After years of temporary solutions, Congress may have found a solution to the perennial problem of looming Medicare physician-payment cuts in 2013. Finding nearly $300 billion to pay for a fix has proven too difficult an issue for lawmakers to tackle in the past. Instead, Congress has routinely passed temporary...
The federal government will reach its debt limit in the last week of the year, according to an analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Center. The U.S. Treasury will be able to continue to meet its obligations until some point in February by employing so-called “extraordinary measures,” the analysis concludes. But...
Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is being considered for either Secretary of Defense or State, Foreign Policy reports. Hagel currently co-chairs President Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board, an independent group that advises the president on the intelligence community. If nominated, Hagel would be the lone Republican in the Obama administration, as...
Although U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice remains the front-runner to be President Obama's next secretary of state (even with all the controversy surrounding Rice's initial statements about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is still in contention for the post. And if Rice gets that...
While most of Washington is focused on the “fiscal cliff,” the Senate has been engaged in a debate this week over the function of the most notable procedural trick in the chamber’s rulebooks: the filibuster. The filibuster allows minority party senators to block consideration of legislation unless supporters are able...
Soon to be retired Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) unveiled their version of the Dream Act Tuesday, which has been in the works for over a year and also in Hutchison’s wheelhouse for at least five years.