Lawmaker News

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) urged President Obama to release the reporting from the intelligence community that led his administration to initially describe the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi "as a 'spontaneous reaction' to a film trailer posted on the Internet."

The Hill has learned that House Speaker John Boenher (R-Ohio) promoted policy director, Brett Loper, to deputy chief of staff this week.

"This law looks like it's going to be struck down," legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Tuesday.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday it was “unthinkable” for a mostly-Republican audience to “jeer a person who’s serving the country.”

Pelosi was responding to the boos that followed a video of a gay soldier asking the Republican presidential candidates whether they would reverse the “progress made on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’” at the most recent GOP debate in Florida.

Pelosi also expressed dismay that the Republican presidential hopefuls on stage did not address the crowd’s response.

“None of the people who would be serving as commander in chief [called] a halt [to the booing],” she noted to daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Pelosi’s response took a similar tack to that of Vice President Biden, who earlier this week called the booing “reprehensible.”

Pelosi said the conversation should “go on from there,” however. 

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was the policy instituted under President Clinton that prevented gay and lesbian service members from serving openly in the U.S. military. President Obama repealed the policy earlier this year.

She said she was proud of the repeal of the legislation, and took some credit for the accomplishment.

“I don’t want to sound partisan, but it took a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president to get it done,” she said.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has no chance of securing the GOP presidential nomination, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Friday, just one day before she won the Ames Straw Poll.

"She doesn't stand a chance to win the Republican nomination," Reid said.

DeMint is angry enough with the debt-ceiling compromise that he might back challengers to Republican senators who support the plan.

The chairman of the Republican National Committee criticized his Democratic counterpart on Wednesday for being quiet about the scandal surrounding Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).

"Former DNC Chair @TimKaine is calling for @RepWeiner to resign- where is @DWStweets? Why so quiet on this issue?http://bit.ly/lkO82X," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted on Wednesday.

Kaine, who is running for the Senate in Virginia, said Tuesday that Weiner should resign after lying about sending an explicit photo to a woman over his Twitter account. Weiner initially maintained that his account had been hacked, but on Monday admitted he had sent the tweet and had conducted "inappropriate" correspondence with six women over the last three years.

So far Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is also a congresswoman from Florida, has only said that the issue is a "personal matter."

"I think this is a personal matter, and that's how it should be left," Wasserman Schulz said the week before Weiner's admission.

Wasserman Schultz and Priebus are scheduled to appear together on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

The ethics case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) may see some action in the near future, following the hiring of a new staff director for the House Ethics Committee.

On Monday committee Chairman Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and ranking Democrat Rep. Linda Sanchez (Calif.) announced that the panel had unanimously selected Daniel Schwager to fill the four-month vacancy. The committee heads said they were working to fill other vacancies on the panel as well.

The case against Waters stalled last year. Shortly afterward, two of the committee’s lawyers — Morgan Kim, a former deputy chief counsel and director of investigations and enforcement, and committee counsel Stacy Sovereign — were placed on administrative leave. Charges surfaced that they improperly handled the probe into Waters’s case.

“After a challenging end to the 111th Congress, the committee is anxious to move forward with the business of the 112th Congress and is confident that Dan will serve the committee with integrity and without bias,” Bonner said in a statement.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) said Friday that lead negotiators trying to avert a government shutdown might be closer to agreement than reports have indicated.

"I do know that, from what Sen. Reid tells me, what I believe is there is generally a number for cuts that would be part of an agreement were an agreement to be reached," Hoyer, the No. 2-ranking House Democrat, told reporters outside the House chamber.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who is among the chief Democratic negotiators, has said the sides have agreed on a number to cut from current spending levels.

The GOP Steering Committee is asking every Republican seeking a top committee slot for proposals to boost the economy.