Frank Lautenberg

Lautenberg Decries Senate Republicans' 'Toxic Tea' For Students, Women And Environment (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | March 10, 2011, 6:30PM

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) decried the "toxic tea" being "brewed" by the Tea Party Republicans in Congress on the floor of the Senate Thursday, highlighting proposed cuts to early education funding, college tuition assistance, women's health care and environmental protections.

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Health Care

Dems: It Will Improve! Party Promises To Build On Watered-Down Health Care Reform

Christina Bellantoni | March 11, 2010, 1:23PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Senate Democrats are trying to reassure progressives and House members that voting for the more conservative Senate health care bill doesn't mean things can't be improved later. They point to major historic policy changes such as Social Security and Medicare when the bills were passed with their most watered-down provisions and later bolstered, drawing parallels between those battles and the health care fight.

The public option is the most frequently cited regret for many senators, some who continue to press for it to be included in a final package. But Democrats acknowledge that while they might not get it this go-around, they aren't giving up. Several progressives in recent days have cited the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who said the battle for health care reform "never ends."

"We're not done," Sen. Sherrod Brown told reporters, pundits and bloggers at the Progressive Media Summit yesterday.

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Health Care

Dems: Health Care Reform Almost Done -- Really!

Christina Bellantoni | March 11, 2010, 9:15AM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

Democrats have a spring in their step, suddenly feeling quite confident health care reform is actually going to happen. The particulars are still being worked out, but the majority party sees the pathway ahead and lawmakers and their staff tell us it's the end game for real.

Sen. Daniel Akaka said in an interview yesterday he knew the hurdles had been cleared when he saw his colleagues ease off their tough stances on the public option and other elements of health care. "It was seeing senators letting go," Akaka (D-HI) told me at a reception following the Progressive Media Summit hosted by Senate Democrats.

While Akaka said he strongly supports the public option, he does not think the votes are there. He said that freed up Democrats to push forward for the best bill they can get, and House aides told me privately they agree.

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Frank Lautenberg

Lautenberg Signs Public Option Letter

Rachel Slajda | February 18, 2010, 11:28AM

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (NJ) has become the 16th Democratic senator to sign a letter calling for passing a public health care option via reconciliation.

Lautenberg's office confirmed to TPMDC that he signed the letter, which was written by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and will be sent to Majority Leader Harry Reid. Passing the provision via reconciliation would require 51 votes.

Earlier today, Sen. Barbara Mikulski signed the letter.

You can read the letter here.

Frank Lautenberg

NJ Sen. Frank Lautenberg Recuperating After Fall

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 15, 2010, 11:48PM

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

The Newark Star-Ledger reports that Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) was hospitalized this evening after taking a fall at his New Jersey home. The paper reports Lautenberg is in good spirits and has been kept overnight for "observation."

Lautenberg, 86, is New Jersey's senior senator and is currently in his fifth term representing the state. On Friday, the paper reports, he returned from Haiti, which he had visited as part of a bipartisan Congressional delegation that ventured to the recovering island nation.

Health Care

Obama Rallies Dems To Wrap Up Health Care Bill

Brian Beutler | December 6, 2009, 3:45PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama evoked Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the creation of Social Security today in a rare weekend meeting with the Democratic caucus, in a bid to keep his party united behind a historic health care reform bill currently being debated on the Senate floor. But liberal and conservative members, who are struggling to reach an agreement on the public option and other issues, didn't sound as if they were any closer to resolving their differences.

"He reminded us why we're here," said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL). But, he cautioned they're not quite there on the public option and abortion. "Close on both, not quite there," he said.

A number of senators suggested Obama's remarks provided the party and the legislation with much-needed momentum.

"I think it helped, more than significantly," said Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT).

"I can tell you, it would be very hard to have listened to the president's presentation and not have been persuaded of the historic importance of what's being discussed here," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND). "It was a powerful speech."

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Bill Clinton

Clinton To Senate Democrats: Whatever You Do, Don't Lose

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2009, 2:40PM

Fmr. President Bill Clinton

After an hour-long lunch with the Senate Democratic caucus, former President Bill Clinton found himself surrounded by dozens of reporters, and summarized his message as one of the urgency of action. "The worst thing to do is nothing," Clinton said of the party's health care reform push. "We can do so much better."

As they emerged from the lunch one by one, a number of senators echoed this rendering.

"His message was very simply it is so important that this be done, that there are so many people, I think 30 percent of the population he said at one point or another, don't have any health care coverage," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told TPMDC, "and so the ability to fix the problem is really upon us."

"He made clear that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity," she added, noting that Clinton did not directly address the politically divisive policy aspects of reform--abortion, the public option--in his presentation.

To members who are facing tough re-election races next year (such as fellow Arkansas native Blanche Lincoln) Clinton's message was equally simple: "You're going to do it, and then people are going to begin to see that none of the bad things that people are talking about will come to pass, essentially," Feinstein said.

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Cap-and-Trade

Boxer Slows Cap-And-Trade Markup, Implores GOP To Return To The Table

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 2, 2009, 6:44PM

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said this evening she plans to fight Republican plans to slow the process of the cap-and-trade bill through the Senate with "patience."

"We're going to wait for them to come," she said at a press conference. "We're not going to rush this through."

Last week, the Republican members of the Environment and Public Works Committee Boxer chairs said they would boycott a markup of the the cap-and-trade bill scheduled for tomorrow. Led by committee ranking member Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the GOP contingent on the committee say they need more time to review the law and it's potential economic effects.

Their plans to delay the bill appear to have succeeded. Faced with the GOP plan, Boxer said the Democratic majority on the committee decided to "reach our hand across the aisle" and accommodate some of the GOP concerns.

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NJ-GOV

Lautenberg Calls For Federal Investigation of Christie

Eric Kleefeld | October 20, 2009, 5:36PM

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has called for a federal investigation of former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, the Republican nominee for governor in the election two weeks from now, regarding allegations that Christie may have used his office for political gain.

This comes in the wake of today's report that Christie's former aide, Michele Brown, allegedly intervened in the processing of the Corzine campaign's Freedom of Information Act requests regarding Christie's records, and also reportedly urged the office to take action quickly on local corruption arrests in order to benefit Christie's campaign. Brown later resigned from the office, after it was revealed that she'd received an undisclosed $46,000 personal loan from Christie in 2007.

Lautenberg called it "shocking" that Christie appeared to have run a political campaign from the U.S. Attorney's office. The election is two weeks from now -- so we should all expect these accusations to only get more intense in the next fortnight.