Congress

Republicans controlling the House are moving to give the Pentagon more money for military readiness. They also want to largely exempt agencies like the FBI and the Border Patrol as well as Western firefighting efforts from the effects of across-the-board spending cuts that are just starting to take effect.

Deep automatic spending cuts will kick at midnight tonight if lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and President Barack Obama cannot reach a deal to end the country's latest fiscal crisis.

The top Democrat on the House education committee says any discussion about school safety needs to be coupled with "common sense strategies to keep guns out of the hands of those who intend harm."

A South Jersey State Senator is asking Congress to reconsider a flood insurance bill that could skyrocket premiums even if Sandy never occurred.

The White House is seeking to keep delicate immigration negotiations on track, as a key Republican senator distances himself further from a draft bill President Barack Obama's aides are readying in case congressional talks crumble.

Congress' latest crack at a new assault weapons ban would exempt more than 2,200 specific firearms, including a semi-automatic rifle early identical to one of the guns used in the bloodiest shootout in FBI history.

In a solid show of bipartisanship, the Senate has voted to renew the two-decade-old Violence Against Women Act with new provisions to ensure that gays and lesbians, immigrants and Native American women have equal access to the act's anti-domestic violence programs.

The head of the National Rifle Association says he's confident that Congress won't approve an assault weapons ban or an ammunition limit in the wake of mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut.

A group of GOP lawmakers from the House and Senate is offering a plan to cut the federal workforce and use the savings to replace $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts to the Pentagon and domestic programs.

Congress has approved must-do legislation to permit the government to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars more to meet its obligations, averting a first-ever government default that had loomed as early as mid-February.