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WASHINGTON — In a move Democrats denounced as trying to sabotage the Obama administration’s foreign policy, Sen. Rob Portman and 46 other Senate Republicans yesterday warned Iran’s leadership that any agreement to limit Tehran’s apparent efforts to build a nuclear bomb would need Senate approval to stay in effect beyond 2016.

House and Senate Republican leaders told President Barack Obama Thursday that they will refuse to nominate candidates to serve on an advisory board that is to play a role in holding down Medicare costs under the new health care act.

Investigators haven't found any ricin in the house of a man accused of mailing poisoned letters.

The days of tax-free online shopping could finally be numbered. The Senate is planning to vote on a bill as soon as Monday that would give states the authority to collect sales taxes on all Internet purchases, handing local governments as much as $11 billion per year in added revenue that they are legally owed — but that hasn’t been paid to them for years.

Senator Charles E. Grassley said, “Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will "hit pause" on the gun bill while senators see if they can find a workable compromise on strengthening background checks on gun purchases.

The defeat of several measures in the Senate made it clear that while the national sentiment about stemming the menace of guns in the wrong hands has shifted, the political dynamic has not.

Federal agents arrested a Mississippi man suspected of sending letters that showed evidence of ricin in initial testing to President Obama and a Republican senator, according to two officials.

The Senate has rejected a bipartisan effort to expand federal background checks to more firearms buyers in a crucial showdown over gun control. Today's vote was a jarring blow to the drive to curb firearms sparked by December's massacre of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. President Barack Obama made broadened background checks the centerpiece of his gun control proposals.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, broke his long faith with the National Rifle Association on Wednesday and said he would vote for a ban on assault weapons.