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The Senate blocked a bill Tuesday that would repeal about $2 billion a year in tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies, a Democratic response to $4-a-gallon gasoline that might fare better when Congress and the White House negotiate a deal later this year to increase the government's ability to borrow.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) appeared on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday to discuss his federal budget proposal and whether he would run for Senate. “Both parties messed this up,” said Ryan when asked if the Bush administration bore some responsibility for the nation’s fiscal woes. Ryan also agreed that President Obama had offered some ideas regarding how to cut spending and deal with entitlements, but said that a formal plan, in writing, had yet to be released by either the president or Senate Democrats.

Inhofe said that he had no doubt that the pictures were of Bin Laden, adding: "Absolutely no question about it. A lot of people out there say: 'I want to see the pictures,' but I've already seen them. That was him. He's gone. He's history."

With high gas prices and federal deficits in the political spotlight, senior Democrats believe that Senate Republicans will support an idea they otherwise might not like.

The top staffer for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and a Native American tribe are objecting to the U.S. military's use of the code name "Geronimo" for Osama bin Laden.

An aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the lawmaker dislocated his right shoulder and has a bump over his left eye after he fell on Wednesday.

Embattled Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada announced Thursday that he will resign amid an ongoing ethics investigation, a move that could spare him from the continued embarrassment of the closely watched probe....

The Democratic-run US Senate defeated measures approved by the Republican-run House to bar spending government funds for the health-care overhaul law and Planned Parenthood.

Goldman Sachs designed, marketed and sold collateralized debt obligations that misled investors and created conflicts of interest as the company built short positions before the U.S. housing market collapsed, a Senate panel said in its report on the financial crisis.

Although it lacks a 'do not track' provision, the bill's advocates say it would enact the first comprehensive protections for consumers' digital data transmitted from computers or other devices.Internet privacy is shaping up as the consumer issue of the year in Congress, as evidenced by new legislation introduced with bipartisan support from two former presidential candidates.