Washington (CNN) - The House of Representatives Tuesday passed a GOP-sponsored bill banning so- called "late term abortions" - procedures for women who are beyond 20 weeks into their pregnancy. The vote was 228-196, mostly along party lines.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona, stirred up controversy last week when he opposed an effort by House Democrats to add an exception for women who are raped, arguing that "the incidents of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low."
House Democrats seized on the comment, and because of the backlash GOP leaders later decided to add new language to the bill allowing women who get pregnant as a result of rape or incest to obtain an abortion if they report the crime to authorities.
The White House has threatened a veto on the legislation, but the Democratic-led Senate is not expected to take up the measure.
Washington (CNN) - House Republican leaders are hoping to head off a repeat of last week's controversy over the issue of whether there should be an exception for cases of rape and incest in a GOP sponsored bill banning late term abortions by adding that exception before the House debates the measure on Tuesday.
Republican members on the House Judiciary committee, which marked up the abortion bill last week, voted down a Democratic amendment to allow women who are raped to obtain an abortion beyond 22 weeks into a pregnancy. But House GOP leaders decided to add a slightly different exception to the bill after several GOP members expressed concerns about the issue, according to two House Republican leadership aides. The new language permits an exception for those women who get pregnant through rape or incest to obtain an abortion if they report the crime to the authorities first.
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Washington (CNN) – House Speaker John Boehner told CNN his meeting with the family members of those killed in the Sandy Hook school shootings was "very good."
Several relatives of those who died in the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut last December returned to Capitol Hill six months after the tragedy. The massacre left twenty school children and six educators at Sandy Hook elementary school dead. The group sat down with Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon to discuss their efforts to push for legislation aimed at reducing gun violence.
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Washington (CNN) - As the Senate this week casts its first round of votes on immigration reform, a divided Republican conference on the other side of the Capitol may be a roadblock to any immigration measure passing Congress this year.
And that internal split will soon pose a critical test for House Speaker John Boehner.
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Washington (CNN) – The number two House Republican dodged questions Tuesday about whether he agreed with House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's use of the term "paid liar" to describe White House Press Secretary Jay Carney in a CNN interview Sunday.
Asked about Issa's comments, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor instead deflected the issue back to the White House, saying "there's been an abuse of trust on the part of this administration towards the American people. We're going to remain committed to getting to the bottom of this and let the truth come out."
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(CNN) - The House of Representatives passed a measure to repeal Obamacare entirely on Thursday - a move the GOP-led chamber has done twice already.
But the latest scandal involving the IRS, one of the key agencies charged with enforcing the health care law, is adding fuel to the political fire over the controversial new law.
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Washington (CNN) - After months of intense negotiations, a bipartisan U.S. House group has reached an "agreement in principle" on immigration reform, according to Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, one of the GOP members of the group.
A Democratic aide familiar with the discussions confirmed that all the members signed on and told CNN both Democrats and Republicans "will now run the whole package past their respective leadership and colleagues" and aim to formally introduce legislation at the beginning of June.
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(CNN) – Previewing the partisan food fight coming this fall over raising the debt ceiling, the House passed legislation on Thursday allowing the Treasury to pay U.S. bond holders if the nation hits its borrowing limit.
But the vote doesn't move Congress any closer to a deal to address the nation's fiscal situation - it just exposes the bitter divide between the political parties.
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Washington (CNN) - After endorsing former Rep Mark Sanford last month in the special congressional election in South Carolina, House Speaker John Boehner appeared to distance himself Tuesday from the controversial former governor, saying "the electorate gets to decide" who their representatives in Congress are.
Sanford gained notoriety in 2009 when while serving as South Carolina's governor he disappeared from public view and his aides said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. He later admitted he was in Argentina visiting his mistress.
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(CNN) – A senior House Democrat wants Republicans to retract a report claiming that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally signed off on security cuts at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, which later was targeted in a deadly terror attack.
Republicans argued the conclusion, released this week, contradicted her congressional testimony on the matter, which was the subject of intense scrutiny.
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