Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Hours after the Senate passed a stopgap spending measure to keep the federal government running, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, logged onto Facebook to record a video diatribe. The short story behind Lee’s 12-minute selfie-video on Facebook Live: The Utah Republican voted against the measure and is frustrated with the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars. Unable…
The creator of the independent film "Voiceless" hopes to shift the national conversation about unplanned pregnancies by showing the impact one church can make through local outreach and pro-life advocacy. “My struggle has always been with the church, as it has been having confrontation with the world,” says Pat Necerato, a street preacher turned filmmaker who…
Three days before the federal government’s spending authority expired, the Senate advanced a 10-week continuing resolution by a 72-26 vote, putting spending on autopilot and avoiding a looming government shutdown. The makeshift spending agreement allows lawmakers in the upper chamber to skip Capitol Hill for the campaign trail with barely a month before the November…
GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate are pressuring the Obama administration for additional information on whether it plans to settle with insurance companies suing the government over a program written into Obamacare, which they warn would serve as a “multibillion dollar bailout” of those insurers. Republicans in the House and Senate sent separate letters to top…
A Virginia Tech student, currently on a hunger strike advocating for the allowance of concealed weapons on campus, wants the right of self-defense abided by on his college campus. “I am advocating for Virginia concealed gun permit holders to be able to carry concealed on campus and in buildings and in the classrooms,” Ryan James…
Consumers may be in for sticker shock when they head to pharmacy counters not only because of across-the-board increases in the prices of prescription drugs, but also because of increasing deductibles, a trend that has been occurring for several years. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill and health policy experts brought the debate over the rising prices…
President Barack Obama could likely face his first veto override of his presidency this week—which will probably also be the last given his pending exit in January 2017. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, generally referred to as the 9/11 bill, will return to the Senate Wednesday and to the House as early as…
Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah are pressing their case that the Department of Justice favors abortion clinics over churches, demanding that the law enforcement agency take steps to ensure “the rights of all American citizens”—not just some—are protected. In a letter sent Tuesday, obtained first by The Daily Signal, Cruz…
The 2012 presidential race in Virginia was decided by just 3 percentage points, as was the next year’s race for governor. In both 2005 and 2013, fewer than 1,000 votes decided contests for Virginia attorney general. Against this backdrop, watchdog groups have pushed local election officials in seven Virginia jurisdictions to reveal hundreds of noncitizens…
An abortion survivor urged Americans to “wake up” to the reality that some babies born alive after an attempted abortion are left to die, the survivor testified at a hearing on Capitol Hill last week. “Many Americans have no idea that babies can even live through abortions and are often left to die, but this…
Last week, tensions between police and citizens again rose to the surface after fatal officer-involved shootings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina. The shootings, like others before them in the past few years, raised questions over how officers decide to use force during interactions with people they encounter, and seek to arrest. In the…
When Congress returns to Capitol Hill on Monday to hammer out a stopgap spending measure, House conservatives plan to introduce a spending safety valve that would eliminate the possibility of a government shutdown. Congress has struggled for months to reach a spending agreement. As the end of the fiscal year approaches and government’s spending authority…
In the wake of news that pharmaceutical company Mylan quadrupled the price of its popular EpiPen anti-allergy device over a few years, lawmakers want to know why. But rising drug prices for consumers isn’t a problem specific to Mylan and its epinephrine auto-injector. Rather, research shows that generic drugs as well as brand name drugs…
KYIV, Ukraine—The story is depressingly familiar. On Friday, the cease-fire in Syria, which was brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, collapsed as Russian and Syrian warplanes resumed their scorched earth airstrike campaign in Aleppo. “Russia has no vested interest in stability in the Middle East,” Stephen Blank,…
Lorie Smith, a graphic designer from Colorado, wants to create custom websites and designs for couples who are getting married. However, Smith, an evangelical Christian, wants to create them only for marriages between one man and one woman. Being compelled to create websites celebrating same-sex marriages, she says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, would force…
Before lawmakers in the House could read the Senate’s plan to fund the government after the end of the month, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was dismissing the measure out of hand, calling it “unconstitutional.” Congress is trying to hammer out a compromise to extend federal funding before the government’s annual spending authority expires Oct. 1….
A group of 160 black education and community leaders from across the country are pushing back against an attempt by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to halt all future charter school growth. The coalition, organized by the Black Alliance for Educational Options and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, sent…
The car-rental giant Enterprise has capitulated to liberal pressure groups and withdrawn from a network of lawmakers, researchers, and business leaders that advocates limited government and free markets. The decision by Enterprise Holdings Inc. to leave the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, follows a monthlong campaign conducted online and in social media by labor,…
In 2006, Chris Hausman, a fourth-generation Midwestern farmer long accustomed to depending on government support for survival, traveled across the world to witness a revolution in agriculture. It had been more than 20 years since a left-leaning government in New Zealand chose to eliminate government subsidies for farmers, and Hausman was surprised at what had…
The chairman of the largest conservative caucus in Congress is pushing House Republicans to pass a stopgap spending package before the Senate can finish work on its version. The government’s authority to spend money expires at the end of the fiscal year, Oct. 1. And Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is racing ahead on the…