Senate

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House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, right, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., left, and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of Calif., gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011, where he dismissed a Senate bill that could punish China for undervaluing its currency. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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STALLED: Andrew Traver's confirmation to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives appears to be languishing on the Senate's back burner. (Associated Press)

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Andrew Traver's confirmation to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives appears to be languishing on the Senate's back burner. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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"I don't think there's anything more important for a jobs measure than China trade," says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat. The Senate has adjourned for the rest of the week. (Associated Press)

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, smiles after talking about the short-term funding bill that the Senate passed on Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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Elizabeth Warren, thwarted in her bid to head a new federal regulatory agency, now has her eye on a Senate seat. (Associated Press)

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L.F. Eason of Cary, N.C., voices his opposition to a state constitutional amendment that would say marriage between a man and a woman is the only legaldomestic union in North Carolina, at a rally in Raleigh on Tuesday, the day the state Senate voted to put the marriage issue to a vote in 2012. (Associated Press)

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CIA Director David H. Petraeus (right) and James Clapper, director of national intelligence, testify during a joint hearing of the U.S. House and Senate intelligence committees at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011. The intelligence chiefs briefed lawmakers on the state of intelligence reform 10 years after the Sept. 11 attacks. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/The Washington Times)

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After losing his Senate seat in 2006, George Allen opened his own consulting firm with one of the country's largest coal producers as a client. Now running for the Senate again, he is being scrutinized about his ties to the industry. (The Washington Times)

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Mark Neumann, a former congressman from Wisconsin's 1st District, lost the gubernatorial nomination last year, but he enjoys solid name recognition and the personal wealth to finance a Senate campaign. (Associated Press)

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Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. speaks at The Hall at Senate's End, during a stop in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011, on her bus tour of the Palmetto State. (AP Photo/Brett Flashnick)

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Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota Republican and presidential candidate, speaks Aug. 18, 2011, at the Hall at Senate's End in Columbia, S.C., during her bus tour of the state. (Associated Press)

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In this Aug. 1, 2011 photo, Brian Reilly, a worker at the schoolhouse where the modern Republican Party was founded in Ripon, Wis., talks about why he will support the Democratic candidate in one of six state Senate recall elections. Reilly said he's previously voted for Republican incumbent Sen. Luther Olsen, who ran twice unopposed, but was disgusted with how Republicans in control of the Senate pushed through Gov. Scott Walker's bill taking away most public employees' collective bargaining rights earlier this year. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)

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President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks in Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011, after the Senate passed the debt ceiling legislation. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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President Obama walks out Aug. 2, 2011, to deliver a statement at the White House following the Senate's passing of the debt ceiling agreement. (Associated Press)

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** FILE ** Sen. Mark R. Warner, Virginia Democrat, speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011, after the Senate passed the debt ceiling plan. (The Washington Times)

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From left, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speak to the media after the Senate passed the debt ceiling plan, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011. (Drew Angerer/The Washington Times)