Howard Berman News

As members of Congress digest Obama's new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy and decide how they want to weigh in, some key staffers behind the scenes will be important to watch: Tom Hawkins - national security advisor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-KY Since the Senate GOP is poised to be Obama's main source of support on implementing his ...

Glenn Prickett joins The Nature Conservancy as chief external affairs officer, leaving his post as senior vice president at Conservation International.

E.J. Dionne writes for The Washington Post. Send comments about this article to Peter Grad, Op-Ed Page editor, at grad@northjersey.com. PRESIDENT OBAMA has bought himself some time on Afghanistan and lived up to his promise to seek policies that fit into no one's philosophical pigeonholes.

Democratic Rep. John Murtha - just back from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan - said Monday that he never got a clear definition of what constitutes an "achievable victory" for the United States and fears that American commanders are assuming more time for the war effort than voters at home will allow.

Efforts in the U.S. to end the 46-year-old travel ban to Cuba got a boost last week during a hearing in Washington on whether to lift the ban.

After weeks of talk about health care, the Sunday shows turn to the speech President Obama will deliver at West Point on Tuesday night detailing his plan for Afghanistan with legislators from the armed services and foreign relations committees in both chambers weighing in.

For anyone out there who shares my enjoyment of poring over these things and reading too much into them, I'veA pasted after the jump a list of the expected attendees at tonight's White House State Dinner for the Indian Prime Minister.

At a time when a human rights organization is charging that Raul Castro is just as ruthless as his brother Fidel, when Cuban political prisoners are on the rise, when dissidents are being assaulted by government goons on the streets of Havana, a growing number of American lawmakers are ready to end the Cold War with Cuba - by surrendering our ...

The list of expected guests for President Barack Obama's first White House state dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as provided by the White House.

WASHINGTON: A.R.Rahman will join Jennifer Hudson in providing entertainment for the Obama's state dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed just hours before the banquet.

Cuba's celebrated and increasingly brassy blogger Yoani Snchez emerged Thursday as a player in U.S.-Cuba relations, scoring a lengthy reply from President Barack Obama to her questions and playing a starring role in a congressional hearing on efforts to let American tourists visit Cuba.

Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 12:12 a.m. Last Modified: Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 3:07 a.m. WASHINGTON At a tempestuous hearing, one House member after another criticized a growing campaign to lift the ban on American tourists traveling to Cuba.

A high-octane effort to let U.S. tourists visit Cuba got a major endorsement Thursday from one of the island's leading dissidents, who suggested that "along with suitcases, Bermuda shorts and sun block, support, solidarity and freedom could come, too." Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, who this week drew the attention of President Barack Obama, wrote in ...

Rep. Howard Berman, D-California, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, talk before the hearing Thursday.

By Mary Beth Sheridan Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 19, 2009 A battle over Cuba policy is escalating in Congress, with proponents saying they have their best chance in years of repealing the ban on U.S. tourist travel to the island.

The debate over U.S. policy towards Cuba heats up this week as the House Foreign Affairs Committee holds a hearing Thursday on whether to lift the U.S. travel ban against Fidel Castro's island-prison. Senator Richard Lugar and Rep.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Richard Lugar and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman have jointly written a compelling case to end the travel ban for all Americans desiring to go to Cuba.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Israel might take unilateral steps if the Palestinians did not return to the negotiating table.

A story universally missed last week was the extraordinary debate that occurred in Congress in advance of a vote on a resolution against the Goldstone Report.

"No issue is as fundamental to our survival" as immigration reform - and 2010 poses "a window of opportunity" for passing the AgJOBS bill, Craig Regelbrugge, co-chairman of Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform , told some 300 attendees Wednesday at the Elite Producer Business Conference in Las Vegas.