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Stephen Dinan

Stephen Dinan

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

Articles by Stephen Dinan

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is followed by reporters as he walks on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. Sen. McConnell and his Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are optimistic about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal preventing a possible federal default and ending the partial government shutdown after Republican divisions forced GOP leaders to drop efforts to ram their own version through the House.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Senate passes budget deal; bill heads to House

Congress was racing Wednesday night to approve legislation ending the 16-day-old government shutdown and avert the potential for the first major debt default in U.S. history in a deal that gave President Obama most of what he sought — an open government and more borrowing authority without denting Obamacare. Published October 16, 2013

The late Sen. Frank Lautenberg and his wife Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg seen here in 2013. (credit: Associated PRess)

Stopgap bill approves $3 billion of pork spending

Buried inside the new stopgap spending bill are several pork project goodies, including nearly quadrupling the maximum price of a dam project on the Ohio River that is turning into a boondoggle — up to nearly $3 billion. Published October 16, 2013

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, pumps his fist as he walks past reporters after a meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Boehner says House will accept debt deal

House Speaker John A. Boehner said Wednesday that he and his fellow Republicans in the lower chamber won't block the debt deal Senate leaders reached earlier in the day. Published October 16, 2013

**FILE** Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, accompanied by Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (right), Texas Republican, and Sen. John Barrasso, Wyoming Republican, speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 18, 2013. (Associated Press)

GOP looks ahead to next fight: Sequesters

The ink on the final debt and spending agreement hadn't even dried and Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republicans' leader, was already drawing a red line around the next fight: budget sequesters. Published October 16, 2013

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, gestures as he talks with reporters on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, in Washington. Leaders reached a last-minute agreement to avert a threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day shutdown. Cruz said he would not try to block the agreement. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Senate leaders announce agreement to end shutdown, raise debt

Top senators struck a deal Wednesday to reopen the government and extend the federal government's borrowing authority into next year and both sides of the Capitol are hoping for quick action to reassure nervous financial markets eyeing a Thursday deadline set by the Treasury Department. Published October 16, 2013

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks during a news conference on the ongoing budget battle outside his office on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

House conservatives sabotage Boehner plan to end shutdown

Conservatives in the House sabotaged Speaker John A. Boehner's plan Tuesday to dent Obamacare while reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling, leaving senators scrambling to kick-start their own deal before Thursday's deadline for a potential default. Published October 15, 2013

National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis has been subpoenaed to testify before Congress on decisions he made regarding the closing of national parks during the government shutdown. (Associated Press)

Park Service director must face House questioning on shutdowns

House lawmakers will get a chance Wednesday to grill the National Park Service about its decision to barricade the World War II Memorial and iconic national parks, including the Grand Canyon, at the beginning of the government shutdown — though they had to subpoena the Park Service director to get him to attend. Published October 15, 2013

"My goodness, I thought we've held that the 14th Amendment protects all races," Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Tuesday during arguments on Michigan's constitutional amendment banning affirmative action. "I mean, that was the argument in the early years, that it protected only the blacks. But I thought we rejected that." (Associated Press)

Supreme Court justices’ comments seem to favor Michigan affirmative action ban

The Supreme Court appeared eager during oral arguments Tuesday to uphold a Michigan ban on affirmative action, with the justices even considering whether they would need to overrule previous precedents to make sure the state's color-blind school admissions requirement can remain in place. Published October 15, 2013

President Barack Obama, center, and Vice President Joe Biden, center left, meet with Democratic Leadership in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. Sitting with them are from left to right, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

House GOP to push Obama, Biden into Obamacare

House Republicans on Tuesday narrowed their attack on Obamacare to the issue of fairness, insisting that President Obama and his top political appointees all have to buy their insurance through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges as part of a new bill to end the government shutdown and extend the federal debt ceiling. Published October 15, 2013

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks away from the microphone during a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. House GOP leaders Tuesday floated a plan to fellow Republicans to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. But the plan got mixed reviews from the rank and file, and it was not clear whether it could pass the chamber. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

House GOP unity breaks down over latest shutdown offer

House Republican leaders were searching for votes Tuesday to pass a debt increase and stopgap spending bill, facing a rebellion within their own ranks from lawmakers who felt their latest proposal to make two small dents in Obamacare wasn't enough of a victory. Published October 15, 2013

Two immigrant-rights protesters take part in an Oct. 14 demonstration in front of a detention facility in Eloy, Ariz., to try to block federal authorities from being able to deport the illegal immigrants being held there. (Courtesy of notonemoredeportation.com)

Protesters chain themselves to stop deportations in Arizona

Immigrant-rights protesters have chained themselves in front of an detention facility in Eloy, Ariz., and planned to blockade the main federal immigration office in Phoenix later Monday, hoping to stop anyone from being deported. Published October 14, 2013

**FILE** People wait under a tree after they were detained by Border Patrol agents on June 25, 2013, at a field in Edinburg, Texas. Agents took into custody 69 people suspected of entering the country illegally. (Associated Press/The Monitor)

Bungling bureaucrats dole out billions in tax credits to illegal immigrants

The federal government's decision to pay out billions of dollars in tax credits to illegal immigrants likely was made by midlevel bureaucrats and has never received full congressional scrutiny, according to a study that the Center for Immigration Studies is releasing Monday. Published October 14, 2013

Charlene Gomez leads an orientation seminar for illegal immigrants in Los Angeles. Schools and consulates have been flooded with requests for documents since the Obama administration earlier this year said many young illegal immigrants may be eligible for two-year renewable work permits. (Associated Press)

Report: Tax credits to illegals likely from midlevel bureaucrats

The federal government's decision to pay out billions of dollars in tax credits to illegal immigrants likely was made by midlevel bureaucrats and has never received full congressional scrutiny, according to a study that the Center for Immigration Studies is releasing Monday. Published October 13, 2013

Mike Lauriente (right) of Howard County, Md., greets fellow World War II veteran Dale Nakken, who flew from Puget Sound, Wash., as they make their way to the World War II Memorial for the Million Vet March against the closure of the monument. Story, A12. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Lots of talk, little action on debt deal in Congress

Congress spent the weekend insisting that it will reach a deal to raise the federal government's borrowing limit by Thursday but making scant progress even as all sides tried to reassure itchy financial markets ahead of the stock market opening Monday. Published October 13, 2013