darrell issa
- The cloud of suspicion over Russian interference in the American presidential election has widened, with new demands from congressional Republicans as well as Democrats for a special counsel's investigation, akin to the Watergate inquiry that forced the 1974 resignation of Richard Nixon.
- Democrats and Republicans in Maryland and across the country are beginning to adjust to an incoming president who ran on a promise to upend conventional politicking and reverse President Barack Obama's agenda. The campaign was the most polarizing in generations, and president-elect Donald Trump's rhetoric troubled lawmakers in both parties just as much as it fired up supporters hungry for change.
- Americans shouldn't have to put up with misery at airport security this summer — or the partisan gridlock that enables it.
- A conservative legal group plans to file a Federal Election Commission complaint against Rep. Chris Van Hollen, alleging the Montgomery County Democrat failed to disclose in-kind legal assistance he received when he sued the government in 2011 in an effort to strengthen campaign finance regulations.
- Rep. Paul Ryan should seize this opportunity as speaker to clean the slate by shutting down the wasteful Benghazi Committee, eliminating the indefensible Planned Parenthood panel and sending the ridiculous IRS impeachment resolution to the dustbin of history. These are all remnants of Speaker Boehner's legacy — not Speaker Ryan's.
- President Barack Obama toured a drug rehab and met with former inmates Monday in the rough-and-tumble city of Newark, N.J., calling on the nation to ensure those regaining their freedom get a second chance instead of a return ticket to prison. Although his visit boosted his campaign for a criminal justice overhaul, it also pulled the president into a war of words with presidential candidate and GOP Gov. Chris Christie.
- A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to prohibit federal agencies and contractors from requesting criminal background information from prospective employees at the early stages of a job interview.
- Republicans who refused to disavow Rudy Guiliani's bizarre statement about Obama showed themselves nothing but haters,
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- Now that the NFL and the NFL Players Association have implemented human growth hormone testing as part of a revised performance-enhancing drug policy, Ravens veteran defensive end Chris Canty is hoping that ensures a level playing field.
- Two weeks after the Social Security Administration received a report criticizing management for a dysfunctional, $300 million computer system agency officials provided only a cursory summary of the findings at an official meeting of a committee overseeing the project, documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun show.
- After endlessly trying to repeal and replace "Obamacare," the GOP has come up empty-handed. The health-care law appears to be gaining more public acceptance. So congressional Republicans are doing what they can to revive another old hobby horse — Benghazi.
- House Republicans plot yet another investigation related to Benghazi attack and its aftermath in strictly partisan effort to please political base
- A push by congressional Republicans Friday to increase pressure on the Obama White House over the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi has put Baltimore Rep. Elijah E. Cummings back on the job as one of the administration's leading defenders.
- As I watched Tuesday while the anchors on 'Fox & Friends' leveled unsubstantiated charges against Rep. Elijah Cummings as if they were facts, I couldn't help thinking how much more dangerous Sen. Joe McCarthy might have been in the 1950s if there had been a show like this to amplify his reckless allegations.
- Fox News has a new punching bag this week: Baltimore Congressman Elijah Cummings.
- House Oversight Committee chair's behavior toward Cummings is nothing short of an outrage
- A House of Representatives hearing into the scandal surrounding the Internal Revenue Service devolved into a bizarre bit of political theater on Wednesday when the committee's Republican chairman closed down the proceeding before the ranking Democrat, Baltimore Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, was given an opportunity to speak.
- Facing a backlash from veterans, lawmakers in both parties — including several in Maryland — are reconsidering a cut to military retiree pensions that they approved last month as part of a rare bipartisan budget agreement.
- As Obama continues his campaign to win over Americans skeptical of the Affordable Care Act, the ranks of critics are growing, swollen by people who are losing their existing health insurance because it does not comply with the law
- Baltimore's Elijah Cummings is the voice of reason on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the chief restraint on chairman Darrell Issa
- A new group's efforts to make state and local government more interactive and transparent are badly needed in Maryland.
- WASHINGTON -- Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Baltimore lawmaker and top-ranking Democrat on the often contentious committee have never enjoyed a particularly strong relationship.
- The real scandal is the GOP's lack of solutions to the nation's problems
- Arguing that the congressional investigation into the IRS should be concluded, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings said Sunday that closed-door interviews with the agency's staff show neither the White House nor officials in Washington had a hand in targeting conservative groups for added scrutiny.
- A leading opponent of the effort to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland used a high-profile congressional hearing Tuesday to allege that the IRS leaked a list of its donors to an adversarial group just as it was mounting a campaign to put gay marriage on the ballot.
- Jules Witcover writes that even if the president survive the current inquiries, his legislative agenda might not.
- Internal Revenue Service workers had no business giving extra scrutiny to applications for non-profit status by tea party groups
- The "average" federal employee salary stands at nearly $78,500, an amount that has risen by about $1,800 in the past two years despite a general freeze on salary rates, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
- When city or county firefighters have a family obligation pop up on a workday, their solution is familiar to most shift workers: They find a colleague willing to trade hours. But for the roughly 10,000 firefighters employed by the federal government, the ability to swap shifts is limited.
- At the Dundalk Post Office on Dundalk Avenue this week, news that the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service would stop delivering mail on Saturdays beginning in August was greeted with a mix of apathy and understanding.
- Word that the cash-strapped Postal Service would stop delivering letters on Saturdays hit Lakesha Johnson hard.
- Despite election-year politics, the Obama administration needs to acknowledge mistakes at the U.S. consulate in Libya and learn from them
- Rep. Elijah E. Cummings is requesting that a group whose affiliates have challenged the legitimately of thousands of voter registrations, including some in Maryland, turn over documents to demonstrate how it determines which registrations to target.
- Digital Citizen Bill of Rights
- Talk in Congress of letting the District of Columbia tax commuters is getting a cool reception in Maryland.