Senate

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took the Senate floor on Thursday morning to attempt to refocus the negative attention the Congress has received over possible insider trading back at the White House. 

A behind the scenes fight over a tangle of amendments kept the STOCK Act once again from making any visible progress in the Senate on Wednesday night. 

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have introduced legislation that would permanently discontinue the $1 dollar note and replace it with a coin.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said she felt like she had been under “attack” from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on the Senate floor on Wednesday because her proposed amendment that would force lawmakers to report their mortgages on personal properties for review does not extend to the White House. 

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Wednesday introduced legislation to codify a rule named for billionaire Warren Buffett that would require individuals who make more than $1 million a year to pay a tax rate of at least 30 percent.

McConnell noted that the Obama administration itself has decided the CLASS Act is not financially viable. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) opened the upper chamber Wednesday by accusing House Republicans of piling up phony jobs legislation and by blaming Senate Republicans for amendment gridlock on the pending STOCK Act, a bill to clarify that engaging in insider trading in Congress is illegal.

A bipartisan group of six senators on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to study the possible health risks posed by X-ray scanning devices that are used to screen passengers, and provide for alternative screening methods for people who don't want to run these risks.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she introduced her bill in part because TSA Administrator John Pistole said last year he would call for an independent study on the health risks posed by scanners, but then backed away from that commitment. She said she received a letter from Pistole that failed to explain why a study would not be forthcoming.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took the floor late Tuesday afternoon to complain that after a long day of work on the bipartisan STOCK Act, the Senate had nothing to show because senators were quarreling over which amendments would see votes.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday took a dig at Newt Gingrich, his father's rival for the GOP presidential nomination, by arguing that ex-members of Congress who engage in lobbying ought to be stripped of their taxpayer provided pensions and health care.