Tom Coburn

When city or county firefighters have a family event or unexpected obligation pop up on a workday, their solution is familiar to most shift workers: They find a colleague willing to trade hours. But for the roughly 10,000 firefighters employed by the...

President Barack Obama pleaded with Congress last week to remember the victims of December’s schoolhouse shootings in Connecticut and tighten the nation’s gun laws. "Shame on us if we’ve forgotten," he said. "Don’t get squishy."...

Since 2010, Republicans in more than a dozen states, including Texas, have enacted laws either making voting harder, especially for minorities, or locking in GOP election gains with gerrymandered congressional and legislative redistricting. That makes...

President Obama pleaded with Congress last week to remember the victims of December's schoolhouse shootings in Connecticut and tighten the nation's gun laws. "Shame on us if we've forgotten," he said. "Don't get squishy." But four months after the...

In my Wednesday column, I reported on the gathering signs that President Obama's push for significant new gun control legislation is dead in the water -- mostly because the National Rifle Assn. has mounted opposition more intense than the support for...

WASHINGTON -- Earlier this month, I wrote that the Senate was making quiet progress toward passing a gun control bill that would make background checks mandatory on buyers in almost all gun purchases, including most sales between individuals. And that,...

The proposition that entitlement curbs are the key to maintaining national solvency is widely accepted, though not by many congressional Democrats. President Barack Obama, however, has endorsed it on various occasions. And he could make it happen. If he...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved legislation Wednesday to lock in $85 billion in widely decried spending cuts aimed at restraining soaring federal deficits — and to avoid a government shutdown just a week away. President Barack Obama's...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are taking an aggressive stance in their drive to curb firearms, announcing that the gun control legislation the Senate debates next month will include expanded federal background checks for gun purchasers. Senate...

While hundreds of thousands of federal workers brace for unpaid furloughs starting next month, Uncle Sam is still looking to hire. In one week alone this month, nearly 2,200 job listings available to the public were posted on USAJobs.gov, the federal...

WASHINGTON – Step aside, stately Senate. Say hello to vote-a-rama. On Friday, the usually lonely floor of the U.S. Senate was thrown open for that most rare of occurrences – a free-for-all frenzy of amendment-making, which is required for...

WASHINGTON – A Republican-led attempt to reopen the White House to tours was defeated largely along party lines Wednesday in the Senate. Senators voted 45 to 54 on the measure from Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who was seeking to...