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NEWS ABOUT: Senate Republicans

Obama Rips Senate GOP for 'Filibustering Our Recovery'

Pushes hard for jobless benefits, small-business tax breaks

(AP) - President Obama is slamming Senate Republicans who "filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress" in his weekly address today, accusing them of making their stand at the expense of the unemployed "after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit." Lawmakers have... More »

Senate GOP Blocks Extension of Jobless Benefits

Democrats falls 3 votes short

(AP) - Senate Republicans defeated Democrats' election-year jobs bill, including an extension of weekly unemployment benefits for more than a million people out of work more than 6 months. The 57-41 vote fell three votes short of the 60 required to crack a GOP filibuster, delivering a major blow to President Obama... More »

Joe Barton's Office Deletes Triumphant Tweet

An aide takes blame; senator keeps committee post

(Newser) - Joe Barton found himself having to backtrack again today, but this time it seems an aide is to blame. The chain of events goes like this: Barton apologized to fellow Republicans for his BP apology mess, then learned he'd get to keep his spot as ranking Republican on a plum... More »

GOP Senator on Obama: 'He Needs to Take a Valium'

Capitol Hill meeting doesn't go so well

(Newser) - President Obama visited Senate Republicans today, but bipartisanship wasn't exactly overflowing, reports Politico . GOP Senator Pat Roberts' take: "The more he talked, the more he got upset. He needs to take a valium before he comes in and talks to Republicans and just calm down." The White House,... More »

Democrats Defy Reid, Keep Financial Debate Going

They want tougher amendments

(Newser) - Harry Reid had to fight with Republicans to begin debate on financial reform, and now he's got to fight fellow Democrats to end it. He called a vote today to move toward final passage ("We've got to put this thing to rest"), only to have Democrats such as... More »

GOP Blocks 3 Anti-Wall Street Moves

Senate Republicans slam amendments

(Newser) - Maybe Dems don't have the momentum they thought they had: Senate Republicans yesterday blocked three amendments Wall Street hates. The first and most controversial, known as Levin-Merkley, would have banned commercial banks from trading for their own benefit with taxpayer money. The second would regulate payday loans, while the third... More »

GOP Drops Filibuster on Financial Reform

They agree to allow the bill onto the floor for debate

(Newser) - The three-day standoff over the financial reform bill is over in the Senate. Now the real fight begins. Republicans dropped their filibuster and allowed the bill to proceed to the floor for debate instead of blocking it a fourth time. Talks to forge a bipartisan deal behind closed doors apparently... More »

GOP Blocks Debate on Financial Bill for Third Time

Political stalemate continues in the Senate

(Newser) - See if this sounds familiar: Republicans today blocked debate on a financial reform bill in the Senate, reports the AP . As promised, Harry Reid tried for the third time in as many days to bring the bill to the floor, only to run into unified GOP opposition. He said earlier... More »

Senate GOP Again Blocks Debate on Financial Reform

A third test vote is expected tomorrow

(AP) - For the second day in a row, Senate Republicans have blocked action on legislation to impose greater federal control on the nation's financial industry. Today's vote was 57-41, three short of the 60 needed for Democrats to advance their measure. Democrat Ben Nelson again joined Republicans. A third test vote... More »

GOP Blocks Test Vote on Finance Reform

Democrats vow to try again this week

(AP) - Senate Republicans have blocked Democrats' efforts to begin debate on overhauling the nation's financial regulatory system. The vote was the first Senate showdown on the sweeping legislation. Democrats failed to get the 60 votes today needed to begin debate. One Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted with the Republicans... More »

McConnell Shifts, Says Deal on Financial Bill Near

He takes credit, and Chris Dodd laughs

(Newser) - The prospects of financial reform passing the Senate appear to be much better today, with Mitch McConnell making decidedly less confrontational noises, reports the Washington Post and Talking Points Memo . "We believe the process to achieve (a bipartisan bill) has now been reconstituted," said McConnell, who claimed that... More »

Senate Faces Another Fight on Extending Benefits

Starring Tom Coburn as Jim Bunning

(Newser) - With the Senate scheduled for a two-week recess after tomorrow, there’s another showdown brewing over unemployment benefits—and this time, the Republicans have introduced a bill of their own in an apparent effort to avoid the negative publicity that came with Sen. Jim Bunning’s one-man filibuster earlier this... More »

GOP Demands 'No Viagra for Sex Offenders'

Tom Coburn drops slew of amendments to derail health care bill

(Newser) - Suddenly, Republican Tom Coburn has a lot of ideas about health care, and he’s demanding Congress vote on all of them, in a last-ditch attempt to derail the reconciliation bill. Coburn has proposed a slate of hard-to-vote-against amendments; if any of them pass, the bill will have to go... More »

GOP: Use Obscure Senate Rules to Kill Health Bill

Plan for reconciliation bill to die slow procedural death

(Newser) - The White House may not be as close as it thinks to having a health care reform bill to sign, as Republicans are hard at work brainstorming every possible procedural way of weakening and killing it in the Senate. GOP senators plan to use arcane parliamentary rules to hack off... More »

Senators Fight to Keep Sending Pork Home

Upper chamber unlikely to follow House's lead on earmarks

(Newser) - House members may be pushing earmark reform, but many of their Senate colleagues refuse to let go without a fight—in fact, Politico notes, it may be the one issue on which senators from both parties can agree on. Lawmakers from both sides argue that the money would be spent... More »

Jim Bunning Blocks More Obama Nominees

... over Canadian tobacco-flavoring law

(Newser) - Jim Bunning’s latest parliamentary maneuvering isn’t going to get in the way of anyone’s unemployment benefits, but might strike some as silly all the same: The Republican senator is blocking two minor Obama administration nominees to protest a Canadian law banning tobacco flavorings. And while the issue... More »

Scott Brown: Dems Wasted Year on 'Bitter' Health Reform

'Destructive, endless drive' needs to be scrapped

(AP) - Scott Brown accused President Obama and Democrats today of a "bitter, destructive, and endless" drive to pass health overhaul legislation that Brown warned would be disastrous. "An entire year has gone to waste," Brown said in the weekly GOP radio address. "Somehow, the greater the public... More »

GOP: Obama Must Sign Health Measure Before Reconciliation

And Senate's bill, which House Dems dislike

(Newser) - There looks to be a pretty substantial wrinkle in congressional Democrats’ plans to pass health-care reform via the simple-majority processes of reconciliation: President Obama would have to sign the Senate version of the bill into law before the House and Senate versions could be reconciled into one. That’s the... More »

Emails: Ensign Pulled Strings for Lover's Husband

Evidence mounts that Ensign may have crossed ethics lines

(Newser) - John Ensign tried to get a Las Vegas energy firm to hire his lover's husband as a lobbyist, according to new emails making the rounds at the FBI and a Senate ethics panel. The emails, which a source passed off to the New York Times , represent the first written evidence... More »

Bunning Shows Dems, GOP Are In Different Worlds

Time to give up on bipartisanship, writes Paul Krugman

(Newser) - The big lesson from Sen. Bunning's blockade of unemployment benefits is that the Democrats and Republicans are now in totally different universes, writes Paul Krugman. This is amply demonstrated by Republicam Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona's threat to block a bill extending benefits for the rest of the year in... More »

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