Congress

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, speaks out against "don't ask, don't tell" with a story about his time in the military — when an “overt homosexual” soldier misread a signal, apparently, and went to the wrong “straight” soldier’s bunk.

Full Story 

Texas won big Tuesday with the release of 2010 census data. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune takes a look at the numbers, which will have legislators redrawing state maps to add four new congressional seats.

Full Story 

Texas won big Tuesday with the release of 2010 census data. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune takes a look at the numbers, which will have legislators redrawing state maps to add four congressional seats.

Full Story 

Texas will get four extra seats in the U.S. Congress in the decennial apportionment process, bringing the total to 36, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today.

Full Story 

In his first competitive House race analysis for 2012, Nostradamus-on-the-Potomac Charlie Cook only lists two Texas congressional seats as potentially in play. One of them is not CD-17.

Full Story 

For lower-ranking Republicans who would like to be higher-ranking and Democrats who barely remember ever having a shot at winning a statewide office, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's inscrutability about her future plans is getting to be a bit much.

Full Story 

It was a bad Election Night for residents of the largest city in McLennan County. After years of regional dominance, their congressional seat belongs to Bryan, halfway to Houston; their state senate seat is 86 miles away in Granbury; and one of their House seats has moved three counties east, to Centerville.

Full Story 

After watching his party lose 61 seats in the recent midterm elections, did U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, vote to stay the course or to give the boot to current Democratic House leadership? The world may never know.

Full Story 

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says she will join U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in calling for a ban on all Congressional earmark spending. In the past, both used the controversial budget maneuver to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars back to Texas. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports.

Full Story 

For the 16th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the Democratic U.S. Congressman from Houston about why his party got slaughtered on Election Day, whether Nancy Pelosi should continue in a leadership role, why the Obama administration has been forced to play defense and what health care reform should look like going forward.

Full Story 

Full audio and audience Q&A from our TribLive interview with U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston.

Full Story 

During his TribLive interview Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, was asked if — in light of his party's Election Day disemboweling — he would support outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi's bid for minority leader.

Full Story 

His resounding defeat was only one of Election Day’s many hits to the solar plexus of the state Democratic Party. But the loss of the powerful and politically talented U.S. congressman from Waco engenders the most speculation. What's next for Chet Edwards?

Full Story 

Today, five years after Tom DeLay’s fall from power, his trial on the money laundering and conspiracy charges that forced his resignation as U.S. House majority leader is finally slated to begin. What's at stake, other than voyeuristic curiosity about whether a former congressman will go to prison?

Full Story 

At stake in next Tuesday's elections are powerful committee chairmanships in the U.S. House of Representatives, a few of which will likely go to members of the Texas delegation if the GOP does as predicted and wins back the majority. We've built an interactive chart that takes a closer look at which of our Republican congressmen are poised to wield the gavel — Smith? Hall? Hensarling? Burgess? Barton? — and how public policy could be impacted here and elsewhere.

Full Story 

President Bill Clinton stops in San Antonio late Thursday to rally with U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, who's facing a tough re-election challenge from Republican Francisco "Quico" Canseco.

Full Story 

For the 14th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the Republican congressman from Lewisville on the problems with federal health care reform, what's wrong with the way Barack Obama and the Democrats got it passed and how he'll lead the charge to repeal it — if his party takes back control of the U.S. House.

Full Story 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, concerned more this cycle about keeping incumbents in office than winning new seats, is honoring its promise to make its presence felt in CD-23, hitting GOP challenger Francisco "Quico" Canseco as he attempts to oust U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio.

Full Story 

The latest in the ad wars between Bill Flores and U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, is a spot from the GOP challenger featuring U.S. Sen. John McCain.

Full Story 

Our topics this week include the renewed debate over concealed handguns on campus, the advantages of not debating or talking to the press and the hotly contested battle between Congressman Chet Edwards and Republican Bill Flores in CD-17.

Full Story