Congress

With American troops leaving Iraq and an eventual withdrawal from Afghanistan expected, advocates for tighter border security hope to bring military technology — and soldiers' expertise — to the border.

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Gov. Rick Perry is proposing to bring a little Texas to Washington — with a “part-time citizen Congress” that doesn’t meet so often, and whose members earn only half of what they make now. Perry will also call for an end to lifetime appointments for federal judges, including members of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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In a new web-only ad posted on YouTube, Gov. Rick Perry takes aim at congressional insider trading — the subject of a 60 Minutes segment last night.

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For those not as fortunate as U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin — Congress's wealthiest member — a low net worth poses a challenge.

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U.S. Sen. John Cornyn confronted U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday about allegations of a Texas-based gun-walking operation similar to the controversial Fast and Furious operation in Arizona.

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U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has asked congressional colleagues to investigate whether federal officials ran a gun-walking program in Texas similar to the controversial and now defunct Fast and Furious operation.

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Proposed cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's budget could shutter the Kika de la Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center, where researchers work to ensure the safety of products that cross from Mexico to the U.S.

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Aaronson interactively asks if stimulus funds created jobs in Texas, Aguilar on new voter registrar rules that could decrease voter turnout, Galbraith on a UT professor's debunking of climate change "myths," Grissom on an epic clash of El Paso political titans, Hamilton on the right's new higher ed guru, Murphy maps household data from the 2010 Census, Ramsey on a coming rules fight in the Texas Senate, Root and M. Smith on Rick Perry's performance at the New Hampshire debate and M. Smith talks public ed cuts with the state's Superintendent of the Year: The best of our best content from October 10-14, 2011.

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Congress — including much of the Texas delegation — is poised to approve three trade agreements as soon as today that could boost the state’s exports.

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U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, attempted to turn up the heat Tuesday on Gov. Rick Perry by condemning a controversial proposal to offer Texas license plates with the image of the Confederate flag.

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Texas’s congressional Republicans seized on new unemployment numbers to decry President Obama’s economic policies days after he stopped in Mesquite to sell his jobs plan.

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A nonpartisan group of Texas lawyers, law professors and other legal advocates today called on the U.S. Senate to quickly fill judicial vacancies that are slowing down the justice system in Texas and nationwide.

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Protesters gathered outside the Headliners Club in Austin to urge U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and Congress to pass the American Jobs Act. Boehner was in Austin to attend a reception with several GOP congressmen from Texas.

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Proposed legislation that would require employers across the country to use the electronic employment-verification program known as E-Verify passed out of a congressional House committee today.

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President Obama sent a $447 billion jobs bill to Congress today — his latest attempt to revive the struggling economy. How will Texas be affected?

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Austin Democrats are pretty unhappy with the Republican Legislature’s redistricting maps, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett is the poster child for their frustrations. Their anger might save him.

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State Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, says he is filing papers this week to run for the congressional seat now held by Republican Francisco "Quico" Canseco of San Antonio.

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Building on the success of our previous redistricting interactive, the Tribune has prepared a new version that includes the redistricting maps for the state House, Senate and State Board of Education.

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Congress is set to vote on a deal that would raise the federal debt ceiling to avoid an unprecedented default. They may not be in Washington now, but we asked several U.S. Senate candidates to weigh in on how they'd vote on the plan if they were.

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Michael Williams, who jumped from the U.S. Senate race to the congressional race in the new CD-33 in North Texas, says he'll jump again: He's running for congress in CD-25, a district that stretches from Tarrant County all the way south to Hays County.

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