Senate, Lawmaker | featured news

A senior lawmaker said on Sunday that he and fellow Senate Democrats, for the first time more than in three years, intend to meet Republican demands to finally pass a U.S. budget.

Senate Majority Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Sunday night that they had come to an agreement on a deal that would raise the debt limit and reduce the deficit.

Senate negotiators, including Amy Klobuchar, D.- Minn., on Thursday announced a final deal that ends a 45-cent per gallon tax credit for ethanol.

Many lawmakers and staff members say the issue would probably pass if it were brought up for consideration.

Senior lawmakers said on Sunday they were optimistic about striking a deal to extend Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers and continue emergency jobless aid for millions of long-term unemployed Americans.

The Senate's Republican leader says congressional lawmakers can and should vote to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, repeatedly if necessary.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, who holds the record as the longest-serving member of Congress, is seriously ill in a Washington-area hospital.

A Florida state senator was caught looking at pornographic material last week in the middle of debate on the Senate floor. Sunshine State News filmed video of Republican state Sen. Mike Bennett apparently looking at an e-mail that showed four women in bikinis. The video blacks out the naughty parts, but according to the report the women had their tops exposed.

The Senate's second-ranking Republican leader says he expects GOP lawmakers will vote to extend unemployment benefits this week — derailing a fellow Republican's objections.

Lawmakers in both parties are contemplating for the first time the possibility that the Republicans might recapture the Senate this year, though it's an uphill climb in which the GOP would have to win states that have ...