Patty Murray

Competing plans on student loan rates fail in Senate

2013-06-06 16:30:00

WASHINGTON — With student loan rates set to double in about four weeks, competing proposals to prevent the increase were defeated in back-to-back Senate votes Thursday, leaving the issue unresolved. The failed measures leave lawmakers snarled in a...

Congress shows just how optional a budget can be

2013-06-03 15:40:00

This post has been updated, as indicated below. During the last three years of President Obama's first term, Republicans (and a fair number of readers here) blasted congressional Democrats repeatedly for failing to pass a federal budget -- even in 2010,...

No debt agreement, no break

2013-03-25 00:00:00

With no deal in sight to curb our growing national debt, America is going broke. So what do our representatives in Congress plan to do about it? Take a two-week break. Are they trying to see whether their abysmal 13% approval rating can sink any lower?...

Let the Senate vote-a-rama begin

2013-03-22 12:55:00

WASHINGTON – Step aside, stately Senate. Say hello to vote-a-rama. On Friday, the usually lonely floor of the U.S. Senate was thrown open for that most rare of occurrences – a free-for-all frenzy of amendment-making, which is required for...

House Republicans and Senate Democrats split on tax reform

2013-03-15 09:51:00

The House and Senate budget committees presented their fiscal 2014 budget proposals this week with sharply different story lines. For House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the point of the exercise was to chart a path to a balanced budget...

Unbalanced on budgets

2013-03-13 00:00:00

New budget proposals this week from influential members of the House Republican and Senate Democratic leadership are the stuff of political caricatures. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), last year's Republican nominee for vice...

The challenging math of passing immigration reform

2013-01-28 10:54:00

WASHINGTON – Senators from both parties are expressing enthusiasm for pushing a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s immigration system. But while immigration politics appears to have changed in the wake of sweeping Republican rejection...

House approves short-term suspension of debt ceiling

2013-01-23 10:49:00

WASHINGTON – House Republicans approved a temporary suspension of the $16.4-trillion ceiling on the nation’s debt Wednesday, allowing the federal government to continue borrowing through spring while Washington shifts to more ambitious...

Statehood for District of Columbia could get another look

2012-12-21 06:05:00

WASHINGTON -- Hail to the 51st state. Statehood for the District of Columbia is a long way off, but retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has introduced the New Columbia Admissions Act to put the issue on the front burner on Capitol Hill. "It is...

Fiscal cliff is a trap Republicans have set for themselves

2012-12-04 05:00:00

Saturday night, I attended a wonderfully raucous dinner party where politics was as much a main course as the grass-fed beef. New York Times columnist Tim Egan – a good friend and a superb writer�– was sitting two plates down the table from me...

Weekend TV Talk Shows: Newt Gingrich; Rudy Giuliani; Antonio Villaraigosa

2012-05-25 21:37:38

Government: Payroll tax follies

2011-12-05 16:36:00

(D-Md.) addresses the crowd at a press announcement about her sponsored bill. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) (left) and Sen.

2012-05-23 00:00:00

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and others have signed a letter asking Komen to reconsider cutting funds for Planned Parenthood.

2012-02-02 15:54:57

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray talks with a small group of citizens at Elliot Bay Book Co. on Dec. 9, 2011.

2011-12-09 14:07:05