Senate

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Ex-Gov Wins Wisconsin GOP Senate Primary

Linda McMahon prevails in Connecticut

(Newser) - Former four-term Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has fought off a trio of conservative challengers to win the state's GOP Senate primary. Thompson, George W. Bush's secretary of health and human services, will compete against Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin in a race that could determine control of the Senate....

Tea Partier Scores Missouri Win With Democrat's Help

Claire McCaskill ads called Akin 'too conservative'

(Newser) - Missouri Rep. Todd Akin has won a close three-way GOP race to challenge Sen. Claire McCaskill in November, breaking Sarah Palin's winning endorsement streak in the process. All three contenders, including Palin-pick Sarah Steelman, had the backing of different Tea Party groups, and each claimed to be the most...

Senate Panel OKs Cash for Unwanted Drones, Ships

$604B budget rejects Pentagon cost-cutting plans

(Newser) - With major Pentagon budget cuts looming, the Senate Appropriations Committee has decided to hand the military piles of money for stuff it says it doesn't want. A $604.5 billion defense budget approved by the powerful committee yesterday includes funding for drones, warships, and cargo planes that the Pentagon...

Democrats Meddling With GOP Primaries

Attack ads go easy on less threatening hopefuls: observers

(Newser) - Democrats are launching attack ads aimed at Republican Senate primary candidates—but the ads may actually be designed to get the easiest target nominated, insiders in both parties say. The apparent strategy follows Harry Reid's 2010 work in support of Republican Sharron Angle, who won her primary before losing...

Governor Cory Booker or Senator Cory Booker?

Newark's mayor is considering both options

(Newser) - Cory Booker is looking for a promotion. The Newark mayor, Democratic party phenom, and random rescuer of people from fires , is contemplating the launch of a campaign for either the Senate or the governorship in New Jersey, reports Politico . Booker announced his intentions last night at a local county committee...

Senate Democrats Pass Bill to Cut Middle-Class Taxes

Symbolic move isn't going anywhere in the House

(Newser) - Senate Democrats got to make an election-year statement today: They passed a bill that would extend the Bush tax cuts for the middle class but let them expire for the richest Americans, reports the Hill . The prospects in the House, where Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for the...

McCain Defends Clinton Aide Huma Abedin

He says GOP attacks on Muslim deputy are 'sinister'

(Newser) - John McCain took on a group of fellow Republicans on the Senate floor today, blasting them for their ill-founded attacks against Deputy Secretary of State Huma Abedin. Michele Bachmann and four other House Republicans have demanded Abedin be investigated for distant alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. "To say...

Sen. Susan Collins Nearing 5,000th Consecutive Vote

Maine Republican has never missed a vote

(Newser) - Congress is less popular than waterboarding , but one senator's work ethic should meet with approval: Sen. Susan Collins is just three votes away from scoring an unbroken streak of 5,000 votes, the AP reports. The Republican from Maine has not missed a single vote since taking office in...

Why the Senate Needs Seersucker Thursday
 Why the Senate Needs 
 Seersucker Thursday 
Dana Milbank
Jun 27, 2012 12:15 PM CDT

Why the Senate Needs Seersucker Thursday

Dana Milbank links the death of bipartisanship to the death of fun

(Newser) - Last Thursday, something tragic happened: The Senate cancelled Seersucker Thursday. Senate leaders thought the tradition, begun by Trent Lott in the '90s, of wearing the light pajama-esque suits and perhaps hitting up the dairy lobby's ice cream truck, would send the wrong message given the weighty issues of...

Senate Reaches Deal to Freeze Student Loan Rates

7M students could save as rates stay at 3.4%

(Newser) - Student loan rates will stay at 3.4% for another year, thanks to a Senate deal on the issue, insiders tell the Washington Post . With President Obama and Mitt Romney both pushing for the freeze—which prevents rates from jumping to 6.8% July 1—the agreement is no surprise,...

John McCain Livid Over Popcorn Subsidy

Trying to kill pork project of strangely silent Nebraska senators

(Newser) - Nebraska's two senators have been quiet—you might even say sneaky—about inserting a provision to help popcorn growers into the new farm bill. Both are on the Agriculture Committee, and they slid a provision into the bill saying that the Agriculture secretary "may" consider revenue insurance subsidies...

Dianne Feinstein's 2012 Opponent: 'Birther Queen'?

Orly Taitz may take second place in today's primaries

(Newser) - Birthers are making headlines again. First Donald Trump endorses Mitt Romney; now the so-called "Birther Queen" has a shot at being Dianne Feinstein's opponent in California's Senate race. Orly Taitz , who has made her case about President Obama's birthplace on national TV, could well be the...

Tea Partier Forces Runoff for Texas Senate Seat

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's 45% of the vote not enough to slay Ted Cruz

(Newser) - It looks like the Tea Party insurgency isn't over yet. Movement darling Raphael "Ted" Cruz didn't win yesterday's Republican Senate primary, but he kept things close enough to force a runoff with his favored opponent, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dewhurst had...

Bill to Lower Student Loan Rates Fails in Senate

GOP blocks measure; parties can't agree how to pay for it

(Newser) - Hope your federal student loans are paid off, kids, because Washington appears deadlocked over legislation that would prevent their rates from doubling this July. A Senate bill to do so failed in a 52-45 vote along party lines today, failing to get the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster,...

Senate Passes Plan to Save Postal Service

Overhaul would cut costs, prevent closures

(Newser) - A plan to save the US Postal Service from financial collapse has passed the Senate with unusual speed. The Senate plan calls for a major overhaul of the service, which is losing $36 million a day. The bill would allow the service to cut its pension and retiree benefit costs,...

2011 Senate 'Laziest' in Decades

2011 saw least-productive session since 1992

(Newser) - The 2011 Senate produced less legislation than any other since 1992, according to a report by the chamber's own secretary. Throughout its 170 days, the Senate was in session an average of just 6.5 hours per day; only 2008's Senate had a lower figure, with three members...

Senate Sends Insider Trading Bill to Obama

Congress approves weaker version of bill designed to police itself

(Newser) - The Senate today sent President Obama a scaled-down bill to explicitly ban members of Congress, the president, and thousands of other federal workers from profiting from nonpublic information learned on the job. In an unusual move, the legislation passed unanimously without a vote on the measure itself. Instead it passed...

GOP Balks at Renewing Violence Against Women Act

Because Democrats added provisions about immigrants, same-sex couples

(Newser) - Conservative senators are coming out against renewing the Violence Against Women Act, which provides federal funding for domestic violence programs and passed with broad bipartisan support in 1994. Democratic women plan to march to the Senate floor today and demand a quick vote to extend the bill, the New York ...

Senate Kills GOP Measure to Push Keystone Pipeline

But vote was close, a warning for Obama

(Newser) - Looks like a good-news, bad-news result for President Obama today on the Keystone oil pipeline. The good news for him is that a Republican measure to fast-track the controversial pipeline fell short in the Senate, reports the Hill . Obama had personally lobbied against the measure, and passage would have been...

Maine's Angus King: Next Senate Power-Broker?

Independent ex-governor hopes to replace Olympia Snowe

(Newser) - There's a decent chance his name won't ring a bell, but the Washington Post today declares Angus King to be the "most important Senate candidate in the country." As the Fix blog explains, King is running for Olympia Snowe's seat in Maine , and as a...

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