A senior Blue Dog Democrat doubts the House would take up a budget resolution this year.

When asked whether House Democrats would forego a budget resolution, Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.) said, "I think that's where it's heading."

Hill, the Blue Dog Coalition's co-chairman for policy, said Tuesday that the major sticking point for his group of fiscally conservative Democrats is discretionary spending levels.

The Blue Dogs have been in talks with House leaders over their proposal for a 2-percent cut in non-security discretionary spending for each of the next three years, and a freeze for the two years after that. Blue Dogs and other centrist members have blanched at the idea of passing a budget with deficits that would surpass $1 trillion in 2011 and remain near that level in future years.

Nursing homes are carefully tracking the tax extenders bill to see if it will fix a flaw in the health reform law that could endanger their payments under Medicare.

"Ultimately, [if nothing's done] we can't get paid because there's no mechanism for the payments," a nursing home source said.

Ironically, the industry wants Congress to reverse a one-year delay in changes to their payment structure that nursing homes themselves had asked for. Because the health reform law didn't delay two related provisions, the whole payment system is now out of whack, and the industry wants to go back to the original timeline that the agency that oversees Medicare had announced last fall. The update is set to kick in Oct. 1.

Both the industry and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have weighed in to get the fix passed, the source said. But it's not clear if the provision will make it in, the source said, because while the provision is uncontroversial in itself it would mean reopening the health reform bill.

New rules proposed by a federal regulator would require financial markets to pause trading on individual stocks if prices move beyond certain limits. 

In response to the May 6 market disruption, the Securities and Exchange Commission along with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority filed proposed rules that would require the pausing trading of individual stocks in U.S. equity markets if the price changes 10 percent or more in a five-minute period, according to an SEC release. 

The circuit breakers should help to limit significant volatility, increase market transparency, bolster investor protection and bring "uniformity to decisions regarding trading halts in individual securities, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a release Tuesday.

Adding the circuit breakers to slow down trading is a good first step but it shouldn't be the last, Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) said today in a release. 

"There are deeper issues that these surface solutions do not address," he said. 

Other circuit breakers already in place -- none of which triggered May 6 -- could be recalibrated, the SEC release said. 

On May 6, 30 S&P 500 Index stocks dropped at least 10 percent within a five-minute period. 

"We continue to believe that the market disruption of May 6 was exacerbated by disparate trading rules and conventions across the exchanges," Schapiro said. 

The new rules, designed to provide uniform market-wide standards for individual securities in the S&P 500 Index that experience rapid movement, will be in effect on a pilot basis through Dec. 10. Adjustments will be made to the parameters of the circuit breaker before it's deployed to securities beyond the S&P 500, according to the release. 

The pause would provide markets the change to attract new trading interest in an affected stock, establish a reasonable market price and resume trading in a fair and orderly fashion. 

Raising the liability cap on oil spills is needed but the issue needs closer examination, a Republican Senator said Tuesday night. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, applauded the decision to hold a May 25 hearing on raising the liability cap under the Oil Pollution Act. 

Murkowski supports an increase in the cap but said, "the Senate needs to gain a better understanding of how these complex legal and statutory provisions interact." 

Raising the limit from $75 million to $10 billion could economically harm smaller oil drilling operations because it will be difficult for them to get insurance, she said. She is working with the Obama administration and Senate Democrats to find an appropriate cap level. 

"Such a cap would only exclude all but the biggest oil companies from operating offshore," Murkowski said. 

Murkowski's release pointed out that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the $10 billion figure "arbitrary" and increasing it too much would hinder competition in the Gulf of Mexico. 

State and federal law provides for a limit on strict liability, liability without limit for cleanup and unlimited liability for compensatory and economic damages, she said. There are no limits on compensatory or punitive damages a company can be forced to pay if it is found responsible for the spill. 

British Petroleum head Tony Hayward has said the company is ignoring the $75 million cap and paying claims to coastal businesses affected by the oil spill as they are filed, regardless of the total cost. 

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The e-mail channels lit up Tuesday afternoon as House Democrats and Republicans sparred over a proposal to cut a temporary program that provides help for needy families.

At the center of the criss-crossing e-mails is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Contingency Fund, which Republicans argue is a waste of money and Democrats say is providing much-needed assistance to families while also creating jobs during the recession.

Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced today that the $2.5 billion program led online voting — 29 percent of 280,000 total voters — on the new YouCut initiative, a Republican effort asking Americans to vote on what spending they think should be eliminated. Cantor said he will call for an up-or-down vote on Thursday. 

"Not only is the new program unaffordable and duplicative, it undercuts welfare reforms made in the mid-1990s that saved taxpayers billions of dollars," Cantor said in a statement. 

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) in turn accused Republicans of spreading incorrect information about the temporary program, arguing that it doesn't provide incentives to states to increase the number of people on welfare or allow states to increase the number of people receiving assistance without requiring people to engage in find work. 

Republicans are "so out of touch that they have deceived people about a program that Republicans outside the Beltway think is a good thing," said McDermott, chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support. "The recession has caused unprecedented need for many struggling families with children" and the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund "helps states meet that demand but is also responsible for directly funding 185,000 jobs. I can think of few ideas Republicans have floated that have been as devoid of compassion and commonsense as this one."

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd's amendment would delay for two years a controversial ban on banks' derivatives trading.

The Senate moved Tuesday to shore up the federal government’s power to pre-empt states on consumer financial protections.

Preventing cuts to physician rates under Medicare for five years would cost $94.2 billion.

The American Medical Association told specialty societies of the new figure last night, according to a lobbyist with knowledge of the conversation.

That’s up from $88.5 billion earlier, because the cost of preventing the cuts increases the longer Congress waits to act.

Senate Democratic leadership says it has the votes to end debate on the financial regulatory reform bill. 

With a cloture vote looming for Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry (D-Nev.) said several Republicans have told him they will vote to wrap up debate on the Wall Street overhaul legislation. 

When asked if he expected Republicans to vote to end debate, Reid responded "Oh sure." 

Although he didn't estimate how many he said, "a number of Senators, Republican Senators, have told me they will vote for cloture." 

Reid still needs to count heads in his own party, with several, including Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), still undecided. 

If the Senate votes to end debate it would provide 36 more hours to finish up the heavy lifting on the measure. Lawmakers still have to deal with the derivatives portion of the bill and the manager's amendment offered by Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).