Let’s briefly recap Congress’ busy day yesterday, as they head out for a two-week recess (Spring Break ’12 Cancun?): • I already mentioned the passage of the Paul Ryan budget. If you believe that politics have anything to do with policies, it is confounding for House Republicans to mostly walk the plank again, passing a [...]

It’s unusual when the Senate passes one bill in a single day, but today they’ve passed two. And both are an indication of the seriousness of legislating in the modern age. First, we have the JOBS Act, a bill that promises an impossible solution to an unrelated problem, which is a mask for its true [...]

I knew the House planned to send a short-term transportation bill up for a vote next week, right before the deadline of March 31, when US highway funds would expire. I didn’t realize until now that the House actually formally voted down the bipartisan Senate version of the bill yesterday: House Republicans on Wednesday held [...]

The Senate invoked cloture today on the JOBS Act, the financial deregulation bill that Reid pulled from the floor yesterday after the failure of some amendments that would strengthen the investor protections. The vote was 76-22, with all the no votes coming from Democrats, including (surprisingly) New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, who must be representing the [...]

The Senate leadership has given up on trying to pass their version of the STOCK Act, instead planning a vote on the House bill that cancels out restrictions on so-called “political intelligence,” among other tougher measures. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), in a Tuesday afternoon floor speech, announced that he would not compel [...]

The Senate plan for the JOBS Act today, a financial deregulation bill that would weaken investor protections with no economic benefit, was for three cloture votes – an amendment to add investor protections to the bill, an amendment to attach a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank to the bill, and, if those failed, a cloture [...]

It appears a few Democrats have finally gotten around to reading the JOBS Act, the financial industry deregulation bill that would bring back penny-stock scams and remove investor protections. Multiple Democrats in the Senate have proposed changes to the legislation, which breezed through the House with ample Democratic support. “We can dial back this excessive [...]

The Senate’s transportation bill, which passed earlier this week, is more bipartisan than good. The bill lasts for two years rather than the 5 years requested by the White House, and it funds at about 2/3 the level in the President’s budget request, which itself is relatively low according to infrastructure experts. That said, it [...]

The Senate completed work on a two-year surface transportation bill, which costs $109 billion and will provide clarity to local infrastructure projects. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, extolled the measure, passed on a bipartisan vote of 74 to 22, as “a jobs bill in the true sense of the word.” “I hope [...]

It looks like Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have backed down on their obstruction of judicial confirmations. But it’s a little unclear at the moment. What we know is that McConnell and Harry Reid reached a deal that will allow the judges to get a vote. However, the JOBS Act, the financial market IPO deregulation [...]

Through some parliamentary maneuvering, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid escalated his fight over judicial nominations today. The short version of this is: The House passed something they called the JOBS Act, with broad bipartisan support, which is actually a financial industry deregulation bill opposed by government watchdogs like Americans for Financial Reform. The full story [...]