Ailsa Chang

The State of the Union is usually a laundry list of things the president hopes Congress will get done in the year. But Republicans noticed there were few specific requests of lawmakers.

The U.S. House will vote Wednesday on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The Senate has already passed it, but President Obama has vowed to veto it.

Before Ted Cruz was the firebrand Texas senator commandeering the Senate floor, he was a firebrand teenager reciting conservative ideology. (This piece initially aired on July 3, 2015 on ATC.)

When Republicans took over both chambers of Congress in January, party leaders vowed they would prove to the country that Republicans could govern. They promised to stop with the self-made crises, such as government shutdowns, and rack up legislative accomplishments. So in the first year of a GOP-controlled Congress in ...

Republicans had something to prove when they took over both houses of Congress at the beginning of 2015 — that they could govern. So, did they prove it?

NPR looks back on Donald Trump's time in military school where he learned how to get ahead while playing by the rules. This story originally aired on Nov. 10, 2015 on Morning Edition.

Congress has unveiled a giant bill that will fund the government for the year and clarify the tax code. Congress will give itself an extension to get the bills passed before current funding runs out.

One of the members of the nation's highest court dropped by the NPR Politics Podcast last week for a wide-ranging conversation about the inner workings of the Supreme Court, and Washington, changing global realities and why he loved the musical Hamilton.

It's been 16 years since I last saw Justice ...

Update at 8:40 p.m. ET: Senate passed legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal the Affordable Care Act, with a 52-47 vote.

Here is our original post:

Senate Republicans are expected to achieve two goals on Thursday that have long eluded them — they'll pass a bill that defunds Planned ...

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, Republicans in Congress are seeking action limiting President Obama's plan to resettle Syrian refugees in the United States.

"We used to refer to our detention as a 'DT' — a 'Donny Trump' — because he got more of them than most other people in the class," said one of Trump's grade school classmates.

Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan won the Republican nomination speaker of the House Wednesday, but there are questions about whether he will be able to bring together a fractured caucus.

The deal increases spending for defense and domestic programs and raises the federal debt ceiling through March 2017. It now must be approved by both houses of Congress.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan has formally put himself forward as a candidate for speaker of the House. He said in a letter to the House Republican Conference that he is "ready and eager" to be speaker.

Two-thirds of a hard-line conservative group in the U.S. House has voted to support Rep. Paul Ryan for speaker. Now, if Ryan decides he does want the job, he has enough votes to win it.

After a week and a half of mounting pressure, Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan announced he is open to serving as Speaker of the House after all — but with conditions: his fractured Rep...

Republican leaders met to try and resolve their differences Friday after their election for a new speaker dissolved following the sudden withdrawal of the frontrunner, Kevin McCarthy.

House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday abruptly pulled out of the race for speaker of the House. The election is off until House Republicans can coalesce around a new candidate.

This post was updated at 4:25 p.m.

In a shocking move Thursday afternoon, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., pulled out of the race for speaker of the House, throwing the GOP leadership race into chaos and confusion.

According to Republican congressmen coming out of the caucus meeting — ...

Congress passed a bill Wednesday funding the government through mid-December. The bill does not restrict federal funding for Planned Parenthood.