Labor

Top Union Presses Senators To Ditch Union-Busting Push By House GOP

Brian Beutler | April 20, 2011, 12:43PM

A powerful union is lobbying Democratic and Republican congressional negotiators to make sure they don't curtail worker rights when they finalize new FAA legislation.

A conference committee composed of a bipartisan group of senators and congressmen will soon sort out differences between two different versions of the bill. But the House bill contains a provision that would make it much more difficult for airline and rail workers to form unions. More on that provision here -- it would reinstate old rules that count abstentions as "no" votes in union elections, thus stacking the deck against pro-union workers.

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Net Neutrality

Key Senators Block GOP Efforts To Upend Net Neutrality

Brian Beutler | February 23, 2011, 1:58PM

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

Four Democratic senators are warning key leaders not to use the threat of a government shutdown to block the FCC from implementing net neutrality rules.

In a letter they're circulating to colleagues, Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Al Franken (D-MN), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) say the Senate should not lend support to House GOP efforts to block the rules.

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Financial Reform

Wall Street Reform Likely To Pass With Cantwell Support

Brian Beutler | July 2, 2010, 8:50AM

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

Last night, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)gave the final Wall Street reform bill the thumbs up. In May, Cantwell was one of two Democrats to oppose the Senate-passed bill from the left, and had been mostly silent about the legislation for weeks. But by announcing her intent to vote for the financial reform conference report, Cantwell all but assures the legislation will pass.

"I will vote in support of the conference report because it makes great strides toward our ultimate goal: bringing all standard derivatives onto exchanges and clearinghouses, with aggregate position limits and strong anti-manipulation tools," Cantwell said in an official statement. "...This legislation is not perfect, and I will continue to push for even bolder action - including a return to the Glass-Steagall separation of commercial and investment banking - to reign in Wall Street, put an end to the concept of 'too-big-to-fail.' But this bill makes significant strides toward preventing the kind of financial meltdown that we saw in the fall of 2008."

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Financial Reform

Collins 'Inclined' To Support Wall Street Reform

Brian Beutler | June 30, 2010, 1:02PM

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Scott Brown's playing cute, but his fellow moderate Republican Susan Collins says she's basically ready to vote for Wall Street reform.

"Based on my initial review of the conference review, I'm inclined to support it," Collins told reporters this afternoon after a Senate vote. "I believe that it will improve the regulation of financial institutions and much needed transparency to the process, and that it will help prevent the kinds of risky practices that triggered this recession.

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Scott Brown

Dems Continue To Pursue Brown On Wall Street Bill

Brian Beutler | June 29, 2010, 3:40PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)

Democrats are hoping to reopen the Wall Street reform conference committee today, after a series of GOP objections (and Robert Byrd's death) put the vote count for the legislation in serious doubt in the Senate. (Late update: The conference committee will reconvene today at 5 p.m.)

Currently, according to multiple aides, House and Senate negotiators are trying to come up with a new way to pay for the legislation. Republican Sens. Scott Brown and Susan Collins have objected to a plan to raise $19 billion over 10 years by imposing a fee on major financial firms. Paygo rules require the bill to be paid for, though, and that means raising money from...somewhere. Ideas being kicked around include dipping into unused TARP funds, and forcing banks to pay higher premiums for FDIC insurance.

That latter option would force even small depository institutions to pay for the cost of regulatory reform. The previous tax would have impacted major institutions only.

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Financial Reform

He's Out! Brown Says He's A No On Financial Reform

Brian Beutler | June 29, 2010, 12:16PM

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)

Sen. Scott Brown is no longer undecided. He says he'll certainly vote against the Wall Street reform conference report unless it is changed to remove a fee on big banks added during final negotiations.

"I am writing you to express my strong opposition to the $19 billion bank tax that was included in the financial reform bill during the conference committee," Brown wrote today in a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank. "This tax was not in the Senate version of the bill, which I supported. If the final version of this bill contains these higher taxes, I will not support it.

Here's the thing, though: They can't change the conference report. It's unamendable. To accommodate Brown, the House and Senate would have to reconvene the conference committee, which could easily imperil their plan to get the bill to President Obama by the end of the week, ahead of the July 4 recess.

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Financial Reform

Feingold Will Vote To Block Wall Street Bill

Brian Beutler | June 28, 2010, 5:09PM

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) is officially out. Feingold insists he will vote to block the final Wall Street reform legislation, after the end-stage negotiations failed to strengthen the bill.

"As I have indicated for some time now, my test for the financial regulatory reform bill is whether it will prevent another crisis," reads a statement from Feingold's office. "The conference committee's proposal fails that test and for that reason I will not vote to advance it. During debate on the bill, I supported several efforts to break up 'too big to fail' Wall Street banks and restore the proven safeguards established after the Great Depression separating Main Street banks from big Wall Street firms, among other issues. Unfortunately, these crucial reforms were rejected. While there are some positive provisions in the final measure, the lack of strong reforms is clear confirmation that Wall Street lobbyists and their allies in Washington continue to wield significant influence on the process."

Still no word from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the other Democrat who opposed the legislation from the left. If she doesn't change her vote, the Wall Street bill will be in limbo. On Friday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) threatened to retract his support for the bill. Between that and Robert Byrd's death this morning, the Wall Street bill will not have enough votes to pass, at least until Byrd's successor is seated.

Robert Byrd

In Passing, Byrd Leaves Dems One Vote Shy Of Wall Street Reform

Brian Beutler | June 28, 2010, 9:50AM

The late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV)

Today the Senate will mourn the passing of its longest serving member in history, Robert Byrd (D-WV). But by week's end, Democrats want to pass final -- and unamendable -- legislation, rewriting the rules that govern Wall Street. And they have no margin for error -- or for losing a colleague.

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Jobs

Unions Take Aim At Dems Protecting Money Managers Over The Unemployed

Brian Beutler | May 21, 2010, 2:05PM

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)

Some of the Democrats who fought hardest to strengthen the Wall Street reform bill are at the same time seeking to preserve a tax loophole for money managers, which, if closed, could be used to pay for extending benefits, health care subsidies, and job creation for the unemployed. And now the biggest players in Democratic politics are taking aim at them.

"I don't know how you explain to the nurse struggling to pay her mortgage or the security guard whose son can't afford college that they should pay higher taxes than Wall Street hedge fund managers and venture capitalists," SEIU spokesperson Lori Lodes tells me. "They see what's happening in their communities - states cutting back vital services, more of their neighbors losing their jobs. What they will never be able to understand is Senators holding up a needed jobs package because they want to look out for money managers."

The senators she's talking about are almost all Democrats--including John Kerry (D-MA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who actually voted against Wall Street reform for not doing enough to rein in financial industry excess.

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Byron Dorgan

Despite Reservations, Most Progressives Vote For Wall Street Reform

Brian Beutler | May 20, 2010, 4:07PM

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)

Two Democrats--Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA)--once again joined the GOP in an attempt to filibuster Wall Street reform, on the grounds that the bill does too little to regulate big financial institutions. But the Democrat who most vocally threatened to block the bill--Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)--ultimately chose not to, and in a way became the deciding vote. Democratic leaders needed 60 votes to break the filibuster, and without Dorgan they would have had only 59.

Why the change of heart? Dorgan cited two things when I asked him: his ability to force a vote on his flagship financial issue--banning naked credit default swaps--and the fact that, ultimately, he didn't want to stand in the way of a bill he thinks makes some, though not sufficient, progress.

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Bob Corker

Republicans--And Two Democrats--Block Vote On Wall Street Reform

Brian Beutler | May 19, 2010, 6:44PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Two progressive Democrats joined 39 Republicans this evening to block a final vote in the Senate on Wall Street reform, putting the two parties in the same position they found themselves in nearly one month ago when the entire GOP held together, for several days, to delay the bill from coming to the floor.

Now, just as then, Democrats will bring to bear a relentless campaign of public pressure on key Republicans and private arm-twisting on hold-out Democrats, in order to corral the 60 votes they need to end debate on the bill. And they'll have an opportunity to do just that tomorrow, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid holds a revote.

Back in April, though, that effort led to a broad capitulation by the GOP. This time, Republican senators and aides say it will only net them the handful votes they need to get over the top. One top GOP aide predicted the filibuster will break tomorrow.

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Blanche Lincoln

Down To The Wire: Democratic Leaders Scramble To Keep Financial Reform From Unraveling

Brian Beutler | May 19, 2010, 9:06AM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)

What had been a fairly non-contentious debate over Wall Street reform legislation nearly came off the rails on Tuesday after Republicans--tacitly backed (or at least unimpeded) by top Democrats--used Senate rules to block votes on far-reaching, consumer-friendly amendments, portending a potential progressive revolt.

This afternoon at 2 pm, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will attempt to bring debate on the financial reform bill to a close, though it remains unclear whether he has the 60 votes he'll need to prevail.

A big reason for that? A number of Democrats--most vocally, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)--have threatened to vote against ending debate until their flagship amendments get a vote on the floor. But Republicans are standing in the way, saying they'll filibuster those amendments, subjecting each to a 60 vote requirement, and, more importantly, several days' worth of delay. Faced with a choice between picking a fight with Republicans over those amendments and simply moving ahead with the bill, Democratic leadership has, for now, chosen the latter.

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Financial Reform

Wall Street Reform Takes A Populist Turn

Brian Beutler | May 6, 2010, 7:09PM

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Anti-Wall Street sentiment is so strong and Republicans have such a weak hand that Democrats in the Senate are suddenly finding themselves strengthening the financial reform bill with new amendments and beating back GOP attempts to weaken it.

The latest evidence of this populist surge is that the Senate is now expected to adopt an amendment, authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), that will require an audit of all of the Fed's emergency lending activities, starting in late 2007.*

Sanders' success in winning support for his amendment is emblematic of the greater debate over financial reform, which has, thanks to the Democrats' aggressive political posture, and the unpopularity of Wall Street, been much more favorable to progressives, even over the objection of powerful interests.

The Sanders measure is similar to a Fed audit proposal that was included in the House's financial reform legislation, which passed last December, and should simplify the process of ironing out the differences between the two bills in a conference committee.

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Audit the Fed

Sanders Concerned White House May Kill Fed Audit Amendment

Brian Beutler | May 4, 2010, 3:40PM

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has rounded up an impressive, bipartisan array of cosponsors to an amendment he authored requiring an audit of the Federal Reserve. Just today, he added Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) to a list that includes 12 Republicans, seven Democrats, in addition to Sanders himself.

In the past, a different version of legislation opening up the fed to audit received 59 votes--one shy of the 60 required to break a filibuster. But eight of the Republicans who voted no are now cosponsors of Sanders' amendment. That should mean it's a shoo-in, right?

Not necessarily.

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Maria Cantwell

Cantwell Joins Public Option Push: No. 35

Rachel Slajda | March 4, 2010, 11:32AM

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) became the 35th senator to declare support for passing a public option via reconciliation, her office confirms to TPMDC.

Cantwell told the Huffington Post that she'd vote for a public option under reconciliation, if the Senate parliamentarian OK's it.

"If the parliamentarian says you can and it can all work, yes," she said. "If it works, fine."

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Retirement

Report: Sens. Johnson, Cantwell To Take Over Dodd And Dorgan Chairmanships

Rachel Slajda | January 6, 2010, 1:03PM

Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND).

Sources tell The Hill that Democrats have chosen Sens. Tim Johnson (SD) and Maria Cantwell (WA) to take over the committee chairmanships that retiring Sens. Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan will leave at the end of the year.

Johnson will take over Dodd's post on the Banking Committee. Senate leaders said in September that Johnson would succeed Dodd if Dodd chose to take over Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat on the HELP Committee. (Harkin took that chair instead.)

Cantwell will become chair of the Indian Affairs Committee. Although she is not the next ranking member, the four senators ahead of her already have chairmanships.