S.A. Miller

Dems give insurers tax break in final bill

UPDATED: Senate Democratic leaders say last-minute changes to the health care bill include giving nonprofit health insurance companies an exemption from the excise tax on insurers, a revision pushed by Sen. Carl Levin, who is a major recipient of campaign contributions form mega nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield.

December 19, 2009

Liberals irked by Obama’s compromises

Liberal Democrats in and out of Congress are expressing mounting frustration with President Obama and what they say are decisions by the president discarding major elements of their agenda.

December 17, 2009

Lawmakers’ fine dining on taxpayers’ tab

Lean economic times didn't stop members of Congress from splurging taxpayer dollars on food and drink, including a $6,090 meal tab racked up in a single day by Guam Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo during a visit home with members of the House Natural Resources Committee, according to a new report.

December 15, 2009

House members eat up tax dollars

A new report shows that lean economic times didn't stop members of Congress from splurging taxpayer dollars on food and drink, including a $6,090 meal tab racked up in a single day by Guam Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo.

December 14, 2009

Powerful lawmakers clash over $3B Army contract

In a classic example of how hometown interests rule on Capitol Hill when money is at stake, Texas and Wisconsin lawmakers are slugging it out over whose state takes home a disputed $3 billion defense contract.

December 14, 2009

Left rankled over Obama war remarks

Antiwar Democrats on Capitol Hill are bristling at President Obama's remarks about the need to wage "just wars" in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize last week in Oslo.

December 13, 2009

Rising costs predicted in health care bill

Dealing an unexpected blow to Senate Democrat's health care bill, administration economists on Friday predicted the overhaul would accelerate rising costs of health insurance and medical services, and that its proposed Medicare cuts could reduce care for senior citizens.

December 12, 2009

Anti-war forces bristle at Obama’s Nobel speech

President Obama's acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize won praise from conservatives, but some anti-war Democrats in Congress bristled at the commander-in-chief's ruminations about waging a "just war."

December 11, 2009

Guns soon could be checked in on Amtrak

Gun-toting Amtrak passengers are one giant step closer to being allowed to travel with firearms in their checked luggage, as lawmakers included a measure to lift a railroad gun ban in a catch-all spending bill for fiscal 2010.

December 9, 2009

Probe clears ACORN of systematic lawbreaking

An independent investigation commissioned by ACORN cleared the embattled organization of systematic lawbreaking, but recommended that it stop some of its political work and revealed serious management shortcomings.

December 8, 2009

States vie for $69B in infrastructure funds

State transportation officials are clamoring for $69 billion in infrastructure projects in the jobs bill, underscoring criticism that the first stimulus gave short shrift to job-creating highway construction.

December 7, 2009

Estate tax rate to be set at 45%

House Democrats passed a freeze of the estate tax, making permanent the 45 percent rate on inheritances of more than $3.5 million and undoing part of President George W. Bush's cuts that would have temporarily eliminated the tax next year.

December 4, 2009

Congress struggles to pay for Afghan surge

President Obama's plan to up the ante in the Afghanistan war faces a major obstacle in Congress: paying the tab.

December 2, 2009

House panel calls for party crashers to testify

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee called for the couple who crashed President Obama's first state dinner and the director of the Secret Service to testify at a full committee hearing this week.

November 30, 2009

Quiet GOP tactic stalls top Obama appointments

Sen. Jim DeMint has locked a "hold" on President Obama's pick to head the Transportation Security Administration over concerns the nominee would undermine safety by allowing airport security screeners to unionize, the latest in a series of appointments stymied by Republican objections that are increasingly frustrating the Senate's Democratic majority.

November 29, 2009

S.C. governor faces 37 ethics violations

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was hit with formal charges of 37 ethics violations, forcing a former Republican rising star to need to fight for his own political survival.

November 24, 2009

U.S. not ‘afraid’ of terror trials

A top House Democratic leader says Americans no longer fear bringing terrorist suspects from Guantanamo Bay detention center to the United States, a shift in public opinion that he says will fuel the defeat of Republican measures to block the transfers.

November 24, 2009

Report: ACORN mismanaged grant money

A report Friday by the Justice Department's independent inspector general revealed that ACORN won approval for nearly $200,000 in Justice grants since 2002 and mismanaged some of the money.

November 21, 2009

Ethics panel scolds Burris over testimony

The Senate Select Committee on Ethics admonished Illinois Democratic Sen. Roland W. Burris on Friday for giving "inconsistent, incomplete and misleading" testimony about contact with Illinois' disgraced then-Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich prior to receiving his Senate appointment, but it stopped short of recommending further legal action.