Congress

Senate leaders are trying to “hotline” a bill that would expedite previously passed credit card reforms to prevent companies from hiking rates and fees before the law takes hold, according to sources on Capitol Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has asked members of the Banking Committee for their consent to move the bill directly [...]

Pranksters with too much time on the hands are alleviating their boredom by scavaging around Detroit’s ample supply of abandoned and vacant properties, The Wall Street Journal reports. A staff  videographer even documented a group of perpetrators in the act of pushing a dump truck out a fourth-floor window of an old Packard plant. Click [...]

Yesterday it was the Senate; today the House passed legislation to extend jobless benefits at least 14 weeks nationwide.
The count was 403-12. The “nays” comprised mostly conservative Republicans who oppose the tiny employer surtax that will fund the benefit extension.
The bill will provide an additional 14 weeks of unemployment insurance in every state, with an [...]

The House is poised to vote this weekend on an enormous proposal to overhaul the nation’s health care system, yet it remains unclear whether Democratic leaders will allow lawmakers to offer amendments on the chamber floor.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Thursday morning that she hasn’t reached any conclusions. “We may not have any amendments,” [...]

We weren’t the only folks curious about the morning’s claim from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) that the GOP’s health reform bill covers more uninsured Americans than the Democrats’ proposal. The fact checkers at Media Matters were also left scratching their heads, and here’s what they found.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.), the moderate Democrat who’s been a loud critic of her party’s plan to create a public insurance option, is warming to the proposal, Roll Call reported today.
“The president was right to move us in the direction of finding a way to turn this cost curve down. We cannot accomplish any of [...]

The threat from moderate House Democrats to derail health reform legislation over abortion funding concerns is a problem that can be worked out this week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Tuesday.
“We are still working on that,” Hoyer said, “but I am reasonably confident. I have talked to people who have varying views [...]

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner got an earful last week from House Democrats wary of the White House proposal to pay for government rescues of Wall Street firms by taxing healthy competitors only after Washington steps in. The critics want companies to pre-pay instead into a kind of sitting insurance fund to be used for the [...]

Nine months ago, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill were all celebration as they hailed the renewal of the program. Last week, they called for its demise.

Via TPM, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) took to Fox News this morning to plug the anti-health care reform rally — which she referred to as “the Super Bowl of Freedom” — she is organizing in Washington with the corporate-funded, small-government group Americans for Prosperity. After the rally — which is scheduled for noon Thursday on [...]