Updated
Stop the presses! The federal government won’t shut down on Friday!! Okay, for anyone paying even a modicum of attention to the news in the last week, this shouldn’t come as much of a shocker. But, the two-week deferral passed by the Senate today 91-9 does nothing to bridge the $60 billion gap between the two chambers. So, …
UPDATED with House vote
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday that he will accept House Republicans’ two-week extension of government funding that comes with $4 billion in cuts. The House this afternoon passed the bill 335-91 with overwhelming bipartisan support. Reid says he will push that measure through the …
The House is expected to pass a stopgap measure on Tuesday to fund the government for the next two weeks while House and Senate negotiators work on a longer-term solution. Senate Democrats are still mulling over whether they want to pass the House bill or send it back with amendments, but it’s looking likely that something will pass …
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have been working behind the scenes to draft a two-week stopgap measure to avert a government shutdown that would include $4 billion in immediate cuts, according to House and Senate GOP aides.
The House would move first – the Rules Committee could meet as early as …
House and Senate leaders seem to be speaking over each other rather than to one another in the debate over spending cuts that could shutdown the government on March 4 – not a good sign.
House Speaker John Boehner today reiterated his position that the Senate take up the 2011 spending bill passed by the House early Saturday. …
I have a TIME.com story out today on what’s happening with the potential government shutdown and how 2011 is different from the last time this happened in 1995.
South Dakota Senator John Thune said Tuesday in a statement he will not seek the Republican nomination for President in 2012. Thune’s name had been floated as the sole sitting senator who might make a run. After beating Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2003, Thune has quickly climbed the Senate ranks. He currently serves as chairman …
Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman is expected to announce his retirement today, deepening the difficulty the party faces in its efforts to hold the chamber in 2012. Bingaman, who is in his fifth term, joins colleagues Virginia’s Jim Webb and North Dakota’s Kent Conrad in declining to run for re-election. (Sen. Joe Lieberman of …
Showing a little leg on deficit reduction is a highly risky proposition these days: display the scantest hint of skin and you risk losing a limb. The ink was still drying on the final edition of the Wall Street Journal‘s Thursday story detailing a grand bipartisan plan for deficit reduction when the angry missives began. Grover Norquist …
House Speaker John Boehner today ruled out a short term extension of current levels of government funding, raising the prospect of a government shutdown.
The House tonight or tomorrow is expected to pass funding for the government through the rest of the year. But both chambers of Congress are out next week for President’s Day recess. …
Slashing $100 billion from the 2011 budget may have appeased the Tea Party caucus and the freshman class, but it’s turning out to be not so comfortable for some Republican moderates.
On Monday New York Republicans Pete King and Michael Grimm sent Speaker Boehner a letter protesting cuts to transit security grants, the COPS program …
Protesters fill the Rotunda at the State Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin on February 16. (Photo by Mark Hirsch/Getty Images)
–Details begin to emerge on the Simpson-Bowles style deficit reduction package being crafted by Senators Durbin, Conrad, Warner, Coburn, Crapo and Chambliss.
–Authorities in Bahrain cracks down …
Senator Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican and ranking member on the Budget Committee, is an avowed free trader. Yet, Sessions is holding up the renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences, a trade agreement that has been around since the mid 1970’s. The GSP gives preference to 131 developing nations to sell certain goods in the …
