With the two-month stopgap put to bed, all eyes turn to the next round on the fight to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance. Once this law is signed, lawmakers will have until the end of February to reach agreement on what they claim to want, a year-long extension on the above two [...]

And there it is. John Boehner has cried uncle. House Republicans will pass the two-month Senate stopgap bill to extend the payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance benefits and a doctor’s fix to avert a 27% cut in Medicare reimbursement rates. In exchange for this cave, Harry Reid will appoint conferees to go into negotiations on [...]

National Journal’s Major Garrett sketches out a possible scenario for an acceptable endgame to the payroll tax fight. House Republicans see the futility of fighting President Obama the week before Christmas and agree to the Senate’s two-month payroll-tax cut extension on one condition: Senate Democrats agree to go to conference on a full, one-year payroll [...]

The House has begun voting on a series of Parliamentary measures on the payroll tax deal, where they will try to reject the deal by voting Yes on a conference committee to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill. Harry Reid reiterated today that he has no interest in appointing conferees: Senate Majority [...]

OK, mystery solved. Over the weekend I was stumped with how Congress would handle the expiring continuing resolution that funds the government. Friday was the deadline, and there was seemingly no activity to suggest that anything would be done to extend the CR. But finally, we have learned the plan: the CR will attach to [...]

Just getting to an agreement and a vote in the Senate on the defense authorization bill, which has the legislative repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in it, is not enough to send it along to the President. The House passed its own version of the bill way back in the summer, and it’s markedly [...]

Multiple outlets, but led by Jane Kleeb at Bold Nebraska, have confirmed that Ben Nelson will support the financial reform bill. It’s unclear what Nelson got in exchange for his support, but that was a pretty quick turnaround. Maybe Harry Reid told him that his objection to no Senate input on the head of the [...]

Scott Brown has announced his support of the Wall Street reform bill in a written statement. U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R., Mass.) said in a written statement Monday he plans to support the financial-overhaul bill, taking the White House and Democrats to the verge of the support needed to pass the bill. “I appreciate the [...]

When the Senate returns into session this week, they may have a final vote on the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. We know that Russ Feingold is the only Democrat who opposes the legislation, so that’s 57 votes in favor, pending a replacement for Robert Byrd. There’s a path to 60 without the Byrd replacement. Susan [...]

Last night, Maria Cantwell announced her support of the Dodd Frank financial reform bill, citing a letter from Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief Gary Gensler ensuring her that the derivatives title will be rigorously enforced. In the letter, Gensler says that the legislation, in his view, mandates clearing and exchange trading for “standardized over-the-counter derivatives” [...]

The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill passed the House of Representatives Wednesday by the count of 237-192. Three Republicans broke ranks to support the final bill. Earlier, Democrats beat back a Republican motion to recommit that would have added back Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” amendment and also created an “end user” exemption for margin and [...]