Legislative Debate

Neither the Democratic nor GOP proposal “is going to pass, sorry to say," Reid said on the Senate floor.

The House debated a bill Wednesday evening that would extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for 30 days, but delayed a vote until Thursday or Friday, when it will likely approve the bill and send it to a Senate that is working on a longer-term extension.

The NFIP will expire at the end of May without reauthorization, and the bill debated Wednesday would extend operations until the end of June. Republicans said the legislation would give the Senate more time to consider legislation, something it has failed to do despite the 406-22 passage in the House of a five-year reauthorization last summer.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday that a Democratic bill to extend low interest rates on federally subsidized student loans for another year would be a permanent job-killer, because it pays for the one-year extension by permanently imposing more taxes on high-income earners.

"Unfortunately, the majority leader's proposal is going to make this underlying jobs problem worse by burdening job-creating businesses with new taxes and compliance costs," Kyl said on the Senate floor.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) this week said he sees the Senate-passed postal reform bill as a "bailout" that fails to address the problems that are forcing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to spend $25 million a day more than it takes in.

"I support maintaining next-day delivery standards in rural areas that would keep the Cumberland mail processing facility open," Bartlett told the Cumberland Times-News. "However, overall the Senate bill is an irresponsible $33 billion bailout that fails to stem the post office's red ink.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday morning called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to settle a new dispute over how to allow votes for 17 U.S. district judges, and said he was disappointed that Reid decided to file for cloture on these judges Monday.

“I’m here today simply as one senator, to say respectfully to the majority leader, I hope he will reconsider and not do that,” Alexander said on the Senate floor.

The Senate overwhelmingly voted to end debate on its $109 billion transportation bill Thursday, setting in motion a march toward a final vote on the measure as early as next week.

In an 85-11 vote, the Senate invoked cloture on the measure, which has been dubbed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century bill.

The vote to proceed on the measure on Thursday was expected, but the margin was larger than sponsor Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) predicted in the minutes before lawmakers began casting their ballots.

"Maybe I'm just dreaming here, but I'm hoping for well over 60 votes to go forward," she said.

By the time the voting was finished, Boxer was lauding the bipartisanship that led to the bill winning 85 votes. 

"This is a tremendous vote — to move forward with one of the most important jobs bills we could move in this session," Boxer said. "[T]his is a good vote. Now the true test comes as we have a lot of work to do to complete this legislation, to make it real, to get that certainty out there to get these jobs going."

Boxer warned lawmakers to not offer unnecessary amendments to the bill, saying it could get bogged down in what she called "extraneous matters." 

"Please do not mess up this bill," she said. 

Boxer said she and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, would oppose amendments unless they both agreed they would add to the transportation bill.

Bowing to pressure, House Republican leaders have agreed to pass a temporary extension of a tax cut and unemployment benefits.

The amendment, coming in the wake of the Citizens United decision, would prevent corporations from spending money on political campaigns.

Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require all states to put in place policies aimed at preventing federal welfare grants from being used in liquor stores, casinos and strip clubs.

The bill, the Welfare Integrity Now (WIN) for Children and Families Act, would give states two years to prevent welfare payments from being spent in these ways. States that fail to comply would see their block grants reduced by 5 percent per year that they are out of compliance.

The Obama administration on Tuesday night said it opposes the REINS Act, which the House is expected to pass this week, and threatened to veto the bill if it made it to the President's desk.

"[T]he Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 10, the Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, which would impose an unprecedented requirement that a joint resolution of approval be enacted by the Congress before any major rule of Executive Branch agencies could have force or effect," the administration said in a statement of administration policy.