U.S. Edition
Updated 8:09 p.m. ET, 7/15/2014
(CNN) - Senate Republicans expressed growing confidence Tuesday that Congress will approve bipartisan legislation aimed at resolving a what's being called a "humanitarian crisis" resulting from the surge of child immigrants from Central America at the southern border.
"It is actually possible to come behind a bipartisan agreement to deal with a big problem," an upbeat Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said about the proposal this week by Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, both of Texas.
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Washington (CNN) - Ahead of a White House meeting Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner called on President Barack Obama to lay out a "broader strategy" for how to deal with sectarian violence in Iraq, but the Ohio Republican said the United States should "absolutely not" talk to Iranians about the crisis.
"I can just imagine what our friends in the region, our allies will be thinking by reaching out to Iran at a time when they continue to pay for terrorists and foster terrorism not only in Syria, in Lebanon but in Israel as well," Boehner told reporters after the House GOP weekly conference meeting.
Washington (CNN) - Ensuring a pre-holiday collision course with the Senate, House Republicans Friday ignored criticism from President Obama and congressional Democrats and formally unveiled a bill that extends the payroll tax cut and benefits for jobless Americans, but ties those items to a provision that clears a path toward approving the Keystone XL pipeline.
Senate Democrats bristled at the inclusion of the controversial pipeline - that would eventually run from Canada though the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico - and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised it would not pass in the Senate.
Washington (CNN) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he's not sure a potential government shutdown at the end of the month can be avoided because of a stand-off between the House and Senate over how much to spend on disaster relief.
"I heard reports that Sen. (Senate Republican Leader Mitch) McConnell said there will be no shutdown," Reid told reporters in the Capitol. "I'm not that sure. I'm not that sure because the Tea Party-driven House of Representatives has been so unreasonable in the past. I don't know why they should suddenly be reasonable."
Washington (CNN) – Congressional Republicans Tuesday dismissed the President Obama's proposal to offset the costs of his jobs bill through tax increases on higher income workers, but signaled they still want to work with the president to get at least some pieces of his economic plan through Congress.
"When you look at what we saw in the president's pay-fors yesterday, we see permanent tax increases put into effect in order to pay for temporary spending. I just don't think that's really going to help our economy the way it could," House Speaker John Boehner said. FULL POST
Washington (CNN) – As it considers President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs plan, many members of a divided Congress appeared Friday to be in a compromising mood, seemingly eager to placate voters sick of infighting and inaction when it comes to jumpstarting the economy.
Top House Republicans - who have butted heads with Obama and his fellow Democrats on most every major policy effort since taking over the chamber early this year - went into the speech reserving judgment, and struck a collaborative tone after listening to the president's laundry list of proposals.