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House Republicans are preparing for another showdown over the debt ceiling this summer. The House Ways and Means Committee passed a bill Wednesday to protect Social Security recipients and investors in Treasury bonds if the government hits the limit of its borrowing authority.

Investigators haven't found any ricin in the house of a man accused of mailing poisoned letters.

The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, the US Department of Justice says. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was charged in hospital, could face the death penalty. A White House spokesman has said Mr Tsarnaev will not be treated as an "enemy combatant", as suggested by some Republican members of Congress.

The days of tax-free online shopping could finally be numbered. The Senate is planning to vote on a bill as soon as Monday that would give states the authority to collect sales taxes on all Internet purchases, handing local governments as much as $11 billion per year in added revenue that they are legally owed — but that hasn’t been paid to them for years.

Senator Charles E. Grassley said, “Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will "hit pause" on the gun bill while senators see if they can find a workable compromise on strengthening background checks on gun purchases.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised a record $22.6 million during the first three months of the year, officials announced Thursday. It ended March with $8.9 million in cash reserves and $4.5 million in debt.

The defeat of several measures in the Senate made it clear that while the national sentiment about stemming the menace of guns in the wrong hands has shifted, the political dynamic has not.

Federal agents arrested a Mississippi man suspected of sending letters that showed evidence of ricin in initial testing to President Obama and a Republican senator, according to two officials.

The Senate has rejected a bipartisan effort to expand federal background checks to more firearms buyers in a crucial showdown over gun control. Today's vote was a jarring blow to the drive to curb firearms sparked by December's massacre of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. President Barack Obama made broadened background checks the centerpiece of his gun control proposals.