Congress | featured news

When taxpayers sit down to file their 2009 returns, they will find plenty new — some the result of adjusting for inflation, and other changes passed by Congress to fight the downturn.

Sarah Palin stormed the bestseller list last year with "Going Rogue"-a political memoir whose title coyly referenced the former GOP vice presidential nominee's supposed defiance of the consultants running the McCain campaign.

Rep. Charles Rangel, the influential chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, was publicly admonished by the House ethics panel Thursday for taking trips to the Caribbean that were paid for by private corporations.

Amid sinking poll numbers and a spate of retirements by veteran lawmakers, Democrats have one early advantage heading into November's congressional elections: money.

U.S. lawmakers moved Thursday to obtain internal company documents that a former Toyota official alleges show the auto maker hid safety defects from federal regulators. Separately, Toyota's president agreed to testify before Congress.

Determined to have a deficit commission with or without Congress' backing, President Barack Obama plans to announce on Thursday that he is establishing a panel similar to – although weaker than – the one lawmakers rejected.

Just 8 percent of Americans want the members of Congress re-elected, according to a CBS News-New York Times poll taken nine months before roughly one-third of the Senate and the entire House face voters.

The Feb. 5-10 survey found 81 percent of respondents saying the lawmakers shouldn't receive another term.

A hospital spokeswoman said the former congressman from Texas, chronicled in the movie “Charlie Wilson's War,” died of cardiopulmonary arrest.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says Congress can recoup "outrageous" bonuses for AIG employees through a new bank fee in President Barack Obama's proposed budget.

President Barack Obama pledged on Monday to halve a record 2010 budget deficit by the end of his first term in office, but made tackling double-digit unemployment his immediate priority with a spending plan that risked public ire and a rough battle in Congress.