Topic: Congress

North Korea vowed on Tuesday to bolster its nuclear deterrent in response to diplomatic pressure from Washington over a recent failed rocket launch. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been getting tougher on insider trading on Wall Street, but its potential target may be too wide, The New York Times reports.

Mitt Romney raised almost as much money as President Obama last month, taking in more than $40.1 million in fundraising efforts for his campaign and the Republican Party.

Rep. Dave Camp steps up pressure to force action on a rewrite of the tax code, which both parties agree has become overly complicated and inefficient.

Rancher and state Sen. Deb Fischer overcame two longtime state office holders to win the Nebraska GOP primary for the U.S.  Senate, the second Republican primary upset in a week after an insurgent ousted longtime Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar.

Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday vowed that the House will not wait until after November elections to find a way to avoid a year-end "fiscal cliff" – and that House Republicans will, again, refuse to raise the national debt limit, unless Congress offsets the hike with spending cuts the Christian Science Monitor reports.

The United States’ economy could shrink as much as 4 percentage points in the first half of 2013 if Congress fails to address the expiration of $600 billion worth of tax breaks and jobless benefits by the end of this year, according to Goldman Sachs.

President Barack Obama's two stalled nominees for the Federal Reserve are likely to clear a Senate procedural hurdle on Thursday, paving the way for anticipated confirmation, the chamber's leaders said on Tuesday.

The House speaker draws an election-year battle line, saying he would back an increase in the government's borrowing authority only if there were an equal amount of spending cuts.

Soon after lawmakers finished work on new financial regulations, JPMorgan lobbyists descended on Washington. Their goal was to obtain special breaks that would allow banks to make big bets in their portfolios. The New York Times reports.

Fitch Ratings cut the bank's credit rating one notch to A-plus from AA-minus late on Friday, citing its recent disclosure of a massive $2 billion trading loss, the result of a failed hedging strategy.

United States and British regulators have been in discussions with the bank for almost a month about the trading group that disclosed more than $2 billion in losses, The New York Times reports.

JPMorgan Chase’s $2 billion trading loss, which was disclosed on Thursday, could give supporters of tighter industry regulation a huge new piece of ammunition as they fight a last-ditch battle with the banks over new federal rules that may redefine how banks do business. The New York Times reports.

The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service said its loss widened to $3.2 billion in the first three months of 2012, and repeated that it will likely default on payments to the federal government unless Congress passes legislation offering some relief.

The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service will look into whittling down full-time staff but plans to maintain a part-time presence in rural areas, with access to retail lobbies and post office boxes.