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Tom Howell Jr.

Tom Howell Jr.

Tom Howell Jr. covers politics and the White House for The Washington Times. He can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

Caio Julio Vasconcelos who was born with microcephaly undergoes physical therapy at the Institute for the Blind in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. Researchers from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention continue to fan out across one of Brazil's poorest states in search of mothers and infants for a study aimed at determining whether the Zika virus is causing babies to be born with unusually small heads. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

GOP to U.N.: Don’t use Zika outbreak to loosen abortion laws

The Zika virus isn't transmitting within the U.S., but pregnant women who contracted the virus elsewhere had abortions or miscarriages upon their return, scientists reported Friday, signaling the virus is striking close to home even as congressional Republicans warned the United Nations not to let "opportunistic" advocates roll back abortion laws abroad. Published February 26, 2016

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 29, file 2015 photo, the Puerto Rican flag flies in front of Puerto Rico’s Capitol as in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Legislators in Puerto Rico have approved on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, a last-minute bill needed to finalize a deal to restructure the U.S. territory's heavily indebted public power company. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File)

Puerto Rico fiscal crisis requires a two-step solution, Treasury Dept. says

Congress should let Puerto Rico restructure its crippling debt but should impose strict new federal oversight to make sure the island territory doesn't backslide on its budget cuts, the Obama administration said Thursday, trying to figure a way out of a thorny political impasse. Published February 25, 2016

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this Aug. 3, 2010, file photo. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

David Vitter holds OPM nominee as part of Obamacare probe

Sen. David Vitter followed through Thursday on his threat to hold up President Obama's pick to lead the government's personnel office, saying he still doesn't understand why Congress was granted small-business status that "exempted" it from Obamacare, even though it employs thousands. Published February 25, 2016

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2015, file photo, the HealthCare.gov website, where people can buy health insurance, is displayed on a laptop screen in Washington. Congressional investigators say the Obama administration has taken a "passive" approach to identifying potential fraud involving the president’s health care law. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

HHS: We’re cracking down on offseason Obamacare signups

The Obama administration said Wednesday it is taking steps to prevent misuse and abuse of special enrollment periods that allow Obamacare customers in 38 states to get covered on HealthCare.gov outside of the traditional signup period. Published February 24, 2016

Janine Santos holds her 3-month-old son Shayde Henrique who was born with microcephaly while health workers visit her home in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. U.S. and Brazilian health workers knocked on doors in the poorest neighborhoods of one of Brazil's poorest states Tuesday in a bid to enroll mothers in a study aimed at determining whether the Zika virus is really causing a surge in birth defects. The teams started in Joao Pessoa, the capital of Paraiba state which is one of the epicenters of Brazil's tandem Zika and microcephaly outbreaks. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Senators lobby for proactive stance against global health scares

The Ebola outbreak's aftermath and the creeping threat of Zika virus underscore the need to fund basic research and gird for epidemics before they hit, members of Congress said Wednesday, signaling they are weary of emergency funding requests to deal with global health scares. Published February 24, 2016

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. walks to a closed-door GOP policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Senate Republicans, most vocally Senator McConnell, are facing a high-stakes political showdown with President Barack Obama sparked by the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Republicans controlling the Senate — which must confirm any Obama appointee before the individual is seated on the court — say that the decision is too important to be determined by a lame-duck president. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Mitch McConnell: No hearings on Obama’s Supreme Court pick

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday there is no way that Republicans will take up President Obama's pick to fill the Supreme Court, citing an election that's already underway and Vice President Joseph Biden's decades-old protest against campaign season nominees. Published February 23, 2016

Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, is seen in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 6, 2012. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Chris Coons: Supreme Court pick is chance to heal Senate

Sen. Chris Coons said Tuesday the battle over replacing late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a chance to reverse the steady creep of partisan acrimony in the august chamber, one day after Republicans made the man he replaced -- Vice President Joseph P. Biden -- an unwitting guide for how the Senate should approach nominations in a pivotal election year. Published February 23, 2016

Republicans have unearthed a speech by Vice President Joseph R. Biden from 1992 in which he said then-President George H.W. Bush's attempt to fill a Supreme Court vacancy should wait until his successor came into office in 1993. The GOP charges that Mr. Biden is now backing President Obama's lame-duck attempt to similarly fill a vacancy before his term ends in January. (Star Tribune via Associated Press)

Joe Biden’s 1992 opposition to lame-duck Supreme Court pick could doom Obama nomination

It may be Vice President Joseph R. Biden who dooms President Obama's hopes of reshaping the Supreme Court and picking a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia after Republicans unearthed a 1992 speech in which then-Sen. Biden said it was "not fair" to let a lame-duck president make such an important decision. Published February 22, 2016

The Senate voted on Monday to advance the nomination Dr. Robert Califf, President Obama's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration. (Associated Press)

Robert Califf, Obama nominee for FDA chief, advanced by Senate

President Obama's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration inched closer to confirmation late Monday, despite loud protests from Senate Democrats who said the agency needs a crusader who will rein in and regulate prescription painkillers that are feeding the nation's heroin epidemic. Published February 22, 2016

Limb Haparai, a researcher at Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend, puts his hand inside a container filled with mosquitos on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, at the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend in South Bend, Ind. The latex glove that Limb is wearing protects him for any mosquito bites. (Robert Franklin/South Bend Tribune via AP)

Zika virus: White House demands new resources

The White House budget chief told Congress Monday that President Obama would like to free up some, but not all, of the leftover money from the Ebola fight to combat the Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects in Latin America. Published February 22, 2016

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., center, accompanied by Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., right, and Rodney Miller of the West Virginia Sheriffs’ Association, talks about the problem of over-prescribed and under-regulated opioid pain medicines and their opposition to the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to run the Food and Drug Administration, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. While calling Dr. Califf “a good man,” Manchin said Califf has too many ties to the pharmaceutical industry to properly deal with the prescription opioid abuse crisis in this country. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Democrats protest Obama’s pick to lead FDA

President Obama's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration cannot be trusted to rein in and regulate prescription painkillers at the heart of a deadly U.S. epidemic, a pair of Senate Democrats said Monday, leveraging a floor vote on the nominee to elevate their fight against opioid and heroin abuse. Published February 22, 2016

Rep. Harold Rogers, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said President Obama should use unspent Ebola funds to fight the Zika virus. (Associated Press)

Zika virus funds should be diverted from Ebola response moneys: GOP

Powerful House Republicans told the Obama administration Thursday to use leftover funds from the Ebola fight to address the spread of Zika virus, saying it is the fastest way to respond to the latest global health scare and that Congress can replace the money later on, if needed. Published February 18, 2016

In this Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, photo released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Coast Guard Health Technician Nathan Wallenmeyer, left, and CBP supervisor Sam Ko conduct prescreening measures on a passenger, right, who arrived from Sierra Leone at O'Hare International Airport's Terminal 5 in Chicago. Canada has joined Australia in suspending entry visas for people from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa in an attempt to keep the deadly disease away. Canada's Conservative government said Friday, Oct. 31, 2014, it is suspending visa applications for residents and nationals of countries with "widespread and persistent-intense transmission" of Ebola virus disease. (AP Photo/U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Melissa Maraj, File) **FILE**

U.S. ends Ebola screening at major airports

The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday it will no longer screen travelers for Ebola, now that West Africa is considered to be free of the virus. Published February 18, 2016

Surrounded by soldiers, a government health agent uses larvicide to kill Aedes aegypti mosquitos that spreads the Zika virus in the Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. The Aedes aegypti mosquito lives largely inside homes and can lay eggs in even a bottle-cap's worth of stagnant water. The dishes beneath potted plants are a favorite spot, as are abandoned tires, bird feeders and even the little puddles of rainwater that collect in the folds of plastic tarps. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

House GOP to Obama: Use leftover Ebola funds to fight Zika

Powerful House Republicans told the Obama administration Thursday to use leftover funds from the Ebola fight to address the spread of Zika virus, saying it is the best way to mount a swift response to the new epidemic and that Congress could replace the money later on, if needed. Published February 18, 2016

This is a Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, file photo of aedes aegypti mosquitoes in a mosquito cage at a laboratory in Cucuta, Colombia. The World Health Organization says it may be necessary to use controversial methods like genetically modified mosquitoes to wipe out the insects that are spreading the Zika virus across the Americas. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan, File)

World Bank extends $150 million for Zika fight

The World Bank Group announced Thursday it will extend $150 million in financing to Latin American and Caribbean nations affected by the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease that's been linked to a serious birth defect and is estimated to have only a "moderate" economic impact in the short term. Published February 18, 2016

In this April 30, 2015, photo, people gather in front of the Puerto Rico's Capitol building to protest against Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla's budget proposal for the next fiscal year in San Juan. Authorities announced on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, that Puerto Rico's worsening economic crisis has forced it to revise a fiscal reform plan to reflect a jump in the island's projected deficit and a steep drop in anticipated revenue. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File)

Puerto Rico’s health system requires changes, HHS says

The Obama administration urged Congress Thursday to expand Medicaid's reach in Puerto Rico, saying the investment would be an integral part of a broader bid to rescue the island from its debt crisis. Published February 18, 2016