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WASHINGTON — An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has found that its officers penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its damning report on the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program. The report by the agency’s inspector general also found that C.I.A. officers read the emails of the Senate investigators and sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department based on false information, according to a summary of findings made public on Thursday. One official with knowledge of the report’s conclusions said the investigation also discovered that the officers created a false online identity to gain...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Senate committee on Tuesday launches three long days of hearings on a Democratic climate bill in a bid to further convince an international summit in December that Washington is serious about tackling global warming. The Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee will kick off Tuesday's hearing at 9:30 a.m. EDT with a panel of heavy-hitters from President Barack Obama's Cabinet: the secretaries of energy, transportation and interior and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Joining them will be the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. According to an EPA statement, the officials will focus...

Washington, DC -- Members of Congress will cast their first vote related to incoming president Barack Obama's pro-abortion agenda on Thursday. A Senate committee will vote on confirming pro-abortion former Sen. Tom Daschle as Obama's Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

WASHINGTON - A plan to increase fuel efficiency standards to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 won approval from a Senate panel Tuesday in a vote closely watched by automakers and environmental groups. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the measure, which would raise the nationwide fleet fuel economy average by about 40 percent from current levels of 25 mpg for cars and trucks. The bill, approved on a voice vote, would also increase standards by 4 percent a year from 2020 through 2030. "This is not a perfect bill, but I think we have...

WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate may vote later this month on an energy bill that would by 2020 require that 15 percent of U.S. electricity be produced by renewable sources such as wind and solar. The same bill would require 10 percent of federal power purchases to be produced by "green" methods by 2010. The Senate Energy Committee on Wednesday sent to the full chamber a bill that also targets demand for gasoline -- the biggest chunk of U.S. petroleum use -- by increasing fuel economy and boosting production of nonpetroleum fuels like ethanol. For full story, double-click...

The Foreign Relations Committee rejected such a binding measure, offered by Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry, of Massachusetts, on a voice vote. “How do you ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake?” Kerry said, reprising the question he asked of the panel as a young antiwar veteran of Vietnam in the 1970s. The question is just as relevant today, he said.

WASHINGTON - The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to freeze funding for popular education programs such as Head Start and grants to schools for poor children and those with special needs. Job training programs would face a slight cut, and health research funded by the National Institutes of Health would receive a less than 1 percent gain over current levels. The panel approved a bill providing $143 billion in funding for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The so-called Labor-HHS bill was one of three domestic spending bills unanimously...

A Senate committee signed off on a plan for hiring thousands of new Border Patrol officers while eliminating a plan to build 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico divide. The Judiciary Committee agreed on a plan to add roughly 10,000 agents to the ranks of Customs and Border Protection over the next five years. It also adopted an amendment from Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to replace old fences only in high-population areas along the Arizona border, and required the detention of non-Mexican immigrants caught illegally crossing the border, ending the so-called "catch and release" policy. Kyl's proposal includes funding...

WASHINGTON - A south Texas rancher, Texas sheriffs, an Arizona district attorney and other law enforcement representatives urged Senate committee members Wednesday to heed their warning: The porous southern border of the United States is a national security risk. Witnesses told Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee, at a hearing on border violence that without cooperation from Mexico, combined with federal support from the United States, the situation at the border will continue to deteriorate. Cornyn focused the hearing on recent reports of Mexican military incursions into the United States, increasing border violence...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Internet service would be permanently free from taxes under a bill that advanced through a Senate Committee today.</p> <p>The Senate Commerce Committee agreed to ban taxes on Internet service, along with two other types of Internet-specific taxes -- taxes that treat Internet purchases differently than other sales, and multiple-state taxation of a single product or service bought over the Internet.</p>