WASHINGTON — A developing Senate plan that would bolster the government’s ability to regulate the computer security of companies that run critical industries is drawing strong opposition from businesses that say it goes too far and security experts who believe it should have even more teeth.
President Obama was in Ohio this week, speaking in the Cleveland area about the state of the nation’s economy. He surprised reporters (and no doubt Congressional Republicans as well) when he announced that he was appointing former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as head of the new federal consumer financial protection bureau.
WASHINGTON — Congress has responded to complaints that the U.S. Peace Corps has not done enough to protect its volunteers from sexual assaults, with legislation requiring the agency to train participants better in how to avoid attacks. The House of Representatives voted 406–0 Tuesday to pass the bill and send it to President Barack Obama for his signature. The Senate passed it by voice vote in September.
In a speech laying out Republican economic proposals for tax reform, U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Genoa Township) said a “dysfunctional” Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate holds the blame for a lack of action coming out of Washington. Tiberi, appearing Thursday at an event arranged by the Delaware Area Chamber of Commerce, spoke over the backdrop of a slideshow that concluded with a photo of former U.S. President and conservative icon Ronald Reagan.
WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers, facing a potentially calamitous government default in just days, held votes Friday that highlighted their intense partisan divide and did little to end a torturous political standoff. The Republican-led House of Representatives approved a plan to temporarily raise the government’s borrowing authority, knowing it was headed to certain defeat in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Less than two hours later, the Senate voted it down.
WASHINGTON — Failure to raise the U.S. debt limit would probably ensure President Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warned fellow conservatives on Wednesday, fresh evidence of deep GOP political divisions on an issue of paramount importance to the nation and its economy.
NEW YORK — Together and apart, the lives of Gabrielle Giffords and husband-astronaut Mark Kelly have been extraordinary. She the congresswoman from Arizona who has miraculously survived being shot in the head. He the commander of the space shuttle Endeavour, exchanging wedding rings with his wife before his final mission in space. Now, he is retiring to be with her full time and the two are collaborating on a memoir that will tell a story, their story, that Kelly says the public hardly knows.
WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats on Thursday derided President Barack Obama’s claim that U.S. air attacks against Libya do not constitute hostilities and demanded that the commander in chief seek congressional approval for the 3-month-old military operation.