Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Thursday said the summer jobs program being advocated by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) for inclusion in extender legislation should be considered emergency spending.  

"I think the jobs situation in this country needs to be dealt with like an emergency," he told reporters. 

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) on Thursday defended an amendment to Wall Street overhaul legislation, saying that without his proposed change the Democratic legislation would "weaken" the power of a new consumer bureau of financial protection.

Carper is the main sponsor of an amendment designed to ensure federal standards and oversight on consumer financial protection regulations. The Obama administration said Thursday it is opposed to the amendment, arguing that it undermines the ability of states to pursue tougher regulations than the federal government. The administration and most Democrats have pushed for allowing states to go beyond the federal standards.

Carper said his amendment retains current law.

Carper's amendment is supported by 10 Senate Democrats and Republicans. Carper said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) financial legislation would limit the power of a new consumer financial protection agency and hand over power to states instead.

Here is Carper's statement in full:

As a former governor, I believe strongly in state rights. However, there are times when it’s not always wise to have 50 different states weighing in on what’s best. It’s important to note that my bipartisan amendment is supported by 5 former Governors and I think that’s a strong statement that this does not hinder states’ ability to protect consumers.

I support creating a new Consumer Protection Bureau to guard against unfair and deceptive lending practices.  All my amendment says is that we should make that bureau do its job. This is the cop on the beat that we need. Consumers benefit from a national banking system that has uniform standards. The Dodd legislation, unfortunately, would weaken that bureau and hand over its enforcement tools to the states. This would only create more confusion that would inadvertently hurt consumers. 

My amendment is a sound compromise that would establish clear lines of responsibility at the federal and state level. Also, my amendment would allow state attorneys general to maintain their current powers under existing law to enforce bankruptcy laws, debt collection protections, and unfair and deceptive practice statutes that consumers rely on to make sure they’re not being taken advantage of by bad actors.”  

The White House opposes measure to limit states from pursuing tougher consumer regulations than the federal government.

Unemployment claims fell slightly last week but the numbers need to accelerate for job growth to be sustained.

Weekly jobless claims were down 4,000 to 444,000 for the week ending May 8 after the previous week's revised figure of 448,000. The monthly average -- a slightly better gauge than the weekly number -- showed a decrease of 9,000 from the revised 459,500 average of the previous week, according to a Labor Department report released Thursday. 

While initial claims have dropped only 2.2 percent through the first four months of the year, they are 29 percent lower than a year ago. 

To begin making a dent in the 8 million jobs lost during the recession, weekly claims need to fall below 400,000 to show expanding job growth.

On top of that, job growth would need to average around 400,000 a month to chip away at the soaring 9.9 percent unemployment rate. In April, 290,000 jobs were added to the economy.

The advance number for seasonally-adjusted insured unemployment increased 12,000 while the four-week moving average was 14,750. 

Army Secretary John McHugh said beefed-up consumer regulations of auto dealers would allow soldiers to continue "protecting our great nation."

McHugh urged senators this week to oppose a carveout for auto dealers from a new consumer financial protection agency. The White House, consumer advocates and many Democrats have criticized the proposed carveout backed by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)

"As auto loans are often the most significant financial obligations of our soldiers -- particularly within the junior enlisted grades -- we believe that greater government oversight of auto financing and sales of our soldiers will help protect them and reduce unnecessary financial strain on our already overburdened families," McHugh said.

"Protection from unprincipled auto lending enables our soldiers to concentrate on their primary mission -- protecting our great nation," he said.

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) supports the Brownback amendment.

"Auto loans and leases are more affordable for consumers because dealers force lenders to compete for our customer's business," said NADA spokesman Bailey Wood on Wednesday. "Adding burdensome and expensive regulations on Main Street auto dealers will only make it harder and more costly for a family to buy a car."

An overwhelming majority of executives (84 percent) polled by consulting firm Deloitte are concerned that the economy will reverse course on its recovery and create a double-dip recession. 

Former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) questioned the federal fraud case against Goldman Sachs, the investment firm he once ran.

"It looks like a thin legal case to me," Corzine told The New York Times. "You had people identified as suitable customers. Ultimately, it's an issue of whether you wanted to be in synthetic C.D.O.'s."

The Wall Street firm, where Corzine was CEO in the late 1990s, faces federal charges that it failed to disclose necessary information to investors looking at its real estate security project that it had actually bet against.

Corzine, also a former senator, showed some sympathy toward current Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who was recently grilled by senators about his role in the marketing of the security now being scrutinized by the government.

"You had a prosecutor's mentality in terms of how the senators acted," Corzine said of Blankfein's Senate hearing. "The committee has a mentality and a mandate to discover wrongdoing."

Former President Bill Clinton has also questioned the federal case against Goldman, suggesting that consumers looking at the security had access to the needed information.

Debate over tighter regulations on the multitrillion-dollar over-the-counter derivatives market continued today with manufacturing interests voicing concern after Republicans failed to change the financial regulatory reform legislation.

The Senate defeated a Republican alternative Wednesday offered by Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Senate Banking Committee ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) by a 59-39 vote. Shelby, Chambliss and other Senate Republicans have argued that the new language would have ensured business end-users would be exempted from burdensome regulations. 

"Without this exemption, the cost of managing risk for manufacturers and other companies will increase by millions -- and in some cases billions --- of dollars, limiting their ability to drive economic growth and job creation," said Dorothy Coleman, vice president of Tax and Domestic Economic Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in a statement released after the vote. 

Two Republicans -- Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) -- voted against the Republican proposal. 

NAM said it supports changes to prevent excessive speculation and improve transparency and stability in the derivatives market, but "we also want to see Congress preserve the ability of responsible companies to access OTC derivative products."

House Ways and Means Chairman Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) on Wednesday announced his committee would host a hearing on tax proposals related to legislation to legalize Internet gambling. The hearing is scheduled to take place May 19. 

The committee will discuss the current tax laws and reporting requirements applicable to wagering in the U.S. It will also consider tax and other proposals related to pending legislation in Congress to license and regulate Internet gambling.