Senate

Senate Committees will engage in a number of housekeeping items next week, including confirmation hearings for several administration nominees. They also will begin discussion on topics that could take center stage in the Senate later this year, including biofuel in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and border security in the Committee on Homeland Security.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) said leadership has finally come to an agreement that will allow the Senate to vote on an amendment to the Small Business Administration (SBA) funding bill that would repeal the 1099 tax reporting requirements created by the healthcare reform law.

That vote is now scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said congressional leaders are nearing a deal to finalize the federal budget for the remainder of fiscal 2011.

"We are finally headed into the home stretch," Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon. "We are at the doorstep."

Schumer confirmed reports that Republicans and Democrats are working toward $33 billion in spending cuts. 

But even as he hailed progress in the talks, Schumer did not miss a chance to take a swing at the Tea Party.

"There are outside sources that don't like this turn of events," Schumer said, referring to the Tea Party members who rallied outside the Capitol Thursday.

"They want [Speaker of the House] John Boehner [R-Ohio] to abandon these talks even if that means a shutdown on April 8," Schumer said. "This is a reckless and, yes, extreme position to take."

The measure funding the government expires April 8.

A measure that would permanently strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions was not an “adult amendment,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Thursday.

“Is this an adult amendment?” Rockefeller asked rhetorically. “It cannot be.”

The amendment, from Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.), was one of many being offered Thursday to the Small Business Reauthorization Act, which would provide funding for the Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer program (SBTT), initiatives Democrats say are critical for job creation.

Rockefeller ridiculed the amendment as “unrealistic, irresponsible and immature.”

“It’s childlike,” Rockefeller said. “It’s like saying, ‘I'm taking my football. I am going home.’ ”

On the other hand, Rockefeller touted his own emissions-related amendment to the small-business bill, which would impose a two-year moratorium on the enforcement of carbon emissions by the EPA.

“What we need is a time-out,” he said.

Rockefeller said senators ought to vote for his two-year moratorium over Republicans’ permanent ban because his plan has a greater chance of becoming law.

“This bill [the Republican’s proposed amendment] has no chance of becoming law. So why do they do it?” Rockefeller said. “They have to know that. I don’t think it will pass here. It definitely won’t pass the White House.”

Senate votes slated for Thursday on controversial amendments to the small-business bill might be rescheduled for Friday or Monday, due to an ongoing disagreement between Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Senate leadership, according to Senate aides.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday he hoped to hold votes on up to 10 amendments to the bill, including one that would strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its power to regulate carbon emissions, another that would repeal some tax reporting requirements for businesses and another that would eliminate some government subsidies to ethanol farmers.

Coburn came to the Senate floor Wednesday night to express his frustration that some of his colleagues were blocking several of his amendments, which would cut billions of dollars in what he deemed to be wasteful spending from the federal budget.

“What is the deal?” Coburn asked on Wednesday night. “This is the Senate. You are expected to make tough votes.”

The rules of the Senate allow Coburn, or any sitting senator, to block proceedings until their grievances have been addressed.

“To say that a sitting senator can't offer amendment on $20 billion cuts in a $3 trillion budget,” said Coburn. “It strikes me that we have lost our balance.”

 “Let’s let this body do its work rather than not let it do its work,” Coburn said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) criticized Republican Rep. Sean Duffy (Wis.) on Thursday for saying he was having a hard time paying the bills on his $174,000 congressional salary.

Senate majority leader says Tea Party activists threaten to disrupt sensitive talks on a spending-cut deal.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the White House had violated the Constitution by engaging the United States in a “third war” and called President Obama a “hypocritical version” of candidate Obama.

In a floor speech Wednesday, Paul introduced a motion to the Senate that would condemn Obama’s decision to attack military installations controlled by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi without authorization from the Congress.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Wednesday spoke out against an amendment to strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. She said that Republicans and “friends of the polluters” want to “stop the EPA in its tracks.”

“This is essentially a repeal of the Clean Air Act as it pertains to one particularly pollutant — carbon — that is a danger to the American people and dangerous to the health of our families,” said Boxer.

“Guess what?” asked Boxer. “The friends of these polluters have decided they are going to stop the EPA in its tracks.”

Boxer accused senators who opposed the EPA’s regulation of carbon emissions of putting on “white coats” and playing scientist.

Boxer also displayed two placards of children using assisted breathing devices and asked Republicans if they wanted to make the problem worse.

“Look at this picture, she is gasping for air,” said Boxer. “I urge my Republican colleagues to look at this.”

An Republican amendment to the small business bill would ban the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday that a breakthrough had been reached on that and other amendments that had been holding up the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said there has been a major breakthrough on controversial amendments that are holding up the small-business bill. Up to 10 votes on amendments could be scheduled for Thursday afternoon, Reid said on Wednesday.