Washington — The tax bill that extends the Bush tax cuts and slashes the estate tax while extending unemployment benefits has passed the House House by a vote of 277-148 and is heading for the President to sign, according to The Huffington Post

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VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

In its first direct vote on the issue, the U.S. Senate has rejected an amendment to the health care reconciliation bill that would have stopped same-sex marriage in the District until a referendum could be held.

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) had introduced that amendment; the full Senate rejected it early this morning by a vote of 59 to 36, with five members not voting.

GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine joined all Democrats who voted in rejecting Bennett’s amendment.

Their votes could be a sign that future efforts in the Senate to overturn the law will also be unsuccessful during the current Congress.

Some votes by Democrats this morning may have had more to do with efforts to keep the health care bill free of amendments than with same-sex marriage, meaning they could vote differently on this issue if it comes up in another fashion.

But Snowe and Collins, both of whom voted against the health care bill, appear to have based their votes against Bennett’s amendment on principle.

Neither took a position on a referendum in Maine last year to overturn that state’s same-sex marriage law. Snowe and Collins, both supporters of gay rights, also declined to tell reporters after the election how they voted on the referendum, which was narrowly approved.

Collins’ stance on Bennett’s amendment could be especially important because she is the ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has oversight over the District.

Source

WASHINGTON — From the White House to Capitol Hill, Democrats confidently predicted Senate passage of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul Tuesday after the bill cleared its second 60-vote test and the time was set for a final tally.

Coming to the Senate floor in the middle of the afternoon, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced an agreement to vote on final passage at 8 a.m. Thursday morning, Christmas Eve. It would mark the 25th consecutive day of Senate deliberation on health care.

RELATED: Health Care Bill Clears Key Senate Test

“The finish line is in sight,” Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said at a news conference with other Senate leaders and cheering supporters. “We’re not the first to attempt such reforms but we will be the first to succeed.”

At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs declared: “Health care reform is not a matter of if. Health care reform is now a matter of when.”

Obama said the Senate legislation accomplishes “95 percent” of what he wanted on health care. “Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill,” the president said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Senate Democrats remained united early Tuesday behind their compromise bill over steadfast Republican opposition. A motion to shut off debate and move to a vote on a package of changes by Reid passed 60-39.

The final 60-vote hurdle, limiting debate on the bill itself, is expected to be cleared Wednesday afternoon, setting up the Thursday morning-before-Christmas vote on the legislation, which at that point will need only a simple majority to pass.

The Senate has been voting at odd hours since Monday around 1 a.m. because Republicans have insisted on using all the time allowed under Senate rules to delay the bill. Not to be thwarted, Reid has refused to postpone action until after the holidays. On Tuesday, they started voting at sunrise.

With fatigue and frustration rising, Reid appealed to his colleagues to set aside acrimony and reach for some holiday spirit.

“I would hope everybody will keep in mind that this is a time when we reflect on peace and good things,” he said. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said he, too, wanted to close the debate. After conferring with McConnell, Reid announced the timing of the final vote.

Even so, partisan fires were burning.

RELATED: Obama Visits Senate To Push Health Care Bill

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina denounced concessions won by conservative Nebraska Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson, whose support gave Democrats the 60th and final vote they need. Among other things, Nelson got an agreement that the federal government will pay to expand Medicaid services in Nebraska.

“That’s not change you can believe in. That’s sleazy,” Graham said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa defended the concessions, saying: “The one that’s being talked about for Nebraska, it also benefits other states. It’s not just Nebraska.”

He also said he would vote for the package even if it didn’t contain concessions for Iowa. “The principle of this bill overrides everything,” Harkin told CBS’ “Early Show.”

Moderate Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who has also been criticized after securing a boost in Medicaid for her state, defended the concessions she got, saying they benefited low-income families small businesses.

The Senate measure would still have to be harmonized with the health care bill passed by the House in November before final legislation would go to Obama.

There are significant differences between the two bills, including stricter abortion language in the House bill, a new government-run insurance plan in the House bill that’s missing from the Senate version, and a tax on high-value insurance plans embraced by the Senate but strongly opposed by many House Democrats.

Senate moderates have served notice they won’t support a final deal if government-run insurance comes back. And Democratic abortion opponents in the House say a Senate compromise on the volatile issue is unacceptable.

But there’s considerable pressure on Democrats to avoid messy negotiations over a final bill. Public support for the legislation continues to sink in opinion polls.

The bills probably have more in common than differences. Each costs around $1 trillion over 10 years and installs new requirements for nearly all Americans to buy insurance, providing subsidies to help lower-income people do so. They’re paid for by a combination of tax and fee increases and cuts in projected Medicare spending.

Unpopular insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with existing health conditions would be banned. Uninsured or self-employed Americans would have a new way to buy health insurance, via marketplaces called exchanges where private insurers would sell health plans required to meet certain minimum standards.

VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

The U.S. Senate passed a bill Sunday that clears the way for the District government to allow medical marijuana use and to spend local tax dollars to help low-income women pay for abortions.

More than a decade ago, D.C. voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that would allow for the possession, use, cultivation and distribution of marijuana if recommended by a physician for serious illnesses.

Initiative 59 passed with 69 percent of the vote in 1998, but before it could take effect, Congress passed legislation banning the practice in the District.

The latest bill, which passed the House on Thursday, also continues to allow needle-exchange programs in a bid to limit the spread of HIV and AIDS, a strategy that Congress had blocked in the District until 2007. It also provides $752 million in federal funds for the District as part of a larger spending package.

“This is the biggest win for home rule in decades,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).

President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law this week.

The District would join Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington in allowing medical marijuana.

D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), chairman of the Health Committee, supports medical marijuana but said city leaders will proceed with caution.

“I wouldn’t expect it to be implemented anytime soon, because we are going to need to do thoughtful planning,” he said, noting that guidelines must be written about who can grow, distribute and receive marijuana.

First, though, the District might need to submit the text of the voter initiative for a 30-day legislative review. During that window, Congress could take the unlikely step of blocking the initiative. If no action is taken, the District government can issue regulations.

Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, said he thinks medical marijuana could be available in the District by the end of 2010. “They don’t have to start over,” Houston said.

A federal law known as the Hyde Amendment has barred the District and states from using federal money to fund abortions, but states are free to use local tax dollars to cover the cost of the procedure for women who cannot otherwise afford it. Private donations have helped some D.C. women, but supporters of abortion rights say many have been turned away from clinics and hospitals because the District government has had no financing for abortions.

The bill also allows the District to continue using local tax dollars to fund needle-exchange programs that provide clean syringes to addicts, part of an effort to stem the spread of AIDS. In 2007, Congress ended a decade-long prohibition against city funding, allowing the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration to provide four nonprofit agencies with $700,000 to distribute needles in areas where drug trafficking is common.

For years, the District has fought what residents see as intrusions into city business by representatives from elsewhere. The city’s largely Democratic leadership has complained that times were particularly tough when Republicans were in charge.

“It’s hard to rank these riders except by lives lost,” Norton said. “In lives lost, needle exchange [restrictions] would rank as the most lethal.”

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said the Senate vote demonstrates how much the working relationship between the city and Congress has improved since Democrats took over.

“The District has come a long way,” he said. “The support from Congress to the District is at an all-time high. We’re glad about the substantive issues.”

Source

VIA REUTERS:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After a landmark win in the House of Representatives, President Barack Obama’s push for healthcare reform faces a difficult path in the Senate amid divisions in his own Democratic Party on how to proceed.

On a 220-215 vote, including the support of one Republican and opposition from 39 Democrats, the House backed a bill late on Saturday that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The battle now shifts to the Senate, where work on Obama’s top domestic priority has been stalled for weeks as Democratic leader Harry Reid searches for an approach that can win the 60 votes he needs to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.

“Take this baton and bring this effort to the finish line,” Obama urged senators on Sunday in an appearance at the White House, saying passage of healthcare reform would represent “their finest moment in public service.”

Democrats have no margin for error — they control exactly 60 seats in the 100-member Senate. Some moderate Democrats have rebelled at Reid’s plan to include a new government-run insurance program, known as the “public option,” in the bill.

Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, renewed his promise on Sunday to help Republicans block a final vote if the bill contains the government-run insurance option backed by Senate liberals.

“If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote,” Lieberman said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Republicans and some moderate Democrats have balked at the House bill’s $1 trillion price tag, new taxes on the wealthy and what they call a heavy-handed government intrusion in the private sector.

The overhaul would lead to the biggest changes in the $2.5 trillion healthcare system — which accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy — since the 1965 creation of the Medicare government health insurance program for the elderly.

DIFFERENT APPROACHES

The House bill includes a different version of the public option than the Senate. Senate Democrats also may not adopt the House bill’s requirement that all but the smallest employers offer coverage to their workers and its new tax on the wealthiest Americans to pay for the reforms.

Eventually, the House and Senate would have to reconcile their differences and agree on one bill to be passed again and sent to Obama for his signature.

“The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” calling it “a bill written by liberals for liberals.”

The House bill would set up exchanges where people could choose to purchase private insurance or a government-run option bitterly opposed by the insurance industry. It also would offer subsidies to help low-income Americans buy insurance.

Congressional budget analysts say it would extend coverage to 36 million uninsured people living in the United States, covering about 96 percent of the population, and would reduce the budget deficit by about $100 billion over 10 years.

The House vote was a vital victory for Obama, who staked much of his political capital on the healthcare battle. A loss in the House could have ended the fight, impaired the rest of his legislative agenda and left Democrats vulnerable to big losses in next year’s congressional elections.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008 and a leader of conservative grass-roots opposition to Obama’s agenda, promised retribution in those elections against healthcare reform advocates.

“It’s on to the Senate now. Our legislators can listen now, or they can hear us in 2010. It’s their choice,” Palin said on her Facebook page, promising: “We will make our voices heard.”

Reid has been awaiting cost estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office before unveiling a Senate bill, and has indicated Obama’s goal of signing a bill by Christmas could slip to 2010.

Reid said he hoped to receive those cost estimates in the coming days, and that he planned to bring a final bill to the Senate floor for consideration “as soon as possible.

Source

(Washington, DC)  –  The U.S. Senate is poised to refuel the “Cash For Clunkers” program by pumping in an extra two billion dollars.  The effort hit a little detour last weekend when it ran out of cash.  The House quickly reacted by moving billions from one part of the economic stimulus program into the “Clunkers” program.  The U.S. Senate is poised to do the same this evening.  The “Cash For Clunkers” program gives motorists up to $4500 when they trade in an older gas-guzzling vehicle on a new, fuel-efficient one.

Copyright © 2009 Metro Networks Communications Inc., A Westwood One Company

(Washington, DC) — The Senate starts debate tomorrow on the the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed this week, as expected, the New York federal appeals court judge will become the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Sotomayor is President Obama’s choice to replace retired Justice David Souter. Supporters call Sotomayor a pragmatic, moderate jurist who is well-qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court. Opponents have labeled her a liberal judicial activist.

Copyright © 2009 Metro Networks Communications Inc., A Westwood One Company