions over who would be kicked off their current plans.

September 10, 2009

Pro-reform doctor wants critics to forgo Medicare

Oppose a government health care plan? A Jackson, Miss., doctor wants you to put your convictions on the line by burning your mother's Medicare card.

September 7, 2009

Delta residents deal with lack of insurance

Bad economic times, coupled with the traditional agriculture-based economy, mean many businesses in the Mississippi Delta simply don't offer coverage to their workers. The solutions, however, are not as easy to pinpoint.

September 6, 2009

GOP urges Rangel to give up post

With accusations of tax evasion mounting against Rep. Charles B. Rangel, the top House Republican on Friday called for the New York Democrat to step aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

September 5, 2009

Senate’s liberal lion falls to cancer at 77

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a one-time presidential hopeful and nine-term senator who evolved from the overshadowed youngest son to the patriarch of the country's most famous political dynasty, died late Tuesday.

August 27, 2009

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy dies at 77

It boggles the mind to imagine the decisions that were reached behind the closed doors of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's hideaway, the private office he kept near the Senate chamber.

August 26, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: House quietly gives ‘bonuses’ to top aides

Members of the House of Representatives quietly gave their own staffers a potential bonus by making even their top-earning aides eligible for taxpayer dollars to repay their student loans.

August 25, 2009

Fresh fight looms over immigration

With President Obama putting off the immigration reform debate until next year, immigrant rights groups are pushing the administration to suspend tough enforcement practices so illegal immigrants aren't punished under the current system.

August 18, 2009

Pace of stimulus spending plummets

Stimulus bill spending has slowed to a trickle, despite President Obama's June order to his Cabinet to speed it up.

August 14, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Bill requires doubling nuke use

To satisfy House Democrats' low-cost solution to global warming, Americans would have to double their reliance on nuclear energy by 2030.

August 12, 2009

Obama puts off immigration bill

President Obama said Monday that Congress would not be able to pass an immigration bill until next year, acknowledging that more pressing items on his agenda have crowded out the issue.

August 11, 2009

Prospects dim for Mexican firearms treaty

President Obama's call for the Senate to ratify a hemispheric small-firearms treaty dominated his last visit to Mexico, but in the four months since, both the treaty pledge and the drug violence that prompted it have dropped off the radar - a victim of Congress' full schedule and gun politics.

August 9, 2009