Among the loose ends for Congress before the election is the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Though you would think this would be a no-brainer, it got caught up earlier this year in a partisan controversy. Republicans objected to provisions that would have expanded the anti-domestic violence protections to tribal land, undocumented immigrants [...]

It’s with some pride that I note the current strategy from Senate Democrats to let the Bush tax cuts expire and then, if necessary, come back with a more progressive tax cut later. I was calling for this in 2010, and pretty much nobody agreed, save for perhaps Tom Udall (D-NM). Two years later, it [...]

The Senate did pass the farm bill yesterday, but included in the package was an amendment from Patty Murray that will force the executive branch to give more information on how they plan to handle the automatic cuts scheduled for the end of the year. And importantly, that directive does not just go to the [...]

Senate Democrats plan to allow a vote next week on an amendment to the surface transportation bill by Republican Roy Blunt, which would expand “conscience protections” in the Affordable Care Act. While Blunt views it as giving religiously affiliated employers the ability to opt out of coverage where they have a moral objection, which has [...]

As a kind of counterpoint to House Speaker John Boehner’s vow to legislate away the Administration’s regulations on universal access to birth control, including for certain religiously affiliated institutions, five Senate Democrats will “reaffirm their commitment to ensuring that women have access to the full range of preventative health services covered under the Affordable Care [...]

I’d like to say that the decision on restricting access to Plan B has led to a backlash in Washington. I’d like to say that female and male legislators alike lambasted the decision, which will result in more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions because paternalistic policymakers didn’t want to feel icky. But the headline “Plan [...]

Based on the inability to agree to basic mathematical facts about our budget, the deficit, and the options for the future, it would be easy to have no confidence whatsoever that the Super Committee will manage to get anything done in its short time frame. They cannot even figure out what baseline to work off, [...]

The Super Committee, what we’ve been calling Catfood Commission II, held its first meeting today. There wasn’t much on the agenda, just the internal governing rules of how the committee will proceed, under the direction of co-chairs Patty Murray (D-WA) and Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). Both sides are talking about compromise and the need for action, [...]

I think there’s reason to be happy about the three selections by Harry Reid for the Catfood Commission II, and there’s just as much reason to be skeptical. All three are on the record for a balanced deficit solution – so is the public, incidentally, because no other option has really been put before them [...]

Via everywhere, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has chosen Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), John Kerry (D-MA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) for the Super Congress, the bipartisan committee charged with finding at least $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 10 years. They will make up 1/4 of the 12-member committee: the other Majority and [...]

The Congressional Democratic leaders who have the role of winning elections are giddy about the NY-26 results. They want to replicate them all over the country. Sen. Patty Murray, head of the DSCC, thinks Democrats will now have seats they can win in 2012, despite defending more than twice as many seats in the election [...]