mitch mcconnell

The Senate will hold a procedural vote tomorrow at 12:15 p.m. to limit debate on legislation extending unemployment benefits in all states, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) just announced on the chamber floor. Senate rules mandate that the final vote can’t come earlier than 30 hours after the cloture vote. To expedite final passage, however, Durbin [...]

It’s Groundhog Day in the Senate.
After voting 85-2 yesterday to proceed to legislation extending unemployment benefits at least 14 weeks nationwide, the Senate remains stalled Tuesday over a second procedural vote required to move to final passage.
Delaying the bill are (1) Republican leaders insisting on consideration of unrelated amendments, and (2) Senate rules requiring two [...]

After three weeks of stalling over controversial amendments to legislation extending unemployment benefits, Senate GOP leaders are floating a new message as they criticize the way Democrats have managed the process: they’re trying to paint the unemployment insurance debate as a kind of forewarning of what might happen as the Senate moves to health reform [...]

Moments ago, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) shot down a motion by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to proceed to legislation extending federal unemployment insurance by up to 20 weeks in the states hit hardest by the recession. It marks the fourth time in three weeks that GOP leaders have prevented the bill from [...]

In the wake of yesterday’s Senate vote on an unemployment insurance extension, there’s been some confusion — including among TWI commenters — about what exactly happened. And what happens next.
Here’s the bad news for those having exhausted their benefits: The vote on cloture to proceed to the bill doesn’t mean that the bill has [...]

This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) squared off on the chamber floor over how to proceed on legislation to extend unemployment benefits at least 14 weeks. Needless to say, they failed to reach an agreement, with McConnell rejecting Reid’s motion to scrap tomorrow’s cloture vote and move [...]

Republican senators are pushing controversial immigration and banking amendments to the unemployment insurance measure.

The stalling of legislation to expand unemployment insurance (UI) has little to do with the benefit itself. First, there’s a push to attach an extended homebuyer tax credit to the bill — something the Obama administration is wary of.
But also there’s this: Republicans are hoping to attach a number of amendments related [...]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants a “further review” in the wake of new White House guidelines reversing an earlier policy that prohibited health insurers from urging Medicare beneficiaries to oppose the Democrats’ health reforms, which include clipping more than $100 billion from Medicare Advantage plans.
The prohibition sparked an outcry last month, after the [...]

Last week, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kans.) urged GOP leaders — namely Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — not to resist health reform simply for the sake of resisting health reform.
“I don’t want the Republicans putting up a ‘no’ sign and saying, ‘We’re not open for business,’” Dole said, according to the [...]