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    Sabrina Siddiqui

    Sabrina Siddiqui

    Politics reporter, The Huffington Post

  • House Republicans Call One-Week Timeout On DHS Shutdown Drama

    The House of Representatives voted Friday night to avert a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, so they can come back and have the same fight in a week. The vote was the result of a divide between Republicans in the House and Senate over whether to surrender now or hold out for one more week. The GOP had been hoping to use the DHS funding battle to block President Barack Obama's latest executive actions on immigration.

  • House Can't Even Agree To Fund DHS For 3 Weeks

    A House Republican effort to punt on Department of Homeland Security funding failed on the floor Friday, leaving the GOP leadership in a bind on whether to throw in the towel and pass a budget bill without immigration measures. It's back to the drawing board with only hours to go until a DHS shutdown. The vote failed 203 to 224, an embarrassing loss after Republican leadership had predicted they had the votes to get the three-week continuing resolution through.

  • Senate Passes DHS Funding As House GOP Kicks Can Down The Road

    The Senate approved funding for the Department of Homeland Security on Friday morning, less than 24 hours before a shutdown. At the same time as the Senate approved its bill, House Republicans proceeded with a bill that would fund DHS for three weeks, so they can continue to push the Senate to cooperate with their efforts to gut President Barack Obama's immigration policies as part of a longer-term bill for the department. The Senate bill, which passed 68 to 31, does not have measures related to immigration.

  • House Republicans Not Ready To Cave On DHS Funding

    House Republicans inched closer to embracing a stopgap measure to prevent a Department of Homeland Security shutdown on Thursday, a day before the agency runs out of money. GOP leaders huddled with their conference behind closed doors to gauge support for a three-week continuing resolution that would keep DHS running, a day after the Senate intensified pressure on the lower chamber by preparing to vote on a "clean" DHS funding bill. House members leaving the meeting expressed disappointment in Senate Republicans, who on Wednesday reached a deal with Democrats to advance a measure that would fund DHS absent any riders aimed at blocking President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration.

  • Senate Conservatives Say They Won't Hold Up DHS Funding

    Another potential roadblock to the Senate quickly passing funding for the Department of Homeland Security was cleared Thursday. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), one of the most adamant opponents of President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, indicated he is not planning to hold up a vote on a DHS bill that doesn't include measures to end the president's policies, even though he opposes the plan. "I think it's appropriate to move forward with a bill," he told reporters.

  • Senate Democrats Agree To GOP Plan To Fund Department Of Homeland Security

    The Senate made its first move on Wednesday to prevent a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, with just two days remaining until the agency runs out of money. The upper chamber voted 98-2 on a procedural hurdle that would pave the way for a "clean" funding bill to be brought to the floor, following a deal announced by Senate Democratic leaders earlier in the day. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) voted against moving forward with the agreement, which would fund DHS without any measures to block President Barack Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration.

  • Gun Violence Is A Public Health Crisis, Top Medical Groups Say

    Seven medical groups representing most U.S. physicians are seeking to recast gun-related casualties as a public health crisis, pointing to data that blames firearms for 33,000 U.S. deaths and more than double that many injuries in 2013. The appeal is made in an editorial and a new study, both published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and echoes a similar call to physicians two years ago that the groups say went largely unheeded due to political forces. This time, the medical societies outline recommendations to curtail gun violence, such as eliminating "gag orders" that bar physicians from discussing gun ownership with patients, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and advancing universal background checks.

  • Scott Walker Still Doesn't Want To Say A Whole Lot About Evolution

    Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) sought to clarify his stance on evolution Tuesday following a dust-up last week over his refusal to discuss the issue. During an appearance on Fox News, Walker told host Megyn Kelly that he did not regret his decision to punt when a reporter asked if he believed in evolution. Walker added that the question was not one that politicians should be involved with, a response that sparked national headlines back home where he is regarded as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016.

  • George Miller Spent 40 Years In Congress. How Long Will His Legacy Last Without Him?

    On a balmy Saturday morning in September, George Miller is seated in the backyard of his Martinez, California, home, sipping herbal tea and enjoying a taste of life to come. Miller’s ranch-style house is tucked away in the hills about an hour northeast of San Francisco. It has been home to Miller and his wife, Cynthia, since his early days as a member of Congress.

  • Keith Ellison Doesn't Buy That Chapel Hill Muslims Were Killed Over A Parking Space

    Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) expressed doubts on Thursday about the Chapel Hill Police Department's statement that the fatal shooting of three young Muslims earlier in the week was over a parking space. Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, told CNN that he was "confident" there is more to the story of why Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were killed.

  • Bobby Jindal Slams Left For Being 'Obsessed' With Race

    Asked about the dustup on Monday, Jindal said it was "nonsense" and urged his critics to debate his ideas, not the color of his skin. "I think that this whole thing is silly. I think the left is obsessed with race," Jindal said at a breakfast event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

  • So That Happened: Did Obama Forget That The GOP Runs Congress?

    Send us an electronic communication at sothathappened@huffingtonpost.com. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Meanwhile, the Obama budget is out, and from the looks of it, it seems the president wants to swing for the fences on infrastructure, early childhood care and increased federal spending.

  • Nonpartisan Mayors Warns Of Domestic Threat If DHS Runs Out Of Money

    With just weeks remaining before the Department of Homeland Security runs out of money, a nonpartisan coalition of mayors is calling on the United States Senate to pass a "clean" funding bill for the remainder of the fiscal year. The U.S. Conference of Mayors penned a letter on Wednesday asking the heads of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Homeland Security to "expeditiously" fund the department so that it can be fully functioning at a time of great risk. The letter, which was provided to The Huffington Post, invokes recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Ottawa and Sydney to underscore the risk posed by the current showdown over DHS funding.

  • Democrats Push Campus Sexual Assault Prevention Bill Recommended By UVA Students

    As universities and colleges face heightened scrutiny over their handling of campus rape, two Democratic senators want to expand public school health education to require high schoolers to learn about sexual assault. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), would require that health education in public secondary schools include learning on "safe relationship behavior" aimed at preventing sexual assault, domestic violence and dating violence. Under current federal law, health and sex education classes needn't include sexual assault prevention.

  • So, That Happened: Congress Delivered Its State Of Disarray

    In last week's speech, the most newsworthy moment came when the president emphasized the importance of what he called "middle-class economics." The quick, hot take was that by doing so, Obama was opening a new round of combat with Republicans.

  • One Word Was Missing From Obama's State Of The Union Address: Guns

    One word was noticeably missing from President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday: guns. In a sign that the sun has set on Obama's gun control agenda, the president's prepared remarks contained no mention of the issue. Two years after the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the absence of guns from Obama's speech marked a departure from previous years, in which the president urged Congress to pass legislation aimed at reducing gun violence in America.

  • Bollywood Superstar Turns To Mental Health Advocacy After Battling Depression

    In the eyes of the public, Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone has spent the last two years at the top of her career. In a piece narrated to Hindustan Times, the actress opened up about struggling to get out of bed, seeking help and the urgency of addressing mental health in India. It was only after opening up to her mother, Padukone added, that she sought professional help.

  • John Boehner Retains Position As House Speaker Despite Some GOP Opposition

    The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to once again make John Boehner its speaker, handing the Ohio Republican the gavel for the third time despite a late challenge by dissatisfied members of his own party. In the final tally, Boehner received the votes of 216 House members, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) got 164 votes. Boehner's GOP caucus had unanimously chosen him as speaker just after November's elections.

  • Obama Defends Historic Deal With Cuba

    President Barack Obama on Friday defended his historic deal with Cuba and hit back at critics who said the decision overlooked the Castro regime's record on human rights. "What I know deep in my bones is that when you have done the same thing for 50 years and nothing has changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome," Obama said during a televised news conference. Earlier this week, Obama announced the most significant shift in U.S. policy toward Cuba in decades, calling for a normalization of relations between the two countries.

  • How The NRA Lost Its Battle To Defeat Obama's Surgeon General Nominee

    Nearly a year after the Senate failed to expand gun background checks as a response to the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, it looked as though the National Rifle Association had claimed another scalp. Dr. Vivek Murthy, President Barack Obama's pick for surgeon general, had been approved by a Senate committee in late February, only to be engulfed in controversy when a 2012 tweet was uncovered in which he declared guns a "health-care" issue. Several Senate Democrats facing tough re-election battles in 2014 balked at their president's nominee.