Senate

The first GOP amendment voted on for the Senate’s water infrastructure bill was about gun rights.

The Senate is considering the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which would authorize projects related to flood and storm risk reduction, coast and inland navigation, and ecosystem restoration.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced an amendment to the bill dealing with gun use on Army Corp of Engineer’s land.

Coburn’s amendment failed on a 56-43 vote Wednesday — 60 votes were needed for passage. It would have allowed individuals to carry guns at water resources development projects administered by the Secretary of the Army.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) announced Wednesday that he would withdraw one of his amendments to the Senate water infrastructure bill.

Coburn had introduced an amendment that would have required federal studies on guns. That amendment was scheduled to get a vote at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

Sen. Warren called the increasing amount of student debt a "quiet but growing crisis."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the words of Republicans against them Wednesday, quoting their past calls for regular order.

“For years Republicans have been singing the praises of regular order,” Reid said. “They said how they missed the days of committee markups, how they long for amendment vote-a-rama, and how they pine for a budget resolution … but then Republicans got what they wanted.

The Senate's top Republican sharply criticized President Obama's nominee to head the Labor Department on Wednesday saying he is willing to go around the law to achieve his objectives.  

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) cited several examples of the actions of Thomas Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department, that he says proves that he "does not merely push the envelope; all too often, he circumvents or ignores a law with which he disagrees."

“Taken together, all of this paints the picture, for me at least, not of a passionate liberal who sees himself as patiently operating within the system and through the democratic process to advance a particular set of strongly held beliefs, but a crusading ideologue whose conviction about his own rightness on the issues leads him to believe the law does not apply to him," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

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The Senate approved a bill, which allows the Mint to move forward with creating a commemorative baseball coin.

On Tuesday, the Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent. Last month, the House approved the same measure by voice-vote, meaning the bill now heads to President Obama’s desk for his signature.

“If in fact the Majority Leader slipped and said something he didn’t mean to say … then I invite him to come forward," Lee said.

Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) introduced a bill Tuesday that would help protect military service members from sexual assault.

They introduced the bill the same day the military announced that the number of sexual assault victims has increased by more than 30 percent. It is estimated that nearly 26,000 service members were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military last year.

Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) tried for a third time to get agreement from Republicans to form a conference committee on the House and Senate budget resolutions.

“Senate Republicans have now blocked our efforts to move to conference not once but twice,” Murray said Tuesday before asking for agreement for a third time. “Some say they want a framework before going to conference, but that’s exactly what a budget is. … There is no reason to wait.”

The Senate confirmed a nominee from President Obama on Tuesday to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

In a 53-45 vote, David Medine was confirmed to serve as chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The vote split down party lines, with Democrats supporting Medine and Republicans opposing his nomination. Sens. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) missed the vote.