NATIONAL
June 20, 2009 | Noam N. Levey
Senior House Democrats on Friday introduced their plan for reshaping the nation's healthcare system, calling for a new government insurance option, a new mandate on employers to provide coverage and a new guarantee of subsidized healthcare for the poor. The draft -- the fullest presentation so far of congressional liberals' vision for overhauling medical care -- offered few indications of how such a plan would be financed. The price tag is expected to top $1 trillion.
NEWS
October 16, 1991 | Compiled by Times staff writers Eric Young and Kevin Johnson
Though the confirmation of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice was completed Tuesday, the debate continues. It is a debate that has so divided and captivated the public that officials predict that its results will influence the future of our political process and behavior in the workplace for years to come. The following is a sampling of how some leaders in Orange County viewed Tuesday's Senate action.
BUSINESS
November 5, 2009 | MICHAEL HILTZIK
The most cherished American credo is that anyone can grow up and run for high office. Carly Fiorina's candidacy for the U.S. Senate, which she formally announced Wednesday, will put this notion to the test. Specifically: Can someone who has spent the last few years running from her checkered record as a big-business CEO, shown so little interest in politics that she consistently failed to vote and has at best a tenuous grasp of such major issues as healthcare reform prevail in a statewide California election?
NATIONAL
August 3, 2006 | Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer
At the first Senate hearing in more than a decade to review the nation's toxic chemicals law, the Bush administration on Wednesday agreed with chemical industry representatives that the 30-year-old statute was strong enough to protect public health. James B.
NATIONAL
January 30, 2009 | Peter Nicholas
President Obama's choice to head the Labor Department is trying to overcome resistance to her nomination from Republican senators, who contend she dodged important questions during her confirmation hearing. Rep. Hilda L. Solis, a Democrat from El Monte, is one of several prominent Cabinet nominees still awaiting confirmation more than a week after the president took office. Eric H. Holder Jr., tapped to be attorney general, is likely to be confirmed by the Senate on Monday.
NEWS
February 18, 1998 | TONY PERRY, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Sounding themes that helped her win an uphill victory in 1992, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer officially began her reelection campaign Tuesday by vowing to "keep the California spirit alive for generations to come."
ENTERTAINMENT
May 8, 2009 | JAMES RAINEY
They like us. They really like us. Just don't expect them to help us invent the future. A string of U.S. senators delivered so many lofty odes to the American newspaper at a "Future of Journalism" hearing this week, it almost made me blush. When a Republican senator suggests you're something like a bulwark of democracy, you've got to smile. But that doesn't mean newspapers command a winning majority around here.
NATIONAL
April 19, 2007 | Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer
A bill allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with prescription drug makers to get lower prices for senior citizens stalled in the Senate on Wednesday, but the setback is unlikely to be the last word on the issue. Allowing such negotiations won majority support, but the 55-42 vote was well short of the 60 needed to end debate and act on the legislation. Opponents, mostly Republicans, had warned that the bill would be the first step on a slippery slope toward government price controls.
NATIONAL
September 8, 2009
Returning from their summer recess, congressional lawmakers are facing a climatic showdown to the yearlong struggle over healthcare. At issue are scores of competing provisions scattered through half a dozen bills. And no final decisions have been made on any of them. In the House, Democratic leaders are synthesizing the proposals of three committees, but floor debate has not begun. In the Senate, a bill close to the expected House blueprint has been approved by the health committee formerly headed by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.
NATIONAL
July 22, 2009 | Kristina Sherry
In a political victory for the Obama administration -- and a surprising defeat for some lawmakers in both parties -- the Senate voted Tuesday to halt further production of the Air Force's F-22 Raptor fighter jets. The 58-40 vote on an amendment to the $680-billion defense authorization bill called for stripping out the $1.75 billion set aside for construction of seven more of the jets. The F-22, which has not been used in Iraq or Afghanistan, has come under particular scrutiny for its price tag.