The Senate rejected a measure Tuesday that would have extended a pay freeze for federal employees for another year. By a vote of 51 to 47, the chamber turned down an amendment to a highway funding bill introduced by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that would have extended the freeze through January 2014 to fund energy projects, an adoption tax credit, and tax deductions for college expenses and for state and local property taxes. Read full article > >

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Senate rejects pay freeze extension

The most important figure in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address wasn’t on the House floor. In fact, he hasn’t taken a seat in front of the chamber in 13 years. But as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination in Florida, former House speaker Newt Gingrich was doing more to boost President Obama’s reelection prospects than anything Obama himself could do. Read full article > >

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Gingrich is Obama’s best surrogate

The opening session of Egypt’s first democratically elected parliament erupted in chaos Monday as the Islamist dominating the chamber struggled to keep order.

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Chaotic Start to Egypt’s First Democratically Elected Parliament

RICHMOND — Just two years ago, nearly every top-ranking Republican in Virginia called for the removal of Jeff Frederick as chairman of the state party after accusations of incompetence and mismanagement. Now, many of those elected officials, including Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, see Frederick’s candidacy for the state Senate as an integral part of the Republican strategy to gain control of the chamber in November. Read full article > >

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Virginia Senate hopeful Jeff Frederick, once cast out by GOP, now has its support

The judicial wars have returned to the Senate. After months of relative calm regarding the federal bench, Senate Republicans are poised Thursday to use a filibuster to block the confirmation of law professor Goodwin Liu to an appellate court. If successful, it would be the first filibuster of a judicial nominee led entirely by Senate Republicans — six years after their leaders tried to change the chamber’s rules to forbid such an action . Read full article > >

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Judicial nominee Goodwin Liu faces filibuster showdown

Republicans voted to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers after discovering a way to bypass the chamber’s missing Democrats.

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Wisconsin Senate Advances Bill Opposed by Unions

This may not sit well with the Chamber of Commerce, which President Obama told he’d lower taxes on Monday. Obama’s budget proposal will allow states to collect more payroll taxes in order to replenish unemployment-insurance programs, according to The…

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Obama to Propose Unemployment Taxes

President Obama offered a carrot and a stick to a potentially hostile audience Monday morning. Speaking to the Chamber of Commerce-a group that’s fought his agenda tooth-and-nail on health care and financial regulation-Obama said he wanted to mend his…

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Obama to Businesses: Get in the Game

Frustrated by regular filibusters and other blockades, Senate Democrats are urging their leadership to change the chamber’s rules.

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Democrats Seek Changes to Senate Procedures

UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom was ordered to leave the chamber after making Nazi-themed comments to social democrat group leader Martin Schultz

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MEP ejected over ‘Nazi’ jibe

UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom is ordered out of the chamber of the European Parliament after he directed a Nazi slogan at a German socialist.

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UKIP MEP ejected over Nazi jibe

Senate Democrats are expected to elect the same party veterans as their leaders when they return to work this week, but a new class of junior lawmakers is exerting its influence by challenging the chamber’s sacred traditions and the partisan, top-down governing style that has marked the past two…

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New-guard Democrats eye change in Senate

The top Democrat in the US House of Representatives says she wants to continue to lead her party in the chamber despite its big losses in the mid-term elections.

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Pelosi bidding for new House role

One of the most bitter political feuds of the past two years could be cooling off: President Obama’s war with the Chamber of Commerce.

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The Caucus: Business Leaders’ Rift With Obama

President Barack Obama called the next House Speaker — Republican Rep. John Boehner of Ohio — on Tuesday night after mid-term election results gave the GOP majority control of the chamber starting next year.

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Obama gives Boehner a call