Hoyer

It isn't often that a single politician can rightly claim credit for a $300 million construction project that should firmly establish Maryland as a preeminent location for historians and researchers delving into the American past. But that's the case tomorrow when the National Archives and Records Administration opens its giant new building on the College Park campus of the University of Maryland. It should be called Hoyer's Archives.For 25 years, the National Archives has been looking for a new home.

Maryland's U.S. House delegation met Wednesday with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to keep pressure on the agency to fix problems at the troubled Baltimore office and follow up on promises for improvement. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, a Southern Maryland Democrat who is House minority whip, said Maryland veterans should call their congressmen to report troubles with the regional office, which has one of the nation's highest error rates and largest percentages of backlogged cases.

The nation has lost its first potential black speaker of the House of Representatives and Maryland, in turn, may have gained its first shot at the post. The resignation of Rep. William H. Gray III of Pennsylvania as House majority whip, the third-ranking position in the Democratic leadership, gives Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland's Fifth District, now chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, an opportunity to move up one more step.Mr. Hoyer has launched an all-out campaign for this advancement in an uphill fight against Rep. David E. Bonior of Michigan, the chief deputy whip.

Rep. Steny Hoyer called plans to extend some benefits to same-sex partners of military personnel “an important step in the right direction” - but said more change is needed. Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that same-sex partners would be eligible for benefits including military I.D. cards and hospital visitation rights. But he said other benefits - including housing and survivor benefits - remain off-limits under the federal Defense of Marriage Act. That law, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman, is now under Supreme Court review.

It didn't take much for Charles Lollar to fire up the audience as one of the first speakers at Wednesday's Tea Party rally in Annapolis. "Believe it or not, I'm running against Steny Hoyer," Lollar said to a crowd of several hundred cheering conservatives gathered outside the State House as part of the national Tea Party movement, which protests high taxes and government overspending. Lollar, whose most recent political position was the chairmanship of the Charles County Republican Central Committee, is hoping to translate his Tea Party stardom into a serious run for Congress against House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Mechanicsville, in Maryland's 5th Congressional District.

Congratulations on your new humor column ("No more 'Ivies' on the Supreme Court," Commentary, Aug. 5). Cummings, Hoyer, and O'Malley for the Supreme Court. Absolutely hilarious. Perhaps you could add illustrations and use this to replace Doonesbury, which is not nearly as humorous. Earle S. Dashiell

Rep. Steny Hoyer's decision to support same-sex marriage could bring a powerful ally to efforts in Maryland to retain the gay marriage law in the state. A source close to Hoyer said Friday that the Democratic House leader will "oppose efforts to repeal the new Maryland law. " Hoyer said in a statement Thursday that "because I believe that equal treatment is a central tenet of our nation, I believe that extending the definition of marriage to committed relationships between two people, irrespective of their sex, is the right thing to do. " The Southern Maryland Democrat had previously backed a prohibition of gay marriage, voting with 117 other Democrats in support of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

Defense attorneys for state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie continued a theme Tuesday, calling an influential member of Congress to the stand who testified that their client is honest, but hopelessly disorganized. U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, testified that Currie, who's on trial in federal court in Baltimore on corruption charges, is "not particularly taken with details or organization. " "He did not pay attention to details, but he did pay attention to people," Hoyer said of Currie, who is accused, along with two former executives from Shoppers Food Warehouse, of using a public-relations consulting contract to cover up a $245,000 bribery scheme that bought legislative favors for the food chain.

It's not dawn yet, but Rep. Steny H. Hoyer is already greeting voters at a park-and-ride lot in Southern Maryland. His seat in the House of Representatives is considered safe in Tuesday's election, but his status as its second-ranking member certainly isn't. If Democrats lose the House, as analysts predict, Hoyer will be out as majority leader. He has been working hard to prevent such an outcome, and to increase his own victory margin as much as possible. He raised money at Washington events and campaigned for Democratic colleagues around the country.

MARYLAND Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Constance A. Morella, colleagues for many years in the General Assembly as well as Congress, also share the distinction of bucking party trends in last week's elections. Mr. Hoyer, of Southern Maryland, is one of the few Democrats with something to celebrate in the wake of sweeping GOP victories. Ms. Morella of Montgomery County was one of only three House Republicans ousted. Through them, Marylanders stand to both gain and lose in a changing of the guard that is bittersweet.

As Senate Intelligence Committee members file into room 216 of the Hart office building in Washington for a CIA confirmation hearing this afternoon, they will be under a spotlight much brighter than they anticipated last week. That was before a Monday NBC report unveiled leaked documentation from the Obama administration strongly implying that extrajudicial drone killings of American citizens abroad are made casually, with little meaningful oversight or geographic restriction.

As the fiscal cliff looms, two of Maryland's most influential congressmen have a message for those looking to the federal workforce for more savings: Look somewhere else. "Federal workers have already been asked to sacrifice as part of the budget cuts that have already taken place," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House budget committee, told reporters last week. "Now is the time to ask others to help share responsibility for reducing our deficit. " Van Hollen spoke days after Rep. Steny Hoyer wrote an op-ed urging negotiators: "Don't Throw Feds Over 'Cliff.'" "Over the past two years, federal employees have repeatedly faced threats of a government shutdown that would stop their paychecks with virtually no notice," Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, wrote in Federal Times.

Rep. Steny Hoyer deserves praise for his comments earlier this week acknowledging that Democrats need to be willing to put Social Security and Medicare on the table as part of a comprehensive solution for our nation's debt problem. To achieve the type of reasonable and responsible solution that our country needs, both Democrats and Republicans need to be willing to make compromises on areas that their core constituencies have long considered to be untouchable. Congressman Hoyer has stepped forward and shown the type of practical political leadership that our country so desperately needs.

Sixteen years after U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer voted to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives has disavowed that view and is pushing to uphold Maryland's new same-sex marriage law. Hoyer's evolution on the issue of gay marriage follows a trajectory increasingly common for Democratic lawmakers: He started believing that civil unions would offer sufficient protections to gay couples and...

Cascelia S. "Cici" Burgess, the Baltimore school system's director of early intervention programs and services, who was an educator in the city for 38 years, died Sept. 20 of a heart attack at her Northeast Baltimore home. She was 61. "The one thing that everybody knows is that she had an undying love for children. And as a special early ed teacher, Cici did all she could to help with resources and whatever else was needed," said Sandra A. "Sam" Means, an administrator at Maritime Industries Academy High School.

The daughter of Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland disclosed Wednesday that she is a lesbian, an announcement gay advocates hope will boost their effort to keep the state's new same-sex marriage law on the books. Stefany Hoyer Hemmer said her decision to come out of the closet publicly was driven in part by her support for Maryland's law, which Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, signed in March and which is likely to appear on the ballot in November. "It was important for me to come out because of my dad's visibility both on a local level and on a national level," Hemmer told The Baltimore Sun. "The referendum is a big deal and I'm encouraged by the numbers" indicating support for the new law, she said.

Amid all the anticipation over Nancy Pelosi's ascension to the House speakership, often eclipsed and cropped out of the picture is her second in command and fellow Marylander, Steny H. Hoyer, who's also on the verge of fulfilling a cherished ambition. Mr. Hoyer, 67, of Southern Maryland by way of Prince George's County, has spent his life in politics of one sort or another - beginning with student government in junior high, becoming state Senate president by age 35 and absorbed for the past quarter-century in rising by fits and starts through leadership ranks in the House, where he now serves as minority whip.

Are voters still angry enough at Congress to exchange one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill for a political neophyte? The race for Maryland's newly redrawn Fifth Congressional District promises to be a useful gauge for determining if hostility toward incumbents has abated since the House check-bouncing scandal, or if it continues to be a force.Ordinarily, Republican Larry Hogan Jr. wouldn't stand a chance against Rep. Steny Hoyer. But the reaction against incumbents has made Mr. Hoyer -- the fourth-highest ranking member of his party's leadership and the quintessential "slick" politician -- vulnerable.

Rep. Steny Hoyer's decision to support same-sex marriage could bring a powerful ally to efforts in Maryland to retain the gay marriage law in the state. A source close to Hoyer said Friday that the Democratic House leader will "oppose efforts to repeal the new Maryland law. " Hoyer said in a statement Thursday that "because I believe that equal treatment is a central tenet of our nation, I believe that extending the definition of marriage to committed relationships between two people, irrespective of their sex, is the right thing to do. " The Southern Maryland Democrat had previously backed a prohibition of gay marriage, voting with 117 other Democrats in support of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

Defense attorneys for state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie continued a theme Tuesday, calling an influential member of Congress to the stand who testified that their client is honest, but hopelessly disorganized. U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, testified that Currie, who's on trial in federal court in Baltimore on corruption charges, is "not particularly taken with details or organization. " "He did not pay attention to details, but he did pay attention to people," Hoyer said of Currie, who is accused, along with two former executives from Shoppers Food Warehouse, of using a public-relations consulting contract to cover up a $245,000 bribery scheme that bought legislative favors for the food chain.