Stephen Dinan

Senate passes last-minute border security boost

The Senate on Thursday voted to hire 1,000 more U.S. Border Patrol agents as part of a $600 million border security bill, acting swiftly in the hours before they left to face constituents during their five-week summer vacation.

August 5, 2010

Social Security in the red this year

Social Security will pay out more this year than it gets in payroll taxes, marking the first time the program will be in the red, according to the annual authoritative report released Thursday by the program's actuary.

August 5, 2010

Senate OKs vote on cash to states

Congress is poised to extend a taxpayer-funded lifeline to cash-strapped states after the Senate on Wednesday advanced another round of $26 billion in stimulus spending for teachers and health care, and House Democrats said they will break their six-week summer vacation to return to Washington to vote on it next week.

August 4, 2010

Senate advances new government job stimulus

The Senate on Wednesday tossed a taxpayer-funded lifeline to financially strapped states, advancing a bill that would extend parts of last year's stimulus bill to cover more health care costs and fund more state and local government jobs.

August 4, 2010

Napolitano seeks review of illegal immigrant’s release

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has demanded a review of why federal immigration authorities released an illegal immigrant after a drunken-driving arrest in 2008 and who now has been charged with manslaughter stemming for a suspected drunken-driving crash that killed a Catholic nun this weekend.

August 3, 2010

Waters faces ethics charge

The House ethics committee will accuse Rep. Maxine Waters of breaking the chamber's rules after a year-long investigation into allegations she sought the Treasury Department's help for a bank in which her husband was invested, the committee said Monday.

August 2, 2010

Illegal immigrant who killed nun in accident was released by feds

UPDATED: The Virginia man suspected in a drunken-driving crash that killed a Catholic nun in Prince William County this weekend is an illegal immigrant and repeat offender who was awaiting deportation and whom federal immigration authorities had released pending further proceedings, police said Monday.

August 2, 2010

House ethics panel files charges against Maxine Waters

The House ethics committee will charge that Rep. Maxine Waters violated the chamber's rules after a yearlong investigation into allegations she tried to aid a bank in which her husband was invested, the committee said Monday.

August 2, 2010

Memo outlines backdoor ‘amnesty’ plan

With Congress gridlocked on an immigration bill, the Obama administration is considering using a back door to stop deporting many illegal immigrants - what a draft government memo said could be "a non-legislative version of amnesty."

July 29, 2010

House panel lodges 13 ethics charges against Rangel

Kicking off what promises to be a politically perilous process, the House ethics committee on Thursday officially lodged 13 different charges against Rep. Charles B. Rangel, including that he used his office to raise more than $8 million for a college public policy center named after him.

July 29, 2010

Feds win round 1 against Arizona

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked key parts of Arizona's tough new immigration law one day before it was to take effect, setting up a protracted legal battle and ensuring the issue will continue to roil the country through November's elections..

July 28, 2010

House GOP helps Obama fund war

Republicans came to President Obama's rescue Tuesday, providing him the votes needed for quick passage of a $59 billion emergency war-spending bill to fund his 30,000 Afghanistan troop surge.

July 27, 2010

Senate GOP blocks campaign-finance bill

Senate Republicans launched a successful filibuster Tuesday to uphold the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year that allows corporations and unions to spend freely on campaign ads.

July 27, 2010

Rangel charges shake up alliances

Democrats scrambled Monday to handle the fallout from ethics charges against Rep. Charles B. Rangel and tried to head off a politically costly public hearing, but Republicans said they wanted to see the ethics committee process play out.

July 26, 2010

‘Comeback’ for GOP seen in House races

The top Senate Republican said Thursday the GOP is "on a comeback" politically as Democrats scrambled to bury the hatchet after several days of intraparty squabbling over their chances to hold the House in November's elections.

July 15, 2010

Summer of sunny skies for stimulus?

Pointing to signs of an economic turnaround, the White House said that stimulus act spending finally has kicked into high gear and, as of June 30, had expanded the economy by up to 3.2 percent and created up to 3.6 million jobs.

July 14, 2010

Justice: Sanctuary cities safe from law

The Obama administration said this week that there is no reason to sue so-called sanctuary cities for refusing to cooperate with federal authorities, whereas Arizona's new immigration law was singled out because it "actively interferes" with enforcement.

July 14, 2010

White House says stimulus created 3.6 million jobs

The White House said Wednesday that stimulus-act spending finally has kicked into high gear and as of June 30 had grown the economy by up to 3.2 percent and created up to 3.6 million jobs.

July 14, 2010

Obama taps Clinton vet as budget office chief

Facing a potentially crippling fight over deficits and debt, President Obama on Tuesday tapped as his new budget director Jacob J. "Jack" Lew, the same man who helped President Clinton negotiate with a Republican Congress to achieve balanced budgets in the late 1990s.

July 13, 2010

Obama picks Lew as budget director

President Obama on Tuesday tapped as his new budget director Jacob J. "Jack" Lew, the same man who oversaw balanced budgets under President Clinton in the late 1990s.

July 13, 2010