Senate

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) vowed that GOP obstructionism would not stop the Senate from voting on the nomination of Tom Perez to serve as the Labor Secretary.

“My Republican colleagues can try every trick in the book — and I’m sure they will — but I assure Mr. Perez … will have his day in the Senate,” Reid said on the Senate floor Thursday morning.

The Senate passed a bill to expedite the process of releasing generic drugs for animals.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced the Animal Drug and Animal Generic Drug User Fee Reauthorization Act in March.

The Senate agreed to five more amendments to the water infrastructure bill by unanimous consent on Wednesday evening.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) introduced one of the amendments, which would give communities with populations smaller than 25,000 people additional help in developing rural water infrastructure projects.

The Senate approved a bipartisan amendment to the water infrastructure bill that would combat the spread of Asian carp into U.S. waters.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced the amendment along with Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.). The amendment was approved on a 95-0 vote on Wednesday.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) tried to pass a Senate resolution that would have condemned illegal abortion practices.

Lee asked unanimous consent to pass his resolution on Wednesday in reaction to the case of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortion doctor who is on trial for performing illegal and unsafe abortions.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) objected, saying he’d prefer to pass his own resolution that condemns all illegal and unsanitary medical acts, including abortions. But Lee objected saying he didn’t have time to read the resolution before it was offered.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) tried for the fourth time to get Republicans to agree to go to conference on the House and Senate budgets.

Warner asked for the unanimous consent agreement on Wednesday, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) once again objected unless Democrats agreed to prevent the conference committee from raising the debt ceiling or taxes.

The first GOP amendment voted on for the Senate’s water infrastructure bill was about gun rights.

The Senate is considering the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which would authorize projects related to flood and storm risk reduction, coast and inland navigation, and ecosystem restoration.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced an amendment to the bill dealing with gun use on Army Corp of Engineer’s land.

Coburn’s amendment failed on a 56-43 vote Wednesday — 60 votes were needed for passage. It would have allowed individuals to carry guns at water resources development projects administered by the Secretary of the Army.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) announced Wednesday that he would withdraw one of his amendments to the Senate water infrastructure bill.

Coburn had introduced an amendment that would have required federal studies on guns. That amendment was scheduled to get a vote at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

Sen. Warren called the increasing amount of student debt a "quiet but growing crisis."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the words of Republicans against them Wednesday, quoting their past calls for regular order.

“For years Republicans have been singing the praises of regular order,” Reid said. “They said how they missed the days of committee markups, how they long for amendment vote-a-rama, and how they pine for a budget resolution … but then Republicans got what they wanted.