Senate

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Senate Rejects Temporary Ban on Pork

Congress passes budget plans to roll back tax cuts

(Newser) - The Senate soundly rejected a bid to ban pork barrel spending for a year last night, despite the support of all three presidential candidates who returned to DC for a day of heavy voting, CNN reports. Both the House and Senate also passed budget plans—largely symbolic moves in an...

Ohio's 'Senator No' Metzenbaum Dead at 90
Ohio's 'Senator No' Metzenbaum Dead at 90 
OBIT
Mar 13, 2008 3:20 AM CDT

Ohio's 'Senator No' Metzenbaum Dead at 90

Crusading Democrat took on big business in long Senate career

(Newser) - Former Ohio senator Howard Metzenbaum has died at home at the age of 90, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Democrat, his views shaped by the Great Depression and FDR's policies, fought hard for the rights of workers during a political career that began in 1943. Colleagues nicknamed the self-made...

House Passes Mental Health 'Parity' Bill

Requires comparable insurance coverage for illnesses of body, mind

(Newser) - The House has passed a bill requiring most group health insurers to provide comparable coverage for treatment of mental illness and addiction as they do for physical illness, the New York Times reports. "Illness of the brain must be treated just like illness anywhere else in the body,"...

10 Senate Seats Likely to Flip
10 Senate Seats Likely to Flip
Feb 29, 2008 3:55 PM CST

10 Senate Seats Likely to Flip

Blogger runs down races to watch

(Newser) - The presidency isn’t the only job up for grabs this November. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza runs down (in order) the Senate seats most likely to flip parties:
  1. Ex-Virginia governor Mark Warner (D) is mounting a “sure-thing bid.”
  2. The survivor of the New Mexico GOP primary
...

Bush Spars With Senators Over Housing Fixes

Democrats and Republicans push to go further; feds don't want 'bailout'

(Newser) - Congressional Democrats are pushing for new bankruptcy rules to help homeowners suffering from the mortgage crisis, the Washington Post reports—though the White House says it will veto any plan that could hurt lenders and send mortgage rates upward. Democrats say enough Republicans from hard-hit states could join them in...

Mortgage Crisis: Judges to the Rescue?

Democrats back plan to let jurists change loan terms

(Newser) - Over the loud objections of lenders, Senate Democrats are lining up behind a plan to give bankruptcy judges the power to alter mortgages, the LA Times reports. The proposals could go to the floor as early as today. “This bill will have more impact… than any other option currently...

Clinton and Obama: A Tale of Two Senators

Brief legislative careers reveal much about candidates

(Newser) - The Senate isn’t a powerful presidential launching pad, but Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama arrived there amidst whispers of executive ambitions, and each charted a very different course, the LA Times reports. Clinton swiftly established herself as an inside operator, forging alliances and focusing on her state, while Obama...

Bush Predicts GOP Victory
Bush Predicts GOP Victory
Feb 26, 2008 3:15 AM CST

Bush Predicts GOP Victory

Boasts Republicans will keep White House, regain House, Senate, governor majority

(Newser) - President Bush insisted yesterday to the Republican Governors Association that Americans will elect another Republican to fill his shoes in November, AP reports. "And I don't want the next Republican president to be lonely," Bush said. "And that's why we got to take the House, retake the...

Candidates Run the Gamut on Earmarks

Clinton in top 10; Obama near bottom; McCain has none

(Newser) - This year’s presidential frontrunners represent a wide array of stances on congressional earmarking—a term for garnering funds for home-state pork, reports the Washington Post. Hillary Clinton is one of the Senate’s biggest earmark recipients, Barack Obama is in the bottom quarter, and John McCain is one of...

Waterboarding Is Illegal: Justice Dept.

Legal expert to tell House committee it's no longer acceptable

(Newser) - A top Justice Department official will declare to a House subcommittee today that waterboarding is no longer legal—a day after Congress defied President Bush's veto threat to explicitly outlaw the controversial interrogation tactic. "The set of interrogation methods authorized for current use is narrower than before, and it...

Senate Yields to White House on Eavesdropping
Senate Yields to White House on Eavesdropping
UPDATED
Feb 12, 2008 6:41 PM CST

Senate Yields to White House on Eavesdropping

Agrees to widen powers, give phone companies immunity

(Newser) - The Senate passed a bill today to expand the government's wiretapping powers and to grant immunity to phone companies that aided the government in post-9/11 investigations, the Washington Post reports. That translates into a big victory for the White House, notes the New York Times. The bill now goes to...

GOP Senators Block Dems' Stimulus Plan

Bill to give Americans tax rebates is now in legislative limbo

(Newser) - Democrats' efforts to expand a financial relief plan for Americans hit a roadblock in the Senate today, the AP reports. Republicans were able to stymie the bill, which they say is too expensive. Democrats hoped to add $40 billion to the plan that passed the House last week; it's now...

House OKs Stimulus Package
House OKs Stimulus Package
Jan 29, 2008 4:57 PM CST

House OKs Stimulus Package

Pelosi warns Senate to move quickly

(Newser) - The House approved a $146 billion economic stimulus package today with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill, which would give most Americans rebates of $600, passed by a vote of 385-35 and now heads to the Senate, reports the Washington Post. Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked the Senate to approve its version...

Deal on Stimulus Package Puts Heat on Senate

Bush, Congress bask in the brief glow of cooperation, but can it last?

(Newser) - The $150 billion package of tax breaks for consumers and businesses rolled out yesterday was the first show of bipartisan cooperation sans bloodletting since the  Democrats won control of Congress a year ago, the Washington Post observes. It took panic over a looming recession to make it happen, and it...

US Seeks Iraqi Authority to Continue War

Agreement would not need ratification

(Newser) - The White House is negotiating with Iraq what critics say is a treaty in all but name and could tie the hands of a future administration, reports the New York Times. The US is insisting on being granted continued authority to conduct the war and calling for legal protection for...

Wicker Will Step Into Lott's Shoes
Wicker Will
Step Into
Lott's Shoes
Jan 1, 2008 4:00 AM CST

Wicker Will Step Into Lott's Shoes

Mississippi governor picks conservative Republican

(Newser) - Mississippi's governor has chosen Rep. Roger Wicker, a conservative Republican, to take Trent Lott's vacant seat in the US Senate until a special election can be called, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. After 35 years, Lott quit this month, a year into his 6-year term. The timing of the special election...

Congress Approves War Funds
Congress Approves War Funds
Dec 19, 2007 6:19 PM CST

Congress Approves War Funds

House passes budget that includes money for Iraq

(Newser) - The House today approved a $556 billion spending bill that grants President Bush his wish for $70 billion in additional funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Reuters reports. The measure, which also funds most of the federal government through next September, marks another setback for Democrats looking to...

Senate Votes to Aid At-Risk Homeowners

Bill, approved 93-1, would allow feds to back refinanced loans

(Newser) - In an attempt to quell the ongoing housing crisis, the Senate approved a bill today that would allow the Federal Housing Administration to back refinanced loans for the thousands in danger of defaulting on mortgages. The bill, which passed 93-1, also repositions the FHA as an attractive alternative to subprime...

Energy Bill Blocked by 1 Vote
Energy Bill Blocked by
1 Vote
Dec 13, 2007 12:42 PM CST

Energy Bill Blocked by 1 Vote

Dems fail to override filibuster; $21B in taxes on oil companies draw GOP's ire

(Newser) - Senate Democrats today failed by one vote to advance a broad energy bill that would have increased mileage standards to 35mpg by 2020. The sticking point for Republicans was  $21 billion in new taxes, mostly on oil companies, the New York Times reports. The vote to invoke cloture scored 59...

Committee Votes to Hold Rove, Bolten in Contempt

Act challenging executive privilege may stall before full Senate

(Newser) - The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to hold Karl Rove and Josh Bolten in contempt today, the AP reports, for ignoring subpoenas on the US attorneys scandal. The White House, however, says the citations will likely die on the Senate floor. “I vote knowing that it’s highly likely to...

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