The Obama administration's first year of efforts to improve access to government information has yielded mixed results, according to an audit of Freedom of Information Act requests set to be released Monday. The report by the National Security Archive at George Washington University comes at the...

One year after President Obama announced he was lifting his predecessor's controversial restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, some scientists are complaining that so far the new policy is -- ironically -- more of a burden than a boon to their work.

In the fight over how to overhaul the nation's financial regulatory system, one of the key power struggles has pitted the states -- in particular a core group of state attorneys general -- against federal regulators, financial lobbyists and some members of Congress.

And now, the winner of the National Security Archive's Sixth Annual Rosemary Award, named for President Richard M. Nixon 's secretary, Rose Mary Woods , whose unlikely stretch allegedly erased 18 1/2 minutes of a Watergate tape.

The list, as stated on the FBI's Web site , was the byproduct of a 1949 International News Service reporter's question: Who were the "toughest guys" the FBI was pursuing?

Washington's biggest lobbying firm is on the verge of getting even bigger. Patton Boggs LLP, which rang up nearly $40 million in lobbying last year, is in negotiations to purchase the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, according to sources familiar with the talks.

The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, which may soon overtake its counterpart in Iraq as the world's biggest diplomatic mission, is overworked, underappreciated and struggling to meet the demands placed on it by President Obama's new strategy, according to the State Department's inspector general.

Filegate, one of the many "-gates" of the Clinton administration, looks to be over -- after a 14-year run. It began after congressional Republicans found out in 1996 that the Clinton White House had sought the FBI file of Billy Ray Dale, who was fired as head of the White House travel office in the...

Harrison Schmitt's credentials as a space policy analyst include several days of walking on the moon. The Apollo 17 astronaut, who is also a former U.S. senator, is aghast at what President Obama is doing to the space program.

President Obama nominated retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert A. Harding on Monday to lead the Transportation Security Administration, selecting someone unknown to the aviation industry and federal unions to lead one of the government's most visible agencies.

Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Monday introduced a bill to slash the number of presidential political appointees, both full-time and part-time, from about 3,500 to 2,000 employees.

"The American people have a right to be outraged that we're playing this kind of game with contracting. It's wrong. It's flat wrong."

House members will resume discussions next week about federal building security in the wake of last week's shooting at the Pentagon -- the latest attack on federal facilities across the country.

Liberals in the House, who have spent much of the past year complaining that other congressional Democrats and the White House are insufficiently progressive, will get a chance this week to vent about one of their biggest concerns: the war in Afghanistan.

Research physicist Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Here's the kind of question that might violate the rules you learned about proper dinner conversation: Does President Obama's next Supreme Court nominee need to be a Protestant?

President Obama has the chance during his first term to appoint leaders for each of the federal agencies that oversee banks, an important opportunity to reshape the government's approach to regulation even as the White House struggles to push structural reforms through the Senate.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a congressional hearing Feb. 25 that she would try to resolve a trade problem that has blocked shipment of nine huge containers -- that's nearly 400,000 pounds -- of frozen Asian carp fillets from entering Israel. Carp is an essential ingredient in g...