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David Espo

(The Associated Press) President Barack Obama talks about the debt deal on Sunday night at the White House.

Debt deal in Washington

Last updated Sunday, July 31, 2011 - 10:51pm

WASHINGTON -- Ending a perilous stalemate, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders announced agreement Sunday night on an emergency deal to avoid to avert the nation's first-ever financial default. The arrangement would cut more than $2 trillion from federal spending over a decade.

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(SUE OGROCKI/The Associated Press)
Justin Castro, a National Park Service employee, is pictured during an interview at his job site, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, in Oklahoma City on Thursday. President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders bargained and blustered by turns Thursday, short of an agreement to cut federal spending and avoid a government shutdown today at midnight.

Clock ticks down on government shutdown

David Espo, The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 6:55pm

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and congressional leaders bargained and blustered by turns Thursday, still short of an agreement to cut federal spending and head off a today at midnight government shutdown that no one claimed to want.

Obama met with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., at the White House at midday, and the three agreed to reconvene after dinner. In the interim, they dispatched aides to pursue a deal in negotiations in the Capitol.

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Government shutdown averted as House votes to cut spending

David Espo, The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - 10:16pm

WASHINGTON -- The House passed emergency short-term legislation Tuesday to cut federal spending by $4 billion and avert a government shutdown. Senate Democrats agreed to follow suit, handing Republicans an early victory in their drive to rein in government.

The bill that cleared the House on a bipartisan vote of 335-91 eliminates the threat of a shutdown on March 4, when existing funding authority expires. At the same time, it creates a compressed two-week timeframe for the White House and lawmakers to engage in what looms as a highly contentious negotiation on a follow-up bill to set spending levels through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

The Senate set a vote on the short-term measure for Wednesday morning, the final step before it goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. "We'll pass this and then look at funding the government on a long-term basis," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

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House: Curb regulations, cut spending

David Espo, The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, February 18, 2011 - 8:54pm

WASHINGTON -- The Republican-controlled House voted Friday to shield greenhouse-gas polluters and privately owned colleges from federal regulators, strengthening the pro-business emphasis of legislation that also would chop $61 billion from government spending.

But as a final vote neared on the sweeping measure, newly elected conservatives suffered a rare setback when a split among rank-and-file Republicans sank a move to cut an additional $22 billion.

"The American people have spoken. They demand that Washington stop its out-of-control spending now, not sometime in the future," declared Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., one of the 87 newly elected Republicans who have moved aggressively to attack federal deficits and reduce government's reach.

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Specter loses in Pennsylvania, Paul wins in Ky.

David Espo The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - 9:57pm

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter lost his bid for a sixth term Tuesday night, a party-switching veteran sent down to defeat by voters rejecting experience and clamoring for change. Political novice Rand Paul rode support from tea party activists to a rout in Kentucky's Republican Senate primary.

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Kennedy: Always in the public spotlight

David Espo The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - 10:06pm

SLIDESHOW: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy: Feb. 1932 â€“ Aug. 2009
WASHINGTON -- In the quiet of a Capitol elevator, one of Edward M. Kennedy's fellow senators asked whether the Massachusetts senator had plans for a family Thanksgiving away from the nation's capital. No, he said shaking his head in reply, and mentioned something about visiting his brothers' gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery.
In his half-century in the public glare, Kennedy was, above all, heir to a legacy -- as well as a hero to liberals, a foil to conservatives, a legislator with few peers.
Alone of the Kennedy men of his generation, he lived to comb gray hair, as the Irish poet had it. It was a blessing and a curse, as he surely knew, and assured that his defeats and human foibles as well as many triumphs played out in public at greater length than his brothers ever experienced.

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