Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) on Tuesday welcomed President Barack Obama's urgency in creating legislation aimed at helping small businesses, but prefers seeing an actual bill move forward. 

"We've had numerous meetings, numerous commitments, but nothing has been realized; it hasn't come to a reality, so that's my concern," she told reporters. 

Earlier today, Obama called on Congress to pass legislation granting small businesses greater access to loans and providing them with tax incentives to better grow their operations.

Picking fellow House lawmakers to craft the final Wall Street overhaul bill is "distincty not enjoyable," Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Tuesday.

Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will serve as chairman of the conference between the House and Senate that will reconcile differences between the two chambers' legislation. Frank said he hoped "not to introduce divisiveness" into the financial services panel by picking and choosing among the members.

"I enjoy almost all parts of this job of Chairman, but I have just come up against one that is distinctly not enjoyable: having to pick Members of the Committee to recommend to the Speaker to be Conferees. I appreciate the cooperation that has marked our work together as we have dealt with very difficult legislation, and picking and choosing among the Members, many of whom have told me of their interest in being Conferees, would be impossible to do on any rational basis, and I would hate to engender any resentment to spoil what I think has been a very good working relationship," Frank said in a memo to Democratic members of his panel that was obtained by The Hill.

Frank is recommending that the conference have eight Democrats and five Republicans representing the House, in addition to the seven Senate Democrats and five Senate Republicans that were named on Tuesday.

Frank suggested to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee and a senior member on the financial panel, be named a conferee alongside the six subcommittee chairs.

The subcommittee chairmen are Democratic Reps. Paul Kanjorski (Pa.), Mel Watt (N.C.), Luis Gutierrez (Ill.), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.) and Dennis Moore (Kan.).

Lawmakers and the White House are looking to funnel some fast cash to the growing problems of violence along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The White House is requesting $500 million in extra funding to deploy 1,200 National Guards troops to the southern border, an Obama administration official said Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans — Arizona's Jon Kyl and John McCain — are pressing for the addition of two amendments to the war supplemental bill, both requiring the use of stimulus funding to pay for the initiatives. 

The first amendment — as yet without a price tag — calls for 6,000 new National Guard troops to secure the border. 

The second amendment — at a cost of $200 million — would make fully operational Operation Streamline, a 2005 program used along the Arizona and Texas borders. The aim is to expand the program, which prosecutes those crossing the border illegally, to Tucson, Ariz., and other areas that need it, according to a senior Republican aide. 

At least one Senate leader is expecting this week to consider a $200 billion tax extenders bill. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday that once the House completes work on a bill that would revive several tax breaks he expects it to reach the Senate by Wednesday. Actual floor action is still in doubt. 

Reid said the Senate would remain through the weekend to finish the supplemental bill for war and disaster aid and the extenders measure. 

The bill is caught up in the House and awaiting clearance by the House Rules Committee before reaching the floor for a final vote. House Democrats have raised questions about the bill's provisions, including the fact that it would increase taxes. 

The Rules panel hasn't announced another hearing yet.

Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, on Tuesday said a tax increase on carried interest that is included in pending legislation extending several measures, will be detrimental to minority-owned businesses.

"In my opinion, this legislation would cause a rapid decline in minority private equity firms and possibly eliminate minority participation in this important financial sector of the American economy," he said in prepared remarks. "Minority firms have difficult challenges in attracting fund investors and an even more difficult time attracting top managerial talent. If this legislation is approved, it will become even more daunting for minority firms."

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) on Tuesday predicted legislation extending several measures will have a hard time passing his chamber since so much of the bill is not paid for. 

"What I have been shown, I think, there are difficulties in getting the votes," he told reporters, adding, "That amount of the package that is unpaid for, $143 billion, that's the package I've seen; I would prefer that to be smaller." 

President Obama called on Congress Tuesday to pass legislation granting small businesses greater access to loans and providing them with tax incentives to better grow their operations.

House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) has "very serious concerns" about a White House proposal to give the president new powers to cut spending.

Slaugher is the most senior House member to question the Obama administration's proposal for a new "expedited rescission authority," which would allow the president to propose a package of specific cuts to spending provisions in recently approved bills and force Congress to take up-or-down votes on it.

"I believe very strongly in the separation of powers and I argued many years ago against expanding the line item veto," Slaughter said in a statement. "Because of that, I have very serious concerns about any new proposal that would dramatically reshape the balance of power between the executive and the legislative branches, as this new White House plan calls for."

Dodd, Johnson, Reed, Schumer, Shelby, Corker and Gregg are among the Senate conferees for Wall Street reform.