By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - The Republican underdog fighting for Massachusetts' open U.S. Senate seat in a Tuesday debate attacked his rival, a veteran Democratic congressman, over recently revealed programs in which federal agencies track Americans' use of phones and the Internet. Republican Gabriel Gomez, who is trailing in polls ahead of next week's election, said that if the White House were in his party's hands, rival Edward Markey would be far less tolerant of the National Security Agency monitoring the communications of U.S. citizens in programs aimed at preventing attacks. ... … [Read more...]

By Rachelle Younglai WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation severely restricting abortions, a move that could alienate women from the conservative party. The bill would ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization occurs, a time when a fetus begins to feel pain, Republicans said. The legislation makes exceptions for victims of rape and incest as long as they first report the crime to authorities. The bill has no chance of becoming law with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House threatening to veto it. ... … [Read more...]

Today, the independent Congressional Budget Office released its score of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill, providing even more evidence that commonsense immigration reform is good for the budget and good for economic growth. CBO estimates that fixing our broken immigration system will reduce federal deficits by about $200 billion over the next 10 years, and about $700 billion in the second decade. The CBO analysis made clear that the additional taxes paid by new and legalizing immigrants would not only offset any new spending, but would be substantial enough to reduce the deficit over the 20-year window. A significant portion of the new taxes would be paid by previously undocumented immigrants. While many of these workers already pay federal taxes, millions more will pay … [Read more...]

By Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House-backed bill to overhaul the U.S. immigration system got a boost on Tuesday when the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that the measure would cut federal budget deficits and boost the U.S. economy. The CBO analysis came as the Senate fended off amendments by the bill's opponents that would have delayed for an unspecified amount of time provisions to legalize up to 11 million undocumented immigrants and allow them to gain citizenship within 13 years. ... … [Read more...]

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not committed to a run for president in 2016 but on Tuesday she picked up an endorsement from Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, who announced she is supporting a group encouraging Clinton to run for the White House again. McCaskill, who in 2008 backed Barack Obama over Clinton in the Democratic primaries, became the first member of Congress to announce her support for Clinton. ... … [Read more...]