WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans said Thursday they would not support five nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, raising the possibility the troubled agency could be rendered mostly inoperable later this year. The board has already been working under a cloud since January, when a federal appeals court said the president violated the Constitution by filling vacancies on the board through recess appointments without Senate confirmation.

OTTAWA - Questions about the housing claims of three senators living in the shadow of Parliament Hill will get answers next month when the Senate releases an independent audit of their residency allowances. The committee which oversees the upper chamber's internal budgets asked the Deloitte accounting firm to review the claims of Conservative Mike Duffy, Liberal Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau, who was ousted from the Tory caucus earlier this year over an unrelated criminal matter. The accountants were to look at their claims about where they live and their related expenses.

The country’s main political parties taking part in the May 11 elections will get the first opportunity to make the caretaker prime minister and his cabinet team accountable for their acts when the Senate goes into session on Monday (today).Having no friends in the house, the caretaker ministers can face a difficult time in the Senate where there will be no concept of the treasury and opposition benches in the absence of an elected government.According to media reports, when contacted famous senators they said technically there would be no leader of the house and no oppositio

US senators eager to head home for the congressional recess on Friday launched what could become a legislative all-nighter -- a rare, free-wheeling session known as a "vote-a-rama." For the first time in four years, the 100 members of the Senate will pack the chamber for 10 hours or more, beginning at 3:00 pm Friday, for dozens of back-to-back votes on amendments to the Senate's pending budget resolution.