Wire Politics

The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.

The obscure oversight board that President Barack Obama wants to scrutinize the National Security Agency's secret surveillance system is little known for good reason. The U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has operated fitfully during its eight years of low-profile existence, stymied by congressional infighting and, at times, censorship by government lawyers.

Supporters of a far-reaching immigration bill in the Senate see fresh momentum from a report by the Congressional Budget Office that says the measure would boost the economy and reduce federal deficits by billions of dollars.

Republican lawmakers have a message for those who want the party to soften its emphasis on social conservatism in hopes of reaching a wider national audience: Not so fast.

Five years and 50 years. As President Barack Obama revisits Berlin, he can't escape those anniversaries and the inevitable comparisons to history and personal achievement.

There's no guarantee that President Barack Obama's health care law will launch smoothly and on time, congressional investigators say in the first in-depth independent look at its progress.

Defense officials say four U.S. troops were killed Tuesday at or near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

A wide-ranging farm bill the House is considering would cut food stamps by $2 billion a year and make it more difficult for some people to qualify for the domestic food aid program.

1948 - Law passed making women a permanent part of the U.S. military services.

A bipartisan trio of key senators is demanding that President Barack Obama take more decisive action to stem the military advance by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

As the military looks to bring women into combat jobs closer to the front lines, including commando units, senior leaders are reviewing the physical and mental requirements that troops must meet in order to qualify for certain positions.

An Internal Revenue Service manager and self-described conservative Republican said the close scrutiny of tea party groups' tax forms originated in his Cincinnati IRS office and not in Washington, according to a full transcript of his interview by congressional investigators released Tuesday.

Google on Tuesday sharply challenged the federal government's gag order on its Internet surveillance program, citing what it described as a First Amendment right to divulge how many requests it receives from the government for data about its customers in the name of national security.

As of Tuesday, June 18, 2013, at least 2,103 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count.

Declaring "the days of Rambo are over," a top general said Tuesday that cultural, social and behavioral concerns may be bigger hurdles than tough physical fitness requirements for women looking to join the military's special operations units.

Republicans controlling the House unveiled slashing cuts Tuesday to a program that helps localities build community development projects, while their rivals in the Democratic-led Senate proposed to restore GOP cuts to international food aid and nutrition help for pregnant women.

The U.S Army Corps of Engineers will not review the broader climate-change impacts of proposed coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest, an agency official told Congress on Tuesday.

California dairy processors are still trying to squeeze a better deal from a big farm bill up for House debate this week.

States can ask for another year before being required to use student test results to decide whether to keep or fire teachers, Education Secretary Arne Duncan told school chiefs on Tuesday.

Same-sex couples are treated less favorably than heterosexual couples when seeking information about rental housing advertised over the Internet, according to a first-of-its-kind national study from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Word that the Taliban and U.S. will hold formal talks to find a political solution to end nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan comes after years of failed efforts at peace talks. A look at the evolution of U.S. relations with the Taliban:

Group of Eight summit participants are powerful people: the leaders of the U.S., Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan, plus top officials from the European Union. But they only make promises.

The two federal prison inmates accused of killing a guard at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, Calif., five years ago this week are now seeking to separate their trials.

A federal appeals court judge Tuesday called on the president and Congress to consider a different approach to the handling of legal cases of Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence led by lawmakers sympathetic to the spying.

The New York Police Department's widespread spying programs directed at Muslims have undermined free worship by innocent people and should be declared unconstitutional, religious leaders and civil rights advocates said Tuesday after the filing of a federal lawsuit.

President Barack Obama says he and French President Francois Hollande agree they have strong evidence of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government. But he's not publicly mentioning their current differing positions over whether to arm rebels.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Tuesday that he has chosen former Sen. Russ Feingold as the new U.S. special representative for the Great Lakes region of Africa and the ongoing crisis in the Congo.

Civil rights lawyers say they plan to ask a federal judge to declare the New York Police Department's spying programs directed at Muslims to be unconstitutional, and to order police to stop their surveillance and destroy any records in police files.