Debbie Stabenow

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Tuesday to keep a $400 million annual cut — or roughly a half of 1 percent — to the food stamp program as part of a major five-year farm bill. Food stamps now cost almost $80 billion annually and are...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House and Senate Agriculture Committees laid the groundwork this week for reducing the size of the federal food stamp program, approving farm bills that would shrink food aid and alter the way people qualify for it. The two...

WASHINGTON - Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said April 25 that she plans to hold a markup of a new farm bill in May, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., signaled that he intends to bring it to the Senate floor...

For decades, Americans have been told of the evils of importing energy. It sends our money abroad, the argument goes, makes us vulnerable to supply disruptions, strengthens our enemies and weakens the economy. Now, though, the tide is turning....

Ducks Unlimited recently announced the winners of the 2013 Wetland Conservation Achievement Awards during its 78th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Arlington, Va.  This year's recipient in the Communications category was...

A proposed definition of the term “rural” submitted by the Department of Agriculture to Congress last month could have broad implications for small towns across America - and not everyone is happy about it. The report - delivered two and one-half years...

WASHINGTON -- Michigan Democrat Carl Levin announced Thursday that he would not run for reelection in 2014, adding to an exodus of experience in the chamber.  Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is the sixth sitting senator to decide...

Washington, D.C. - Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee, recently urged U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to...

DETROIT (AP) — Eager for the 2014 election, Michigan Democrats dumped their long-time party leader Saturday in favor of a challenger who said Republicans' complete control in Lansing must no longer stand. Lon Johnson won when incumbent Mark...

PETOSKEY, Mich. — Congress is gearing up for another down-to-the-wire budget crisis this week with mandatory $1.2 trillion cuts to governmental spending set to take effect March 1. But, despite being discouraged, second-term Congressman Dan...

Hollywood director David O. Russell took a meeting this week to talk about a movie. But the man in the room with him wasn't a studio executive or an actor hoping for a role — he was Vice President Joe Biden. Russell met Biden and spoke on the...

The last time David O. Russell went to the White House, to screen “Three Kings” for Bill Clinton in 1999, he brought his 5-year-old son Matthew. Russell didn’t fully know it then, but a world  of struggle loomed for the boy, who grappled...