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A Republican lawmaker called the Obama administrations response to the Ebola outbreak confused and contradictory as the Senate considered $6.2 billion in emergency cash to combat the spread of the deadly virus.

Americans have been frustrated by the lack of clarity and consistency, Republican Senator Richard Shelby told officials led by Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. Given the size of the request, the slow progress in detailing plans for how the money will be spent and some of the missteps made so far, I think it deserves our careful oversight and scrutiny.

While targeting their criticisms at the administration, no Republicans at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing today said they would block the administrations request. Senator Barbara Mikulski, the panels Democratic chairwoman, said she supports providing cash on an emergency basis, which avoids cuts to other programs. Mikulski said she hoped to have a bill with the Ebola money passed before the end of the year.

Shelby faulted the administration for what he called contradictions in the policy for people exposed to Ebola. President Barack Obama and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is leading the U.S. response, oppose quarantines for health workers who treated Ebola patients, while soldiers returning from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea will be quarantined, the Alabama lawmaker said.

A major reason the American public is concerned is because CDC seemed to be reacting to events instead of acting in advance, Maine Republican Susan Collins said. Its not surprising that the American public is concerned about whether the response from Washington is correct.

Illinois Republican Mark Kirk said the U.S. should cancel visas from those three nations, and criticized the administration for not doing so.

Other Senate Republicans offered praise for the response.

I want to commend all of you for your work, Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran said. It is an enormous enormous responsibility.

Senator Dan Coats, an Indiana Republican, said: There has been some positive news here, despite some early fumbles and bumbles.

More than 14,000 people have been infected with Ebola, mostly in the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea this year, and more than 5,100 have died, according to the World Health Organization.

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Republican Faults Ebola Response, Vow Funding Scrutiny

Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, center, speaks during a campaign rally in Anchorage, Nov. 4. Sullivan, a former Alaska attorney general and U.S. Marine Corps officer who served as assistant secretary of state in former President George W. Bushs administration, led by about 8,100 votes on Nov. 4. Close

Republicans extended their control of the U.S. Senate as Dan Sullivan defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Begich in Alaska, a race that was too close to call on election night.

Sullivan, 49, a former Alaska attorney general and U.S. Marine Corps officer who served as assistant secretary of state in former President George W. Bushs administration, led by about 8,100 votes on Nov. 4. Under Alaska law, elections workers had to wait a week before counting the 20,000 absentee ballots.

The Associated Press called the vote late yesterday.

The race was once seen as crucial to the Republicans regaining control of the Senate for the first time since 2006. In the end, the party won enough races on election day to achieve its goal. Louisiana holds a run-off next month.

Sullivan said in a posting on Twitter and Facebook that hes deeply humbled and honored to have been chosen to represent Alaska in the Senate. There was no reaction from Begich, 52, who was seeking a second term.

Begich won his seat in 2008, defeating 40-year incumbent Republican Ted Stevens by less than 5,000 votes. He was the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the Senate since Mike Gravel lost a re-election bid in 1980.

The state, home to 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is traditionally Republican. Mitt Romney won Alaska in the 2012 presidential election with 55 percent of the vote, and John McCain and Palin won it in 2008 with 59 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net Alan Crawford, Kevin Costelloe

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Republican Sullivan Unseats Democratic Senator Begich in Alaska

Republican Dan Sullivan has won Alaska's U.S. Senate race, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich, officials said.

Sullivan led Begich by about 8,100 votes on election night last week, and when state officials counted absentee and questioned ballots Tuesday, the results indicated that Begich could not overcome Sullivan's lead.

The Alaska seat was initially considered key to Republicans' hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate, but that was accomplished election night with GOP victories in other states.

Sullivan, a first-time candidate, ran a confident campaign, ignoring the debate schedule Begich released during the primary and setting his own agenda. He also attracted some star power to the state, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a tea party favorite, and 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney rallying support for Sullivan in the waning days of the hotly contested race.

Sullivan pledged to fight federal overreach, talked about the need for an energy renaissance in the U.S. and, at seemingly every opportunity, sought to tie Begich to President Obama and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who are unpopular in Alaska.

Begich complained that Sullivan offered little in the way of proposals for what he would do as senator. Begich also tried to paint sharp contrasts between himself and Sullivan in areas such as women's health, education and Alaska issues.

Begich, for example, was born and raised in Alaska. He cast Sullivan, who grew up in Ohio, as an outsider, and many of the early attacks by pro-Begich groups keyed in to that theme. That perception of Sullivan made for an at-times uncomfortable debate on fisheries issues, in which questioners grilled Sullivan about his knowledge of one of Alaska's most important industries.

On several occasions, Sullivan's wife, Julie Fate Sullivan, an Alaska native and frequent companion on the campaign trail, appeared in ads defending her husband's ties to the state and his positions on women's issues.

Sullivan has roots in Alaska dating to the 1990s but was gone for nearly seven years for military service and work in Washington that included working as an assistant secretary of State. He returned to Alaska in 2009, when he was appointed attorney general by then-Gov. Sarah Palin.

He most recently served as Alaska's natural resources commissioner, a post he left in September 2013, to make his first run for public office.

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Republican Dan Sullivan wins Senate race in Alaska

By Matt Schudel November 12 at 7:11 PM

Marge Roukema, who served 22 years in the House of Representatives as a moderate Republican from New Jersey and who co-sponsored the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, died Nov.12 at a nursing home in Wyckoff, N.J. She was 85.

She had Alzheimers disease, said her daughter, Margaret Meg Kuhn.

Mrs. Roukema, a onetime teacher and school board member in Ridgewood, N.J., ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1978 before winning election in 1980 from an affluent district in northernmost New Jersey. She defeated the Democratic incumbent, Andrew Maguire, calling him a liberal out of touch with his constituents a tactic that would later be used against her.

During her 11 terms in office, Mrs. Roukema was known as a fiscally conservative back-bencher who held relatively moderate views on a range of social issues. She was a pro-choice Republican who opposed soft money in political campaigns and resisted conservative attempts to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1994, she was one of 11 Republicans to vote for a bill to ban assault weapons.

Over time, Mrs. Roukema found herself increasingly out of step with the growing conservatism that came to dominate the Republican Party.

She was drawn to her signature issue of family leave from personal experience, after caring for her son Todd, who died of leukemia at 17 in 1976. Mrs. Roukema joined forces with Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) in the House to sponsor a bill that called for employers to provide their workers with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected family leave for the birth of child, an urgent medical need and other conditions.

Families are thrown into crisis when serious illness strikes. I know, Mrs. Roukema said in a speech on the House floor in 1993. When my son Todd was stricken with leukemia and needed home care, I was free to remain at home. But what about the millions of mothers who work?

The bill was twice vetoed by President George H.W. Bush before President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act into law in 1993.

After her reelection in 2000, Mrs. Roukema was the longest-serving woman in the House and the senior member of the New Jersey congressional delegation. She was the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, but the GOP leadership rejected her bid to chair the panel.

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Marge Roukema, moderate Republican congresswoman from New Jersey, dies at 85

Washington Chalk up another Senate race for the Republicans. Former state Attorney General Dan Sullivan is the winner in a tight race against incumbent Mark Begich (D), bringing the Republican Party's net gains in last week's election to eight Senate seats.

That total looks likely to reach nine come December, when a runoff election in Louisiana will decide whether incumbent Mary Landrieu (D) loses her seat to Bill Cassidy (R).

Senator Begichs campaign effort succumbed to the same Republican tide that swept aside Democratic incumbents in North Carolina, Arkansas, and Colorado all a sign of high voter disapproval of President Obama.

The Alaska result puts Republicans in a stronger majority in the US Senate when a new session starts in January (they needed just six new seats to take control), and gives them a little cushion against whats expected to be a tough Senate rematch in 2016. The party also padded its commanding majority in the House.

The Associated Press reported that although Begich did not concede the race, initial counting of absentee ballots showed that the incumbent would not be able to overcome Mr. Sullivans 8,100-vote election night lead.

Sullivan cast his victory as one with implications for the nation as well as the Last Frontier.

While we have challenges to address, the opportunities in Alaska and our country are limitless, he said in a victory statement. Today, we are going to begin the process of turning our country around.

The Alaska race was among many that looked close in opinion polls leading up to Election Day but where voters broke against Mr. Obamas party.

Begich and the other ousted incumbents were facing tough odds all along. Back in 2008, they had won election in states that now lean strongly Republican (Arkansas as well as Alaska) or are swing states in presidential elections (North Carolina and Colorado). Back then, a deep recession and financial crisis propelled Democrats into both the Oval Office and strong congressional majorities.

This time around, the political winds were blowing the other way. There was no presidential election to boost Democratic turnout. And a historical pattern of the presidents party losing ground in midterm elections was amplified by Obamas low approval ratings and public discontent with the economy.

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Alaska Senate results: Incumbent Begich swept out by Republican tide (+video)