While the political world held its breath awaiting the two presumptive presidential candidates' vice presidential picks, I slipped out of Washington and paid a visit to the real world.
Six more senators on Tuesday joined a bipartisan group of 10 senators backing a bill they say will break the stalemate over offshore drilling in Congress.
Republicans on Wednesday pressured congressional Democrats for a vote to lift a ban on offshore drilling before Congress begins its summer recess.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid surprised Republicans on Monday by offering them a chance to vote this week on four GOP-backed amendments to an energy bill, including one that would expand offshore oil drilling.
Congress is locked in a partisan dispute over energy legislation that has produced plenty of combustible debate but is unlikely to produce a bill to help lower gas prices anytime soon.
Congress appears unlikely to pass energy legislation before leaving this week for its August recess -- even though polls show Americans are worrying more about record high gas prices than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Polygamous sects that have spread throughout the United States and beyond are "a form of organized crime," largely unchecked by law enforcement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.
Partisan bickering Tuesday threatened to scuttle legislation meant to crack down on oil speculators and other measures designed to reduce oil prices.
The Senate gave final approval Thursday to a war funding measure that includes money for a new GI Bill and other domestic measures.
Senate negotiators said they reached a tentative agreement on a key obstacle to one of the most ambitious federal health initiatives ever, a $50 billion act to combat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa and other countries
While the political world held its breath awaiting the two presumptive presidential candidates' vice presidential picks, I slipped out of Washington and paid a visit to the real world.
Six more senators on Tuesday joined a bipartisan group of 10 senators backing a bill they say will break the stalemate over offshore drilling in Congress.
Republicans on Wednesday pressured congressional Democrats for a vote to lift a ban on offshore drilling before Congress begins its summer recess.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid surprised Republicans on Monday by offering them a chance to vote this week on four GOP-backed amendments to an energy bill, including one that would expand offshore oil drilling.
Congress is locked in a partisan dispute over energy legislation that has produced plenty of combustible debate but is unlikely to produce a bill to help lower gas prices anytime soon.
Congress appears unlikely to pass energy legislation before leaving this week for its August recess -- even though polls show Americans are worrying more about record high gas prices than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Polygamous sects that have spread throughout the United States and beyond are "a form of organized crime," largely unchecked by law enforcement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.
Partisan bickering Tuesday threatened to scuttle legislation meant to crack down on oil speculators and other measures designed to reduce oil prices.
The Senate gave final approval Thursday to a war funding measure that includes money for a new GI Bill and other domestic measures.
Senate negotiators said they reached a tentative agreement on a key obstacle to one of the most ambitious federal health initiatives ever, a $50 billion act to combat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa and other countries
House and Senate leaders Thursday announced a new effort to overhaul U.S. wiretapping laws that appears likely to let telecommunications companies escape lawsuits over the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program.
A bipartisan housing stimulus bill could be debated in the Senate as early as Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
Momentum built Wednesday for a bipartisan Senate bill designed to ease the slumping housing market and help millions of families threatened by foreclosure, though economists are skeptical that it will help much
Senate leaders have agreed to move forward on stalled legislation aimed at easing the impact of the falling housing market, the chamber's top Republican and Democrat announced Tuesday.
Leading Democrats in the Senate said Monday they would try to force a vote this week on legislation designed to help troubled mortgage-holders stay in their homes.
Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked efforts to give bankruptcy courts more power to stave off home foreclosures, a move the chamber's Democratic leader called "a big mistake."
If government rebate checks ranging from $300 to $1,200 for just about every household don't spur a consumer spending spree strong enough to cure what ails the economy, Congress is ready to throw more money at the problem
Tax rebate checks will begin going out in May, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said after the House's passage of a Senate-approved $167 billion economic stimulus package Thursday.
A Senate vote on an economic stimulus package must wait until next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday, allowing senators on the campaign trail to return to Washington.
President Bush's assurances that we'll all be "just fine" if he and Congress can work out an economic stimulus package seem a little hollow this morning.
U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy took 29 seconds Monday to open and close the Senate, the latest move in a standoff with President Bush over recess appointments.
In one of the shortest session in its history, the Senate's final session of the year lasted a total of 12 seconds Monday.
The U.S. Senate was called to order for 11 seconds on Wednesday as the last political scuffle of the year between the White House and the Democratic-led Congress played out.
President Bush on Wednesday signed a sweeping energy bill that he said would help the country become "stronger, cleaner and more secure."
Senators have left town for the Thanksgiving holiday, but the Senate will technically stay in session -- a move that keeps President Bush from making appointments while lawmakers are in recess.
Analysis: Senate Republicans have blocked a bad bill for the wrong reasons. But don't expect it to die
Senators on Friday weren't able to muster enough support to bring dueling war-funding bills to a final vote, possibly ending debate on the issue until next year.
The Bush administration on Monday asked Congress for nearly $46 billion in additional war spending for 2008, calling on U.S. lawmakers to approve the money before adjourning for the holidays.
Congress and President Bush are headed to a showdown with no sign of compromise on a popular children's health care bill .
Republican senators on Friday were again able to block a Democratic amendment that would set "definite timelines" for bringing home American combat forces from Iraq.
Democrats are disappointed they have been unable to force President Bush to change course in Iraq, but they will keep pushing -- with or without Republican help, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.
Back in power, the Democrats are discovering that role reversal in the House isn't all it's cracked up to be
The Senate's top Democrat challenged Republicans Monday to help push President Bush to change course in Iraq, hours after the president's spokesman denied a report about White House debate over a troop pullback.
As Congress begins voting on the controversial bill, the White House and the G.O.P. trade jabs -- and spin
Though the Senate voted Tuesday to bring President Bush's immigration reform bill back to the Senate floor, objections to any of two dozen amendments to be debated starting Wednesday could kill the bill for the year.
It's baaaack. Comprehensive immigration reform isn't dead after all, and thank goodness for that.
The President goes to Capitol Hill in an effort save the troubled bill
Senate Democrats will once again try to impose timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Tuesday.
President Bush broke bread with resistant Senate Republicans on Tuesday, but the fate of a White House-supported immigration bill remained uncertain.
These are some facts from tonight's show that you might find interesting.
As the Senate prepares to vote on a measure that would cut off funding for the war in Iraq, Democrats running for president are making a hard decision -- whether to vote for an amendment that would cut off funding for the war.
The top Democrat in the Senate announced Monday he is moving two major Iraq votes into an unrelated water bill, a decision that could clear the way for an Iraq funding vote as early as this week.
Four years to the day after standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier and declaring "major combat operations" in Iraq were over, President Bush on Tuesday vetoed a war-spending bill that calls for the start of a withdrawal of American combat troops from the conflict.
President Bush is warming up his veto muscles after the Senate passed a war funding bill Thursday that sets a deadline for withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by next April.
Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday blasted "self-appointed strategists" on Capitol Hill for trying to force the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, declaring the U.S. military answers to the president, not Congress.
After months of heated rhetoric slamming President Bush's Iraq policy, the Senate's top Democrat moved into new terrain by declaring the Iraq war a worse blunder than Vietnam.
Seventeen Republicans joined Democrats on Friday in passing a two-sentence resolution denouncing President Bush's plan to boost troop levels in Iraq.
Setting up a new showdown over Iraq, Senate Democratic leaders announced Thursday they will hold a key test vote Saturday on a resolution opposing President Bush's plan to send additional troops into combat.
Senate Democrats have decided to push aside a stalled bipartisan resolution opposing President Bush's troop boost in Iraq in favor of a more simplified measure now being debated in the House.
House Democrats put their military veterans front and center Tuesday, beginning three days of debate on a resolution against increasing U.S. forces in Iraq.
Senate Republicans used a procedural maneuver Monday to keep Democratic leaders from moving forward with a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq.
The days of lawmakers slipping pet projects into spending bills at the last minute are ending after the Senate approved a new rule Tuesday forcing members to disclose requests for those "earmarks."
The House of Representatives passed the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 by a wide margin on Wednesday afternoon.
The Senate shot down an attempt by Democrats to bring a vote of no confidence in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the floor Wednesday.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday called on Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson to resign after another incident involving the loss of a computer containing personal data on tens of thousands of veterans.
The Senate's top Democrat says 1994's "Contract with America," the Republican campaign agenda the year the GOP regained control of Congress -- was an "urban myth."
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid discovered this week he was the victim of identity theft after someone used his MasterCard number to charge about $2,000 at a Wal-Mart and other stores in Monroe, North Carolina.
Iraq's prime minister told Congress on Wednesday that his nation wants to play a role in Mideast stability and to encourage dialogue to solve international conflicts.
A week after the GOP-led Senate rejected an increase to the minimum wage, Senate Democrats on Tuesday vowed to block pay raises for members of Congress until the minimum wage is increased.
A contentious $70 billion tax-cut package awaits only President Bush's signature after the Senate on Thursday passed the measure 54-44, largely along party lines.
President Bush met Tuesday at the White House with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss ways to overhaul immigration, a chat that earned the president kudos from two men normally among his staunchest critics.
Did you catch Sen. Harry Reid's reaction to President George W. Bush's replacement of Chief of Staff Andy Card with Budget Director Joshua Bolten? Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, called Bolten a "failure." It could have been worse. He might have inveighed against Bolten's terrible temper. In fact, the Democrats still might sound the alarm over reports of Bolten's terrible temper.
You can call what Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid did this week "a stunt,'' but it was certainly the political Play of the Week.
Sen. Pat Roberts, the Republican head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that Democrats knew progress was being made in the investigation of prewar intelligence on Iraq when they called for a rare closed session.
The Senate minority leader said Sunday that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney owe the country an explanation of "what's going on" in the administration and called for White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to be fired.
Conservatives and liberals reacted cautiously Monday to President Bush's nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers, noting her lack of experience as a judge and the absence of a record that definitively demonstrates her judicial philosophy.
For several elections, Democrats have been hurt by the widespread perception that the party consists of a confederation of interest groups to which Democratic leadership is slavishly beholden.
Not waiting for President Bush to outline his Hurricane Katrina recovery plans, Democratic congressional leaders Thursday afternoon issued their own call for a domestic "Marshall Plan" to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
A bipartisan joint congressional committee will review the response at all levels of government to Hurricane Katrina, the leaders of the House and Senate said Wednesday.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid suffered a mild stroke earlier this week and underwent tests, but he was not hospitalized and "feels fine," his office said Friday.
The outcry from social conservatives over the possible nomination of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to fill the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor is having an unintended consequence.
Senate Democrats will not allow a vote on President Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador unless the White House hands over records of communications intercepts Bolton sought from the secretive National Security Agency, Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.
A Senate vote on John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations won't come until at least next month after Democrats forced a delay Thursday, demanding the Bush administration turn over documents.
The Senate's top Democrat said Monday he is still working with his Republican counterpart, Majority Leader Bill Frist, in hopes of defusing a standoff over some of President Bush's judicial nominees.
If Senate minority leader Harry Reid is spooked by Republican threats to curb the mighty filibuster in order to get President Bush's judges appointed to the bench, he isn't showing it.
Angered by Republican criticism, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday suggested President Bush's calls for unity are proving "absolutely false."
The top two congressional Democrats made it clear Wednesday night they would fight President Bush's Social Security proposals and press him for a plan to bring home troops from Iraq.
The Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union address from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Amid strong competition over who will lead the party as the next Democratic National Committee chairman, former Indiana congressman and 9/11 commission member Tim Roemer has emerged as a possible new candidate.
Incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Sunday had harsh words for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Harry Reid is the kind of adversary who might just wear you down.
U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said Friday that he will remain chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee in the coming congressional session.
In the wake of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's election defeat Tuesday, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada said Wednesday that he has enough support among his colleagues to become the next Democratic leader.
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