U.S. Congressional Politics

American lawmakers averted a feared government shutdown by approving a stopgap spending bill, but heated debate over future federal spending took shape as they clashed over budget plans.

US lawmakers approved a funding stopgap Thursday that prevents a government shutdown, but their clash over budget blueprints signaled a contentious debate over the future of federal spending.

US lawmakers approved a funding stopgap on Thursday to keep the US government operating through September and took a step towards adopting a blueprint for a decade of budget austerity.

Eight US senators crafting an overhaul of immigration policy are on the verge of finalizing a deal that could bring 11 million undocumented migrants out of the shadows, one of the lawmakers said Thursday.

Congress approved a funding stopgap Thursday to keep the US government operating through September, while the House backed a Republican blueprint that lays out budget austerity for the next decade.

The White House hosted award-winning dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, on her first international trip in years, Wednesday after she met lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

A bill to avert a US government shutdown has won passage from a divided US Senate after lawmakers cut deals on amendments, setting the stage for the president to sign it this week.

A divided US Senate came together Wednesday to approve legislation that avoids a government shutdown, with the compromise stopgap likely headed to the president's desk this week.

Lawmakers and advocates on Wednesday called for safeguards to be placed on the domestic use of drones in order to protect the privacy of Americans.

President Barack Obama notified Congress Wednesday that it would launch trade talks with the European Union aimed at forging the world's largest free-trade area.

Lawmakers from both sides of the US political divide expressed optimism this week about striking a deal on immigration reform in 2013, but a potential pathway to citizenship remains a hurdle.

A proposed ban on assault weapons like the one used in an elementary school massacre last year has been removed from a broader gun control package, with Democrats conceding it would not get through Congress.

China is pouring massive amounts of money and resources into cyberattacks aimed at stealing business secrets, security researchers told a congressional panel.

US lawmakers dropped an effort to include a ban on assault weapons in a broader gun control package Tuesday, conceding the difficulties of passing such legislation through Congress.

He has taken on Nazi tomb raiders, Soviet spies and even Darth Vader's Death Star, but Hollywood legend Harrison Ford was cracking the whip Tuesday against a more potent domestic enemy: budget cuts.

North Korea has produced another video showing the United States under attack, this time with the White House and the US Capitol literally in the crosshairs.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has a ballistic missile that could hit the United States, the leading lawmaker on the US House of Representatives intelligence committee warned Sunday.

US senators Friday blasted banking giant JPMorgan Chase over its mammoth trading losses on complex derivatives last year and called for tougher regulatory scrutiny of the banking industry.

Robert Menendez, the influential head of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, is under investigation by a grand jury in Miami for alleged influence peddling, the Washington Post reported Friday.

US senators Friday blasted banking giant JP Morgan over its mammoth trading losses on complex derivatives last year and called for tougher regulatory scrutiny of the banking industry.