WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Call it a humble effort to douse the flames of dysfunction and paralysis in the U.S. Senate.

Frustrated by an inability to get much done amid the partisan rancor in what has been called “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” two senators – Republican Lamar Alexander and Democrat Mark Warner – have decided to quietly reach across the political divide.

They helped pull together a loosely organized group of senators – dubbed the “Volunteer Fire Department” by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham – to have private dinners and try to build relationships to help quell conflicts.

“The idea is basically this: When the Senate runs off the track, when there’s a fire, when there’s a problem, somebody rings the bell and everybody who can shows up to try to fix it,” Alexander told Reuters. “Then we all go back to our usual role.”

For months, small groups of senators have been meeting regularly for dinner at the exclusive Alibi Club, in a 19th-century town house in downtown Washington.

Alexander and Warner are members of the 100-year-old club, a place where presidents, senators, and other power brokers have socialized for generations.

If it all sounds a bit too naive and idealistic in an election year when bitter partisanship is the norm and a huge showdown over taxes, spending and debt is looming at the end of the year, consider this: It might be working, at least a little.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate on Thursday confirmed two nominees to the Federal Reserve, bringing its short-handed board up to full strength for the first time since 2006 as it wrestles with a tepid economic recovery and a revamp of U.S. financial rules.

The Senate voted 70-24 to confirm Harvard economist Jeremy Stein and 74-21 to confirm investment banker Jerome Powell.

“We have ensured the nation has a Federal Reserve Board operating at full strength, with strong leaders working to solidify our economic recovery and help prevent another financial crisis,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, a Democrat, said after the vote.

The two nominees were approved over the opposition of some conservative Republicans who worried the pair would rubber stamp Chairman Ben Bernanke’s policies at the U.S. central bank.

Republican Senator David Vitter, whose earlier objections had nearly scuttled the nominations, complained during the brief debate on the nominations that Bernanke’s “extremely easy money policy” could be dangerous to the health of the economy.

The Fed has held benchmark overnight interest rates near zero since late 2008 and has bought $2.3 trillion in government and mortgage debt in an effort to push other borrowing costs lower and spur a stronger recovery.

Vitter also argued that the two could strengthen Bernanke’s hand in issuing new regulations under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that many Republicans oppose. “These two new members change the map,” he said. “I think that will significantly push these regulations to the left.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The November 6 elections are less than six months away, but lawmakers and Washington insiders are already trying to figure out what Congress will do in a post-election session to avoid what is being described as a January 1 “fiscal cliff.”

That refers to a series of decisions on budget and tax matters President Barack Obama and Congress will have to negotiate in November and December. If handled poorly, the economic recovery could be threatened, economists fear.

Here is what confronts Washington if nothing is done: At year’s end, tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush expire along with a payroll tax holiday for workers. Doctors treating Medicare patients get a 27 percent pay cut, millions of middle-class taxpayers face paying an alternative minimum tax meant for the rich, and automatic spending cuts start to kick in. Also, the $16.4 trillion debt limit will have to be raised to avoid a U.S. default.

The outcome of the elections will influence the post-election debate, but here are some possible outcomes:

KICKING THE CAN INTO THE 113TH CONGRESS

The post-election session just might end up being the lamest of lame-duck sessions with lawmakers, exhausted from a tough election campaign, deciding to put all of the tough decisions into the hands of a new Congress that will be seated in January.

That is the most likely scenario regardless of which party wins the White House and control of Congress.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s two stalled nominees for the Federal Reserve are likely to clear a Senate procedural hurdle on Thursday, paving the way for anticipated confirmation, the chamber’s leaders said on Tue sday.

Democratic and Republican aides said they expect Senate approval of the pair as early as Thursday, shortly after the procedural vote, which would take the Fed’s Washington-based board up to its full seven-person strength for the first time since April 2006.

“We’ve been waiting months and months. It’s important we have a fully functioning Fed,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters.

Since officials on the central bank’s board are usually aligned with the chairman on matters of policy, Senate approval of the nominees – Harvard economist Jeremy Stein and investment banker Jerome Powell – could strengthen Ben Bernanke’s hand if he decides the economy needs more support.

Last month, Bernanke left the door open to further steps to buttress growth but said Fed policy appeared “more or less in the right place.” The Fed has held overnight interest rates near zero since late 2008 and has bought $2.3 trillion in government and mortgage-related bonds to push other borrowing costs down.

Republican Senator David Vitter objected to both nominees, saying he worried they would provide “rubber stamps” for Bernanke’s policies, and he called for a full debate.

Vitter’s move had raised the specter the Senate might abandon the nominees, leaving a decision on filling out the Fed board to whoever wins the presidential election in November.

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) – It has been nearly 20 years since President George H.W. Bush lost his bid for re-election after making a “no new taxes” pledge, and then agreeing to raise taxes. Since then, Republicans have not touched hundreds of tax breaks in U.S. tax laws, fearing that doing so could be called a tax hike.

That could be changing.

They’re not advertising it, but Republicans in Congress, along with a few Democrats, are exploring the idea of limiting or ending some of Americans’ most sacred tax breaks. They include deductions on contributions to 401(k) retirement accounts and possibly those on home mortgage interest, each of which save millions of Americans thousands of dollars each year.

As was the case nearly six months ago when a bipartisan congressional “super committee” couldn’t agree on how to trim more than $1 trillion from the federal deficit, the Republicans are doing so with a bigger goal in mind.

They want to limit the deductions to help pay for their plan to lower the top federal tax rate from 35 percent – most likely to the 25 percent called for in the House Republican budget plan crafted by Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, and endorsed by presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

“It’s a full review of the tax code, including all of the credits, deductions, exemptions and loopholes,” said a senior House Republican aide who is not authorized to comment publicly. Tax writers are warning colleagues that although not every tax break has to go in order to lower rates, “you have to touch a lot of things,” the aide said.

It all would be part of a Republican strategy to lower overall tax rates while getting some of the roughly 45 percent of Americans who now pay no income taxes to start paying. Most of those people aren’t required to pay because they are poor, or are able to claim enough deductions to eliminate their tax bills.

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) – Was it case of a politician being candid behind closed doors? Or was he merely leading a provocative discussion of tax proposals?

Those were the questions surrounding U.S. Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign on Monday, after he was overhead telling supporters at a private fundraiser in Florida over the weekend that he might seek to limit tax deductions for mortgages and eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

By Monday, Romney’s campaign was scrambling to distance him from the comments, overheard by reporters from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. And Democratic President Barack Obama’s campaign – which has tried to cast Romney as having secret plan that would hurt the middle class – had found a new episode to drive that narrative.

During a conference call, aides said Romney he was simply throwing out ideas, not outlining policy when he said he would combine or eliminate many government departments, agencies and tax credits to help offset his proposal to slash all U.S. tax rates by 20 percent.

While not especially specific, Romney’s comments did go much further in describing his plans than what he has outlined in public campaign appearances.

Romney told donors he would eliminate or limit the mortgage-interest tax deduction for second homes for those with high incomes, and probably would do the same for the state income-tax and state property-tax deductions now taken by millions of Americans, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Romney aides said he was merely responding to questions offering suggestions during the fundraiser.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ryan Jerome took his .45-caliber Ruger with him to Manhattan last September and thought he understood the city’s weapons laws when he carried his loaded handgun on a side trip to the Empire State Building.

But Jerome, who is from Indiana, soon found himself in a legal tangle that he said illustrates the confusing array of gun laws in the U.S. and the need for uniformity.

“How can the city of New York override your rights under the second amendment of the Constitution?” said Jerome, 29, who pleaded guilty last month to a misdemeanor weapons possession charge as part of a plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Jerome’s case is one of several widely publicized gun arrests that have prompted a new push for federal legislation requiring states to honor one another’s concealed weapons permits. Jerome’s lifetime concealed weapons permit in Indiana carried no weight in New York, which does not recognize other states’ licenses.

A similar Manhattan case involved a Tennessee woman who was arrested for carrying a gun near the World Trade Center memorial. Both she and Jerome were originally charged with felony gun offenses carrying prison terms of three and a half years.

Proposals for reciprocal arrangements among states, which are now percolating in Congress, would address a common complaint of gun advocates and their chief lobbying group, the National Rifle Association, which holds its annual conference in St Louis, Missouri, this week.

But they are sharply opposed by proponents of stricter gun laws.

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress averted a weekend shutdown of thousands of transportation construction projects on Thursday by passing a stopgap funding bill that buys time for House Speaker John Boehner to resolve Republican differences over long-term financing.

The Senate approved by voice vote a measure passed earlier in the day by the House of Representatives that gives a 90-day funding extension for road, bridge and rail construction projects. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it.

The temporary measure averts layoffs for as many as 1.5 million construction workers who would have faced work stoppages at midnight Saturday. But it did little to resolve an impasse over long-term funding that is expected to be difficult to resolve in a heated election year.

The Senate, led by Democrats, accepted the temporary measure after the Republican-led House refused to take up a $109 billion two-year bill passed by the Senate with strong bipartisan support. “There is virtually no desire to force a huge fight over that right now,” said a Democratic leadership aide.

The delay, however, will put the debate over transportation funding squarely in the path of Nov. 6 presidential and congressional election campaigns.

The battle over transport funding underscores deep divisions in the House over spending measures and the scope of the federal government’s powers.

Boehner has failed to gain support for his five-year, $260 billion transport funding bill, casting doubt over legislation that has passed in past years with far less political drama.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday blasted police handling of a racially charged case in which a neighborhood watch volunteer shot dead an unarmed black teenager in Florida, accusing local law enforcement officials of botching the investigation.

The lawmakers, speaking at a congressional forum attended by the parents of the slain teenager, called for the immediate arrest of 28-year-old George Zimmerman, the white Hispanic who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26 in what he said was self-defense.

Florida law enforcement officials have faced intense criticism in recent weeks from civil rights activists and others for not arresting Zimmerman, who remains at large and in seclusion. Police say a state “stand your ground” law that allows people to use deadly force when they perceive danger in any public place has prevented them from making an arrest.

Congresswoman Corrine Brown, who represents Sanford, the town where the shooting took place, decried the police inaction, saying she did not know if it was due to incompetence, a cover-up or “all of the above.”

Tuesday’s event underscored how the racially charged case has become increasingly politicized in an election year. President Barack Obama weighed in last week in highly personal terms, saying that if he had a son he would look like Martin, a comment widely interpreted as implicit recognition of the case’s racial overtones.

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who represents another Florida district, said Martin was the victim of a “botched police investigation” and racial profiling, suggesting that the teenager was unfairly “hunted” by Zimmerman simply because he was black.

According to 911 call tapes that have been released, Zimmerman ignored a police request to stop following Martin after calling the emergency number to report that a young man in a hooded sweatshirt looked to be “up to no good.”

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) – As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear legal challenges to President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul next week, Republican lawmakers are weighing options for repealing the law or even replacing it with a plan of their own.

In fighting the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that will extend health coverage to millions more Americans, Republicans have not offered a definitive alternative.

But should the entire law get struck down by the court, it would reignite the debate over whether a comprehensive plan or step-by-step approach is best to fix a healthcare system that many lawmakers from both parties agree is too expensive and leaves too many people without affordable medical coverage.

Here is a look at how the Republican strategy is likely to unfold, according to party lawmakers, their congressional aides and political analysts:

Q. Why not offer an alternative plan now?

A. Anything Republicans advanced would become a political target for Obama’s Democratic Party ahead of Nov. 6 national elections. Many in Congress don’t expect Republicans to put forward a proposal until after the Supreme Court rules in late June. What they do will depend largely on how the court rules. It could strike down the entire law, or focus exclusively on the core question of whether the requirement that all Americans buy health insurance is constitutional.

Meanwhile, Republicans are pressing their attack against the law they dismissively brand as “Obamacare.” They are putting forward a series of measures aimed at repealing parts of it. None is expected to pass the Democratic-led Senate. But voter doubts about the law helped Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 and it remains a major issue for them in this year’s elections. Republicans planned to actively focus on the healthcare law in the days leading up to its two-year anniversary on March 23 and the Supreme Court oral arguments the following week, aides said.