The sluggish economic recovery has some key Senate Democrats wondering if the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy should be extended. 

The House is set to take up the $34 billion unemployment benefits extension first thing Thursday.

The House will delay until Thursday a vote on a $34 billion unemployment benefits extension bill that is expected to pass the Senate momentarily. 

The House is expected to take up the bill first thing Thursday, according to senior Democratic aides. 

The Senate’s late completion on the bill would likely push passage of the measure beyond midnight, House aides said. The House Rules Committee would need to provide an hour’s notice to Republicans to meet. The House would then have to debate the rule, vote on the rule, then debate the bill and take a final vote, probably amounting to at least four or five hours of time, aides said. 

—This story is developing. 

Sen. George LeMieux (R-Fla.) on Wednesday told reporters that his support for the small-business jobs bill could hinge on Democratic leaders tweaking the legislation to his liking. 

Lawmakers and government watchdog groups are questioning the effectiveness of the Obama Administration’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to prevent foreclosures.

They say that the Treasury department’s refusal to identify benchmarks, goals and expectations for the mortgage modification program indicates a lack of transparency and accountability. 

“Treasury still has not established proper goals or benchmarks for the program, meaning that there is no effective way for us to know if the $50 billion invested in the program is accomplishing what it set out to do,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. “That’s not accountability, that’s not transparency; it’s more taxpayer money flying out the window.”

Community bankers are urging the Senate to pass a small-business bill with a $30 billion lending fund they argue will promote economic growth. 

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and 29 of its affiliated state community banking associations sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday supporting the small-business lending fund in the legislation. 

In the letter the group calls the lending fund “the core component of this legislation and the provision that holds the most promise for small business job creation in the near term” that will help get credit flowing quickly to the small-business sector.  

A failure to consider the fund in the Senate “would be a missed opportunity that our struggling economy cannot afford,” according to the letter. 

The proposed $30 billion fund “will be a powerful tool to give the nation’s thousands of community banks the leverage to support $300 billion in new small-business lending,” said Paul Merski, chief economist for ICBA, at a press conference today. 

“Anyone who has truly listened to the concerns of small businesses seeking credit should back the small-business lending fund,” he said. 

The House Ways and Means Committee could move legislation combating currency manipulation when lawmakers return to Washington after the August break. 

President Obama said Wednesday he opposes an effort by Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) to expand the federal government’s role in wind insurance coverage.

The White House said in a statement that Taylor’s bill, which has 22 cosponsors, is unnecessary and could cost insurance consumers more in the end.

“The insurance offered through a federal program may not be any less expensive, and could be more expensive, than what is currently offered by private insurers and/or by states,” the administration said in a statement. Taylor’s bill would expand the government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to add additional forms of insurance coverage. Taylor has argued that the legislation would reduce the ultimate cost of future hurricanes and other disasters.

“Expanding NFIP to cover windstorm insurance would unnecessarily duplicate available insurance products and could “crowd out” such products where they are offered, while offering little to no savings to the American public. At a time when the NFIP is already facing serious challenges, the administration cannot support such an expansion,” the White House said. 

The Bush tax cuts shouldn’t be allowed to expire at the end of the year, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Wednesday. 

Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said taxes — individual income taxes and capital gains rates — on the nation’s wealthiest Americans shouldn’t be allowed to rise until the economy is in better shape, according to news reports. 

Conrad said that neither spending should be cut nor taxes raised while the economy grapples for a solid grip on recovery. 

The Senate Finance Committee is weighing whether to move forward on a markup to extend some of the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush.