WASHINGTON -- Legislation to approve $1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine and impose sanctions against Russia cleared a key Senate hurdle Monday, but Congress remained locked in a partisan fight over the details of the package.

By a vote of 78-17, the measure advanced after overcoming the threat of a GOP filibuster and objections from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other tea party-aligned conservatives.

But the Senate package still faces opposition in the House, where Republicans -- with backing from key Democrats -- are crafting their own version.

The full Senate is expected to pass its bill later in the week.

Lawmakers, who returned Monday from a weeklong recess, have been struggling to set aside partisan squabbles to show a unified front following Russian President Vladimir Putin's annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

Both Republicans and Democrats largely agree with President Obama's broad goals of providing Ukraine up to $1 billion in loan guarantees and penalizing the Russians...

Two potential 2016 presidential rivals, Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, did not quite share the stage at an education conference in Texas on Monday. But they both spoke about a common goal: expanding the accessibility and affordability of higher education at home and throughout the world.

The former Florida governor, who organized the Dallas conference on the globalization of higher education with former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, spoke only briefly Monday morning – serving in more of an emcee role introducing guests.

But Clinton spoke at length, saying she worried “that we are closing the doors to higher education in our own country.” She cited the challenges faced by 6 million Americans between 16 and 24 who are out of work and school.

“In many countries around the world, the numbers are even higher,” she said. “One of the reasons for unrest and dissatisfaction are the lack of jobs, the lack of incomes to support a family, to create a ladder of...

As the 2016 Republican hopefuls quietly court donors this year, few have as much attraction as billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who, along with wife Miriam, gave more than $92 million to campaign groups in 2012.

That's why some of the top potential contenders for the presidential nomination plan to head to Las Vegas late this week to court Adelson at a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition, for which he provides much of the money and serves as a member of the board.

Jeb Bush, who plans to make a decision about a presidential run by early next year, will get top billing as the featured speaker Thursday night at a private VIP dinner in the hangar that houses Adelson’s fleet.

On Saturday, three other prominent hopefuls -- Govs. Chris Christieof New Jersey, John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin -- will address the broader gathering at Adelson’s hotel, the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. The Republican National Committee’s data guru, Andy...

WASHINGTON — As the Senate prepares to take up an aid package for Ukraine this week, congressional Republicans on Sunday called for stronger sanctions against Moscow amid heightened concerns about a Russian troop movements.

“It's deeply concerning to see the Russian troop buildup along the border,” White House deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union.”'

“It creates the potential for incidents, for instability,'' he continued. “It's likely that what they’re trying to do is intimidate the Ukrainians. It's possible that they're preparing to move in.”

President Obama is due to meet in Europe this week with leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations, minus Russia, to consider additional actions in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to annex Crimea.

Blinken defended the sanctions implemented so far. “What we’re seeing every single day is Russia getting...

When John McCain was running for president in 2008, he often spoke warmly of his friendship with Hillary Rodham Clinton as an illustration of his ability to work across the political aisle. They had traveled the world together as fellow senators — from the Arctic to Estonia — developing a mutual respect that often seemed to transcend party squabbles.

At times, it almost seemed that they would have preferred squaring off against one another rather than Barack Obama. In the heat of the 2008 primary, Clinton argued that she and McCain had “a lifetime of experience” that they could bring to the White House, while Obama had “a speech” he delivered in 2002.

Six years later -- even with all the partisan bickering over the attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi -- that warmth between McCain and the Clintons appears to have survived. It was evident at the opening session of the youth-focused conference known as the Clinton Global Initiative University...

WASHINGTON -- The crisis in Crimea tops the agenda when Congress resumes next week, with lawmakers expected to consider measures to sanction Russia and expedite up to $1 billion in loans to the new government in Ukraine.

Senators are set to vote Monday to advance a bipartisan package of sanctions and loans that has run into resistance with some Republicans.

The measure is expected to clear the Senate's 60-vote hurdle to overcome a filibuster, despite objections from some GOP senators to provisions backed by the White House that would also expand loan authority at the International Monetary Fund. House Republicans also oppose using dormant Pentagon funds to pay the costs.

As an alternative to the Senate's approach, the House, which has already approved the loan package, may consider separate legislation to give President Obama authority to impose broader sanctions on Russian individuals involved in the takeover of Ukraine's Crimea region.

Despite divisions within the GOP, Congress is...

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress who were hit Thursday with sanctions by Russia celebrated their standing as a badge of honor, pledging to continue pressing for Ukraine from their spot on President Vladimir Putin's enemies list.

"I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off," quipped Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who just returned from leading a group of lawmakers to Ukraine with Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.).

House Speaker John A. Boehner's spokesman said the Ohio Republican was "proud to be included on the list of those willing to stand against Putin's aggression."

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was meeting with American allies in Brussels, said that "if standing up for the Ukrainian people, their freedom, their hard-earned democracy and their sovereignty means I'm sanctioned by Putin, so be it." 

The retaliatory move barring several American leaders from entering Russia came after the U.S. imposed another round of...

WASHINGTON -- As the deadline approaches for enrolling in Obamacare health coverage this year, younger Americans have warmed somewhat to the president’s healthcare law, but Latinos remain closely split over it.

Those findings from a large-scale Pew Research Center survey provide a glimpse at two groups that are major targets of the Obama administration’s push to get people to sign up before the March 31 deadline.

The administration had originally hoped to get about 7 million people to sign up for coverage in the first year but lowered its expectations after the disastrous rollout last fall of the HealthCare.gov website. Enrollments now appear to be on track to end up somewhat more than 6 million.

Opinion about the Affordable Care Act soured among Latinos during the fall and has not recovered, the new Pew poll found. Latinos in the current survey were evenly divided, with 47% approving of the law and 47% disapproving.

By contrast, Americans younger than 30, who also grew...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama teased Ellen DeGeneres about the selfie she took at the Oscars and confessed to leaving his socks and shoes lying around while the first lady is out of town, but before the end of his Thursday appearance on the talk show he got to put in a plug for the Affordable Care Act.

That’s Obama's deal with popular media these days as the president enlists help in his effort to boost healthcare sign-up numbers before the March 31 enrollment deadline.

In recent days, Obama has filled out his March Madness brackets on ESPN, joked around with comedian Zach Galifianakis on “Between Two Ferns” and defended his “mom jeans” on-air with radio host Ryan Seacrest -- all with the agreement that he’d get a moment to pitch his healthcare plan.

The White House is aiming to bring young consumers into the fold, and not just because they represent roughly 40% of the uninsured population.

Young participants are more likely to pay into the system...

BERKELEY -- Sen. Rand Paul, one of the foremost critics of the government’s domestic spying program, came to the birthplace of the free-speech movement Wednesday to deliver a searing indictment of the intelligence community and call for a sweeping congressional investigation of its activities.

Speaking just off the UC Berkeley campus, the Kentucky Republican depicted an overweening federal government prying into the most intimate reaches of people’s lives, from the books they purchase to the medications they take for their ills.

“I say what you read or what you send in your email or your text messages is none of their damn business,” Paul said to whoops and applause from the friendly, largely youthful crowd of several hundred.

Upon returning to Washington, Paul said, he would call for creating a bipartisan committee, modeled after one that scrutinized CIA abuses in the 1970s, to conduct an unfettered examination of the country’s spy agencies. “It...

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan bill to extend unemployment insurance for more than 2 million jobless Americans is poised to clear the Senate next week, but House Speaker John A. Boehner is raising new concerns that it could be costly for states to administer and could lead to fraud.

Boehner's objections echo warnings from the National Assn. of State Workforce Agencies, which has repeatedly urged Congress not to attach cumbersome new eligibility requirements. States have "antiquated" computer systems that cannot quickly implement new rules, the group warned Wednesday, and may end up giving aid to those who are ineligible.

The potential problems "are cause for serious concern," Boehner said, urging the Senate to shelve the legislation. "The bill is also simply unworkable."

Ten senators broke a stalemate to reach the bipartisan accord on the jobless aid package -- primarily by attaching Republican-led initiatives, such as prohibiting aid to millionaires. But the state workforce...