WASHINGTON — President Obama is expected to nominate Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator and Vietnam veteran, to be secretary of Defense, officials said, setting up a confirmation battle with lawmakers and interest groups critical of his views on Israel and Iran.

White House officials said Friday afternoon that the president hadn’t formally offered the job to Hagel, but others familiar with the process said that the announcement could come as soon as Monday

By nominating a Republican to run the Defene Department, Obama gives his second-term national security team a bipartisan cast at a time when the White House is rapidly winding down the war in Afghanistan and planning for even deeper cuts in the defense budget.

But the choice also sets the stage for a possibly difficult confirmation fight over Hagel with Israel’s defenders in Washington, some of whom mounted a public campaign to head off his nomination in recent weeks, criticizing Hagel for his past comments...

Vice President Joe Biden, serving as president of the Senate, presided over the counting of Electoral College votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the sparsely attended session. The vote count  lacked the history of 2009, when Obama became the first black president, or the controversies of 2001 and 2005, when some lawmakers protested contested votes in Florida and Ohio, respectively.

As expected, the Obama-Biden ticket received 332 votes for president and vice president, well in excess of the 270 needed to win. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) received 206 votes. There were no “faithless electors,” or members of the Electoral College who cast votes for a different candidate than the one who had won in his or her state.

Friday’s...

The Ohio Republican doubled-down on his insistence that there must be at least a dollar-per-dollar match between spending reductions and continued borrowing.

“With the cliff behind us, the focus turns to spending,” Boehner said, according to a source in the room who requested anonymity to discuss the private meeting. “The president says he isn’t going to have a debate with us over the debt ceiling. He also says he’s not going to cut spending along with the debt limit hike.”

PHOTOS: What to look forward to in politics for 2013

On the heels of the divisive “fiscal cliff” battle over the automatic tax increases and spending cuts that briefly went into effect at the beginning...

WASHINGTON -- John A. Boehner will keep his job as House speaker for a second term, as Republicans rallied behind their leader despite speculation that hard-line conservatives would abandon him.

With 426 votes cast in a roll call of the new 113th Congress, 220 Republicans voted to retain Boehner as their leader. The Ohio Republican needed at least 217 votes to pull through.

Nine Republicans, largely newly sworn-in freshmen, voted for alternatives to Boehner. Outgoing Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) received two votes, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who has recently disagreed with Boehner over the "fiscal cliff" and a Superstorm Sandy aid package, received three. Cantor voted for Boehner.

Newly elected Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.); David Walker, the former comptroller general and a noted budget hawk; and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also received votes.

PHOTOS: Scenes from the fiscal cliff

Boehner has been under fire recently  for his acceptance of the Senate's fiscal cliff deal,...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration Thursday cleared a final group of states to open their own health insurance exchanges this fall, advancing a key goal of the 2010 healthcare law to provide Americans with new options to shop for health coverage.

The federal approvals announced for California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Vermont and Utah mean that 19 states and the District of Columbia are on track operate their own exchanges this year.

Exchanges in the remaining states will be run by the federal government or by a state-federal partnership.

Administration officials and many healthcare experts had hoped that each state would operate an exchange, a cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act designed to allow consumers who don’t get health benefits at work to comparison shop for health plans, much as they now buy airplane tickets.

PHOTOS: Scenes from the 'fiscal cliff'

Health plans in these exchanges will have to meet new minimum standards. And consumers who make less...

WASHINGTON – With the “fiscal cliff” averted despite the failure to solve key budget issues, the 112th Congress will close out its widely criticized term and the 113th Congress will be sworn in Thursday.

The outgoing Congress was panned by pundits and ordinary citizens alike, with approval ratings as low as 12%, and it earned the title of “least productive” with just 237 bills passed into law (compared with 385 and 456 in the preceding two Congresses). But 95% of members who made it to the ballot retained their seats.

Democrats gained slight ground in both houses in the 2012 election, though control of both remained in the same hands: Democrats still run the Senate and Republicans the House.

The GOP leads, 234 representatives to 201, in the House, having lost eight seats to Democrats.

PHOTOS: Scenes from the fiscal cliff

And in the Senate, Democrats lead, 55-45, counting independent Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, who will caucus...

HONOLULU -- Passing legislation to avoid the "fiscal cliff" -- and undo income tax increases for most Americans -- was hardly automatic. But signing the bill was.

President Obama on Wednesday authorized the use of the "autopen" to enact H.R. 8, the compromise bill approved by lawmakers in the 11th hour after a long stalemate to avert the set of tax increases and budget cuts known as the fiscal cliff.

House aides said the American Taxpayer Relief Act was delivered to the White House on Wednesday afternoon, well after the president had left to resume his holiday vacation in his native state of Hawaii.

Rather than having the bill delivered to him, delaying its enactment, Obama directed his office to affix his signature using a mechanical device. A July 2005 memo from the Justice Department states that a president "need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law."

PHOTOS: Scenes from the...

WASHINGTON – Enraged over Congress' failure to approve disaster relief for victims of Superstorm Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey unloaded Wednesday on House Speaker John A. Boehner and Republican lawmakers in Washington for putting "palace intrigue" ahead of their official responsibilities.

Washington politicians "will say whatever they have to say to get through the day," Christie said, adding that, as a governor, he had "actual responsibilities" -- "unlike people in Congress."

Christie, a potential 2016 GOP presidential contender, reserved his most blistering words for the Republican House speaker.  He described Boehner, variously, as selfish, duplicitous and gutless for reversing course at the last minute on Tuesday night and refusing to allow a vote on a $60-billion aid package before the current Congress adjourned.

PHOTOS: Scenes from the fiscal cliff

Christie said that as a result of "the speaker’s irresponsible action," there will be further delay in federal...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration eased the way Wednesday for illegal immigrants who are immediate relatives of American citizens to apply for permanent residency, a change that could affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants unlawfully in the U.S.

A new rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security aims to reduce the time illegal immigrants are separated from their American families while seeking legal status, immigration officials said.

Beginning March 4, when the changes go into effect, illegal immigrants who can demonstrate that time apart from an American spouse, child or parent would create “extreme hardship,” can start the application process for a legal visa without leaving the U.S. 

Once approved, applicants would be required to leave the U.S. briefly in order to return to their native country and pick up their visa.

PHOTOS: Notable moments of the 2012 presidential election

The change is the latest move by the administration...

WASHINGTON -- Even as he claimed victory and praised leaders for walking back from the edge of economic danger,  President Obama looked ahead to his next round of sparring with Republicans in Congress over deficits, taxes and government spending.

Speaking to reporters in the White House moments after the House passed a deal averting the so-called fiscal cliff, Obama declared his intention to keep chipping away at deficit reduction efforts.

"I think we all recognize that this law is just one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden opportunity for everybody," Obama said late Tuesday night. "The fact is that the deficit is still too high, and we're still investing too little in the things we need for the economy to grow as fast as it should."

The House passed the tax deal, 257-167, winning more support from the chamber’s Democrats than the majority Republicans. The measure keeps income taxes from resetting to higher rates for 99% of American taxpayers, while...

WASHINGTON — The House gave final approval Tuesday night to a bill to rescind tax increases for the vast majority of Americans, but only after a day of closed-door debate among Republicans, who were forced to allow a vote on a compromise many in their party disdained.

The final tally, 257 to 167, included most of the chamber’s Democrats and fewer than half of the Republican majority.

The deal, largely negotiated by Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), had passed the Senate early Tuesday morning. It blocked income tax hikes for roughly 99% of households, but allowed rates to rise for those with incomes above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples.

It also renewed tax credits aimed at low-income households and college students, extended unemployment benefits, delayed automatic spending cuts in defense and other government programs for two months and resolved several other issues that Congress had left hanging.

The lopsided...