Leading Democratic senators are demanding that the Obama administration explain its decision to continue restricting access to Plan B, the morning-after birth control pill, for those under 17.

On the brink of failure, members of a special deficit-cutting committee blamed each other Sunday for the intransigence that has gridlocked the panel in its quest to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over the coming decade.

After weeks of secret meetings, the 12-member deficit-cutting panel established under last summer's budget and debt deal appears no closer to a breakthrough than when talks began last month.

A report released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that the recession made a deep mark on Washington’s families. The number of hungry households in the state shot up nearly 100 percent from 2008 to the end of 2010; Washington state now ranks as the11th hungriest state in the nation.

Republicans and Democrats on the special supercommittee warned of a financial crisis threatening future generations as the congressional debt reduction panel kicked off its work Thursday with an imperative to slash the deficit and lift the sluggish economy.

Election results for Yakima, Kittitas and Benton Counties.

The 12 lawmakers appointed to a new congressional supercommittee charged with tackling the nation's fiscal problems have received millions in contributions from special interests with a direct stake in potential cuts to federal programs, an Associated Press analysis of federal campaign data has found.

Before even getting down to work, members of Congress' new debt-reduction supercommittee face pressures to rally behind partisan principles and to find even more savings than planned.

A conservative Texas Republican congressman has been chosen by House Speaker John Boehner to co-chair a powerful new committee tasked to find a bipartisan plan to slash the federal budget deficit by over $1 trillion.

(Washington, D.C.) –Tuesday, August 9th,

U.S. Senator Patty Murray will tour the SIGN (Surgical Implant Generation Network) manufacturing facility in Richland and discuss efforts to give local workers the skills needed to fill local jobs. In particular, Murray will discuss the Workforce...more Investment Act that she is fighting hard to pass and is critical to retraining workers, including those who have recently been laid off. She will also talk about her career pathways legislation that...

A plan to get the economy back on its feet will partly come from a lower unemployment rate -- which was part of the goal for Senator Patty Murray's visit to Yakima today