Kate Ackley
As the would-be GOP presidential contenders descend on early primary and caucus states, lobbying interests are mobilizing with the goal of getting their issues at the forefront of the national agenda.
Amanda Becker
The Senate Ethics Committee’s unanimous decision to release its report on the actions of former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) on Thursday and refer his case to both the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission marked its most stern rebuke of a colleague in recent history.
Ambreen Ali
Some tea party organizations have been quietly trading notes with left-leaning advocacy groups as both sides work to derail a series of upcoming free-trade agreements.
Amanda Becker
The IRS has begun enforcing an oft-ignored tax on contributions to nonprofit advocacy groups, potentially creating large gift tax liabilities for donors who wrote big checks last year and throwing a wrench into the fundraising push leading up to the 2012 elections.
Emma Dumain
Democrats have railed for more than a year against the landmark Supreme Court decision that unleashed unlimited and undisclosed corporate and union dollars in political campaigns, but now they’re preparing to collect and spend this same money.
Shira Toeplitz
Several months after their elections, freshman House Republicans will get a rude awakening to the realities of Congressional campaigns: It’s time to pay your dues.
Amanda Becker
Members of Congress are required to disclose their personal finances by the beginning of next week, but if past efforts are any indicator, about a quarter of lawmakers will probably file inaccurate disclosure forms.
Ambreen Ali
Tea party activists have long criticized President Barack Obama’s jobs agenda, and in doing so, they may have inadvertently created one of their own.
Janie Lorber
Ralph Egües gathered eight Hispanic landscape contractors above a Fairfax, Va., garden center Wednesday night to deliver a simple message: It is time to get political.
Amanda Becker
The House Ethics Committee has overhauled its instruction manual for completing annual Congressional financial disclosure forms, sidestepping a proposed provision that would have for the first time requested the spousal information of same-sex couples.
Bennett Roth
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has decidedly frosty relations with the U.S. government, but he apparently still wants the scoop on hot policy issues here.
Paul Singer
Gary Bass is getting the band back together. In the midst of the last Republican revolution in the mid-1990s, the founder of the advocacy group OMB Watch convened a group of safety, health and environmental advocates to join forces and oppose efforts by the GOP Congress to cut federal regulations. This spring, Bass is at it again.
Janie Lorber
The White House and Obama campaign officials have helped create two new organizations that will enable Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to become a lead defender of the president’s signature health care reform law during the 2012 election campaign.
Kate Ackley
Andy Cochran is a tea party-supporting, religious, anti-abortion, trial-lawyer-loving conservative Republican. Seriously. “Trial-lawyer-loving” was no typo.
Daniel Newhauser
Capitol regulars might notice a heightened state of alertness from security staff, as police stay vigilant in case of a retaliatory attack following the killing of al-Qaida figurehead Osama bin Laden.
Daniel Newhauser
Ten years ago last week, more than 100 black Capitol Police officers filed what would become one of the largest discrimination complaints in the history of Congress. A decade later, Blackmon-Malloy v. U.S. Capitol Police Board has yet to be resolved.
Jessica Brady
Freshman GOP lawmakers are returning home for the recess with a messaging plan in lock step with their leadership, despite failing to win the deep spending cuts that they have sought since their first days in Washington, D.C.
Kate Ackley
A long-stalled free-trade agreement with Panama got a huge boost last week, business lobbyists pushing for the pact said. And as Congress begins a two-week recess, K Street plans to step up its grass-roots and inside-the-Beltway campaigns to urge Congressional approval of the Panama deal and two other agreements.
Alex Knott
House Republicans may have found a way to trim $14 million from the federal budget: eliminate the Election Assistance Commission.
Steven T. Dennis
The prospects for a grand bipartisan debt deal may depend in large part on the personal marketing skills of Sen. Saxby Chambliss.
Daniel Newhauser
The fiscal 2011 spending agreement includes more than $103 million in cuts to Congress’ own budget, which may eventually necessitate some layoffs around Capitol Hill but not the drastic actions that would have been required by other House proposals.
Daniel Newhauser
Mayor Vince Gray pledged while on the campaign trail to be a vociferous supporter of D.C. autonomy and to do anything it takes to stick up for the city, including get arrested.
Kate Ackley
Just hours after announcing his move to K Street, former Rep. Bart Stupak is already getting some attention for an existing client of his new firm.
Jessica Brady, Anna Palmer
Democrats have been quick to blame tea party conservatives for dragging down budget talks. But perhaps they should train their fire at Rep. Jim Jordan.
Janie Lorber
The politics of honey, it turns out, is sticky. Last month the government formally abandoned a program designed to promote made-in-America honey after the nation’s honey producers, who had initially proposed it, voted against it.
