December 20, 2015 Reid gives Senate lecture on civility The Democratic honcho who spent the last several days ridiculing House Speaker John Boehner as a pawn of the Tea Party gave his own chamber a lecture on civility Friday.
December 20, 2015 High drama on Capitol Hill as tempers flare, leaders fail to reach deal Despite an emergency meeting at the White House, congressional leaders reported no progress late Wednesday on trying to reach a budget deal -- while over on Capitol Hill, tempers were flaring and lawmakers were melting down on the floor of the House.
December 20, 2015 Help kids with cancer? Reid asks: 'Why would we want to do that?' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is blaming Republicans for the National Institutes of Health turning away cancer patients. But when asked why the Senate wouldn't try to help "one child who has cancer" by approving a mini-spending bill, he shot back: "Why would we want to do that?"
December 20, 2015 Congressional stalemate rings in government slimdown What the Obama administration is portraying as a "shutdown" of the federal government -- complete with signs posted at the entrances to government buildings, parks and monuments -- is turning out to be more of a "slimdown," as all but non-essential workers reported to their jobs Tuesday.
December 20, 2015 Congress misses deadline, sending government into partial shutdown Congress blew by a midnight deadline to pass a crucial spending bill, triggering the beginning of a partial government shutdown – the first in 17 years.
December 20, 2015 Senate budget deal provides back pay for furloughed federal workers The bipartisan Senate agreement to end the partial government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling will also offer compensation to federal workers who have been furloughed since Oct. 1.
December 20, 2015 Obama signs bill ending partial shutdown, raising debt ceiling President Obama and his congressional allies succeeded overnight in winning a virtually condition-free increase in the debt ceiling, along with funding to end the partial government shutdown -- but in a deal that left America's debt crisis unaddressed and teed up another battle three months from now.
December 20, 2015 Congress aiming low in new budget talks, as Reid dismisses entitlement reform as 'happy talk' Congressional Democrats and Republicans are setting low expectations about budget talks scheduled to begin next week -- with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dismissing as “happy talk” any notion of a grand bargain that would include cuts to entitlement programs.
December 20, 2015 Hill leaders push dueling budget plans, seek 'sweet spot' to break impasse House and Senate lawmakers pushed dueling proposals to address the budget impasse, as they prepared to take private talks with the White House into the weekend -- with both sides at last appearing to work toward a possible compromise, despite no deal emerging Friday.
December 20, 2015 Can lawmakers find the middle ground in budget impasse? There's plenty of middle ground between the two sides of the budget and debt-ceiling impasse. So, can lawmakers find it?