WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The huge federal transportation bill was in tatters in early March when U.S. Representative Mike Rogers posed a heretical idea for breaking through gridlock in the House.

In a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, Rogers recommended reviving a proven legislative sweetener that became politically toxic a year ago.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A national debate over the killing of a black teenager in Florida spilled into the House of Representatives on Wednesday when a Democratic lawmaker put on a “hoodie” – clothing that has become emblematic of those protesting police handling of the case.

Representative Bobby Rush, a prominent civil rights activist during the 1960s, shed his suit coat during a floor speech to reveal a gray hooded sweatshirt, known as a hoodie.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Legislation repealing tax breaks for major oil companies passed its first hurdle in the Senate on Monday, but is unlikely to become law, as Republicans and Democrats seek to score political points over rising gasoline prices.

The Senate voted 92 to 4 to proceed with consideration on the bill that would eliminate billions of dollars in tax breaks for the “big five” oil companies: Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) – Legislation repealing tax
breaks for major oil companies passed its first hurdle i n the
Senate on Mo nday, but is unlikely to become law, as Republicans
and Democrats seek to score political points over rising
gasoline prices.

The Senate voted 92 to 4 to proceed with consideration on
the bill that would eliminate billions of dollars in tax breaks
for the “big five” oil companies: Exxon Mobil Corp, BP
Plc, ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp and
Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A battle among Republicans in the House of Representatives over government spending laid bare on Thursday deep divisions that threaten the party’s hopes of major gains in the November congressional elections.

House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, faced a new challenge to his authority as lawmakers aligned to the budget-slashing Tea Party movement ignored his plea to support a $260 billion job creation measure he had championed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate is under the gun to pass a transportation bill that would rev up road construction and create or save millions of jobs.

But in the month since the chamber started considering the bill, it has faced gridlock worse than a Los Angeles freeway at rush hour. Feuding parties loaded up the highway bill with more than 100 amendments covering everything from birth control to foreign money laundering. After weeks of partisan squabbling, passage remains uncertain. At one point, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vented a common frustration. “I don’t know why everything we do has to be a fight,” he said. “Not a disagreement, a fight.” The Senate, long described as the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” for two centuries stood as an elite and powerful chamber that offered a reasoned counterpart to the larger, more impulsive House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate is
under the gun to pass a transportation bill that would rev up
road construction and create or save millions of jobs.

But in the month since the chamber started considering the
bill, it has faced gridlock worse than a Los Angeles freeway at
rush hour. Feuding parties loaded up the highway bill with more
than 100 amendments covering everything from birth control to
foreign money laundering. After weeks of partisan squabbling,
passage remains uncertain.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders briefly put aside their election-year attacks on each other on Wednesday for a working lunch that the White House billed as an effort to find common ground on strengthening the economy.

Obama and his fellow Democrats are at odds with Republicans over how to tackle high unemployment and surging government deficits. Both sides have been seeking to highlight their sharply differing policy prescriptions to win over voters before the November elections.

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – A Canadian company’s
decision on Monday to proceed with part of a U.S. pipeline might
end up muffling one of the Republicans’ loudest arguments in
this election year: that President Barack Obama has pursued
failed energy policies.

TransCanada Corp announced it intended to begin
work on the southern leg of the $7 billion Keystone XL project,
from Oklahoma to Texas, leaving for later another run at the
more controversial, and complicated, northern segment.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tucked in his left breast-coat pocket where he can pull it out to wave before TV cameras is ammunition that House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner believes his Republicans can use to achieve victory in the November 6 elections.

It is a four-by-eight-inch card detailing more than two dozen “jobs bills” passed by the Republican-led House last year. They are now bottled up by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, one of President Barack Obama’s top allies on Capitol Hill.