In the News

About an hour and a half into this morning's Energy and Commerce hearing, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) showed off a slide of code he said was from the HealthCare.gov site, and which he believed was a violation of HIPAA heath privacy rules.

The Energy and Commerce Committee is now a bit more than two hours into its hearing on HealthCare.gov. If you've missed it, this tweet pretty much sums up the proceedings:

WASHINGTON — Federal officials did not fully test the online health insurance marketplace until two weeks before it opened to the public on Oct. 1, contractors told Congress on Thursday.

While individual components of the system were tested earlier, they said, the government did not conduct "end-to-end-testing" of the system until late September.

The Interior Department faces competing Capitol Hill pressures over how often it should allow oil-and-gas drillers to avoid disclosure of "fracking" chemicals by claiming they're trade secrets.

For years, hydroelectric power development has languished under the burden of stereotype: Its potential is tapped out. It's detrimental to the environment. It's not "real" renewable energy.

Imagine this as a scenario for bonding and team-building among members of Congress: a night at a baseball game. In its most extreme iteration, the full House would convene at Nationals Park, be immediately adjourned, and then kick back to eat hot dogs and peanuts, sip beer or lemonade, watch the game, and, most of all, get to know one another better.

Rep. Degette visits Tennyson Center for Children to discuss proposed cuts to critical programs

June 5, 2013