Senate, Congress | featured news

Congressman Dean Heller jumped into the Nevada Senate race today to succeed embattled Republican John Ensign, who announced last week that he will retire.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. David Petraeus says the U.S. has stopped the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan, but he warns that the gains are 'fragile and reversible' and that hard fighting still lies ahead. Key senators express confidence in the war effort.The U.S.

Senate leaders delayed until Wednesday consideration of a bill to fund the government through Sept. 30, as Democrats accused Republicans of reneging on an agreement to stage side-by-side votes on two competing plans to cut spending.

Major U.S. banks are about to get penalized for "critical deficiencies" and shortcomings in how they handled foreclosures, a top federal regulator said Thursday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing examining the Dodd-Frank Act six months after its congressional approval.

Democrats' chances of maintaining a majority in the Senate in 2012 take another hit as Virginia Sen. Jim Webb says won't seek reelection. He will return to working in the private sector.

The Republican-led House of Representatives passed legislation that would repeal President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law on Wednesday in a mostly symbolic move likely to be scuttled in the Senate.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski was officially named the winner of Alaska's U.S. Senate race Thursday, following a legal battle that lasted longer than the write-in campaign she waged to keep her job.

The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld a lower court decision in the disputed U.S. Senate race, saying the state correctly counted write-in votes for Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

A deal has been reached to pave the way for Senate passage of a health bill to aid 9/11 first responders, according to a source close to the negotiations.

President Obama could build on a New START victory as he turns to other foreign policy challenges. Failure might be regarded abroad as confirmation that the administration is too weak to put its stamp on world affairs.