By
Meredith Shiner
| July 30, 2013, 6:26 p.m.
Lawmakers regarded President Barack Obama’s latest attempt to engage them on an economic proposal as largely irrelevant Tuesday, with neither Democrats nor Republicans viewing it as an actual step forward toward breaking their ongoing budget impasse.
David H.S. Pattinson
| July 25, 2013, 5 a.m.
Much discussion in Washington recently has centered around the doubling of interest rates for student loans from 3.4 to 6.8 percent APR and the fact that Congress has been unable (at least for now) to implement a rate freeze. Yet, doesn’t this debate simply mask the wider problem of higher education — namely that as the cost of tuition continues to rise, the employment value of graduation simultaneously declines?
By
Lauren Smith
| July 24, 2013, 6:45 p.m.
The student loan interest rate legislation approved Wednesday by the Senate appears to face a clear path in the House, where Republicans wasted no time pointing out that the proposal closely mirrors their original plan.
By
Alan K. Ota
| July 24, 2013, 2:56 p.m.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah seemed to be trying to spark interest in an issue that was thoroughly on the back burner when he introduced a bill, with no co-sponsors, early this month addressing troubled public pension funds.
By
Alan K. Ota
| July 24, 2013, 2:52 p.m.
As a top aide to President George W. Bush, Andrew Biggs argued for allowing workers to funnel payroll taxes into stocks instead of the Social Security trust fund backed by Treasury bonds. But Biggs has now emerged as a leader in prodding public pension funds to use a new gauge — based on Treasury bonds, not stocks — to evaluate unfunded liabilities.
By
Steven T. Dennis
| July 22, 2013, 3:48 p.m.
President Barack Obama’s vision for a middle-class economic agenda has been knocked off stride in the first six months of his second term, and he’ll try to fix that starting this week and heading into the big budget fights this fall.
Jennifer J. Rosenbaum
| July 19, 2013, 5 a.m.
In a July 15 Roll Call opinion piece, “Don’t Devalue Exchange Programs in Immigration Reform,” Michael Petrucelli argues that the Senate immigration bill was wrong to include basic labor protections for the more than 100,000 student guestworkers who come to the U.S. each year through the J-1 visa program. Petrucelli argues that these workers aren’t really workers, but cultural exchange participants, and that the J-1 Exchange Visitor program isn’t really a guestworker program, but a tool of public diplomacy.
Peter Schaumber
| July 12, 2013, 5 a.m.
If the National Labor Relations Board has its way, U.S. manufacturers may have their highly integrated workforces carved up into a multiplicity of collective bargaining units at the behest of unions seeking to unionize their employees.
By
Lauren Smith
| July 10, 2013, 4:12 p.m.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act has been pending in Congress for two decades. Here is a look at the key turning points in the legislative history. 1994: ENDA was first introduced in the 103rd Congress in 1994 with 30 co-sponsors in the Senate and 137 co-sponsors in the House. The bill, though introduced in various forms since then and mainly supported by Democrats, has almost always had at least one Republican co-sponsor. Even in 1994, the proposal had the backing of Sen. Jim Jeffords, a Republican from Vermont who in 2001 became an independent who caucused with Democrats, as well as seven House Republicans. 1996: The Senate held a floor vote on ENDA but it failed by one vote, 50-49. The main sponsor, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., gave an impassioned speech in the chamber, saying: “Today we have the chance to take a meaningful forward step on the road to make America America. We have a really important opportunity to turn our back on bigotry, to turn our back on intolerance, to turn our back on discrimination. We can take an important step in the progress of making America America.” 1998: President Bill Clinton, who had urged Congress in his State of the Union addresses to pass ENDA, signed an executive order that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation for federal employees. 2007: ENDA was introduced for the first time with language that protected gender identity. Though that specific provision was stripped from the bill when it came up for a vote in the House, it marked the first and only time that the proposal passed out of a chamber of Congress. The House supported the bill 235-184, but it eventually died in the Senate, mainly because President George W. Bush threatened a veto. 2013: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee cleared ENDA on Wednesday, readying it for a vote by the full chamber. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he plans to bring the legislation to the floor swiftly, and the bipartisan support the bill garnered in committee hints at the likelihood that it will pass the Senate.
By
Lauren Smith
| July 10, 2013, 4:06 p.m.
In June, several lawmakers received a visit from Kristin Beck, a Florida native who, after serving for more than 20 years as a male U.S. Navy SEAL, recently revealed her identity as a transgender woman.
Matthew Boulay
| July 10, 2013, 3:56 p.m.
Five years ago last week, the Post-9/11 GI Bill was signed into law to honor those who served and sacrificed by giving them a shot at a better future and a chance at the American dream.
Gerald Friedman
| July 2, 2013, 5 a.m.
The Senate is currently considering five nominees for the National Labor Relations Board. All five are experienced, highly qualified candidates, and last month the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved their nominations. But Senate Republicans are refusing to allow a floor vote on the nominees. By blocking the confirmation of new board members, Republicans have rendered the NLRB dysfunctional. It will soon lack the quorum necessary to issue decisions.
Reps. Jared Polis and Tom Petri
| July 1, 2013, 1:26 p.m.
As Congress looks to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in the coming weeks, lawmakers should recognize the growing bipartisan consensus that public charter schools play an integral role in the American education system. With the freedom to innovate, flexibility to pursue a unique mission and an emphasis on results, many public charter schools are helping students achieve the highest levels of success. They are closing the achievement gap and ensuring that all students have the opportunity to reach their potential in college and in their careers.
By
Lauren Smith
| June 26, 2013, 5 a.m.
With immigration center stage and a bipartisan agreement to stave off the student loan interest rate hike nowhere in sight, principal negotiators on both sides conceded Tuesday that rates will likely double on July 1 and will need to be fixed retroactively.
By
Steven T. Dennis
| June 24, 2013, 8:02 p.m.
President Barack Obama will meet with the top four Congressional leaders on Tuesday at the White House — with student loans, immigration and the budget among the topics expected to be discussed.
Sampson Armstrong III
| June 21, 2013, 5 a.m.
My name is Sampson Armstrong III. I’m a finance student at Howard University about to go into my second year. I’m doing well, studying hard and working to help pay for school. Early on, my family and I placed my education as our highest priority, and I’ve worked very hard and have been very fortunate to get to where I am. But in order to be able to attend Howard University, I have to take out the maximum amount of federal subsidized Stafford and federal unsubsidized Stafford loans each semester, and my parents did not qualify for any loans. In total we will owe about $60,000 by the end of this upcoming school year.
By
Alan K. Ota
| June 19, 2013, 2:27 p.m.
Jason Furman, the White House’s nominee to become chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, made a compelling case as an analyst in 2007 for a new minimum wage of $7.25 as “a useful step to help working families escape poverty.”
By
Alan K. Ota
| June 19, 2013, 2:26 p.m.
Congressional Democrats hope to seize momentum from states as they push to raise the minimum wage for the first time in four years.
By
Dena Bunis
| June 17, 2013, 4:15 p.m.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus was emphatic that illegal immigrants should be included when the landmark health care bill was being negotiated in 2009. But the White House and Democratic leaders said it was not the right time and health care would be taken care of when immigration was overhauled.
By
David Harrison
| June 14, 2013, 4 p.m.
Republicans are preparing a border security amendment to the bipartisan Senate immigration bill and plan to release it as early as next week.
