WASHINGTON -- Even during moments of vicious partisan bickering, members of Congress seem to find common ground over their love of pets.

When Republicans were exploring every means possible to stall the Democrats' push for health care reform, they nevertheless put forward a measure to give people a

WASHINGTON -- The fallout from the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of tea party groups is not yet complete. But already, a slate of senators are trying to turn the scandal into a launching pad for reforming the laws on political activity by tax-exempt groups.

So far, two clear options...

WASHINGTON -- It is possible to build a tornado-proof home. But the cost would be excessive, and your house would certainly be the ugliest on the block.

In the wake of the devastating tornado in Moore, Okla., on Monday, the discussion has turned, in part, toward how individuals and...

WASHINGTON -- White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged on Monday that senior staffers to President Barack Obama were informed in late April that a forthcoming audit of the IRS would reveal that officials there had targeted conservative groups. Nevertheless, Carney said, they did not warn the president about the...

WASHINGTON -- The controversy surrounding the IRS' targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status is, if nothing else, an easy target. Virtually no one has defended the actions of the tax-collection agency, including its outgoing acting commissioner. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came the closest, and he merely...

WASHINGTON -- During the fall months of 2010, congressional Democrats grew increasingly alarmed that conservative non-profit groups, backed by big-money donors, would tip the scales of the upcoming election.

Many of the groups were filing for 501(c)(4) status, which allowed them to keep donors secret but forced them into...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday that Steven Miller, the acting director of the Internal Revenue Service, had resigned amid criticism over the tax agency's handling of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Speaking from the White House's East Room, the president said that he had instructed Treasury...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration asked Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Wednesday morning to reintroduce legislation that would help reporters protect the identity of their sources from federal officials, a White House official told The Huffington Post.

The scope of the bill and how effective it would be remains unclear, however,...

WASHINGTON -- Piecemeal efforts to ease the impact of federal sequestration budget cuts are counterproductive and may end up costing taxpayers more, according to a report from congressional Democrats.

The report, put together by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee and their ranking member, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), is the...

WASHINGTON -- The IRS Inspector General said Tuesday that incompetence, not malice, was behind the tax agency’s heavy scrutiny of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the lead-up to the 2012 elections.

A 48-page IG report explicitly stated that the IRS behavior was “not politically biased,” that it...

WASHINGTON -- The IRS used "inappropriate criteria" when judging organizations hoping to gain a tax-exempt status and allowed that criteria to stay in place for 18 months, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report obtained in advance of its official release by The Huffington Post.

The...

WASHINGTON -- Top advisers to the president defended the Obama administration on Tuesday from criticism that it had drastically over-extended its authority in seizing telephone records for the Associated Press as part of a leak investigation.

In dual briefings that overlapped for several minutes, White House Press Secretary...

NEW YORK –- The Associated Press revealed Monday that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of reporter and editor phone records from the spring of 2012, the latest and most illustrative example of the Obama administration's unprecedented war on leaks.

AP president and chief executive officer Gary...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama strongly condemned officials at the Internal Revenue Service for singling out conservative groups during the lead-up to the 2012 elections.

In a press conference on Monday, Obama called the reports "outrageous" and intolerable, while saying he would reserve harsher judgment for when a fuller report...

WASHINGTON -- When politicians talk about the need to maintain America as the destination for the best and the brightest in science, they probably have someone like Dr. Reena Pande in mind.

Pande's resume lists one high achievement after another. She earned a degree in biology at Harvard before...

WASHINGTON -- Over a two-and-a-half hour dinner at the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Washington Wednesday night, President Barack Obama and nine House Democrats tried to game out a way to pass a policy agenda through a Congress best known for passing nothing.

Those who attended acknowledged that there are few,...

WASHINGTON -- Reeling from budget tightening that is being compounded by sequestration, the National Weather Service has begun making operational decisions that a top labor group warned could end up costing millions of dollars in damage and threaten public safety.

This past week, Dan Sobien, the president of the...

WASHINGTON -- First they saved the meat inspectors, then the air traffic controllers. Then they lobbied for the Medicare patients being denied treatment at private cancer clinics. Now members of Congress are suggesting that children attending Head Start could -- indeed, should be spared from the...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats believe that they have several new votes in favor of a bill that would expand background checks for gun buyers, after weeks in which those who opposed the legislation faced strong political backlash at home.

The additional votes would still put the bill, a bipartisan compromise...

WASHINGTON -- With cuts from sequestration forcing private cancer clinics to turn away Medicare patients, several fiscally conservative Republicans have joined Democrats in pushing the Obama administration to change policy.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), in an April 2 letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,...