Today, the Senate approved the long-stalled Small Business Jobs Act, a deficit-neutral bill containing tax cuts and an array of other measures to aid businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Its signature component is a $30 billion lending fund, which will encourage small banks to lend to small businesses. More…
Today, the Senate voted to move forward to a final, majority-rules vote on the Small Business Jobs Act. Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), who is retiring this year, crossed the aisle to break a Republican filibuster of the bill, which has been held up in the upper chamber since June.
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) has decided to vote yes for the small-business bill, a deficit-neutral package of tax breaks that has been held up for months in the Senate. With Voinovich willing to cross the aisle, Democrats have the 60 votes necessary to defeat a Republican filibuster More…
The Senate has two weeks until it adjourns for the August recess, and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has promised that legislation to help small businesses is the highest priority on his docket.
Normally, small business bills are the welcome fruits of bipartisan labor. But not this small business bill. More…
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) today is accusing Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate majority leader, of playing politics with the federal extension of unemployment benefits. He says Reid rejected a compromise, offsetting half the cost of the bill with stimulus money, to keep the blocked unemployment extension as a More…
Following up on my piece today on the increasing odds of a utilities-only carbon cap — particularly given a supportive statement from swing Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) — Marc Ambinder writes:
Snowe is a signaler: if she’s on board with a bill, then Sen. Susan Collins, Scott Brown,
With Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) siding again with the Republicans — none of whom crossed over to vote for cloture to start debate on Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill — the effort has failed for the third day in a row on a vote of 56 More…
Given that the prospects for passage of the climate legislation being drafted by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) rest on the shoulders of a few moderate Republican senators, this news from CQ (subs. req’d) isn’t good for environmental advocates:
Two moderate Republicans long
They already have a liberal, a conservative and a wild card on board; now the tripartisan Senate group crafting climate legislation is trying to fill the spaces in between.
Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are expected to soon release further details of their More…
The Senate just voted 62-30 to allow a $15 billion jobs bill to go to the floor for a final up-or-down vote. Five Republicans crossed the aisle to vote for the bill, while Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) was the only Democrat to vote against it.
From The New York More…
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