Bill ending NSA data collection continues swift path through Congress
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bill to end the government’s bulk collection of telephone records got a unanimous go-ahead on Thursday from a second U.S. congressional committee, advancing the first legislative effort at surveillance reform since former contr…
U.S. senator eyes bill to halt corporate tax ‘inversion’
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic Senator Carl Levin on Thursday said he plans to introduce legislation soon to prevent corporate inversions, an increasingly popular restructuring that involves U.S. companies moving overseas to avoid U.S. taxes.
House blocks Pentagon bid to curb pay raises, retire weapons
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House Armed Services Committee approved a policy bill on Thursday that authorized a $496 billion Pentagon base budget for next year but rejected many of the department’s attempts to cut spending, including on arms programs an…
Obama says kidnapping of Nigerian girls shows man’s “darkest impulses”
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama issued a somber warning on Wednesday that the kidnapping of Nigerian girls and sectarian conflicts worldwide are a sign that “we have not extinguished man’s darkest impulses.”
Obama urges Democrats not to be distracted by 2016 chatter
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – President Barack Obama brought his fund-raising prowess to California on Wednesday and urged Democrats not to let increasing attention on the 2016 presidential race distract them from focusing on November 4 congressional electio…
U.S. Senator Landrieu questions Republican commitment to Keystone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu accused Republicans on Wednesday of being more interested in exploiting the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline project as an election issue than in voting to build it.
U.S. House votes ex-IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution finding former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about her alleged role in the tax agency’s…
Bill to overhaul NSA data collection clears hurdle in U.S. Congress
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. House of Representatives committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to advance a bill that would end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records, one of the most controversial spy programs …
Republicans shouldn’t raise money off Benghazi: U.S. lawmaker
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The new head of a congressional panel investigating the 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, criticized on Wednesday some Republicans’ use of the deadly incident to raise campaign funds.
For Rand Paul, a stumble on road to 2016 White House bid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Kentucky Senator Rand Paul bet on a long-shot and lost in North Carolina’s contentious Republican Senate primary, raising new questions about the Tea Party hero’s bid to woo the party establishment on his way to a 2016 White Hous…