u s congress

WASHINGTON -- Rep. John Delaney, who spent a career in financial services before running for Congress, joined President Barack Obama on Monday in calling for tougher regulations on brokers who help people plan for retirement -- offering his endorsement of a plan that is unlikely to sit well with some on Wall Street.

Federal prosecutors brought fewer cases against drug offenders in 2014 and pursued mandatory-minimum sentences far less often, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Tuesday – signs of progress, he said, in his effort to reform drug sentencing and ease prison overcrowding.

The determination of conservative Republicans to thwart Barack Obama at every turn was clear from the first days after his election in 2008, as their Senate leader Mitch McConnell publicly vowed to make him "a one-term president."

The attorney general has moved the department away from the harsh mandatory minimum sentencing policies of his predecessors

If history is any guide, voters will reward GOP for shutting down non-essential government

As drivers travel aging roads and crumbling bridges, federal highway funding is failing to keep pace with inflation in nearly every state — and some such as Maryland are experiencing a sharper decline than others, according to an analysis of transportation spending.

When government believes it can create or take away rights, it becomes a god unto itself and potentially endangers those rights.

Dr. William M. Hall, a retired gynecologist and obstetrician who was the first African-American to head the staff of the old Lutheran Hospital, died.

Failure to pass federal budget is a constant problem for Washington

The U.S. has become home to so much intellectual backwardness and ideological rigidity, says Leonard Pitts Jr.

Thousands of immigrants in Maryland will have to wait to apply for relief from deportation under the Obama administration's new executive actions after a federal court ruled that the president exceeded his authority, an outcome that is likely to lead to more court battles and partisan rancor on Capitol Hill.

Thankfully, the recent vaccination controversy that dominated headlines and muddled the 2016 Republican presidential primary is mostly over. But political flare-ups of this sort provide a gentle — and for some, unwelcome — reminder about the interconnected nature of modern American life. Libertarians on both the left and right can agitate for greater autonomy as a bulwark against what they see as a too-intrusive government, but the fact is that the era when individual decisions can

House Republicans must stop holding DHS funding hostage over Obama's executive order on immigration

President Obama's latest war strategy makes one wonder: Is another Woodrow Wilson in the Oval Office debating with himself about how to meet the existential threat that faces him?

With ISIS, give peace a chance

A political brawl over funding the Department of Homeland Security is troubling local officials in Maryland, who rely on millions of dollars in grants from the agency to pay for firefighter gear, emergency planning and training.

The Obama administration has made incredible strides for girls and women of color.

The City of Havre de Grace's sometimes controversial business loan program will probably be allowed to run its course rather than be shut down altogether, the two officials most closely involved with the program say.

Congress must exercise its authority to declare war against ISIS while setting reasonable limits on the use of military force

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans pressed the Obama administration Wednesday for a plan to address the long-term health of Social Security as lawmakers began to debate a more immediate shortfall in a program that benefits millions of disabled Americans.

More midshipmen at the Naval Academy reported sexual assaults last year, officials said Wednesday, but the overall levels of victimization, including inappropriate touching, fell to their lowest rate in years.

A General Assembly bill that would guarantee paid sick leave for many Maryland workers has official support from half the members of Howard County's delegation to Annapolis, who say the legislation will benefit workers and businesses alike. Some local business owners, meanwhile, say they feel the proposal represents an unnecessary intrusion by the state.

A General Assembly bill that would guarantee paid sick leave for many Maryland workers has official support from the entire District 21 delegation, but business owners in the region are less united.

Republicans seem confused as to whether they should stick to the theme that the economy is still weak — which they've been claiming since President Obama took office, even though the Great Recession was created on their watch — or whether they should acknowledge the obvious sharp improvement in the economy today and somehow take credit for it.

FCC lacks proper regulatory authority to govern the Internet and assure net neutrality

A deal on the table could end the fighting – but only if Mr. Putin wants to

Tom Wither is the author of the military intelligence thrillers "The Inheritor" and "Autumn Fire" (Turner Publishing) and a 25-year veteran of the intelligence community.

The number of people receiving disability insurance from the Social Security Administration declined last year for the first time since 1983, a reduction that comes as Congress is wrestling with a deadline to fund the program or risk cutting benefits to millions.

Romney on climate change

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a longtime advocate for the National Institutes of Health, offered new details on Thursday of legislation she has introduced to increase funding for medical research -- adding her voice to a growing debate in Congress over research grants.

ISPs fears about net neutrality are wildly overblown.

Looking at another vote for repeal of ACA by Andy Harris as Obamacare enrollment grows

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told a gathering of federal employees on Wednesday that he anticipates an "unprecedented and extremely damaging assault" on federal employees this year by the GOP-controlled Congress.

Republicans have eviscerated the middle class, and Democrats have let them.

The middle class can't be saved unless Wall Street is tamed, writes Robert B. Reich.

"The San Francisco Mafia" dominates California's Democratic Party, says David Horsey.

President Barack Obama unveiled a nearly $4 trillion budget proposal on Monday that would boost spending on infrastructure, medical research and education — and that stoked an ongoing fight with congressional Republicans over how to pay for those priorities.

President Obama's plan to pay for roads and other capital projects by taxing overseas corporate profits should find bipartisan support in Congress

More funding coupled with reforms could help the NIH secure our next generation of researchers — and could get bipartisan support.

Rep. John Boehner was right to invite Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress.

Prime minister's speech to Congress seems no worse the Obama campaign staff working for his opposition in Israel

Boehner's invitation to Netanyahu was neither unusual nor unwise.