Wednesday was a day of bipartisan harmony — at least in two congressional panels. In the Senate, a committee passed legislation allowing same-sex spouses of federal workers to receive employment benefits. In the House, subcommittee members on a panel often riven with partisanship took testimony on the Hatch Act and everyone agreed it needs fixing. Read full article > >

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Lawmakers find bipartisan ground on behalf of federal workforce

Richard Lugar had it all — a sterling global reputation, bipartisan respect, a fat campaign bank account and 36 years of Senate experience.

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Analysis: Lugar’s grassroots withered

Current and former General Services Administration officials faced bipartisan questioning Monday over an $800,000 Las Vegas conference.

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Panel Grills G.S.A. Officials Over Lavish Conference

On TV, just about everyone with a political opinion seems to be a “strategist.” Even when they’re not. The label is bipartisan and multi-network. CNN fills its air with people identified on-screen as either a “Republican strategist” or a “Democratic strategist.” So do Fox News and MSNBC. The broadcast networks shorthand their guests that way, too. Read full article > >

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On TV, legions of ‘strategists.’ A few probably really are.

This story has been updated. The House overwhelmingly approved a measure Tuesday designed to make it easier for growing companies to attract investors and comply with securities laws. The bipartisan measure, strongly backed by both parties and the White House, passed 380 to 41. Read full article > >

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House passes JOBS Act, sends bill to Obama

House Republicans on Wednesday held ranks in defeating an attempt to force a vote on the $109 billion bipartisan transportation bill approved by the Senate last week. With 10 days left until current transportation funding expires, House leaders said they plan to introduce legislation on Thursday that would continue transportation funding at current levels for 90 days. If approved, it would be the ninth such extension since the last long-term funding plan expired more than two years ago. Read full article > >

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House rejects Senate transportation bill with procedural vote

By now, you’ve probably heard of Americans Elect , the political-reform group funded by a collection of Wall Street executives (some of whom remain anonymous) who hope to field a bipartisan presidential ticket in 2012. Read full article > >

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Americans Elect’s plan for primary reform

A bill the House passed last week to make it easier for companies to raise money could also make it easier for companies to cheat investors, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission says. Read full article > >

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JOBS Act could remove investor protections, SEC chief says

JUST WHEN YOU thought the mess in Washington couldn’t get any messier comes the year-end snafu over the payroll tax , unemployment insurance and other supposedly must-do items. Explaining this fiasco to the proverbial Martian would be almost impossible. Both Democrats and Republicans say they want to see the reduction in the payroll tax extended for a full year. But they have been unable to reach agreement on how to pay for that cost or on extraneous issues being used as political leverage in the fight, such as speeding up approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Senate solution was not so much a solution as a whoppingly bipartisan agreement to fail to reach agreement, kicking the can down the road by a scant two months. No one should feel especially proud of that outcome. Read full article > >

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Editorial Board:
The best way to end the payroll tax standoff

House Republicans, on the eve of Tuesday’s vote denying tax relief to 160 million Americans, huddled in a conference room in the Capitol basement for more than two hours. Were they puzzling over how to explain to constituents why they were effectively ordering a tax increase on the middle class after fighting for much larger tax breaks for the wealthy? Were they justifying the killing of a bipartisan compromise that had the support of all but eight Senate Republicans and the tacit approval of House Speaker John Boehner? Read full article > >

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Braveheart Republicans? Or false-hearted?

The House on Tuesday rejected a bipartisan Senate compromise to extend a payroll tax cut for two months, along with unemployment benefits, plunging Washington into uncertainty just days before Christmas about the fate of the tax cut enjoyed by 160 million workers. On a vote of 229 to 193, the House set aside the Senate bill and requested a formal conference with the Senate, setting up a showdown with the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Obama, who has demanded that the House approve the short-term plan now to avoid a Jan. 1 tax hike. Read full article > >

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Obama blasts GOP after House Republicans defeat two-month payroll tax cut

Showing a new conciliatory tone, Senate leaders opened Congressional business Thursday by suggesting that a bipartisan compromise may come soon on a spending measure to keep the government running past Friday and a bill to extend a one-year cut in the payroll tax rate paid by 160 million workers. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who has been holding up a $1 trillion spending measure that would fund much of the government through next September, said he believes both issues can be resolved “in the next few days.” Read full article > >

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Senate leaders say deal on spending, tax cut measures may come soon

WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday to end per-country caps on worker-based immigration visas, a move that should benefit skilled Indian and Chinese residents seeking to stay in the United States and the high-tech companies who hire them. The legislation, which passed 389-15, was a rare example of bipartisan accord on immigration, an issue that largely has been avoided during the current session of Congress because of the political sensitivities involved. Read full article > >

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House votes to end country limits for skilled workers seeking green cards

WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday to end per-country caps on worker-based immigration visas, a move that should benefit skilled Indian and Chinese residents seeking to stay in the United States and the high-tech companies who hire them. The legislation, which passed 389-15, was a rare example of bipartisan accord on immigration, an issue that largely has been avoided during the current session of Congress because of the political sensitivities involved. Read full article > >

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House votes to end country limits for skilled workers seeking green cards

Leaders of conservative groups on Tuesday had a message for Congress: The supercommittee’s failure wasn’t necessarily a failure. One day after the co-chairs of the bipartisan panel announced that they were unable to reach agreement on a deal to stem the country’s rising tide of red ink, the leaders of several conservative organizations cast the failure as a success because it did not result in a deal including tax increases. Read full article > >

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Conservative groups hail supercommittee failure, keep up pressure on taxes