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The late-December surge that pushed enrollment in private health insurance plans under Obamacare past 2.1 million people continued into 2014, officials of several state-run insurance marketplaces said on Wednesday. It was encouraging news for White House hopes of signing up 7 million Americans by March 31, the deadline for 2014 coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law. That goal has appeared elusive due to the disastrous performance of HealthCare.gov, the federal enrollment portal through which Americans in 36 states sign up to buy health insurance, in October and November, even as the websites of many of the 15 state-run exchanges fared better. The Washington Health Benefit Exchange has had about 8,000 enrollments in private health plans since late December, bringing the total to just over 73,000. "We doubled our call-center staff in December" to handle the end-of-year surge, said Richard K. Onizuka, chief executive of the exchange, in a conference cal

Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Moran, a 12-term Virginia liberal, on Wednesday became the third member of his party this week to announce he will not seek re-election in November. The announcements came amid growing signs that President Barack Obama's party faces a steep climb in its bid to win control of the House of Representatives from Republicans in this year's elections. Moran made no mention of the battle for the House in his announcement. He said he was ready to retire from Congress when his term ends this year. "It's time to close this chapter of my life," Moran, 68, said in a statement. Moran's district lies just south of Washington. He has represented Virginia in the House for more than 23 years and is a member of the chamber's powerful Appropriations Committee. The announcement came just a day after New York Democrat Bill Owens of New York said he would not seek re-election this year after taking office in 2009. On Monday, Representat

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie might be trying turn attention away from the September traffic jam scandal dogging his political aspirations, but late-night talk show hosts and Democratic lawmakers are not letting up. Christie, a likely Republican candidate for the White House in 2016, has said he was devastated by his aides' role in the four-day tie-up on the busy George Washington Bridge. The incident has sparked a federal inquiry and Democratic lawmakers have called a special session to investigate it. Wednesday on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" the host enlisted New Jersey-raised rock star Bruce Springsteen, who Christie has said he adores, to lampoon the governor with a riff on the lane closures titled "We're stuck in Governor Chris Christie's Fort Lee, New Jersey, traffic jam". Sung to the tune of Springsteen's hit song "Born to Run", it begins, "In the day we sweated out on the streets, stuck in traffic on the GWB".

U.S. lawmakers at a Senate hearing on Wednesday pushed financial regulators to speed up efforts to limit Wall Street's role in physical commodities markets, pressing for a pivotal policy shift after a decade of deepening trade. A day ahead of the hearing, the Federal Reserve laid out for the first time its growing concerns that risks to the financial system from banks leasing oil tankers or owning power plants are "difficult to limit and higher than expected." It also raised concerns about serious conflicts of interest for banks. The packed hearing, which lasted over an hour, offered senators a chance to delve further into the Fed's thinking, pressing Michael Gibson, its director of bank supervision and regulation, on why the central bank is not moving immediately to impose new rules. "The Fed's proposal yesterday is a timid step, it was too slow in coming, and there is still too much that we do not know about these activities and investments," sai

Chinese operational inexperience and communications difficulties on both sides contributed to a near-collision between the USS Cowpens and a Chinese warship in the South China Sea last month, the head of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific said on Wednesday. Admiral Samuel Locklear, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, told a Navy conference the Cowpens, a guided missile cruiser, was monitoring China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, as it conducted operations in international waters for the first time when the incident occurred. The Cowpens was approached on December 5 by a Chinese warship that maneuvered in front of it at a distance of about 500 yards (meters), forcing the U.S. vessel to take evasive action to avoid a collision, defense officials said. "I believe that there was ... a lack of experience on some of their smaller ships and I think we have to understand that for now," Locklear told the Surface Navy Association during a question and answer session at it

U.S. Department of Labor officials will travel to Florida to investigate the state's troubled unemployment compensation website following criticism it is failing to get jobless benefits to laid-off workers, an official said on Wednesday. Florida's economic development chief told a legislative committee on Wednesday that he was "frustrated" by glitches in the $63 million website and related services. He said the state government would consider additional penalties against Deloitte, the website's designer. "The state's unemployment website is a dismal failure, and Governor Rick Scott is responsible," state Senator Geraldine Thompson, a Democrat from Orlando, said at a news conference. She said some of her constituents have gone nine weeks without payment, and some are in danger of losing their homes and cannot afford food. Jason Kuruvilla, a Labor Department spokesman, said officials would arrive in Florida later this week to examine the website.

Negotiations in Congress on the long overdue U.S. farm bill could be completed this week after progress was stalled by a disagreement over a dairy price support program, a senator said on Wednesday. The five-year farm bill, which covers issues from domestic crop subsidies to exports and global food aid, is being held up chiefly by a dispute between Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota over a program that would cut milk production if prices decline below a certain level. But Republican Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, who is a member of the House-Senate "conference" panel considering the bill but not among the four lead negotiators, said he thought a compromise could be reached that does not include the supply management element, which Boehner opposes. "Obviously for the speaker, the issue is not having supply management in there. And I think there are a number of ideas and ways to have a dairy program t