Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) on Tuesday said he recently spoke with fellow lawmakers about rolling all tax matters facing Congress into a single bill. 

The impetus behind the proposal is the lack of legislative days to handle all outstanding issues confronting lawmakers. 

Read more...

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said progress of this year's budget resolution faces "numerous problems," namely House members' ambivalence and the lack of floor time in the upper chamber.

House Democrats have yet to decide whether to move forward on the budget resolution, Conrad noted.

If the House decides not to move forward with a budget, Conrad said the Senate likely wouldn't act on the annual resolution, which sets discretionary spending levels for next year and lays out the majority's fiscal policies for the next few years.

"I don't think it would make any sense to do it if we can't have one," he said. "That applies to both chambers." 

"I'm still hopeful the House will, and I hope we'll get finished with this bill, so that will supply us with floor time," he added.

Read more...

Raising or changing the damages liability caps for oil spills will be done soon in the Senate. 

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that "there will be a number of opportunities" to deal with the cap but it won't be included in financial regulatory reform legislation under consideration. 

"There are lots of places we could try to do it," he said. "We have to find an opportune time."

He said it's likely the companies involved in the spill were negligent and "probably grossly negligent," he told reporters today. 

Reid said the federal government is making sure that British Petroleum, "pays for every penny of the damage they caused with that spill." 

Lawmakers shouldn't rush any changes, especially considering the spill still isn't under control, he said. 

Several Senators have called for an increase in the cap from $75 million to $10 billion to ensure that BP pays for containment, clean up and economic damages to coastal businesses. 

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Tuesday that his estate tax proposal is near completion. 

"It is our hope that we can get together both on the proposal, the details are pretty well resolved, and on a process by which we can get it passed as soon as possible," he said. 

Former President Bill Clinton circulated an email on Monday asking supporters to help pay down his wife's 2008 presidential campaign bid. 

"Hillary's campaign still has a few vestiges of debt that I know she would like to see paid in full," his email states. "Will you reach out today to help Hillary this one last time?" 

The email provides a link to donate to the campaign, but does not say how much the Secretary of State owes. 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday said serious discussions have not taken place in his chamber on adding middle-class relief from the alternative minimum tax (AMT) to legislation extending several expiring measures.

"It's been talked about in the Senate, not so much here," he told reporters. 

AMT relief, commonly called a "patch," expired in 2009. Each year it not only costs tens of billions of dollars to extend, but its cost also increases as more taxpayers become susceptible to the tax since it is not adjusted for inflation. 

Read more...

The Senate on Tuesday, with overwhelming support, passed legislation requiring new audits of the Federal Reserve.

Ahead of a hearing on what happened when stocks fell precipitously last week, regulators and exchange leaders held meetings Monday on the unusual trading. 

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, who will testify Tuesday afternoon before the House Financial Services Committee, called meetings "constructive" with leaders from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Intercontinental Exchange Inc. 

"Today's meetings with the futures exchanges were constructive in providing information regarding the market events of May 6," Gensler said in a statement. "The exchanges have been very cooperative in essential data and analyses relating to their respective markets."

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro met with six exchanges on Monday and also will testify later today on what happened last week. The SEC and CFTC have launched an investigation into the nearly 1,000-point freefall on Thursday. They have said they will make their findings public. 

Gensler and Schapiro also met with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Monday, along with representatives from the futures and securities exchanges to "discuss contributing factors of the unusual trading and exchanges' preliminary thoughts on how to best protect investors."

New York University economist Nouriel Roubini -- the famed professor who predicted the widespread collapse of the financial system , which earned him the title Dr.Doom -- on Monday said that financial crises are an integral part of capitalism and more of them should be expected. 

"They are not the exception, but rather the rule," he told Spiegel Online International. "Many elements vital to capitalism, like innovation and risk-taking, also trigger frequent collapse. And what we just went through could get much worse in the future... Probably we will have even more crises in the future." 

Read more...