QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It cuts spending in a smarter way.”

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., announcing a deal to restore about $63 billion in automatic spending cuts from the Pentagon and other programs in exchange for spending reductions and increased fees elsewhere in the budget Article, 1A

Nominee for IRS chief vows to build trust

WASHINGTON - John Koskinen, President Barack Obama’s nominee to run the Internal Revenue Service, said Tuesday at a Senate panel’s confirmation hearing that he would work to restore the public’s trust in the tax agency.

The IRS, lacking a confirmed commissioner for more than a year, has been struggling with budget cuts and the political reverberations from its admission that it applied tougher scrutiny to Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status.

“With 95,000 employees and the range of challenges the agency faces, mistakes will happen,” Koskinen said in prepared testimony for the Senate Finance Committee in Washington. “So the realistic goal is to find problems quickly, make sure they stay fixed and be transparent about the entire process.”

Only two senators questioned Koskinen before the hearing recessed for floor votes. Republicans, who object to Democrats’ easing the requirements to confirm most nominees, then invoked a rule that bars committees from meeting more than two hours after the Senate starts work, which shut down the session.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said the committee will reconvene this morning on the Koskinen nomination.

Missing 6 found alive in high Nevada

RENO, Nev. - A member of a search team on Tuesday found a couple and four young members of their families who had been missing in the frigid mountains of northern Nevada since Sunday, authorities said.

They were taken to Pershing General Hospital after they were found to be in good condition.

Sheila Reitz of the Pershing County sheriff’s office said a member of the public searching on the ground had located the group. Further details were not immediately available.

Aircraft and crews on the ground were searching for James Glanton, 34; his girlfriend, Christina McIntee, 25; their two children, Evan and Chloe Glanton; and Shelby Fitzpatrick and Tate McIntee, a niece and nephew of Christina McIntee. The children ranged in age from 3 to 10.

Overnight temperatures in the nearby town of Lovelock dipped to 16 degrees below during the search. Officials said the group had gone to the Seven Troughs area to play in the snow.

Authorities said about 200 people had joined the search roughly 100 miles northeast of Reno.

In snow, voters fill Markey’s House seat

BOSTON - Voters in Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District contended with snow Tuesday as they trekked to the polls to decide who gets to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by Edward Markey.

Tuesday’s contest pitted Democratic state Sen. Katherine Clark of Melrose against Republican Frank Addivinola, a Boston lawyer.

The district stretches from the coast to communities north and west of Boston including Waltham, Framingham and Medford. It is heavily Democratic.

Markey vacated the seat earlier this year after winning a special election to fill John Kerry’s U.S. Senate seat.

Two other candidates were on the ballot - Wellesley resident James Aulenti and Arlington resident James Hall.

Tuesday’s winner will face voters again next year.

Polls were to close at 7 p.m. Central time.

Kerry, Congress clash over Iran accord

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama’s administration and Congress clashed Tuesday over the nuclear deal with Iran, exposing deep rifts over a U.S. pledge to refrain from any new sanctions over the next six months in exchange for concessions on enriching uranium.

In his first congressional testimony since last month’s Geneva agreement, Secretary of State John Kerry defended the diplomacy as having halted and rolled back central elements of Iran’s nuclear program for the first time. He pleaded with Democrats and Republicans not to scuttle the chances of a peaceful resolution to a crisis that has regularly featured U.S. and Israeli threats of potential military action.

Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., are close to completing a bill that would require the administration to certify Iran’s adherence to the interim pact every 30 days, according to legislative aides.

The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, specifically asked Kerry why the administration so strongly opposed sanctions that wouldn’t be imposed unless Iran breaks the agreement.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 12/11/2013