Washington: The landmark immigration bill, which offers a path to citizenship for more than 11 million - including over 260,000 Indians - undocumented immigrants and increasing H-1B visas today passed its first legislative test.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on the fifth day of its deliberations that included 300 amendments to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill - Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act - passed it by 13-5 votes.
The bill passed through the key Senate committee only after lawmakers reached a deal on H-1B visa expansion plan. The bill (No 744) now goes to the Senate for approval - which is expected to witness another round of negotiations and tough bargaining. It needs 60 votes to pass the 100-seat Senate.
Welcoming the passage of the legislation, US President Barack Obama said that it is largely consistent with the principles of commonsense reform he has proposed and meets the challenge of fixing the broken immigration system....
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12:16 PM, May 22, 2013
Washington: In a "major breakthrough", two influential American Senators on Tuesday reached an agreement on the contentious H-1B visa expansion plan, which Congressional aides said is a compromise between the demand of the tech-industry and the concerns of the labour unions. The deal reached between Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, covers eight amendments sponsored by the latter to make the process for granting H-1B visas more...
11:40 PM, May 21, 2013
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday stressed the need to build a climate favouring enterprise and investment while observing that the current economic downturn was only temporary. "I believe that we are facing only a temporary downturn that we should correct as quickly as possible...more needs to be done, especially for building a climate that is perceived to be friendly to enterprise," Singh said inaugurating the 8th Civil...
05:15 AM, Apr 22, 2013
North Korean nuclear weapons act as a deterrent to potential aggressors and as a foundation for its prosperity, the country's leader said in a speech delivered on Sunday and published in full by the country's KCNA news agency on Tuesday. ...
10:20 AM, Apr 02, 2013
A bipartisan group of senators is closer to a deal on immigration reform to resolve the problem of 11 million illegal immigrants, including some 260,000 Indians, according to a media report. The "Gang of Eight", as the group of four Democratic and four Republican senators negotiating the deal is called, had moved closer to an agreement on a visa programme for future low-skilled workers, Politico, an influential news site focusing...
11:40 AM, Mar 30, 2013
The Cabinet has given in-principle approval to a bill providing for time-bound delivery of services. This effectively means that bureaucrats will now have to face the music for delay in dispensing services like pensions, passports, caste certificates, ration cards, tax refunds and police procedures. ...
11:04 AM, Mar 07, 2013
Despite his opposition to it, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order to begin $85 billion in spending cuts, which he said could see growth cut by over one-half of one per cent and cost about 750,000 jobs. Obama signed the order reluctantly after he and the Congressional leadership those from the Republican party failed to arrive at a consensus on budgetary cuts and how to address the issue...
12:30 PM, Mar 02, 2013
Members of British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party urged him on Sunday to delay a parliamentary vote this week on gay marriage, warning the issue could weaken the party and harm his chances of re-election. Cameron has pledged his personal support for a gay marriage bill but many in his party and among his legislators oppose it on moral grounds and say the government has no mandate to push...
10:40 AM, Feb 04, 2013
Giving a strict message to bureaucracy, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday said that a long list of transfers was in the offing and once it was done it would not be cancelled. "A long list of transfers (of officers) are in the offing...once it is done transfer orders will not be changed," Yadav said while addressing party workers here. ...
07:25 PM, Jan 30, 2013
Stricter punishment for gang-rape, denial of bail for crime against women and lowering juvenile age limit to 16 are among the key recommendations made by top bureaucrats and police brass to the government. The conference of Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police held in New Delhi on Friday has suggested increase in punishment for gang rape, setting up of Fast Track Courts, National data base for sexual offenders and...
05:37 AM, Jan 07, 2013
The U.S. Congress approved a rare tax increase on Tuesday that will hit the nation's wealthiest households in a bipartisan budget deal that stops the world's largest economy from falling into a deep fiscal crisis and recession. ...
09:53 AM, Jan 02, 2013
A months-long battle over the US "fiscal cliff" headed to a close on Tuesday as the House of Representatives moved toward final approval of a bipartisan deal meant to prevent Washington from pushing the world's biggest economy into recession. ...
09:04 AM, Jan 02, 2013
Hours past a self-imposed deadline for action, the Senate passed legislation early New Year's Day to neutralise a fiscal cliff combination of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts that kicked in at midnight. The pre-dawn vote was 89-8. ...
12:43 PM, Jan 01, 2013
Racing against the clock, the White House reached agreement with congressional Republicans late on Monday on a deal to prevent across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts to government programs from taking effect at midnight, according to administration and Senate Democratic officials. ...
08:10 AM, Jan 01, 2013
President Barack Obama returned to the White House on Thursday from a vacation shortened by government gridlock while Democrats and Republicans snarled across a partisan divide and showed no sign of compromise to avoid year-end tax increases and spending cuts. ...
04:06 AM, Dec 28, 2012
Gun control laws in the United States have come under fire after the mass killing on Friday at a Connecticut school, putting renewed pressure on US President Barack Obama and other Democrats to address the easy availability of firearms. ...
01:11 PM, Dec 15, 2012
Sorry, fellas, but President Barack Obama's re-election makes it official: Women can overrule men at the ballot box. For the first time in research dating to 1952, a presidential candidate whom men chose decisively - Republican Mitt Romney - lost. More women voted for the other guy. ...
11:04 AM, Nov 25, 2012
Washington: Democrats in the US Senate increased their voting edge to 10 with a newly elected independent saying on Wednesday he will align with them. Senator-elect Angus King says he has decided to caucus with Democrats, ending months of speculation about which party he would vote with. The former Maine governor was elected last week to replace retiring Republican Sen Olympia Snowe, a prominent centrist. Republican and conservative groups spent...
10:42 PM, Nov 14, 2012
Chicago: On the day after the 2010 midterm election that swept Republicans into control of the House of Representatives and decreased Democrats' majority in the Senate, senior White House adviser David Axelrod had a message for President Barack Obama. "I think they just planted the seeds of your re-election," he told his boss. "The most strident voices had seized control of the Republican Party and you knew that the nominee...
03:30 AM, Nov 09, 2012
Washington: One day after a bruising, mixed-verdict election, President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner both pledged on Wednesday to seek a compromise to avert looming spending cuts and tax increases that threaten to plunge the economy back into recession. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev said "Of course" an agreement is possible. While all three men spoke in general terms, Boehner stressed that Republicans would be willing...
07:09 AM, Nov 08, 2012
