Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
Reid: Immigration comes before Perez nomination
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday he won't start to pick any big fights with Republicans because he's afraid of upsetting the momentum to pass an immigration bill — and that includes delaying President Obama's Labor Department nominee. Published May 23, 2013
Obama defends drone strikes, reignites Gitmo debate in crucial speech
U.S. drone strikes have killed four Americans, including one who was "specifically targeted" and three others who were not targets, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a letter to Congress on Wednesday, publicly confirming the strikes for the first time. Published May 22, 2013
Reid: D.C. court needs Obama nominees for ideological balance
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that he will push to confirm more judges to the federal appeals court in Washington after that court ruled this year that President Obama's broad use of recess appointment powers was unconstitutional. Published May 22, 2013
House Republicans find holes in immigration bill
Less than 24 hours after senators powered their immigration bill through committee, the legislation came under fire in the House, where the former head of immigration enforcement testified that it has too many loopholes that could delay enforcement, let dangerous people in, and hamstring agents from fighting illegal immigration in the future. Published May 22, 2013
Immigration reform bill clears committee hurdles, heads to full Senate
The Senate immigration bill cleared the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote Tuesday night, ducking — for now — big fights on guns, gay rights and how broadly the legalization is drawn, and leaving the 867-page overhaul mostly unscathed by conservative attacks. Published May 21, 2013
Group sues over IRS, demands agency approve application
True the Vote — one of the conservative groups the IRS subjected to special scrutiny in its application for tax-exempt status — sued the federal government on Tuesday, demanding the tax agency approve its application that has now been pending for three years. Published May 21, 2013
Immigration bill backers say not all back-taxes will be paid
The Senate immigration bill's authors acknowledged Tuesday that their legislation does not require illegal immigrants to pay all back taxes, saying it would be too difficult to make them ante up everything they might owe. Published May 21, 2013
Senate panel OKs tax-welfare benefits for newly legal immigrants
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to allow illegal immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments, as the panel spent a fourth day working through amendments to the massive immigration bill and party-line splits began to emerge. Published May 20, 2013
Group fighting voter fraud among those waiting on IRS; reams of documents still not enough
A Texas group dedicated to combatting voter fraud applied for tax-exempt status in 2010 and has suffered three years of delays, been through four different IRS agents, undergone six FBI inquiries and submitted thousands of pages of documentation — and it still hasn't been approved. Published May 20, 2013
Labor union chief calls immigration bill dangerous, sees agency as ‘approval machine’
The Senate's immigration bill will raise national security risks and the Obama administration will do little more than "rubber-stamp" illegal immigrants into the program, endangering Americans, says the labor union representing the 12,000 employees who will have to approve the applications. Published May 20, 2013
Rethinking immigration rules for asylum after Boston
The Boston Marathon bombing hasn't derailed the immigration debate, but it has sent lawmakers back to the drawing board on some key provisions, including changes to the asylum system that the two suspects in the bombing used to come to the U.S. Published May 19, 2013
Non-deportation rate drops — to 99.2 percent
The Homeland Security Department has granted legal status to 99.2 percent of all illegal immigrants who have applied under President Obama's new non-deportation policy for young adults, according to the latest numbers released Friday. Published May 18, 2013
House GOP issues subpoena in Benghazi investigation
The chairman of the House oversight committee on Friday subpoenaed the senior diplomat who ran the State Department's investigation into the Benghazi attack, saying lawmakers deserve to be able to depose him before he testifies publicly. Published May 17, 2013
2nd court invalidates Obama’s recess pick for NLRB
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Obama violated the Constitution when he made a recess appointment to the National Labor Relations Board, marking the second panel to rebuke the administration and making the issue even more likely to draw Supreme Court scrutiny. Published May 16, 2013
Feds gave witness protection to terrorists
The federal government gave witness protection to known and suspected terrorists and the U.S. Marshals Service even lost track of two of those people, according to a report Thursday from the Justice Department's auditor that exposes the previously hidden side of the witness program. Published May 16, 2013
Final tally: DHS released 622 criminals as part of sequester
Two key senators said Thursday that Homeland Security officials should face discipline for their role earlier this year in releasing 622 criminal immigrants, including 32 with multiple felony convictions, in a move the Obama administration initially blamed on the budget sequester cuts. Published May 16, 2013
Securing border driving House’s immigration efforts
Even as the Senate is pushing its massive immigration bill, the House is beginning to move pieces of the puzzle through its committees with a vote Wednesday to force the Obama administration to stiffen border security. Published May 15, 2013
Tea party group targeted by IRS suspected opposition research for Obama campaign
When the chairman of one of the tea party groups targeted by the IRS for special scrutiny saw the agency's questions, his first thought was that the queries were so outrageous that the Obama administration was engaging in campaign opposition research. Published May 15, 2013
Rubio lists amendments to sweeten immigration bill
Sen. Marco Rubio's office circulated a list this month of ways to toughen security in the immigration bill he helped negotiate, including potential amendments to cut down on chain migration, to require newly legal immigrants to show financial self-sufficiency and to build 700 miles of double-tier fencing along the border. Published May 15, 2013
Boehner on IRS: ‘Who’s going to jail over this scandal?’
House Speaker John A. Boehner said Wednesday that it'll take more than firings to clear up the IRS scandal — it'll take someone ending up serving jail time. Published May 15, 2013
