Senate

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) signaled Monday that the Senate would soon turn to a controversial piece of legislation to do away with billions of dollars in tax breaks for large oil producers and increase breaks for clean-energy producers.

As Reid welcomed Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) to the Senate Monday afternoon. he noted the upper chamber would soon have opportunities to "make tough choices" and referred to the upcoming energy legislation.

Republican Dean Heller was sworn in as the junior senator for Nevada Monday afternoon.

Vice President Joe Biden, who serves as president of the Senate, officiated.

Heller is replacing former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who resigned last week in part because of a Senate Ethics Committee investigation over claims he violated ethics rules in the aftermath of an affair with Cynthia Hampton, the wife of former top aide Doug Hampton, whom he allegedly helped to obtain a lucrative lobbying job.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday accused Democrats of trying to use the same failed plans that President Carter used in the 1970s to address the energy crisis, and said they should focus on increased domestic energy production to lower gas prices rather than taxing energy companies.

"Just like Carter before them, today's Democrats are using the crisis of the moment as an excuse to push their own vision of the future with a windfall profits tax on energy companies," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

The Senate returns at 2 p.m. Monday, and in the late afternoon (5:30 p.m.) expects to hold a cloture vote on the nomination of James Michael Cole to be deputy attorney general.

The Senate has little else on tap for this slow Monday, and the House is not in session.

Sen. Marco Rubio is calling for a review to determine if harsh interrogation techniques helped the CIA find bin Laden.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said a private viewing of the photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse should be considered for families of the 9/11 victims. 

"I want to do everything I can to bring closure to those families," Weiner said Friday on CBS's "The Early Show." "If there is some way to accommodate their interest of seeing it [the photo] without wide distribution, I would be open to that."

The Senate returns next week to a busy hearing schedule, including a series of hearings in the Senate Banking Committee to review the financial crisis and review the Wall Street reform bill. The latter hearing on Thursday will feature testimony from top-line financial regulators, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin and several others.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on new oil-and-gas technologies, as Republicans and Democrats continue to spar over how to lower the price of oil and gas. The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday holds its own hearing on rising energy prices.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) confirmed Thursday that he is considering leaving Ohio in order to to keep a seat in Congress.

"If I don't have anywhere I can run in Ohio, I have to start thinking about what my options are," Kucinich in an interview with a television station in Lakewood, Ohio. "I prefer to continue serving the district I've served for as long as I have.  But that's not my choice to make in terms of the map."

Ohio is losing two congressional seats in the redistricting process, and Kucinich's is likely on the chopping block. If that happens he could end up drawn into a district with Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) or find himself having to run against Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) if he wanted to continue representing the state.

The measure would end billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and increase breaks for clean energy producers.

The Senate has stood without any pending legislation, concrete plans to take up legislation or scheduled votes regarding legislation since it fell short on a cloture vote on the Small Business Administration (SBA) funding bill Wednesday afternoon.

On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, the chamber remained largely dormant, with a few senators occasionally coming to the floor to address a pet issue or a matter regarding their home district. 

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), for example, eulogized an influential constituent in a floor-speech Thursday, afternoon. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) expressed his discontent with "progressive" priorities of the federal bureaucracy.