Congress
Are Black Lawmakers Being Unfairly Targeted?
In September 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was working to make sure minority-owned banks didn’t get left behind. She arranged a meeting between Treasury Department officials and representatives for the National Bankers Association, an organization that represents minority-owned financial institutions. OneUnited, a Black-owned bank with offices in Los [...]
After 42 years in House, Charles Rangel might lose primary
With the help of a walker and staffers, Rep. Charles Rangel gingerly made his way recently to the foot of a statue of 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass near his Harlem power base and proclaimed himself fit and ready to fend off the Democratic challengers who are looking to end his four-decade run in Congress. “Being [...]
Charlie Rangel returns to Hill
After a nearly three-month absence, longtime Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel returned to Capitol Hill on Monday night and vowed to win another term in November. But the 81-year-old from New York, sidelined since February after injuring his back and then contracting a serious viral infection, faces a wave of new Democratic challengers in his Harlem-based [...]
Bid For Congress Was Obama’s Political Boot Camp
A dozen years ago, Barack Obama was a young man in a hurry. He had served less than two full terms in the Illinois state Senate. But campaign manager Dan Shomon says Obama was already aiming higher. “He had aspirations to be heard,” Shomon recalls. “And in Springfield, when you’re a state senator, you’re even [...]
Senate turns to partisan fight over student loans
The Senate is the newest arena in the election-year face-off over federal student loans, and both sides are starting out by pounding away at each other. With Congress returning from a weeklong spring recess, the Senate plans to vote Tuesday on whether to start debating a Democratic plan to keep college loan interest rates for [...]
