Senate

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is delaying progress on a bill to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to add an amendment that pays for the legislation by making cuts in other parts of the federal budget, his office said Wednesday.

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) took to the floor Tuesday evening to demand that freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) drop a hold he has placed on a bipartisan resolution to condemn the violence that the Syrian regime has deployed against its citizens.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blasted one GOP senator on Wednesday morning for standing in the way of a bill to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and indirectly endangering the jobs of 80,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday introduced President Obama’s American Jobs Act in the Senate.

Reid’s bill, S. 1549, is the text of the proposal that Obama has implored Congress to pass, but which Republicans say has no chance in the House because Obama has proposed to pay for the $447 billion jobs plan with new taxes.

The Senate on Wednesday is likely to take up a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding bill as well as a highway bill, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced Tuesday evening from the Senate floor.

The Senate on Tuesday afternoon narrowly voted to advance a bill to renew sanctions on Myanmar intended by Democratic leadership to serve as a vehicle for a $6.9 billion funding package for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) on Tuesday afternoon suggested Republicans’ Monday vote to stop a $6.9 billion package to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was “heartless.”

Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) introduced a bill on Tuesday that would require the Obama administration to sell 66 F-16 fighter planes to Taiwan, which they said would help Taiwan modernize its air force and help create U.S. jobs at the same time.

The Taiwan Airpower Modernization Act, S. 1539, expresses the sense of Congress that China has been advancing militarily, shifting the balance of power with Taiwan. It also argues that Taiwan's air force is deteriorating and that the U.S. has a legal obligation under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 to provide Taiwan with the ability to defend itself.

"Saying no here would mean granting Communist China substantial sway over American foreign policy, putting us on a very slippery slope," Cornyn said Monday.

Senate Republicans hardly uttered a word in their own defense on Tuesday afternoon as one Democrat after another took to the floor to accuse the minority party of depriving disaster victims of badly-needed relief.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that the Senate will try once again Tuesday afternoon to pass a $6.9 billion bill to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The first attempt to move the bill forward Monday fell short by seven votes of the 60-vote threshold required by Senate rules. Reid’s announcement, however, indicates that a deal was likely struck supplying the legislation with sufficent votes to move forward.