Senate

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Dems May Split Health Plan Into 2 Bills to Skirt GOP

(Newser) - Here's the latest health care strategy gaining traction among Democrats: Pass two bills instead of one. The idea, as laid out by the Wall Street Journal, goes like this: Democrats would tuck most of the legislation's more controversial spending measures—maybe even a public insurance option—into a first bill...

Obama to Recast Health Reform as Moral Issue

Focus on legislative details has bogged down debate, supporters worry

(Newser) - President Obama is about to start focusing more on the moral aspects of health care reform, stressing the need to provide secure coverage to all Americans, the Wall Street Journal reports. The shift may reflect the concerns of some supporters that Obama has spent too much time talking about the...

Public Option a 'Must' for Health Care Reform: Key Dems

White House waffling worries progressives

(Newser) - Leading advocates for health care reform are concerned about the Obama administration’s apparent willingness to drop a government-run insurance program from the package in order to ensure the support of the Senate, the Washington Post reports. Prominent Democratic senators have voiced support for the public option, with John Rockefeller...

Senators Tweet It Out Over 'Death Panels'

Specter accuses Grassley of spreading false info

(Newser) - Arlen Specter and Chuck Grassley engaged in a very 21st-century sniping match today, ABC's Jake Tapper reports. The 79-year-old Pennsylvania Democrat took to Twitter to accuse the 75-year-old Iowa Republican of spreading "myths about health care reform and imaginary ‘death panels.' " He was referring to comments...

White House Pushes Against Reform 'Myths'

Grassley says death panel language gone from Senate bill

(Newser) - The White House has chosen to fight fire with fire in its battle for health care reform, the Washington Post reports. An email from David Axelrod posted on the White House web site expresses bafflement at the "lies and distortions" of opponents. Axelrod, whose email went up after Sarah...

White House Sought to Weaken Whistleblower Law
White House Sought to Weaken Whistleblower Law
investigation
Aug 7, 2009 1:08 PM CDT

White House Sought to Weaken Whistleblower Law

(Newser) - The Obama administration appears to have attempted to water down the whistleblower protection law the president himself championed on the campaign trail. In an e-mail obtained by the Washington Times, a lawyer in the White House counsel's office sent a new draft of the bill to the Senate. That draft...

Senate Extends 'Clunkers'
 Senate Extends 'Clunkers' 
Aug 6, 2009 7:31 PM CDT

Senate Extends 'Clunkers'

(Newser) - Cash for Clunkers lives. As expected, Congress tonight sent President Obama legislation with an additional $2 billion to extend the program. The Senate approved the money on a 60-37 vote after administration officials said the initial $1 billion had run out in only 10 days. The House voted last week...

Senate Confirms Sotomayor
 Senate Confirms Sotomayor 
Aug 6, 2009 2:36 PM CDT

Senate Confirms Sotomayor

(Newser) - The Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor today as the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. The vote was 68-31 for Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. She becomes the 111th justice and just the third woman to serve. Democrats praised the 55-year-old Sotomayor as a mainstream moderate. But...

McCain Will Vote Against Sotomayor

Senator unable to support a 'judicial activist'

(Newser) - John McCain says he'll oppose Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor when the Senate votes on her confirmation this week. Despite Sotomayor's efforts to distance herself from her record, the Arizona Republican said today, Sotomayor is a judicial activist who has used her position as a judge to try to change...

White House Pushes to Clear Up Clunkers Backlog

(Newser) - The White House has asked Citigroup, which is administering the Cash for Clunkers program, to double or even triple the number of workers processing paperwork, Bloomberg reports. That move could clear up a backlog of dealer applications that grew with the surprise success of the program. The administration also says...

'Clunkers' on Ice Unless Senate Ponies Up $2B: LaHood

(Newser) - The Obama administration will suspend the "cash for clunkers" program unless the Senate provides $2 billion more for the popular car incentive plan, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today. He said he expects the current $1 billion pool to be exhausted by the end of this weekend. The House...

Dodd Has Prostate Cancer
 Dodd Has Prostate Cancer 
Jul 31, 2009 11:55 AM CDT

Dodd Has Prostate Cancer

(Newser) - Senator Chris Dodd has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the Hartford Courant reports, but the disease is in its early stages, and Dodd doesn’t think it will sideline him long. He’ll undergo surgery during the August recess, and expects to return after a “brief recuperation,” the...

Medals of Freedom Will Go to Milk, Kennedy, Poitier

(Newser) - This year's Medal of Freedom recipients share a capacity to change the world, President Obama said today in naming the eclectic group. Among the 16 honorees are Sen. Ted Kennedy, slain gay-rights activist Harvey Milk, actor Sidney Poitier, tennis great Billie Jean King, and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day...

No. 3 Republican Throws Support to Sotomayor

Says they may disagree, but she's 'well-qualified'

(Newser) - Lamar Alexander today became the first Republican leader to support Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, Politico reports. Her “political and judicial philosophy may be different than mine, especially regarding Second Amendment rights,” the third-ranking GOP senator said, but “I will vote to confirm her because...

As Head Ref, Reid Feels Heat in Health Debate
As Head Ref, Reid Feels Heat in Health Debate
ANALYSIS
Jul 29, 2009 11:31 AM CDT

As Head Ref, Reid Feels Heat in Health Debate

Top Dem must get it done—and get himself re-elected in '10

(Newser) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has prided himself on his hands-off leadership style, but pretty soon he’s going to get those hands dirty, Politico reports. Reid will soon have to reconcile two radically different health care bills coming out of committee—as if that weren't enough, he’s up...

Judiciary Committee Approves Sotomayor

(Newser) - The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. The committee voted 13-6 this morning to send Sotomayor's nomination to the full Senate, where she's expected to be confirmed easily next week. Just one Republican, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham,...

Senate Group of 6 Moves Health Reform to the Center

Dems' priorities fall by the wayside

(Newser) - The bipartisan group of senators who've been hammering out their own health reform plan, led by Montana’s Max Baucus, are close to a compromise that leaves out key pillars of the Obama-backed plan, including the government insurance option to compete with private plans and the mandate that employers offer...

Communication Is What Ails Obama on Health Reform
Communication Is What Ails Obama on Health Reform
ANALYSIS
Jul 27, 2009 3:32 PM CDT

Communication Is What Ails Obama on Health Reform

(Newser) - President Obama’s failure to get health-care reform on a faster track, despite early legislative victories, is a personal one, Sam Youngman writes in the Hill. “While it is shocking to consider that Obama is anything less than one of the best communicators in modern political history,” Youngman...

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Will Get Senate Hearing

Senate committee to examine consequences of military's gay policy

(Newser) - The Senate Armed Services Committee will convene a fall hearing to examine the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy governing gay service members, the Albany Times Union reports. Chairman Carl Levin agreed to hold the hearings at the encouragement of New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand,...

Obama: Delay on Health Bill 'OK,' But Keep Working

(Newser) - President Barack Obama stepped up his pitch for overhauling health care today, saying the American people need it and must overcome resistance from opponents in Washington, whom he described vaguely as naysayers and skeptics. "Reform may be coming too soon for some in Washington," the president told a...

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