Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, seeking to console liberal activists who were disappointed by the final version of the national health care law, assured them that there would eventually be a public option.
“We’re going to have a public option,” Reid said. “It’s just a question of when.”
Reid’s general comments reflected the same overall message to progressives that President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered earlier today. It essentially boils down to: We’ve done a lot of stuff, but we still have a lot of unfinished business, so campaign for us again.
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Harry Reid: “We’re going to have a public option”
Harry Reid abandons climate change legislation… for now
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will bring a limited package of oil spill response and energy measures to the floor next week, delaying action until at least this fall on a broader proposal that would impose greenhouse gas limits on power plants, senior Senate Democratic aides said.
Aides insisted Reid’s decision is a nod to the packed floor schedule the Senate faces before it leaves in two weeks for the August recess, and that he has not abandoned plans to try and bring up a broader climate and energy plan later in the year.
But other legislative priorities and election-year politics might scuttle the wider climate and energy plan altogether.
Financial reform bill on the verge of passage
A sweeping overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations stands on the verge of reaching President Barack Obama’s desk after a year of partisan struggles and delicate cross-party courtships that promised more and delivered less.
Only three Senate Republicans say they will vote for the bill during a key vote Thursday that will set the stage for final passage. But the bill bears the fingerprints of many others in the GOP.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., negotiated several provisions with key committee Republicans such as Richard Shelby and Bob Corker. Neither, though, intends to vote for the bill.
That those bipartisan talks even occurred was remarkable in the highly politicized atmosphere in Congress. That they failed to expand the bill’s base of support illustrates how much things remain the same.
Obama skipped Gulf memorial service to attend fund raiser for Barbara Boxer
CNN, “President attended fundraiser during Gulf memorial service”
by Abby Livingston
According his official schedule, President Obama did not attend the May 25 memorial service in Jackson, Mississippi for the workers who died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion because he was en route to a fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, in San Francisco.
At Thursday’s White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked why Obama did not attend the service. The president’s spokesman answered, “I’d have to look at the schedule. I don’t know the answer.”
CNN examined the president’s schedule for that day, and according to it, the president left the White House at 2:55 p.m. EST en route to Andrews Air Force Base for the cross-country flight to the San Francisco fundraiser.
CNN article continues here.
South Carolina pol questions Dem Senate candidate’s “mental status”
Fox News, “South Carolina Pol Questions Dem Senate Candidate’s ‘Mental Status’”
by Heidi Noonan
A South Carolina lawmaker on Sunday suggested that new Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene may be intellectually incapable of participating in the general election race.
State Rep. Todd Rutherford told Fox News that he went to Greene’s house to discuss with him how Greene succeeded last week in becoming the candidate to challenge Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in the November election, but he found it difficult to decipher an answer.
“About two questions into a conversation with him, it would become apparent that he is not probably fit to answer the questions befitting a Senate candidate,” Rutherford said. “If he was put into this, then it is a joke that is funny to all the rest of us, but he doesn’t get it — because I don’t know that his mental status is such that he can get it.”
Fox News article continues here.
Senate says no to 6,000 border troops
Washington Times, “Senate says no to 6,000 border troops”
by Stephen Dinan
Senate Democrats managed Thursday to block deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, but the proposal still garnered a majority of senators, showing widespread support for a border-security-first strategy and underscoring why President Obama is having difficulty trying to win an immigration-legalization bill.
The vote flustered Democrats, who seemed uncertain how to handle the proposal and were reluctant to defy Mr. Obama, who just this week proposed that a much smaller 1,200-troop force be deployed.
In the end, 12 Democrats joined 39 Republicans in voting for the deployment – though that still fell nine votes shy of the 60-vote supermajority needed for passage.
Washington Times article continues here.
Senate passes financial regulation bill
MSNBC (AP), “Senate passes financial reform bill”
by Jim Kuhnhenn
Prodded by national anger at Wall Street, the Senate on Thursday passed the most far-reaching restraints on big banks since the Great Depression. In its broad sweep, the massive bill would touch Wall Street CEOs and first-time homebuyers, high-flying traders and small town lenders.
The 59-39 vote represents an important achievement for President Barack Obama, and comes just two months after his health care overhaul became law. The bill must now be reconciled with a House version that passed in December. A key House negotiator predicted the legislation would reach Obama’s desk before the Fourth of July.
The legislation aims to prevent a recurrence of the near-meltdown of big Wall Street investment banks and the resulting costly bailouts. It calls for new ways to watch for risks in the financial system and makes it easier to liquidate large failing financial firms. It also writes new rules for complex securities blamed for helping precipitate the 2008 economic crisis, and it creates a new consumer protection agency.
MSNBC (AP) article continues here.
Arlen Specter goes down
Yahoo! News (AP), “Specter rejected by Pa. Dems in bid for 6th term”
by Marc Levy
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter on Tuesday was defeated in a Democratic primary in his bid for a sixth term after taking the risky step of switching from the GOP.
Voters picked U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak as the party’s nominee and rejected the 80-year-old Specter in his first Democratic campaign since his Republican Party defection.
With 79 percent of precincts reporting, Sestak received 435,630 votes, or 53 percent; Specter received 384,027 votes, about 47 percent.
Yahoo! News (AP) article continues here.
Rand Paul wins Senate race in KY, strikes out at Washington and Obama
Yahoo! News (AP), “Paul rides tea party support, takes GOP nod in Ky.”
by David Espo
Political novice Rand Paul rode support from tea party activists to a rout in Kentucky’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday night, jolting the GOP establishment and providing fresh evidence of voter discontent in a turbulent midterm election season.
Paul had 59 percent of the vote with returns counted from 29 percent of the precincts, compared to 37 percent for Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who was recruited to the race by the state’s dominant Republican, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In a Democratic primary that commanded far less national attention, Attorney General Jack Conway led Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, 49 percent to 39 percent.
Yahoo! News (AP) article continues here.
Dems call for national biometric ID card
“Show us your papers.”
The Hill, “Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card”
by Alexander Bolton
A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation’s immigration laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday.
Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.
The proposal is one of the biggest differences between the newest immigration reform proposal and legislation crafted by late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The national ID program would be titled the Believe System, an acronym for Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic Verification of Employment.
It would require all workers across the nation to carry a card with a digital encryption key that would have to match work authorization databases.
“The cardholder’s identity will be verified by matching the biometric identifier stored within the microprocessing chip on the card to the identifier provided by the cardholder that shall be read by the scanner used by the employer,” states the Democratic legislative proposal.
The Hill article continues here.
Senate committee subpoenas administration for Fort Hood documents
Fox News, “Senate Committee Subpoenas Administration for Fort Hood Documents”
Two top senators served the Obama administration Monday with subpoenas for information on the mass shooting at Fort Hood last November, claiming the administration’s stonewalling left them with no other choice.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine — respectively, the chairman and the ranking Republican on the Senate homeland security committee — notified Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates of the decision in a letter Monday.
They said the committee had sent four formal requests for information to the Pentagon and two to the Justice Department, and received little response.
Fox News article continues here.
Senate passes “fix” for health care bill, sends it back to House
Fox News, “Senate Passes ‘Fix It’ Health Care Bill, Sends It Back to the House”
After Senate Republicans succeeded in forcing a new House vote on the “fix-it” health care bill, congressional Democrats are now scrambling to finish work on the legislation before leaving town this weekend for Easter recess.
The Senate passed the follow-up health care bill Thursday afternoon, 56-43. Three Democrats, Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, joined Republicans in voting against the bill.
But the bill still has to return to the House for final congressional approval, after the Senate parliamentarian determined early Thursday morning that two Republican challenges succeeded in stripping out language in the package.
Fox News article continues here.
Republicans use objections to stall Senate hearings, force votes on health care ‘fixes’
Fox News, “Republicans Use Objections to Stall Senate Hearings, Force Votes on Health Care ‘Fixes’”
Republicans used a procedural move Wednesday to halt hearings in the Senate and force Democrats to vote on a series of politically dicey matters relating to the health care “fixes” sent over by the House this week.
Senate Republicans said they would insist that no committee meet after 11 a.m., two hours after the Senate gaveled in on Wednesday. The objection was used as part of the “two-hour rule,” a formality that requires unanimous consent for the Senate to meet two hours after the chamber has come into session.
To start a hearing beyond that time now will require the approval of all 100 senators.
Fox News article continues here.