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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama intends to nominate former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead a new consumer financial protection bureau that was a central feature of a law that overhauled banking regulations. Obama plans to announce the nomination formally on Monday, the White House said in a statement Sunday. Republicans immediately threatened to block his Senate confirmation. In choosing Cordray, Obama bypassed Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of consumer groups, who has been assembling the agency as a special adviser to the White House and to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The agency will officially begin its oversight and...

The Senate rejected a Republican measure Wednesday to expand offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. coastal waters, signaling a continued partisan stalemate over energy policy and, more specifically, how to respond to rising gas prices. The bill was defeated in a 42-57 vote. Sixty votes were required for passage. Five Republicans -- Alabama's Richard Shelby, Louisiana's David Vitter, Maine's Olympia Snowe, South Carolina's Jim DeMint, and Utah's Mike Lee -- voted against the bill.

Boeing labor union credits Obama for Air Force tanker win Published: Saturday, February 26, 2011, 5:00 AM By George Talbot The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. will meet with top military officials on Monday to learn why its bid for the U.S. Air Force tanker contract fell short against rival Boeing Co. The details of that 10 a.m. CST meeting at the Pentagon could dictate whether or not EADS will protest the award The selection of Boeing’s KC-767 tanker, announced Thursday by the Air Force, stunned observers on both sides of the high-stakes competition for the $35 billion deal....

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, said he is prepared to filibuster the proposed economic stimulus bill, but fears enough Republicans will side with Senate Democrats to override any attempt to block the bill’s passage. Shelby’s remarks came during a county meeting Monday morning at the Wiregrass Rehabilitation Center in Dothan. The Senate is expected to debate a proposed $900 billion stimulus bill this week. A similar measure passed the House last week. Shelby said the plan will not provide the quick boost the economy needs. “Are we prepared to filibuster? Hope so,” Shelby said. “But I’m afraid we may have...

ASHINGTON, June 7— A re-examination of years of terrorist plots and attacks around the world, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, suggests that American intelligence agencies profoundly underestimated Al Qaeda's reach and aspirations for more than a decade as it grew from obscurity into a global terrorist threat, lawmakers and investigators said this week.As Congressional investigators look back far beyond the series of signals missed before the Sept. 11 attacks, they are seeking answers to many questions about Al Qaeda that law enforcement and intelligence agencies still cannot answer themselves, officials said.In particular, they said, Congressional investigators are trying...

A Gulf state senator ripped BP chief executive Tony Hayward for taking time off Saturday to attend a glitzy yacht race around England's Isle of Wight as oil spewing into the Gulf continues to wreak havoc on the environment and wildlife. "That's the height of arrogance," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told Fox News on Saturday.

Most probably wouldn't think of Rolling Stone magazine as a primary source for information on something like financial regulation reform. However, if you listen to some of the left-wing talking heads like Ezra Klein, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi is in the know on major policy issues. So how do Taibbi and the other folks at Rolling Stone keep their readers interested in a topic that wouldn't suit their usual demographic? They do so with "insults" according to Taibbi. In the May 26 issue of Rolling Stone, Taibbi's article, "Wall Street War," lamented the impact lobbyists in Washington, D.C. have had...

Senate Republicans are prepared to end their stalling tactics on new banking regulations and will attempt to change the bill on the Senate floor, Republican officials said. Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking committee, said he has assurances that Democrats will adjust his banking regulation bill to address concerns that it perpetuates bailouts.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put an extraordinary “blanket hold” on at least 70 nominations President Obama has sent to the Senate, which means no nominations can move forward unless Senate Democrats can secure a 60-member cloture vote to break it, or until Shelby lifts the hold.

September 15, 2009 Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), ranking Republican on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, today wrote to committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Inspector General, Kenneth Donohue, calling for an immediate and thorough investigation into the activities of the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Shelby’s call for an investigation follows recent news reports surrounding the arrest of individuals in Florida for falsifying voter applications while employed by ACORN leading up to the 2008 elections, as well as video of employees in...

If Maggie Rodriguez [file photo] had been aboard the Titanic and an officer had started screaming at the captain that the ship was headed for an iceberg and the Captain had to dramatically change course, Maggie would presumably have admonished him: “what good does it to to point that out? Why don’t you see if you can compromise, maybe get the captain to slow it down a knot or two?” That’s the same kind of advice the Early Show co-anchor gave Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), when on today’s Early Show he said, pointing out the PBO’s own budget projections are...

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson will go before the U.S. Senate in coming weeks as Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of Commerce. Will Democrats in that chamber remember his performance in 1999 and 2000 as Energy secretary, when secrets disappeared from nuclear laboratories, and one Democratic senator promised to oppose Richardson for any future nomination? In the January of 1999, the U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence published ... the “Cox Report” -- which found that China had stolen and still was stealing nuclear weapons secrets from the U.S. The committee reported that “the primary focus of this long-term,...

Barney Frank favors bailing out the Detroit automakers over letting them go into bankruptcy. Chief among his concerns is that bankruptcy might "bust" the unions. You know, those organizations whose contract demands have put Detroit on the brink of extinction. The Massachusetts Dem, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was interviewed by Maggie Rodriguez on today's Early Show. He appeared alongside Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Al.), ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, who favors letting the automakers reorganize under Chapter 11. View video here.

Toyota, BMW, Hyundai Workers' Senators Oppose Rescue

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Republican senators said Sunday they will oppose a Democratic plan to bail out Detroit automakers, calling the U.S. industry a ''dinosaur'' whose ''day of reckoning'' is coming. Their opposition raises serious doubts about whether the plan will pass in this week's postelection session. Democratic leaders want to use $25 billion of the $700 billion financial industry bailout to help General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC. Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona said it would be a mistake to use any of the Wall Street rescue money to prop up...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WBRC-TV MyFoxAL.com) -- Alabama's two U.S. Senators don't seem overly optimistic about a revived bailout plan that is scheduled for a vote Wednesday night. A spokesman for Alabama Senator Richard Shelby tells FOX6 News he's reviewing the final language for the bill. Shelby has been a vocal opponent of the President's bailout plan. A spokeswoman in Senator Jeff Sessions office says as it stood Wednesday morning Sessions would likely vote against the bill. Congressional leaders from both parties said they are hopeful that a $700 billion financial industry bailout that derailed in the House is back on track...

When a high-ranking U.S. senator sounds more like Karl Marx than Adam Smith over the issue of energy prices, it must be an election year. Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared on CNBC’s June 10 “Squawk Box” pushing government control of corporate profits. Dodd said he considered a company to be “doing very, very well” with profits above $8 or $10 per barrel of oil. He said he advocated a windfall profits tax, where Congress would determine what amount of profit is fair and what isn’t. Co-host Joe Kernan called the Connecticut senator on...

A C-130 aircraft carrying an Alabama senator and congressman was fired on this evening as it was flying from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan. The airplane was carrying Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, and two other senators. Three rockets were shot at the plane and were "near misses," Shelby said in a telephone interview. He said the pilot took evasive maneuvers to avoid the rockets. The plane landed safely in Amman at about 4 p.m. central.

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby doesn't mince words on Democrats not funding the troops, the Army banning mil-bloggers and George Tenet's new book. HH: But first, we celebrate the fact that the Congress has failed to override the President’s veto of the pork-laden attempt to micromanage the war into a date certain defeat. I’m joined by Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. Senator, good to have you on the program. Are you with me, Senator? RS: Yeah, I’m with you. HH: Okay, good to talk with you there, sir. Senator Shelby, before we get to the future of this bill, you’re on...

The United States should conduct military strikes against Hezbollah and Hamas facilities in the Middle East before engaging in any military action against Iraq, the leaders of an influential US Senate committee demanded Sunday. Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham and his Republican counterpart, Richard Shelby, made their recommendation amid increasing concern among member of the US intelligence community that if faced with certain downfall, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein could hand over weapons of mass destruction to regional terrorist groups. "Against those international terrorists such as Hezbollah and Hamas, we need to be launching attacks on their headquarters and...