Capitol Ideas

When the U.S. House voted a few weeks ago on a controversial amendment to ban the Pentagon from paying for sex-reassignment surgeries, the Defense Department had asked Congress to hold off until officials finished a review of military policy toward transgender individuals that was expected to be completed by December.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and all but two of his fellow Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to begin debate on a House-approved bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

What that health care bill will look like at the end of the Senate debate remains unclear.

A month after announcing his campaign to run in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, Republican John Chrin had $350,000 in his campaign coffers, including $300,000 from his personal funds, according to a new campaign finance report released to The Morning Call.

This year, there was no rain, no election looming in the background — just two U.S. senators from Pennsylvania slugging it out on the softball field.

At least for a couple of innings, anyway. After that, they cheered and quipped for reporters as their staffers, past and present, faced off in the seventh time.

The offices of Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Republican U.S. Rep.

After North Korea’s latest missile test, Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is joining with Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland in calling to increase financial pressure on the Asian nation.

The two senators are putting forward legislation, modeled on sanctions imposed against Iran, to penalize banks and other financial institutions that do business with the North Korean regime.

Revisions to the Senate GOP health care bill are expected to keep in place a tax on investment income, which Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey calls “a bad idea” but one that’s unlikely to sway him into the “no” category.