WASHINGTON -- Three months after the Newtown, Conn., shooting, President Obama said Americans and lawmakers should be ashamed if they’ve forgotten the calls for tighter gun laws that followed the elementary school massacre.

“The entire country was shocked, and the entire country pledged we would do something about it and that this time would be different,” Obama said Thursday at the White House. “Shame on us if we've forgotten. I haven't forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we've forgotten.”

Obama’s remarks were aimed at reviving the stalled momentum for  new gun-control laws, an effort that has been crowded out by other issues and stalled in Congress.   

All 23 of President Obama’s gun policy proposals

Although the Senate is expected to begin voting on a bill when it returns from a recess the week of April 8, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has not yet struck a deal on key details and lawmakers have said that major provisions backed by the...

WASHINGTON – Nearly three in four Americans say that illegal immigrants should be allowed to remain in the country legally, but fewer than half say they should be allowed to apply for citizenship.

Those are the key findings of a new national poll, released Thursday, that reflects a positive shift in attitudes toward immigrants now in the United States. The survey, conducted March 13-17 by the Pew Research Center, comes as lawmakers in Washington are attempting to craft a comprehensive plan to deal with some 11 million people who are thought to be in the country illegally.

The new poll reveals opposition to granting legal status from about one in four Americans (27%) who say that immigrants who came illegally should not be allowed to stay in the country legally. The remainder are split over exactly how to grant legal status. The largest group (43%) say that immigrants living here illegally should be eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Another group (24%) say they should be...

WASHINGTON -- Conservative Republicans are open to an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system, including creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, according to a new report on voter attitudes in two states with early presidential contests.

According to a Republican research group, recent discussions with Republican voters in Iowa and South Carolina indicated that conservatives are inclined to support the party’s involvement in fixing immigration and may well reward potential presidential candidates, like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who have taken a prominent role in that effort.

“It’s clear that Senator Rubio’s presence in this debate creates a significant amount of goodwill among the Republican base,” concludes a memo from Ed Gillespie, a former national Republican chairman, and pollster John McLaughlin, whose firm conducted the focus-group sessions. “As one Des Moines woman said when commenting on a potential pathway to...

WASHINGTON – House Speaker John A. Boehner wants his Republican troops to think deep thoughts.

As House Republicans prepare for the next budget showdown with President Obama, the Ohioan, in a letter to rank-and-file lawmakers Thursday, drew on history and morality as he solicited their views on the party’s next move.

“Our purpose in calling for a balanced budget is a noble one,” the speaker wrote to his GOP colleagues, who are on a two-week spring recess. “I urge you to engage your constituents during the spring work period and to bring the input back to Washington so it can inform our discussion about next steps.”

Boehner’s outreach serves a practical and political purpose during this lull in the budget wars.

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On the one hand, the speaker learned during past showdowns that he cannot negotiate alone with Obama without the implicit support of House Republicans. They have bucked him on more than one...

CODY, Wyo.--Alan Simpson has spent the better part of two years flying around the country ticking people off, though that's putting it more politely than the former Wyoming senator does.

Simpson is the Republican half of the Simpson-Bowles duo (Erskine being the Democrat) that produced a 2010 deficit reduction plan that gored just about every sacred cow in Washington before succumbing to a scarcely lamented death.

He continues to campaign around the country for the controversial recipe of tax hikes, spending cuts and entitlement reforms. This week, however, found Simpson home in Cody for a rare extended visit, and among his errands was a stop by the local Chamber of Commerce to drop off a personal check for $5,000.

The chamber recently took up a collection to plow the roads in Yellowstone Park, a mainstay of the local economy, after a delay caused by the budget-cutting sequester. There was no fanfare to Simpson's appearance. A reporter happened to be around, so he sat down to chat.

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WASHINGTON – President Obama is taking Senate Republicans on another date night.

Following his successful dinner earlier this month with a dozen GOP senators, during which they discussed budgets, the president has dialed up his ideological adversaries to request more of the same.

Obama phoned Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia to arrange for a second dinner, and the senator is putting together a guest list of another dozen GOP senators, none of whom attended the first one.

The save-the-date is April 10, with a location to be determined, an aide to the senator confirmed.

“The president called Sen. Isakson in the last 10 days and asked if he would like to spearhead a second dinner to build on the first dinner,” said Joan Kirchner, deputy chief of staff for the two-term Georgia Republican. “Sen. Isakson said he would be happy to do so.”

The White House confirmed that the dinner, first reported Wednesday by Politico, is on.

Obama’s initial dinner...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama is scheduled to travel to Mexico and Costa Rica in early May to push for stronger economic ties, the White House announced Wednesday.

In trip scheduled for May 2-4, Obama will meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who was elected last year and took office in December. He last met with Obama at the White House in November.

From there, Obama will head to Costa Rica, where President Laura Chinchilla will host a meeting of several Central American leaders. The White House did not release a list of the participating countries or a detailed description of the agenda. The visit will come as Congress is expected to begin debate on immigration legislation.

Obama said he hoped the visit would strengthen cooperation on a variety of issues.

“I'm looking forward to having a couple of days of important consultations and emphasizing, underscoring, how important it is for us within this Western Hemisphere to be able to strengthen our economic ties,”...

Their absence was conspicuous, particularly as Democrats now largely oppose the 1996 law banning federal recognition of same-sex unions. House Speaker John A. Boehner announced that the House would seek to defend the law after the White House announced plans to drop its defense in 2011.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attended Wednesday’s arguments with two guests, Karen Golinski and Amy Cunninghis, a lesbian couple from San Francisco.

PHOTOS: Supreme Court considers gay marriage

Spokesmen for both Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the leaders did not select guests to use seats reserved for them at the high court.

Pelosi criticized the Republicans for spending taxpayer money to fund the defense, calling the party out of step with...

As the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday over the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, supporters and opponents of the law took to the Web to make their own case.

Enacted in 1996 under a Republican Congress and Democratic President Bill Clinton, the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, defined marriage for federal purposes as a union between a man and a woman.

The law also allowed states to deny legal recognition to same-sex marriages performed outside their borders and barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages licensed by states.

During Wednesday's arguments, the court's four liberal justices, plus Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, expressed skepticism about the law's legality.

Among same-sex marriage supporters, hopes have been riding high for an overturn of the law, as well as a rejection of Proposition 8 in California, in which voters banned same-sex marriage. (The court heard arguments on Proposition 8 on Tuesday.)

DOMA came into being...

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers arguing that the Supreme Court should overturn the Defense of Marriage Act appeared buoyant after presenting their case on Wednesday.

"We are hopeful they will" overturn the law, said Roberta Kaplan, who argued the case in front of the nine justices on behalf of Edith Windsor, the 83-year-old lesbian widow who brought the lawsuit challenging the federal law.

Windsor, whose marriage to her longtime partner was recognized by New York, argued that the government discriminated against her when she was required to pay a higher estate tax bill than a married couple, after the death of her spouse in 2009.

"I think everyone agrees that Edie Windsor gets her money back," Kaplan said.

Gay-marriage proponents erupted in cheers when Windsor walked down the Supreme Court steps.

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Windsor said she felt "uplifted" and "humbled" to hear the justices quiz lawyers about her case. "The federal government treated us like strangers," Windsor said...