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Stephen Dinan

Stephen Dinan

Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Stephen Dinan

** FILE ** This March 26, 2014, file photo shows House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaking during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Immigration still on hold: Boehner’s office

A day after reports that House Speaker John A. Boehner is telling fundraisers he is determined to get an immigration bill done this year, the Ohio Republican's spokesman walked those comments back slightly, saying any action will still depend on President Obama. Published April 18, 2014

Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, took his final crack at a budget last week when the House cleared his 2015 plan, which again calls for holding revenue steady while making deep cuts to both annual discretionary spending and to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Those cuts would bring the budget into balance in 2024. (Associated Press)

CBO shows it’s Paul Ryan 4, Obama 0 on budget targeting

Soon after the tea party era began in Congress in 2011, President Obama and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan each released their budgets, proposing how much the government should tax and spend over the rest of the decade. Published April 17, 2014

Immigration policy has plagued President Obama, as he spent the last five years trying to strike a difficult balance on the issue between conservatives in Congress and immigrant-rights advocates. (Associated Press Photographs)

Obama conciliatory on immigration

President Obama sounded a more conciliatory note on immigration Thursday, a day after he issued a statement criticizing House Republicans for "extreme" votes on the issue and angering a top GOP lawmaker who said it further poisoned chances for a bill to get done this year. Published April 17, 2014

The attorney for former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner says his client will continue to assert her rights not to testify about the IRS targeting of conservative groups. (Associated Press)

IRS emails reveal discussion with Justice about suing nonprofits for election activities

IRS emails released Wednesday show that just before the tea party targeting scandal was revealed last year, Lois G. Lerner and her colleagues at the tax agency were talking with the Justice Department about making examples out of nonprofit groups that they felt were violating campaign laws by playing political roles. Published April 16, 2014

Rep. Ed Whitfield, Kentucky Republican, says President Obama should not claim credit for increased oil and natural gas production in the U.S. because production has slipped on federal lands, particularly offshore. (Associated Press)

Oil production lags on federal lands

The U.S. is enjoying a huge oil and gas energy boom but the Obama administration has been left behind as production on federal lands has lagged, according to a new nonpartisan report that energy advocates said shows President Obama is a squandering opportunities to make the U.S. more energy independent. Published April 16, 2014

**FILE** House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., with House GOP leaders, speaks with reporters following a Republican strategy session, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. At left is Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Eric Cantor rejects latest Obama immigration outreach

President Obama tried to kick-start the immigration debate Wednesday with a call to a top House Republican, but his target, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, rejected the overture, saying it was made just hours after the president took a partisan shot on the very same issue — underscoring why Mr. Obama is getting little accomplished in Washington. Published April 16, 2014

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, California Republican, said he will not include legalization in the main bill he introduces, which means it will be up to someone else to offer an amendment in the committee or on the floor. The panel will begin debating the defense policy bill at the end of this month and hold a full committee vote May 7. (Associated Press)

American Legion shoots down idea to tie immigration to military service

The American Legion says it is opposed to trying to tie immigration into the annual defense policy debate, calling it an unacceptable "amnesty" and dealing a serious blow to Republicans desperate to pass some sort of legalization of illegal immigrants ahead of November's elections. Published April 15, 2014

Ukrainian army troops set up a position at an airport in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, April 15, 2014. In the first Ukrainian military action against a pro-Russian uprising in the east, government forces clashed Tuesday with about 30 armed gunmen at a small airport in Kramatorsk. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Amid clashes, White House nixes ‘lethal’ Ukraine aid

The White House said Tuesday that President Obama will not send lethal military equipment to Ukraine, even as the new pro-Western government in Kiev began a counteroffensive to recapture ground in eastern Ukraine that had been occupied by pro-Russian militia forces. Published April 15, 2014

Medicaid work in 11 states sent oversea; privacy worries raised

Eleven states ship some of their Medicaid administrative work to foreign countries, including nine that have no specific protections in law to make sure private health information isn't sent overseas, according to an inspector general's audit released Monday that raises potentially thorny questions about the policy. Published April 14, 2014

FILE - This March 4, 2014 file photo shows copies of President Barack Obama’s proposed fiscal 2015 budget set out for distribution on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Congressional Budget Office releases its analysis of President Barack Obama's 2015 budget proposal, including the effects of the insurance coverage provisions of the health law, along with updated 10-year projections of federal spending, revenues and deficits. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Obamacare costs drop, helps improve deficit picture

Obamacare will be cheaper than initially predicted because the plans health insurers are offering through the exchanges are not as generous as those most Americans get through their jobs, according to a new analysis Monday by the Congressional Budget Office. Published April 14, 2014

House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., speaks during a luncheon in Washington, Monday, Jan. 29, 2007. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

TSA defies audit, quietly expands behavior screening activity

The government's chief auditor has urged TSA to cut its behavior screening program, but the agency instead quietly expanded it last month on passengers at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport. Published April 10, 2014

** FILE ** In this May 22, 2013, file photo, then Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner refuses to answer questions as the House Oversight Committee holds a hearing to investigate the extra scrutiny the IRS gave tea party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Contempt: Oversight committee votes to cite IRS’s Lerner

The House Oversight Committee voted along party lines Thursday to cite Lois G. Lerner for contempt of Congress, rejecting Democrats’ comparisons to McCarthy-style tactics in the 1950s and saying Congress has a right to get information about Ms. Lerner’s role in the IRS’s tea-party targeting scandal. Published April 10, 2014

FILE - House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., goes before the House Rules Committee for final work on his budget to fund the government in fiscal year 2015, at the Capitol in Washington, in this April 7, 2014 file photo. The plan being considered Thursday April 10, 2014 is a nonbinding framework aimed more at engaging GOP voters than rival Democrats. The budget plan from Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., revives a now-familiar list of spending cuts to promise balance, including $2.1 trillion over 10 years in health care subsidies and coverage under the Affordable Care Act; $732 billion in cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs; and almost $1 trillion in cuts to other benefit programs like food stamps, Pell Grants and farm subsidies. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

House clears GOP budget in relatively easy vote

House Republicans pushed their 2015 budget through on Thursday, adopting a plan that holds steady on taxes but calls for deep spending cuts to bring the budget into balance by 2024. Published April 10, 2014

Cynthia Diaz, 18, from Arizona, is senn outside the White House on Tuesday April 8,2014. She was there with a group of immigrant activists to protest deportations. Cynthia's mother was deported in 2011 and crossed back into the US from Mexico this March, and is now being detained in Arizona. Cynthia, a US citizen, says she'll go on hunger strike to pressure Obama to lay off the deportations. (AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times, Alex Leary)

Few women deported from U.S.

Almost all immigrants deported by the federal government are men, and more than three-quarters of them are in their 20s and 30s, according to a new report Thursday that gives the clearest look yet at who immigration agents are removing from the country. Published April 10, 2014

Rep. Jackie Speier, California Democrat. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Improper disability pay may be from review backlog

As many as one-fifth of all those receiving Social Security disability probably don't deserve the benefits, the president of the association for disability examiners told Congress on Wednesday, as lawmakers searched for ways to cut down on fraud in the fast-growing Social Security disability caseload. Published April 9, 2014