One area of the FAA authorization bill that has caused significant debate in the Senate concerns worker rules. An amendment yesterday that went down would have limiting Davis-Bacon “prevailing wage” rules in the airport construction projects authorized by the bill (noticeably, Mark Kirk and Lisa Murkowski voted with the Democrats on that one). Rand Paul [...]

The bipartisan amendment which would transform the way the credit rating agencies do business, authored by Al Franken, got a boost today when Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, whose voting record throughout Wall Street reform has grown more populist as he sees a legitimate challenge to his re-election at home, signed on to the amendment. From [...]

I’m obviously upset about how the progressive movement has completely missed the boat on financial reform. That said, even with no backup, 33 Senators voted to break up the biggest banks, and there are other opportunities to make the financial system safer and more transparent. Consider Al Franken’s effort to fundamentally change the operations of [...]