House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) on Wednesday blasted Senate Democratic leaders for dropping from the so-called tax extenders bill a provision requiring 401(k) fees to be disclosed to investors and refusing to name the senators who oppose the measure. 

"They've indicated that there is always some mysterious senator who says that they can't vote for this provision," Miller said, adding, "You're never really able to trace that phantom down, but that becomes the basis on which to drop this provision [from the bill]."

The disclosure rule was included in the extender bill that passed the House, but Senate leaders jettisoned the proposal from their legislation even though it has no budgetary effect on the package. 

The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday released a summary of changes to the tax extenders bill. 

The following has been provided by the committee: 

Read more...

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Wednesday introduced a slimmed down tax extenders bill that he hopes will garner at least 60 votes. 

"This still addresses many of the same issues as the last substitute, but it is smaller. [There] are fewer dollars involved here. And it is more paid for — the majority of this amendment is now offset. Most of the dollars spent in the amendment are offset — not by a lot." 

House leaders on Wednesday postponed votes on legislation providing greater loan opportunities to small businesses. 

The Rules Committee is expected to meet on the bill and "tweak" it, according to a committee spokesman, because there are paygo issues with the proposal.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) earlier Wednesday had expected to pass the bill from her chamber that day. 

The White House has released details about the escrow and claims agreement reached with BP.

BP will contribute $5 billion to the escrow account for four years, reaching a total or $20 billion. The White House emphasized that $20 billion is "neither a floor nor ceiling on liability," merely a starting point.

The account will be used to fund claims by individuals and businesses affected by the spill as well as cleanup costs. Claims will be filtered through an independent process headed by Kenneth Feinberg, the TARP pay czar who also headed the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

Feinberg's agency will release standards establishing which claims have legitimacy and evaluate each claim against that rubric. The initial decision can be appealed to a three-judge panel. BP will be bound by law to abide by the agency's final decision.

Meanwhile, BP will also contribute $100 million to establish an unemployment fund for rig workers who lost their jobs due to the explosion.

Individual and business claims will be handled separately from the claims of state and local governments. The latter two will not have recourse to the independent claims process and will have to deal directly with BP.

Cross-posted from Blog Briefing Room. 

The proposal pushes the closing deadline back to Sept. 30, 2010, from the previous June 30 deadline.

BP won't provide dividends to their shareholders this year as they work out the details of a $20 billion escrow fund for those affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. 

Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP's chairman of the board, said the board decided Wednesday not to pay any further dividends this year. 

"Words are not enough, and we understand that we will and should be judged by our actions," he said today at the White House after a four-hour meeting. 

He said a framework has been set up to show that BP means what they say about paying for all the damage of the spill and "we will look after the people and repair the damage."  

He said his company and the Obama administration are "fully aligned" in their interest of "closing the well, cleaning the beaches and caring for those affected." 

So far, BP has spent more than $1.6 billion for clean up, containment and claims to individuals and businesses along the Gulf coast. a

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) on Wednesday said concerns over deficit spending have prompted Senate Democrats into taking a serious look at his fully paid-for substitute tax extender bill. 

"We have had a number of inquiries — quiet inquiries from Democrats who are interested in it and want to fund out more about it," he told reporters. "I don't know what that signals in ultimate support, but my sense is that there are Democrats that are becoming increasingly queasy about the votes they have made and are looking for a way to gain some absolution, perhaps, and this is a way to make a vote that would do something about deficit spending." 

Ken Feinberg is no stranger to managing billions of dollars and dealing with victims of disasters, experience he'll need for his next job, overseeing claims for the Gulf oil spill.

Feinberg was named by White House officials on Wednesday to head a $20 billion escrow account funded by BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 

He's taken on some of the toughest financial and emotional jobs in the nation — overseeing the compensation of top executives under the federal bailout plan, determining how much to pay families from the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund and working with the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund for families of those killed in a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007. 

He'll face emotional Gulf residents and business owners struggling as the oil spill spreads across four states — Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida — in need of compensation as the spill takes its toll on the economy.