Senate

The Senate meets at 9:30 a.m., and soon after will resume consideration of S. 782, the Economic Development Revitalization Act.

Overshadowing the bill is an amendment that would delay a rule limiting the fees banks can charge business owners in debit card transactions. The amendment, from Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), would delay the rule for one year and require a study of how the rule might affect smaller banks.

Controlling spending and reducing the deficit are as crucial as winning the future, the administration said.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on an controversial amendment to curb new limits on debit card fees at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The proposal has been subject to a heavy lobbying fight between banks, who support it, and retailers, who oppose it and want to see the fee limits take effect in July as called for in last year's Dodd-Frank law.

Sens. John Tester (D-Mont.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) have been working hard to garner the 60 votes needed to approve the amendment, which would halve how long the new limits would be delayed, to 12 months from the original two-year delay proposed by Tester.

Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) unveiled a reworked version of their effort to curb new limits on debit card fees Tuesday, as they work to garner the 60 votes needed to approve the amendment.

The new amendment would halve how long the new limits would be delayed, to 12 months from the original two-year delay proposed by Tester. It also would call for regulators to conduct a six-month study of all the costs associated with debit transactions, the impact of the rules on consumers, and whether small financial institutions can be properly exempted from the limits as envisioned by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

A vote on the amendment could come sometime this week.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) took advantage of a procedural rule to poke fun at a colleague while, quite seriously, opposing his measure to delay limits on debit card transaction fees.

Durbin is the champion of a provision of the financial reform law that empowers the Federal Reserve Board to set limits on what financial institutions may charge for debit card transaction, or swipe, fees. Those limits are to be imposed in July.

Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.) is the sponsor of an amendment that would delay the imposition of the limits for 15 months. Read more...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday the Democratic Party's agenda is "radically opposed" to job creation.

“For two and a half years, Democrats in Washington have paid lip service to the idea of job creation — even as they’ve relentlessly pursued an agenda that is radically opposed to it," McConnell said in floor comments.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday sought to turn the tables on recent House criticism that the Senate has not acted on various House-passed bills, calling the House a "big dark hole" where job-creating legislation created in the Senate goes to die.

Reid specifically complained that the House had not worked on legislation funding the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or a patent reform bill passed by the Senate earlier this year.

"It [the FAA funding bill] has been held up in the big dark hole in the House of Representatives," said Reid. "Nothing has been done...And 280,000 jobs that were created or saved haven't been completed.

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Tuesday that he believes the Obama administration only has until this summer to submit legislation to Congress implementing three long-stalled trade agreements, or these agreements will never be implemented.

"I'm convinced that the window for the administration to submit these agreements will soon pass," Hatch said on the Senate floor. "Given the upcoming election season, I'm afraid that if these agreements aren't submitted this summer, they never will be."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) this week introduced legislation that would subject U.S. contractors overseas to U.S. criminal law, including private contractors involved in U.S. military actions in the Middle East. Leahy said his bill is partly a reaction to the shooting of unarmed Iraqi citizens by Blackwater security contractors in 2007.

"Tragic events in Iraq and Afghanistan highlight the need to strengthen the laws providing for jurisdiction over American Government employees and contractors working abroad," Leahy said. "The Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act accomplishes this important and common sense goal by allowing United States contractors and employees working overseas who commit specific crimes to be tried and sentenced under U.S. law."

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on Monday sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in an effort to "bring transparency" to what DeMint says was a partisan decision by the board to sue Boeing.

"The public facts surrounding the complaint raise serious questions about the interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act upon which it is based, to say nothing of the troubling appearance of partisan, special interest politics at its heart," DeMint wrote in his June 6 letter.