Congress

Splitting the majority party in the House of Representatives leaves a potential speaker with two routes to the top. Lawmakers did it one way in Texas and another way in Washington, D.C.

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U.S. House Speaker John A. Boehner’s retirement could create an opportunity for at least two Texas Republicans — U.S. Reps. Pete Sessions and Jeb Hensarling, both of Dallas — to become national party leaders.

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U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, announced Thursday that he would not seek re-election in 2016. Neugebauer has represented his West Texas district in Congress for seven terms.

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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz will join real estate developer Donald Trump on Wednesday for a rally decrying President Obama's Iran deal. The pair will speak on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol at noon Central time.

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Presidential candidate Ted Cruz will head back to the U.S. Senate next week. With his return comes anxiety that he could instigate yet another government shutdown, this time over federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

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When Congress reconvenes next week after its August recess, there are a couple of things you can count on: impassioned debate on domestic and foreign policy, and Texans having major parts in those debates.

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When Texas Democratic House members return to the nation's capital next week, they will be hit with a firestorm of a debate: the Iran deal.

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The nation’s capital is bracing for a frenetic fall. At best, Congress can expect a four-month legislative slog through everything from Iran to abortion; at worst, the government could shut down. It's anyone’s guess what that will mean for a renewed push to end the country's crude oil export ban.

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In the span of 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon, Texas' two senators engaged in what was — by Senate standards — a tough exchange on the chamber’s floor.

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There are few places in modern life where strict decorum remains like the halls and the floor of the United States Senate. And on Friday morning, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz shattered one of the surest unwritten rules of the upper chamber.

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Newly filed federal campaign finance reports telegraph which federal House members are worried about re-election, which are eager to ingratiate themselves to colleagues in Washington and who might be in legal trouble.

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Two weeks after it was supposedly killed, the federal Export-Import Bank may soon be resuscitated by tagging its future to a massive highway funding bill. The congressional gamesmanship has conservatives vowing to kill the bank for good.

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Texas Congressmen Gene Green and Joe Barton went head-to-head Thursday on a bill that would lift a 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports.

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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is opening a new front in his war of words against Washington, D.C., decrying a "Washington cartel" replete with corruption and cronyism.

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Texas has just three women in its 38-member congressional delegation, and hasn't sent a new long-term congresswoman to Washington in almost 20 years. Many in both parties wonder why the state's once-promising fount of woman candidates is running dry.

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The U.S. House on Friday shot down President Obama's bid to negotiate the largest trade deal in American history. The people taking knives to his agenda were in his own party, including most of Texas' Democratic delegation.

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U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, the latest Texas Republican to come out against the U.S. Export-Import Bank, did not shy away from his new position Wednesday as he spoke to business groups fighting to keep the 81-year-old federal agency alive.

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U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry is one of the most powerful players on Capitol Hill. But his new gavel as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee comes with scrutiny.

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Jim Wright, a Fort Worth Democrat who spent 34 years in Congress and became the 48th speaker of the U.S. House, has died.

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Texans in Congress are trying to balance party loyalties, distrust of the president and the interests of their districts as they decide whether to give President Obama fast-track authority on a Pacific Rim trade deal.

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