Congress

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Congress’ spending bill bans taxpayer money from financing official portrait paintings of presidents, Cabinet secretaries and high-ranking members of Congress. (Associated Press)

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Congress’ spending bill bans taxpayer money from financing official portrait paintings of presidents, Cabinet secretaries and high-ranking members of Congress. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

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Congress' spending bill bans taxpayer money from financing official portrait paintings of presidents, Cabinet secretaries and high-ranking members of Congress.

Tom Schatz, President of the Council for Citizens against Government Waste, center, accompanied by Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., left, and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009, to discuss their worst spending projects of the 111th Congress. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

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FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2013, file photo, Secretary of State John Kerry testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the hope of persuading Congress to not forge any new economic sanctions on Iran that could break the recent historic agreement that would end Iran’s progress toward weapons-grade uranium. The Obama administration enters the year locked in a battle with Congress over whether to plow ahead with new economic sanctions against Iran or cautiously wait to see if last year’s breakthrough nuclear agreement holds. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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FILE - Gun sales spiked after Sandy Hook and as Congress and a number of states debated whether to impose more restrictions on firearms purchases. Congress stalemated, but some states moved forward.. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

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"[T]he NRA and their acolytes underestimate our residents if they think this city will tolerate autocratic rule from Congress," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District Democrat, in response to a bill that would do away with D.C.'s ban on semiautomatic rifles and gut other gun restrictions. (ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS)