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As Senate debates immigration reform, Kentucky senator pushes work visas instead of unqualified grants of citizenshipSen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday he’s considering offering a hard-line House immigration bill in the Senate during this week’s open debate over former President Barack Obama’s quasi-amnesty program. The debate kicked off Monday, but Paul noted Tuesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that all of the proposals extend amnesty far more widely than the Securing America’s Future Act sponsored in the House last month by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Rep. Rául Labrador (R-Idaho), and others. Unlike the proposals discussed so far in...

PHOENIX – Sen. Rand Paul will join Dr. Kelli Ward and her supporters in a joint rally in Scottsdale later this month, according to a release. The event is being held to support Ward’s candidacy to replace Sen. Jeff Flake in Senate, who announced in October that he would retire and not seek re-election in the upcoming Republican primary. Paul’s involvement in the rally will be his latest show of support for Ward, who has also been recognized by President Donald Trump on Twitter.

Thank God for U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). At least there is one politician in the United States Senate who is concerned about deficit spending.On Thursdaynight, he led a lonely crusade against a two-year $400 billion spending bill that balloons the budget and massively increases the federal debt by over $1 trillion. Paul continued the fight for hours, forcing a very brief government shutdown, and providing much needed attention to the spending habits of our federal government.On the Senate floor, Paul, revealed the real problem was “Republicans hand-in-hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits.” He said that the goal of...

Immigration activists are furious that 73 House Democrats, including seven members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, voted for a bipartisan spending bill that doesn't include a DACA fix. The early-morning House vote ended a brief government shutdown precipitated by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and in the process passed a two-year spending proposal that included a bevy of Democratic priorities, but not immigration. “Last night immigrant young people and people of conscience fighting for justice were betrayed by both parties,” said Greisa Martínez Rosas, a DACA recipient and advocacy director for United We Dream, an immigrant youth activism network. Senate Democrats...

WASHINGTON — Just add cash. That was the ingredient Republican and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill needed to strike and pass a long-term budget deal after months of bitter fighting across and within party lines about how to spend funds that had been limited by budget caps. An $89 billion injection "changes a lot of votes," explained North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of Republicans' arch-conservative Freedom Caucus and an opponent of the bill, hours before it passed. And that figure, an important factor in securing the support of lawmakers from the Republican-heavy states of Texas and Florida, only...

House conservatives on Wednesday revolted against a massive bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and bust spending caps, complaining that the GOP could no longer lay claim to being the party of fiscal responsibility. “I’m not only a ‘no.’ I’m a ‘hell no,’ ” quipped Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), one of many members of the Tea Party-aligned Freedom Caucus who left a closed-door meeting of Republicans saying they would vote against the deal. It’s a “Christmas tree on steroids,” lamented one of the Freedom Caucus leaders, Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). “This spending proposal is disgusting and reckless — the...

(a) Transmittal of special message Whenever the President, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the head of any department or agency of the United States, or any officer or employee of the United States proposes to defer any budget authority provided for a specific purpose or project, the President shall transmit to the House of (1) the amount of the budget authority proposed to be deferred; (2) any account, department, or establishment of the Government to which such budget authority is available for obligation, and the specific projects or governmental functions involved; (3) the period of time...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced a deal with Senate Democrats to fund the government and set spending levels for defense and nondefense programs over the next two years. The legislation would avert a government shutdown on Friday, when federal funding is due to expire, and boost defense and nondefense programs. It also lifts the debt ceiling to March 2019, which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hailed as a decision that would move Congress away from "crisis-to-crisis budgeting." The deal is backed by McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and will almost certainly be...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon that a deal had been reached to fund the government for 2 years, which includes raising military spending but excludes a DACA provision. Why it matters: The budget lifts sequestration caps, increasing discretionary spending by $300 billion over two years. The deal extends CHIP for 10 years instead of two and includes disaster relief and opioid response funding.

BREAKING: Senate leaders have reached an agreement on a two-year budget deal, adding billions of dollars in federal spending. The bipartisan accord would lift statutory budget limits by more than $200 billion, provide tens of billions of dollars in disaster relief funding. Senate leaders unveiled the deal Wednesday after months of negotiations -- and after Senate Democrats agreed to set aside immigration policy demands. The plan still faces head winds -- particularly in the House, where conservative Republicans are balking at the increased spending and liberal Democrats want further assurances on immigration. The announcement came as Congress faces yet another...

Top Senate leaders were working Tuesday to finalize a sweeping long-term budget deal that would include a defense spending boost President Trump has long demanded alongside an increase in domestic programs championed by Democrats. As negotiations for the long-term deal continued, the House passed a short-term measure that would fund the government past a midnight Thursday deadline and avert a second partial shutdown in less than a month.

Some people have called for a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution as a means of reining in a big-spending Congress. That's a misguided vision, for the simple reason that in any real economic sense, as opposed to an accounting sense, the federal budget is always balanced. The value of what we produced in 2017 — our gross domestic product — totaled about $19 trillion. If the Congress spent $4 trillion of the $19 trillion that we produced, unless you believe in Santa Claus, you know that Congress must force us to spend $4 trillion less privately. Taxing us is...

WASHINGTON - The threat of yet another government shutdown looms in about eight days amid speculation that next year’s budget deficit could speed past $1 trillion. Despite a fast-approaching Feb. 8 deadline, Congress appeared no closer to passing a budget, after it approved a stop-gap bill last month, giving lawmakers more time to reach agreement on a variety of divisive issues, including immigration. A growing number of lawmakers in both parties were complaining about out-of-control figures in both domestic and defense spending. Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee called the large increase in military spending “grotesque,” while Rep. Mark...

No one is paying much attention, but Congress is preparing a two-year budget that would blow past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019. That might be a best-case scenario. The budget watchers at FreedomWorks estimate that when hurricane disaster relief, funding for the border wall, added Obamacare money for the bankrupt insurance markets, and other last-minute spending "emergencies" are thrown in the mix, the two-year spending blitz could exceed $300 billion. President Donald Trump had better get his veto pen handy. All of this is happening because Republicans have fallen into the Democrats' fiscal trap....

The Senate broke its budget impasse Monday as Democrats joined Republicans in voting to end debate on a short-term spending bill that would reopen the government and provide funding through Feb. 8. The upper chamber was expected to quickly approve the bill, and House members were told to await a possible vote Monday afternoon, raising the possibility that the shutdown would end after just three days. "We will vote today to reopen the government," Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. The vote was 81-18 to move ahead on the spending bill.

<p>Trump tweeted, “Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”</p>

Senate leaders reached a two-year budget deal, but Sen. Rand Paul is holding up a Senate vote. Congress must pass a deal before midnight to avoid a shutdown. The government will shut down. The Senate is in recess until 12:01 a.m. The Senate has gone into recess until 12:01 a.m. ET, which means the government will shut down at midnight. The next procedural vote to advance the budget deal will not happen before 1 a.m. ET.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is preventing a two-year budget deal from passing, as the White House advised federal agencies to prepare for the government to start shutting down at midnight. Congressional negotiators were scrambling earlier Thursday to lock in enough votes in the House, and that was before Paul, a Republican, made public his dissatisfaction with the deal, which would raise government spending, avert a government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling. A senior administrative official said the White House is instructing agencies to begin shutdown preparations in the event that Congress fails to pass a budget before the midnight...

Sen. Rand Paul was blocking the Senate's move to quickly pass its massive budget deal Thursday with only hours until government funding lapses. For the Senate to hold a vote on the spending package Thursday, all senators must agree. The Kentucky Republican held out as he sought a vote on an amendment to maintain budget caps. "All Senator Rand Paul is asking for is a 15-minute vote on his amendment to restore the budget caps. He is ready to proceed at any time," Paul spokesman Sergio Gor said in a statement. As Paul railed against lifting spending caps, the nonpartisan...

With all the talk about a possible government shutdown due to an impasse on immigration reform, no one seems to be paying attention to a story of even bigger long-term consequence. Congress is preparing a two-year budget that blows past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019. These are the latest stunning tallies from an analysis by Congressional Quarterly. (See chart). That may be a best-case scenario. The budget watchers at Freedom Works estimate that when hurricane disaster relief, funding for the border wall, added Obamacare money for the bankrupt insurance markets, and other last-minute spending...