Senate

Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) tried for a third time to get agreement from Republicans to form a conference committee on the House and Senate budget resolutions.

“Senate Republicans have now blocked our efforts to move to conference not once but twice,” Murray said Tuesday before asking for agreement for a third time. “Some say they want a framework before going to conference, but that’s exactly what a budget is. … There is no reason to wait.”

The Senate confirmed a nominee from President Obama on Tuesday to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

In a 53-45 vote, David Medine was confirmed to serve as chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The vote split down party lines, with Democrats supporting Medine and Republicans opposing his nomination. Sens. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) missed the vote.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said he was “deeply disturbed” that the White House has decided to “cannibalize” the healthcare law by transferring money from a prevention fund to educating the public on the benefits of ObamaCare.

Harkin said President Obama’s administration announced it would move more than $300 million from a prevention and public health fund created under the Affordable Care Act, also called ObamaCare. Harkin said the White House would use that money to educate the public about the about the benefits of the bill and the healthcare exchange systems. More aspects of the healthcare law are set to go into effect in 2014.

“I am deeply disturbed of the White House’s plan to strip $332 million of funding from the prevention and public health fund,” Harkin said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Some people in this administration just don’t get it. … The prevention fund has already been a giant step forward for our public health.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called on President Obama “to be straight with the American people” by telling them about the negative effects coming under ObamaCare.

“He needs to be straight with the American people,” McConnell said Tuesday morning. “He needs to prepare them for everything that’s coming — the wage cuts, the lost jobs, the higher premiums. Everything our country can expect as a result of ObamaCare.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republicans wouldn’t agree to form a conference committee on the budget because they are afraid of a “backlash from the radical Tea Party.” 

“House Republicans are afraid of a backlash from the radical Tea Party … if they even discuss a compromise with us,” Reid said Tuesday morning. “Partisan politics is no reason to shy away from a bipartisan compromise.”

The 69-27 vote is a major victory for retail groups and state governments; bill faces tougher path in House.

The two senators bickered as Cruz rose to object to Reid’s motion to appoint conferees to a House-Senate budget committee.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Monday that he would again ask Republicans to join Democrats in appointing budget conferees.

Last month, Reid tried to get a unanimous consent agreement to form a budget conference committee so that the House and Senate could resolve the wide differences in their budget resolutions. Republicans objected to his request.

The Senate is poised to approve legislation that would allow states to collect a sales tax on goods sold online.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Sunday that the National Riffle Association (NRA) “shames itself” by misleading the public and blocking gun control reforms.

Blumenthal was reacting to comments made by NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre over the weekend. 

“Yesterday, when NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said of the organization’s critics 'let them be damned,' he was talking to 90 percent of Americans who support criminal background checks and other common sense gun violence prevention measures,” Blumenthal said Sunday. “His remarks disgrace the organization and its members — most of them supporters of expanding background checks.”