S.A. Miller

EXCLUSIVE: AFL-CIO pledges votes for Specter

Angling for a critical Senate swing vote to pass the "card check" bill that would make it easier to form unions, Pennsylvania labor leaders promised Sen. Arlen Specter that they will switch union members from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party to help him win a tough 2010 primary election, The Washington Times has learned.

March 16, 2009

China resolution pressures Obama

A House resolution condemning Beijing for a clash between Chinese vessels and a U.S. Navy ship last weekend threatens to up the ante at the high-profile first meeting of President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao next month.

March 13, 2009

Senate passes omnibus bill

The first major spending bill of the new Obama administration came stuffed with some old-fashioned pork as a $410 billion omnibus bill covering a slew of federal agencies won final approval Tuesday in the Senate.

March 11, 2009

Democrats brand earmarks as good

Capitol Hill's top Democrats are making a full-throated effort to rebrand earmarks as good government, not a dirty word synonymous with pork-barrel hijinks.

March 9, 2009

Senate delays spending bill vote

UPDATED: Senate Democrats beat back a series of Republican proposed changes to a $410 billion omnibus spending bill Thursday, but they couldn't muster enough votes.

March 6, 2009

Bush policies cut from omnibus bill

Senate Democrats rejected a move Thursday to ban U.S. dollars going to a U.N. family-planning program that critics say promotes abortions, one of more than a dozen Bush administration policies being erased in a $410 billion omnibus spending bill.

March 5, 2009

Leahy battles alone for ‘truth’

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy's pursuit of a "truth commission" to expose possible Bush administration abuses became a lonely quest Wednesday as fellow senators skipped a hearing for more compelling events elsewhere at the Capitol.

March 5, 2009

Top Democrats cross Obama on earmarks

UPDATED: President Obama's drive to change Washington's free-spending ways is running into a buzz saw of opposition from his party, as another top congressional Democrat on Tuesday bucked the president's plan to curb pork projects.

March 4, 2009

Senate kills spending freeze measure

The Senate on Tuesday shot down a Republican measure that would have frozen federal spending at 2008 levels for the current fiscal year, preferring to stick with an omnibus package that increases spending by about 8 percent.

March 3, 2009

President first to get a Zulu coconut

President Bill Clinton didn't get one.

March 3, 2009

Obama’s cap, trade irk some in party

Senate Democrats are breaking with President Obama over his plan for sweeping new climate-change laws that he says will rake in billions of dollars to help offset massive budget deficits.

March 2, 2009

McCain: Iraq withdrawal ‘reasonable’

Sen. John McCain, who made criticism of Barack Obama's war judgment a cornerstone of the presidential race, on Friday threw his support behind President Obama's plan for a dramatic drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq by August 2010.

February 27, 2009

Dems’ spending bill guts Bush policies

Democrats, freed from former President George W. Bush's veto threats, are eviscerating that administration's programs with funding cuts and policy changes in the spending bill that the House passed Wednesday.

February 26, 2009

Burris ignores calls to quit

Sen. Roland W. Burris told top Senate Democrats on Tuesday that he will not resign, despite a growing chorus of calls for him to quit as he faces an ethics committee probe.

February 25, 2009

Another massive spending bill on the agenda

After a week off taking a victory lap for passing an economic stimulus, Congress' Democratic leaders return to Washington on Monday for a second race against the clock to pass another massive spending package.

February 23, 2009

Burris perjury probe vexes Democrats

As if enough hasn't already gone wrong, with Cabinet nominees dropping like flies, bipartisanship out the window after just 30 days and the world's economy squarely on his back, President Obama has a new problem with the man who took his old Senate seat, a problem he thought had been solved.

February 19, 2009

GOP to hound pro-stimulus Blue Dogs

The handful of the House's Blue Dog Democrats who switched their votes from "no" to "yes" on the huge economic stimulus are working overtime this week in their conservative-leaning districts to explain the change of heart.

February 18, 2009

Calif. tax hikes may swallow stimulus

Sen. Dianne Feinstein's message for Californians who gripe about the $7.70 per week tax cut from President Obama's economic stimulus package: They would have got nothing if she had her way.

February 14, 2009

CBO predicts lower GDP in a decade

The Congressional Budget Office says President Obama's giant economic recovery bill will actually hurt Americans' paychecks in the long run, even if the plan's tax cuts start out putting an extra $13 a week in most worker's pockets.

February 13, 2009

Deal reached on historic stimulus

UPDATED: The White House and Democrat-controlled Congress struck a deal Wednesday for a $789 billion stimulus package.

February 12, 2009