Conference Committee

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) is chairman of the esteemed House Ways and Means Committee, the oldest of all congressional panels and one with so much influence over the workings of the federal government that past Way and Means chairmen were routinely described as the most powerful men in Washington. But committee chairmanships are not what they used to be on Capitol Hill. When the House voted Jan. 1 to allow tax increases on wealthy wage earners, the most significant tax increase in more than two decades, Camp...

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) is chairman of the esteemed House Ways and Means Committee, the oldest of all congressional panels and one with so much influence over the workings of the federal government that past Way and Means chairmen were routinely described as the most powerful men in Washington. But committee chairmanships are not what they used to be on Capitol Hill. When the House voted Jan. 1 to allow tax increases on wealthy wage earners, the most significant tax increase in more than two decades, Camp...

About 4,000 employees of the Federal Aviation Administration , including almost 1,000 who live in the Washington region, would receive back pay for the two-week partial shutdown of the agency under a bill introduced in the House on Tuesday. Restoration of the lost pay has been expected but requires congressional action. With Congress away until after Labor Day, it would be September before the workers see the money. "For the past two weeks it was important to get these workers back on the job," Rep. Frank A....

RICHMOND — A key committee meeting Tuesday could offer a glimpse of what a possible compromise on Gov. Robert F. McDonnell's transportation funding plan would look like. And lawmakers from both sides and transportation experts say the least likely element to survive is the centerpiece of McDonnell's proposal : eliminating the gas tax for an increase in the sales tax. McDonnell (R) signaled Monday that he too was willing to deal, even as he visited Northern Virginia to make a sales...

Sen. Barbara Boxer used an earthmover as a backdrop Wednesday for what has become her weekly public push for a transportation bill, but she used a blunt instrument to deliver her message. In a sharp turn of tone, Boxer and a half-dozen other Democratic senators — joined by construction and union leaders — described the Republicans who have objected to conference committee proposals as extremists who are holding the bill hostage for political gain, want to scuttle transportation funding and should...

Lawmakers on Monday tried to ease concerns that a major defense bill would require military detention for terrorism suspects held in the United States, changing the measure in hopes of winning approval from the White House. The provisions were in a $662 billion defense authorization bill that was approved by key lawmakers from both parties on Monday night. The measure also includes Senate provisions on sanctions against Iran that the administration has argued could backfire.

As the House and Senate take up their versions of President Obama's budget plan this week, the congressional budget process will be on full display. While the quirky, arcane proceedings can be mystifying at times, here are five things you need to know to follow the action. 1. Congress holds the purse strings. Though the Democrats who control Congress are deferential to the Democrat residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, House and Senate budget leaders have made significant changes to Obama's budget request, slicing as...

It is a rare day on Capitol Hill when "transportation funding" and "Kabuki dance" find their way into the same sentence. Wednesday was that day. With his plan for the nation's transportation system shredded by attacks from both sides of the aisle, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) sought to free his party from the charge that they are "do-nothing Republicans" by orchestrating a clever move. The House approved what appeared to be the 10th extension of transportation funding...

AFTER WEEKS of wheeling and dealing, a House-Senate conference committee has finally produced a farm bill. And what an unlovely creation it is. The nearly $300 billion, five-year legislation brims with subsidies for everything from biofuels to historic-barn preservation. It includes a dubious sugar-to-ethanol program and billions of dollars for a permanent disaster relief fund that essentially pays farmers to grow crops on land too dry to sustain them. And it perpetuates the multibillion-dollar system of direct payments to corn, wheat, rice, cotton...

With the clock about to run out on federal highway funding, House Speaker John A. Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid sent a message Tuesday to their members: Find a way to compromise. "Senate leader Harry Reid and Speaker John Boehner have told Chairman John Mica and me to finish our work this week on the transportation bill," Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said after a Capitol Hill meeting of the four leaders. "I have asked Chairman Mica to meet continually over the next...

The Senate Budget Committee will draft a budget blueprint this year, chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced Wednesday, the initial step toward the first adoption of a Senate budget in four years. Murray's announcement follows a similar pledge by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) over the weekend. But Murray's statement is more significant, since this month she assumed the chairmanship of the key committee responsible for moving the spending plan to the floor. It also comes as the Republican-led House plans to...

Congress has reached an agreement on a transportation bill for the first time since 2005, averting a crisis that could have disrupted the nation's highway projects at the height of the construction season. In the final days before a deadline, Republicans dropped their demands to piggyback onto the bill approval for the Keystone oil pipeline, as well as relaxation of proposed restrictions on coal ash produced by power plants. In return, Democrats gave up on $1.4 billion for...

With the clock about to run out on federal highway funding, House Speaker John A. Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid sent a message Tuesday to their members: Find a way to compromise. "Senate leader Harry Reid and Speaker John Boehner have told Chairman John Mica and me to finish our work this week on the transportation bill," Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said after a Capitol Hill meeting of the four leaders. "I have asked Chairman Mica to meet continually...

Sen. Barbara Boxer used an earthmover as a backdrop Wednesday for what has become her weekly public push for a transportation bill, but she used a blunt instrument to deliver her message. In a sharp turn of tone, Boxer and a half-dozen other Democratic senators — joined by construction and union leaders — described the Republicans who have objected to conference committee proposals as extremists who are holding the bill hostage for political gain, want to scuttle transportation...

It is a rare day on Capitol Hill when "transportation funding" and "Kabuki dance" find their way into the same sentence. Wednesday was that day. With his plan for the nation's transportation system shredded by attacks from both sides of the aisle, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) sought to free his party from the charge that they are "do-nothing Republicans" by orchestrating a clever move. The House approved what appeared to be the 10th extension of transportation funding...

RICHMOND — Virginia's partisan budget standoff came to a close Thursday, the second day of a special General Assembly session , as Republicans and Democrats on a Senate committee unanimously agreed to shift tens of millions of dollars toward schools, Medicare and toll relief and to borrow $300 million more for the Metrorail extension to Dulles Airport. The Senate Finance Committee passed a two-year, $85 billion spending plan that devotes extra funding to Democratic priorities.

Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George's) was admonished by the Maryland Senate on Friday, the first censure of a sitting state lawmaker in nearly 15 years, for failing to disclose that he had taken nearly $250,000 in consulting fees from a grocery store chain . Maryland's 47 senators voted unanimously that Currie had dishonored his title of senator and undermined the integrity of the General Assembly by advocating for the grocery chain's...

Amid some dissent, House and Senate leaders prepared for final votes Friday on an economic package worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits for the rest of the year. While Senate Republicans protested, the remaining members of a House-Senate committee tasked with forging a compromise pronounced themselves satisfied with the deal, signing the 270-page measure on Thursday afternoon in a bipartisan ceremony that...

Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George's) was admonished by the Maryland Senate on Friday, the first censure of a sitting state lawmaker in nearly 15 years, for failing to disclose that he had taken nearly $250,000 in consulting fees from a grocery store chain . Maryland's 47 senators voted unanimously that Currie had dishonored his title of senator and undermined the integrity of the General Assembly by advocating for the grocery chain's...

Amid some dissent, House and Senate leaders prepared for final votes Friday for an economic package worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits for the rest of the year. While Senate Republicans protested, the remaining members of a House-Senate committee tasked with forging a compromise pronounced themselves satisfied with the deal, signing the 270-page compromise Thursday afternoon in a bipartisan ceremony that stood in sharp...