The White House isn't happy with Senate Republicans for holding up a small-business lending and tax cut bill. 

On Tuesday afternoon, David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama, and Gene Sperling, counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, summoned regional and national reporters to the White House's Roosevelt Room and blamed Republicans for stopping the bill, according to several news reports. 

"As we’ve seen on many other issues, there’s enormous pressure from the leadership to take partisan positions, to slow down the process, to block progress on some of these initiatives," Axelrod said.

Senate Democratic and Republican aides held out hope tonight that an agreement could be reached on amendments to the legislation as time was fast running out. 

Senate Republicans went on the offensive again Tuesday as the battle heats up over whether to continue the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. 

Although the debate over whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts is expected to kick off in September, Republicans are already making the issue a major part of their election rhetoric. 

"It's clear that the administration and the majority is committed to raising taxes on the top two rates in the middle of a recession," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) today.

Raising those taxes would "capture 50 percent of small-business income and impact about 25 percent of the workforce in the middle of a recession," he told reporters. 

BP is making several changes to expedite claims payments to those affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including deferring some claims to the head of the newly formed $20 billion fund. 

Decisions on some business and individual claims will be deferred to Ken Feinberg, who is expected to take over the claims process of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) later this month. 

Those claims include restaurants or tourism businesses not located in close proximity to an oiled beach or marsh, workers affected by the moratorium, seafood processors outside the Gulf Coast states, and values of property not located in close proximity to a beach that was oiled.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office is exploring BP’s controversial plan to claim a $10 billion tax credit for its oil-spill costs, and intends to review bills that block the company from receiving the benefit, an aide said.

“We’ve been discussing this issue with the Ways and Means Committee and we look forward to reviewing the bills that have been introduced on this issue,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Tuesday. The Ways and Means panel oversees tax policy.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee said they are also examining the issue.

BP announced Tuesday that it has agreed to a $1.9 billion sale of its Colombian oil-and-gas exploration, production and transportation business to Ecopetrol and Talisman. 

The sale is part of BP's plan to divest up to $30 billion of assets over the next 18 months to pay for the cost of oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the company announced July 27. 

"I am delighted with the price we have achieved for these assets," said Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, who will step down Oct. 1. "BP has been involved in Colombia for more than 20 years and played a major role in finding and developing the country's major oilfields."

Ecopetrol, Colombia's national oil company, will purchase 51 percent, while Talisman will buy 49 percent of the assets. 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said it was his preference to address expiring tax cuts before the election, but acknowledged that it could slip until after the elections.

Hoyer suggested on Tuesday he agreed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said this weekend that she hopes that Congress will act to extend most of the tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year before the election, while letting income taxes on the highest earners tick upward.

"The timing on that, we may well consider that over the next four weeks from September 14 to October 8," Hoyer said of the expiring tax cuts during a conference call to promote Democrats' economic stewardship during the August recess.

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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said it was his preference to address expiring tax cuts before the election, but acknowledged that it could slip until after the elections.

Hoyer suggested on Tuesday he agreed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said this weekend that she hopes that Congress will act to extend most of the tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year before the election, while letting income taxes on the highest earners tick upward.

"The timing on that, we may well consider that over the next four weeks from September 14 to October 8," Hoyer said of the expiring tax cuts during a conference call to promote Democrats' economic stewardship during the August recess.

Hoyer noted, though, that "it's also possible that we won't reach agreement on how to proceed" on the tax cuts, leaving the possibly politically bruising debate until the lame-duck Congress between the elections and when a new Congress is sworn in next January.

Democratic leaders and President Obama have pushed for extending the bulk of the tax cuts, but have said they would like to see taxes spring upward for individuals making more than $200,000 per year, and households earning more than $250,000 in a year.

Hoyer said that there was a "general consensus" among congressional Democrats on letting the high-end taxes appreciate, and said that the House didn't necessarily feel as though it had to wait to see how the Senate would proceed before acting on its own.

Republicans have made the taxes a major part of their election message, arguing that the increased taxes would disproportionately harm small-business owners who treat their company's income as their own. The pressure from the GOP on taxes could make for an even tougher time for vulnerable incumbent Democrats, who might not wish to be seen as raising any taxes in the middle of a recession.

"As if raising taxes on small businesses at the height of an economic recession isn’t enough, Leader Hoyer has now confirmed the Democrats’ secret plan to make them even more offensive to American families," said Paul Lindsey, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). "If these tax hikes are as much a ‘winning issue’ as Democrats say they are, why do they have to sidestep the will of voters in order to pass them?"

Updated 5:13 p.m.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday awarded $42 million to 133 community-based organizations to support HIV prevention.

The awards specifically target at-risk groups including African-Americans, Latinos, gay and bisexual men, and injection drug users, according to the CDC. The nation's first-ever national strategy for combating HIV and AIDS, unveiled last month, calls for more targeted investments to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS among at-risk groups in which the infection rate has reached epidemic levels.

"This funding is a critical part of CDC’s national HIV prevention efforts and is in line with the priorities identified in the recently released National HIV/AIDS Strategy," CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention Director Jonathan Mermin said in a statement. "Governments on the federal and state levels cannot end this epidemic alone, and these resources will help to give many communities the tools they need to fight HIV locally."

The average award is about $323,000 per year for five years, according to the CDC. Funds will be used to implement HIV prevention programs for individuals living with HIV and those at high risk of infection; to increase HIV testing and knowledge of infection status in at-risk communities; and to assist in monitoring program effects and behavioral outcomes.

--Cross-posted from Healthwatch. 

Pending sales of existing homes decreased unexpectedly in June after the spring expiration of a federal homebuyer tax credit.

Contracts on previously owned houses fell 2.6 percent last month to 75.7 as demand continued to drop following the April 30 end of an up-to-$8,000 tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Tuesday. 

Economists had projected an increase of up to 4 percent in contracts. Pending home sales are down 18.6 percent compared with June 2009. 

The data reflects contracts and not closings, which usually lag behind by a month or two. 

Demand fell 30 percent in May, the most since 2001, after the April 30 expiration of the tax credit, NAR previously reported.