Ron Elving

Dec. 3 is the date on Washington's mind. That's when federal government funding runs out. And, it's the new date for the U.S. to default on its credit after a Senate vote to raise the debt ceiling.

As the U.S. entered World War I, Congress created a limit on aggregate federal debt and also a cloture rule to end filibusters. The two are linked again in the current battles on Capitol Hill.

The pandemic, migration crisis, and Congressional gridlock continue to create stumbling blocks for the Biden administration.

Increasing the debt ceiling used to be procedurally easy — and hardly newsworthy. That changed when control of Congress flipped to the GOP in 1994 and Newt Gingrich became House Speaker.

The atmosphere throughout this account is foreboding, darkened by the shadow COVID-19 cast over the country but also by the dangers to democracy the authors perceive and depict.

The new book Peril — written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa — turns out to be just as much about Joe Biden, and how he got to be Trump's successor.

Democrats will try the same budgetary process from four decades ago when first-year President Ronald Reagan used reconciliation to achieve his "revolution" in federal fiscal policy.

Vice President Kamala Harris is attending the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, memorial event. Shanksville was the site of the Flight 93 crash.

Former President Bush, who was in office the time of the 9/11 attacks, is attending the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, memorial. Shanksville was the site of the Flight 93 crash.

We look at how in response to the September 11 attacks, the George W. Bush administration totally reshaped U.S. national security appartus.

A Texas law that effectively bans abortion after about 6 weeks is allowed to stand, the U.S. military is now out of Afghanistan after 20 years, and the president's approval numbers take a hit.

Presidents' reactions have consistently combined outrage with promises of revenge. The language is remarkably similar. But there has been far less consistency in the delivery of actual retaliation.

We look at the continued political fall out for the Biden Administration from Afghanistan, progress on the Infrastrucure Bill, as well today's Voting Rights marches, planned in several cities.

President Biden defends his decision on Afghanistan as thousands of people try to flee the country. Also, divisions in the GOP over refugees, and what the House will tackle when it's back next week.

The last four U.S. presidents have found themselves mired in Afghanistan. The last two saw the war as an unwanted inheritance and an albatross, and they were determined to end the American role.

The Senate voted with a bipartisan majority to advance a key piece of President Biden's agenda, approving a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Is it a sign that Washington may become functional again?

As Democrats try to pass their massive multi-trillion-dollar spending bill with a simple majority vote, lots of things might be included but other things might not. And it all goes back to one man.

We look at the latest in the case against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, where the infrastructure bill stands and why the current CDC eviction moratorium might not help vulnerable renters.

Seemingly arcane exercises in the days and weeks ahead will in fact represent – and may even resolve — real conflicts over national issues of enormous importance.

More troubles for former president Donald Trump, with the release of handwritten notes detailing the pressure he put on former Justice Department officials following the 2020 election.