U.S. House

Republicans looking to take back the House say they hope a pool of fresh faces will be just what the voters ordered to cure their incumbent fatigue.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has been nurturing a program since the last election cycle to recruit and build a base for a crop of new congressional challengers. The recruits are not quite entry-level. Many are lawmakers at the state level, business leaders, veterans and lawyers.

But to mount a run for Congress, the "Young Guns" program gives those would be federal candidates a platform. And Republican leaders are counting on those candidates to help win them a majority....

Almost four months before the midterm election that could catapult Majority Leader John Boehner into the speakership, he's beginning to build up his personal image and launch a PR offensive to explain what he’d do if he ran the House.

At a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor at the St. Regis Hotel in downtown D.C., Boehner said the first three things he would do is repeal the Democrats’ health care overhaul bill, block any attempts to pass cap-and-trade energy legislation and keep taxes low.

He also revealed he has three brothers who are unemployed, has no immediate plans to quit smoking and portrays himself as more of a straight talker who means what he says — something he’s pitching as a contrast to President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)....

The top Senate Republican said Thursday the GOP is "on a comeback" politically as Democrats scrambled to bury the hatchet after several days of intraparty squabbling over their chances to hold the House in November's elections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, denied any friction with the White House, dismissing reports that she and her House colleagues are angry at the president for ignoring their interests.

"There is absolutely no reason to think that the White House has been anything but cooperative with us in terms of our political efforts to retain control of the Congress," Mrs. Pelosi told reporters...

Forget Barack Obama's executive order to the contrary -- the federal government will finance abortions in Pennsylvania.

Prior to a U.S. House vote on healthcare reform this spring, President Obama signed an executive order barring use of federal funds to finance abortions. That move was roundly criticized by pro-life organizations as mere theatrics to placate -- and obtain the votes of -- supposedly "pro-life" Democrats in the House. (See related story)

Now comes word that $160 million in federal money will be used in Pennsylvania to finance a "high-risk insurance pool" plan that includes abortion -- and those funds reportedly are available immediately. Diane Gramley of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania says she saw the writing on the wall when the order was signed...

(CNSNews.com) -- Sixty-three (63) members of the House and four senators, Republicans and Democrats, have weighed in on the legal case to defend the constitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief Thursday on behalf of the congressmen, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, in the case of Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Obama, in which a Wisconsin federal district court declared unconstitutional the statute directing the president to declare the annual observance of the National Day of Prayer.

On April 15, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb in Madison, Wis., ruled in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation that the National Day of Prayer violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. The Justice Department has appealed the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago...

Even as some of the first pieces of President Obama's health care reform legislation take effect, Republicans in Congress and conservative activist groups are still working to repeal or at least rewrite major sections of the legislation.

Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, is circulating a petition that would force an up-or-down vote in the House of Representatives on repealing the vast bulk of the estimated $940 billion, 10-year legislation the Democratic-controlled Congress passed this spring.

The petition had 80 signatures as of Thursday - the same day the White House formally launched HealthCare.gov, which officials described as a "one-stop shopping" place for health insurance. Other parts of the law, including a new 10 percent excise tax on indoor-tanning services and a new stopgap program to cover Americans with pre-existing health conditions who can't get private-sector coverage, also went into effect Thursday...

The first spending bill to begin moving through Congress since House Republicans pledged to forgo earmarks shows the vow is working: The bill contains nearly 50 percent less in pork-barrel spending than last year's version.

The 2011 homeland security spending bill, which was approved by a House subcommittee last week, includes just one Republican earmark. And just as telling, House Democrats' earmarks dropped dramatically, with the dollar amount down nearly 20 percent from last year's bill.

"Essentially, the vacuum that was created by virtually no Republican earmarks wasn't backfilled by more Democratic earmarks, and in fact, Democrats actually took less than they did last year," said Steve Ellis, vice president at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group. "There is a fear of overstepping the earmarking bounds, and also a commitment to at least further whittling away at earmark levels"...

Despite a presidential executive order, abortion will be part of healthcare reform -- at least according to a non-response from an inquiry sent to President Obama.

The executive order -- signed by President Barack Obama in the days leading up to congressional passage of his healthcare reform package -- banned federal funds from being used for abortion. At the time, pro-lifers and other conservatives dismissed the order as basically meaningless, pointing out a presidential order could not overrule federal law.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) recently sent a letter to the White House asking for a status report on the effectiveness of the order. Tom McCluskey of the Family Research Council Action says Boehner is, in effect, calling the president's bluff...

Republican lawmakers, conservative activists and business groups are in an all-out push to sideline a campaign finance bill tracking toward a House vote that they describe as a politically motivated assault on free speech that gives special carve-outs for favored groups like labor unions.

Democrats have pitched the bill as a direct response to the January Supreme Court ruling that lifted restrictions on campaign spending. Sponsors say it will rein in the influence of special-interest money in the upcoming election.

But critics say the package does an end-run around the court, giving unions and the Democrats they support the upper hand in November. While the so-called DISCLOSE Act aims for transparency, opponents say what it really does is intimidate and deter organizations from engaging in any campaign activity...

A first attempt by congressional Republicans to repeal part of President Obama's new health care law failed Tuesday as the House overwhelmingly rejected an effort to cut out the individual mandate that requires all Americans to have coverage.

Democrats called the bid a "disingenuous political stunt" and rallied their troops to defeat the effort, 230-187. Still, 21 Democrats joined 166 Republicans in voting to undo one of the key parts of the health care law, signaling bipartisan unease at the massive overhaul of the nation's health care system.

The individual mandate requires Americans to have coverage through their job or to purchase a plan themselves, or else face tax penalties. It was part of the key bargain Mr. Obama struck with health insurers to broaden the pool of insured in exchange for companies accepting new rules on who qualified for coverage, lifetime benefits and other difficult issues...