Donna Cassata Posts

The Pentagon broke the law when it swapped Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a prisoner in Afghanistan for five years, for five Taliban leaders, congressional investigators said Thursday.

Add Kansas to the list of states where tea partyers tried and failed to knock out Senate Republicans this year. Next up: Tennessee, and the odds for the upstarts are no better. Three-term Sen. Pat Roberts dispatched tea party favorite Milton Wolf on Tuesday, edging out the radiologist and distant cousin of President Barack Obama in a bitter, closely fought primary. The Senate GOP establishment, burned in 2010 and 2012 when tea partyers and outsiders cost them majority control, is now basking in a solid string of wins — Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi, though it took six-term Sen. Thad Cochran two tries there before defeating Chris McDaniel, who is challenging the outcome.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday defended the Obama administration's guidelines to banks conducting transactions with legal marijuana sellers as congressional Republicans questioned whether the guidance amounts to tacit federal approval of a drug illegal in most states. The Justice and Treasury departments issued a roadmap in February that would allow the new businesses to make payroll, save money and pay taxes, a move that enables the legalized marijuana industry to operate in Colorado and Washington state.

Congress' multiple investigations of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, have cost the Pentagon millions of dollars and thousands of hours of personnel time, according to the department. In a March 11 letter, the Pentagon outlined its cooperation with six investigations of the Sept. 11 assault that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, and its response to repetitive requests for information from about 50 congressional hearings, briefings and interviews.

The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the CIA Tuesday of criminal activity in improperly searching a computer network set up for lawmakers investigating allegations that the agency used torture in terror investigations during the Bush administration. Democrat Dianne Feinstein, in an extraordinary speech on the Senate floor, publicly aired an intense but formerly quiet dispute between Congress and the spy agency. She said the matter has been referred to the Justice Department for further investigation.

Though a majority was for it, the Senate could not garner the 60 votes needed to move a bill – sponsored by Kirsten Gillibrand and other Senate Democratic women – that would have placed military rape and other sexual assault trials outside the chain of command forward.

A House measure that would require more onerous reporting by the Obama administration on the ACA's progress passed the House Thursday. Democratic Representative John Sarbanes nailed it when he said the bill was "really designed to harass the Health and Human Services" Department.

Congress returns to work Monday with election-year politics certain to shape an already limited agenda. Republicans intend to focus on every facet of President Barack Obama's health care law. They see a political boost in its problem-plagued rollout as the GOP looks to maintain its House majority and seize control of the Democratic-led Senate. First up in the House, according to Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is legislation addressing the security of personal data, part of his party's effort "to protect the American people from the harmful effects of Obamacare."

Ten months to next year's midterm elections, Democrats are determined to make Congress' slim production of fewer than 60 laws and plenty of incompletes — on immigration, gun control, tax reform and basic spending bills — a defining issue, heaping much of the blame on the GOP-led House for obstructing President Barack Obama's second-term agenda.

Included in the $632.8 billion defense bill is a step forward on how the military deals with sexual assault cases. Senate women pushed for reforms to change the Uniform Code of Military Justice so that commanders would no longer be able to overturn jury convictions, as well as other protections for victims of sexual assault and rape.

Frustrated with the failure of House Republicans to tackle immigration, advocates are demanding that President Barack Obama use his powers as chief executive to stop deportations or provide some relief to many of the 11 million immigrants living here illegally.

Senate opponents of stripping military commanders of the authority to prosecute serious crimes such as rape and sexual assault said Monday that the proposal could make it worse for victims. In a letter to Senate colleagues, 11 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote that sexual assault in the military is an abomination and must be dealt with forcefully, but they rejected the solution offered by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.

The Senate is moving forward on the first major bill barring workplace discrimination against gays in nearly two decades as Americans' shifting views about homosexuality have significantly changed the political dynamic. Seven Republicans and 54 Democrats stood together Monday and cleared the bill past its first hurdle on a 61-30 procedural vote, setting the stage for debate on Tuesday and possible passage by week's end.

The United States moved perilously closer to an economy-rattling default and a partial government shutdown entered its 14th day as Senate Democratic and Republican leaders remained at odds over spending in their last-ditch negotiations to end the crises facing the nation.

Senate Democrats are drafting legislation to raise the nation's debt limit without the type of unrelated conditions that Republicans have said they intend to demand, officials said Monday, as the White House signaled it would accept even a brief extension in borrowing authority to prevent an unprecedented default. Republicans have said they will seek long-term deficit cuts or reforms to benefit programs and perhaps a wholesale rollback in environmental rules as the price for raising the current $16.7 trillion debt limit.

A special visa for Iraqis that helped the US during the Iraq war expired earlier this week, but has been fast tracked so that the tens of thousands already here won't suffer any repercussions.

House Democrats have unveiled an immigration bill that includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living here illegally and tightens border security. Prospects are highly uncertain for anything as contentious as immigration amid the budget standoff that has paralyzed Congress.

The force-feeding of terror suspects at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, runs counter to international standards, medical ethics and the practices at American prisons, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday in pressing the Pentagon to establish a more humane treatment.

Republicans at the hearing focused on the widely debunked talking points used by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the attack in which she said the attacks appeared to be associated with demonstrations in Egypt and Libya over an anti-Islam video. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said Rice's comments contradicted statements by Libyan leaders and others who called the attacks pre-meditated assaults by terrorists.

Gowdy said Rice's comments "perpetuated a demonstrably false narrative." Hicks, asked his reaction to the Rice's remarks on five Sunday talk shows, said: "I was stunned. My jaw dropped and I was embarrassed."

Democratic officials say Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, plans to retire. Baucus is the seventh senator to announce his retirement. Two Republicans and four Democrats have already announced that they would not seek another term.