Posts Tagged ‘senate’

Senate musters the votes for aid to states

Posted in Education, Health, News, Politics, what on August 5th, 2010 by admin – 3 Comments

Reporting from Washington —

Overcoming the threat of a Republican filibuster, the Senate on Wednesday cleared the way for approving a $26-billion aid package for cash-strapped states that is expected to keep 138,000 teachers from being laid off nationwide and sustain medical care for the poor.

The Senate is scheduled to give its final approval to the bill Thursday. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called her chamber, which has already begun its August recess, back into session next week for a vote Tuesday to approve the Senate bill and send it to President Obama for his promised signature.

In campaign mode, Obama slams GOP as obstructionist

Posted in Health, News, Politics, economy, what on July 18th, 2010 by admin – Be the first to comment
Reporting from Washington and Bar Harbor, Maine —

Moving into campaign mode, President Obama on Saturday cast the Republicans as an obstructionist force bent on impeding the nation’s economic recovery for political purposes.

Obama used his weekly radio address to deliver a message that Senate Republicans are also blocking an extension of jobless benefits to millions of unemployed Americans suffering in a tough economy.

Boxer opens her campaign with an emphasis on jobs

Posted in News, economy, what on July 7th, 2010 by admin – Be the first to comment

Wasting no time as she formally kicked off her general election campaign, California Sen. Barbara Boxer argued Tuesday that she was the “proven fighter” for jobs in California, and she castigated opponent Carly Fiorina as a failed chief executive whose views are “about as far right as you can get.”

In the first day of a two-day barnstorming tour that will cover nine stops from Stockton to San Diego, Boxer jetted up and down the California Coast on Tuesday in a chartered Gulfstream G-3 jet.

The Democratic incumbent highlighted her plans to create jobs by ushering federal dollars to transportation projects in California, aiding the expansion of the clean energy economy through tax incentives and ending tax breaks for companies that send American jobs overseas.

Live: Elena Kagan Senate confirmation hearing

Posted in News on June 30th, 2010 by admin – Be the first to comment

9:35 a.m. EDT
Day Three of the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings is now underway, with the Supreme Court nominee facing a friendly round of questioning from the remaining members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — all junior Democrats.

As Jim Oliphant reports Wednesday morning, the proceedings included a feisty exchange with the panel’s leading Republican, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, over access to the Harvard Law campus for military recruiters during Kagan’s time as dean. Sessions accused Kagan of acting “without legal authority” to bar recruiters from the school’s Office of Career Services, saying she treated the armed forces as “second class.” Kagan said she was simply following the law.

Live: Elena Kagan Senate confirmation hearing

Posted in News on June 30th, 2010 by admin – Be the first to comment

9:35 a.m. EDT
Day Three of the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings is now underway, with the Supreme Court nominee facing a friendly round of questioning from the remaining members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — all junior Democrats.

As Jim Oliphant reports Wednesday morning, the proceedings included a feisty exchange with the panel’s leading Republican, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, over access to the Harvard Law campus for military recruiters during Kagan’s time as dean. Sessions accused Kagan of acting “without legal authority” to bar recruiters from the school’s Office of Career Services, saying she treated the armed forces as “second class.” Kagan said she was simply following the law.

House, Senate lawmakers reach a deal on financial reform

Posted in News, economy on June 25th, 2010 by admin – Be the first to comment
Reporting from Washington —

Ending more than two weeks of often-contentious negotiations, House and Senate lawmakers reached agreement early Friday on the most far-reaching rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression.

The final details, including creation of an agency to protect consumers in the financial marketplace and new regulations to reduce risk-taking by large banks and limit their trading of complex derivatives, were hashed out in a marathon 20-hour session that began Thursday morning.

Lawmakers on a joint conference committee labored until dawn reconciling House and Senate versions of the legislation in time for President Obama to brief foreign leaders on the completed deal at a major economic summit in Canada starting Friday.

Senate votes to delay Medicare cut

Posted in Health, News on June 19th, 2010 by admin – Be the first to comment
Reporting from Washington —

Breaking a logjam that has bedeviled doctors who treat the elderly, the Senate voted Friday to postpone a scheduled 21% cut in physician payments under Medicare.

The bill would postpone the cuts until Nov. 30, while Congress tries to develop a longer-term plan for paying doctors. But it will not become law until the House clears it, probably early next week.