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Articles by Stephen Dinan

House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio (center) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia both said they expect their colleagues will take up an immigration reform proposal. "The committees are still working on this issue," Mr. Cantor said. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

House GOP balking at broad immigration bill

House Republican leaders said Wednesday they are still intent on holding an immigration debate in their chamber this year, though they said it will not be on the kind of broad, comprehensive plan the Senate passed and that President Obama has demanded.

October 23, 2013

Obamacare concern: Health care users start to get kicked off insurance plans

For several years, Obamacare provided new benefits: Children could stay on their parents' plans longer, insurance companies couldn't impose lifetime benefit caps, and seniors got extra help in buying prescription drugs. But during the past two months, some consumers have been kicked off plans.

October 23, 2013
**FILE** House Ways and Means Committees Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, Michigan Republican. (Associated Press)

GOP: IRS picks Obamacare over regular taxpayers

The IRS said this week it is delaying the start of the tax filing season, leading Republicans to argue that the agency is putting its focus on implementing Obamacare at the expense of helping average taxpayers.

October 23, 2013
**FILE** The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington is seen on March 22, 2013. (Associated Press)

IRS wastes billions in bogus claims for Earned Income Tax Credit

The Internal Revenue Service paid up to $13.6 billion in bogus claims for the Earned Income Tax Credit last year and as much as $132.6 billion over the past decade, according to an internal audit that already has some members of Congress questioning how the agency will be able to administer Obamacare.

October 22, 2013
Furloughed Air Force employee Anna Cima of Mclean, Va., holds a poster that reads "Tired of Being a Pawn in Your Game" as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democrats call on Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) to end the government shutdown at a press conference on the House east front steps of the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, October 2, 2013. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Furloughed federal workers must return unemployment pay

Most federal employees who filed for unemployment compensation while they were furloughed are being asked to pay that money back, now that Congress and President Obama have agreed to pay all of those workers for their time off.

October 20, 2013

Vets join fight to find, capture child predators

Recruiting former troops to a new fight, the Homeland Security Department swore in its inaugural class of military veterans Friday to be special operatives trained to track down child pornographers and sex abusers.

October 20, 2013
Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson, left, and Army Gen. Carter Ham, speak to reporters on gays in the military, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010, at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

DHS nominee Jeh Johnson lacks immigration experience

Republicans are already attacking the man President Obama will nominate to head the Homeland Security Department for his lack of experience on immigration, questioning how he can be qualified if he is not familiar with a major part of the department secretary's portfolio.

October 18, 2013

Immigration back on the front burner for Obama

President Obama said early Thursday that he wants to make a major push to have Congress pass immigration legislation this year — but by late in the day the White House was confirming he will nominate someone with little immigration experience to head the Department of Homeland Security.

October 18, 2013
In this photo provided by CBS News, on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks on CBS' "Face the Nation" in Washington about the partial federal government shutdown. (AP Photo/CBS News, Chris Usher)

Lawmakers ‘cringe’ at Senate’s pork-laden spending deal

The debt deal reopening the federal government, hurriedly written Wednesday afternoon, began to rot in the sunlight Thursday as lawmakers distanced themselves from some of the pork projects and other goodies tossed in to sweeten the bill for lawmakers.

October 17, 2013
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Pelosi on pork project: ‘What difference does it make?’

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Thursday said she can't answer for why pork-barrel items snuck into the debt and spending bill that passed Congress late Thursday, but said the press should stop focusing on that and instead look at the broader debt fight.

October 17, 2013
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, walks to the floor from a closed-door meeting with Republican senators at the Capitol on Wednesday. Mr. McConnell and his Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, reached last-minute agreement to avert a possible default on government debt. (Associated press photographs)

Congress agrees to end shutdown

Moving with stunning speed, Congress voted Wednesday to end the 16-day government shutdown and avert the potential for the first major debt default in U.S. history in a deal that gave President Obama most of what he sought — an open government and more borrowing authority without denting Obamacare.

October 16, 2013
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, Kansas Republican, said he doubts President Obama will show flexibility on the immigration policy reform issue. "If the president says he doesn't want border security, that kills the issue." Immigration may become the next battleground.

GOP skeptical Obama will negotiate on immigration

Now that a temporary solution to the partial government shutdown and debt limit are at hand, President Obama says immigration is next, but House Republicans said that's not likely.

October 16, 2013
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is followed by reporters as he walks on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. Sen. McConnell and his Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are optimistic about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal preventing a possible federal default and ending the partial government shutdown after Republican divisions forced GOP leaders to drop efforts to ram their own version through the House.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Senate passes budget deal; bill heads to House

Congress was racing Wednesday night to approve legislation ending the 16-day-old government shutdown and avert the potential for the first major debt default in U.S. history in a deal that gave President Obama most of what he sought — an open government and more borrowing authority without denting Obamacare.

October 16, 2013
The late Sen. Frank Lautenberg and his wife Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg seen here in 2013. (credit: Associated PRess)

Stopgap bill approves $3 billion of pork spending

Buried inside the new stopgap spending bill are several pork project goodies, including nearly quadrupling the maximum price of a dam project on the Ohio River that is turning into a boondoggle — up to nearly $3 billion.

October 16, 2013