The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $5.1 million in November, the committee will announce Monday.
The Senate Democratic campaign arm ended the month with $12 million in the bank and $5 million in debt.
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New deaf caucus launches with jokes about Mandela interpreter
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Boehner: Tea party groups have 'lost all credibility'
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House conservative caucus staffer fired for undermining lawmakers
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Poll: Christie leads GOP pack ahead of 2016
Kerry is confident Karzai or successor will sign Afghanistan security deal
Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (AP Photo/Jason Reed).
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said he believes Afghan officials will approve a security agreement that would allow U.S. forces to remain in that country beyond 2014.
"I believe that [Afghan President] Hamid Karzai -- either he or his successor -- will sign this," Kerry said in a taped interview that aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
Karzai has said he will not support a security agreement unless the United States promises to end airstrikes and raids on homes, in addition to helping broker peace with the Taliban.
Kerry: United States has not abandoned Robert Levinson
Retired-FBI agent Robert Levinson. (AP Photo/Levinson Family).
Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Sunday said the United States has not abandoned Robert Levinson, the FBI agent who reportedly worked in Iran for CIA analysts and disappeared seven years ago.
"There hasn't been progress in the sense that we don't have him back, but to suggest that we abandoned him or anybody has abandoned him is simply incorrect and not helpful," Kerry said on ABC's "This Week."
McCain says Iran sanctions bill ‘very likely’
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that the Senate is "very likely" to pass a new sanctions bill against Iran despite a deal the United States and other world powers reached to address the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.
"I think that it's very likely that we could have a sanctions bill, which would take effect at the end of six months if there is no result in the negotiations, is I think what it would be," McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Ryan: ‘We are not busting sequester caps’ with budget deal
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) - Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defended the fiscal deal he crafted with Senate counterpart Patty Murray (D-Wash.) against criticism from Republicans who say he sacrificed the sequester's automatic spending cuts for the sake of a bargain.
"We’re not busting sequester caps," Ryan said on "Fox News Sunday." "In just the next two years, 70 percent of the sequester is intact. Ninety-two percent of the sequester over the life of the sequester is intact. The Democrats came into this thing saying ‘get rid of the entire sequester.’"
The congressman also noted that the deal would enact permanent spending cuts in exchange for lifting some of the temporary sequester reductions.
Obama marks Newtown anniversary with call for action on gun control
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama light 26 candles, honoring the 26 students and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. (Saul Loeb/AFP-Getty Images).
President Obama on Saturday marked the first anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shootings with calls for stricter gun control and more support for mental health, as well as by lighting candles for each of the victims.
"We haven’t yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer," Obama said in his weekly address. "We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to do more to heal troubled minds."
The president and first lady lit 26 candles in the White House Map Room on Saturday morning to remember each of the victims, many of them children, who died in the Newtown school shooting last year. They also observed a moment of silence.
Center for American Progress releases donor list
The Center for American Progress released a list of its corporate donors on Friday, a move intended to boost transparency at the liberal think tank as its chairman and founder, John Podesta, moves to a top White House job.
The list of 58 donors includes a broad sampling of corporate interests, from tech firms and automakers to health-care companies, big banks, retailers and trade associations. Northrop Grumman, the defense and aerospace giant, is a donor, as are Apple, Citigroup, GE and Wal-Mart. Each of those listed has given the group more than $10,000 in 2013, though the Center did not disclose the amount of particular contributions.
Budget agreement poised to advance in the Senate
- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
This item has been updated.
A bipartisan budget agreement overwhelmingly approved by the House appears likely to survive any procedural challenges and ultimately pass the Senate, according to interviews with key Republican senators.
The House voted 332 to 94 on Thursday night to approve a two-year budget outline, and Senate debate is expected to begin Tuesday, with a final vote expected later next week. While the measure will need just a majority of senators to pass, it first must clear a procedural vote requiring at least 60 votes in support.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) predicted in an interview with Bloomberg television airing Friday evening that there will be sufficient support for the budget deal among the 55 members of the Senate Democratic caucus and that it would "suicide if the Republicans didn't pass it."
Paul Ryan: Boehner ‘got his Irish up’ with tea party
Paul Ryan (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says in a new interview with NBC News that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided to fight back against tea party groups because he was just so frustrated with them.
"I think John just kind of got his Irish up. He was frustrated that these groups came out in opposition to our budget agreement before we reached a budget agreement," Ryan said in a taped interview for NBC's "Meet the Press."
Key official in Christie’s bridge controversy resigns
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has replaced his top official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as questions about politics and lane closures on a key bridge continue to dog the potential 2016 presidential candidate.
Christie announced Friday that Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the port authority, has resigned. He has been replaced by Deborah Gramiccioni.
Baroni is the second top Port Authority official to resign in the past week.