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WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers voiced their confusion and concern over the sweeping secret surveillance programs revealed recently, after receiving an unusual briefing on the government's yearslong collection of phone records and Internet usage. "People aren't satisfied," Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., said as he left the briefing Tuesday. "More detail needs to come out." -- Some congressmen acknowledged they'd been caught unawares by the scope of the programs, having skipped previous briefings by the intelligence committees. "I think Congress has really found itself a little bit asleep at the wheel," Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said. Many leaving the forum declared themselves...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — State lawmakers sent Gov. Jerry Brown a pair of consumer protection bills Monday that prevent health insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions and limit how much more insurers can charge older residents. The legislation updates California laws to match new rules under the federal Affordable Care Act and will give state agencies the power to enforce and regulate individual insurance rules. The Assembly passed ABx1-2 on a 49-20 vote, while the Senate passed SBx1-2 on a 27-9 vote. The Assembly bill makes changes to the insurance code, while the Senate bill makes changes...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama Legislature is telling the federal government and others to back off on gun control. The Senate passed legislation Tuesday declaring that “All federal acts, laws, orders, rules or regulations regarding firearms are a violation of the Second Amendment.” It also says federal laws in violation of the Second Amendment shall be considered null and void in Alabama. The vote was 24-6. The sponsor, Republican Sen. Paul Sanford of Huntsville, said the bill resulted from hundreds of emails and calls he received from his north Alabama constituents concerned that Congress might enact new gun regulations or...

Attorney General Eric Holder admitted to something that the congressional investigators probing Operation Fast and Furious must have already understood: he has no respect for the legislators who voted to hold him in contempt for refusing to hand over documents about the gun-walking scandal. I have to tell you that for me to really be affected by what happened, I’d have to have respect for the people who voted in that way,” Holder told ABC News when asked about the historic contempt vote. “And I didn’t, so it didn’t have that huge an impact on me.”

When Illinois' new General Assembly takes the oath of office Wednesday, the state that's still struggling to rebuild its image after two consecutive governors went to prison will set yet another precedent of sorts: Three sitting lawmakers facing criminal charges.

(Reuters) - The White House and congressional lawmakers have reached a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that would delay harsh spending cuts by two months, Obama administration officials said on Monday. President Barack Obama called Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who both signed off on the deal, one source said. The agreement includes a balance of spending cuts and revenue increases to pay for the delay in the automatic spending cuts that would go into effect without a deal by lawmakers.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Shots ring out as someone opens fire on a Dallas office building, and a window belonging to NewsRadio 1080 KRLD is hit. The bullets went through the outside panes of glass on two floors of the 12-story CBS Radio building off Central Expressway at Fitzhugh Avenue. One of the windows hit belongs to KRLD promotions director Matt Stacks, who was startled by the sound about 3:15 Friday afternoon. Stacks initially thought a bird hit the 5th floor window. “I just heard a loud boom. I turned around and looked at my window and noticed it started splintering...

The number of FBI investigations into threats against members of Congress spiked in the wake of former Rep. Gabby Giffords’ shooting, according to documents obtained by The Daily. In the nine months following Jared Lee Loughner’s murderous rampage, the FBI opened up at least 38 cases based on threats against specific members of Congress, as well as a handful of generic threats against unnamed members. This was a notable increase from the previous year, when the bureau opened 26 cases over a 12-month span, according to FBI documents. A 2010 analysis by Politico found that investigations into threats against members...

Georgia lawmakers sat in a seminar involving the UN’s controversial Cold War era mind control techniques used to move Agenda 21 forward. The seminar, as could be expected, was roundly mocked by the media even though the UN makes no secret of their abominable plans for the world’s future.

(CBS News) New York state lawmakers have proposed a ban on anonymous online comments. Called the Internet Protection Act (A.8688/S.6779), the legislation would require a web site administrator to pull down anonymous comments from sites, including "social networks, blogs forums, message boards or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages."The bill states: A web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or...

WASHINGTON – Two top Republican lawmakers investigating the Fast and Furious controversy are demanding the White House make a former aide available for testimony to see whether the scandal reached the upper echelons of the administration, according to a letter obtained by Fox News. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, fired off the letter Wednesday urging the White House to make available Kevin O'Reilly, a former National Security Council staffer who is currently stationed in Iraq for the State Department. The lawmakers are giving White House staffers the deadline of April 4 to respond, with Republican aides...

RALEIGH — State lawmakers questioned a N.C. Department of Health and Human Services official at a hearing Tuesday to determine why a Hoke County preschooler’s homemade turkey sandwich was replaced with chicken nuggets. Members of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services wanted to know if a teacher at West Hoke Elementary School was following state law when she offered a 4-year-old girl a cafeteria tray containing chicken nuggets, a sweet potato, bread, and milk as an alternative to her homemade turkey and cheese sandwich, potato chips, banana, and apple juice. Deborah Cassidy, director of the DHHS...

Larry Flynt offers $1M for dirt on lawmakers, government officialsBy Vicki Needham - 03/04/12 01:28 PM ET Larry Flynt is on the trail for any dirt on congressional lawmakers and government officials. The Hustler magazine publisher placed a full-page ad in Sunday's Washington Post, offering upward of $1 million for any information about "infidelity, sexual impropriety or corruption concerning a U.S. senator, congressperson or prominent government official." The ad says sources with documented evidence would be paid if Flynt publishes the "verified story." He is asking for submissions by phone or email. In September, Flynt went after former Republican presidential...

MADISON — Joel Kleefisch said the nastiness can be relentless. But the verbal assaults on his wife, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and his family are the most hurtful, he said. “One of the protesters yelled at me, ‘Your wife’s an effing whore,” said Kleefisch, a Republican state representative from Oconomowoc. “It’s abhorrent and in no way a form of expression that we should protect.” These are politically charged days in Wisconsin, where angry, profane, abusive speech has become more common than any time in recent memory, state political watchers say. Political expression, it seems, has become all the more pitched...

CONCORD, N.H. | President Obama is on the Democratic ballot for New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday, despite the efforts of some Republican state legislators who argue the president doesn’t qualify as a “natural-born citizen.” “I don’t know where he was born, and I really don’t care,” said state Rep. Larry Rappaport of Colebrook, N.H., “but I think fraud is being perpetrated on the citizens of New Hampshire.” Mr. Rappaport and several GOP colleagues have been trying to get the New Hampshire secretary of state to remove Mr. Obama from the ballot. Their argument isn’t focused

Lawmakers who've endorsed Rick Perry for president reacted warily to his plan for a part-time Congress and expressed concern about his proposal to cut their salaries in half. In response to inquiries from The Hill, the lawmakers disagreed with some aspects of the plan but said they liked other parts, such as the idea of spending more time in their districts. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) vowed to continue to stand by Perry, although he wasn’t necessarily on board with all of the Texas governor's plans. “I don’t anticipate that I’m going to agree with everything he says,” Inhofe said. At...

Super Secrecy of Debt 'Super Committee' Rubs Some Lawmakers the Wrong WayFoxNews.com Published October 21, 2011 Hiding behind closed doors may be an attempt to actually get something done, but the secrecy of the so-called congressional “super committee” tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions over the next 10 years is drawing scorn from fellow lawmakers who want the process to be more open. Sen. Dean Heller unveiled a bill last month to open up the talks, though it's unlikely to get action in the next five weeks the panel has left to come up with a plan. Sen....

The most prominent Republican in the Obama administration is accusing GOP House members of blocking efforts to resolve the nation's problems, partly because they don't want the president to be successful. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was asked at a transportation conference Friday why it was so difficult to get big infrastructure projects built right now. He responded that "some people don't want Obama to be successful."

During Tuesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting, where the most scintillating item on the agenda was a proposal to increase ticket prices at the L.A. Zoo, a speaker stood up and told lawmakers they were ignoring an obvious fact: “You are surrounded by tents.” He was referring to the large group of protesters camped a few hundred feet away, on a grassy lawn outside City Hall. The group, which calls itself Occupy L.A., has been there since Saturday in a demonstration against economic policies that benefit corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The speaker, a well-known political gadfly named John Walsh,...

The inspector general of the Department of Justice undermined and obstructed a congressional investigation by releasing secret tape recordings that corroborate allegations of misconduct in "Operation Fast and Furious," according to a letter written by Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley. The two lawmakers leading the probe into the Obama administration scandal claim Justice Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar compromised their investigators' ability to get to the truth and potentially prosecute those responsible for selling thousands of weapons to the Mexican drug cartels. Schnedar failed

Posted: 5:37 pm EDT September 20, 2011Updated: 6:30 pm EDT September 20, 2011 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida is bringing in thousands more police officers as added security during the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa. Roughly 4,200 law-enforcement officers from throughout Florida will be on duty and the state also will have 1,700 National Guard on hand the week of Aug. 27. Charlotte, N.C., is adding a similar number of police for the Democratic National Convention the week of Sept. 3.

Some California schools are turning away middle and high school students who have not received a required whooping cough vaccine while others are defying a law passed last year after a historic spike in cases of the potentially fatal disease. The law approved last September initially required all students entering grades seven through 12 to get vaccinated by the start of the 2011-2012 school year. Lawmakers passed a 30-day extension this summer as districts worried many students wouldn't meet the deadline.

Study: 80 Percent of Lawmakers Lack Academic Background in Business, EconomicsFoxNews.com Published August 25, 2011 Congress might want to find some consultants as it tries anew to tackle the country's deep deficits. A report from the Employment Policies Institute finds that only one in five members of Congress has an academic background in business or economics. The organization looked at lawmakers' college degrees and found that most of them -- 55.5 percent -- majored in either a government-related field or "humanities." Just over 8 percent majored in economics, while almost 14 percent studied business or accounting. The numbers raise questions...

Missouri state representative Chris Molendorp filed a bill last session to set up a health insurance exchange. HB 609 was passed unanimously by the House and by the Senate committee it was assigned to. It was never brought to the floor of the Senate. Why? Sen. Jane Cunningham said it was because she actually read the bill and was shocked at what it contained. In 2010, Sen. Cunningham sponsored the Health Care Freedom Act, a referendum that sought to protect Missourians from the now infamous ‘individual mandate.’ The Act was placed on the ballot in August 2010 as Proposition C;...

Milwaukee - Democrats appeared to have ousted one Wisconsin lawmaker but three Republicans survived recall on Tuesday, leaving two races still in doubt in the nation's largest ever group of recall votes. WisPolitics.com said that Republican state Senators in three of Tuesday's six races beat back Democratic challengers who targeted them for voting to curb the power of public sector unions in the state legislature. In a fourth race, the Democratic challenger held a comfortable lead with most ballots counted and appeared to have ousted a Republican who narrowly won in 2010. Democrats needed to win three of the six

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional leaders rushed to line up Republican and Democratic votes on Monday for a White House-backed deal to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and avert an unprecedented debt default. With scars still fresh from the months-long brawl over increasing the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, a new fight was shaping over the incendiary topic of taxes. Global markets showed signs of relief that the United States appeared to be dodging default, but fears that the country might still lose its triple-A credit rating even with a debt deal contributed to a fizzle in a brief stocks rally. "We...

President Barack Obama alienated 37,00 twitter followers last night with scores of tweets urging followers to contact their local Congressman over the debt deal. With his approval rating sitting at an all-time low of 40 per cent amidst the debt crisis, tens of thousands of Americans unfollwed the President to avoid the deulge. The president’s staff sent a total of 118 tweets asking his followers to write their Republican lawmakers to demand a compromise on debt legislation. The first tweet read: 'The time for putting party first is over. If you want to see a bipartisan #compromise, let Congress know....

WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and top U.S. lawmakers fell short on Monday of finding enough spending cuts for a deal to avoid an Aug. 2 debt default and Republicans came under fresh pressure to agree to tax hikes. The two sides achieved no breakthrough in a roughly 90-minute meeting and scheduled a third straight day of talks for Tuesday. This came after Obama, at a news conference, declared it is time for both Republicans and Democrats to "pull off the Band-aid, eat our peas" and make sacrifices. "If not now, when?" Obama said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several members of Congress called Thursday for a presidential commission to study the formation of a "melting pot museum" in Washington to tell the history of immigration and migration that formed the nation. Democratic Virginia Rep. Jim Moran introduced legislation Thursday that calls for studying the creation of a National Museum of the American People without any federal taxpayer funds. The bill had 11 other co-sponsors. "The people of the United States do not have a comprehensive and accurate picture of all the peoples who created and continue to build the nation," the bill says.

A bipartisan group of House members announced on Wednesday that it is filing a lawsuit charging that President Obama made an illegal end-run around Congress when he approved U.S military action against Libya. “With regard to the war in Libya, we believe that the law was violated. We have asked the courts to move to protect the American people from the results of these illegal policies,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who led the 10-member anti-war coalition with Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.). The White House is expected on Wednesday to deliver to Congress a much-anticipated report detailing military activity in...

The handful of Republican lawmakers most likely to provide crucial votes for Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan are threatening to withhold their support without a dramatic rewriting of state environmental law. The demand, pushed in private talks with the governor, would curtail lawsuits against projects threatening ecological damage, grant waivers to big telecommunications companies and exempt many urban developments from environmental review. The legislators have declined to share the details of their proposal publicly, but draft legislation to overhaul the law was obtained by The Times. Sweeping changes in the California Environmental Quality Act would stand little chance of approval...

Concord, N.H. - New Hampshire House lawmakers — not known for short speeches — plan to wax long into the night to free their chamber for a statewide poetry competition. The House had planned on meeting three days this week to vote on more than 250 bills. When they scheduled the three sessions, House Speaker William O’Brien had already promised the 2011 New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud program could hold its statewide championship in Representatives Hall at 7 p.m. Thursday. O’Brien hopes to finish the work on bills Wednesday night.

The right to carry a concealed weapon in California is mostly reserved for those at risk of violence — jewelers, bail bondsmen and criminal prosecutors among them. But some legislators say their job has become dangerous too. Despite objections from some law enforcement officials and even gun rights advocates, they want a law that would make it easier for them to tote firearms for protection. The lawmakers cite the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in Tucson and threats from constituents in California as cause for permits to carry weapons. "I've had guys physically come up to me

MADISON, Wis. – A group of Wisconsin lawmakers blocked passage of a sweeping anti-union bill Thursday by ignoring orders to attend a vote and instead left the state to force Republicans to negotiate over the proposal. As ever-growing throngs of protesters filled the Capitol for a third day, the 14 Democrats disappeared from the Capitol. They were not in their offices, and aides said they did not know where any of them had gone. Hours later, one of them told The Associated Press that the group had left Wisconsin. Sen. Jon Erpenbach said Democrats fled to slow down consideration of...

Republican lawmakers of Cuban descent sharply criticized President Obama's plans to loosen Cuban travel policy to allow students and church groups to go to the communist country, saying the changes will benefit the Castro regime while doing little for the average citizen. "Loosening these regulations will not help foster a pro-democracy environment in Cuba," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "These changes will not aid in ushering in respect for human rights. And they certainly will not help the Cuban people free themselves from the tyranny that engulfs them."

SNIP Several leading House Democrats blamed the inflammatory rhetoric for contributing to the Tucson massacre, while Republicans denounced criticism of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) following the tragedy. One lawmaker, Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.), has said he would introduce a bill to make it a crime to threaten or incite violence against a federal official. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) suggested the Federal Communications Commission was “not working anymore,” adding she would look at ways to better police language on the airwaves. A brick was thrown through a window of Slaughter’s district office last year. SNIP Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)...

WASHINGTON – And let it be said, on this second day following the convening of the 112th Congress, newly sworn members of the House shall stand and read aloud the Constitution of the United States. .. Republicans in charge of the chamber rattled it off with missionary zeal, .. Democrats pitched in, but with seemingly less ardor.

Tax Cut Bill Loaded With Deals for Lobbyists, LawmakersAssociated Press Published December 11, 2010 WASHINGTON -- In the spirit of the holiday season, President Obama's tax-cut deal with Republicans is becoming a Christmas tree tinseled with gifts for lobbyists and lawmakers. But that hardly stopped the squabbling on Friday, with Bill Clinton even back at the White House pleading the president's case. While Republicans sat back quietly, mostly pleased, Democrats and other liberals were going at each other ever so publicly. As Clinton lectured on Obama's behalf, Vermont independent Bernie Sanders castigated the agreement for the TV cameras in the...

In separate letters issued Monday, two U.S. lawmakers are looking for answers on the training and methods employed by Transportation Security Administration agents, including one congressman who wants to know why officers trailed a videographer who taped a kid stripped at the security gate. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who is expected to become chairman of the House oversight subcommittee responsible for the federal workforce, wrote President Obama demanding that he initiate a probe into why TSA officers followed around Luke Tait, a Utah Valley University student who on Friday recorded a young boy having his shirt removed by his father...

Washington (CNN) -- The head of the Transportation Security Administration will likely get a pat-down on air-travel security measures as he testifies before Congress on Wednesday morning. The appearance by John Pistole was scheduled before controversy broke out over the past week about the agency's full body scans and pat-downs. But protest movements about the searches make such questioning likely when Pistole testifies about his agency's security efforts before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Hero pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger on Tuesday joined the opposition to heightened airport security procedures, which critics have called invasive. Sullenberger, who...

The state of Oklahoma is planning to execute death row inmates with drugs intended for use on animals. Lawmakers want to switch away from the only brand of anaesthetic that has been used in the US for lethal injections because there is not enough to go around. The replacement is likely to attract controversy because it is currently used by vets to anesthetise animals for operations. Other states are watching closely and may well follow suit, but such a move is likely to face a challenge from human rights groups to ensure that it is safe to use.

PARIS (AP) — The French Senate, pushed into an early vote, approved on Friday a hotly contested bill raising the retirement age to 62, hours after riot police forced the reopening of a strategic refinery to help halt growing fuel shortages amid nationwide strikes and protests. In tense balloting after 140 hours of debate, the Senate voted 177-153 for the pension reform. The measure is expected to win final formal approval by both houses of parliament next week. President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government, keen to get the measure passed and quell increasingly radicalized protests, cut short the debate and voting...

Lawmakers in at least 14 states are collaborating on proposed legislation to deny U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants, according to lawmakers, including the sponsor of Arizona's 2010 law targeting illegal immigration. "We're taking a leadership role on things that need to be fixed in America. We can't get Congress to do it," Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, of Mesa, said Tuesday. "It's a national work group so that we have model legislation that we know will be successful, that meets the constitutional criteria." The efforts by the state legislators come amid calls to change the U.S. Constitution's 14th...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's no relief from the jobs crisis -- for everyday Americans or lawmakers facing the midterm elections. The most rampant layoffs of teachers and other local government workers in nearly three decades more than offset weak hiring in the private sector in September, resulting in a net loss of 95,000 jobs. Unemployment remained stuck at 9.6 percent. The jobless rate has been at or above 9.5 percent for a year and two months, the longest stretch since the Great Depression. The "underemployment" rate adds part-time workers who would rather work full time and jobless people who aren't...

SIERRA VISTA — While most Arizonans believe that major changes are needed in the state budgeting process, they also have the highest opinion of their lawmakers out of five states faced with similar severe budget issues, according to a study out today. The study, “Facing Facts: Public Attitudes and Fiscal Realities in Five Stressed States,” found that one-third of Arizonans trust their state government “all or most of the time.” That rating was higher than those of the respondents from all other states in the survey, which included California, Florida, Illinois and New York. Along with Florida, the Grand Canyon...

San Francisco lawmakers have approved a fee on alcohol distribution to help the city recover the cost of dealing with problem drinkers, but the measure faces a likely mayoral veto.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawmakers from U.S. steel-producing states on Thursday cheered a decision by Chinese steel company Anshan Iron & Steel Group to back off plans to invest in a U.S. steel plant. "Not only would this venture have set a dangerous precedent further undermining our domestic steel market, but it posed serious national security concerns," Representative Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican, said in a statement. Anshan's decision comes at a time when China has pushed past Japan to become the world's second largest economy and high U.S. unemployment and a huge budget deficit are causing political anxiety in the...

PARIS -- French lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public spaces, as Europe toughens its approach to integrating Muslim immigrant communities. On the eve of Bastille Day, when France celebrates the birth of what was to become a staunchly secular republic, the 577-seat National Assembly lower house voted by 335 votes to one for a total ban. The bill will now go to the Senate in September, but opponents of the ban in its proposed form worry that it will eventually be overturned by the judges of the Constitutional Council, France’s highest legal body.

Republican Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey are calling for a probe to investigate whether Obama administration officials are violating federal law by using taxpayer money to lobby for a new constitution in Kenya that supports and legalizes abortion. “The U.S. is spending taxpayer money on Kenya’s constitutional referendum,” Issa told The Daily Caller. “The underlying concern is that U.S. funds and efforts are being used to interfere in Kenya’s internal debate over abortion, which is part of the debate over the new constitution. There is evidence that U.S. funds are...

The debate agitating many in New Jersey right is whether or not the state’s Governor, Chris Christie, is actually doing much to reform the state as it needs to be. I have to say that I wasn’t impressed with him during his campaign for the Republican nomination against Steve Lonagan. Having no interest in the politics of politic, he sounded like a big government Republican to me. With that in mind, I was nicely surprised by the turn that Christie’s campaign against Corzine took and by some of his policies. He talked about small government, the need for reforming New...