Senate

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Obama Honors Senate Trailblazer Brooke

Republican senator wins Congress' highest honor

(Newser) - Hundreds of people packed into the Capitol Rotunda yesterday to honor Edward Brooke, the Massachusetts politician who in 1967 became the first black senator since Reconstruction. Now 90, Brooke was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the legislature's highest honor. Sitting to his right was another trailblazer—President Obama, who had...

Reid's 6 Biggest Headaches
 Reid's 6 Biggest Headaches 
PUBLIC OPTION SHOWDOWN

Reid's 6 Biggest Headaches

Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman are two of them

(Newser) - To get the 60 votes he needs just to bring his health care bill to the floor of the Senate, Harry Reid is going to have to rein in some of his caucus' members. Politico surveys the majority leader's biggest challenges.
  • Joe Lieberman, Conn. The independent said yesterday he'll join
...

Lieberman Threatens Filibuster Over Public Option

Independent's warning is bad news for Harry Reid

(Newser) - Joe Lieberman doesn't want a public option, and he warned today that he would join a Republican filibuster to try to prevent one from becoming law. The statement by the Democrat-turned-independent is bad news for Harry Reid's prospects of getting 60 votes in the Senate. Lieberman said he told Reid...

Dems Want Health Reform Rollout By 2010, 2012
Dems Want Health Reform Rollout By 2010, 2012
2013 suddenly too late

Dems Want Health Reform Rollout By 2010, 2012

Everyone wants something to show by midterm elections

(Newser) - Democrats are pushing Senate leaders to rework their health care bills so that at least some benefits kick in by the 2010 and 2012 elections. As currently formulated, the bill would bring the pain immediately, in the form of $100 billion in industry fees, but its reforms mostly wouldn’t...

Reid Narrows In on 60 Votes for Public Option

Landrieu and Lieberman agree not to block opt-out plan

(Newser) - Harry Reid closed in on the 60 votes he needs to pass a health reform bill with a public option yesterday, aided by 2 Democratic moderates who pledged not to filibuster the vote. Both Mary Landrieu and Joe Lieberman said they wouldn't block the bill, which offers a public insurance...

'Robust' Public Option May Be Dead in House

But not everyone buys report that Pelosi lacks the votes

(Newser) - The public option continues its yo-yo course. On the same day we get news that Harry Reid is leaning toward putting a version into the Senate bill, Mike Allen reports at Politico that Nancy Pelosi doesn't haven't the votes for a "robust" version in the House. Talking Points Memo...

Reid Goes for Broke With Public Option Bill

Senate majority leader banks on 60 votes, infuriates Baucus

(Newser) - Harry Reid is preparing to bring a health reform bill that includes a public option to the floor of the Senate, gambling that his 60-member caucus will support the plan if it contains opt-out measures for individual states. The majority leader and other senators met with Barack Obama yesterday to...

Maine's Other Senator Could Swing Health Reform

Eyes turn to Susan Collins as Dems ramp up courtship

(Newser) - Last week Sen. Olympia Snowe was the center of attention of Capitol Hill as she bucked the GOP line to support health care reform, but now Maine's other Republican senator, Susan Collins, is the one to watch. Both women voted for President Obama's stimulus package in February, and Democrats and...

Dems, GOP Fight Over Medicare Rates
Dems, GOP
Fight Over Medicare Rates

Dems, GOP Fight Over Medicare Rates

Republicans say foes are trying to hide true cost

(Newser) - A new health care-related bill is in the spotlight on Capitol Hill, as senators battle over a Democratic proposal to freeze Medicare rates for doctors at the current rate for 10 years—overriding a 21% cut scheduled for January. Democrats say the bill, which is backed by lobbyists from the...

Senate OKs US Trials for Gitmo Prisoners

Obama expected to sign measure aimed at speeding jail's closure

(Newser) - President Obama won a modest victory today in his continuing effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and allowing the government to continue to transfer detainees to the US for prosecution. The plan to permit terror suspects to be shipped to U.S. soil to face trial passed...

Reid to 'Vaporize' GOP Challengers: Aide
 Reid to 'Vaporize' 
 GOP Challengers: Aide 
ELECTION 2010

Reid to 'Vaporize' GOP Challengers: Aide

Senate majority leader studying Corzine for cues to effective negative campaign

(Newser) - Harry Reid, his re-election campaign wilting in the polls, is getting ready to rumble: The Senate majority leader is promising an intensely negative campaign against the 2010 GOP challenger for his Senate seat. With his $8.7 million war chest—the largest ever for a Nevada statewide race—Reid will...

Defense Dept. Opposed Anti-Rape Rule for Contractors

But lefties ripped GOP senators for nay votes

(Newser) - When 30 Republicans voted against an Al Franken amendment prohibiting defense contractors from forcing their employees to agree not to sue if they’re raped, Jon Stewart and liberals everywhere went ballistic. But those 30 Republicans weren’t alone, the Huffington Post reports; the Defense Department opposed the amendment as...

Public Option Now Has Legs in Senate
 Public Option Now 
 Has Legs in Senate 

so much for baucus bill

Public Option Now Has Legs in Senate

Hostile insurance industry pushes Dems to consider grab-bag of proposals

(Newser) - The public option, left for dead by the Max Baucus bill that passed the Finance Committee just weeks ago, has a new lease on life in the Senate. Credit goes to a CBO report underwhelmed by that bill's efforts to encourage competition, and a big power play by the insurance...

Energy Lobby Split on Climate, Thrilling Greens

Natural gas companies squabble with Big Oil as Senate negotiates

(Newser) - With the Senate set to consider legislation to tax carbon and rein in global warming, a split has emerged among the energy lobby that may make it easier to pass a clean-energy law. Natural gas producers favor a bill, while their colleagues in the oil industry oppose it; electric companies...

Six Senate Swing Votes


 Six Senate 
 Swing Votes 
HEALTH REFORM

Six Senate Swing Votes

From Dems who swing right to left-leaning GOPers, debate promises suspense

(Newser) - As health care reform bills merge and change on the Senate floor, the pool of legislators to watch has grown. The Wall Street Journal takes a look:
  • Olympia Snowe, R-Maine: Her vote for the Finance Committee bill was clutch, but "doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow,"
...

Obama Praises 'Critical Milestone' of Baucus Bill

Instead of celebrating, 'now is time to dig in'

(Newser) - President Obama called today's passage of legislation by a key Senate committee "a critical milestone" toward getting a health care overhaul this year, but said "now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back." Obama spoke in the Rose Garden about two hours after the...

Jay Rockefeller Is the New Teddy
 Jay Rockefeller 
 Is the New Teddy 
analysis

Jay Rockefeller Is the New Teddy

Senator inherits Kennedy's cause of health care reform

(Newser) - Jay Rockefeller shares little of the temperament of the late Ted Kennedy, but what they do share is essential. “Massive wealth and a virtual lock on his Senate seat frees a man to do what he believes in,” writes Margaret Carlson. And for both men—the West Virginia...

Senate Bill Likely to Come Down to Reid, Dodd, Baucus
Senate Bill Likely to Come Down to Reid, Dodd, Baucus
HEALTH NEGOTIATIONS

Senate Bill Likely to Come Down to Reid, Dodd, Baucus

Baucus, Dodd the only senators with secure seats at negotiating table

(Newser) - Every senator worth their salt is salivating for a seat at the table when Harry Reid merges the Senate’s two competing health care bills—but the vast majority will instead have their noses pressed to the glass. Reid hopes to speed things up by keeping the group small, Politico...

2010 a Toss-Up as Indies Flee the Dems
 2010 a Toss-Up as 
 Indies Flee the Dems 
gallup poll

2010 a Toss-Up as Indies Flee the Dems

But trend and dismal 21% approval of Congress could spell Dem's demise

(Newser) - The sizable lead among registered voters Democrats have maintained since the 2006 midterm elections has eroded to almost nothing. In the latest Gallup poll, Dems have just a 2-point advantage over Republicans going into the 2010 midterms, 46% to 44%, well within the sampling error. That’s down from a...

House Dems Fear Senate, WH Steamroll on Health Care

Moderates don't want to spend risky votes on legless progressive bill

(Newser) - House Democrats on both ends of the spectrum are feeling sorry for themselves as they struggle to shape a final health care reform bill. The bill is widely expected—based in no small part on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s proclamations—to include a public option, a tax on wealthy Americans,...

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