House Democratic leaders are making final tweaks tonight on dividing the tax extenders measure into two separate bills, according to lawmakers. 

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a terse letter to officials at Visa and MasterCard Thursday, asking them to halt "threatening" small banks and credit unions and "distorting" an amendment Durbin recently passed to crack down on swipe fees.

In separate letters to Visa Inc. Chairman and CEO Joseph Saunders and MasterCard Worldwide CEO Robert Selander, Durbin accused the credit card giants of trying to intimidate smaller financial firms into opposing the amendment by warning them of changes to fee rates and operating rules. If the companies do not cease, Durbin said they could be investigated.

"The simple fact is that small banks would not be harmed or punished under the amendment unless your companies decide to harm or punish them," Durbin wrote. "Further, I warn you that if your companies coordinate with each other or collude with your largest member banks to make changes to your fees and rules, it would raise serious concerns that you are engaging in an unlawful restraint of trade."

Durbin's amendment actually may hurt consumers and small financial institutions, Fred Becker, the head of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, said in a release today. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday filed an insider trading case against Pequot Capital Management — the very same firm deemed innocent of insider trading under former SEC Chairman Chris Cox. 

The case drew congressional attention at that time after the SEC's chief examiner, lawyer Gary Aguirre, accused his superiors of blocking the investigation. 

In testimony before a Senate committee witnesses testifying for commission said Aguirre was off-balanced and prone to angry outbursts.

The mark-up of an $83 billion measure for war spending and education initiatives was canceled Thursday afternoon as the House attempts to complete its agenda. 

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) didn't want to "force members to focus on the supplemental when there is so much left on the floor," to finish, a committee aide told The Hill. 

The bill will be marked up at some point after lawmakers return from a weeklong Memorial Day recess. 

House Appropriations ranking member Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) said he was disappointed that the meeting was canceled despite his opposition to many of the bill's provisions. Republicans are planning to offer more than 30 amendments to "reduce the unnecessary spending in the bill and improve the final product," Lewis said. 

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), a co-chair of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, told reporters Thursday that a vote on the so-called tax extenders bill should be postponed until after the Memorial Day break.

"We believe that in light of what we are hearing from the Senate, that is the likely course," she said. "Since the Senate doesn't have the 60 votes — for what leadership would like to move today — it appears to me that given the time table we're on we're going to have to grapple with this [bill] after Memorial Day." 

Several senators want to amend the extenders bill after it hits their chamber. The process would mean that congressional work on the bill would not be completed by the Memorial Day recess. 

The Senate easily voted this afternoon to end debate on a $58.8 billion bill to fund war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and provide disaster aid. 

By a 69-29 vote, the Senate agreed to move forward on the bill that includes $33.45 billion mainly for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, $2.8 billion for earthquake relief in Haiti, and $5.1 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) for flooding and storm disasters nationwide. FEMA officials have said their disaster relief fund would run out of money by June without supplemental funding. 

In addition, more than $6 billion will go toward foreign operations and intelligence and $13.4 billion in mandatory spending will go to the Veterans Affairs Department for illnesses related to Agent Orange. 

The House Appropriations Committee is marking up a bill later today that will provide for war funding and $23 billion in education initiatives to save teachers jobs. The House's $83 billion measure includes $70 billion in discretionary spending, including funds for the U.S.-Mexico border and Pell Grants. 

The House's figures for war funding and foreign and state operations match the Obama administration's requests. 

A top official in the Treasury Department said Thursday the parameters of Wall Street overhaul legislation "are largely set," even as House and Senate lawmakers aim to reconcile differences before July Fourth.

Neal Wolin, deputy Treasury secretary, said in a speech that the legislation passed by both chambers is "substantially consistent" with President Barack Obama's goals.

Wolin outlined a handful of differences between the House and Senate bills that the administration will attempt to influence.

Among those, Wolin said, the administration will push hard to extend a fiduciary duty to retail brokers. The Hill reported Tuesday on the differences between the House and Senate legislation on the question of whether broker dealers and insurance agents should have the same fiduciary duty to act in a client's best interest as financial planners currently have.

"We believe that retail brokers offering investment advice should be subject to the same fiduciary standard of care as investment advisors, and we will work to include that provision in the final bill," Wolin said. "Clients receiving investment advice don't distinguish between broker-dealers and investment advisors and neither should the law."

Wolin also said the administration would continue to oppose an exemption for auto dealers from a new consumer financial regulator, would support the "Volcker rule" separating commercial banking from proprietary trading, and would push for conflict-of-interest rules on credit rating agencies.

Wolin said the federal government should seek to ensure regulators "retain the ability to act swiftly and effectively in times of crisis, to protect taxpayers and to minimize the risk of panic or contagion."

Unrest through House Democratic ranks continues to slow consideration of a tax extenders measure that congressional leadership is still hoping to finish before the rapidly approaching Memorial Day recess. 

"I think most Americans would say the real emergency here is a $13 trillion debt, and even some Democrats seem to agree with me," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday morning on the floor. "That's why we're seeing a quiet revolt over in the House on this bill. We must do something about the debt."

The measure was originally scheduled for floor action on Tuesday, but disputes quickly arose over the measure within House Democratic ranks, forcing several changes to the bill on Wednesday. 

Senate Democrats shot down $2.4 billion in Republican immigration amendments calling for a White House plan to ramp up the U.S. presence along the Mexican border. 

Republicans from Texas and Arizona collaborated on three amendments — defeated Wednesday on budget points of order — that would have added 6,000 National Guard troops to trouble spots along the U.S.-Mexico border, provided for more law enforcement and equipment and expanded a five-year-old program that prosecutes illegal immigrants. 

Arizona Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain pushed for a $200 million amendment to increase the number of troops and another $200 million provision to expand the Operation Streamline program, which Kyl argued had dramatically reduced border crossings in parts of Arizona and Texas. The funding request would have come out of stimulus funding.