Senate

Hours before meeting Obama, Sen. McConnell claimed any deal with tax hikes would fail to win support in Congress.

Sen. Durbin responded to GOP accusations that the president released the oil for political reasons.

The Senate returns at 2 p.m. for speeches, which will last until 6 p.m. At 4 p.m., Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is expected to speak about the need to ensure that new tax revenues are part of any political agreement related to the debt ceiling.

Sanders believes that a debt-ceiling agreement must rely on new revenues for at least half of any agreement to reduce red ink. He sent a letter to President Obama on the topic that several thousand people have signed in support.

The House left town Friday for a weeklong recess, shortly after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) abandoned Vice President Biden's debt ceiling talks.

While those talks have long been perceived as a battle between the White House and House Republicans, the White House next week will turn to the Senate for advice. President Obama and Biden meet with the top Senate Democrat and Republican on Monday in the hopes of setting a constructive tone for the House's return after July 4.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will lead discussions in the powerful Senate Foreign Relations committee next week on the prudence and legality of continued U.S. participation in the NATO bombardment of Libya.

A subcommittee of Senate Foreign Relations will also review the state of democracy in nations south of the U.S. border.

In other committee action, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) will hold a hearing in his Water and Wildlife subcommittee to scrutinize the ongoing impact of last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster on flora and fauna in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Among next week’s Senate committee hearings:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) escalated an ongoing spat with Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday, calling the majority leader “embarrassed” and “defensive” due to the Senate’s lack of a budget plan for fiscal year 2012. 

“I understand how the majority leader would be defensive,” Corker said. “He is the majority leader of the United States Senate, the greatest deliberative body in the world, some say, and we haven’t even taken up a budget when we spend $3.7 trillion of our people’s money, our country’s money each year,” said Corker. Read more...

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) expressed his anger at Senate Republicans Thursday for filibustering legislation he claimed would create jobs and indicated that a deal struck between the parties early in the year to streamline the legislative process could be on the rocks.

"It disappoints me that Republicans chose politics over job creation when they filibustered legislation that would have reauthorized the Economic Development Administration -- an agency dedicated to restoring economically distressed regions to prosperity," said Whitehouse. 

The Senate on Thursday defeated an amendment offered by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that would have maintained the confirmation process for nominees for the position of the director of Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Under the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act, currently pending on the Senate floor, that position along with other executive nominees for minor posts would be dealt with on a committee level rather than by the Senate as a whole.

The vote was 41-57. The amendment needed 60 votes to pass.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came to the floor following the vote and said he was working with Republicans on a deal to limit debate on the underlying legislation and that there would likely be no further roll call votes on Thursday.

The Senate voted 47-51 Thursday to kill an amendment offered by Sen. Vitter (R-La.) to defund White House policy 'czars'.

The Senate on Thursday will resume consideration of S. 679, a bill to streamline the presidential appointment process, and is expected to vote around noon on amendments offered by Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Jim DeMint (R-SC).