WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court suggested Monday that individual members of Congress can't pursue a lawsuit against President Donald Trump over allegations he violated a constitutional ban on financially benefiting from the office.

An attorney for more than 200 lawmakers -- led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and House Judiciary ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court left intact a Kentucky law that forces doctors who perform abortions to first show the woman an ultrasound and give her a detailed description of the fetus, even if she doesn't want to listen.

The justices, without comment Monday, rejected an appeal by the state's only abortion clinic and its three doctors, ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- As Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., made plans last week to leave Congress after pleading guilty to a felony campaign finance charge, the question of his legacy -- and the future of the district -- appears to be up in the air.

Critics might remember him for his controversial advocacy for service members charged with war crimes, his ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Key House and Senate committee leaders announced a bipartisan agreement Sunday on draft legislation to prohibit surprise medical bills and raise the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21.

The agreement raises the odds of Congress clearing measures intended to lower some health care costs before the end of the year.

The deal -- by ...Read more

MIAMI--With Democrats drawing up articles of impeachment on Capitol Hill, a brash and confident President Donald Trump took a day trip to South Florida Saturday, where in separate events he helped the Republican Party of Florida raise millions of dollars and declared himself the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.

Trump, ...Read more

NEW YORK -- Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders are taking a victory lap after Amazon.com Inc. and other technology giants leased millions of square feet of office space in New York City -- without the billions of dollars in government support that Amazon tried to negotiate earlier this ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said that his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, plans to prepare a report for the U.S. Justice Department and Congress about allegations of misconduct the former New York mayor says he uncovered during a recent trip to Ukraine.

Trump said Giuliani, a central figure in the impeachment investigation into ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee on Friday unveiled an updated version of their bipartisan drug pricing bill, though it's unclear if the changes will appease skeptical Republican senators.

The renewed push for Republican support by Chairman Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and the committee's ranking Democrat, Ron Wyden of ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused to clear the federal government to resume executions next week after a 16-year hiatus, rejecting a bid by President Donald Trump's administration to lift a court-ordered hold.

The Justice Department had sought to have the trial judge's hold lifted in time for Daniel Lewis Lee to be put to death next ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Rep. George Holding, a North Carolina Republican, will not run for reelection in 2020 after his Republican-leaning district was redrawn into safe Democratic seat by state lawmakers.

Holding is in his fourth term in Congress. He said he would consider a return to elected office in the future. Holding said earlier this week that a ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The Democrats' campaign to regain control of the House in 2018 included a pledge to restore a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. But a vote Friday signals their legislation is headed nowhere.

Their bill passed along party lines, 228-187, with only one Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voting "yes." It was ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump's latest target for deregulation is Americans' toilets.

The president on Friday said he ordered a federal review of water efficiency standards in bathroom fixtures and complained that "people are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once" in homes with low-flow appliances.

He said other bathroom fixtures...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Democrats will unveil major climate legislation in the spring after the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis releases a set of recommendations, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Friday.

Pelosi said House Democrats would follow the conclusions of the committee, which was established at the start of this Congress and has ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Days after Rep. Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty to a federal felony related to a yearslong campaign finance scandal, he has finally stated explicitly that he will resign from his congressional seat before the end of his term.

"Shortly after the holidays I will resign from Congress," Hunter, R-Calif., in a statement. "It has been an ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- When Rep. Duncan D. Hunter on Monday wanted to make it known he would plead guilty to in the federal campaign finance case against him, he turned to a friendly local news station to deliver a heavily curated message.

The Alpine, Calif., Republican appeared on KUSI, a station where he had been interviewed many times at the anchor ...Read more

In recent years, an oil boom has pumped up the incomes of many rural residents in Texas, even as flooding and the trade war have dragged down incomes in Nebraska farm country. Both cases are emblematic of a broader trend: The counties with the most dramatic income gains and losses since 2016 are mostly rural and Republican.

A Stateline analysis...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for President Donald Trump told the Supreme Court on Thursday the Constitution shields the chief executive from being forced to disclose his tax returns in response to a subpoena from Congress.

"Imposing financial disclosure requirements on the president intrudes in an area that the Constitution fences off," they said in ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump this week gave members of Congress a glimpse at a new and distressing weapon in partisan warfare -- the exposure of lawmakers' call records as part of congressional oversight.

The House Intelligence Committee report in its investigation into Trump's dealings with Ukraine included...Read more