congress

January 13, 2015 - The choice is clear, says the climate movement: Promote the oil industry's interests, or demonstrate a commitment to addressing climate chaos by saying "No" to a dirty oil pipeline.

January 6, 2015 - The IRS faces a number of hurdles before its new regulations for social welfare nonprofits can be finalized, including potential opposition from Congress.

December 22, 2014 - Environmentalists say a long-awaited federal rule governing disposal of the toxic waste left over after burning coal is "too little and too late" -- and that when the next disaster inevitably occurs the White House will share the blame.

November 14, 2014 - President Obama reportedly plans to issue an executive order before year's end dramatically overhauling U.S. immigration policy, sparing as many as 5 million people from the threat of deportation. What will the political consequences be?

September 5, 2014 - Two election cycles after the landmark Supreme Court decision loosening restrictions on corporate money in politics, research is emerging that assesses its impact on our political system -- and it finds that the decision has disproportionately benefited Republicans, especially in North Carolina and Tennessee.

August 15, 2014 - A federal program to transfer Defense Department gear to local law enforcement has led to police even in small communities looking like an occupying military force. It's now under scrutiny because of shocking scenes of police violence that unfolded this week in Missouri following an officer's deadly shooting of an unarmed black teen -- and it's also caused problems across the South.

August 4, 2014 - Should companies that reincorporate abroad to avoid federal taxes be able to win federal contracts? A group of Democratic members of Congress has drafted legislation to halt the practice.

July 18, 2014 - The Central American children pouring across the U.S. border are fleeing shocking levels of violence at home -- violence that the U.S. government helped enable. The United Nations believes many of the children merit international protection, but will U.S. politics derail the appropriate humanitarian response?

March 11, 2014 - Before its coal-fired units were shuttered in 2012, Duke Energy's Dan River plant burned coal from mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia. The reality that the arsenic-laden ash now contaminating a North Carolina river was once a forested mountain peak highlights the destructive lifecycle of coal.

March 5, 2014 - In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states and local governments with a history of discrimination no longer needed to submit new voting laws for federal approval. Now, voting rights advocates are trying to put them back under oversight using the courts and Congress.