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A tea party supporter holds a Don't Tread on Me flag during a rally on Saturday, April 16, 2011, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

IRS to start over on rules governing tea party groups, other nonprofits

The IRS said Thursday it will go back and rewrite the proposed rules governing nonprofit groups and political activity, bowing to overwhelming opposition from tea party groups and free speech advocates on both ends of the ideological spectrum who feared the tax agency would hurt political debate.

May 22, 2014
**FILE** Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, speaks to reporters after a Democratic caucus lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 13, 2014. (Associated Press)

Reid floats immigration delay as way to break gridlock

Seeking to break a deadlock on immigration reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday said Congress could pass a legalization bill now but make it effective in 2017, after President Obama leaves office, as a way of earning Republican support.

May 22, 2014
** FILE ** In this Sunday, June 9, 2013, file photo provided by The Guardian newspaper in London, shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the U.S. National Security Agency, in Hong Kong. Two Norwegian lawmakers said Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014 that they have jointly nominated former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/The Guardian, File)

House votes to shut down NSA phone-snooping

In an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago, the House on Thursday approved a bill to cancel the government's bulk-data collection programs, including the NSA's phone-records snooping.

May 22, 2014
The nomination of Harvard law professor David Barron cleared a Semate procedural hurdle Wednesday in his bid to become a federal judge. (Associated Press)

Democrats push ‘drone judge’ past filibuster

Senate Democrats cleared the path Wednesday to confirm the so-called "drone judge," the lawyer who wrote memos justifying the government's ability to target and kill an American citizen overseas without his first having been convicted by a criminal court.

May 21, 2014

House votes to prod VA to fire officials for delays

The House voted Wednesday to prod Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to begin firing or demoting senior-level executives within his department who were responsible for long wait lists and poor medical care.

May 21, 2014
The Pentagon. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Pentagon looks to enlist illegal immigrants seeking citizenship

The Defense Department said Monday it is looking at expanding its application pool by letting some young illegal immigrants join the military, in what could be another tool for an Obama administration seeking unilateral steps to take on immigration reform.

May 20, 2014
Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of The New York Times, was replaced by Dean Baquet, the managing editor of the newspaper. (Evan Agostini/Associated Press) ** FILE **

Harry Reid says NYT firing of Abramson shows need for pay equality legislation

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson's case to the Senate floor Thursday, saying her firing is a reason why Congress should pass Democrats' Paycheck Fairness Act, which would give people more avenues to sue over perceived pay discrimination.

May 15, 2014
Midland University president and Republican Senate candidate Ben Sasse is pictured on campus in this photo from June 5, 2013, in Fremont, Neb. The Senate Conservatives Fund, a national conservative group, has endorsed Sasse in Nebraska's U.S. Senate race on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, setting him up as the race's tea party candidate. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Tea party favorite Ben Sasse wins bruising Nebraska GOP primary

Ben Sasse won the Republican nomination for Nebraska's open Senate seat Tuesday, besting a crowded, competitive field, leaving him well-positioned to win in November and delivering a win to insurgent conservative groups who said it served as a rebuke to GOP power brokers in Washington.

May 13, 2014
** FILE ** Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. (Associated Press)

Questions on racism, drone attacks plague Obama judicial nominees

The White House is facing another tough battle over one of its judicial nominees — only this time President Obama faces opposition from his own party, with his former Senate colleagues accusing one of his picks for a federal judgeship in Georgia of turning a blind eye to racism in a debate over the Confederate symbol on the state's former flag.

May 13, 2014
** FILE ** This March 22, 2013, file photo shows the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

IRS is still paying billions in bogus tax credits to the poor

The IRS is still paying more than $10 billion a year in bogus payments to the poor under the Earned Income Tax Credit, the agency's auditor said in a new report released Tuesday that says about a quarter of all payments are improper.

May 13, 2014
The refusal of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, to allow a freewheeling Senate floor debate on the energy efficiency bill resulted in a Republican filibuster that doomed the bill to defeat for the second time in less than a year. (Associated Press Photographs)

GOP filibuster blocks energy efficiency bill

Fed up with what they see as dictatorial behavior by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republicans on Monday filibustered to block an energy efficiency bill, dooming it to defeat for a second time in less than a year and signaling just how bad relations have gotten in the upper chamber.

May 12, 2014