House Republicans said Monday they were “disappointed” with the Obama administration’s plan to waive mandatory work requirements for welfare and questioned the legal grounds being used to make such changes.

“We are disappointed to see that the administration through this action and others seems intent not on helping to get Americans back to work,” said the letter signed by 76 House Republicans.

The one-page letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also states the administration is instead intent upon increasing Americans’ reliance on welfare and other government programs.

The work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families legislation were signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996...

The unemployment rate increased in more than half the states in the country in June, the U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics reported today.

Compared to May, seasonally-adjusted unemployment rose in 27 states in June. Only 11 states saw the unemployment rate drop month-to-month, as did the District of Columbia.

Six states experienced saw statistically significant increases in unemployment compared to May...

Republicans are turning the tables on the Obama campaign, launching an aggressive effort to cast the president as the "outsourcer in chief" in response to Democrats labeling Mitt Romney an "outsourcing pioneer."

The belated counter-attack comes weeks after President Obama's campaign seized on a Washington Post story examining how Romney's former company Bain Capital invested in firms that provided outsourcing services like call centers.

As it happens, the Republican National Committee on Tuesday pointed to a new Post story -- this one examining Obama's "outsourcing" record -- as the GOP unveiled a website that outlines in fine detail how federal dollars under the Obama administration funded foreign projects.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Tuesday for a press conference shortly before Obama arrived to speak at a community college, told Fox News that Republicans are "getting aggressive" with this message...

Four more chances.

That's what President Obama has left to prove he's helped turn the economy around -- with just four more monthly jobs reports remaining before the November election. Those reports could determine whether he gets four more years.

The last three employment snapshots released by the Labor Department have been persistently weak, and marked a distinct slowdown from earlier in the year. In the latest report, the department said employers added a meager 80,000 jobs in June, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 8.2 percent. The number of jobs added in June was lower than expected, and rounded out a poor second quarter for 2012.

The average number of monthly jobs created in the first quarter of the year was 226,000 -- by contrast, that average in the second quarter was just 75,000.

With the economy typically polling as the top issue in the 2012 race, Obama is now under heavy pressure to demonstrate a turnaround sometime between July and October.

Finding rare political accommodation on the cusp of a holiday recess, Congress passed legislation Friday designed to salvage 2.8 million jobs and shield students from a sharp increase in loan interest rates.

The legislation, which also revamps highway and transit programs and shores up the federal flood insurance program, now goes to the White House for President Obama's signatures.

Lawmakers trying to leave town for a weeklong Fourth of July recess had been facing twin deadlines: Federal highway and transit aid programs and the government's authority to levy federal fuel taxes were expiring Saturday. And interest rates on new student loans were set to double on Sunday...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Mitt Romney earning 49% of the vote and President Obama attracting 44% support. Three percent (3%) would vote for a third party candidate, while another three percent (3%) are undecided.

The uptick for Romney comes as investor confidence has fallen six points in the wake of last week’s disappointing jobs report. Looking ahead five years, just 44% of Americans believe the nation’s economy will be stronger than it is today. That’s the lowest level of long-term optimism ever measured...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-VA., praised passage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act on Thursday and criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for deriding it.

“We have to start somewhere,” Cantor said during an interview on Special Report with Bret Baier.

Republicans claimed enough support to push legislation through the House on Tuesday that would continue a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers, a vote that would shift the battleground to a staunchly opposed Senate.

House GOP lawmakers emerged from a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning expressing confidence and daring President Barack Obama and the Democratic-led Senate to oppose them at a time when the economy remains on its knees. The roughly $180 billion bill would also extend unemployment benefits and prevent deep cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

"You can't be for the middle class" and oppose the tax cuts and job creation the bill contains, said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

"Mr. President, we can't wait," Cantor said.

The National Labor Relations Board has formally dropped its legal challenge against Boeing over a nonunion plant the aviation giant opened in South Carolina -- a move met with jeers by Republicans who long described the case as "frivolous" and anti-business.

The decision, announced Friday by the board's top attorney, comes after the Machinists union approved a 4-year contract extension with Boeing. As part of that deal, the union agreed to withdraw its charge that the company violated federal labor laws.

"This is the outcome we have always preferred," Lafe Solomon, the board's acting general counsel, said in a statement.

The NLRB counsel had originally challenged Boeing's decision to open the South Carolina plant, with the union claiming the company did so in retaliation for past strikes in Washington state. Under the recent deal, Boeing promised to build the new version of its 737 airplane in Washington state...

(CNSNews.com) – Senate Republicans have introduced legislation that would direct the State Department to issue permits to begin construction of the 1,700-mile Keystone XL crude oil pipeline from Canada to U.S. refineries – a project they say will create 20,000 jobs, increase domestic energy security and generate revenue.

“Jobs will be created right away and billions of dollars in investment will be unleashed through legislation introduced to permit the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline, the largest infrastructure project ready in the United States, to commence construction,” Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) told a press conference on Wednesday.

Lugar, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is lead sponsor of the new North American Energy Security Act.

In a jab to President Obama’s promotion of creating jobs through new or improved infrastructure and “shovel-ready” projects, the GOP senators said the pipeline qualifies as both.