The White House budget director has ordered federal agencies to begin closing down after the Senate and the House of Representatives failed to reach an agreement on a budget plan to avert a government shutdown. “Agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director Of the White House Office of Management and Budget... 

In its short-term government-funding bill, the US Senate will propose an end to a budget provision that protects genetically-modified seeds from litigation despite possible health risks. Called “The Monsanto Protection Act” by opponents, the budget rider shields biotech behemoths like Monsanto, Cargill and others from the threat of lawsuits and bars federal courts from intervening to force an... 

Sen. Dianne Feinstein referred to the US, Canada and Mexico as “the Homeland” at an NSA Senate briefing on Wednesday, presenting a map that united the three nations as one. At a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting held to acquire details on the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs, Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.) made a geographic mistake in which she united three large countries... 

The United States Senate approved a landmark immigration bill Thursday afternoon after lawmakers in Washington voted 68-to-32 in favor of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. The Senate put its collective support behind the bill, a bipartisan effort that has been at the center of discussion on both sides of the aisle since it was introduced in Washington... 

The Australian government has severed all ties with Julian Assange, stating that the Wikileaks co-founder is not their concern, while the US military prosecutors denounced him as a conspirator across the duration of Manning’s court martial. Assange’s situation “doesn’t affect Australian interests,” Australia’s Foreign Minister Robert Carr told a US Senate budget estimates committee,... 

Nearly everywhere you turn, crowds of angry Americans are gathering, no longer content to merely sit idly by and remain spectators to the cavalcade of injustices being perpetuated ad nauseum against We the People by criminal governments that have long since lost their legitimacy. Run by an elitist ruling class, they prove daily that an elected body can trample rights the same as a sitting monarch... 

Privacy advocates can breathe a sigh of relief as the controversial US Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) appears to be all but dead in the water, with all signs pointing to it being shelved by the Senate. The bill, which was purportedly designed to allow the federal government to share private user information with corporations in situations of a suspected cyber threat, was the... 

Family members of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting listen to Sen. Christopher Murphy as he reads names of the victims, Capitol Hill, Washington DC, April 11, 2013. The US Senate has voted to begin debating a new gun control bill, the first major push for gun regulations in nearly two decades, amid fierce opposition from a powerful gun rights lobby. On Thursday, the Senate voted... 

There truly is no rest for the wicked, and Monsanto is at war once again against health conscious consumers with the latest ‘Monsanto Protection Act‘, managing to sneak wording into the latest Senate legislation that would give them blanket immunity from any USDA action regarding the potential dangers of their genetically modified creations while under review. The USDA would be unable to act against... 

US Senator Lindsey Graham A bipartisan group of US senators are pushing for a legislation to force the government to prop up any military action that the Israeli regime adopts against Iran in “self-defense.” The non-binding measure, introduced by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), is actually aimed at pushing President Barack Obama to intensify sanctions against Iran and... 

US senators have requested the legal justification for the killings of US citizens suspected of terrorism by the Obama administration. Meanwhile a ‘chilling’ leaked memo showed that the government sees little need for constraint on the issue. A group of 11 senators on Monday wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to release all Justice Department memos on the practice of targeting... 

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday introduced a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, briefing members of Congress in front of a display featuring various deadly firearms that would be prohibited under the ban. “Together we are introducing legislation to help end the mass shootings that have devastated countless families and terrorized communities,” Feinstein... 

The House voted on legislation Wednesday that will raise the debt ceiling for three months and delay a US default. Even though this is just a short term fix, the Obama administration said it supports it. The legislation prevented a devastating default of US debt and payments next month and instead give Congress three more months to come up with an agreement on the budget, taxes, spending and the deficit.... 

For anyone who may have thought Senator Feinstein and her colleagues in Congress were bluffing about coming firearms legislation that would restrict the sale, transfer and possession of certain firearms, think again. A summary of the proposed legislation has been made available, and it’s a whopper. Among outright banning 120 ‘assault’ related firearms (such as AR-15′s and AK-47′s), the bill... 

With less than a week until a powerful legislation expires that lets the government eavesdrop on the phone and email conversations of Americans, the Senate has convened in DC to discuss whether or not to renew the FISA Amendment Act. The 2008 FISA Amendment Act, an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of the 1970s, allows the government to wiretap any conversation involving US citizens,...