Senate

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah.) delivered a withering critique of liberals Thursday, saying they are as able to work across the aisle as the bombastic Donald Trump is able to be subtle.

"Progressives are to non-partisanship as Donald Trump is to subtlety," said Hatch from the Senate floor, referring to the billionaire real-estate mogul who might seek the 2012 GOP nomination for president.

“Ultimately, progressives are as partisan as they come and they push their liberalism through a vast and permanent bureaucracy that plods along day after day, largely out of sight of the American people who would never elect representatives who would actually promote this leftist anti-business agenda," said Hatch.  

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is seeking to draw a parallel between the financial crisis of 2008 and the upcoming fight over lifting the nation's debt ceiling.

"Very few people saw the last crisis coming," McConnell said in an exchange with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Senate floor Thursday morning. "This one, on the other hand, is clear as day. Everyone agrees this is a crisis and everyone knows the upcoming debt-limit vote is the best chance we have to do something about it."

"We face a crisis that makes the panic of 2008 look like a slow day on Wall Street," added McConnell. 

Senate Democrats on Wednesday overcame a filibuster driven by a small group of Republicans and confirmed John McConnell to be a judge for the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island.

The approval came in a 50-44 vote.

Because of the filibuster threat, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was forced to a file a cloture motion on McConnell's confirmation on Monday in order to allow deliberation to proceed. McConnell became just the fourth district court nominee in more than 60-years to have a cloture motion filed on his confirmation.

The Senate broke a filibuster from a small group of senators on the consideration of U.S. District Court nominee John McConnell on Wednesday with a highly unusual cloture vote.

Several Republicans had taken turns on the Senate floor throughout the week decrying McConnell, who they say is a liberal ideologue with an agenda against American business and "job producers."

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday, for example, insisted John McConnell (no relation) was a “pervasive and persistent hostility to American job creators.”

Senators objected to the nomination in part because of his career as a trial lawyer, during which he collected millions of dollars as part of civil cases against lead paint manufacturers and tobacco companies.

A long-stalled small-business bill faltered Wednesday as Republicans voted to thwart the measure.

The effort to invoke cloture on a Small Business Administration (SBA) funding bill fell 8 votes short in a 52-44 roll call. Republicans balked at proceeding on the bill, claiming Democratic leaders blocked their amendments. 

The legislation, which has been pending on the Senate floor for weeks, attracted 187 requests for amendments.

Republicans complained on the floor prior to the vote that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had not kept a promise made earlier in the year to allow an open amendment process on all legislation.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fired the opening shots Wednesday in the coming battle over raising the nation's debt ceiling.

In his remarks, McConnell signaled that Republicans would only vote to lift the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling in exchange for deep and permanent cuts in government spending. 

"A growing number of people now recognize that the upcoming vote on the debt limit provides us with the single best opportunity we have to avoid this crisis before it strikes," said McConnell. 

"There isn’t a single one of us who hasn’t vowed to do everything in our power to prevent the next crisis from happening, and that’s why the only way we can claim we’ve actually done something meaningful in this debate is to insist on meaningful reforms as the price of our vote," he said. 

McConnell warned that if the country doesn't manage to corral its debt, another serious financial crisis could strike soon.  Read more...

An aide said the Senate majority leader feels fine after dislocating his shoulder and suffering a bump to the forehead.

The Senate on Wednesday will vote on whether to move forward with the Small Business Administration (SBA) funding bill, a measure that has created fits for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). 

The legislation has attracted 187 requests for amendments from senators from both parties, of which only about two dozen pertain to the underlying bill, which — unlike some amendments — is not controversial.

Reid complained both Monday and Tuesday that some Republican senators, most notably Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), were holding the legislation hostage in an attempt to get votes on amendments purely for symbolic purposes. In an attempt to limit debate and force senators to come to an agreement on which amendments will see a vote, Reid filed for cloture on the bill Monday evening.

The Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution hailing those responsible for killing Osama bin Laden. 

The resolution hashed out by leaders in both parties names both President Obama and former President George W. Bush, as well as members of the civilian government, military and intelligence community for their work in finding bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. special operations forces on Sunday. 

The resolution declares "the death of Osama bin Laden represents a measure of justice and relief for the families and friends of the nearly 3,000 men and women who lost their lives on September 11, 2001."

To reflect the symbolic importance of the vote, senators each individually rose and cast their vote in favor of the resolution when they were called, a formality the Senate rarely uses. 

The vote was 97-0 with only Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Ha.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) missing the vote. Former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) resigned from the Senate on Monday and has not yet been replaced.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) praised his former rival for the presidency for ordering an assault team strike instead of an air raid in the attack on Osama bin Laden's compound. 

McCain said President Obama showed "courage" in his decision on Sunday's attack that resulted in bin Laden's death.

“I specifically want to credit the president with ordering an air-borne assault by ground forces rather than aerial bombardment," McCain said on the Senate floor.  "It would have been a lot easier to simply turn bin Laden's compound into a smoldering crater, but it would have denied us the certainty we now have that bin Laden is dead.