President Obama outlined his decision on immigration policy today, granting relief and work permits for approximately 800,000 “DREAMers” brought to America as children. And in the middle of his announcement, Neil Munro, a writer for the right-wing Daily Caller, interrupted the President and asked him why he was taking the side of foreigners over Americans. [...]

The Senate has spent the day on a must-pass FDA bill that reauthorizes a user fee from drug companies to finance FDA operations, in addition to making other changes to how the FDA deals with drug shortages. The bill is primed for passage in the House, so if it can get through the Senate without [...]

The President today is in Reno, Nevada, and he’s going to take a victory lap on HARP 2.0. President Obama will announce new figures Friday showing a dramatic spike in the number of Americans taking advantage of federal programs designed to help struggling homeowners and stabilize the lagging housing industry, administration officials said Thursday. The [...]

A Senate Banking subcommittee on housing yesterday sharply questioned members of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over their foreclosure review process, and the lack of transparency thereto. I’ve been largely avoiding the OCC reviews because I think they’re a joke – the servicers get to choose their own independent consultants to carry [...]

Peter King (R-NY), a frequent guest on News Corp’s cable news properties (up to this point), just called for an FBI investigation into allegations that the company hacked into the voicemail accounts of 9-11 victims. Given King’s constant invocation of 9-11, only rivaled by Rudy Giuliani, this isn’t all that surprising. King said in the [...]

Democrats unveiled their legislation to repeal Big Oil tax subsidies today, giving the high-profile legislation to three Senators with elections next year in tough states (Claire McCaskill, Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester) along with Bob Menendez, who appears to be the point person on oil-related issues in the caucus. Given that he was so successful [...]

The Senate has two votes planned this morning on HR 4, a bill already passed by the House that would repeal the 1099 reporting provision that would have required all businesses as of 2012 to report all vendor purchases over $600 to the IRS. This would have increased tax collection, according to the CBO, by [...]

Robert Menendez plans to reintroduce his bill, the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act, that would lift the $75 million liability cap on oil company damages in the event of oil spills. “The commission is clear: Not only are more spills of this magnitude entirely possible, but taxpayers and coastal communities remain financially exposed,” said Menendez [...]

It’s very interesting to see how things are lining up in the Senate. You had the food safety bill pass with 73 votes. Scott Brown came out today in favor of repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. The DREAM Act will get a vote next week, with somewhat persistent White House backing. The new START arms [...]

The President will meet with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus today on the chances of passing the DREAM Act, which would give a path to citizenship for undocumented students if they first completed a college program or military service. Harry Reid has already vowed to bring the DREAM Act up for a vote, either [...]

I’m trying to figure out why Robert Menendez picked today to roll out a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Yes, it’s clearly an election document, but since when does “introducing a bill” show a commitment? Besides, Democrats already introduced the framework of a bill months ago; this barely advances the ball. As for whether this will [...]