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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., joined by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La., left, and other GOP leaders, meets with reporters following a closed-door caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this Wednesday, April 13, 2016, file photo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) ** FILE **

House GOP agrees: Puerto Rico bill isn’t a ‘bailout’

Congress' bill to rescue Puerto Rico from its debt crisis is not a bailout, House Republicans agreed Friday, but conservatives are still coming to grips with provisions that appear to rewrite the rules from under the island's creditors.

April 15, 2016
Lara, who is less than 3 months old and was born with microcephaly, is examined by a neurologist at the Pedro I hospital in Campina Grande, Paraiba state, Brazil, on Feb. 12, 2016. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Zika causes birth defects: CDC

The Zika virus definitely causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and suffer other brain defects, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday, hoping to erase any doubt about the mosquito-borne illness' threat to pregnant women and their newborns.

April 13, 2016
House of Representatives Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico Pedro Pierluisi speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 13, 2016, during the House Natural Resources Committee legislative hearing on a discussion draft of the "Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

GOP leaders scramble to rescue Puerto Rico from $72B debt

House Republican leaders scrambled Thursday to rally support for a bill that rescues Puerto Rico from $72 billion in bond debt by imposing an oversight board to audit the U.S. territory's finances and put it on a path toward fiscal responsibility.

April 13, 2016
National Edition News cover for April 18, 2015 - Obamacare fails to deliver on free birth control as some insurers charge fees: FILE - This May 28, 1999, file photo shows a new birth control pill container designed to look like a woman's makeup compact for Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc., of Raritan, N.J., displayed at the manufacturer's assembly line. More than half of privately insured women are getting free birth control due to President Barack Obama’s health care law, part of a big shift that’s likely to continue despite the Supreme Court allowing some employers with religious objections to opt out. (AP Photo/Mike Derer, File)

Obama rejects Supreme Court’s contraception trade-off

The administration shot down the Supreme Court's effort to forge a compromise on Obamacare's contraceptive mandate, saying Tuesday that the justices' alternative proposal would set up too many hurdles for the government and insurers.

April 12, 2016
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California says his chamber has returned from recess ready to tackle the nation's opioid epidemic. (Associated Press)

Kevin McCarthy says House will target opioid epidemic

House GOP leaders returning from Easter break say they have a strategy for tackling the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic that's ravaging the country, though a key senator is urging them to work fast, noting his chamber sent them a bill that's "ready to go."

April 10, 2016
FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016 file photo, army soldiers set up a sign that reads in Portuguese "A mosquito is not stronger than an entire country" at the Central station in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as troops across Brazil try to tackle the Zika virus. Scientists may have the first evidence that Zika causes temporary paralysis, according to a new study of patients who developed the rare condition during an outbreak of the virus in Tahiti two years ago. The research was published online Monday, Feb. 29 in the journal, Lancet. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, file)

Large share of Americans know little about Zika: Poll

A large number of Americans have heard little or nothing about the Zika virus, according to a new poll Thursday that shows found most people in the U.S. are not terribly concerned about an outbreak here.

April 7, 2016
In this Jan. 18, 2016, file photo, a researcher holds a container of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at the Biomedical Sciences Institute at Sao Paulo University in Brazil. The Zika virus is mainly transmitted through bites from the same kind of mosquitoes that can spread other tropical diseases, like dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

Zika virus: White House transfers nearly $600M from Ebola fight

The White House will redirect nearly $600 million from the Ebola fight in West Africa and other accounts to combat Zika virus, the latest big health scare, tacitly caving to GOP demands Wednesday even as it said it still wants $1.9 billion from Congress to combat the new threat.

April 6, 2016
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, accompanied by, from left, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2016, following a policy luncheon. McConnell took questions on the potential for hearings on Merrick Garland as President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, his relationship to Republican presidential candidates and other topics. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Mitch McConnell: Senate will begin spending process without budget in place

The Senate will likely miss the deadline for approving a federal budget, forgoing the annual blueprint that is supposed to govern all spending, and instead will write bills based on a higher dollar total than the one John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, agreed to with President Obama last year before stepping down as House speaker.

April 5, 2016
Janine Santos holds her 3-month-old son Shayde Henrique who was born with microcephaly while health workers visit her home in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) ** FILE **

White House: Money isn’t there to fight the Zika virus

Congress should "do its job" and take up President Obama's request for nearly $2 billion to combat the Zika virus, the White House said Friday in its most urgent plea to date for emergency funding to defend pregnant women against the mosquito-borne disease linked to serious birth defects.

April 1, 2016