WASHINGTON — House GOP leaders are regrouping after a surprise loss on a measure to provide $3.7 billion for disaster relief and prevent a government shutdown at the end of next week.

Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Thursday that he would meet with Republican lawmakers this afternoon on Capitol Hill to discuss how to move forward after a surprise Wednesday vote in the House against legislation extending government funding and disaster relief monies.

“There’s no threat of government shutdown. Let’s just get this out there,” Boehner said at his weekly press conference.

Wednesday’s 230-195 defeat came at the hands of Democrats and tea party Republicans.

WASHINGTON — Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security’s disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.

Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can’t find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.

The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants — many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved — and worsening the financial problems of a program that’s been running in the red for years.

WASHINGTON — More than five months after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head, the White House has yet to take any new steps on gun violence, even though that’s what President Barack Obama called for in the wake of the shooting.

The silence from the administration is drawing criticism from gun control activists and even some of Obama’s Democratic allies. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., told the president in a letter last week that the administration “has not shown the leadership to combat gun violence.”

(CNN) — A rider in the budget bill to keep the federal government in operation has triggered fury among some wildlife groups because it would remove certain wolves from the endangered species list.

The attachment affects gray wolf populations in Montana and Idaho.

“Right now, Montana’s wolf population is out of balance and this provision will get us back on the responsible path with state management,” Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, said in a written statement. He said he wrote the language together with Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho.

Washington (CNN) — “If we had been a split second slower, he could have been hit in the head.”

It has been 30 years since the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. But for retired Secret Service agent Ray Shaddick, the memories of that gray, rainy day in Washington remain clear.

It was 2:27 p.m., March 30, 1981. The 70-year-old president, barely two months into his term, exits the Washington Hilton after delivering a speech to leaders of the AFL-CIO. He walks out a side door to the hotel — a door used more than 100 times by presidents in the previous decade.

Washington (CNN) — Just two months ago, California residents living near a controversial nuclear power plant grilled nuclear regulators over the reactor’s safety at a public hearing.

At issue was the 2008 discovery of a previously unknown earthquake fault located less than a half mile off shore from the plant.

“Can you be sure there isn’t another fault out there,” asked one woman at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing.

WASHINGTON — In a landmark for gay rights, the Senate on Saturday voted to let gays serve openly in the military, giving President Barack Obama the chance to fulfill a campaign promise and repeal the 17-year policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Obama was expected to sign it next week, although the change wouldn’t take immediate effect. The legislation says the president and his top military advisers must certify that lifting the ban won’t hurt troops’ fighting ability. After that, there’s a 60-day waiting period for the military.

Washington (CNN) — Medals of Honor have been rare since the end of the Vietnam war. And not one of the recipients from the Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan deployments have been alive to have the iconic blue ribbon with the gold star draped around his neck. Until now.

The White House Friday announced that Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, 25, of Hiawatha, Iowa, will be awarded the nation’s highest medal for valor for his actions in Afghanistan, and he will come to the White House to receive the medal himself.

(CNN) — Police arrested a 64-year-old Washington state resident who authorities say made death threats against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

A department statement said the suspect, identified as Charles Alan Wilson of Selah, Washington, made the threats in phone messages to Murray’s office between March 22 and April 4.

Washington (CNN) — The federal government is scrambling to find ways to comply with President Obama’s order to put more air marshals on flights after a botched Christmas Day airline terrorist attack, government sources have told CNN.

Hundreds of additional marshals could be “loaned” from the Secret Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a U.S. official briefed on the investigation said. Another source said marshals could be drawn from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.