WASHINGTON -- A conservative think tank said Monday that immigration reform would be costly to taxpayers -- the latest in a growing, but contradictory, body of research on the costs and benefits of providing a path to citizenship for those living in this country without legal status.

The Heritage Foundation study swiftly became ammunition for Republicans who are arguing against the sweeping immigration reform measure proposed by a bipartisan group of senators.

Heritage said the immigrants would become a drain on taxpayers because they would receive $6.3 trillion more in government benefits over their lifetimes than they would pay in taxes. Many American citizens, including those born in the United States, already pose a similar drain on the government, the authors said, because of low income levels. They argued against adding immigrants to the mix.

The study provides a sharp contrast to a recent reportfrom another GOP-aligned economist, Doug Holtz-Eakin of American Action Forum, who...

WASHINGTON – A round of golf with the president of the United States is a rare treat, to be sure. So hitting a hole in one while in a foursome with the commander in chief quickly became the stuff of legend on Capitol Hill after word that Sen. Saxby Chambliss had done just that.

“This one’s pretty special,” the Georgia Republican told reporters after returning to the Senate for a late vote. It was his second hole in one.

Chambliss was part of a bipartisan outing with President Obama on Monday that included Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, a fellow Republican, and Mark Udall of Colorado, a Democrat. It was the latest example of Obama’s “charm offensive” with lawmakers as he works to advance a second-term agenda that includes tax reform and an immigration overhaul, among other concerns.

“Corker wants to check Ripley’s to see whether anybody’s ever had a hole in one with a sitting president. My guess is, as much as Eisenhower played...

WASHINGTON -- On the first green, President Obama put his arm around Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican.

He shared his golf cart with Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Republican from Georgia.

Obama hasn’t had much luck schmoozing GOP lawmakers in the past, but he gave it another go Monday afternoon by inviting two of the Senate’s best Republican golfers out for a round at Andrews Air Force Base.

The golf outing came days after a reporter asked Obama if he has “the juice” to get anything on his agenda through Congress, a question the president answered with a laugh and the word, “Golly.”

But after a working trip to Mexico and Costa Rica last week, Obama is gearing up to push his priorities.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s past

“He's having one-on-one conversations, group conversations, meals, golf games, hard-headed negotiations with legislators,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters. And he’s trying to “test...

The high-profile House race between former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch is going down to the wire as a dead heat, according to a Democratic poll released Sunday night.

The survey, by Public Policy Polling, shows Republican Sanford with a statistically insignificant 47%-46% advantage heading into Tuesday's special election.  Green Party candidate Eugene Platt, whose campaign symbol is a frog and whose slogan is "leap of faith," is getting 4%, according to the poll.

PPP, generally considered a reliable polling organization, conducts automated telephone surveys, rather than using live telephone operators.  An earlier PPP poll had given the Democrat a nine-percentage-point lead, but her campaign said those results did not match their internal surveys, which showed a much closer race.

Sanford's 2009 extramarital affair with an Argentine TV reporter -- whom he visited as his office said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail -- and his subsequent divorce...

WASHINGTON — Speaking to the graduating class of Ohio State University in Columbus on Sunday, President Obama called on the students to embrace the school’s motto, “education for citizenship,” and to press the government to act.

He encouraged students to work to narrow the income gap between the middle class and the wealthy, to improve education for children and protect them from gun violence, and to better the environment, among other things.

Most of all, the president told the new generation to persevere in the face of obstacles.

“We remember Michael Jordan’s six championships. We don’t remember his nearly 15,000 missed shots,” he said.

Obama pointed out that most of the graduating class was born as the Berlin Wall fell and grew up with the Internet and the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Of the school’s 10,000 graduating students, 130 have already served in the military and 50 will become commissioned officers in the...

The rule announced this week prohibits girls younger than 15 from buying the drug, known as Plan B, over the counter. The decision was made by the FDA and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Obama said, pushing back against women's groups that have suggested the White House has interjected its political concern about a touchy subject into the rule process.

Sebelius is comfortable with the ruling and so is he, Obama said Thursday at a news conference in Mexico City, where he is meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

PHOTOS: The White House Correspondents' dinner

This is the Obama administration’s second attempt to come up with new regulations for the sale of emergency contraception. Last year, the FDA chose 17 as the...

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton would be the runaway favorite among Democrats for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, a new Quinnipiac University poll shows, but activists at EMILY’s List, who have launched a campaign to elect the first female president, aren’t satisfied -- Clinton was the only female choice offered.

“It is a very nice list of Democratic male candidates,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of the group, which supports Democratic female candidates. “I’d like to today challenge any national polling organization to start testing some of these other great women, whether they are secretaries or they are senators. Because the truth is this is a wide-open race if Secretary Clinton doesn’t decide to do this.”

The Quinnipiac survey of 650 Democrats nationwide found that 65% said they would vote for Clinton in a presidential primary. If she were in the race, Vice President Joe Biden would be the second choice at 13%,...

WASHINGTON – President Obama praised Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker for her commitment to American workers on Thursday morning as he nominated her as his next Commerce secretary.

In a Rose Garden announcement, Obama listed Pritzker’s work on programs to promote job creation and job training as critical experience for the cabinet position.

“She knows from experience that no government program alone can take the place of a great entrepreneur,” Obama said. “She knows that what we can do is to give every business and every worker the best possible chance to succeed by making America a magnet for good jobs.”

PHOTOS: The White House Correspondents' dinner

Obama also named longtime friend Mike Froman to serve as the next U.S. trade representative. Froman is a former classmate of Obama’s from Harvard Law School and has been an advisor on global economic issues for the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration.

Pritzker is also an...

In the sort of appearance destined to fan speculation about her presidential aspirations in 2016, Hillary Rodham Clinton will speak in Beverly Hills next week at a gala hosted by the Pacific Council on International Policy.

The nonpartisan group, which focuses on international affairs, plans to honor Clinton on Wednesday night with its inaugural Warren Christopher Public Service Award. Christopher, who served as secretary of State under President Clinton, was involved in the council for many years and chaired its board of directors. He died in 2011.

Clinton is expected to speak broadly about foreign policy, with a particular focus on her work on women’s rights, entrepreneurship and empowerment, an event organizer said.

PHOTOS: The White House Correspondents' dinner

Los Angeles attorney Mickey Kantor, who served as President Clinton's Commerce secretary, and Robert H. Tuttle, who served as ambassador to Britain under President George W. Bush, are among the hosts of the Pacific...

Republicans in Congress, long skeptical of the value of some taxpayer-supported research, have taken aim at the National Science Foundation with a bill that seeks to limit the scope of its grants.

A draft bill by House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), which was obtained by Science magazine, would require the foundation's grants to “advance the national health, prosperity or welfare” or “secure the national defense.” The current National Science Foundation criteria are broader and allow the foundation to weigh the “intellectual merit” and “broader impacts” of the proposed research. 

The bill would also require that projects are not “duplicative” of other federally funded works.

Hints of this approach could be seen in a House Science Committee hearing last month, when presidential science advisor John Holdren, National Science Foundation acting director Cora Marrett and National Science Board Chairman Dan Arvizu...