WASHINGTON -- For all the outcry over who in the White House knew about an inspector general report detailing instances of the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative groups, it turns out someone else was getting regular updates on the issue over the past year: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

J. Russell...

WASHINGTON -- The likelihood of a knockdown fight over the filibuster this summer increased on Tuesday as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled back a vote on the confirmation of Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Cordray is a contentious nominee because 43 Republicans...

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) offered his prayers and sympathies to the people harmed by Monday's devastating tornado in Oklahoma. But on the issue of disaster aid, he was mum on whether he and other Republicans will demand that any legislation be offset with budget cuts.

During a...

WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Monday it was wrong of lawmakers to unanimously pass legislation last month to ease the effects of sequestration on the Federal Aviation Administration, calling it bad policy and "unfair" to all the other programs struggling to adjust to the $85...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama called on Congress Thursday to "support and fully fund" his budget request for security at U.S. embassies, a move that puts the focus back on lawmakers and the role they can play in averting another attack like the one last year on a U.S. diplomatic...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has long been a supporter of legislation to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. But on Wednesday, he revealed a more personal reason for his support.

"My niece is a lesbian," Reid said during a sit-down with reporters. "She's a school...

WASHINGTON -- When the Senate voted last month to ease the effects of sequestration on the Federal Aviation Administration, not a single senator opposed it. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) conceded Wednesday that votes like that defeat the purpose of imposing the $85 billion in across-the-board...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans have been outraged for months over the Obama administration's response to the Benghazi consulate attack. They're outraged this week about the Internal Revenue Service singling out tea party groups for extra scrutiny. But their response to the Justice Department secretly obtaining phone records of 20 Associated...

WASHINGTON -- When faith leaders sat down with Vice President Joe Biden last week to talk about the next steps in advancing gun control legislation, they discussed the usual issues like background checks and gun trafficking. But one aspect of gun violence came up that united the group in a...

WASHINGTON -- Not only is House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) a weak leader, but if he were a woman, people would be calling him "the weakest speaker in history," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday.

During an interview on MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes," Pelosi, who served...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) ranted Thursday that President Barack Obama hasn't put forward judicial nominees for vacancies in Texas, some open and without a nominee for more than 1,000 days. But he got schooled by his Democratic colleagues, who reminded him he's responsible for recommending nominees to the...

WASHINGTON -- This weekend is Mother's Day, and right around this time last year, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was rounding up a group of lawmakers to spend the weekend in Afghanistan to thank military moms for their service. But the trip won't be happening this year, thanks to...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama played golf with senators on Monday and is having dinner with House Democratic leaders on Wednesday evening, but he's not the only one in the White House trying to build closer ties on Capitol Hill: his chief of staff Denis McDonough is, too.

McDonough was...

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday essentially agreed with Democrats' arguments that a Republican bill to prioritize debt payments would put China before U.S. troops -- except he suggested that would be a good thing.

During an interview with Bloomberg TV, Boehner was asked about this week's...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday that he could support tighter background checks on gun sales -- something he declined to do last month -- if the senators pushing the proposal change its provision dealing with Internet sales. But it remains to be seen whether his complaints about...

WASHINGTON -- During recent remarks to a local GOP group, Rep. Shelley Moore Capitol (R-W.Va.) hailed Medicare as "a tremendous program" and imagined she would have "many sleepless nights" without it, since her parents rely on it to keep the costs of their prescription drugs down.

What you wouldn't know...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) raised some eyebrows this week when he said that his constituents want more in sequestration cuts, not less, and that they aren't feeling "any measurable effect" of the $85 billion in this year's spending reductions.

It turns out that some constituents --...

WASHINGTON -- Nobody is particularly happy about the arbitrary, across-the-board spending cuts taking effect as a result of sequestration. That is, except for maybe Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), who said Tuesday that his constituents want even more cuts to kick in.

"The people that I've talked to seem to be...

WASHINGTON -- It's bad enough that there are 82 vacant federal judge slots around the country, a level so high that many observers have deemed it a crisis situation.

But perhaps even more startling is the fact that of those 82 vacant slots, 61 of them...

WASHINGTON -- It was weird enough that the House spent days debating a bill about helium. But then came Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who gave a floor speech commending Congress for "making the tough choice" to focus on gas instead of, say, the impact of sequestration...